Seth's Juice Fast

After 72 hours with only juice, water, and herbal teas, Seth broke his juice fast. While it may not have been the five days that he was aiming for, three days is more than enough time. The first two days of the fast went well; although Seth was hungry he was in good spirits. But by day three he was irritable, had a headache, and felt nauseated whenever he drank a juice. He finally threw in the juice soaked towel and asked for something more substantial, which was a bowl of carrot ginger soup.

You may wonder, what exactly is a juice fast? Why would you do one?

A juice fast, is when you take a break from eating food and only drink fresh pressed juices, herbal teas, and water for a minimum of three days. For many, this is a chance to have a nutrient dense diet and consume fruits and vegetables you might not otherwise. Going on a juice fast also gives your digestive system a chance to rest. Nowadays our digestive systems are always working. We have come a long way from our hunter-gatherer ancestors who would naturally fast intermittently. With food so readily available, we rarely give our bodies a break from digestion and often are consuming way more food than we should. For most, this isn't nutrient dense food we need to fuel our bodies, but rather foods that are high in calories, added sugars, salts, and highly processed. By drinking only fruit and vegetable juices you will give your taste buds a chance to reset themselves to crave the foods that your body needs as well as giving your digestive system a break.

In Seth's case, a juice fast will help to reset his body and tastebuds. He has had a poor diet for a long time and needs to break a lot of bad habits when it comes to food, and teach his body how to crave nutrient dense foods.

While on the juice fast, Seth began each morning with a cup of warm water with lemon to begin hydrating his body and give him a vitamin c boost. For breakfast he had a juice with more fruit than vegetables, followed by a green juice for lunch, and a juice of his choice for dinner. In addition to the juices and lemon water, he drank plenty of water and sipped some herbal tea at the end of the day. It comes as no surprise that Seth doesn't like green juice. In fact, it was the taste of the green juice which finally broke him. After sipping a green juice on the third day he finally admitted defeat as he shuddered down the last sip. His favorite was the orange juice that he had for breakfast on the first day, a sweet and simple juice that even my toddler loved. You can find recipes for both juices below.

Even though the juice fast is over, Seth still has two weeks of eating a vegan, whole foods plant-based diet. Will he make it? I'm taking bets.

"Orange" Juice

4 carrots

2 apples

1 lemon

1 thumb sized piece of ginger

Green Juice

5 large leaves of kale (I use curly leafed)

4 ribs of celery

1/2 English cucumber

1 green apple

1 pear