Juice Detox Day 24: 9 Important Things I Have Learned

Hello, Friends! Welcome to day 24 of my juice detox. Wow! What a journey this has been, it has definitely had it’s ups and downs. There hasn’t been a single day so far that I haven’t wanted to EAT! However, some magical things have happened over the past 24 days and I thought you might be interested to hear about them:

#1: I Can Do It
I have to admit that when we started this process, the thought of consuming nothing but juice for 30-60 sounded easy. Wrong! This has to be one of the most difficult things I have ever done. However, whenever I think that I really can do this and have for the past 24 days, I pat myself on the back.

#2: I Won’t Drink Caffeine Again
I am done with caffeine – even though I only drank a cup or two of coffee everyday, I was really addicted. Even on day 24, I wake up thinking about my morning cup of coffee. Going through that 2 week headache to get off of caffeine was brutal, I am not going back.

#3: Bread is NOT my Friend
I have had a lifelong love affair obsession with bread (gluten). Before this detox, I would have told you that my favorite food was bread. The problem, bread doesn’t feel the same way for me that I feel about it. Whenever I eat bread, I experience bloating, belly aches, head fogginess, aching joints, depression and weight gain. Frankly, I am tired of it and would say that I am most definitely gluten intolerant – I will be going 100% gluten-free after this detox is finished.

#4: I was a Sugar Junkie
Do you see a trend here? I don’t think I was as obsessed with sugar as I was with bread – but it’s close. Since sugar obviously isn’t adding anything to my diet, I will be eliminating it as much as possible. I will be switching to Stevia for baking and am just going to skip the candy and sweets. I think my headaches may have also had to do with sugar-withdraw.

#5: Clear Brain is Nice
Before this detox, I definitely used food to deal with any issues in my life instead of facing and dealing with them head on. Not eating really gave me time to think of problems when they came up instead of stuffing the problem with food. The mister and I have come to a handful of decisions that we have been avoiding for quite some time. While the decisions that we will be making in the next couple of months are going to be hard, we know that they are necessary for our family and in the long run we will be healthier and happier too!

#6: I like Fruits and Vegetables
Before this detox, I would say that I enjoyed fruits and vegetables – however, I wasn’t making a big enough effort to include them in my daily routine as much as I should. For example, I would reach for a sugary treat in the afternoon over a piece of fruit. We have been cleaning out our refrigerator, freezers and pantry so that when we are finished, we will only have whole foods in our home, even for snack time. We will be continuing to have juices with our normal diet too and love to freeze juice into cube to be added to other beverages.

#7: I Can’t Wait to Exercise Again
I have only been doing yoga during this detox, because I am not taking in enough calories to workout hard everyday. Not to mention, during this time my body is healing and I wouldn’t want to exercise during this process. However, I am really looking forward to getting back to my daily workout routine. Since I have already lost 17 lbs – I think working out will be even more enjoyable without the extra weight.

#8: Supporting the Mister is Super Important
The real reason that I started this journey was for the mister. I love my husband and he is my best friend. I found myself constantly worrying about his weight, cholesterol and hypertension. I knew that the chances of him giving a juice detox a try would be impossible if we didn’t do it together. I also knew that he was craving a chance, that he wanted to revamp our diet so I thought that if we did this together – we would both come out on the other end better for doing it!

#9: It has Effected Eben in a Positive Way
Eben is very laid-back and wasn’t really fazed by the fact that we weren’t going to be eating for 1-2 months. We talked to him about our reasons for doing it, that we wanted to clean up our diets and that he would be included because we would be eating clean as a family. At first, I didn’t think he even cared, however the other day at Whole Foods, I told him he could pick one “treat”, he choose a vegan coconut smoothie from the juice bar. I stopped him and said, you can get anything (even a cinnamon roll), he looked at me and said, “What?! Do you think I want to be unhealthy?” I was shocked, but he had a point – I was really proud of him. I have also noticed that he hasn’t been asking for dessert every day after dinner. Big changes over here at Casa de Sweet Greens.

Have you ever completely revamped your diet? I would love to hear about it.