Juice Feasting – Day 20

Today was okay aside from a throbbing headache I had since waking up this morning. It’s not so bad when I remain still, but it hurts a lot when I get up and move around.

I’m not taking any medication since that would defeat the purpose of getting the pharmaceutical residues out instead of taking more in. The headache is annoying but tolerable. A headache is a very common detox symptom, so waking up with a headache was no surprise to me. I just wish it didn’t last the whole day. 🙁

Weight Loss

I weighed 171.8 this morning for a net loss of 7.2 pounds in 19 days. Any bets on when I’ll hit the 160s?

Vital Signs

My blood pressure is 110/75, which is certainly a healthy figure.

My body temperature is 97.6 F, so I’m running a bit cooler than usual on the juice feast.

Going Without Solid Foods

Looking back it seems strange — even to me — that I’ve gone 20 days without eating any solid foods. Juice feasting has become a habit now, so I’m starting to forget what it’s like to eat regular meals each day.

I used to structure my days around breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Now those terms have no meaning. Referring to a quart of juice as breakfast just doesn’t seem right to me. I can’t reframe a mason jar filled with green liquid as a meal. It’s still just juice to me. So it feels like I’ve removed all my meals, but I haven’t replaced them with an equivalent. This tells me that meals were about more than sustenance. There was an emotional context to them as well, such as a break in my day or something I could share with others. Sometimes I would even see a meal as a reward for finishing a certain task… like I’ll have dinner after I post a new article or finish my emails for the day. It took me a while to get used to living without meals.

I’m looking forward to being able to eat again. The raw food diet seems so ridiculously abundant compared to my current reality of 4-5 quarts of juice per day. The foods I miss most are some of the simplest, like a nice salad. I feel like I can make it 72 more days, but I do feel a little sadness over how much time I still have left to go. It’s going to be a long time before I get to eat again.

I notice that when I think about eating raw foods, it’s a pleasant sensation with no withdrawal or addictive feelings. I just look forward to eating certain foods again, like it would be a nice experience to have. Whenever I feel strong physiologically addictive cravings on this juice feast, they’re always for cooked and/or processed foods. These sensations are very different.

Libido

Someone asked if I’ve noticed any libido changes on the juice feast. The answer is not really. However, I have felt some subtle differences in my sexual energy. It’s like that energy feels “smoother” or more even somehow. It doesn’t feel like I get the same kinds of spikes with pent-up sexual energy like I used to. Becoming interested in sex seems like more of a conscious choice now and less of a physical compulsion.

I think juice feast sex is slightly more enjoyable as well, but I wouldn’t say this is a significant change so far. The difference is subtle.

Mental Changes

I still can’t report any major shifts in mental clarity. There seems to be a slight improvement, but it’s not much. I think the improvement mainly comes from not having to expend much energy on digestion. My mental energy is very even throughout the day, so I don’t have any of those peaks and valleys of concentration that go with the cycles of eating.

I definitely don’t feel as tired at the end of a workday as I used to, so I seem to be enjoying more mental endurance. However, I can’t count this as too significant just yet because I haven’t been doing very mentally challenging work lately.

Clearing

Some people reported having the urge to doing spring cleaning while juice feasting, clearing out physical spaces like garages and closets. I haven’t had such feelings; however, I have been feeling a strong desire to simplify my life. Consequently, I’ve decided to devote the rest of this month to finishing up some old to-do items. At the same time I want to avoid adding too many new items to my plate at this time. I want to lighten up my projects/tasks list to create a bit more space. I’m not sure why exactly. It just feels like the right thing to do.

Hopefully this headache will be gone by morning.