J. Todd Baker

On August 26th, My wife (Tricia) and I decided to have only juice for 100 days.

That’s right… no consumption of anything except water and fresh made juice for 100 days straight!

Pretty crazy… huh? To most people, this is an unfathomable goal. But after Tricia came across Jennifer Dawn Hewitt on Facebook, the motivation was there.

Jennifer at the time had just surpassed the 100-day mark of her own personal juice feast wellness journey. Her transformation was very impressive, but it was her positive attitude on life is what I believe resonated with Tricia and me. (KUDOS JENNIFER!)

When Tricia said she wanted to do her own wellness journey by consuming only juice for 100 days as her food source, I was on board without hesitation. So, we set a day to start the next week. On Sunday, August 26th, we both started our 100-day juice feast. As I sit here and write this post it is the morning of our 21st day.

Our progress as of day 21 of consuming only juice for 100 days

As the three week mark has arrived, both Tricia and I have lost just over twenty pounds each!

I actually am the lightest I have been since I was eighteen years-old during my freshman year at college. That was almost thirty years ago!

The incredible part is that my energy level is way up and I am feeling great! Tricia too is energetic and becoming more vibrant with each passing day.

However, the first week (especially days two to five for me) was a little challenging to get through. Tricia began feeling the effects the very first day, having bouts of nausea and headache.

By day two both of us had headaches and significant soreness of the lower back, hips, and legs. This was most prominent for me when sleeping or sitting to work.

Fortunately, it wasn’t unbearable and we both were able to push through it. By the end of the first week we were on our way to feeling good!

Tricia is documenting her wellness journey with a daily video log on her YouTube channel. Check it out to get another perspective of our juicing progress.

Why we decided to juice for 100 days

I have been a juicing advocate as a means for healing and good health for almost eight years now. However, I have not juiced much except for a few short stints and these instances were not juice only diets.

Up until the end of this past May, I had been on a whole-foods plant-based (WFPB) diet for about nine months. At that time, Tricia and I (along with our family) had a sudden change in living circumstances as a result of some unforeseen events. For about a month, we did not have access to a kitchen where we were. So, dining out and drive through was what we resorted to as our way of eating. This was a serious burden to our living expenses, so therefore, we had to eat cheap. Unfortunately, we were not financially postured for a sudden move. The strain of preparing to relocate impacted our ability to continue eating the way we had been.

This was a big change not only for me, but Tricia and the kids had been gluten-free for many years. Tricia and most of the kids have allergies and sensitivities to gluten. Therefore, eating this way was not the best thing for our family. But we did we felt we had to in order to make it through our rough spell. We both knew that this would be a temporary situation, but were not happy about it nonetheless.

So after about a month of eating pizza, fast food, and carryout, we purchased our RV and moved out the house we were in the past eight years. Fortunately, Tricia and I have been wanting to purchase an RV for many years, so we took advantage of the situation and went for it. At the end of June, we officially became full-time RVers.

Well, just because we had managed to change our living situation and now had a kitchen again, we still did not change our eating habits immediately. Unfortunately, we still were trying to recover ourselves from the ongoing financial burdens we were under. We continued to eat cheap and convenient foods while working on getting our expenses in check.

Well, fast forward to the middle of August, Tricia came to me and said she wanted to juice for 100 days after we had been eating bad for just over two months. She had been following a few juicing related groups on Facebook and was inspired by a series of posts by Jennifer Dawn Hewitt. I was excited that Tricia was the one who was pushing to do it, so I wanted to do it too. Not only did I want to support and help her, I also wanted to do it for my own health and wellness. We talked it over for about a week and then finally set the start date as August 26th, a Sunday.

Juice for 100 days: A wellness journey kickoff

Now, when I tell people that I am drinking only water and juice for 100 days, they usually ask, “Why 100 days?”. Personally for me, I know that giving my body three solid months of a wide variety and abundance of nutrients exclusively will allow for significant healing. But in regards to the bigger picture, it is a great way to impart new habits! These habits will replace many of the old habits. I truly believe it is a way to swiftly change my lifestyle, deeply impacting every facet of my life. This is my ultimate intention and serves as my greatest motivation.

Ultimately, it is to take my life back and to be in charge of myself. To discipline myself to get what I want from life. To be the one who gets to choose!

I am choosing to be healthy.

I am choosing to be present in the moment.

I am choosing to be successful.

I am choosing to be happy.

I am choosing to be the best version of myself that I can possibly be.

I am choosing…