I'm excited, proud, and somewhat shocked by the ending to the juice cleanse. I'm anxious to hear how some of you are feeling. What Casey and experienced is somewhat unexpected.

Yesterday I began feeling good, really good, enough to ask Casey if he would like to continue for a few days. I'm sure you could guess his reply. But in the few short days of doing this, by day three I was energized, felt clean, un-inflammed which is something I struggle with constantly begin celiac and my skin, oh my skin, it was beginning a transformation-soft, like my 1 year old's, glowing, and the bags under my eyes were slowly fading. All these things physical but my husband had somewhat of a psychological transformation. Casey struggles with moodiness, chronically, and this is exacerbated when he is hungry. I like to utilize the medical term "hangry," so you can imagine my fear going into a juice fast. The only other thing that dramatically affects his mood is not having coffee. I can safely say he is a full blown caffeine addict. The night before he began telling me he would do everything except cut coffee out. Needless to say he did, and probably for the first time in his adult life. I'm not sure what did it, the potent nutrient intake, the lack of caffeine or all of the above, but he was more patient and less irritable than I have ever known him to be. Frustrating situations would come and go without so much as a huff.

We decided to stay up last night until midnight and eat a European style dinner and planned our breakfast this morning. Dinner was delicious but we both noticed we have lost our desire for much meat. When we awoke this morning, instead of making eggs and bacon like we had planned and prepared for, we opted for more juice and skipped it. Not out of any form of will, just intrinsic desire.

This juice fast has affected the way we live, and what we naturally want to put in our bodies. We are hoping to incorporate it into our lifestyle from here out but are unsure of the best way for us.

I'm so anxious to hear about your experiences and what the final outcome are. And welcome into the Whole30! I have made a meal plan for this week mainly using recipes from Against the Grain. I will post it if anyone is interested.

Be well,
McCall

I seem to be cruising through day two, although it is only 11:30 in the morning. Yesterday though, more specifically last night, was challenging. I sent Casey, my husband to the store to get more veggies because let's face it, I didn't have the energy. I was starving, withdrawing, craving and did I mention starving. He apparently found some ideas for tasty "dessert" juices. You know where this is going, I cheated without technically cheating. I thought it best to share the recipe because, well, it was delicious. In an ideal world, during our juice cleanse we would keep our juicing to include foods on the low end of the sugar index.. This one however, is not and frankly, sometimes I don't live up to ideal world standards. But it is packed full of nutrients. Which for tonight, is enough for me.

My Greatest Peachness:

Simply juice and combine 1 sweet potato, 2 ripe peaces, 1 apple, some blueberries and a tiny bit of cinnamon. We also removed our screen (masticating juicer) for this one so it was a little more fluffy in consistency. Enjoy, I know you will.

How is your juicing going?

~McCall