I’ve had more than several people ask me about Juice Fasting. Here’s my quick and dirty 411 about it, based on my experiences.

Ok. So you have about a week before your Fast.
1. Whatever ‘vices’ you have – be it coffee, sugar, white bread, cookies, candy, fried foods… decrease your consumption by 1/2 every day until the day you start juice OR until you eliminate it from your diet totally. This includes alcohol.
2. Simultaneously increase the amount of raw foods you are eating throughout the week. Eat something raw every time you eat. Then increase that amount until you are eating 100% raw right before you Fast. I would say that if you can get one full day of 100% raw (raw vegan – no meat, no fish, no dairy), right before you Fast, that would be great. If you can do more, that’s even better. If during this week you can get a colonic, that will also help.

An FYI – wine is considered Raw.

The Fast should last at least 5 days.
Day 1 should be pretty easy.
Day 2 might be difficult but do not eat anything (I really wanted to eat something on Day 2).
It takes about 3 days for your body to get rid of what is in your system. That’s when you’ll feel the most ‘detox symptoms’.
Day 4 is when your body really starts to heal itself. You may start feeling more cold around this day. If that is the case, HERBAL or GREEN tea is fine to drink to stay warm.
Day 5 is when your body really feels the effects of a calm digestive system. This would be a great time to get another colonic.
Anything after Day 6 is icing on the cake. You will really start to feel great on Days 6 and 7 and you might find that you won’t need as much juice to get you through your day. Your energy level will be through the roof and you’ll feel so incredibly light.

How long will the fast be? That will be important in determining when you can start eating solid foods again after coming off the Fast. Remember, you’ve just given your digestive system a HUGE break (something that probably hasn’t happened in your lifetime). So we need to wake it up very gently .

The general rule is to take the # of days you were on the Fast and divide in half. That’s the # of days it will take you to return to solid foods. So if you do 7 days, then on day 4 you can start to return to RAW solid goods. What do you do on Days 1, 2, and 3 after the Fast? Gradually move to green smoothies (essentially juice with fiber left in). Start with watered down green smoothies, then increase the thickness as the days go on. On Day 4, you can start introducing raw foods, but I’d start with soft raw foods like fruit and avocado. On Day 7, you can start gradually increasing your cooked food intake… if that’s the route you want to go. Many people find that they feel so good that they maintain an 80/20 raw/cooked after this.

Commit and it will be easy and I PROMISE you will feel AMAZING and want to do this several times a year (generally with the change of seasons).