I meant to share this graphic with y’all yesterday. It represents about 50% of the fruits and veggies I consumed last week. I would venture a guess it’s more than I consumed in the 3 months prior to last week. How sad is that? And I wonder why I’m in the shape I’m in.
I mentioned yesterday that I woke up with some swelling in my hands and feeling like I wasn’t quite hydrated enough. I ended up just doing a water (with lemon slices) fast yesterday to try to get myself better hydrated and to get rid of the swelling and, hopefully, some of the toxins the juicing is drawing out of my cells. I woke up this morning feeling much better.
I want to talk for a minute about the importance of monitoring your hydration status while juicing. Many of you will assume that the water consumed in the juices is enough, particularly if you’re like me and just are not good water drinkers.
This may be true if you are consuming more than 64 ounces of juice a day. But if you are not, you need to make up the fluid difference with water, especially if you have fluid loss with exercise. While the phytonutrients, antioxidants and other amazing properties of your juice are doing the work to clean out your cells, it’s the water that will flush these toxins out of your body. You must have enough water to do this.
The best way to tell if you’re getting enough is to watch your urine. It should be pale yellow in color. As long as you are getting that result, it’s likely you are getting enough water. On the flipside of that, you do not want to overdue the water intake due to the increased chance of water intoxication while juicing.
Here’s a tip for you: it’s better to drink your juices and water at room temperature. Drinking cold beverages is a shock to your resting digestive system. I know . . . I told you a few days ago that drinking your green juices over ice makes them taste better, and it does, but apparently, it’s better for your body to drink them warmer than that.
I’m obviously still learning.
(No, you’re not on the wrong blog! All of my Juicing Momma posts have been migrated over here!)