Three people on the Healthista team are on a collective juice fast for seven days and blogging about the hungry, cranky reality. Welcome to Day 2’s update
First of all why would three of us decide to go on a juice fast? Click here to find out about it and read about day one. Here’s what happened on the second day.
THE SKEPTIC, Anna says:
It’s getting a bit boring to be honest and the big realisation is how much I live, breathe, talk and think about food. What I am currently eating, what I want to eat, what I want to cook, or what other people are eating is always on my mind, otherwise I wouldn’t feel this ridiculous sense of emptiness (both figurative and physical I guess) and missing food so much. Last night, I asked my partner to tell me in stark detail about the sausage roll he ate for lunch. That’s the problem with these detox thingies, you start thinking about food you would never normally even consider touching, let alone eating, but hunger possesses you. The good news it that, having given my partner Kevin tastes of my juices, he piped up and said: ‘I’m joining the hunger strike.’ In typical male fashion (it’s all about the competition) he believes he is going to be ‘better at it’ than the rest of us and ‘win’ the juicing challenge, by which he really means be the first one to finish their juice, mostly I think.
How I’m feeling Like something is missing from my life, bored too and by 4.08pm noticeably and loudly growling with hunger (my tummy, not me) and feeling like there’s a big sucking Dyson in my gut screaming: Feed! But I’m also surprised at how lovely juiced vegetables can taste when you add a little strategic sweetness to them from things such as pears, apples and ginger and then blend them in a blender – they get all frothy and fluffy.
What I’ve learned I kind of like a flexible approach, in other words, to cheat a little. I am still having milk in my rooibos tea, which we have decided to call ‘cow juice’ so it doesn’t mean I have broken the detox. Also, I don’t want to stop my little short workouts in the morning as they tune up my mind (I’m doing the 30 day squat challenge and some yoga as well as walking to and from work) so I think I deserve to be able to add some bulk such as a little banana or avocado to my juice and put it through the blender. I also blend the kale bit of my juice in the morning, as kale juiced makes a few drops but blended it makes tonnes (miserly, moi?).
On my menu
Today’s beet, carrot, kale, ginger,
lemon, pear and apple creation
Breakfast: Green wake up call – Four celery sticks, a bunch of parsley, five carrots, half a beet, two apples juiced and then blended with one banana, two handfuls kale and five frozen strawberries.
Mid-morning: Rooibos tea x 2 (with milk, sorry!), miso soup sachet, tall glass Cocofina coconut water.
Lunch: Beet the Heat – this is a recipe we stole from Joe Cross and then adapted to suit what was in the fridge in the Healthista studio where our juicer resides (It’s the Philips Compact Viva, in case you’re wondering, the best £90 we ever spent). Juice was made from 6 beets, eight carrots, two pears, one apple, one cucumber, a large nob of ginger, a lemon and a whole head of kale – totally delicious – but be warned, these portions serve four as that’s how many are now on the fast as we had to feed them all.
Mid-afternoon: Rooibos tea with milk, miso soup sachet, tall glass Cocofina coconut water.
Dinner: I have my Tesco mid-week shop coming at 9pm so tonight I juiced what I could scramble together from the fridge and the corner shop and invented the Green Mish-Mash – 2 cucumbers, 2 apples, 1 lime, 6 carrots blended with two handfuls spinach and one avocado (that serves two as Himself is now on the juice fast too). I followed my ‘dinner’ with hot miso stock as I was so cold, despite the heating being on.
THE VIRGIN, Cassie says:
I have resigned myself to the fact that I’m probably going to feel hungry most of the week. The weird thing is, sometimes I forget how hungry I am and then suddenly this really empty feeling overtakes me. I’m missing food. I’ve realised how much I look forward to cooking and eating a good hearty meal. I keep thinking about what I want to eat. Right now, even the most simple things like a boiled egg or boiled rice seem like the most appetising thing in the world. It’s hard knowing all I’m going to consume in the next five days is juice. I’m looking forward to sitting down with a knife and fork and eating a proper meal.
How I’m feeling:
Surprisingly, I didn’t wake up hungry but I was extremely tired. I made myself an extra juice to drink during the day yet I still got hungry around 4pm. I majorly suffered from hunger pangs and was quite tired throughout the day. By 9pm, I was knackered and got into bed at 10pm which is a big deal considering the earliest I usually go bed is 11.30pm. However, I still had trouble sleeping.
What I learned: To make sure I have more water and herbal teas throughout the day. Also, a juice in between all meals would hopefully help curb the hunger. Chicken stock cube in boiling water is my friend.
Breakfast: Green Morning – A handful of spinach, one celery, one third of a cucumber, half a lemon and a teaspoon of cinnamon.
Mid morning snack: My own invention that I’m calling Red Delight – Spinach, five strawberries, half an orange, half a beetroot and one third of a cucumber. It was delicious. The orange added a lovely sweetness to it and took off the bitterness of the beetroot.
Lunch: Beet the Heat – Healthista tailored for four people – Juice was made from 6 beets, eight carrots, two pears, one apple, one cucumber, a large nob of ginger, a lemon and a whole head of kale.
Dinner: For dinner, I had A Juice that Fights a Cold by Joe Cross, because I’ve been blocked up and had a sore throat. I tailored it a little (due to lack of ingredients) and had 1 orange, 2 carrots, half a lemon and ginger. It was really sweet.
After dinner, I took comfort in half a chicken stock cube in hot water. I needed something hot and flavoursome that wasn’t herbal tea. As sad as it may sound, I really enjoyed it. Of course, I would have loved to have followed it with a bowl of pasta but hey, one can dream.
Anna and Cassie are using the Phlips Viva Compact Juicer, see a review here
Exhausted! I wish that human marionettes were a thing and someone could just move my limbs for me.
THE CONVERT, Christina says:
Day two started off slowly, quite literally. I am a real morning person but today I found myself hitting the snooze button four times before I managed to crawl out of bed, which is very unlike me. I felt really weak and although my breakfast juice gave me a slight boost it was walking to the train station which made a massive difference. Being out in the fresh air and walking at a casual pace has a therapeutic element to it. I made some extra juice in the morning so I could sip on it until lunch and it worked. I didn’t get any hunger pangs until 1pm. In the afternoon I struggled because that’s when my hunger came back to haunt me. Once home I couldn’t wait to get into bed and fell asleep at 9.30pm.
How I’m feeling:
Exhausted! I wish that human marionettes were a thing and someone could just move my limbs for me. Also, my mouth is dry and has developed a rather stale taste, not mention my tongue which went all albino on me. It kind of feels like I am detoxing through my mouth.
What I’ve learned:
I have learned that onions are my friend on a juice fast. Since I was craving something savoury for dinner I tried Joe Cross’s V6 juice and it worked wonders. I never juiced onions before and I must say it was life changing – the smallest things can make you happy when on a juice fast -.
Breakfast: Morning sweetness -1 apple, 1 pear, three kale leaves, 1/2 cucumber, 1 celery stick, 1 yellow beat and half a lime.
Mid-morning: Left-over juice from the morning.
Lunch: Beet the Heat – Healthista tailored for four people – Juice was made from 6 beets, eight carrots, two pears, one apple, one cucumber, a large nob of ginger, a lemon and a whole head of kale.
Dinner: V6 Juice – 4 tomatoes, 2 carrots, 1 red bell pepper, 1/2 kohlrabi (I substituted with 2 celery sticks), 1/4 red onion, tabasco salt and pepper according to taste.
Christina is using the Sage Nutri Juicer by Heston Bluemnthal (left) – see a review here
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