Juicy fruit: about fasting

After seeing the documentary Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead  in which two men shrink before your eyes as they go on lengthy juice fasts, my husband Bill and I were inspired to do something similar. He wanted to do it for health reasons and because it involved buying a shiny new machine: juicer. I wanted to do it for health reasons and to lose those five pounds I have been trying to lose for about 5 years or so. We got past the ee-e-w factor (dinner usually tasted pretty green), swilled down a lot of fruit and vegetable juice (pineapples are a natural and carrots save everything), and managed to make it for five days. He lost over 10 pounds and I lost six. We also lost a certain amount of sleep, since neither of us all that well for the duration and felt especially cold at night.

The experience has given me whole-grain religion and some new guidelines for eating that are really simple: 

• put color on my plate
• drink more water
• avoid coffee in the afternoon
• cut back on alcohol
• eat more slowly

This is about eating mindfully instead of shoveling it in while reading a book or newspaper. I've seen these recommendations often, but never trained myself to follow them. I ate my first solid meal in five days slowly, with attention and appreciation.