Hi folks,

I want to thank you folks for following me and reading my blogs and watching my vids.  I’m happy that I’ve inspired a lot of you to go on a fast, however, a lot of you have written to me with rather concerning statements and I’d like to address all of them before you begin your fast.  This is your health, afterall.

1. Do your research – And I’m not talking about only reading my blog.  I’ve only put in a very small sliver of what I’ve been doing.  Fact of the matter is, if you have a serious medical condition, consult your doctor before going on this.  Even if you don’t have a serious medical condition, read up on some of the side effects that happen during any kind of fast.  Understand that the weight that you lose will not all be fat.  A good portion of it will be muscle weight as well (no, I’m not kidding).  
2. You’re going to lose muscle weight, not only fat. – Subject to what you want to believe, what you see dropping off the scale will definitely not all be fat.  Since you are not doing as much physical activity due to your alternate caloric intake, your body will begin to cannibalize your muscles.  If you don’t watch yourself, your body will begin to start cannibalizing your organs too.  I wish I were kidding you.  You may think it’ll go after the fat first, but there are other reasons why your body is still holding on to fat, and it may have nothing to do with how much you’re eating.
3. Why are you doing this fast? – If it’s solely to lose weight, then do it for three days only to jump start your body into a better eating lifestyle, it’s not a band aid. As mentioned before, when you fast for any extended period of time, you’re going to lose muscle weight on top of fat.  One of the things that prompted me to do this was because there were a couple things I was praying for and because the week prior I had felt some chest pains.  I didn’t want to prolong the issue, so this fast was my way of cleaning my blood stream and detoxifying my system.  Weight loss wasn’t the goal, but one of the by-products.  If you have some health issues, a detox may be a good way to get your body straight, however look into the kinds of fruits and veggies you should add to your juice.  Not all plant based materials do the same things.
4. Ween your way into it. –DO NOT JUMP INTO A FAST COLD TURKEY! If you want to regulate your metabolism, do not immediately starve your system.  What I did was introduce juicing into my diet for a process of 3-4 days before going on a full fast.  This was because I was going on a short fast.  For fasts more than 15 days long, it’s better to take anywhere between 1 – 2 weeks worth of prep work.  Eating more FRESH greens (no canned, no over-cooked).  If you avoid this step, the first few days are going to feel like serious pain.  You’re still going to be going through detox pangs (dizziness, hunger, , weakness, and frustration because of your change of diet, but it’ll be worse for you if you go cold turkey.  You need to prepare your body.
   
5. Get the right equipment – First of all, get a juicer!  The Magic Bullet is NOT a juicer.  A juicer extracts the juice from the pulp of fruits and vegetables where all you’re left is juice.  A blender pulverizes items and leaves both the pulp and juice together.  If you’re still confused, a blender has a blade at the bottom of the container, a juicer has a large revolving sieve in the bottom.  Blenders are used to make smoothies, not juice.
   
   Part of the point of a juice fast is to inundate your body with fresh juice, not juice with “stuff”.  I personally have a Jack La Lane juicer, which I picked up from JC Penney last year.  The premise of why the juice fast and not a smoothie fast is because juicing allows you to get more nutrients in one shot than if you were to eat all of it.
   
   The bowl of vegetables above are the contents of a full gallon Reynolds sealed bag which will produce a little more than 26 oz of juice (more than 3 cups of juice – leaving approx 4 pounds of pulp after juicing).  In on large plastic water bottle you’re taking in the nutrients of 1 gallon worth of vegetables.  Can you take down a gallon worth of food in one sitting?  I know I can’t.  Think about taking 2 bottles down a day.  That’s ideally what you want to do.  Get a large plastic sports bottle to carry it with you when you’re out.  Make sure it’s a wide mouth bottle, for easy cleaning.
6. Recipes – Have more than one.  My advice, get at least 5.  More, if you plan on being on a long juice fast.  To ensure you don’t overcrowd your fridge, prevent spoilage, or break your bank, find recipes that have a lot of common ingredients.  Most of mine have apples, spinach, celery, and kale in common.  It means I can buy these items in bulk, which means I spend less money overall.  The other reason why you want to have more than one recipe is because your pallet will get bored and it’ll be harder to stay on the fast.  Don’t think all you need to do is buy a bunch of greens and juice them.  Trust me, it’ll turn out really nasty tasting, and you’ll end us using way too much stuff.  Getting recipes will allow you to get juices that have been tried and tested and that are measured out, so there’s no question on how many apples or onion you need to add to a juice.
7. Drink Water – Drinking all these juices does not mean you don’t need to drink water.  You really do need to drink water throughout the day.  It helps your body rinse out the toxins in your system.

A few other notes:

• You can’t juice bananas or avocados.  They’re generally used as a base for non-dairy smoothies.  In other words, do not put bananas or avocados into your juicer.  You can use them in your blender.
• You will notice you will be more susceptible to cold temperatures.  This is normal.
• For some free recipes, check out Reboot with Joe. – http://www.rebootwithjoe.com/category/blog/recipes/juice/
  There are also some great recipe books available through amazon:
  “The Juicing Bible” by Pat Crocker
  “The Big Book of Juices” by Natalie Savona
• You can’t drink coffee during this.  It’s one of the toxins you really don’t need in your system.  It will also make you aggravated while you’re aggravated because your body is detoxing.
• During this fast, do not come in with the mindset that you “can’t” have food, because it will cause you to want the food more.  Come with the mindset that you “don’t” want it.  It’ll make things easier.
• The first 3-4 days you will feel like crap.  If you’re going to start a fast, do it when you know you have 2-3 days off.
• After a few days into the fast, you will be able to start exercising again.  Focus more on cardio and avoid any weight training.
• Let your friends and co-workers know.  Last year I kept a video blog about it. The reason you want others to know is because it will keep you in track if you have to answer to people.
• When you’re coming off the fast, DO NOT EAT MEAT FOR SEVERAL DAYS!!!  If you do plan on eating any meat, get back into eating with non-meat food.  This way your body can get accustomed to solid foods again.
• Biblical references to fasting – these aren’t all the references in the bible for fasting, and they were all for various reasons.  I make reference to the New International Version:
  Luke 2:37, 18:12
  Daniel 1:8-16
  Matthew 4:1-11
  Deuteronomy 9:9,18
  1 Chronicals 10:12
  Judges 20:26
  Psalm 35:13
• For more information about a clean diet, juicing, and detoxing, check out these documentaries on Netflix, Amazon or Youtube (where available).
  “Hungry for Change” by Alejandro Junger
  “Forks Over Knives” by T. Colin Campbell
  “Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead” by Joe Cross

If you have any more questions in regards to juicing, please feel free to respond to this post.

Thanks for your questions and good luck to all of you!