Gabby's health journal - Part 1 - my first juice fast

Notes:

As well as the food listed, I drink as much water as possible.

I've found walking to be the best thing for bringing down my blood pressure.  So I shall show when I walk each day as: WALK - YES

Blood pressure readings are taken in the morning before breakfast.

As this is my first juice fast, I am also recording my bowel movements (Bs).  Well, I find them very interesting!  Normally I have them twice a day.

I am fresh juicing with my old Breville juice fountain each day.  However, I've discovered that a centrifugal type juicer is not the best sort to use.  Cold press juicers extract more juice and nutrients, plus cause less oxidation (see Choice review online).

Key:

BP = blood pressure

PR = pulse rate

B = bowel movement

N = normal

R = runny

S = small

K = Kineret injection

DAY 1 - Sunday 3 March 2013

Weight: 93kg          Blood pressure:  165/88      Pulse rate:  56

Today I am preparing for a juice fast - not a long one - but I can't remember fasting (intentionally) for even half a day before.  So this is a new challenge for me.

Breakfast: Juice (apple, pear, carrot, celery, ginger)
Lunch: Home-made vegetarian minestrone, grapes, water
Mid-afternoon: Juice (kale, spinach, celery, carrot, kumara, parsnip, zucchini, rocket and nasturtium)
Dinner:  Minestrone, grapes, water

WALK - YES
B - None.
K: 11pm

DAY 2 - Monday 4 March 2013

Breakfast: Peach and a few grapes. Water.

Lunch: Home-made vegetarian minestrone, water, juice (pear, apple, celery, carrot and cinnamon juice - YUM!)

Mid-afternoon: Peppermint and ginger tea

Dinner: My first mean, green juice a la Joe Cross - pleasantly surprised.  His recipe for mean green juice is: 6 kale leaves, 4 stalks celery, 1 cucumber, 2 green apples, half lemon (including skin), thumb-sized piece of ginger.

Found large bunch of very fresh organic kale at Flannery's - $6.50.  Fresh GREEN vegetable juice is a very important part of juice fasting.

WALK - YES

B: 8:30am (N); 9:45am (R); 2:30pm (N)

K: None

DAY 3 - Tuesday 5 March 2013

First day of juice fast proper.

Breakfast: Mean green juice with pear and extra apple added

Mid-morning: Small portion of today's breakfast juice

Lunch: Normal portion of today's breakfast juice

Dinner: Juice (fennel, pineapple, carrot, apple, radish, spinach, celery, ginger - YUM!); half glass pineapple and peach juice - also YUM but the pineapple does give me mouth ulcers unfortunately; peppermint tea.

Still feeling fine.  Only occasional moments of desire for solid food, but they don't last long. No headaches. Don't know how long I will fast.  I'm taking it day by day. Blood pressure down to normal range.

WALK - YES

B: 8:30pm (S)

K: 3:30am

DAY 4 - Wednesday 6 March 2013

BP: 126/73     PR: 64

First thing: warm water and squeeze of lemon

Breakfast:  Juice (orange, apple, peach, grape, rockmelon, pineapple, carrot, celery)

Mid-morning:  Breakfast juice with spinach and beetroot added

Mid-afternoon:  Juice (mango and watermelon)

6pm: Broke fast with a few grapes, bits of frozen banana and breakfast juice

Dinner:  Half an avocado; multigrain sandwich half vegemite/half peanut paste

Walked to the city - 6km round trip.  One hour after walk, BP down to 108/67.

WALK - YES

B: 9:10am (R)

K: 6.45am

Well, that was interesting.  I survived my first juice fast better than I expected.

Now I know that I can do it, I will do it again.

DAY 5 - Thursday 7 March 2013

Weight:  91kg     BP:  127/77     PR:  51

Slowly returning to normal food.  Weight has started to come down and BP has returned to normal.  LOVELY.

First thing:  warm water and squeeze of lemon

Breakfast:  Grated frozen fruit residue pulp (peach and pineapple) and grated frozen banana

Mid-morning: Chewed a few organic wheat sprouts

Lunch:  Mashed avocado, lemon juice, ground kaffir lime leaves, tahini, pepper with crackers; grapes; peppermint tea

Mid-afternoon: Yummy fruit platter: mango, grapes, rockmelon, peach

4:40pm: Avocado and vegemite multigrain sandwich

7:30pm: 6 cashews

9:30pm: Wheat sprout porridge with honey and coconut milk

WALK - YES

B: None

K:  9:30am

DAY 6 - Friday 8 March 2013

BP:  126/72     PR:  56

Officially the last day of juice fast (winding down)

First thing:  warm water and squeeze of lemon

Breakfast:  Slice of mango

Mid-morning:  Wheat sprout porridge with honey and coconut milk

Lunch (at Edna's):  Edna's lentil and vegie bake on white toast; bikkie and white tea

Mid-afternoon: Crackers and white tea

Dinner:  Tried to eat raw carrots, parsnip and celery, but couldn't chew them properly and they didn't taste good.  Had a cracker and a small piece of Allan's birthday cake instead.

WALK - YES

B: noon (N)

K:  12:30pm

DAY 7 - Saturday 9 March 2013

BP:  120/69 (PERFECT!)     PR:  59

Still at Edna's this morning to see Jen off on her New Zealand cruise.  Went on Jen's "shaker" machine for 10 minutes and played Wii bowling with Edna.

Breakfast:  Juice (made by Jen with Edna's non-centrifugal juicer - a Kuvings Silent.  She cuts the food quite small and leaves it to soak in water for 10 minutes before juicing, which gives her time to go on her walking machine.) of apple, carrot, fennel, pear, kale, celery, silverbeet, parsnip with chia seeds added later.  CHIA seeds were great!  They were left long enough to swell.

Morning tea:  Fruit cake, crackers, white tea

Lunch:  1 piece seed bread with ricotta and tomato; 1 piece seed bread with strawberry jam; leftover breakfast juice, white tea
Mid-afternoon:  half a frozen banana
Dinner:  Home-made vegetarian minestrone; fruit platter (mango, peach, grapes); bikkie; chai latte

I have come to the conclusion that I need a cold-press juicer.  After hours of research on the internet, tonight I ordered an OSCAR NEO COLD-PRESS JUICER - $449 with free delivery.  This one does far more than just juice.  It has a very good reputation so I think it will be well worth the extra cost.  I'm excited.

I've been injecting Kineret every 27 hours for nearly a week with no ill effect.  Encouraging.

WALK - YES
B:  9:30am (N)
K:  3:15pm