My husband and I have eliminated sugar, grains, dairy, and all processed foods from our diet. I must admit though, I had a weak moment and ate some chocolate on Monday night. It’s extremely difficult not to grab a cracker or a pretzel or lick yogurt off of my finger while feeding my daughter. I was cutting up cheese for my girls and put a piece in my mouth before realizing what I had done. I immediately spit it out. A restricted diet is not the norm for me. I don’t believe in fad diets that completely cut out certain food groups. However, I mentioned previously that I am doing this to try to jump-start a new phase of our lives. This juice cleanse will lead the way for us to be more conscious of what we are eating. Over the weekend, we stopped at Costco and purchased three 10 lb. bags of organic carrots, spinach, broccoli, lemons, and apples. Costco doesn’t sell beets, and I wanted to wait to get celery and cucumbers closer to the actual fast. All of that produce in our fridge looks amazing!

Our juicer arrived yesterday. I was a giddy taking it out of the box. For our first juice, we cut up some veggies and threw in whatever looked good:

2 green apples
1 lemon (rind off)
2 c. spinach
6 carrots
2 cucumbers

It was fascinating to see all the pulp come out, and for the juice to trickle out of the bottom. It took a little adjusting to get the right setting (you can change the settings to make the pulp drier, depending on what you’re juicing). We figured out that on setting 3, carrots and fruit work well, and everything else is great on setting 2. The spinach pulp was completely dry. It is important to get the most juice that you can out of the produce, so we even put the pulp from the cucumbers back through for a second round.

I took a sip, and my first thought was, “Not too bad.” Then the after-taste hit me. It tasted like . . . vegetables and a lemon! The taste was overwhelming. After I got it down, I had to lie on the couch for a minute. My husband gulped it down and started making another– all carrots and tomatoes with an apple thrown in. My stomach felt full, and slightly uncomfortable. I didn’t know what to expect, but I could definitely tell that I had done something different. I relaxed on the couch for a while until my stomach settled a bit, then tried to get some packing done for our big move.

When we got into bed last night, we talked about how it felt. We both felt full, but slightly uncomfortable. I had a lingering headache, as did my husband. We expected to be in the bathroom right away, but luckily we weren’t. The taste of the juice lingered in my mouth long after brushing my teeth, and I had a hard time falling asleep. I have a very sensitive gag reflex, and every time I thought of drinking the juice, I wanted to throw up a little! We probably should have started out with one or two vegetables with the apples mixed in, but we really went for it. I will have to get used to the strong taste.

Going into this fast, I want to be brutally honest about how it affects us. I know it’s going to be rough as my body flushes out all of the garbage. I expect to feel weak, light-headed, have headaches, etc. If I can get through that part, I’m not worried about the rest. We will officially start our fast on Friday, giving ourselves the weekend to adjust. Until then, I want to get used to the machine and play around with different combinations of produce.