Saturday, September 15, 2012

A 5-day Juice Fast! (posted by Tessa)

Tessa, her Dad, and Daughter completed a 5-day Juice Fast to cleanse and lose weight.  Results are posted!  Below that, you can read the daily Vegan Vagabonds Facebook juicing posts if you're curious in how it went.  (join our Facebook page if you'd like to be inspired daily!)  

Hope this encourages you to try your own Juice Feast!

5-Day Juicing Results: in winning order in this friendly competition:


Tessa's Dad (Gary): WINNER! (Age 71- Started 1/2012 at 211 lbs mostly-plant-based diet):
Monday 197 (juicing starting weight)
Tues 193
Weds 190.75
Thurs 190 (3.55% on 7 lbs)
Fri Forgot to weigh
Sat 188 (Hooray!)
Final results: 4.6% loss of 9 lbs!!! Wow!


Jazy: (Age 17- Height 5'11", plant-eater since 8/2011)

Monday 144.4 (starting weight)
Tues 143.8
Weds 141.6
Thurs 141.0
Fri 141.0
Sat 139.8 (Terrific!)
Final results: 3.2% loss of 4.6 lbs 
<Jazy's Plant-Eater ideal weight is below is 142 lbs>


Tessa:  (Age 44- Ht 5'6" started at 140 lbs in 8/2011)
Monday 119.4 (starting weight)
Tues 118.0 
Weds 117.2
Thurs 116.2
Fri 116.0 
Sat 116.0 (Yahooey!)
Final results: 2.8% loss at 3.4 lbs 
<Tessa's Plant-Eater ideal weight is below is 117 lbs>


We all feel like winners for losing some stubborn weight and for finishing what we'd started.  All of us were pleased with our weight losses.  None of us felt overly zinging or enthusiastic on the juice feast (and sometimes we were almost whiny).  But we did it anyway and we're delighted we did.

Dad is going to continue juicing on a modified schedule.  I am going to decide it one meal at a time.  Jazy is finished juicing for awhile since she's reached her goal. (She went skipping out victoriously to search for a Homecoming Dance dress.) We are definitely careful not to eat much today on our shrunken stomachs because we don't want to feel sick from a quick change.

In case anyone else was wondering:  After eating plant-based for so long (which keeps the digestive system moving) after just 3 days of juicing, we no longer had fiber inside us to poop.  My green smoothie this morning (in the blender) started things back up again.  That's all I'm saying about that.

A big shout out to plant-eating friend, Charlie T. for juicing in solidarity with us.  Thanks!  It is amazing how helpful it is to have support when you're juicing!

Here is Dr. McDougall's chart for worldwide Plant-Eaters Ideal Weights:

Women
HeightWt. Should Be Below* lbs.
4ft 11in91
5ft94
5ft   1in97
5ft   2in100
5ft   3in104
5ft   4in108
5ft   5in112
5ft   6in117
5ft   7in122
5ft   8in127
5ft   9in132
5ft  10in137
5ft  11in142
6ft147


*Fully Dressed
Men
HeightWt. Should Be Below* lbs.
5ft   2in110
5ft   3in115
5ft   4in120
5ft   5in125
5ft   6in130
5ft   7in135
5ft   8in140
5ft   9in145
5ft  10in150
5ft  11in155
6ft160
6ft    1in165
6ft    2in170
6ft    3in175
6ft    4in180
6ft    5in185
*Fully Dressed


******

Day 1:  Monday

Heads up! A Juice Feast is on! Anyone who wants to join my daughter, Jazy, and I (Tessa) juicing this week is welcome to jump in. We are planning to juice through Friday. 

I've never done it, but so far I have not felt hungry, which is a great thing! I'm drinking a quart mason jar full of mainly veggie, some fruit, juice for each meal and a pint as snack if needed. 

You can do whatever schedule works for you, even if it is just one day to see how you feel. I know my Dad is in too. He started this morning. Join us for some juicing fun!

*****

Day 2:  Tuesday


Good morning, my plant-strong friends!

First up: I was asked "Why are

 you doing a juice fast" and here's my response:

I'm fasting (or juice feasting) for a variety of reasons:

I'm curious how it feels (example: hungry? exhilarating? detoxing? zinging? and do you poop during a juice fast?)

I have friends who do juice fasts and I've never done one myself- slack! Rather than keep asking them how it feels, I'm doing it myself.

I want to break food addictions: I think it's amazing how wrapped up in food we get. My primal instinct is to truly worry that I'm going to starve to death if I have to change my diet and I think that is really pitiful, yet telling. But I can power through that feeling.

So I (surprisingly easily) survived yesterdays fast without going hungry. Stocking all those veggies and fruits for juicing is a lot of work, as is juicing (30 minutes from start to finish on lunch and then snack for Jazy and me, but the time still seemed long to me), but it is worth it and I will get faster.

My weight is down from yesterday's 119.4 to 118 today, which is the lowest it has ever been as an adult, even lower than my 119 high school weight. At 5'6" Dr. McDougall says that based on worldwide plant-eaters, my ideal weight will be below 117. I believe it! I still have wads of fat on my backside. TMI!

I wonder if my weight will bounce back up at the end when I start eating food. Most people find the weight does not return if they continue our exceptionally healthy eating. Will see.

Dad is juice fasting with us, which is great support. He is quite an encouragement as this is his 2nd fast and he lost 12 pounds on his first juice fast!  Am finding juicing an easy way to get what we want quickly- that old fat to slide off so we can be our healthiest.

I feel great! The juice is surprisingly filling and I don't crave other food. I feel energetic and light. There's no zinging feeling yet, but I do feel good and I slept fine through the night. I'm always afraid of waking up hungry and having to eat at 3am, so I normally eat granola and almond milk before bed. I did drink some juice as a snack before bed and that did the trick. I slept great!

Jazy wants to buy a Homecoming Dance dress after the fast. It's a healthy, highly nutritions, very fast weight loss for her to return to her pre-summer travels weight. Her school friends were talking about a celebrity's unhealthy fast on water, cayenne powder, and honey (ugh!) and she had to talk with them again about good nutrition.

We can do it! We can reach our healthy goals!

*****

Day 3 (Wednesday)

I feel good today! Yesterday was "Irritable Day" (detox perhaps?) but today I feel more awake, energetic, springy even! 

Tessa's weight today: 117.2!  Down from 119.4 at juicing start


Jazy has lost 3 lbs from our juice fast!

After going months at a time without losing a single pound, I'm thrilled to finally lose some loooooong term fat storage. Is it worth the trouble and inconvenience of a nutritious juice fast? YES IT IS!!!

I hope all of you making progress in your plant-based diet will share details on here too. It might feel like bragging, but others find success stories encouraging. You don't need to be anywhere near your ideal weight, and it doesn't need to be dramatic. Any progress at all will be celebrated with you! Oh yes! Please share to encourage others.


*****

Day 4 (Thursday)

Breaking food addictions is a juice fast benefit! My stomach seemed to adjust yesterday to smaller amounts of intake, rumbling around. 

Likely my "never go hungry" slogan meant I ate TOO much food previously, which is why my weight loss has been slow. Supposedly our stomachs are supposed to growl 4 times every day.

Tessa's Weight t

oday: 116.2! (Yahoo! Finally below 117 goal for plant-eaters-see McDougall's chart from my Tuesday, 9/11 post)

Weight Recap: 8/6/11 (last year) =140 lbs.

Morning weigh-in's:
Mon= 119.4 (about to start juice fast)
Tues= 118.0
Wed= 117.2
Thu= 116.2 (that's 3.2 lbs lost during juice fast, 24 lbs since started vegan)

The shorter time between juicing and drinking it, the healthier the juice. I just juiced today's breakfast and lunch. However, my kids juice the night before so they can have breakfast ready. As long as the jar is filled and the lid on, oxidization and enzyme depletion should be minimal.

Since I started plant-strong 8/6/11, I exercise 300 calories + 3 miles worth of walking (any speed, any incline-whatever I feel like) on the treadmill 4-5 days a week and I've done about 12 classes of once a week yoga. I am not an exerciser, but it has become easier.


******


Friday (Day 5):  Today we admittedly plodded through.  A great lift occurred when a friend came over to juice lunch with me since I couldn't really go out to eat.  That was really supportive and she'd never had a veggie/fruit juice like that.  She said it was "Delicious!"  I encouraged her (as I attempted to do with Dad) to add more veggies to her chosen pile of sweet fruits.  Veggies to juice include celery, all leafy greens, cabbages, beets (and beet leaves which also juice red!), carrots, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, zucchinis and different kinds of squash.  


Jazy and I were very happy to take a picture of our final juice dinner!  


Having others in the house eat real food (that I helped prepare), while we sat at the table with juice was an attitude challenge, but we did it!  And we are glad that we did!

Would anyone else like to report on how your juicing or plant-strong diet is going? We LOVE to hear it!! :) 

To your EXCEPTIONAL health! 

(Tessa)


7 comments:

  1. Your 5-day juice fast diet is really good for us and its really good post for all the juicing recepies and ur men and women table dieting average is really good for us.
    Is fasting with juice Healthy

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  2. Congrats on your achievements. I do seasonal juice fast and juice daily. Love the amazing benefits I've received since incorporating fresh green juices.

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  3. That weight chart is ridiculously low. I'm 5'9". I weigh 150 pounds. I'm VERY thin. I'm a woman.

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  4. Bob, I do respect the fact that every body is different and everyone's ideal weight will be their own. If you click the highlighted link to the weight chart, it will provide more info. I do know that the weight chart is based on 4.4 billion plant-eaters throughout the world who do not have the host of diseases that we Americans suffer. In addition, Dr. Fuhrman says that most people have a lot more weight to lose than they think in order to be lean. Finally, from personal experience, the plant-eaters that I know who have been consistent over time have found that their weight has dropped much further than they ever anticipated. I suspect much of our weight is from internal fat. I have not confirmed that with research, but have read that up to 25% of lean meat (that we used to eat) is comprised of fat. Perhaps that is true in human muscle as well? Ultimately though, if we consume a nutrient-centered, plant-based diet our ideal weight will find itself over a few years time. It doesn't really matter what we think or hope our weight should be, our weight will be determined by our nutritious eating causing removal of fat, which is a risk factor for disease. Here is a McDougall newsletter regarding the weight chart that addresses perception and the fact that people rarely too thin eating nutritious foods unless they have a serious illness: http://www.nealhendrickson.com/mcdougall/030700HowDoIGainWeightPF.htm Hope that helps! Tessa

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  5. Dr. McDougall's Chat is really nice. Thanks for share Dr. McDougall's chat. I love your post very much because your post is very informative. I believe that juicing diet plans is also very important for our health. So we should take it.

    ReplyDelete