soulmatefood Juice Cleanse: Day FIVE!

DAY FIVE!!!!!!  Oh wow. I am so proud of myself and actually can’t believe I’ve made it this far. Does this make me an ‘experienced’ juice cleanser now? Haha.

My day of rest yesterday helped so much with dealing with the sickness and hunger, and as long as I remember to wear my glasses when I’m on my laptop the headaches aren’t as intense. My sleep was very disrupted again though; it seems most of the symptoms come at night. I think I had to get up to pee four times and was woken up twice by vicious burning pains in my arms and legs. Does this happen to anyone else?

The weigh in this morning was a huge shock. I was terrified because for some reason I thought I’d see a gain, but I’ve actually lost a total of 4.8lbs now! I just hope it stays off. 

I’m noticing changes in my hair and skin and nails now too! Both seem softer, or stronger in the case of my nails, and in better condition than before which I absolutely love. This didn’t happen during the 3 day cleanse. I think my hair has grown as well; it just seems a lot longer lately. 

A random craving hit me during the night; dark chocolate! I might have to take advantage of the post-Easter discounts and get some. It’s very hard to eat an entire bar of 70% cocoa or more so it should be safe. 

My boyfriend asked me last night why I’m doing this and I struggled to convince him that this isn’t a gimmick or fad diet. He appreciates that this is an incredibly tough challenge to take on, but doesn’t see how drinking nothing but fruit juice will help a body function better. That might be because he views food differently and doesn’t really go beyond it tasting nice and serving a function. Typical bloke, really! 

I enjoy learning about food and nutrition. One of my favourite TV programmes is ‘The Food Hospital’. It’s absolutely fascinating! At the day hospital we’re taught about the ‘food-mood’ relationship and the importance of a healthy diet to help manage our conditions. Some of this is partially because some medications are notorious for causing weight gain and the last thing we want to do is add dealing with diabetes or heart problems alongside our crazy. 

My main motivation for doing this cleanse was to help my system recover from the absolute thrashing it took when I was seriously ill. I have been very lucky that my liver is strong and able to recover quickly, my blood tests have been fine for ages now, but there’s bound to be all kinds of toxic mess still lurking in my system so this is kind of like my massage next week… It’s a bit of a treat! My system is definitely flushing things out; the headaches are a clear sign of that. 

Also, I just wanted to take advantage of their discount and challenge myself!

Final hours survival kit!

The last 3 juices have been the hardest by a long way. I’m actually starting to feel sick from the sweetness of the juices and decided to make a trip to the co-op to see what I could find to make the final evening tolerable!! I smelt the chip shop pretty much as soon as I stepped out the door and it was the most intense smell of vinegar and potato I’ve ever experienced. I don’t even like those sorts of chips but at that moment it was heaven and I was so desperate for it, just to have something different. I knew I needed to get something sour from the shops so I came out with slimline tonic water and sugar free lemonade. I’ve also got a magazine to flick through. The smell of their bakery and seeing all the Easter chocolates and cakes was painful. 

It’s almost 7pm now. There are TWO more juices to go. TWO. With any luck I’ll be in bed and asleep by midnight. The tonic water is helping a lot. Before, I was seriously considering drinking vinegar or marmite… I settled on my breakfast being my favourite muesli: Dorset Cereals berries and cherries. More fruit! Haha. I can’t wait though, which is a strange thing to be confronted with! I’ve never looked forward to breakfast in my entire life. 

To anyone considering a juice cleanse or any type of fasting, I would say don’t under-estimate the power of your brain and the learned behaviour of eating solid food. The first cleanse I ever ordered from soulmatefood was their 5 day programme, thinking that I’d be able to handle any hunger and wouldn’t really miss food or eating. Oh how wrong I was. I think it was barely the third day when I broke down and ate, and was climbing the walls most of the time before that. It was a horrible experience! So start small, get used to what your body is going through and then think about upgrading. 

If you drink a lot of tea, coffee or things like diet coke or energy drinks that are loaded with caffeine, it would be best to cut way down before you start this cleanse or you’ll be suffering way more than necessary! The same would apply to refined sugars.

Think about how long you’ve been eating solid food for; decades upon decades, right? It’s not just the mechanics of eating that you’ll miss, like the hand-to-mouth action I’ve talked about earlier on in the week. You won’t have a bowl or plate with a mixture of foods to look at. You won’t be able to smell food cooking that you know you can eat soon. You won’t have different textures in your mouth. It’s a very confusing position to be in. Your body is being fed enough calories to function. You’re not starving hungry. But your brain is telling you something is missing; so you keep thinking about eating for the sake of eating, essentially. This is when you begin to try and think about how you view food and start to learn to sit with this really uncomfortable feeling and try something new. 

I was definitely starting to get into the habit of comfort eating, and using food as a distraction from my symptoms, so I’m relieved to have been able to get this far and address it now rather than when I’d gained a lot of weight and it was a really ingrained habit. 

I can honestly say the only real issue I’ve had with this cleanse has been the sweetness of the juices. In the past I remember there being a beetroot type juice which was absolutely fantastic. If I were to change the menu, I would make juice 3 and 5 more vegetable based. I don’t know if that would help with the digestion and passing of the juices, but there really does need to be more variety. It becomes quite hard to stomach towards the end!  

I DID IT!!!!!

So there we are! That was my 5 day juice cleanse journey. I can honestly say I'm proud of myself and I'm sure that when I wake up tomorrow that feeling will still be there. 

Thank you for reading and if you have any questions please ask and I'll do my best to answer them as best as I can :)