How long have you been juicing?
I began juicing in January of 2012.
What Juicer do you have?
I have the Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain. I had used my mom’s Jack Lalaine juicer for a few days, prior to purchasing my own. I wasn’t happy with how difficult it was to clean the Jack Lalaine or how long it took to juice greens (or the quality of the green juice), so I opted to buy the Breville.
Why did you start and did you get the results you wanted?
I’d suffered through two long years of feeling like I couldn’t do anything. I was in constant pain with Fibromyalgia and struggled to do day to day activities. In December of 2011 I had reached a breaking point where I was willing to try anything. After hearing the suggestion several times to look into food sensitivities, I finally had myself tested. In the meantime, I stumbled upon the documentary “Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead“. It was the story of Joe Cross and how he’d reversed the negative effects of his auto-immune disorder and lost over 100lbs by opting for a juice only diet for several months. At that point, I decided I had nothing to lose and it was worth a try.
Beginning January 1, 2012 I started my own “juice fast”, consuming nothing but juice for the first week of the year. Despite being somewhat weakened by the overall lack of calories and experiencing a few side effects that come with any type of fast (think withdrawal symptoms), my husband said he could tell that I had increased energy. I was feeling better. I strictly juiced for a full week. The second week I added in raw and cooked fruits and veggies. The third week I added nuts and finally the fourth week I added in meats. I had gotten the results from my food sensitivity test and it showed I was sensitive to wheat, yeast, eggs, casein (from dairy) & dairy. I have continued to avoid those foods, and in the few occasions that I have eaten them I’ve been able to confirm why I need to avoid them. Gluten leaves me feeling a Fibro flare (aches and fatigue), dairy messes with my digestive system and I’ve finally determined that eggs break me out. I’ve also found that while rice was not on my food sensitivity list that rice will usually mess up my digestive system.
I continue to juice on a daily basis and I find that doing so gives me increased energy. Often I will still wake up feeling less than stellar, but after I juice I feel my energy levels go up greatly. Juicing is basically like main-lining a large dose of macro-nutrients. I get more nutrients in one glass of juice than I would get in a couple of days without juicing.
I am very happy with the results of my diet changes overall. I can easily say that I feel 80-90% better than I did prior to the diet changes. I’ve also lost over 40lbs, which was a huge side benefit.
I’m thinking about juicing, should I give it a try?
It really depends on why you want to give it a try and how committed you are. A lot of people start because they read about the positive benefits that others enjoy, but once they get into and start experiencing the negative side effects of a juice fast, they quickly give it up. You can add juicing to your existing diet, but I don’t really think that just adding it without making changes elsewhere in your diet will be as helpful. If you simply add juice to your existing diet it will probably cause you to gain weight because you will be adding calories. At the very least, I’d suggest using juice to replace less healthy options. Perhaps do what I do and juice for breakfast, while making efforts to improve your diet throughout the day.
If you are considering a full on juice fast in an effort to improve your health and lose weight, be prepared for a rough few days. If you’ve never done it I’d suggest a combination eating/juice reboot. Even if you go that route, prepare for a rough few days. It’s not easy to give up your addictions cold-turkey and we really don’t realize how much of what we eat, we eat simply because we are addicted to the wrong foods. Carb addictions are the worst, and honestly meat is rough too. Breaking food addictions isn’t really any easier than breaking any other addiction. You will be moody, you may get headaches, you may not feel well. But, much like those other addictions, the negatives of withdrawal are worth the positives of coming out on the other side.
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