Welp… both of us had a pretty decent fifth day of juice fasting. My (Andrew) teeth still felt and continue to feel funny and Laura just doesn’t feel anything other than normal – which is kind of a disappointment to her after so many rave reviews from others doing this sort of thing. I suppose if we were coming off diets of processed foods, soda, etc it would be quite a boost to juice raw veggies and fruit exclusively. But because we eat pretty well already, I imagine our results are less stellar than others.

I don’t feel incredibly different either although I have not had ANY pulsatile tinnitus (hearing my heartbeat in my left ear) since we started this fast. That  is quite amazing to me since nothing I have ever done has helped with this. Makes me wonder if my pulsatile tinnitus hasn’t been either blood pressure of blood sugar related? Also, I’ve not had any migraines during this time either. I would not necessarily have them otherwise, but usually I get them around the beginning  week of the month (hey, maybe guys have hormones too 😉 ). Nonetheless, I’m happy to not have had one during this time.

We’re both a small amount trimmer now. I think we’ve each lost about 5-6 pounds. For Laura, that’s a bigger percentage to lose than I and she really doesn’t have room to lose weight. I wouldn’t mind more weight loss for myself, but I tend to think longer, smaller, sustained weight loss is a better indication of making life-enhancing, permanent changes than just getting down a few pounds quickly. There’s still quite a bit of calories in fruit juice (even though we usually only drink fruit juice 1-2 times a day), so it’s not like we’re radically reducing calories as one would in a water fast.

Laura has been struggling today with hunger. I think this is again related to her being very lean to begin with. I think this might be because she fuels herself from dietary fats and carbs normally – both of which would be very lacking during a juice fast. I on the other hand have enough “reserves” to fuel my body without eating additional fats and carbs (keep your head nods to yourself 😉 ). I’ve not really experienced physical hunger any more than normal during these six days. It’s just as manageable as normal life in my opinion. So the lesson to anyone contemplating this… if you at all overweight, you’ll likely not suffer from feeling too much physical hunger. If you’re lean… well then, be prepared for being hungry here and there!

The mental hunger is a different story. Though difficult in the beginning, once I resigned myself to the fact that I am just not going to eat until this is over, it’s been easier to handle cravings. I’ve come to realize how much of my normal eating habits are not physical, but just trying to pacify boredom, stress, etc. In this regard, this juice fasting has been very liberating and eye-opening. Even if I don’t feel any earth-shattering differences, I know that this is causing some great mental and spiritual growth. I suspect these will result in better physical well being in time. I believe our minds must change before we can change our bodies.

We did pickup another juicer – the Breville Juice Fountain Elite. This is a VERY NICE juicer. It’s very sturdy and well-made, is very easy to cleanup, and has a really large opening for stuffing in fruits and veggies which allows for much faster juice making. There’s a less expensive version, the Breville Juice Fountain Plus that is about half the price. This was back-ordered until October, so we decided to get the one we did. It appears to be less expensive because of an 850w vs 1000w motor and also because of plastic chute and juice basin vs. the metal on the Elite version. Still a very nice juicer!

We already had the Omega J8005 Juicer. It’s an awesome juicer too, but is too slow for us to use for two of us juicing at such a constant rate. The processing and cleanup time was too much. For one person, it would be fine. It’s still the best juicer we have because it can juice more foods (ie, wheatgrass) that centrifugal juicers cannot and also does more than most juicers (ie. makes pasta, sauce, etc), but it’s not so efficient for supporting two adults on a simultaneous juice fast. Also, we wanted to get a second juicer so that we could loan one to others who would like to try a juice fast but lack the resources to do so. I hope we can pickup more of the Breville juicers in time to help more people.

Some might say “whoa… $150-$300 for a juicer?!”. Yes, that’s right, they’re expensive. Fresh produce is expensive too. However, none of these things are as expensive as poor health or premature death. Leaving behind a family because of heart-disease , diabetes, or cancer is much, much more expensive than eating well! Don’t value your life or the life of your loved on as being less than the cost of good health! Resist the tyranny of such thinking.

That’s all for now. Stay tuned for more regarding our progress!