Do you drink 64 ounces of water daily? That’s the recommended daily level. Here’s what that means for me:
8 oz before I leave for work
2 of the water bottles on the left, while I’m at work = 32 oz
1 of the pink bottles, after work = 24 oz

This means I’m peeing all the time. But whatever. If I don’t meticulously track my intake in this way, I don’t make quota. Makes weekends really hard since I’m not sitting at a desk with bottles in front of me. But I’m trying. All of this water leaves no room to drink anything else. Maybe that’s the point.

Why all this talk about water? Another nutrition challenge at the gym must be in my future … To be continued.

This experiment officially went haywire at 11:00 AM PT. I had a successful morning, even went to Crossfit in the morning and completed an ‘enhanced’ version of Diane. Almond-Orange-Coconut was chugged before catching the bus. It was bottle #2, Kale-Cucumber-Apple-Lime, that did me in. I see now I accident opened #3 first, but I don’t think it would have made a difference. A few swigs in and it just wasn’t happening. Coincidentally my work spouse IM’d me to see if I wanted to go to SBUX. YES, FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING HOLY, YES!
Tall Americano, a little bit of nonfat milk. So. Good. I went back to my desk and ate my carrots. Ate my chicken. Had an energy bar. And so on and so forth. Another latte may have been imbibed. Along with a cookie. Fast? What fast?
Boss/fellow juice faster came by and I raved about the espresso. She was not as happy. Earlier in the day, as she reflected on her successful juice cleanse, she said, out loud, “the next time I do this …” And all I could say was, you’re doing this AGAIN? Inconceivable.
Dinner was halibut with salad and steamed veggies. For dessert I spread some PB on graham crackers. I tried to get into bottle #3, which was actually #4, and just couldn’t hack it. Carrot-Apple-Beet-Ginger might have tasted great on any other day. Today, while eating real food, it just wasn’t doing it for me.

Lessons learned:

• I can drink a lot of water, and probably help myself flush out toxins effectively. I just need to be consistent.
• I can go 2 days without caffeine. Pretty much my limit.
• Of all the things I could have desired, I really just craved protein. Chicken, steak, hamburger. At some point I would have eaten a block of plain firm tofu. Okay maybe not.
• If you haven’t eaten all day, Kale-Cucumber-Apple-Lime actually sounds good. If you have eaten, it does not sound good at all.
• The Harry & David catalog begins to look a bit like porn when you are fasting. Moose munch. Omg.

There is no next time for me, however I do see this weekend as a successful precursor to South Beach Diet phase 1. Kicking out processed foods for a couple of days (longer, if you can manage) is a great refreshing change. Juice only, maybe not so much.

You should always start with good intentions, and so I attempted just that this morning. I woke up groggy, and started in with a cup of ginger green tea (hmm, I thought, this would taste great with a little honey, which I’ll skip today, ho hum), and bottle #1, Carrot-Almond-Orange-Cinnamon. I don’t know if I was supposed to have the tea with the juice, but I really need something hot in the morning. Husband and kiddo had a doughnut. Chocolate Rainbow. Boo.

The morning included a 100-piece jigsaw puzzle with the kiddo, church and a trip to the fabric store. In between tasks 2 and 3 I cracked open bottle #2 Kale-Cucumber-Apple-Lime. I think I made it until the noon hour before breaking, where I had carrot sticks and about an ounce of leftover grilled chicken, plus a slice of turkey from PCC. So, I’m not really doing great with this juice fast thing. The best I can do is limit the food, and focus on non-processed food.

Took another nap today. 2 naps, 2 days in a row…. It could be the juice to blame, I can’t be sure. I do know that this juice thing has me sleeping more than I have in weeks.

Had some shrimp-mango salad while starting my third bottle, Carrot-Pineapple-Lime. I also had more chicken breast for dinner (future slow cooker post to come), then took my last bottle, Celery-Cucumber-Kale-Spinach-Parlsey-Apple-Lemon-Ginger, upstairs to watch the Emmys. Y’know, for work. So, a weekend of nothing but juice? Fail. Two days with just enough to get by, and zero processed bad stuff? Win.

I was hungry today. Many times I felt the hunger pangs, the grumbling, that weird warm feeling in my belly, like the organs want to churn on something, but nothing’s there. I am not missing the irony that I paid a chunk of cash to do this to myself, to feel this way. There are million of people who don’t have that choice. I am so lucky. If you are reading this, you are probably lucky to. Count your blessings.

On a whim, I asked my friend C if she had ever tried a juice cleanse.
-No, but I’ve been meaning to, wanna do it?
-Sure.

We probably had this conversation weeks ago, and finally on Wednesday we did the deed and put in our order. Strawberry Moon Juice, a local Seattle business provides home delivery the day/evening before you start. So when I came home from work on Fri I had (12)16-oz bottles of juice waiting for me. They were organized and marked so I knew which bottle to drink, and when. This reduces the thinking on my part and spreads out the sugar.

This morning I got out of bed around 6:30/7, started my first juice, “Carrot-Pineapple-Lime,” around 7. My strategy was to drink slowly. I finished the bottle around 7:45, and set off for the day. Trip to Target (including a green tea from SBUX); shuffle home then back out with the kiddo for Family Swim, the back home again. By 11, we were home and I was famished. So I took out bottle #2 to sip. It was the greens juice, Celery-Cucumber-Kale-Spinach-Parsley-Lemon-Apple-Ginger. But I was tired. Husband was a little concerned, suggested I eat something. Went to the store to get some stuff for the kiddo, and also bought a half of a grilled chicken breast and organic baby carrots, just in case.

I broke my juice fast at 1 p.m. with some of those baby carrots. I had a few, while kid ate lunch then we headed to the park (could be the last sunny day in Seattle! Take advantage!). We got back and at 2ish I broke it again with that chicken breast. It was cold, with no dressing, and it was like the best tasting chicken ever. Chicken!

Soon after that I fell asleep on the couch. I had been sleepy all day. I couldn’t decide if the tiredness was due to my all-in effort to cram in 2 seasons of “Scandal” before the fall premiere next week, the stress of work, or the juice. I was up 2 hours later (yes, I took a 2-hour nap! Jealous?) and felt great.

Opened up bottle #3. Almond-Pear. I knew a ‘nut milk’ juice would be in the mix, and this was … interesting. The fam was ordering takeout Chinese for dinner. Since I had already broke the fast, I got some hot and sour soup, then also did a salad from the fridge(not dressed), and a shrimp-mango salad thing (from the store).

I’m still working on bottle #3. The taste grew on me a bit, like the vanilla-almond smoothie from Odwalla.

I didn’t expect to make it three days on juice alone. I did think I might make it past 1 in the afternoon… Well, there’s always tomorrow.