I apologize for the delay in publication. You see after 15 days of juicing, something strange happened to us. That is why I’ve taken so long to type this post. My hands aren’t quite what they used to be...We have changed.... (see the photo below)
Before and After Picture
After 15 days of juicing, Juan and I turned into into Zucchinis! Poof! That’s right! We’re done for! So much juice that we are no longer humans. We are only vegetables. My father always told me that I would turn into a vegetable if I watched too much TV, but he never warned me about drinking too much juice!If I had only know, I would have stopped at day 14 and drunken a whole cup of coffee and a pound of dark chocolate to retoxify my body! But alas! We are so clean that we've turned into vegetables on day 15! Zucchinis at that! Why couldn’t I have least turned into a more charming vegetable, like an eggplant or a curvy red pepper?!?! God, why????Ok, let’s say perhaps, I’m kidding or being dramatic and perhaps we are really not zucchinis, but I think we would be if we had continued on to day 16! That might have been our fate, but thank goodness we didn’t continue!A Tip of the Day: The end will come, so just keep going. When the end comes, it is so sweet and well worth it!
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The Story of Day 15:
Oh their must really be a God! Because we’ve made it all the way to day 15! You know, I don’t think that this day would come. The final days creeped by, every day really seemed like a year. I was sure that I was getting old and gray by how slow day 14 went... But alas! the sun went down and finally, oh, finally, it creeped back up over the Korean hills!We were welcomed by a chorus of angels singing from Heaven. Today, our final day of our juice fast, we get to start a transition into chewing food!Today, I get to crunch sweet melons and apples and feel the fresh crisp of watermelon and the feel the texture of kiwi on our tongue! I think today that I will appreciate texture more than I ever thought possible!How did today go? In the morning, we got up and had a nice snack of melon and then later had a big glass of green juice. Those smart expert people say that the key to transitioning is to do it slowly and ease your body into it.Going slowly isn’t so easy, but you have to try or all of your results may just go out the window! So perhaps to insure that you go slowly, buy a lock for your refrigerator or just get a lock on your jaw to force yourself not to go overboard.. hehehe..For lunch, I made tomato soup by feeding tomatoes, garlic and onions into the juicer and then I mixed the pulp and the juice together and warmed it up over the stove. That was nice. :) And then finally for dinner we went to church, and they ordered us a vegetable soup from a Chinese restaurant... I should have know a Chinese restaurant would be nothing but, Trouble!.. I was transitioning perfectly until dinner. When I ate the soup, it was processed and oily and it just killed me. After I ate it, I felt like I was RE-toxifying... Noooooo!!!! I got mad at myself for going too quickly. I could feel my body hating me for the yucky soup I gave it...I felt like a failure, like I had dropped the ball and the world would surely end! What have I done????But not to worry, dear friends, I didn’t let Dramatic Inge take over my body for too long, in the end this mistake made me decided that I wasn’t ready to retoxify my body again after all of the hard work. I realized that needed to have a better plan of transition. So for the next 7 days, the plan is for me to eat about 90% raw foods (salads, fruits, vegetables, and nuts and good oils) and drink at least 32 oz of juice a daily to continue to detox. I don’t want to go back to my old ways of eating. Even though they weren’t terrible, juicing has improved my health, and I want to continue to see improvements.After 7 days of 90% raw, I may do more of a 70% raw and 30% cooked food diet combination. I think that is a sustainable lifestyle for me. A few years back, my mom, who is a braver soul than I, went 100% raw for about 2 or 3 years. She’s truly super woman. I remember thinking how amazing her skin looked. She looked younger by at least 5 years after following this eating lifestyle. All of her wrinkles on her face went away.I, on the other hand, I like a bit of cooked food here and there. I’m of the camp of people who think that food is both physical and psychological and even though physically you might not need cooked foods, at times it is nice to enjoy a nice warm bowl of soup in the winter just for the comfort factor. So I’m going to do 70%, 30% with a juice every day and see how that works for me.
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Stats of the Day:
IngeJuice: 1.5 Liters / Water: 2 liters Transition Food: A banana and melon for breakfast, tomato soup for lunch and vegetable soup for dinner Weight: 4 kg less than the start Energy: Really good Mood: Good - The crankies are gone! What chewing does for the soul! Hunger: Not bad, because I could mix Detox Symptoms: None really Cheats: Nothing Cravings: My chompers are satisfied today, therefore no cravingsJuan:Juice: 1.5-2 Liters / Water: 2 liter Transition Food: Fruit for breakfast, salad and tomato soup with eggs for lunch and vegetable soup for dinner. Weight: 5.5 kg less than the start Energy: Good Mood: So much better than yesterday, Hallelujah! Hunger: Not bad. Detox Symptoms: Nothing Cheats: None Cravings: I forgot to ask him, but I’m guessing it was Chicken, because he always wants chicken.(Intermission... -- Yes, yes, this is looong, but my keyboard keeps typing, and I can get it to stop! It must be my zucchini fingers! So at this point you can go take a break. Go check your facebook page and then stretch your legs, and I’ll save a seat for you when you come back! See you soon!)Ooooh! look at our family pictures! Aren’t just we adorable? -- photo shoot, concept, photography and styling by Inge Hooker and Juan Job
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Results:
Ok, so enough with our adorable faces. I'm sure you're sick of them by now. The question you may be wondering is....Did Juicing for 15 days really work? and is it worth it? We would both say YES! We are both so glad we did it, and so glad that it is OVER!For me (Inge) I noticed that my digestion has improved, my energy is better (I crave juice more and coffee less), my skin is so much softer, and I feel healthier. If I can get these results from juicing, than I shan’t complain about making juice.Also, my knowledge of the body has really increased during the past month. I know so much more about nutrition and taking care of yourself properly. Also something a little interesting I learned is that I need to be more efficient and organized. Though I’m a very determined, hard working person, I realized that I work hard inefficiently. Which is dumb. I'm learning that I can do things better in less time. I’m taking tips from one of the most efficient people that I know, my most organized efficient friend My-Van the writer of Redesigned by M. She’s an interior designer and an efficiency genius! You should check her blog out. Especially if you’re about to move houses. She has amazing tips on how to move a house easily and efficiently. Moving Tips.On a side note: I would say that I haven’t received ALL of the results that I want, just yet. Nor learned all I want to about nutrition. This motivates me to keep study nutrition, continue juicing and eating more raw foods so that I see more improvements in my skin, my nails and energy levels..Juan has noticed that his skin is softer; his immune system is stronger; he feels healthier; his digestion is better; he lost weight 5.5 kilos or 12 pounds which after after he gained back his water weight he is now 3 kilos or 6.6 pounds lighter - not bad for 15 days, eh?What is even more interesting is that both of our taste buds have started to change. We now are craving more healthy, fresh foods. Overly processed foods are less appetizing. The pizza, the coca-cola, the ice cream, the coffee, don’t seem so tempting. This is amazing, because this means it will be easier for us to stay healthy in the future, because our bodies are now asking us for good food, we don’t have to force it to eat a salad. We actually crave one. Additionally this tells me that juicing isn’t just a fad diet to starve and deprive yourself, it is actually a way to infuse your body with nutrients that rejuvenate and reprogram it to WANT to eat good. Crazy, right? It’s like we’ve tricked our bodies... Mwahahahaha!In the end, all the tears and pain were worth it. And we’ll continue to juice every morning and every once in awhile we may go on 5 or 10-day juice fasts when we feel like we especially want to rest and clean-up our system. We will just have to make sure that we get plenty of rest and stay far away from other humans while we’re doing this again.. We aren’t the peppiest people when we are juicing. hehehe.So are you ready for the Cliche of the Day???Good! here it is ---> If we did it, you can do it. Lame saying, I know! But I’m actually telling you the truth. Because juicing in Korea was so hard for us that if you live in the USA or a tropical country, juice fasting will be easy for you!Here in South Korea, we faced a multitude of obstacles and still made it. We don’t have a car, we had to carry all of our vegetables from the store to home, AND our refrigerator is a little bigger than the size of a college dorm refrigerator and our kitchen isn’t much bigger. On top of that vegetables and fruits are generally more expensive and more difficult to find. All of this means that juicing is super inconvenient for us, but if you think being healthy is inconvenient, try being in sick in a hospital bed. Just a thought. So drink your juice and quit making excuses!
Final Question:
Do you want to be healthier? If yes, then ask yourself what can I start to eat to heal and improve my body? What foods and juices will give my body nutrition to heal and build my body?Well that is all for our juicing adventure for now, but not to worry. There are many more adventures to come for Juan and myself, as long as we can learn to drive better. :-)
Comment Below Ya'll :-)
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Read The Juice Fast Series
1. Juice Fast Introduction2. Juice Fast Day 1 ~ Juicing Resources3. Juice Fast Day 2 ~ Special Guest4. Juice Fast Day 3 ~ Think Long Term5. Juice Fast Day 4 ~ $$$6. Juice Fast Day 5 ~Juice Your Greens7. Juice Fast Day 6 ~ Keep Going8. Juice Fast Day 7 ~ Give Your Veggies a Shower9. Juice Fast Day 8 - Coffee Enemas and Detox Dreams10. Juice Fast Day 9 ~ Lazy Saturdays and Honey Masks11. Juice Fast Day 10 ~ What To Do with Juice Pulp? 1 of 212. Juice Fast Day 11 ~ Juice Fast Challenge: Day 11 - What to do with Juice Pulp? 2 of 213. Juice Fast Day 12 ~ How Do you Start to Eat Again? Step One = Make a Plan14. Juice Fast Day 13 ~ Happy Days!15. Juice Fast Day 14 - Cranky Days! & Transition to Food16. Juice Fast Day 15 - Before and After Photos
Cost Saving Tip of the Day: How do you save money when you juice? Look for sales! When something is on sale, just go crazy and buy, buy, buy, buy! And don't worry if the clerk lady in the supermarket thinks you're nuts for buying 50 cucumbers at a time. It's a free country. (Well, I hope so!) Also choose the produce that is in season and available in your area/country.In Korea we don't have the variety of vegetable/fruit options like the USA or the Dominican Republic. We have to work at buying smarter, but if we buy in the street market and buy the vegetables that are in season, we can stretch our dollar (won) super far. And the street market people will give you a nice discount too, if you woo them enough with your foreign charms and a few nice Korean phrases. ~ buying a lot and being a regular customer helps too. ;-)Story of Day Four : Today I set out to find what we spend in a day for juicing. It is cheaper or more expensive than a regular day of eating for us? Today we had a variety of Juices. Here is the run down of the day with produce cost attached.Green Pepper Carrot Tomato Juice = 2 Green Peppers, 6 Carrots, 4 Med Tomatoes $3 = 24oz of juiceMean Green Juice = 10 cucumbers, 4 apples, 2 lemons, a ginger knuckle, 25 leaves of Spinach, 25 leaves of lettuce = $7.5 = 78 oz of juiceJuan's Special Juice = 3 kiwis, 1 bag of spinach, 4 cucumbers, 2 apples, 1 small peach, 3 bananas = $5.50 = 40 ozPumpkin Cucumber Juice = 10 cucumbers, 1/2 Korean pumpkin, 1 carrot, 2 apples, 1 banana, ginger, 1/2 spinach, 1/2 lemon = $6 = 65 ozTomato Spinach Juice = 2 handfuls of spinach, 4-5 medium tomatoes, 3 green peppers = $2.50 = 20ozToday's Total = $24.50 = 227 oz of juice or 1.8 gallons of juice$24.50 for two people to drink juice isn't bad. If you're single only about 12-15$ a day., very doable. I think that this is a bit more than when we eat only at home, but less than days that we go out to eat. Also we are getting many more nutrients and fresh foods then in a normal day. The key to juicing on a budget is to know what fruits and vegetables are available in your area. In Korea, you can't go out and buy cilantro or celery or green apples here unless we travel far and/or spending a lot of money, but we can buy romaine lettuce and spinach and Pumpkin Leaves easily. There are almost always nutrition substitutes. You just have to look for them.Juicing Resource : Here is a great resource I found today from 
Tip of the Day: Ok so Day 3 isn't so easy. You're hungry, tired, achy and you feel like a fish in vat of green juice. What's worse is that there are 12 days to go and that seems discouraging,. This is exactly when you need to think long term. Fifteen days is nothing. Fifteen days is only 1/2 of a month and 4.16% of a year. You're just taking 4.16% of one year to clean the insides of your body. Not so bad, right? How much time do you spend cleaning your house? or your car? Probably a lot more time, and what is more important your house or your body? Also, think, What benefits will you gain from cleansing? Many things but let's pick one: --> More energy. And more energy means that you will have more energy to be amazing parent to your kids, to be a good boss and a better person. Because when you're tired and worn out, it is quite hard to really love people well. Remember 15 days is nothing, for you, your health and the people around you.Story of Day Two: From what people say Day 2 and 3 are the hardest of days of the fast. I think Day 2 wins in evilness for me. I had all sorts of cravings for anything and everything dry and salty. Mostly crackers and Pizza too. Day 3 was a bit easier. I woke up early, was immediately hungry, so I drank hot lemon water to detox, cleaned a bit and read the Bible, and then made a pumpkin green pepper juice. It was amazing! But I used almost a whole pumpkin, and I only was rewarded with maybe, 12 ounces of juice. Apparently pumpkins don't have too much water, but the juice was amazing so I didn't care. Though I had to make a