By Natasha Julius
Some people start the New Year off with a few poxy resolutions scribbled down somewhere only to be forgotten by February. Me? I’m going on a two-week juice fast.
Day 11: Bottle Rockets
I’ve talked before about some of the better juicables available to the recreational faster. There’s broccoli, packed full of vitamins and minerals, and beet juice with its wonderful burst of energy. I’ve learned so much in the past 11 days about what juices to blend to get exactly what effect on the body. Sadly, I’ve learned another thing through my random experiments that really throws a wrench into the whole juice-only lifestyle. None of these juices ages well.
Freshly juiced vegetables need to be consumed while still fresh. In most cases, you have a window of a couple of hours in which to get the liquid meal down your throat. After that, the juice starts congealing. It can also start to turn bitter, or, in the case of broccoli in particular, develop a smell that could strip the paint off a wall. One of my early time-saving experiments involved making batches of the juices I knew I would use the most and storing them in my fridge for quick mixing. Even chilled, them things turned nasty. There’s just no replacing the fresh factor.
It follows from this observation that if you have a day out of the house and you’re not planning to haul your borrowed mixer and a cooler full of leafy greens around with you from place to place, you’re going to have to rely on prepared, bottled juices. This is difficult in terms of fasting purity, because by and large these concoctions are not entirely organic. It can also be hard to find juices that don’t contain artificial sweeteners. There’s a whole list of quibbles; flash-pasteurization, homogenization, nutritive supplements. Point is, imperfect though they may be, sometimes you’ve got to hit the bottle.
My biggest concern with ready-made juice drinks is the lack of variety. They tend to rely heavily on fruits rather than vegetables. I’m just going to go out on a limb here and guess there isn’t a huge market for prepared kale or broccoli juice. Maybe no one has invested the R&D capital necessary to find a way about that smell. I understand. The trouble is, when I have a long day full of teaching yoga classes, the fruit juices take their toll. I’ve found over the course of this fast that my tolerance for sweetness has atrophied. As tempting as a box of chocolates or a fresh-baked cake may smell, I can’t even imagine what it would to do me right now. At the end of this particular long day of teaching, I feel a classic sugar crash coming on.
I’m not sure there’s a practical solution to this, other than cutting back your activities during a fast. Since that’s not really an option, I’ll just confine myself to a shrug of the shoulders and a hearty sigh of relief that the longest days of the fast are behind me.
Day 11 Hunger Level: It’s an annoyance. The stomach grumbling has increased over the past day. I think it’s a combination of the insubstantial fruit juices and my own intellectual knowledge that the fast is coming to an end soon.
Day 11 Energy Level: I got a little sluggish during the afternoon, between classes and as I was trying to conserve my juice allotment. Once I got back into the teaching groove, though, I was fine.
Day 11 Physical Condition: I still feel fine, other than a runny nose probably due to the weather and a headache almost certainly due to the sugar buzz mentioned above.
Day 11 Mental State: I’ve started my official countdown. It’s not that I particularly want or need to eat; I just want a normal life back. The isolation of another weekend without food, without alcoholic drinks, with the constant need to explain my situation to people . . . it’s really starting to play on me.
Day 11 Juices:
#1: Broccoli, Chard, Banana, Mango, Orange
#2: Beet, Carrot, Ginger, Orange, Apple, Cucumber
#3: Purchased Odwalla Superfood Drink (full bottle)
#4: Purchased Odwalla Berries GOmega Drink (full bottle)
Total amount: approx. 52 oz.
Previously:
* On The Juice: Day 1. If you can’t beet it, juice it.
* On The Juice: Day 2. Fire in the glory hole!
* On The Juice: Day 3. Sipping point.
* On The Juice: Day 4. Brush with destiny.
* On The Juice: Day 5. Food for thought.
* On The Juice: Day 6. Dinner-free dinner party.
* On The Juice: Day 7. The longest chard.
* On The Juice: Day 8. The daily grind.
* On The Juice: Day 9. Driving force.
* On The Juice: Day 10. Sprout to get me.
Posted on January 11, 2007