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!
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| 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!
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| 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 :)
