Juice fasting takes time, patience and will power

Here’s the gist of a juice fast: You go food shopping, you juice, you clean the juicer, you juice, you clean the juicer, you juice; you buy more produce, you juice, you clean the juicer, you juice…

Who has time to even think about food when your life is consumed by juicing?

That’s been mostly the case for me, as I move into the final days of a 10-day juice fast. I can see the finish line, and looking back, the whole thing has been surprisingly, dare I say… easy?

Let me disclose something I failed to mention in my first post, about 90 percent of my diet is vegan. Because I love to cook, my roommate (who is also on the fast with me) ends up eating vegan at least 70 percent of the time, too. That may have given us a head start on this juicing thing compared to someone who’s coming from the standard American diet.

The juices have been pleasant, though the green ones (packed with spinach, kale and celery) a little less so. We’ve felt full and satiated at all times. And my roommate has managed her normal gym routine without feeling the slightest bit weak or faint. In fact, she said she had way more energy to burn than usual. I also think my hair is shinier, but that could be me projecting. We’ve both lost weight, too, just over a pound a day on average.

And the Day 3 detox headaches I read so much about? We never got them. Though on Day 4, I did feel a little lightheaded.

Of course, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. A juice fast definitely takes sacrifice. I was at a wedding on Saturday and passed up a sushi bar, two pasta stations and a dessert table with absolutely nothing on it that I wouldn’t have sampled. My roommate went on a weekend getaway to Lake George, and brought jugs of juice with her.

But it’s not over yet. We have the rest of this week to go and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t obsessing over what I’ll have for breakfast for my first meal on Friday.

Stay tuned for a post-fast recap!