Day 5: The 7 Day Juice Cleanse

Hi everyone,

Today I am feeling good but no where near as good as yesterday. I think this is because I am back at work and because of the intense training I did last night. Currently, I am looking a little pale and have lost a lot of weight and I will often times feel light-headed. As I have discussed with Darcie, we find ourselves alternating between feeling energized and feeling really drowsy. 

 Ever since I started this detox I have dreamt about eating food every night. First night was about cake, second night about pastry and last night I dreamt that I ate fish and chips! I'm seriously craving junk food at the moment which is why I have altered the course for the final day of the cleanse.

The plan is to progressively ease our way into eating food on Sunday. ideally, we would be doing this on Monday but due to work commitments this is the only day Darcie and I have together and we want to share this culinary experience.

I would recommend that everyone who is doing a juice cleanse spend at least 1 day easing into solid food consumption to reduce the amount of stress you are putting on your digestive system. I completely understand the urges to eat junk and go all out when your cleanse period is over, but I would recommend finishing the cleanse a day earlier if it means that you can spend one day progressively eating food. This reduce the cravings for junk food as well as allow your body to become accustomed to digesting food again.

Darcie's Favourite

2 Apples

1 Beetroot

3 Carrots

5 Leaves of Kale

3cm of Ginger

Last night, after BJJ, I drank a juice packed full of kale, apples, carrots, celery, beetroot and broccoli. After drinking the juice, besides still craving more protein, I noticed that my body responded very well to getting these nutrients with the 20min period after exercising.

I am going to use this knowledge for when I am eating again to pack my post-workout drink with far more nutrients. I used to just drink hemp protein mixed with rice/almond milk, and on the odd occasion a scoop of pea protein. Sometimes I would also get a take-away black bean burrito or something of the like when I was low on money or behind schedule.

Now, I am going to drink a big smoothie after each work-out. It's going to include high protein sources (combination of rice, pea and hemp) along with lots of nutrient dense fruit/vegetables as well as some ground flaxseeds. I think this combination will help my recovery and aid in my ability to gain muscle and strength.

I would recommend a similar approach for everyone that wants to improve their athletic performance. When I was part of the globo-gym environment and even when I was training to be a Personal Trainer, I saw far too many people not understanding the needs of their body post-workout (I was one of them). Simply combining whey protein and milk is not an effective way to maximise performance. I keep going back to this but I think it is hugely important to increase the range of nutrients your body is consuming. I think this is of even more importance post-workout when your body is in repair mode and crying out for fuel!

For anyone interested, this helps me AND you!
Team Nemesis 

To finish up I want to talk a bit about my training methods.

I am drawn to exercise that I believe the human body was made for. Most people accept the "fight or flight" principle as a physical response to stress. Consequently, I train a lot in running and fighting as I believe by doing so I am getting back to my basic physical construction as a human being.

On top of that, I train in functional strength to compliment my endeavors in running and fighting. This is one of the main reasons I have been attracted to CrossFit and Kettlebell training as the training protocol is one devised to assist in everyday movement.

I believe we should all be masters of our own body and one of the ways to do this is follow a training method which enables you to iron out any bodily weaknesses and approach exercise holisitcally.

 Thanks again to anyone still reading this, I hope that in some way the information I am putting out their is helpful and I would love it if you guys shared this or got in contact with me with anything that interests you and any questions. 

Peace out,

Matt

Day 4: The 7 Day Juice Cleanse

I don't want to sound like a hypocrite but today I felt fantastic. I am beginning to understand just what my body needs to function on this detox.

I've added a snack juice to my day that I sip on between meals and added an extra juice in the morning. This has helped to increase my energy levels and I would say I'm feeling about 90% compared to before I started the cleanse.

F.Y.I.

Today I was moving around the city a lot so I had to plan my juices accordingly. I took two juices with me and also had two store bought juices. 

I was also able to train BJJ today at a relatively high level. Due to my endurance training I have always been able to grapple without gassing out and today was no exception. I was expecting to feel more tired but I felt completely comfortable grappling, although during the last minute I started to feel slightly more tired. 

My body seems to be coping a lot better with the cleanse. I still crave calorie dense food and bout Darcie and myself often get drawn to the smell and sight of junk food. The reason this is happening is because our body's are not getting the necessary amount of calories in them per day so they are craving high calorie dense food (often times this is junk food).

Watermelon!!!!

1/4 Watermelon

4 Stick Celery

4 Carrots

2 Apples

Getting ready for tomorrow

For all those interested in how to thrive on a vegan diet, today I'm going to introduce the elusive Vitamin B12. This is something that does not exist in the plant kingdom and can only be obtained through supplementation or eating fortified cereals. 

It is essential that vegans get their daily intake of b13 because with out it you can start to look like one of those wimpy vegans. Symptoms include fatigue, pale skin, easy bruising and bleeding, stomach upset and weight loss. The best suppliment I have found for this can be found on Rich Roll's website and is part of his Jai Lifestyle range. I believe the best way to consume Vitamin B12 as a vegan is to spray it orally (tablets and capsules can work too but I believe this method to be the most effective).

The Temper Trap

Last night, at the "Temper Trap" concert, I was thinking about energy and how we, as human beings, produce it. I noticed that when I was in a high energy environment, such as a live music concert, that my energy levels were high too. During this process I learnt that I can prevent feeling lethargic if I try to gain energy from a a mental and spiritual source.

The energy we gain from food is not the only energy our body relies on. There are yogis and saddhus out there that survive purely by breathing while sitting in a cross-legged position on a mountain top. Breathitarians? What is the source of their energy?

I've found that when I am stressed out, whether it be due to time commitments or relationships, I feel the negative effects of this detox more. However, when I am in a happy, relaxed state of mind I am able to thrive and forget about the fact that I haven't eaten in 4 days. 

I thought I understood this principle before, but this cleanse has really made the idea of finding alternate sources of energy stick out. I think we can all learn from this principle and apply it to our lives. As passionate as I am about health and nutrition, I don't believe that we can truly understand the power and potential we possess as individuals unless we find balance in all facets of our lives. This means that we can't purely rely on living a healthy lifestyle on just the physical plane, I believe we should strive to be healthy on all levels of existence.

As a result of this cleanse I am beginning to understand the need to place equal importance on all levels of being - physical, mental and spiritual.

Again, thanks to everyone for their support and for visiting this blog. I hope that in some way my thought can help you!

Peace out

Matt

Day 3: The 7 Day Juice Cleanse

What's up everyone? This juice cleanse is starting to get really difficult. At the moment Darcie and I are obsessed with food. We watch cooking shows, talk about what we're gonna eat when this is over and just fantasize about food.

It's proving to be very mentally draining. I keep wanting to cut the fast short (maybe to 5 days) but I'm sure once I'm over hump day I'll be able to keep on going.

Today I have noticed that I am feeling a little bit light headed and I'm taking more of an objective view on the world. In a work meeting today (beside it being really boring) I noticed that I was playing the observer while every else was interacting. It was like I was in a meditative state and I felt as if that is a direct result of me juicing/fasting. Aside from that my energy levels seem to be lower, however this could partially be due to the fact that I didn't sleep well last night.

I said to my brother, Gabriel, that this is the hardest thing that I have ever done. the thing that separates this from running an Ultra and other forms of physical challenges, is that this is sustained. For me anyway, any form of physical stress I put on my body will last 6 hours at an absolute extreme maximum. This juice cleanse is going to last 168 hours!

Today's ingredients

 Last night I got asked to include some information on whether I have been maintain exercise. Yesterday, I put a short workout I did in my post but on top of that Darcie and I went for about a 2km run last night with our dog Snoop. This was fairly late at night but it felt good to exercise and did a rhythm running, although I did notice that I was getting stitches easier. It felt weird not replenishing straight after exercise. Basically, I am going to keep exercise light and devise programs according to how my body is feeling.

Darcie and I found a way to bend the rules last night as we were sick of plain old cold juice. I'm going to share with you a nice juice/broth we made to warm us up through the cold weather. It felt awesome to slurp on something like this. Unfortunately it is not raw but keeping this cleanse 100% raw was never a goal of ours.

Winter Lovin'

4 Corn Cobs

Darcie smashing some broth

6 Carrots

Boil corn cobs

Cut of the kernels and then add in the juicer with 6 carrots

Pour the juice into a saucepan and heat up

This recipe will feed two.

The reason why we are consuming a lot of green leafy vegetables with these juices (and in our everyday diet) is because they are superfoods! They are a great replacement (when combined with other things) for meat and animal based food. 

Here is a trick though, to maximize your body absorbing iron from green leafy vegetables, make sure you consume Vitamin C when you eat them. These are some cool ways to do it (chuck lemon in a juice, use lemon in a salad dressing, drink a cup of orange juice with a meal). On top of that, the malic acid found in pumpkin and plums has also been proven to help with iron absorption.

Another thing to be wary of when trying to maximize iron absorption is drinking tea. Drinking too much tea or drinking tea with a meal reduces the amount of iron your body absorbs due to the tannins found in tea. Tannins forms an insoluble bond with some of the non-heme iron molecules found in plants. This then makes it impossible for your body to digest these molecules. It is advised that you should drink tea an hour before or an hour after eating. For example, if you are eating at 7pm, don't have any tea before 6pm of after 8pm.

Magical Juice

Tonight, Darcie and I are going to watch The Temper Trap so it will be interesting to see how we respond to the energy of the concert. Also, that's why this blog is going up earlier. 

Tomorrow I'll give you a couple of cool recipes we have used for today (try some watermelon) and talk about how Darcie and I are going to apply some of what we have learnt from juicing into our everyday life.

Peace out,

Matt

**Some people have voiced concerns about the risk of fruit oxidizing as we are making our juices a night before. I am completely aware of this but this is something that, for me anyway, is unavoidable. Ideally we'd be consuming juices straight after juicing them but it is hard to carry around a juicer with you throughout the day (haha). To compensate for this we juice every night for 'dinner,' otherwise we take bottles of juice with us to work. Thanks for looking out for me guys ;)

Day 2: The 7 Day Juice Cleanse

Hey everybody,

Firstly, I just want to thank everybody that has supported me in getting this blog up and running. I didn't anticipate getting this much feedback and am very thankful for all the likes, shares and comments. Much appreciated!!!

I just have to clear something up in the last blog, the pineal gland releases DMT not melatonin when stress levels are reduced (melatonin production has to do with light). Sorry about that, but like I said I haven't had the chance to research this enough yet but just thought it was interesting. (Check out the book "DMT: The Spirit Molecule" by Rick Strassman M.D.)

Organic Ingredients for Today's Cleanse

So...It's day 2 now and Darcie and myself both had a pretty good sleep last night (after spending the evening juicing). Before we went to bed however we both felt really overtired and lethargic.

This morning I woke up earlier than usual and was surprised to find I was more energised. I was really buzzing around in the morning even though I don't like to drink my breakfast juice until about 20-30min after I get up (on the train to work). We tried a sweeter juice for breakfast which included blueberries (recipes will follow).

This morning, however, I did notice that my stomach/digestive system felt really strange and it looked like I have lost weight (especially around my abdomen). I would describe the feeling as if my body and mind was not sure how to react to my loss of weight and lack of digestion, especially considering that I am still being supplied with adequate nutrients from the juices.

For the most part of today I have felt about 15% more energised than yesterday (saying yesterday was 60% overall energy levels). I have noticed that the hardest times when juicing are snack periods. Mid-morning and mid-afternoon I feel like I really want to bite into something, even cook something, just something other than juice!!!!

Overall, I am starting to see improvement in how my body is responding to juicing. I was able to do a quick workout today (15 x Push-up Burpees, 15 x Kettlebell Swings @ 16kg). I did get a little bit light-headed while working out and felt a weird watery feeling in my upper abdomen. But, the fact that I could exercise shows that my body is starting to get more accustomed to the juicing cleanse and that I have been able to function better throughout today.


Here are today's recipes:

Morning Glory

2 Apples

1 Cucumber

1 Cup of Blueberries

2 Cups of Grapes

4 Kale Leaves

3cm Ginger

Mean Green

1 Apple

1 Cucumber

4 Stalks of Fennel (replacement for Celery)

4 Kale Leaves

1/2 Lemon

3cm Ginger

Sweet Passion

1 Beetroot

1 Cucumber

1 Carrot

1 Apple

4 Kale Leaves

1/2 Lemon

I chose mostly organic produce because I believe in sourcing my food from the most natural environment possible. To me, putting produce into my body that has been sprayed with chemicals that kill bugs and can only be sprayed by humans wearing protective gear, seems to be a bit of an unhealthy choice.

I'm still easing into becoming completely organic predominantly due to the cost involved. However, I found some good information for those on a budget who want to try to incorporate organic produce into their diet. When produce is sprayed with insecticides and pesticides some residue is left over. This varies from plant to plant but pesticide residue is most present in these 12 plants (often referred to as "The Dirty Dozen").

• Peaches
• Apples
• Capsicum
• Celery
• Nectarines
• Strawberries
• Cherries
• Pears
• Grapes (Imported)
• Spinach
• Lettuce
• Potatoes

If you follow this link you can view a more comprehensive list.

For anyone out their that is more into conspiracy theories and left field thinking, here is an interesting speech by David Icke on why we should eat organic ;)


Finally, I've had a few people ask if eating plant-based can effect physical performance.

Juicin' on the go

Logically, all you need to do is replace the nutrients (specifically protein and iron) that you were obtaining from meat with plant based sources. I don't recommend taking supplements as I think the more natural you can eat the better.

One thing to be mindful of, and something that few people know, is that in order for your body to be able to use protein, the protein must have a complete amino acid profile. This complete amino acid profile can be obtained from animal sources, with the only exception in the plant kingdom being hemp.

If you are trying plant-based I recommend making hemp a cornerstone in your diet. It can be used in smoothies and used through dishes (each morning I will blast a big smoothie with hemp protein, heaps of greens, ground flaxseeds, berries, banana, avocado and almond milk).

Other than that, it is important to eat a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, beans, grains, nuts and legumes so you consume a wider source of nutrients and increase nutrient density.  This is a very simplified approach, but the more variety you have in your diet the more likely you are to get all your nutrients.

From my experience, I found my performance levels increased due to a rise in my energy levels. When eating a plant-based diet, digestive stress is reduced. I found that I had excess sustainable energy that I was able to transfer into my sporting endeavours.

I don't want to rant too much about this so I will save some information for tomorrow ;)

That's about a wrap, I'm having "dinner" in a few minutes. Tomorrow I'm gonna share a special craving recipe, one that should see you through a cold winter's night!!!!

Until tomorrow

Peace out,

Matt

The Start of the 7 Day Juice Cleanse

The idea of starting a blog mainly came about from Darcie and I planning to start a 7 day juice cleanse as of this morning. I put up a few posts about it over several social media platforms and was encouraged to have received a lot of feedback from friends - some asking questions, some sharing recipes and their thoughts. I then decided that I could create a blog for anyone that is interested in following my journey as I take on “The 7 day Juice Cleanse.” 

So, without further ado...

THE 7 DAY JUICE CLEANSE

Somewhat sporadically, Darcie and I decided that we would start a juice cleanse as of this morning. We had been toying with the idea for a couple of weeks, but as we have learnt from previous dietary adjustments, we thought we’d better do a fair amount of research on juicing before we jump into putting this idea into action. 

A lot of people (myself included) tend to attach a negative connotation to juicing. This is probably due to the Hollywood inspired “Loose 7 kilos in 7 Hours with this Strict Lemon Juice Diet” - most commonly seen on the front cover of Gossip Magazine. 

Darcie preparing some juice!!!

During my limited time working in a cafe in the Inner Suburbs of Melbourne, I experienced first hand the typical juice detox participants. I saw way too many middle aged women jump into a juice detox without anywhere near enough knowledge. Consequently, they were drinking highly processed, high sugar content bottled juices and wondering why they were feeling like shit (not too mention the woman that ordered a cream filled pumpkin soup thinking it counted as juice). 

So, needless to say, Darcie and I did not want to follow the same route as people like that (nothing against them, they just didn’t have access to the right information). 

As a result, I put on my geek nutrition hat and did a heap of research on how to adopt a healthy juice cleanse. I will share some more scientific/nutrition based information in later blogs but I will give you a quick background on why we even thought about juicing in the first place.

Initially, after reading Rich Roll’s “Finding Ultra,” I was attracted to experimenting with a juice cleanse. He claimed that after completing a juice detox he felt completely revitalized and it was one of the main reasons behind him becoming Plant Powered. 

On top of that, I have done a decent amount of research on fasting in cultures, most notably Native American. Native Americans are generally adopt a fast when partaking in a Spirit Ques. I have a lot of research to do on Spiritual Visions but from my limited understanding I believe that one of the reasons for hallucinations could be related to fasting. My under-developed hypothesis is that reducing digestive stress created by eating solid foods (particularly those high in fibre) could result in the production of melatonin in the pineal gland. **

Back to the story...

We basically jumped into the juice cleanse. After a couple of weeks of procrastinating and ever changing start dates to try to suit our convenience, Darcie finally brought an end to it and insisted we start on Monday.

This was at 8pm on Sunday night. 

We did some last minute research, and found 3 recipes we thought would be both healthy and tasty. W rushed to the supermarket and bought all the produce we needed at 9pm. Unfortunately, due to time constraints we had to shop at Safeway. This meant had to make a few supplements due to lack of produce at Safeway (namely celery). I’m not a huge fan of shopping at chain supermarkets, something I will go into deeper at a later date.

Here are the 3 recipes we chose to take us through our first day. 

(We both decided that we would try to incorporate a lot of green due to the health benefits and nutrient density of green leafy vegetables).

Happy Green

1 Cucumber

2 Celery Stalks (replaced with Rhubarb)

2 pears

1/2 Rock Melon

6-8 Kale leaves (replaced with Silverbeet)

1/2 Lemon

3cm of Ginger

Green Produce

4 Carrots

1 Cucumber

1 - 2 Cups of Spinach (replaced with Silverbeet)

1/2 Lemon

1 Apple

1 Pear

Green Lemonade

3 Cups of Spinach (replaced with Silverbeet)

1 Lemon

1 Cucumber

1 Pear

1 Apple

**We used Organic Fuji Apples this time around

I also had an extra juice after lunch because my brother bought it for me at work, thanks Gabriel. Not entirely sure what was in it but I tasted celery, lemon, ginger, carrot, apple and maybe orange and beetroot. 

It’s hard to describe how I’m feeling now (it’s 8.30pm). I am surprisingly energized but in a weird way. To give you an idea, I’m energized enough to do a lot of thinking but not energized enough to leave the house. It is like my stomach and digestive system are craving something to eat but my body already has enough nutrients and vitamins in it to function. It’s kind of like there is an internal battle going on inside of me between whether I am satisfied or whether I am hungry. 

The Pineal Gland

Darcie put her experience like this, “It feels like I want to bite into something. I have gotten so used to eating at certain times throughout the day, so it is like I am breaking that habit at the moment.”

In terms of the spiritual results of this cleanse, I feel like I am vibrating on a somewhat altered state of consciousness but again, I can’t pinpoint it. Maybe it is that I am more open, as can be demonstrated by me putting this blog out there. There was a moment today when I was walking along outside and felt like I was a lot lighter and on the brink of astral projection. I’m very interested in monitoring the spiritual effects of this (if there are any).

Darcie and I were both ready to have a negative experience today (as we read the first two days of fasting can be like breaking heroine addiction). So, for what we were expecting, what we are experiencing now is not too bad at all. 

So where to from now...

This afternoon I bought some organic produce down at my local shop that we will use to make some juices tonight in preparation for tomorrow. 

In tomorrows blog I’m going to talk about the benefits of organic produce along with some other interesting facts of juicing and plant nutrition. 

I hope this blog has interested you in some way, shape or form and hopefully you can come back tomorrow to check out our progress.

Peace out,

Matt

** Do your research on this! From my understanding, the pineal gland will only emit melatonin and DMT due to two factors:

i) when the body is under no stress (ie sleeping) 

ii) when the body endures high amounts of stress (ie running an Ultramarathon)

My question then is, can reducing dietary stress, along with other factors, contribute to the secretion of melatonin in the pineal gland?