Mindful Eats

Updated Green Juice Recipe and Juicer Cleaning Hack

Courtesy Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia

I was delighted to wake up to an email from Today wishing me Happy National Green Juice Day. There's a day for everything! Let's celebrate vegetable juice since it's loaded with vitamin goodness. Starting your day with green juice drenches your body with goodness and gives you a head start in getting in your vegetables. Last year I found a brilliant juice hack that makes juicing TWICE as easy, so I dusted off my post on vegetable juicing (from 2009), and am updating it, along with my hack.

First - the hack. It took me 10 years to figure this out. It is so obvious that it's also possible that everyone but me has already been doing it. The thing about juicing is that it takes effort. You have to juice and clean up the juicer, which takes me 10 minutes when I'm being uber efficient. So last year, I started making TWO days of juice. That's right, twice as much juice with only half the cleaning. Now I can drink 4 days of juice with just two days juicing. So blindingly obvious - why did it take me so long to learn this?! The problem is that the nutrients start to degrade as soon as the juice starts oxidizing, but honestly, who cares? You're still getting great nutrition on the second day even if its less than the day before, and you're gaining extra juice days that you wouldn't have had. It's a win/win. If you're firing up the juicer, give yourself that extra day!

The updated post from May 2009 (it's actually a classic so there are minimal changes. I've become a little more hardcore since then, so I'm updating the recipe a little for less sugar). For another recipe, here is Martha Stewart's recipe from Today:

What to do - Juice Vegetables

1. Start off by buying fresh vegetable juice at health food stores or juice bars. Try different varieties, but make sure there is no added sugar or dairy. Just vegetables and maybe a little fruit. The easiest juices for people to start off with are cucumber and celery. However, the dark green vegetables like kale and collard greens have the most benefits.
2. Invest in a juicer. To get the maximum benefits of juice, it has to be fresh (not stored). It can save you money to buy a juicer and juice yourself, and you can juice whatever you feel like. I'm on my third Breville Juice Fountain in 11 years. There are lots of different types, so visit stores and ask questions or do your research online to find one that will work for you. Slow juicers may have more health benefits, but the Breville is convenient for my lifestyle. You have to go with what you are going to use.
   
3. Stock up on your juicing vegetables once a week. The darker greens like kale, mustard greens and collard greens have the most nutrients. You can juice anything though. We save the vegetable parts we don't cook like broccolli skin and asparagus stems to juice. Garlic is good for you. If you want to cut the "green" taste, add 1/2 lemon (you can throw the whole thing in, skin and all). To make it sweeter, add an apple, carrots or grapes. Oh, one thing NOT to juice is the top of leeks. We found out the hard way that they can make you sick.
4. Juice often. You can juice several times a week to several times a day. To increase the amount of juice per effort, you can make two days of juice at each go. Be aware that the nutrients do starts to degrade immediately, so if you're going to save some for tomorrow, fill a glass container up to the rim and put a lid on it so it doesn't oxidize.
5. Clean your juicer meticulously. Clean it as soon as you're done, and make sure the filter is scrubbed. Soak the filter in white vinegar every month or two to dissolve some of the food debris. If it gets really bad, soak the filter in bleach and then clean carefully.
6. Recycle the fiber. Some people add it to meals and eat it. It also makes great compost.
7. You don't need to juice only organic vegetables, though you may head in that direction.
   

MindfulEats Green Juice Recipe (for 2 days)

1. 10-15 leaves of kale
2. 2 stalks celery or 2/3 cucumber during the summer (the cucumber is much better!)
3. 2-4 carrots
4. 1.5" - 2" chunk of ginger
5. 1" - 2" chunk of tumeric
6. 1 whole lemon, rind and all
7. Veggie scraps from yesterday's meals
8. optional: 1 apple or pear if you are new to juicing
   

What I ate: 12 oz. water with Welleco Green Elixir, 16 oz latte, 2 oz assorted cheese, 1/2 cup nuts, 4 c. Pop Karma olive oil and cheddar popcorn, 1 orange, 23 clementines, 2 fruit rollups, 1 c. brown rice, 2 c. steamed broccoli + tofu + mushrooms, roasted seaweed, kimchi, 6 squares dark chocolate. 1 c. hot chocolate, 16 oz water

Exercise: 45 minutes spinning, 5 min stretch, 5 min core

Golden Turmeric Milk

“Each spice has a special day to it. For turmeric it is Sunday, when light drips fat and butter-colored into the bins to be soaked up glowing, when you pray to the nine planets for love and luck.” ― Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, The Mistress of Spices

We promised you the recipe for Golden Milk or Turmeric Milk in the last post. This luscious drink is great before bed and loaded with superfoods. Originally from India, it includes lots of spices that are especially lovely when it is cold out. Golden Milk is a good way to add turmeric to your diet (which is what turns milk golden). However, if you are trying to get a health benefit, remember that eating something once does not do you any good. Like exercise, you can't do it once -- taking just one yoga class or drinking one green juice is not going to improve your health. To truly gain a benefit, you need to do something regularly a few times a week and make it a habit. It's all about increasing your batting average! My neighbor loves turmeric and puts it in everything -- she jokes that her kids ask her why all their food is yellow.

Why are people so crazy about turmeric? The curcumin in turmeric is anti-inflammatory and boosts your body's antioxidant capacity. It is touted to help brain function, depression, cancer, and heart disease. A cup of Golden Milk after dinner is supposed to ease digestion too. Enough talk - here's the recipe:

Golden Milk / Turmeric Milk Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of dairy or plant milk of your choice (I prefer dairy because it isn't uber-processed like plant milk, but if I had to choose a plant milk, oat milk is very creamy)
• 1 inch of fresh grated turmeric or 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
• 1 small piece of fresh grated ginger or 1/2 teaspoon of ginger powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon or small part of a stick
• pinch of black pepper or a few pepper corns
• honey or maple syrup to taste (optional)

Steps:

1. Pour milk in a sauce pan. Grate the turmeric and ginger into the pan. Add the rest of the ingredients, unless you are using cinnamon powder. I prefer to use fresh ingredients, but they aren't always available and dried spices are much more convenient, so use what you have. Personally, I don't use any sweeteners because sugar is evil.
2. Heat sauce pan over low heat until it reaches a slow, barely boiling point.
3. Simmer for 5-10 minutes until it is fragrant.
4. Strain the milk into a mug if you used fresh ingredients and/or peppercorns.
5. Sprinkle cinnamon on top.
6. Enjoy! You can also make a larger batch and keep it in the refrigerator for a few days. Just heat it up in the microwave or on the stove.

 

 

Plant milk vs Dairy milk

Almond and macadamia plant milks

"Eat less from a box and more from earth." 

Plant "milks" are all the rage - oat milk seems to have taken over coffee shops, and there are a plethora of other plant milks to choose from at the store: soy, rice, almond, cashew, macadamia, sesame, pistachio, et al. There can be a halo effect for plant milks since they are vegan, but are they really healthier than good old dairy milks? Let's investigate.

Small aside: why are they called plant milks anyway? When I liquify a plant of any type - apple, carrot, beets - to drink, I call it a juice. Isn't milk from a breast? Do they call it milk because you are only supposed to use these plant milks as a dairy milk substitute? In Taiwan there is a history of drinking soy milk but not dairy milk, so it's not called a milk or used as a substitute but as a drink of its own. Anyhow, I digress.

Like Impossible Burgers or other plant-based meats, commercial plant milks are much more processed than the original dairy milk. Let's look at some ingredients lists:

Sheltering in Place? Great! Tips for Getting Healthier

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Photo by Maximiliano Carrizo from Pexels

Have you ever wished you could get healthier - improve your diet and exercise more - but life just seems to get in the way? You know, work gets crazy so there is no time to work out OR you have to go out to lunch with colleagues OR there is free food sitting out by the printer OR you have to go out to dinner with clients OR you are traveling and can't control the food you get OR you can't figure out how to get ready for work at the gym?

Look, this coronavirus pandemic is horrible so you might as well squeeze some lemonade out of it. For those of us that are "sheltering in place" or spending an extended amount of time at home, it's the perfect time (even better than the start of the new year) to kick start your habits and come up with the sparkly new improved you. Sure, you're catching up on your favorite shows, doing puzzles and becoming the social media queen, but why don't you invest the commuting time you are saving into the habits you have wanted to make a regular part of your life? It can be the foundation for a better future than you imagined.

Things to do with a few weeks at home:

The Best Weight Loss Tools: Food Logs and a Lose It! Review

"What's measured improves." ~Peter Drucker

As you look at your goals for the year, is losing weight or eating more mindfully on your list? Well, one of the most powerful tools to help you succeed is a FOOD LOG. Ugh, boring, old-fashioned you say? Well, they WORK. You must have a baseline of what you eat and how much you exercise before you can improve on it. You might think you already know your habits, but you don't really until you keep track of it. I promise you will learn a lot by keeping a food diary for a week.

You can keep track of your eating on a piece of paper or use a digital food log. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to keep a food log, and why you should know your baseline (along with a printout for a paper food log). I always kept food logs on paper since I like to look at what I eat on a broader weekly view, but I recently tried a digital log (the Lose It! app), which worked like a charm. Review below.

After gaining some weight, I decided I needed to lose a few pounds. I tightened up my diet and focused on whole unprocessed foods, and ate more moderate portions. This always works. Then my husband started using Lose It! and I tagged along. It was easy, and it supercharged my weight loss so I lost twice the amount of weight in the same amount of time. I am a big believer in food logs, but even I was surprised by the results.

Why did I love Lose It!?

Real vs. Organic, Non-GMO, Keto, Vegan, Plant-based Processed Foods

Beyond Meat Burger Ingredients

I went to the largest trade show for natural and organic products in the US this year - Natural Products Expo West. There are over 30,000 attendees and thousands of different food items. It's huge! There was a dazzling array of foods in packages. One of the most obvious trends this year was CBD, but the one thing that was abundantly clear was that Americans are confused about what to eat that is healthy! 

MindfulEaters, here's a secret: anything that comes out of a package is probably processed. You already know what real food looks like. Expo West was full of different kinds of food bars, plant burgers, and all kinds of convenience foods stuffed with supplements. All those things are processed foods! If there are lots of ingredients and it doesn't look like it's natural form, it's processed. It doesn't matter if it's organic, non-GMO, keto or stuffed with superfoods. A protein bar is still not a natural food item. Instead of eating the bar, have a hard boiled egg or two! You can boil lots of eggs at once, keep them in the refrigerator, then take them with you for a handy snack. Or have some chicken. You are going straight to the source for real natural protein instead of a funny bar shaped food.

You are better off eating non-processed or minimally processed unorganic real food than any kind of processed food. That's the simple truth.

Just because it's labeled organic, non-GMO, keto or vegan doesn't mean it's good for you. Organic macaroni & cheese in a box is still processed macaroni and cheese. Don't think you are eating something non-processed just because it's organic. You can eat it - just be conscious that you are consuming a processed food.

If you are eating plant "meat" to be healthier, be aware of what's in the ingredients list. A lot of things! (see above). You can grill a portobello mushroom just as easily. It's delicious and it's a real plant.

If you're snacking, remember a non-GMO quinoa chip is still a processed chip. Choose air-popped popcorn or roasted seaweed for snacks that are minimally processed. Or a banana, piece of fruit, carrot sticks or hard boiled eggs. Hummus and celery. You have so many options!

Why do you want to eat less processed foods? Because ultra-processed foods are bad for you.

What to do - Eat more fresh unprocessed food

1. Shop for real food. Organic or not, that's what is best for you and your family. Not protein bars, powdered supplements, chips or balls. Real food.
2. Create a food plan (your Mindful Battle Plan) for the week. Figure out your meals so you can take a list with you to the grocery store and spend less time making more satisfying meals!
3. Prepare most of your meals at home.The faster the better - and if you cook in large batches, you can take in lunch or have leftovers later in the week.
4. Figure out which ultra-processed foods are your weakness, and don't buy them! Do not let them in your house!! Here are some popular culprits: chips, diet soda, frozen pizza, candy, pre-packaged cakes, certain breads (do for the whole grain breads).
5. Snack well. Create a fruit bowl and keep it filled. This will be your go-to for snacks. Make a Mindful Mixfor your other snack needs.

 

What I ate today: steel cut oatmeal + strawberries + blueberries + blackberries, Prêt a Manger lobster roll, bowtie summer pasta, steamed broccoli, corn on the cob, pluot, green tea ice cream, Lesser Evil popcorn, coffee, water

Exercise: power yoga

What is ultra-processed food and why is it bad for you?

Lamb duo, potato, pepper ragout

I know once people get connected to real food, they never change back. ~Alice Waters

MindfulEaters, I hope you're having a great summer and enjoying the season's food offerings! As you know, we at MindfulEats hate processed foods. Now there's another reason - a recent study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) shows that ultra-processed foods make you fat!

So, what is super-processed food vs processed food vs minimally processed food vs real food? It gets confusing! Basically, anything that is not in its original format is processed -- a potato chip is a processed potato, frozen pizza is no where near what it's natural components were, and even brown rice is minimally processed (because it is dried). But wait, brown rice is good for you, right? You're right, brown rice IS good for you! White rice is more processed than brown rice so it's not as good for you (it's rice with the hull and bran removed - the stuff with the vitamins and minerals in it). Fresh broccoli that came from the produce section is real, unprocessed food. Frozen broccoli is minimally processed because it's been frozen, but it's still good for you. Here is the deal: eat real or minimally processed foods! To try to standardize definitions, MindfulEats is going to use the NOVA classification which the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is using.

• Real food is unprocessed or minimally processed (Group 1 Foods). These foods are the ones you recognize - edible portions of plants and animals. When these foods are processed, it is to extend the life of the food or to remove inedible parts by freezing, drying, pasteurizing, etc.  They don't have multiple ingredients - they might not even come with an ingredients list or a nutritional panel. You can often recognize these foods since they are in their original form and include things like vegetables, grains, fruit, meat, seafood, nuts, eggs, herbs, milk. You should eat and cook mainly from this category. Is yogurt a Group 1 food? Trick question - plain yogurt is a minimally processed food because it's fermented milk, but when you add processed fruit it becomes an ultra-processed food.
• Processed food (Group 3 Foods). This is when real food has been altered a bit with sugar, salt, or oil to make it last longer or add flavor. Tofu, simple unpackaged bread, cheese, canned tuna, cured meat, beer and wine fall in this category. These foods tend to be convenient and have just a few ingredients on their lists. You can use these foods to build your meals (everything in moderation, please), but the more real food you eat, the better!
• Ultra-processed food (Group 4 Foods). These are where most of our calories tend to come from; they are the industrial formulations with five or more ingredients. They have been through multiple processes with added ingredients to taste delicious and make us want more. Examples of ultra-processed foods are soda, diet soda, chips, ice cream, sweetened flavored yogurt, sweetened breakfast cereals, packaged soups, fries, energy bars, and distilled alcohol like vodka, rum and gin. Remember, an organic ultra-processed food is still bad because it's ultra-processed!

Ultra-processed food is so convenient and so tasty, is it really necessary to give it up? Yes! It is tasty because food science has manipulated it and added things to it to make your brain want more. It is basically frankenfood. The NIH study showed that people on an ultra-processed diet gained 2 lbs per week on average, while those on a real food diet lost 2 lbs a week on average. In addition to weight gain, ultra-processed foods are also linked to higher cancer risk. We know you are here because you want to be healthier, so cut back on the ultra-processed food you are eating!

What to do - Eat more fresh unprocessed food

1. Create a food plan (your Mindful Battle Plan) for the week. Figure out your meals so you can take a list with you to the grocery store and spend less time making more satisfying meals!
2. Prepare most of your meals at home. The faster the better - and if you cook in large batches, you can take in lunch or have leftovers later in the week.
3. Figure out which ultra-processed foods are your weakness, and don't buy them! Do not let them in your house!! Here are some popular culprits: chips, diet soda, frozen pizza, candy, pre-packaged cakes, certain breads (do for the whole grain breads).
4. Snack well. Create a fruit bowl and keep it filled. This will be your go-to for snacks. Make a Mindful Mix for your other snack needs.

Want to know more?

• It's Not Just Salt, Sugar, Fat: Study Finds Ultra-Processed Foods Drive Weight Gain, NPR, 5/16/19
• What is ultra-processed food and how can you eat less of it?, Heart & Stroke
• 6 'Ultra-Processed' Foods to Throw Out Right Now, Health.com, 2/13/19
• What are ultra-processed foods, and are you eating too many of them?, Mother Nature Network, 5/17/19
• Share
• Ultra-Processed Diets Cause Excess Calorie Intake and Weight Gain: An Inpatient Randomized Controlled Trial of Ad Libitum Food Intake, Cell Metabolism, 5/16/19
• Standardizing food classification with NOVA, World Public Health Nutrition Association, 2016
• Consumption of ultra-processed foods and cancer risk: results from NutriNet-Santé prospective cohort, BMJ, 2/14/18

 

What I ate today: vegetable hash with 2 eggs, 16 oz coffee, peach, 1 cup strawberries, 2 cups blueberries, 1 cup cheddar Hippeas, udon noodles + 1 slice pumpkin tempura + 1/2 slice sweet potato tempura, glass noodles + tofu + spinach + shiitake mushrooms, 1 tablespoon homemade green tea ice cream, 10 oz hot chocolate, 50 oz. water

Exercise: 1 hours of kickboxing, 30 min. upper body weight lifting

Restarting Healthy Eating During the Summer

 

Summer snack bounty from Costco

Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. ~Arthur Ashe

MindfulEater, have you ever fallen off the wagon, indulged in too much rich processed food and gained some weight? You're not alone! It happens to all of us at some point. The fastest way to fit back into your waistband is by watching your diet. It''s time to start/restart some mindful eating habits, and there's no time like now. Fortunately, it's summer so that makes eating unprocessed food easier.

What to do - Tips for Mindful Summer Eating:

1. Eat more vegetables. It's August so you now have your widest choice of vegetables for the year. They also happen to be at their cheapest and most delicious. Fill up your cart with zucchini, greens, eggplant and corn. A simple grill or sauté will suffice. You can also eat a lot of vegetables raw (even fresh picked corn). Make zoodles (zucchini noodles) to replace noodles or rice. Zoodles can be eaten raw, boiled or sauteed.
2. Load up your fruit bowl and refrigerator. Just like vegetables, fruit is in its prime! Eat as many luscious peaches, nectarines, berries, cherries, (whatever looks good), as you want! Eat watermelon or a big stone fruit (or two) before meals to fill you up. Snack on fruit only. Berries for dessert will satisfy your sweet tooth and make you more svelte than that bowl of ice cream!
3. Don't cook more than one item per meal. It's hot so you don't want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen anyway!  (By the way, this rule counts even if you didn't cook the item - like a loaf of bread) If you want to make a burger or egg and use it to top your salad, that's perfect. Or boil some pasta to throw in with tomatoes and basil. Maybe some brown rice to mix with zoodles, spinach and sesame salad dressing. Make a juicy sandwich with avocados, tomato and hummus. By limiting your cooking to one item, you will be forced to eat more fresh plants, which will help you get on track. Cook large portions and use it throughout the week to save time!

 

 

What I ate: 12 oz green juice, 16 oz latte, 1/2 cup cherries, summer pasta with tomatoes and basil, 1 cup strawberries, 4 oz grilled salmon, 1/2 cup mexican chicken, tomatoes and peppers, 1 cup watermelon, 3/4 cup pistachios, 1 slice sharp cheddar, 1 cup blueberries, 8 Edward Marc Coconut Almonds in Dark Chocolate, 25 oz water

Exercise: 45 minute Peloton with Denis Morton + 50 min ashtanga yoga

 

Rules for Restaurant Eating to Avoid Getting Fat

Japanese breakfast

Eating out is one of the biggest diet killers and a sure way to eat unhealthy. It will make you fat. But sometimes you just can't avoid it. Traveling, catching up with friends, and being short of energy and time usually results in a restaurant meal. By the way, even if you ordered it in and eat at home, it's still a restaurant meal!

Since you're eating out, you probably want to treat yourself. Go ahead and do so - just follow some simple rules. We were delighted to find this great New York Times' article that believes the restaurant scene is offering healthier food choices. We've added some of their tips to ours to create an easy mindful cheat sheet.

What to do - Eat Out Smartly

1. If you can, choose your restaurant carefully. Pick a high quality restaurant that focuses on real food. Mediterranean restaurants are often fresh, healthy and flavorful. There are also some fast casual chains that are health conscious: Chop't, Mod-market, Lyfe Kitchen, Native Foods Cafe Sweetgreen and Pret-a-Manger.
2. Scrutinize the menu and try to order whole foods that are grilled or less sauced.
3. More plants, less meat.
4. Some menus have "healthy" options with less calories and fat. Focus on these. They are often called "heart-healthy" or fit. The NYT points out that even the Cheesecake Factory has a "SkinniLicious" menu with over 50 items less than 590 calories.
5. It's all about portion control. That restaurant meal you are eating has more than twice - sometimes four times - the meal you would make at home. To combat that, leave half of your meal on the plate (you can take it home) or order two appetizers instead of an appetizer and an entree. If you can't take food home, just leave it! You didn't ask for such a huge portion so you can leave it guilt-free.
6. Be wary of white sauces. Stay away from mayo, caesar dressing, ranch dressing, hollandaise, cream sauce. It's loaded with fat and calories. Add zing to your food with lemon juice, vinegar and mustard.
7. At a steak restaurant? Choose the filet mignon. It is the lowest calorie option. According to the NYT, filet and a glass of wine will clock in under 750 calories.
8. Eat only delicious bread. It's easy to be mindless about bread. Choose a flavorful, whole grain bread and have just one piece.
9. Drink water. Lots of it. It's good for your skin, and all those juices have calories. Diet soda is full of chemicals.
10. Eat eggs and oatmeal. They are both healthy, as long as they are as natural as possible. Don't add sauces or sugar! You can often find eggs for lunch or dinner at a diner. If you're having breakfast, the processed stuff like pancakes and waffles are NOT the way to go. Bacon and sausages? Have ONE if you need to. Split the side order or leave half of it on the plate.
11. Do not get your own dessert! You did a good job with your meal, don't blow it! After a calorific meal, desserts are calorie bombs. Just get fresh fruit (nothing on it), or share a single desert with at least one (preferably more) people.

 

What I ate: 15 oz. green juice, greek yogurt with blueberries and strawberries, one egg, 2 c.Trader Joe's Japanese fried rice, 12 oz decaf coffee, cheese and crackers, nachos, eggplant kottu, fruit salad, 2 c. cherries, 45 oz water

Exercise: jogged 5.8 miles

 

Diary: Does the Juice Fast / Cleanse Work?

I've always been intrigued by juice fasts as a way to detox but had never tried one. Western medical advice generally says fasting is unnecessary since the liver is created specifically to detoxify the body. As a fairly mindful person, that seemed like an excellent point. I was pretty healthy and tried to maintain a mindful lifestyle - I exercised, hydrated, ate mindfully and tried to get enough sleep. 

However, in the last couple years, I became unhealthy for a variety of reasons. I wasn't exercising, and I started eating in restaurants too many times a week, which makes you fat and unhealthy. I started eating a lot of convenience foods, which were fast but highly processed and loaded with sugar. I felt like walking toxic waste. I needed something drastic to jumpstart a healthy regimen. So after finding a deal on Gilt City, I decided to do a Juice Fast with Liquiteria.

I have to admit, I'm skeptical about the claims that juicing detoxifies your body, but advocates will tell you that taking a break from eating solid food and digesting will allow your body to focus on healing itself. Though I'm not sure I believe in the health benefits, I had a feeling that taking a break from making food choices and eating sugar would help break a sugar addiction and let me reset how I was viewing food. 

As a first time juice faster, I had more decisions to make than I expected. 

Which Juice Company?

I could make my own juice, but my juicer had collected so much dust during the long period of lazy eating, that I wanted the luxury of having someone else do it. Fortunately, juicing has become so trendy there are now a myriad of companies to choose from. They all have beautiful branding that promise health. It's easy to get confused, but I knew I wanted fresh, cold-pressed organic vegetable juices that were sugar free (without added fruit such as apples, grapes, etc.) The fruit makes the juice taste better, but I wanted pure vegetable juices. Since juices are expensive, I wanted to make sure they included top quality ingredients and were cold pressed to maximize retained nutritition. That narrowed down the field, then I ended up checking out companies for reviews, reputation and price. 

Which Juice Fast?

After deciding on a company, the juice company had a few different levels. There were one day fasts, three days fasts, and levels from beginner to advanced. Even though it was my first cleanse, I wanted a three day fast to break my bad habits. I had never fasted, but since I used to make my own juices I figured I could go straight to the intermediate level since I didn't want a higher calorie, sugary beginner level. Truth be told, I wanted to lose a few of the pounds I had gained, but I also didn't want to starve. I checked the total number of daily calories of each fast looking for a lower calorie fast that wasn't insanely restrictive.

A lot of juice cleanses fit the bill, so when I found a flash sale on one of them, that's the one I went with.

Pre-Cleanse

If you are going to cleanse, you should prepare for it by eating as mindfully as possible during the days/weeks before hand so you don't shock your body. Cut out processed foods, sugars and eat as cleanly as possible. I also started a regular exercise routine during the precleanse.

The Actual Juice Cleanse

Theoretically a cleanse shouldn't be too hard -- you're still taking in calories on a regular basis and you're not exercising, right? However, I found it to be very difficult. Liquiteria recommends no exercise while cleansing since presumably the cleanse is giving your body the time and energy to heal itself and Exercise takes energy away from healing.

Day 1

I start the day with green juice, then every 2-3 hours I have another juice until I drink a total of six. 16 oz of water in between the juices. Lots of liquids. After the first few hours I am obsessed with food - I can't stop thinking about it. Specifically brown rice with vegetables. My mind is rebelling. Lunch brings a sweeter juice, which I am ecstatic about. After that I feel weak and I really want to chew food. By the time dinner rolls around I have two more juices left. I can't stop staring as my husband eats his salmon burger for dinner. It's not that I want to eat it, but I just like watching. My last juice of the day includes beets - thick and sweet. It's like dessert -- completely heavenly. The water is tough to finsh. I definitely do not feel full and go to bed unsated.

Day 2

I'm glad to start the day with green juice, and I love the idea of not having to figure out what to eat for the day. A couple hours later I am miserable. I have a slight headache and I think about food all day. Chewing food, tasting food, eating food. A bizarre amount of enery goes into wanting food. I think of all the things I can eat when I'm done juicing. The juices are unsatisfying. I am tired and cranky all day. My highlight of the day is again the sweeter juice - "Skin Deep". I am more careful about drinking water between each juice and find it goes down more easily. When it's time for dinner, I watch my husband chew his food with so much intensity he feels uncomfortable. The end of day beet juice is delicious and goes down far faster than the other juices. Again, I am hungry all day.

Day 3

I wake up not excited about juice. Oh well, that's what I am having. No headache today, but I still think about food...a lot. Not as obssessively, but a lot. I can't wait to have brown rice with vegetables. This day is the easiest. Maybe my body has resigned itself to a reality of no food, or my mind has capitulated or both. I'm still tired but I know it's the last day, and it really is easier. For a second I think about doing a fourth day... nah. Like the other days I continue to eliminate stuff, which I find weird because I haven't had anything solid and I have a pretty fast digestive system. I'm less hungry than I was during the past couple days, but I'm definitely not sated. Once again the highlights of my day are the sweeter drinks. The end is near and I'm lamely proud to have made it three days since it's not that impressive a feat (I'm ingesting nutritious calories all day after all). I'm excited to be done.

Post-Cleanse

I wake up feeling like it's Christmas morning since I know I can eat. Oddly, I don't rush to the kitchen. I'm a little loath to start eating. Crazy. I was told to break my cleanse with a green juice so as not to shock my system, then to eat primarily raw food. However, I do NOT have any juice. I break my fast with a salad and have a bite of chicken. I can't wait for the next meal, which will be brown rice with vegetables, just as I'd been fantasizing. We get to the restaurant, and they are out of the brown rice bowl. So, I order... pancakes. I'm not happy about it, but oh well. I am plunged back into the world of cooked sugary foods without a grace period. And my body was ok with it - no adverse reactions whatsoever. But let's get real people, it was only three days of juicing - not weeks.

Post Post Cleanse

It's been about three months after I did the juice cleanse, and I still have the results I wanted. It helped break the sugar addiction and processed food habit that I had started. I'm back to starting most days with a homemade green juice, and I've also gotten into the habit of being much more mindful of my food choices.

So that was my experience. Here's my friend Walter's testimonial.

Bottom Line - doing a three day juice cleanse was a good shortcut to jumpstart my mindful eating. It helped reset my eating habits. I could have reset without it, but the break from thinking about what food to eat was helpful. II would do it again only IF I fell off the bandwagon again. Otherwise, I don't think I would gain any health benefits from it if I were living a mindfully.

 

What I ate: green juice, handful of blueberries, 3 cups of cherries, broccoli + adzuki beans + pumpkin seads + quinoa, brussels and squash Brooklyn Taco, plum, 3 dried apricots, dried mangos, walnuts, spinach + beet salad with balsamic and extra virgin olive oil, 3 colossal shrimp, quinoa, steamed broccoli, dark chocolate sorbet

 Exercise: none