by Matt, SGTreport.com
An interesting looking article popped into my daily feed on YouTube the other day. While scanning the usual subscriptions searching for what the precious metal market was up to and wondering if another dead body was floating down the Hudson connected to Hillary I stumbled across the new Jeff Berwick channel.
I’m sure Jeff Berwick will be familiar to all but both The Anarchast and the Dollar Vigilante channels focus on liberty and the merits or banking outside the system. Lately he’s become an unofficial (again, that’s good) enlightener to us all on the merits of the cryptocurrencies. While maintaining a caution on them myself, certainly after the recent run ups and downs, I nontheless welcome his input.
I have a lot of respect for Berwick. Firstly he’s an entrepreneur, always a good start and secondly he likes yachting, which is a plus.
Thus, I had a run through his latest YouTube channel that bears his own name. I was in for a surprise.
Far from maintaining the arguments to own Gold and Silver or discussing what the Fed was doing and the coming fiscal bloodbath in US treasuries, here he was walking his dogs down a lane talking about his eyes changing colour due to a juice fast. This apparently, was the main focus of his new channel.
Who the hell would be interested that? Well, me as it turns out.
Having passed the age of 40 I’ve noticed that bits of you stop working. Whether it’s getting out of bed with the odd twinge or the fact that your eyes take a bit longer to focus each morning. I used to be bright eyed and bushy tailed almost immediately after getting out of bed but these days I’ve noticed it takes a good 5 minutes before clarity of vision comes about.
Fresh of my silver stackers experiment I thought I’d try a new one. Firstly though, I duly sent off an email to Sean to see if it’s something everybody might be interested in.
Here’s what I was expecting to receive
Matt, Are you completely ^%&ing nuts. You stupid (^&. What the “£&@ are you thinking. I’d be amazed if a single person would be interested in that. Buck up your ideas you %^!ing moron.
~Sean
However, what I actually received was this;
Matt, Sounds interesting. I’m sure it’ll be a life changing experience. Juice on!
~Sean
Right! Game On.
I spent an evening going through the new Jeff Berwick channel to get a grasp of what was happening. He seemed to be living on a diet of fruit and nuts.
This lead me to an excellent documentary called Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. It follows the story of Joe Cross who follows a 100 day juice fast and is a fascinating watch on how the body heals itself if you let it. Coupled this with the aforementioned Mr Berwick and his protestations that he ‘feels amazing’ with his depression seemingly cured I began to wonder seriously what trying it might do.
The idea seems to be that we make ourselves much sicker with our diet and a change can reverse the symptoms. I’d convinced myself though. I was going to try this. I came up with a plan.
I wasn’t going to follow anyone elses way of doing it, I was going to invent my own. One that I thought might work for me.
I split the experiment into 2 stages
Week 1 – The Weening Off Stage.
I’d try the juices but would still have a small breakfast of wholemeal toast with sugar free jam. Everytime I felt hungry I would limit myself to tuna sandwiches only. This way I would be getting the juices but still have some chewable food. I was hoping this way it wouldn’t feel like a fast. Ease myself in gently was what I was thinking.
Week 2 - The Juice Fast
This would be a no food week. Juices only. I’d simulate the breakfast and evening meal with these juices. Thus a very fruity one for breakfast and a more vegetable based one for the evening. Possibly with an extra fruit based juice later on. I’d also have a load of proper apple juice to fill the belly if I ever felt hungry. This was the fruit and raw vegetable only week.
I needed some juice recipes though. I came up with a few by watching a few YouTube tutorials and selected a few that I thought would be palatable.
Also I need some produce. I went to a local health food store (to try and avoid the Monsanto landmine) and selected all sorts of things. Celery, Lemons, Strawberries, Apricots, Raspberries, Ginger, Apples, Cucumbers, Kale (what the hell is that?), Spinach, Pomegranites, Pineapples, Bananas and Blueberries.
For the record I am a meat eater and not at all morbidly obese. I have no moral equivocations about eating meat nor am I idealogically opposed to it. This was going to be something very new and interesting for me. I was also going to avoid caffeine and dairy products like milk and cheese. Just fruits and vegetables.
Here are the results.
Day 1:
Toast with sugar free jam for breakfast. Vegetable smoothie and tuna sandwiches for tea.
OK, at the end of the day not feeling too bad. All’s good in fact. Don’t feel hungry at all, rather the reverse. No hunger pains and all seems well. Vegetable smoothie was OK. Palatable but not likeable.
Day 2
Same as Day 1 but with a fruit smoothie as well as toast and more fruit with the evening one. Feeling good with no adverse effects.
Day 3
Strange day really as I woke up and didn’t feel hungry at all. Therefore decided to do a small bit of fasting. Made a fruit smoothie after about 20 hours of solid food and 12 hours after fruit drink. Had the tuna sandwiches at tea with an additional smoothie. Still feeling good and realising that a good smoothie can be quite filling.
Day 4
Normal day again. Toast and fruit smoothie for breakfast, and one with more vegetables in it for the evening with tuna sandwiches.
Day 5
Same as day 4 really. Becoming quite surprised that this isn’t as difficult as I’d imagined. I’d have thought cravings would have been becoming evident by now but non so far.
Day 6
Toast with fruit smoothie for breakfast and the normal fruit and vegetable one for the evening. Mid evening I started to develop a light headache and I’m not prone to them so wondering about that. It’s not painful at all but noteworthy all things considered.
Day 7
OK, I finished the week with a similar regime. Toast and fruit smoothie, with the sandwiches and vegetable fruit drink for the evening. I’m finding I’m getting along fine with this, no adverse effects or hunger cravings.
So that ‘s the first week finished. I’m feeling fine, no adverse effects, no massive hunger pains or bowel problems. I’m feeling healthier but that isn’t surprising.
Day 8
To my amazement I wake up not hungry at all. I have a few herbal teas but make it to the evening just fine. I make a full fruit and vegetable smoothie. Everything seems to go into this. It’s 2/3 fruit and about a 1/3 of vegetables. So strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, banana, red and white grapes, apricots, celery, cucumber, brocolli, carrots, tomatoes and some spinach and kale. Full on in the blender. I feel full afterwards and it’s apple juice all evening as well.
Day 9
Again, I wake up in the morning not hungry at all. I have a few herbal teas, fruit flavoured, to keep myself hydrated and have a blended smoothie for tea. I don’t have all the smoothie either, leaving about 1/3rd of it for tomorrow. Apple juice throught the evening keeps me going and I’m feeling really full again.
Day 10
This is getting beyond astonishing to me. I wake up not hungry again. The now becoming normal herbal teas and the blended smoothie for the evening. It’s very fruity so tastes great.
I’m not a dietician but I’m left pondering the notion that if the body is starved of nutrients it makes you hungry in the hope that you’ll eat some. I seem to have survived the last few days on just a blended smoothie with no difficulties at all. Herbal teas and apple juice not withstanding to keep myself hydrated.
I find myself surprised this is happening as I’d expected the exact opposite. I’d expected that I’d be drinking loads of this stuff to compensate so really surprised the opposite is happening.
Day 11.
I wake up not astonished at being not hungry. I’m thinking of applying to the patent office to tell people I’ve discovered perpetual motion. A few herbal teas and I survive easily till the early evening when I blend the usual fruit and vegetable mix. I’m out walking each day as well so I’m expending energy and not feeling fatigued or exhausted at all. Feeling very healthy and upbeat in fact.
Day 12
The morning herbal teas and after a dog walk I decide to see how long I can go before I actually start to feel hungry. By 10pm that evening my body is starting to tell me to consume something. I have a suspicion that another herbal tea or some apple juice would cure it but I have the fruit and vegetables more by forcing myself to than anything.
Day 13
Same routine really, tea a few times during the day and the smoothie for the evening with late evening apple juice as I see fit.
Day 14
Final day and what seems to be a completely sustainable routine now. Nothing but fluid for the day and a much more strawberry than normal smoothie. Very tasty. I do have a hankering for some old meals, like spaghetti or something but it’s something I can easily overcome.
Conclusion.
Well, first off, I assume you want to know how much weight I lost. I weighed myself on the morning of the 15th day and I’d lost an amazing 12 lbs. I think if I’d done purely the juice diet for 14 days I’d have lost a full stone in 2 weeks which is pretty amazing I think.
I am VERY glad I did this as it has had some surprising results for me. I’d assumed I’d be having loads of these things per day and had prepared according. I bought far too much stuff early on and in hindsight I wish I’d held back and bought on a ‘what I need for 3 days’ basis.
Not once in the 14 days did I feel fatigued or run down. Quite the opposite, I felt healthy and energised. I did my usual walks and kept my routine the same. The only thing that I changed was the diet.
This may be a psychsomatic view but I have noticed a slightly more clear vision. I haven’t noticed my eyes changing colour at all but vision definitely seems clearer and focusing early morning has shortened.
Moving forward I’m definitely tempted to do this for a longer period. Almost certainly I’ll be doing this every now and again, more for a detox than anything else as I have been most surprised by how I’ve had a lack of hunger or temptation for anything else while doing it. I found it mostly plain sailing, no real issues at all.
So, to finish off with, some tips,
Get your mindset right. I think it’s easier if you go in with a positive attitude. If you go in heart heartedly then it will be harder. I watched Youtube videos to get a frame of reference and encouragement and as such didn’t find it difficult.
Make what you like. I prefer fruit therefore made a fruit blend and added the vegetables to it. Make it palatable, not something you have to endure.
Start small. Don’t try to do 100 days straight unless you have a great mindset to do it. Try a week and see what happens.
I wish you the best at it.
Good luck!