Lets dive in and get the juicy scoop about juicing, more importantly, I want to touch base on how beneficial just adding some wholesome raw juices to your existing diet can be. Or, even take it to a level of "extreme", to some peoples standards. I'll be further discussing later on juice only fasts for days or weeks for some, depending on your goals of course. The important thing to remember is to ease into it. Start slow with juice experiments and see how they make you feel. What are some goals you have in mind for juicing. Maybe you eat great all day and its another way to get some nutrients on the go. Maybe you eat garbage and you start drinking a juice with your fast food meal instead of pop. Not ideal by any means, but all journeys start with just one step, so don't be afraid to nutritionally branch out.
Lets briefly review why juicing is awesome, and follow up with some reasons you may not want it to be another tool in your nutrition tool belt, and just stick with conventional diets. First off, its a ton of dense calories with no fiber and is liquid. This makes it easy for your body to receive these nutrients and absorb them with less work than trying to process an over microwaved bagel bite snack. Since the body is spending less time digesting foods it then has time to heal other aspects and direct attention to doing 1 of a billion x10 other things our bodies are capable of, if we just allow them the time to heal. Again, it is an easy way to get nutrition on the go. Juice a day or two ahead of time and assure they are the freshest pick me ups to help crave snacking, or straight up replace a meal with it. If you have tried intermittent fasting and understand your body can go much longer on ketones than sugar for fuel this will be an easy transition for you. If you are looking into juicing to loose weight, break some bad habits, create new neurological paths, and dive right into it, you may notice some heavy mood swings and hunger pains. The good news is if you do dive head first this usually lasts about three days then your body realizes where it is supposed to now acquire its energy from. Juicing is also nice to do when you have fruit or veggies that are about to go bad. It certainly helps make them taste a little bit sweeter. This also helps insure you are not juicing "too" much and you are also not wasting any food you may have simply discarded otherwise. One last big benefit of juicing is it allows you to maybe consume fruits or veggies you are uncomfortable eating in whole/cooked form. This was exactly how I got into adding beets into my stir fry dishes and eventually some oamlettes as well when I eat eggs. The best part about beets is they are a vasodilator, which means they expand your veins/arteries allowing more blood to flow throughout. The exact opposite fatty processed foods. There are probably about 100 different other positive benefits of juicing regularly, or taking extended juice fasts every few months for longevity and cleansing purposes. I'll let you do the deep diving for personal reasons and what not. Before moving on to how my latest juice fast went, I would like to cover some negatives of juicing. The biggest being cost. A lot of people complain about the cost and if this is something you are looking to try and match your normal calorie intake for multiple days then yes, it will require a lot of produce. And if you are in this deep you mid as well go organic, so that adds a few extra bucks as well. I still find this a hard argument as the purpose usually outweighs any future health risk costs I may be negating in my juice fasted states. The other big one I hear a lot, as a diabetic especially, "there is so much sugar in it though, and no fiber". Well, I am about to show you some amazing blood sugar readings I recorded during my three day fast, so hold your questions just a bit there. As far as the no fiber thing, if you are really that concerned you can mix in some fiber supplements that don't really mess with the juice itself. The flip side to that is usually by doing a liquid only juice fast, you are trying to "flush" some things out, in light terms, to say the least. So adding any fiber to that mix will cause your stomach some rumbling and obstruct the main goal of healing and going easy on your insides. Yes juicing tastes a bit of time, but any good personal food prep does. And finally, what about all that wasted pulp and stuff? Well, you can take that stuff and smash it together, using whatever you like for "glue", and dehydrate it and make some weird chips for your next outdoor walk about. So if you think juicing is for you, check out how I use it to reset my body/brain, regain my will power against the demonic sugar over lords, take back control of my blood sugars with little to no insulin, and keep stoke levels at an all time high, lets unpack what I did and consumed for this three day juice fast. Just like any vacation, camp trip, or day adventure, you have to be prepared. The same rule applies with something like this. The more prepared you are going into it, and understand the possibilities and outcomes, the more likely you will be able to endure it and not just survive, but thrive on the new found clarity your body can achieve. So that said, I spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday eating lots of low glycemic index carbs. For example, chia seeds, oats, sweet potatoes, seeded multi grain breads, avocados, multi grain pastas, things that will give you the long lasting energy by breaking down slowly in your body. This was also balanced out with smoothies and salads, trying to enjoy my most favorite meals. Letting my brain remember what they taste like. I think neurologically speaking its good that these wholesome healthy foods are the last thing your brain had to process. Because when you are coming back out of the fast, your brain is already pre-programmed in a way to desire those foods that got you through this "struggle". This is something modern nutrition does not research. We are still very young as a developing species and pre-packaged processed foods are very new to that equation. Not to mention being shoved in your face with every other ad you scroll past or billboard you drive by. So don't be so afraid to take a break from it all. You will be getting plenty of nutrition and calories and not wither away after a few days on just nutritionally dense liquids. The big thing I focused on more so was just getting my blood sugars as steady as I could. That was the whole reason for this, to regain control of my sugars and I new I needed a hard reset. The lockdown had finally caught up with me, I had a broken wrist that needed healed, and most importantly, my A1C had been too high for too long. Experimenting with juicing, juice style diets, and intermittent fasting in the past gave me my platform to create a solid three days of pure raw juices that would allow my body to flush out some bad toxins, reset those sugar addicted taste buds, and supply the nutrients to my cracked wrist bone. I had little else going on, it seemed like a great time to regain control of my life. The final push for getting this juice fast popping off in my life was watching my weight steadily increase. One week prior to this fast, I was coming in at 180 ish pounds. I always wanted to weigh in the mid 180's when I lifted heavy weights regularly back in the early years of college, but I had only been lifting food into my mouth as of recent, and just doing enough to maintain my muscle mass I already had, I felt? Especially being down a wrist for the past six weeks now and not being able to get a solid upper body work out, I was feeling extra motivated. So, there are obviously other ways to maintain weight until it is time to hop back in the strength training game, and that was what had to be done, for both my over all physical and diabetic needs. So I am going dive right into numbers, insulin ratios, and activity I did for the next four days, from the eyes of a diabetic. That is where I am coming from. To hopefully encourage other diabetics to use less over all insulin and rely more so on the amazing powers of raw foods and watch your body start to heal itself. So, on Monday October 12, 2020, I weighed 178.2 lbs. I had messed up a little the night before and had a low, so I ended up late night snacking a little too hard and started this day one off with a high blood sugar reading. Right out of bed on the 12th at 9:10 am my sugar was 313. Extremely high. These numbers were becoming all to regular in my recent life, hence why we are taking radical maneuvers to counteract these bad habits. I had been taking the proper dose of fast acting (humalog) to correct my high number. Having a blood sugar that high, almost guarantees laziness. So I went about my morning, took a walk to try to burn some of the sugar off naturally as well. At 11:26 am It had only dropped to 218. At this point I was worried if I took a full correction amount I would have it drop too low. So I took half of what I would normally take to correct my sugar. By the way, to correct my sugar I take my number (313), subtract 100 (213), and divide by 40 to get the number of units I need to inject to bring my blood sugar back down to the normal range of 80-120. I have used this calculation ever since I was diagnosed and proud to be on such a low dose correction scale. As sugars continue to be unstable they mess with the bodies insulin resistance. Even though my body no longer produces its own insulin, and that is why I have to inject my own, if I do not maintain steady numbers and over all health, there is a chance that my body will need more insulin to correct the same number if I were less fit or less critical of food consumption. So at this point we have made it to lunch time with no food, only water and herbal tea. Lots of water! I broke that with a quick pick me up of a store bought cucumber, celery, kale, and lemon juice drink by Suja. Very low in sugar and carbs and all organic. I take my correction only, no extra insulin for drink. I then begin to make my first juice. The thing to remember when juicing is you need to get around your daily calorie intake. So you may want to be juicing all day depending on your goals or ability to fast for long periods. I wanted to cram my juicing window from mid afternoon to early evening, allowing time for my "food" to digest before bed and also allowing my body to properly "warm up" its digestive track allowing for an even smoother nutrient extraction process. The first juice I made was an 1/8 pineapple, 1 green apple, 2 carrots, 1/2 beet, chopped kale and spin, ginger, MCT oil, and turmeric. The pineapple helps as a diuretic to help flush toxins along with the ginger providing a punch of blood sugar control and stomach stabilization, as well as reduce inflammation. The small amount of pineapple does not have enough natural sugars to send my sugar through the roof. It will also be broken down with the carrots, beets, and kale which have very little impact on my sugar level, but provide a lot of much needed dense calories to kick this thing off with. The MCT oil is most crucial in my opinion. This is where a good chunk of your power comes from. MCT oil is super refined coconut oil in a sense. This specific oil promotes our body to produce ketones. The exact thing we want to be running on here. So I let that sit in the fridge and chill and I went out to get a walk in. My goal for this fast was 5 consecutive miles each day I was juice fasting. Long, slow, low heart rate walks are perfect for aiding in blood sugar control and promoting fat burning. They will not burn up any sugar in your system keeping that number steady for hours to come after said activity. I get home and at 2:15pm I proceed to drink my elixir. My sugar is 89, absolutely perfect. I play it safe and only take 2 units for said drink. On a normal day, this would be closer to 4/5 units I would need to take. I may have been able to get another unit in there and been fine but knowing this was the only calories I was consuming and still had two solid more days, I was happy taking the 2 units and as a result at 5:29 pm my sugar was 164. I continue to drink more water and one last time before getting ready for bed I check my sugar, at 9:26 pm it is 180. So having messed around with MCT oil for a while now and integrating it into a IF (intermittent fasting) diet, I have noticed that my sugars will steadily rise if activity is not done. This makes sense, they help my body produce ketones, my body may not be able to burn off all those ketones thus, since I cannot make insulin on my own, they are stored again as sugars in my body. It is a vicious cycle and this is something doctors never explain or even begin to try to do so. It's complex and varies wildly between individuals, i'm sure. So that evening, I get ready for bed and take my long acting (lantus) insulin. I usually take between 20-24 units depending on the next days activity agenda. That night I took 20 since I was in a calorie deficit from today, and was not looking to consume calories again until the tomorrow afternoon.
Day two, Tuesday, October 13. 7:14am wake up with a sugar of 102. A vast shift in just 24 hours. I did not feel weak or tired. I felt recharged and refreshed and "lighter", just over all better. And this was just within one day of letting my body do what it needs to do. I kicked the day off with lots of water and turmeric tea throughout the morning. At 10:15 am my sugar was stable still at 103. I didn't take any insulin and went on a 6.22 mile walk about. When I returned I made some juice and drank it around 2:30 pm. My sugar was 114. Still only water all morning and we walked a good bit. Got a small stretch to let the juice chill. Todays first juice consisted of 1 orange, 1/2 lemon, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, MCT oil, cayenne pepper, and apple cider vinegar. The idea of this as your first juice is to get your immune system jump started and flush out whatever is leftover. I took no insulin with this drink. At 4:00pm I was ready for some more juice. I had prepared 1 orange, 3 celery sticks, 1 cuke, ginger, 1/8 pineapple, 1/2 beet, kale/spin, and MCT oil again. My sugar was 110 and again I took no insulin. The day continued and 7:30 pm rolls around, sugar is 104, nice and steady. Feeling good still, maybe only one real hunger pain thus far. I took a quick night stroll and upon return home at 8:46pm my sugar was 109. I proceeded to drink the juice from yesterday (1/8 pineapple, 1 green apple, 2 carrots, 1/2 beet, chopped kale and spin, ginger, MCT oil, and turmeric). For the record, any juice I was drinking was about 10-14 oz at a time. At 11:07pm I called it a day and went to bed with a sugar of 131. A whole day of zero shots. I of course took my nighttime insulin and bumped it down to only 18 units for tonight.
Day three, Wednesday, October 14. Started the morning off early with a low blood sugar. Woke up at 5:11 am to a sugar reading of 62 and was worried I may have to eat sugar or store bought juice to bring it up. Luckily I had the same cucumber, celery, kale, lemon juice in the fridge ready to go. These were the only two store bought juices I drank over the three day fast. They are from the brand Suja, I find them not that sweet and true to their labels. This is something I would normally take two units of insulin for, but in order to get my sugar back up, I obviously took none. I'll be honest, was a little concerned it would not bring my sugar back up as these drinks tend to not spike my sugar that much. It is clear here that it had just enough carbs/sugar as well as keeping my body in a keto state, allowing my sugar to stabilize. I ended up falling back asleep a bit longer than attended and woke back up at 11:09am with a sugar reading of 73. Feeling slightly low, but incredibly mentally clear, I made another OJ elixir to flush myself out, while bringing my sugar up a bit hopefully. At 1:43 pm it was gorgeous out and I was able to get another solid walk, just under 6 miles this time. I had one serving of my original juice from day 1 left I was ready to consume (1/8 pineapple, 1 green apple, 2 carrots, 1/2 beet, chopped kale and spin, ginger, MCT oil, and turmeric). It was now 5:30 pm when I drank this juice and my sugar was 82. 7:00pm rolls around and my sugar remains steady at 88, still no short acting insulin taken today. This is coming up on two days now. At this time I drank the juice I prepared yesterday (1 orange, 3 celery sticks, 1 cuke, ginger, 1/8 pineapple, 1/2 beet, kale/spin, and MCT oil) again all juice serving 10-14 oz. Took a short walk around the block to counteract what I drank instead of taking insulin. At 9:30 pm my sugar remained fairly steady but started to fall now at 69. I had been working on a green tea, apple, lemon, apple cider mix as a hydration drink with some sugar incase I needed it. This was a perfect time to test it out. So I did and then got ready for bed at 10:40 pm with a sugar reading of 123. Another full day with no short acting insulin. I proceeded to only take 10 units now of my long acting insulin. The reason for the drastic drop is I have reduced my calorie intake to about 3/4 of what I should be consuming to maintain proper nutrition. I understand I am running slightly low, BUT this is to help ensure my body is using ketones for fuel as well as flush out bad toxins and sugars and retrain my brain and taste buds to continue to eat this way and not just go back to binge eating.
Day four, Thursday, October 15. I will be honest, my goal was to make it through Friday and start to break the juice fast throughout the day Saturday. After three days of only juice and amazing results, I decided that later in the evening I would make sure I got some chewing in before the day was through. This was partially influenced by a low at 3:15 am. It was 64 and it woke me up fortunately. It was then that I knew I had proven my point and the safe thing to do was to slowly get more solid foods back into my body. But, the focus was currently raising my blood sugar without any processed sugars still. The goal behind that is they say it takes two weeks to break the habit of processed sugars. It is a process for sure, three days this week, maybe treat yourself and then go five days next week. Understand the human factor and weigh it out. Stress can build up in weird ways in our body and that can have massive uncontrollable affects on glucose levels. So I pounded the juice from tues (1 orange, 3 celery sticks, 1 cuke, ginger, 1/8 pineapple, 1/2 beet, kale/spin, and MCT oil) to bring my sugar up. Woke back up at 9:47 am with a reading of 95. Water and herbal tea all morning. Even though the 3 am feeding messed with my IF schedule, I was determined to get some long hours of not consuming calories before piling them back on later that eve. At 2:00pm I drank my last OJ detox elixir and set out on a walk. Just shy of five miles for the time being. Again, no short acting insulin and we are on our third day of that now, since I spent Mon. doing corrections. At 3:27 pm I drank my apple juice/green tea hydration cooler, taking no insulin again. Come 6pm with a steady number of 108, I began to prepare for some more solid foods. A smoothie was in order, particularly, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, 1 nanner, some peaches, MCT oil, and chia seeds. I new that this would be enough to raise my sugar and I was done exercising for the day to help manage sugar control naturally so I broke down and took four units of short acting insulin. This was the first time I needed to do so since mid afternoon on Monday. Pretty amazing to be able to tune into your body and give it exactly what it needs to not only "get by" but thrive and heal itself from the inside out. Slightly after the smoothie, I ate a large bowl of red grapes. Easy to digest since they are mostly water, but allowed for the sensation of chewing again. My sugar was still steady at 112. I only took 3 units for the grapes. Once you start to introduce fiber back into your diet, it likes to play the long game on glucose readings, and creep up slowly, so it is important to understand how it affects you personally. This fiber is from the hemp and soy protein I added to the smoothie along with the chia seeds. They are an amazing seed. Ancient Aztec messengers would run miles and miles to relay messages to the emperors of the time. In order to stay light, but well nourished, they would simply have a small satchel of chia seeds to provide "all day energy." Back on task here, I finished the evening off with 1 avocado and multi grain organic tortilla chips. The avocado provides tons of essential amino acids and fatty acids I was purposefully neglecting by only drinking juice. That is why The MCT oil is a crucial supplement for these kind of personal experiments. I then heated up some brown rice to finish off my small feast for the day. All by 9 pm. I did in fact take 6 units total to cover the rice, chips, and avocado. Normally this would have been about 8-10 to cover those foods, but having turned on my metabolic system and primed the pumps, my insulin sensitivity was high and I needed less to cover the same amount of carbs per unit. Before I drank the smoothie on this day I had weighed myself after 3.5 days of only consuming juice. I had lost just over 8 lbs, as expected, coming in at 171.6 lbs. That evening before bed, I returned to my normal dose of 24 units knowing I would be eating some calories the following day and just trying to be prepared for the possible binge that lies ahead. Fortunately, this cleanse/fast worked wonders on my brain and will power to eat healthy and regimented again. Which is exactly what I needed to be done to regain control of my sugars, thus regaining control of my days and being a better more productive human being. So all and all, there is a lot of diabetic nerd talk that has been regurgitated back to you, the reader here. I understand that many people reading this may not have diabetes, but the big take away I want to present to all is that the body is a vast unknown mystery we do not fully understand and it is important to listen to any and all signs your body may be trying to communicate with you, and finally that our body knows what needs to be done, and sometimes we need to just take a step back and let the beauty of nature do its damn thing. Don't be afraid to explore the realms of your own temple, you have to supply this wonderland with the proper fuel to get the proper thoughts to level up physically, mentally, and spiritually. And if you are a diabetic, type 1 or 2, I hope this gives you some hope and inspiration to go about some more natural approaches to treating this disease and not just pumping ones self full of insulin. Thanks for reading yinz! Stay fit fam, and remember, health is wealth!