Juice Feasting – Day 18

Today was another fine day. I felt great mentally and physically all day long.

After not feeling so good for a day, last night my appetite came back with a vengeance. I drank a quart of veggie juice and quickly followed it up with another quart of coconut water (the water from two young coconuts). I felt pretty good after that.

I did two one-hour phone interviews today related to Personal Development for Smart People, and both went very well. Fortunately I was feeling great for both of them.

I’m actually feeling a little more mentally clear now than I used to — I especially noticed a difference during today’s interviews — but I can’t say it’s a dramatic improvement, at least not enough to justify 18 days of juice feasting on its own.

Food Cravings

Yesterday evening I experienced some major cravings for cooked food, the strongest I’ve had during the juice feast so far. I really had to hold myself back from eating something. I can’t believe how hard it was to hold myself back. Even when my stomach was full of juice, I still had this lustful appetite to eat something cooked.

It’s like I had one of those cartoon devils on my shoulder tempting me with all the reasons I should go have something to eat. He even suggested, “Just eat some food now. It will taste good and totally satisfy you, and then the cravings will be gone. You can go back to juice feasting tomorrow. No one has to know about it. It will just be our little secret.”

I think if I weren’t publicly blogging this experiment and maintaining that sense of accountability, there’s a good chance I might have given in to those cravings and ended the juice feast last night. I probably wouldn’t have eaten cooked food, but I could have easily wolfed down several ounces of raw nuts. I just wanted something — anything — that was high in fat.

I think the coconut water I drank helped to overcome those feelings, and I didn’t cheat, but it was definitely a close call. The cravings were so strong that I was literally clawing my hands on the kitchen counter, trying to stop myself from breaking the juice feast. I felt like an addict who absolutely needed his fix. This wasn’t just an emotional feeling; it was a physiological reaction. I could feel the craving sensation throughout my whole body.

I’m not Superman here, so if I ever do cheat or decide to break the juice feast early, I’ll certainly tell you, even if I feel a little embarrassed about it. I don’t want to get my ego so wrapped up in this experiment that I’d be tempted to gloss over a cheating experience and pretend it didn’t happen. I want to be totally honest in sharing the results, regardless of how this turns out. Real life doesn’t always go according to plan. As Mike Tyson said, “Everybody’s got plans… until they get hit.”

This definitely hasn’t been easy so far. To be honest I’m amazed that people are able to keep this up for a full 92 days. I’m also amazed that I’ve made it past 2-1/2 weeks on just juice. These 18 days haven’t exactly whizzed by for me.

I’ll aim to keep some coconuts on hand at all times since it really seemed to help. I’d rather stuff myself with coconut water and keep going instead of quitting early.

Weight Loss

I weighed 170.8 this morning, so my net weight loss is 8.2 pounds in 17 days.

I’m only doing the enemas about twice a week now. It was daily for the first two weeks, but now I don’t need to do them as frequently according to the protocol I’m following. I did one today, but it was mostly clear liquid coming out, so even that seemed unnecessary.

Sleep

Some people report needing less sleep on a juice feast. I seem to be experiencing the opposite. A normal night for me used to be 6.5-7 hours of sleep. Now I’m probably averaging 8-10 hours. If I don’t sleep that much, I get drowsy in the middle of the day. This may change as the juice feast progresses since sleep needs can increase while the body is detoxing.

My sleep is very restful. I have no trouble falling asleep at night — no insomnia or anything like that.

Dreams

My dreams have been incredible lately. I commented on the amazing dreams early in the juice feast, and that hasn’t changed. These dreams are so elaborate that it often feels like I’m gone for days in an alternate reality.

For example, last night I dreamt that I was Robin while Batman was away on vacation. I had to go on all these missions, drive the Batmobile, and do Caped Crusader stuff solo, so Batman could take a much needed break in Hawaii. It’s certainly a lot of fun, and I look forward to going to bed each night, wondering what new adventure awaits.

Sometimes when I wake up in the morning, I’ll lie in bed for an extra 10-20 minutes to mentally review the dreams I had. It’s hard to believe how much content is packed into each one.

Where is all this coming from though? It’s like my nighttime imagination underwent an enormous upgrade.

74 days to go.

Happy 11-11! 🙂

I saw 11:11 on the clock this morning too. I may have to write an article about that someday for those who see 11:11 (and related numbers) all the time too.