Juicing is something I have recently added into my diet. It started with a 40 day juicing challenge, yes you heard that correctly, 40 days of nothing ingested but juice. One of my favorite comments when I told people what I was doing is, “you’ll starve if all you do is juice, you can’t do that can you?

Where did we get the idea to juice?

This challenge began after my partner watched Fat Sick and Nearly Dead by Joe Cross. This documentary proved that the general consensus of, “you’ll starve if all you do is juice.” is absolutely not true. Thinking it would be a great way to detox and drop a few pounds and given our competitive nature, it was on. We were armed with our juicer and several recipes, a quick trip to the store and the refrigerator was stocked.

What happened during this challenge?

i’m not going to lie, this was no walk in the park. The first 4 days were pure hell for me and anyone in close proximity. I was moody, my mind was foggy, severe headaches and if it hadn’t started clearing up by the 4th day i don’t think I would have gone on. From everything i could gather this was a normal reaction, my body was detoxing and clearing out all the gunk.

I cheated-just a little bit!

I’d love to tell you that I made it the entire 40 days but around the 10 day mark I felt like cheating. I don’t mean a little cheat. I’m talking a fat, juicy cheeseburger covered in bacon kind of cheat. I did refrain from it and instead decided that if I needed to physically chew something that it would stay within the parameters of vegetables and fruits. From here on out if I had the urge to eat I’d make salads and smoothies. Allowing myself a little leeway on the strict juicing diet. Nuts were also incorporated if I started felt really low on energy I could have a healthy protein to help combat the lethargy.

Ultimately I made it 30 days on this diet and by the end I was feeling wonderful. It was not as hard as I had though, my body stayed nourished and I even shed a few pounds. I did not starve by any means! For me that fast was more of a mental challenge than physical and I’ve learned that if I truly listen to my higher self that I don’t need a lot of what is marketed to us as a healthy diet.

I believe that what I ingest directly affects my health. Food and herbs are my go to for any ailment be it a cold or something a bit more serious I do believe food is medicine and our bodies when cared for properly on a regular basis are designed to heal themselves. We just have to give them what they need in order to do that.

How our lives have changed since the challenge

This fast has affected our lives by helping us to incorporate more veggies into our daily diet. I still use the juicer and typically will have a juice as one of my actual meals throughout the day. This is coming from a girl who used to live for second breakfast! My meals most days consist of a fruit smoothie with hemp and chia for protein, and sea moss gel for added nutrients for breakfast. Some type of meal during the day either for dinner or lunch, just depends on how I feel and a juice. I feel less bloated and in just a years time I’ve seen my annual blood work come back with lower levels on my cholesterol, glucose and blood pressure.

If you’d like to see what juicing looks like and one of our main juices head over to you tube @daddydiaries20 for a great video for juicing for beginners.

Oh, who won? Well, of course it was me! ~K. Sawyer