Day 4

Tuesday, February 19th

10:05 PM

NOT a good night tonight!  Right now I'm feeling flu like symptoms which are either A from the juice fast or B from the actual flu, which given the time of year is a distinct possibility.

When I woke up this morning at 5 am I was actually feeling a lot better than I thought I should.  I showered, got dressed for work and went down to the kitchen to make my breakfast/mid-morning snack juice.  Today was another modification of the green juice I had been making only this morning I wanted to get some extra juice out of it so I would have enough for two meals so I threw in a tomato and an extra pear.  I ended up getting about 32oz of juice which was just perfect for two meals.

I threw back breakfast w/ a multi-vitamin and almost immediately I started to feel nauseous.  By the time I got to the office around 6:30 the combination of nausea plus the metalic vile taste in my mouth thanks to the detox nearly sent me over the edge!  It took a lot to compose myself and get settled in at my desk.  I immediately filled my big 64oz jug with water and proceeded to sip on that for the next couple of hours.  As 8:30 approached my nausea was just about gone and my stomach started to grumble and ache so I decided to motor through the other 16oz (no way I'm going to waste vital food)!  I didn't have an adverse reaction to the second round and actually felt myself filling gaining some additional energy after 10 minutes or so..  I felt more alert and focused at whatever tasks I was trying to accomplish.. Quite a good feeling actually.  I spent some time talking to other people in the office who were also motivated by the results people experienced on juice fasts.  It was a good morning!

Fast forward 5 hours (and a lunch courtesy of Naked's Green Machine) and I started feeling the first "flu" symptoms of the day.  It started in my legs, particularly around both knee joints.  Most of my leg muscles and knee joints felt like I had worked them out for hours on end!  It was crazy.  Walking around became more difficult and as time wore on I found myself losing more and more energy!  It was hard to concentrate on anything.  I was overwhelmed by the sensation of needing to go home.  I put in my typical 9 hours for the day but had to make a quick stop at 7-11 to get a snack.  No i didn't cheat!  They sell Naked Juice there!  I felt like I needed a jolt to my system so I got a strawberry/banana drink.  Not too bad taste wise and I think it has the least amount of sugar when compared to the other pure fruit varieties.

I made it home and ended up crashing on the couch.. My flu like symptoms came in waves... The muscle aches in my leg spread towards my head.  There was a constant pressure, almost like a sinus headache and then it felt like I had a fever.  I rode it out on the couch until 6:30 or so then decided I needed to get up and make another juice so I went back to to the mean green formula only I added some extra kale and only used half of a pear since I had the fruit drink earlier in the afternoon.  I ended up juicing maybe another 16 oz and was able to get it all down at my normal pace with no ill effects.

The flu like symptoms persisted, I felt cold all over so I wrapped myself in an afghan blanket and tried not to focus on these negative feelings (I really hope I don't have the actual flu, that would totally suck!)  At 9:30 or so I wanted to have a little dessert so I took a couple sips from a Naked Mango fruit drink and chased it with more water.  All said I probably had about 72oz of juice and 80oz of water today.

By 10:00 I started to feel a little better.  As I walked upstairs to the office to type up my daily blog entry I felt my head was clearing somewhat and the aches I had been experiencing for the last 8 hours lessened a little.  I'm still not out of the woods yet, but I think I'm getting there.  I hope it all clears up while I'm sleeping tonight.

NOTE TO SELF:  NEVER GO COLD TURKEY ON A JUICE FAST EVER AGAIN!