Today is day zero. As in tomorrow starts my journey into a new and improved me. What does this entail? Well, it means that I begin my juice fast. Juice fast?! What the kale?! Why would you do that? (This is what I imagine people saying because it is what I say to myself too.) I have many reasons to do this, I’ll list a few.

1. I have asthma, severe allergies, chronic sinusitis, and depression; which means I am sick on average of one week a month. I am tired of being sick and I think that beefing up my immune system could aid in fighting these annoying conditions. Last week I had a chest x-ray and was told I had pneumonia again for the second time in two months. I’m sick of being sick.
2. I’ve spent 30 years eating crap that is destroying my body. I am 6’4” and weigh 290 (as of day zero). I compare it to a kid going off to college and partying until he graduates. I spent the bulk of my life partying with food, now it’s time to grow up and act my age.
3. I have a beautiful wife and three awesome kids. I don’t want to leave them widowed and fatherless. Plus I want to be a good example for my kids not a bad one.
4. After years of food addiction my body needs a reboot and to start over and learn what it really means to be hungry and what it needs to eat when it is hungry.
5. I am sick of taking endless amounts of medication (see No. 1), mainly antibiotics, steroids, and antidepressants. I would like to no take them as much or at all.
6. I want more energy! (Without the aide of caffeine.

So what is the plan? Well, I went out and bought a Breville Juice Fountain Plus and loaded up on a ton of fruits and veggies. My plan is my own hybrid version of the juice fast as seen on Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. I will have 4 (20 oz) glasses of juice a day. The juice I will make will be a 60%  vegetable and 40% fruit mix, made up of Kale, Swiss Chard, Celery, Carrots, Spinach, Beets (hence the name of the blog), Apples, Oranges, Pears, Lemons, and Ginger. (I reserve the right to add and subtract items from this list as I experiment.) In addition to the juicing, I plan on drinking somewhere around 100-120 ounces of water. That’s it. Nothing else. My initial goal is to do this for 10 days with the option for doing it longer. Once I stop I want to maintain a healthy eating lifestyle that consists of primarily raw vegetables, fruits and nuts with small amounts of fish and poultry. In addition to the juice fast, will be excising (primarily jogging/running) for an hour, 5 days a week.

And away we go!