Marisa's Healthy Kitchen

I just finished a 10 day juice feast and loved it. I have done so many juice feasts over the last couple of years and they just get better and better! I feel so good, clean and light the whole time. I want to feel this way all the time. I have so much energy and I love knowing that I am really cleansing out my body. I drink between 64-80 ounces of green juice throughout the day and lots and lots of water and herbal tea. Many people drink 96 ounces for a juice fast and over a gallon for juice feasting, so you are not limited, as it is a juice feast 🙂 drink as much as you want and what you feel is right for you. Most of my feast I was drinking 64 ounces of juice. It really made me wonder and think about how full and satisfied I was feeling throughout the day. If all I needed was such a small amount of food, why do I eat more than this on a regular basis! I am sure the reason as my sister-in-law said, is that “Food is yummier than juice”. We go out to big dinners or the office orders in lunch, etc. In life you can always find an excuse. But I find that listening to my body and eating when it is hungry is the best route for me. The struggle is to know when to stop. I only need a small amount of food, but we live in America where even our salads are Huge! Something to work on….and I will 🙂

But back to my cleanse… I normally get my juices from 3 different sources. I make a lot of them myself in my fabulous Breville juicer.  It is wonderful having my own juicer at my home, but you do not need one, or you can get a less expensive model if you are not sure how much you will be using it. We make green juice in my house every morning, so for us this was a very worthwhile a great investment! During the feast, I strain this juice to make sure I am not ingesting any fibers. On normal morning we just go ahead and drink, as it will not affect you negatively. I also supplement my own juices from Liquiteria. Such a wonderful place, they sell fresh pressed juices (which is what I buy during the cleanse because they are made in the Norwalk Press*)  fresh-squeezed juices, smoothies and some delicious snacks and food! I am so lucky that this place is within walking distance from me, amazing! Plus, they even deliver to me! Then there is this great cleansing service called The Blueprint Cleanse.  I love them! Their juices are divine and they deliver them right to you (or you can pick them up) They deliver 6 fresh pressed juices (they use a Norwalk Press as well), 3 days at a time. What I do is I order 6 days of the juice and drink 4 of these juices a day which lasts me 8 days. As I said, I only need the 4 (64 ounces) juices a day and I want to give my body what is says. (unless it is really asking for a plate of nachos, which is ok to give in to every once in a while) So I use these 3 methods of attaining my juice throughout the duration.

The best part about juicing is how I feel. I have so much energy, the first couple of days I am bouncing off the walls. I know this is because normally 80% of our energy goes towards digestion and while I am juicing my body gives all that energy back to me! So incredible! I wake up feeling great and always try to remember the crazy vivid dreams I had. I love how clear my mind is in order to have these kinds of dreams!

During the juice feast I have gone out to lunches, dinner, events and even cook many meals for my family. People are always curious and say things like “I could never do that” or “I would be starving!” or “Are you sure you don’t mind me eating” or “How can you be around food!?”. Although a lot of people think they are not capable of doing these cleanses or feasts, I have seen many of these same people go for it, even just 3 days, and had pleasant experiences. I am literally NEVER hungry during the cleanse! I would probably go on like this forever if I didn’t love food so much, it feels sooo good and I am a little sad to end it. I have yet to take my first bite of food! But as I said before, it is a feast, so if you are feeling hungry, light-headed or just want more; drink more juice, it is that simple! Also I am feeling so good about what I am doing for myself that I can be anywhere, with people eating all sorts of food and feel great! I am not jealous of what they are eating or feel bad that I can’t eat; I know I am doing the best thing for me at that time. And let’s be serious, the food will always be there! You can have some when the juice feast is over.

On a daily basis drinking green juice is so good for you! It is like an instant shot of goodness and health everyday! I really feel it as all those live enzymes and nutrients enter your body and wake you up. If you do not feel you can do a juice cleanse, or are not able to, or even if you have done cleanses and juice feasts before; adding green juice to your diet at least once a day is something to consider or learn more about.

* The Norwalk Press uses a hydraulic press to extract pressed juice. This the single most nutritionally complete juice, containing 3 to 5 times more vitamins, minerals & enzymes than juice extracted any other way. They also have a shelf-life of up to 4 days when refrigerated. The one problem is that they are super expensive!