If you ever reach a plateau either in health gain or weight loss then the first thing to examine is what you are eating. Are you following the guidelines completely? Is your food whole, plant based and organic? What about your affirmations and positive thinking? Maybe it’s time to step up or change your exercise routine? If none of the above have yielded the result to the extent you want, then let’s hear Dr. Nandita share yet another powerful technique called juice feasting.
Juice Feasting
Juice feasting is one of the most powerful ways to get a lot of nutrients in one day. This extra dose of nutrients is then available for healing, cleaning and repair. The digestive system gets some rest as it gets nutrients in a readily absorbable form and so it doesn’t have to spend a lot of time digesting.
For e.g. if you were to eat six carrots at one go it would be a huge task, but drinking the juice (without the fiber) is easy. So you get all the nutrients of six carrots readily without having to digesting them.
Juice feasting is a bit like pressing a reset button for your health and weight loss.
The four aims of Juice Feasting are to: Cleanse, Rebuild, Rehydrate and Alkalise.
When to do It
In case you find that you have reached a plateau in your improvement or weight loss, juice feasting is recommended
How to do It
On this day do not start the day with green smoothies or fruit. Ideally you will have only vegetable juices all day long.
Drink 4-5 Liters of fresh, organic vegetable juices in a day. Drink 2-3 glasses at about 1.5 hourly intervals when you become hungry. It is best to “eat” the juice i.e. roll every morsel of juice in the mouth and chew before gulping it down.
How often to do It
Do Juice Feasting once a week or fortnight, as you feel best. The juice is strained but less fiber on this day is not a problem. Don’t wait for the hunger to set in. Remember you are feasting and not fasting. Feed yourself consistently as an act of love!
It is not good to have juices everyday as we normally want to have all the fibre in the food, ie whole foods. This is to be done only as needed.
Other Instructions
If possible avoid going on strenuous errands and, instead, rest on this day. Please choose a day when you wouldn’t have to do much work. If you cannot sustain juice feasting for a full day, then try doing it for half a day and eat a light simple meal or just fruit in the evening.
If you need to have something warm during the day, take a herbal tea or infusion. If you feel very hungry or uneasy eat a handful of sprouts.
Some reactions may happen for e.g. light headedness, headache, unexplainable different feeling, mild diarrhoea or frequent urination. Do not worry it’s a part of the detoxification process and it is impermanent. It will disappear on the next day.
Important Note: If you are on medications for diabetes and if your blood sugars are under reasonable control then you may have to reduce medicines or insulin on this day.
Contents of a Classic Juice
All the juices can be mixed and matched as per your taste. You would need a juicer to make these juices.
Below are the main contents of each juice:
(i) Leafy Greens: Spinach, beet greens, cabbage, lettuce, salad leaves, mint, coriander, kale or Indian leafy greens like – ambat chukka, amaranth, methi, etc can be used.
(ii) Vegetable Base: Cucumber, bottle gourd
, ash gourd, tomatoes, bell peppers (red, yellow, orange ), onion, carrot, beetroot etc can be used.
(iii) Condiments: Lemon, black pepper, ginger juice, rock salt, fresh turmeric, onion, garlic or any other herbs can be used.
Some yummy Juice Recipes:
1) Scarlet Juice
- 6 carrots
- 2 tomatoes
- 1 celery stalk/ a handful of coriander leaves
2) Cucumber Cooler
- 2 cucumbers
- 1/4 cup coriander
- 2 cups spinach
- 1/4 cup mint
- 1/2 inch of fresh ginger
- 1/2 lemon, peeled
3) Carrot – Tomato – Green Juice
- 4 carrots
- 4 tomatoes
- 2 cup spinach/ any other greens
- 2 sticks celery/ coriander/ mint
4) Carrot and Greens Juice
- 4 carrots
- 2 cups spinach
- A handful of parsley/ mint
5) Tangy Juice
- 1 Medium sized bottle gourd
- 4 green capsicums
- 6 tomatoes
Add flavors of your choice to the above: rock salt, black pepper, black salt, lemon, chaat masala, turmeric, etc.
These are just some ideas…you can modify/ create your own juices with whatever vegetables that you like best or that you have in the fridge.
