New Experience #5: A One Day Juice Fast

My one day juice fast is part of a two week series on Many Little Blessings where either I or my family try something that is a new experience and then reflect on it.  Check out all of the new experiences.

—–

The New Experience

A one day juice fast using prepared juices that I purchased at Whole Foods and following the recommendations of the company that produced the juices.

Why I Picked Trying a One Day Juice Fast

While I know that juice fasts have been around for a long time, they seem to be one of those trendy things right now.  It comes up on blogs, frequently shows up in my Facebook feeds, and just seems to be a thing that I keep hearing about.  So, I figured, “Well, why not?”

How I Felt Prior to the New Experience

I did quite a bit of reading online about the particular company that I had chosen to get the juices from.  They have several types of juices, as well as a suggested schedule for drinking them during a cleanse.  This made me feel a little more comfortable knowing that I didn’t have to buy a juicer or figure out what types of juices to make.

Now, as the actual juice fast day came creeping up, I was not overly thrilled at the idea.  But, considering that I have twice done all out fasts for religious reasons (once on an Ash Wednesday and once on a Good Friday where I did a full out fast, rather than what was allowable under the Church’s fasting rules), I wasn’t too worried.  Coupling that with the time I was in the hospital for two days with my kidney stones where I was kept on a liquid diet the entire time, I thought I was set.

The Actual One Day Juice Fast Experience

The directions indicated that I should start with a glass of warm water with a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in it.  I know this is something that lots of people do, so I prepared that and just drank it.

No, hang on.  That’s not exactly how that went.

I couldn’t drink the water and vinegar mix.  Upon getting to the point where I plugged my nose to try to make it better and found that that didn’t make it better, I ran to the sink and poured it out.

But, hey – the juice fast was sure to be way better.  I was a little less enthusiastic about the juice fast at that point.  But, c’mon – that was water and vinegar.  I had juice coming up.

Once I was ready, I shook up my first large bottle of juice.  I took a drink and made such a face that Molly offered to hold my hand.

Still, I was committed to trying this for a day, so I took another couple of drinks.  I then promptly had to stop because I was literally just on the verge of vomiting.  I must admit that because this all happened less than 24 hours ago, even thinking of it is making my stomach churn.

Knowing that there was no way I would be doing this all day, I went ahead and popped open some of the other varieties, just in case they were better.

They were not.

My one consolation came when later in the day, Eric begrudgingly agreed to try a drink of each of the three that I tried and I got to see his reaction to them.  Plus, Jack, being my most adventurous kids as far as food goes (which isn’t saying much though), agreed to try a drink of just one of them.  The look on his face had me doubled over.  Eric turned to Jack and said something along the lines of, “Your mother hates us.”

So, I guess my juice fast is called a fast because that’s the speed at which it was over.

A Caveat and a Disclaimer

Caveat: While I didn’t want to invest in a juicer to make my own juice for this new experience, I suspect it would have gone better if I had done that.  Because of using purchased juices, I had no control over what went into the juices.  So, I know that this wasn’t done under the most ideal conditions.  However, there was no way I was buying a juicer to try this.

Disclaimer: Just so you don’t discount me as someone who just doesn’t like fruits and vegetables, that’s not the case.  I was the weird kid who had one of her favorite foods as broccoli.  Sure, there are some fruits and vegetables I don’t like.  But, overall, I really enjoy a large variety.

Would I Do it Again?

Really – we don’t even need to talk about this, do we?

No, I wouldn’t.  I just couldn’t.

Well, I guess if I had to, I could.  However, the juices would need to be heavier on fruits than vegetables (though I love vegetables, as I said).  The juices would also need to be made by me.

My preference, however, would just to have a day when I ate some fruit and then a ton of vegetables, rather than having them in juice form.  I would prefer to get all the vitamins and fiber from them just as they are.

Let me tell you something – I really, really like both celery and cucumbers, but the very thought now of drinking something that tastes so strongly of either or both of those makes me feel ill.  As a matter of fact, I had to take an antacid while I was writing this post because I felt like I could almost smell the juice based on the memory of it.

Now, let me just say as the younger sister of someone who really loves doing juice fasts: This was just my experience with it.  I didn’t like it.  If you like juicing – then great.  It just is clearly not my thing.  At all.

Have you tried a juice fast before?  What did you think of it?  If you’re a regular juicer, what are some of your favorite combinations?