so, having tried a four day juice fast and coped considerably better than i'd expected, and, even, with very few side effects, i did some more research and found that to really get the benefits you should juice fast for 30 days. *gulp*
it seems that 30 days is pretty much the standard. further reading proved that two weeks is fairly doable and most people get considerable health benefits from it, and the minimum fasting period to achieve tangible results is 8 days. so, i'm going to aim initially for 8 days but then try to get to 14. then we'll see how things look and consider another week. once i'm at 21 days i'll make the decision whether to go for 30 days. step by step.
what follows are the notes i made on my palm pilot every day for the first ten days of the fast. *warning* some gory personal details will be shared
day 1 slight headache started midday but was bad enough to send me to bed at 6pm
day 2 headache was very faint and didn't bother me much. was fairly hungry but not so much that i worried i might cave in
day 3 woke up feeling hungry and had a headache. felt a bit sick after juice. all symptoms disappeared soon afterwards
day 4 supposedly today is the day my digestive system shuts down and hunger pangs stop
day 5 woke up starving! so much for day 4 being the end of hunger pangs
day 6 bit snotty. getting fed up of washing the juicer two or three times a day
day 7 ewww. stuff coming out. loads of energy compared to other days
day 8 still hungry headache on and off all day and tongue furry. period started. don't want to get weighed until that's finished for more accuracy
day 9 ...
day 10 had a bit of a headache in the afternoon, but it never got to the stage where i couldn't cope with it. used a bit of temple balm and had some chamomile infusion, massaged my neck and got on with work. it's amazing how dependent you get on painkillers. now that i can't take any (they're counterproductive to detoxing) i just find a way around using them. i'm quite impressed. so maybe i've broken my reliance on ibuprofen to get me through the week...
also had a long chat with boo about what i'm doing. now that i've passed my first mini-goal, and can't really tell whether i'm feeling better than a few weeks ago because time is passing and i'm recovering or because this is really helping me, well, i need to know if i'm doing the right thing. back to my fasting resource, curezone, and i found there was a blogger there with a very similar situation. until she got past the three week stage she was not really convinced it was doing her any good. and at around day 32 she finally hit the high.
