Food for Thought Thursday - Juice Fasting

I'm now on Day 4 of my five-day juice fast - and am feeling great. I've never done more than a one-day juice fast before, but since I started doing the short ones regularly after ready Crazy Sexy Diet earlier this year, I've been wanting to try something longer. Inspired by a friend who did a seven-day fast recently, I decided to give it a go.

Initially, I wanted to go for the whole seven days, but that wouldn't have worked for me this week with my recital on Saturday and (let's be honest) Mother's Day brunch on Sunday! Actually, I was doubtful that this week was the right week at all since my detox seems to come in the form of breakouts - not pretty before a show. But for some reason, I just couldn't wait and decided to try to fit in a five-day fast.

The idea of fasting has never appealed to me at all. I understand the idea behind it, but - again with the honesty - I like to eat! So enjoying my recent one-day fasts really took me by surprise. But how would a longer fast go???

So far, it's going great! It amazes me that I haven't "eaten" in four days yet I feel wonderful and am not the least bit hungry. My body is getting all the nutrition it needs - and no extra stuff it has to deal with. I do have to say that I haven't noticed any great physical differences (energy and mental clarity seem about the same), but I have been exceptionally calm this week despite the fact that it should have been the most stressful and difficult week I've had in years.

During the course of the week, I've been reading more about juicing to continue learning more. This article mentions what I love most about fasting - that it makes eating seem "totally unimportant". For me, it's a very helpful perspective that food is about nutrition and nothing more - although for myself (and most people, I'm sure), it's usually more about the "more".

It's also given me a glimpse of how often I eat when I'm not meaning to . . . I honestly didn't know how many little bites and licks I took while cooking until this week when I wasn't able to do so. Not that I think those tastes are detrimental in any way, but again, it just made me think about why I was doing it (rather than just doing it thoughtlessly as I obviously had been).

I'm both ready and sad for my fast to wrap up tomorrow. I'm happy that my digestive system has gotten a bit of a rest and that I'm loaded up with great nutrition . . . but at the same time, I'll be just as happy to eat again. I'll be doing mostly smoothies, fruit and some juice over the weekend (with the exception of brunch on Sunday - oh well!) before easing back into regular food.

My biggest hope is that I can retain some of this feeling of ambivalence towards food once I start eating again - and use that to make the best choices possible!