Juice Feast-Day 3

Preserving My Pearly Whites

I was going to post pretty pictures from my garden tour today, but I didn't go. After tossing and turning all night I opted to sleep in. Maybe next year...

My teeth hurt today. It's a bummer, too, because all of my life I've been blessed with nearly perfect teeth. I've never had braces and only 1 filling, which I'm still convinced was completely fabricated by my dentist because he needed some fast cash to pay for his kid's braces. Anyway, I love my teeth. And although it's true that at times I have been known to rely heavily on the wonderful genetic gifts that have been bestowed upon me (thanks Mom and Dad), I do take really good care of them and I want them to stay healthy.

I already have some pretty thin enamel in spots. I'm a chronic grinder-a condition I hope is lessened as a result of this feast-so certain teeth have been subjected to abnormal wear and tear. (I do wear a splint at night which occasionally causes me to drool all over my pillow. If I don't, I face a mighty stiff jaw in the morning). Today, after 64 ounces of apple/orange juice, my teeth were feeling ultra sensative.

So what of all this sugary fruit juice I'm drinking?!?!

My dentist has told me in the past that brushing your teeth before you eat or drink sugar is best. Unless, of course, you're eating pieces of sticky dehydrated fruit-then it's best to brush immediately after. Apparently, every time you eat or drink anything sugary, your teeth are under an acid attack for up to an hour afterwards (yikes). Sugar reacts with the bacteria in the plaque on your teeth and produces harmful acids that can erode the enamel-eventually leading to decay.

I had a dentist appointment earlier this month (just a cleaning :) so I got a chance to ask my hygienist about it. Yep. Brushing your teeth BEFORE you drink fruit juice is best. As it turns out, waiting to brush your teeth until after drinking sugary drinks can be even more damaging than not brushing them at all. Your teeth are still coated in sugars and the toothbrush bristles can act like sandpaper on softened tooth enamel. It's better to brush before and remove the plaque (the playground for the attack) and swill water afterwards to let your saliva restore the pH of your mouth naturally. Who knew?

Juicy Diary-Day 3

Today's Juices & Supplements
(in order of consumption)

32 oz water + 2 MSM caps

32 oz Green Juice
(Carrots, Celery, Chard, Jalapenos, Kale, Onion, Red Bell Pepper, Red Leaf Lettuce, and Apples)
I decided today that I'm on a jalapeno kick. Forget adding cayenne pepper to my juice-it's not hot enough! I also threw in a bit of red onion because every time I opened the fridge over the past two days I thought they smelled divine :) I made 64 ounces of this juice total-enough for the whole day.

32 oz Water

64 oz Orange/Apple

32 oz Water

32 oz Green Juice

Total Juice = 120 oz (1 gallon)
Total Water = 96 oz Pretty good, no?
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Sleep: First of all, I stayed up WAY too late last night. Once I did go to bed I tossed and turned most of the night. I was in bed 8 hours, but slept maybe 4. Hence my decision to skip the 12 hour motor coach tour.

Exercise: Nope. We did get the Buck to a nearby pond for a good session of fetch, however. Atta boy! Gosh, I love that dog!

Energy: On a scale of 1 to 10, I was a rock solid 8 all day. That's pretty phenomenal for as little sleep as a got. More or less, my energy dial felt "normal," only turned up a degree or two.

Detox: I had one or two mucus-filled coughs, some pretty short, but serious hunger pangs, and a bit of a runny nose after drinking my jalapeno-packed greens. But jeepers, other than that, today was surprisingly mild. I kind of expected some big guns detox right away, but it hasn't really happened...yet. I have no doubt my body is still in shock from this sudden influx of juicey goodness and contemplating its next move. I did have another enema, which was (ahem) quite colorful given yesterday's large volume of beet juice :0
Uff da, it seems I have to pee every 10 minutes.

Sauna:30 minutes

Comments: Overall, today was fabtastic! I'm so happy to be 3 days into my feast and have those first couple of days behind me. My energy was great today and I didn't feel any volatile emotional residue bubbling up to the surface (*smile* I know it's coming). In fact, today I felt far more even tempered than I have for quite a while. Yay! I'm so happy to be on this journey! I feel grateful for this day because I know some serious detox is heading my way. Most people are 100% raw or have been high raw far longer than yours truly has before attempting a juice feast. I have 39 years of toxins to start to clear out and I'm pretty much starting from ground zero. But I've got to start somewhere, right?

I will say that limiting myself to just two different types of juices worked well for me today. I worked really hard at spacing them out better, too. The green juice is tasting especially good to me. I experienced some pretty intense hunger pangs today, and when I did, only the green juice seemed to give me any kind of satisfaction. I'm not really grooving on the fruit juice at all. It's too sweet and leaves me feeling spacey, unbalanced and...well...sort of empty. I think it's all the sugar. I'm just not used to it. I'm going to back off to 1 quart of fruit juice a day until my body asks me for more. My fridge is nearly empty so tomorrow I'm off to the farmer's market to resupply the crispers :)