JTV: Anderson's Split Pea Soup

I don't care what other juice faster masters say. Anderson's all natural vegetarian split pea soup is the equivalent of pea juice to me. Delicious pea juice.

Honestly though, I get sick of the constant influx of sweet juices and with tomatoes on the salmonella list raw tomato juice aren't an option and you know I'm not shucking peas for every pea drink I want. Sure, I could blend frozen peas but with the cans I can make a can of non vegetarian pea juice for my fiancé too.

He likes meat. And get jealous when something I eat looks healthier than what he's eating. The key word is "looks".

JTV: Juice Fasting - Day 1.5

Juice fasting, renamed juice feasting, for those who want to avoid the negative stigma of fasting. Personally, as a Buddhist, I know that the word "Fast" isn't a bad one. When I started my first juice fast someone asked me why. Why give up food to drink your calories for a week?

The idea first appealed to me because I knew my body was seriously laden down, full of garbage and bad foodstuffs. I wanted to go vegetarian, but it still wasn't enough. I needed to cleanse all this vodka out of my body. I read about juice feasting on a blog from my friend's fiance who went away to a 12 day retreat and came back centered and vegan. She quenched her cravings for anything bad with a juice fast.

Now with anything that sounds completely radical, people have a million opinions on what juice fasting does. In my reading, the following made me want to give it a shot:

1. Detoxification of the internal organs, like the colon,without forgoing and nutritional intake.
2. Shrinks the stomach to it's original size preventing overconsumption after breaking the fast.
3. Weans the faster off any food additions that are derailing their health goals.
4. Allows the body to focus on detoxification including releasing toxins from fat cells instead of on digestion.

During my first 3 day juice fast I did end up with lighter with more energy, prettier hair and skin, as well as a more peaceful and positive attitude. The world was oddly sunshiney and bright. I'm going to have to assume it's not that the massive amount of beta carotene from the gallons of carrot juice are repairing my vision.

Update: I didn't do any subsequent updates to JTV because it was time consuming to make my own juice and lower energy when fasted for more than 4 days. I still do juice fast from time to time when I need a quick cleanse.

JTV: Juice Fasting - Day 1

This girl has been living the loose and cruisey lifestyle, drinking, smoking while doing the obligatory straight west coasting. So for a few days last week I took on juice fasting just to see what it would do. It ended up losing me 5 lbs in water weight, giving me the energy to workout a few hours daily at the gym and cleared my mind.

Then back to the party lifestyle this past weekend. And oddly my body was demanding, I dare say craving to go off food and back onto juice, so today I got back on the juice wagon.

I should clarify that along with my juice I am also having a slew of supplements. I'm taking a detox stack from Prosource that includes a Super Detox and an Ultra Cleanse. In addition to that I'm taking a thermogenic called Adicor, a multivitamin, hair, skin and nails (HSN) supplements and a vitamin B complex pill. I take the detox stack in the morning and at night. I have the Adicor 3 times a day, the HSN supplement in the morning, the multivitamin in the afternoon and the B vitamin in the evening before going to the gym.

I know, it sounds like a lot but I was taking the Multi, B vitamin and the HSN before hand, my trainer recommended the detox stack because he's partied with me before, and another trainer recommended the Adicor to supplement my weight loss goals at the gym and I've made sure there is no conflict with any of these health supplements.

So today I picked up a delicious juice from a local small time juice shop that included pineapple, papaya and apple. The 32 oz. has lasted me from 9:30am until 1:30pm. I have gotten pangs of hunger here and there, usually when I haven't had a sip of juice in a while but overall my energy levels are good and I'm looking forward to the gym tonight.

I've been doing about 1 hour of cardio, 1 hour of weights and then hitting the pool and steam room after my workouts for detox purposes. After my workout I usually have additional juice or vegetarian split pea soup. Arguably some people say that this doesn't count because the juice should be raw and blah and blah.

I say bottle juices are fine, and I'll get into this tomorrow because it has to do with the purpose of juice fasting.