I'm doing time.

I've recently been sentenced to prison. Food prison. They say you do the crime you do the time so I've sentenced myself. I've never smoked, I quit caffeine (never been a coffee drinker but guzzled diet coke) last November and I've never been much of an alcohol drinker. I should be in perfect health. The problem is that I've been eating very poorly for many years. I'm not sick but I don't want to get sick and realize that I can't just keep eating whatever without consequence down the road. I grew up in a mom and pop supermarket. We also had a bakery. It was a busy environment with a lot of easy and unhealthy options and I grew up never really eating what I should have.

I watched a documentary by Joe Cross, an Australian, on juice fasting while working late (Fat, sick and nearly dead). I told my wife about it since she's Australian and we realized that my mother had given us a juicer that has never made it out of the box. I decided to sentence myself to 30 days without chewing any food.

The reason I'm calling it food prison is because I'm assuming that when you go to jail, you don't get to do the things you like. You loose it all. It's an extreme punishment that will hopefully rehabilitate you into making some sort of change. Hopefully into making better decisions and break the cycle.

What is juice fasting? It's one of those extreme detox things. I've never done a detox before. For a period of time you just drink fruit and vegetable juice that you drink right after juicing in a juicer. No smoothies, just liquid juice and water. Nothing else can be ingested. The idea is that you're taking in more fruit and veggies than you could possibly eat because you are not taking in any fiber. Apparently you also get "living" enzymes and nutrients that you don't get from cooked food or bottled juice. It's a way to detox your body and give your digestive system a chance to heal up and sort of reset.

I'm in no way a healthy foodie type of dude. I definitely don't eat enough veggies/fruit (never have) and when I do it's usually cooked. I don't know if I buy into the whole thing (especially about the living enzymes ect) but I figured I'd give it a try. It's not supposed to be dangerous as you're still taking in (limited) calories and plenty of vitamins and nutrients.

I'm currently serving day 23 of my 30 day sentence. I have to say, it's been a lot tougher than I thought it would be. I'm definitely weak when it comes to food. It's a huge part of my life and who I am. I LOVE food. I find myself being kind of miserable about it a lot of the time. It turns out I haven't really felt a lot of the positives that others seem to advertise. Energy has been super low (makes sense to me as my caloric intake is much lower) and my head has not been "clear" since day two. Apparently you're suppose to get a ton of energy and your mind is suppose to be super clear. I'm still waiting for these things. My wife who is also doing "time" for 30 days has stopped getting her caffeine induced headaches and says she thinks she will give up caffeine. I'm sure that will be hard for her as she's a big tea drinker.

It's really weird to not have chewed for 23 days. REALLY WEIRD. I miss it, I find myself fantasizing about my favorite foods. At the same time, I'm really not enjoying this so I'm finding myself wanting to eat better so I never have to do time again. I'm actually looking forward to doing a ton of cooking. I went through the pantry and took inventory of all our spices and food and started making a list of wonderful things to cook.

Another interesting thing is I've noticed how important/big food is in my life. Socially it's been very awkward because normally when I hang out with friends it involves food and drinking. I'm also noticing that when I am around friends that food and the lack of it is mostly what I'm talking about. I'm sure that's extremely annoying to those around me(especially my poor wife who is also trying to get through this without thinking about food).

I didn't realize how much produce it takes to make a glass of juice. It can get really expensive if you're buying at the big supermarkets. Luckily we're about 5 mins away from a big produce market. It feels great supporting those guys and it has saved us a ton of money. Produce is literally 30-90 percent cheaper than the chain supermarket across the street.. It's been fun going there about twice a week. I've had a great time building friendships. My wife mentioned that we went from being on a first name basis at Five Guys (mmmmmm)to being a first name basis at the market. That feels good.

What do I expect to get out of this experience? I've lost a few pounds and I hope good things are happening inside my body. I hope to go to the market more often and to use juice to supplement what I eat. I also hope to cook more veggies at home and eat in more often. At this point, anything sounds good so long as I can eat it. They say you'll find yourself not being disgusted by unhealthy things but I'm not sure that's going to happen to me. I find myself craving all the things I've always loved. I'm a food guy. I just hope to cook more of it myself and control the quality of what goes in.

Can't wait to get out of this joint and get me some big ol' steak!



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