Eczema is a real pain especially when it is chronic, scaly and infected. By drinking tasty green juices, you can repair the state of your skin faster. This tip was recommended to me by a nutritionist who said I should focus on healing my skin from the inside. Her suggestion worked.
In your quest for flawless skin, you may have come across the term “Juice Fasting” Just living on 8 glasses of juice for 1-90 days. As this may seem rather drastic, here are some juicing guidelines that can set you up for a successful, well-planned fast.
Why Juice Fast?
As we are 70% water, it is sensible to keep hydrated. We can survive more than 3 days without food, but only 3 days without water. What water or juice does is keep our bodies clean of toxins. It also provides nutrients to our body via our bloodstream within 40 minutes of drinking it. Another thing is that if we don’t drink enough during a day, we simply end up being constipated and feeling real sluggish.
Need I say more??
A juice fast is simple – Just drink 10-12 glasses of vegetable juice a day for 1 day to start with.
Once you manage that, you can practice juice fasting every month until you feel ready to increase the length of the fast by another day. Baby steps are crucial here!
Another benefit of fasting in this way, is that you give your digestive system a rest from using up energy to digest food. Your body can then use the juice nutrients to strengthen your immune system
How to Prepare for A Juice Fast
At least 1 week before, eat a large salad of 7 vegetables a day. This could replace one main meal, for example, lunch or dinner.
An example of your salad could be:
Chopped half ripe plantain, carrots, tomatoes, okra, avocado, cucumber, ginger root, topped with parsley leaves with sunflower seed sprout dressing and sprinkled with a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice.
Or let’s put this in simple viewing mode:
You will need:
1 ripe plantain,
3 medium carrots
3 tomatoes
3 fresh okra
1 medium avocado
1 whole cucumber
1 cup of sunflower seed sprouts (just soak for 6 hours in a bowl full of filtered water)
1 cup of chopped parsley leaves
1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon
Method:
- Slice the plantain, cucumber, tomatoes and okra. Then arrange in a bowl.
- Slice off the tip of the avocado and then cut it around the stone. Then chop into medium sized pieces.
- .Drain the sunflower seeds and blend in a food processor. This is your dressing.
- Sprinkle the chopped parsley leaves
- Then sprinkle the lemon juice over the avocado to prevent from going brown.
All you need do is arrange all the ingredients in a bowl then say Grace, Share and Enjoy!
Serves 1 – to make more just multiply the ingredients by the number of guests you have.
This is a colourful and filling salad due to the inclusion of avocado. It is also full of mouth-watering minerals and vitamins.
Organic or Not?
The best way to get organic food is to grow your own! However, in cities, growing our food is the last thing on our minds. Too many commitments – both family and work – get in the way. So we eat out a lot and our health suffers. Then we take a holiday to escape the rat-race…
What about seeing juice fasting as a holiday for our digestive system?
Referring back to organic food – yes, it is better than pesticide-sprayed food which can cause allergies, etc. So check around your area for a food market where the people work on farms and can tell you where they grew the food they sell.
Is Juice Fasting a Fad?
At first, I thought so when I became aware of juicing a decade ago. However, as time passed, more and more of my friends and families turned to it to regain control of their health. So now I see Juice fasting as a way to fix an ailment speedily.
It is a lifestyle for me and I am happy to have discovered it. I did try not juicing for almost 8 months, and drink distilled water instead, however, my nails became brittle and broke easily.
How Did Ancient People Eat?
Very simply – in fact in Genesis 1:29 the Bible says – “Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yield seed; to you it shall be for meat”. People ate raw vegan without calling it that term!
Even the animals were meant to be vegan – Genesis 1:30 – “And to every beast of the earth and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creeps upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat”; and it was so.
The Earth was also much younger and nutrient dense. As a result, people lived til 800 years and had children for the first time at 120 years of age. Genesis 5: 3 – And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own like likeness after his own image; and called his name Seth.
Verse 4: And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were 800 years, and he bore sons and daughters.
Verse 5: And all the days that Adam lived were 930 years; and he died.
I KNOW…. I didn’t believe this either so kept reading and noticed one thing – the earlier people of Ancient Times had children – the younger they died.
God got tired of our evil ways, so during Noah’s time, the flood occurred. Or rather the Ice Age…
When Noah left the ark, the earth multiplied with people and animals again, but the Bible says in Genesis 9: 3 – “Every moving thing that lives shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things...” We began to eat meat… Then our life span reduced to 120 years. Father knows best!
But really, if you want to keep looking young and feeling youthful, juice fasting is a great way to diminish your fine wrinkles.
Mind you, it does not and should not replace balanced meals when you have finished the entire fast.
Results Are To Be Believed
One of my friends who is of a larger build, changed her eating habits and came down 3 dress sizes. Then her healing crisis happened. Pins and needles and feeling cold. I created a flax seed (linseed) based juice with celery, carrot, cucumber. Some ginger root and lemon juice was added. This was blended with 1/2 an avocado.
Two days later, when I rang her, she said she had so much energy that instead of her usual walk round the park nearby, she ran! She was excited and also fed 4 of her friends with the lentil soup recipe I suggested she make.
Now, we are all at different stages of health, with different levels of nutrition knowledge. So it is best to go at a pace you can handle. This friend took baby steps each day for 1 month, then 2, then 3 then 4. In the 5th month she ran….
Here’s Your Starter Juice Fast Plan
1. Decide on the best day of the week to do your juice fast. It could be at the weekend or mid-week.
2. Think of this time as ‘Rejuvenating Me”… You are worth it, so give yourself the much-needed rest. You will have more energy to serve the world afterwards.
3. Give Your Juice Plan a name:
“The Juicy Game Plan”
“Juicing Game-Changer”
“Juicy Awakening”
“Patch Away”
“Rippling Tasty Session”
4. Include your family if you can…when they see your results after your first fast, they will be interested to know why you are glowing. Make it fun and include them. Give them a taster of your juices.
5. Prepare at least a week in advance.
6. Buy all your grocery for the fast so you have enough to last you for at least 3 days. This way, you won’t be tempted to snack on unhealthy food.
7. The only fruit allowed is green apples and a dash of fresh lemon juice to enhance the taste of your juice. Apples and lemon juice can be blended with all types of vegetable. These fruit give a sweeter taste to any juice you make.
8. Ditch sodas, sugary stuff and dairy at least a week before. We are concentrating on green juices for their re-building effect on the body.
9. If you are juicing for more than 7 days, make sure to consult a nutritionist who is experienced in juice fasting.
9. Try to get to bed between 9pm-10.30pm each night. You need to have at least 7 hours of sleep so your body can repair itself.
10. If you experience a healing crisis, eg, headaches, dizziness, colds or shakiness. This is completely normal. It means your body is detoxing and throwing off unwanted toxins. If and when this happens, rest more during this time. Your body should recover within a week of this crisis.
11. Write a food journal and note your progress…. How you feel each day and the appearance of your skin during this time.
12. If you can, stick to 8-10 glasses of juice a day. If you feel hungry, fortify your juice with 1 teaspoon of freshly ground flax seeds (linseed). They contain essential fatty acids that will prevent your skin from drying out, especially in colder seasons.
As you can see, it really is very simple to juice fast and you can practice this in a healthy way without getting real sick!
If you would like to know how to create tasty recipes for your own juice fast, join my email list for 10 Juicy Recipes. All completely free.
Need I forget to mention – you will need a suitable cost-effective cold press juicer to extract more pulp from your veggies and fruit.
I recommend an Omega Masticating Juicer as it is a lower speed than a centrifugal one and it will not heat up the nutrients from your veggies or fruit.
I am in the process of writing 10 more recipes for you to try. They are easy and tasty….Your tastebuds will love you. And as a side benefit, you may even lose some unwanted weight!
