28 days on juice!

28 days on juice, only, well almost! Got to be crazy right? In winter, definitely crazy!

So here's the thing...I do things without thinking too much when it comes to an idea that grabs me in the health line. There are other things I think waaaaay to deeply on and get myself all tied up in knots.

We have juiced for 12 years on and off, in the beginning it was just carrot, orange and celery, every day for 2 years at breakfast time along with other food during the day. We had a decidedly orange tinge to our hands in those days!

When our children have been ill we have made sure that juices are stepped up with some beet and ginger too.

However over the last year or so we haven't been juicing as much and recently with our move to eating more low carb meals and watching my husbands blood sugar we haven't juiced much at all.

Then something popped up on Facebook called SUPER JUICE ME and it just made sense to give it a go. There are lots of little health niggles in my body and I thought to just give my body a good detox and see how things go thereafter.

That weekend our whole family watched the Super Juice Me movie which was showing for free on Youtube at the time and they all decided to give it a try with me.

A boot full of veg!

We did 7 days of only juice. This is not the kind of fruit juice that you buy in a shop, these are freshly extracted fruit and veggie juices in a laid out plan to clean out and support your body. They flood your body with nutrients and are carriers to get rid of the junk. We had to compromise on not using organic veg as with 6 of us juicing we couldn't afford it, so Foodlovers it was! Much to the amusement of the employees at the market we pushed out two trolleys each week which filled our huge boot! Storing the fresh stuff was also a bit of a hassle.

The folk in the video were all starting off on a much worse footing that us. None of us are on chronic meds, nor are we ill with disease and while Superman and I have a few kgs we would like to loose the focus was really a detox. As such I didn't expect the amazing testimonies that the participants in the experiment experienced but we were hoping for a feel good experience.

Day One was AWFUL! I had booked and paid for a day trip by bus around Cape Town and a ride up the cable car with my children and a friend, that was the good part. Bad bad bad timing! It should have been a quiet slow day at home, juicing and resting. The result was a migraine and hanging around the toilet bowl vomitting that evening. I could say it was a coffee detox or because of the juicing, but I don't think so.

Breakfast anyone?

Day Two to Seven was great! By day 3 the hunger pangs had gone, coffee cravings vanished, the juice was filling and leaving me with a clean fresh mouth, lots of energy to continue my daily walks and 3 swims/gym sessions. On the evening of day 7 we ate a meal...it should have started the next morning, but we succumbed and had a small Paleo meal.

After that meal we all felt sleepy and not as good as after a juice. Ah well, live and learn.

For the remaining days we stayed on juices for breakfast and lunch but ate dinners. My younger 3 children had breakfast juices and then cooked their own lunches and in between snacks.

So what were the results?

Another breakfast selection 

My blood pressure stayed the same (normal) through out. I had my cholesterol checked when we started and it was at 6.88 which they tell me is high. Can't tell you the split of the two. My weight at beginning was 64kgs. (Told you I needed to loose some!)

After 28 days my cholesterol was at 5.52, my weight at 60.5kgs, my skin clear, my brain fog gone, my sleep better and I felt great.

I plan to do another 7 days on just juice at the end of September before I head to the UK. I know that we will be eating at Pizza Hut (sssshh!) and other places for some of the time and thoroughly enjoying my sisters incredible cooking, so I am going to go feeling fit and strong and detox before!

We are still juicing for breakfast everyday, and will probably continue this way from now on. At least I don't have to explain to the Foodlover's employees why I am buying 48 cucumbers and 30 packets of apples anymore!