So far . . . and some tips on the whole thing . .

Hello everyone!

Having juiced several times before and currently on a 92 day juice feast, I thought I'd share some info that I can confidently pass along as fairly reliable evidence of the power of juicing.

Today marks my 58th day on a primarily juice diet or "feast".  So far, today, I've had one 16 oz. serving of a carrot/orange/probiotics combination from Jamba Juice, called Karrot Orange Karma. This is not to promote Jamba Juice, although it has been very helpful for me because I live in a rural area and far enough away from the grocery store that frequent trips can be challenging.  If I run late in making a juice in the morning before I go to work, I can stop there along the way and get my juice in.

I've burned out two juicers so far and now I'm looking to purchase a higher quality one.  I use the Jack LaLanne juicers and they're around $100, but I don't find them easy to clean.  I'm working on a wheatgrass juicer too and I'll be growing my own wheatgrass soon.

Here's what else I've learned:

I need to eat SOME solid food, either once a day or every two days.  If I don't my blood sugar falls and I become too light and airy.  I'm trying to identify what it is I'm lacking from my juices that causes this very passive, very complacent sense of being.  I'm already a relaxed, mellow personality anyway, as I've been practicing yoga and meditation for about 30 years.  I like this diet because it works very well with a contemplative period in one's life, and heavy food isn't conducive to a more athletic practice of yoga postures, so I feel the need to strike a good balance.  The poses I do while on the fast are more restorative than athletically challenging.

I try to buy the freshest food I can get my hands on.  When I don't, or when I overbuy and the stuff sits in the fridge two or three days before I can use it, I think its responsible for gassiness or indigestion.  I try to wash all the veggies and trim them once I get them home for easy access when I start juicing.

I use white vinegar and water, equal parts to clean the juicer, and then I run lemon juice over the parts to kill bacteria and freshen.  Baking soda is good for "scrubbing" the film that the juices make on the parts too.  I run all the parts through the dishwasher at night after my last juice.  I use a separate cutting board for the veggies I use to juice and a separate knife.  That way, I can wash all the parts of the juicing equipment and I know where they are, instead of allowing them to be mixed in with the other community kitchen stuff.  My husband and son are notorious for putting things away where I can't find them.

I also use colonics  regularly.  I like to put aloe vera gel in the enema water as its soothing to the colon, and especially for shrinking hemorrhoidal tissues.  Lavender castile soap by Dr. Bronner's is good too for cleansing the bowels and stimulating peristalsis.  If you use this therapy, go easy on the additions until you get used to them.  A couple of teaspoons of aloe vera in a qt. of water goes a long way.  Same with the Dr. Bronner's.

If I can't make a quart of juice for whatever reason, I will just make a glass, or even a cup, and get back to the quart later, but I always start the day with a GREEN juice.  My favorites are kale, spinach, and collards, but I add celery, cucumber, and/or green apples.  Green apples are better for keeping sugar spikes at a minimum.

I've lost over ten pound in this last 30 days, but I don't weigh myself incessantly - maybe once every 7 days or more.  I like seeing my clothes get looser and rely on that as a measurement instead of a scale since weight can change so much every day and even during one day.

I continue to drink lots of water, but again, I listen to my body first.  I've found its best to do this juicing fast with deliberation and reverence for your body.  Be kind to yourself and go inward to get better acquainted with those quiet yet powerful cues for what you need.  I allow myself to feel cravings and hunger and if it passes, I know its my emotions that are cueing me to eat, rather than my body's set point for hunger.  True hunger shouldn't be ignored, but in order to know what is true and what isn't, its a good idea to get better acquainted with how your body "speaks" to you about food.

These are some of my tips to share.  How about you?  I'd love to read how others conquer the challenges of this very wonderful way to eat.

Blessings,

deborah

Detoxing Effects of Poor Eating Habits . .

Like many North American girls born in the 50s, and growing up in the 60s and 70s, my diet was less than kosher, (and I'm not even Jewish), and I ate whatever I wanted, when I wanted, and as much as I wanted.  I scoffed at the basic concepts of good nutrition, having been raised on southern cooking that included fried foods, greasy foods, sugary foods, animal foods, suspiciously processed foods, and notoriously famous foods and/or drinks.  Pepsi-cola, Coca-cola, Hershey's chocolate, Nestle's chocolate, Chesty's BBQ potato chips, Frito-Lays, Marhoeffer weiners and bologna, and McDonald's, Arbys' . . you name it.  Anything with a household name attached to it and within driving distance was alright with me, even preferable to a sit-down dinner that might have something green as part of the fare.  Pizza, pizza, and more pizza was a staple in my diet.

With all this highly processed food, I stayed relatively thin and malnourished, until some maturity and 3 pregnancies later, when I gained around 50 lbs. with each birth of my precious babes.

Having babies and caring for them, nutrition becomes a subject of contemplation and discovery for a girl used to having candy and chips for dinner at times.  The 70s became, for me, a time of learning about healthy eating habits and how to develop them in small children.  I had to abandon, or at least control, my OUT of control urges to eat whatever was around, and try to focus on how to keep my childrens' teeth from rotting out of their heads, how to make sure their little bones were developing properly and how to let them know that while eating chocolate instead of rubber bugs wasn't exactly the right choice, it was at least a safer one.

A book known as "Diet for a Small Planet" made its way into my hands, and after reading it I became indignant about eating beef.  I gave it up.  I vowed only to eat fish or fowl.  I proudly added brown rice and some salads to my menus.  I started learning how to really cook - no, I mean REALLY, cook - not simply making a Chef Boy R Dee pizza and tossing it into the oven.

Thus began my deepening curiosity about food and how it affects us, or at least, me.  Over the years, I haphazardly tried many types of diets, some with meat, some without, claiming to be a vegetarian when I was only partially one, and knowing almost nothing about the harm caused to tissues by sugars, and the value of some good greens passing through the pipes.

While I was looking more closely at food as life-sustenance, as medicine, and as a lifestyle choice, food itself was being changed by farm take-overs, processing plants, mass production and its pitfalls, the advent of bio-manipulation, and faux foods.  The food I was eating was touted as healthy, but I was becoming sicker every year and somehow, I wasn't feeling any power from eating.  In my yoga practice, I learned from the theory of yoga, that eating is a grounding sacred activity and that it is life-sustaining and pleasurable.  Food is for eating, eating is for life, life is for love, and love is for eternity.

Yet, while we eat, we become less like life, and more like death, at least in our bodies.

Why am I writing this run-down on my history with food?  Better question yet is, why do I think of food as so powerful in its most natural state?

Because of the detoxing I've been experiencing.

No, I haven't seen any of the octopus-like parasites in my poop.  You know, those horrible looking creatures you see on health websites selling detoxification pills, teas, and the like.  Yuck.  I hope I never see them.  I would look away and flush.  The symptoms I've been getting are more like short bursts of illness.  Headaches, muscle pain, bouts of indigestion, fatigue, cold spells, and then sudden energy lifts, like one might have after a large dose of B-12 or a 5-hr. energy drink (although I've never had either so I wouldn't really be able to compare these).

These symptoms don't come all at once.  They come without announcement.  For instance, I've been on this fast for 49 days.  This morning I woke up with what felt like inflammatory pain in my hands, fingers, and forearms.  I'm a massage therapist, and I worked yesterday, but I only performed 3 massages.  I also worked in the garden too, so this pain seemed consistent with over-use syndrome which I've experienced before.  It hurt, but it didn't seem unusual to me, just a little more intense.

I was sheduled to make some videos at the health center where I work so I didn't have time to put ice on my hands, and I don't take ibuprofen, so I drank some juice and moved on out the door to get to work.  When I got there, I prepared to make the video, but I felt distressed about the pain in my arms and hands.  I mentioned it to the nurse and she recommended that I do a far-infrared treatment on my entire body.  This is a heat treatment that is warm but not hot.  Domes are placed over the body and the heat mobilizes the cells, increases circulation, boosts metabolism and burns 900 calories.  There is plenty of information about this treatment available on the internet, so I won't go into it in depth here.  Suffice it to say that after the treatment, my hands and arms were pain free.  Not too surprising since one of the treatments for massage therapists' hands are known as contrast baths, where the hands are immersed in first hot, then cold water and alternatingly continued until normalcy of blood flow is returned.  Now, here is the weird part.

Because of all the juicing I've been doing and the water I'm drinking, my urine has been clear, or lemon-y yellow if I've taken vitamin supplements before, or even very light yellow like lemonade.  Right after the FIR treatment today, my urine was a dark yellow, almost brown in color.  The pain in my hands and arms was gone.  The color in my urine, I assumed, was the evidence that my body was releasing some toxins through elimination.  Again, not unusually surprising, except that I'm only about half way through the fast.  In the beginning there is about a 3-day period of detox symptoms that everyone who does the diet experiences, quite without fail (which is why many don't continue).  There can be headaches, chills, fever, fatigue and sluggishness, sadness, brain fog, diarrhea and other nasty symptoms that signify your diet is working.  There is a continued mobilization of cellular wastes throughout the time you're on a live food diet until the diet ends, or until you are free of the most easy to release toxins.  Over time, and at some point, you will get to the deeper, older build up of crap that has been accumulating in your body from years of eating poor, over-processed foods.

This process can take time.  There may be more than one try, more than one month (which I've done before).  For the past 3 years, I've done some variation of fasts and detox cleanses.  I've seen my allergic reactions to the environment become entirely manageable with a neti-pot wash of the nostrils, to almost negligent and short-lived.  Its interesting to watch as these symptoms make themselves noticeable and then watch them quickly subside, usually in the same hour or two.  Sounds too good to be true, I know, but I am here to testify that because of juicing, I'm getting 5-6 times more vegetables and fruits into my diet, per day, and I'm losing weight and inches, and feeling better, sleeping better, looking better, and I'm less sick, if I'm sick at all.  It has taken a few tries, but I'm now confident that I'm on the upswing.

Its so interesting to me, that it becomes worth it to turn away from pizza, chocolate, and starchy snacks.  When I've had the right combinations of nutrient dense foods, its even easy.

With this, dear reader, I wish you Ad astra (to the stars).

Shut the Hell Up, Scale!

This is an image very familiar to a Libra girl.  Note the balance.

Last time I weighed myself I experienced a negative reaction to the inconsistency of the numbers over a period of several weeks.  It appeared as though I was eating and then starving, then eating again.  So, I figured I'd give it a rest, that obsession with some magic number - the number that would proclaim that I had reached my weight loss goal.

But weight loss wasn't really my first aim when I began the juice fast.  A number of health conditions that were mostly just annoying, rather than debilitating, were in need, finally, of extradition from my body.  No one but I could really witness these conditions, and no one but I could eradicate them.  There would be some work.  There could even be some tears.  And, there have been moments when tears might have come, but didn't, and it has been work certainly.

If I wanted to challenge myself, at my most basic instinctual level, I couldn't have chosen a more suitable task for it, than embarking on a 92 day juice fast.  Moments of "what was I thinking" came often in the early stages, and then morphed into, "what am I feeling at this moment?"

Around Day 30, I struggled so much with the desire for food I could sink my teeth into, that I recognized the struggle as "wrestling with the angel" for strength.  What was true about this challenge?  Did I really need to prove something to myself?  To others?  Was I just trying to lose some weight?  Did I really want to be healthier so badly?  Did I really think I could hold out?  These questions, though seemingly simple to answer, were actually reaching deeply into my psyche.

So, when I weighed myself and saw yet another rise of the numbers, and the ensuing discouraging feelings that came with it, I had to make a decision.  I wasn't enjoying the process anymore.  I wasn't writing about it any more.  I needed to eat.

I modified the fast.  I added a small meal.  I drank more water.  I did more research.  What I discovered was that I could eat that small meal and still maintain some weight loss, IF I met the condition of drinking at least two glasses of fresh veggie and/or fruit juice daily, preferably the green juice first thing in the morning.  Then, I felt villified.  I could EAT!!   Yes!  I got excited again.  I laughed at my scale and with my foot, pushed it to the back of the closet where it stays until the end of the fast.

Then something really exciting happened.  I began to get comments on how slim I was looking.  Even after my initial 10 lb. loss after two weeks.  I also started seeing my clothes get looser, and looser.  I even had to relegate a few of my favorite summer pants to a give-away pile.  One pair of pants were almost brand new, and I regrettably, but happily still, parted ways with them.  I chose to use this little act as a symbolic nod to change - in my body, in my attachment to my clothes, and to my ease in moving forward.  It felt like progress, at a deeper level.

Then came some comments on how good my skin looks.  Comments that came out of nowhere, unexpected, even questioned - by me, of course.

I'm beginning to see some balance in the scales after all.

I still have 43 days to go.  I know now, I'll continue with the diet, slightly modified.  I also know I'll not rely on the scale to indicate the change in me.  I've traded my tumultuous relationship with my scale for my newfound friendship with change, which is much more gentle and real.

"Mass is a measurement of the amount of matter something contains, while Weight is the measurement of the pull of gravity on an object."

Simple.

More to come.

The Tao of Hunger . .

Last night I felt hungry and I wanted to go to the kitchen and make some more juice, but I was tired of working in the kitchen and tired of washing the juicer, tired of juicing and cleaning up the mess.  Basically, I was bored and tired.  So, I decided to just observe my hunger and to tap into my emotional state.

Yes, hunger is an emotional state.  It really is.

Of course, hunger is also a signal from the brain that the body wants or needs food - but this signal is many times not entirely "true" to the body's physical level of functioning.  What I mean is, the more we eat, the stronger the signal, and the less we eat, the more "real" that signal becomes.  The "want" becomes the "need", the desire reveals itself as the addiction, and the discomfort changes to a resetting of the metabolic condition.

When I heard my brain demand that I eat NOW or I was going to endanger my health, I talked back.  How much had I already had today?  How much physical activity had I done?  Had I drank enough juice, water, tea, etc.?

I also identified the emotional content of this brain charge.  For a brief moment or two, I took the time to examine what I felt - some kind of comfort trigger, as in, instantaneous gratification noise, but "white noise", not really words or imagery.  It seemed to be coming from a very deep level of my core.

If hunger has ever been a part of one's life, as in when one is in college, busy with studies, parties, work or other activity, or even as a financial result, not enough money to eat in restaurants, or to afford expensive groceries (and with the price of food now, that's not even a far stretch), hunger can be familiar and not very threatening.  But, when someone is used to snacking when they want to, just for the taste of something, and gives in to the urge to eat to cover one's emotional imbalances,  hunger signals become more like drug dealers who hold out tempting "quick fixes" in order to keep us addicted and passive in realizing the true state of our bodies' needs.

Its not a danger to be hungry at times, it just FEELS like it is.  Hunger pangs can really be scary!  Think about it.  Next time you get hungry, stop, look, and listen to your body.  Drink some water if you have it near.  If not, close your eyes and take some deep breaths.  Google the hunger reflex and learn about what the brain does in order to create a response when your body needs food for nutrition, versus what is happening when it doesn't.  Could be interesting.

Just observe it.  Manage it.  Be present in it.  Then, if you need food, eat it, and eat it with thanksgiving and joy.  Relish in its taste and beauty.  How often do we look at our foods, particularly ones that grow from the ground, and think of the miracle of it?

I know I for one, have taken food for granted many times.  I've eaten it fast, half chewed, while driving, while working, while watching TV, or even while talking.  Embarrassing, yes - uncommon, no.

I cannot make juice while driving, or anything else.  I am REQUIRED to wash, examine, and prepare my fruit and vegetables before cutting into them and pulverizing them in the juicer.  This is a great way for me to take the time to be more conscious of that food and thankful that I can still buy it and eat it, and even grow it.

I'm now learning to respond to hunger with humility for the process, and take into account the nutritional needs of my body, not so much the emotional needs that have been, in the past, satisfied by food, and lovingly prepare the juice that will answer the call of my tastes, which are changing, and that will take care of me.

My juice this afternoon?  Kale, cucumber, peaches and lemon.  Later, sweet potatoes, celery, romaine, and hemp oil.  Even later, blueberries, strawberries, and beets.

Mmmmm, all that nutrition.  ;^)

Belly Fat

Belly fat is the curse of middle age. . . but its everywhere, no matter what age the wearer is.  Where a rather small waist formerly existed above my hips once upon a time, now there is the shape of an adolescent who hasn't yet developed the curvatures and musculature of the sexualized idealistic model body.

Not that I have EVER had the body of a model . . . but you get my drift.

When I look around in observance - I see people who've accepted their bellies as part of the deal, and I enjoy the lighthearted attitude of "living with maturity" that seems to accompany this acceptance.  The great thing about getting older is that some of the pressures of looking great have worn off, the edges aren't so sharp any more and neither do they need to be, and realization that there is more to life than constant dieting and exercise, especially when the reward is delayed or even short-lived, can be comforting to anyone who has endured years of struggles in this area.

So, I look at my belly, and although its not life-threateningly big, I realize that its not doing my any favors either.  Belly fat is mostly visceral fat storage and can be bad for heart health.  Typically, I have high blood pressure (called "essential hypertension" by doctors), and that little inconvenience is about all I can recognize right now.  Note:  beet juice is great for lowering high blood pressure and I'm making sure I get me some of that.

Avoiding sugar is HUGE in reducing belly fat.  Let me say this again.  REDUCE the amount of sugars, and HIDDEN sugars, and the belly will get smaller.

I've noticed a reduction in my belly of about 2.5 inches, just since I started this juice diet!  My weight is less, but its not as big a factor as the inches, simply because of the belly reduction.  Its about swapping carbs, not reducing them in number of calories or nutrient value.  In other words, instead of bread, reach for a peach!  ;^)

Day 14 and a different approach

Day 14 of my juice fast and I've got 86 days to go.  Whoa!  Time to look a little closer at my motivations for doing this.  If you're reading this, you might be saying to yourself, "this is crazy", and "I could never do that".  That's what I said.

I'm going to admit here, this is not an easy diet to administer.  I mean this in terms of buying produce, cleaning it, storing it, cutting it, juicing it, and cleaning up afterwards.

Today, I tried a new way of preparing my gallon of juices for the entire day.  I started with 4 brand new, clean 32 oz. jars with lids, the canning type.  I pulled out all the veggies and fruits I'd bought yesterday and started the process of washing them, peeling, cutting, and separating through all the leaves, stems, stickers, etc.   I went through a series of chuckles and curses over the fact that each and every apple, lemon, pear, etc. has an inspection sticker on it.  Comforting to some people maybe, but a nuisance when you're juicing pounds of the stuff at one time.

Then, I prepared my first juice of the day, which is more greens than other colors, more savory than sweet, but still easy to go down.  Celery, parsley, cucumber, apple, lemon.

Two bunches of carrots, with some lemon, apple, cabbage, and coconut water for another jar.  Later.

Five beets with greens, spinach, and peaches, along with coconut water added for another jar.

Lemonade with peaches in yet another jar, with some acorn squash added for the last jar.

I have lots of fresh tomatoes from my garden so I'll make some tomato juice later with some celery and parsley also.

This is my daily juice.  One gallon, broken up into 32 oz. jars, and into 32 oz. of juice in those jars.  Whew!

I'm truly grateful for Jamba Juice and The Daily Juice for the quick stops along the way.  Jamba Juice has started offering 3 veggie/fruit juice smoothies that really accommodate this diet when running errands in the heat of the Texas sun.

I

Day 7 - Reflections of the Juicing Lifestyle . .

Juicy stuff, this "juice feasting" - two machines dominating all surfaces of the kitchen, awkwardly taking up the dishwasher space, veggie and fruit pulp everywhere!  

The rule of this "juice feast" is that a gallon of juice is to be consumed daily.  That means a trip to the grocery every 2-3 days because celery and lettuce makes the base at least once or twice a day.  Anything else added is part of the fun and alchemy.

Who would think beets could be so good?  Ugly on the outside, but full of beautiful red medicine of the earth inside, beets are great for treating hypertension.  They can actually be pretty accommodating combined with other sweet veggies and fruits.  Carrots, white grapes, pears, or peaches, which are in season right now, and even their own greens juiced together with beets make a sweet, fruity tasting juice, a truly delicious morning drink.

The rule of this "juice feast" is that a gallon of juice is to be consumed daily.  Its recommended that the first juice of the day is greens.  One bunch of celery and one head of lettuce is to be consumed every day, regardless of any other vegetables or fruits that are added.   Any fresh made juices are acceptable as long as the caloric intake is enough to prevent cravings for solid foods.  1200 - 1500 calories is desired, along with plenty of water and tea to stay full.  

Avocadoes are a great addition to add fats for more density and more optimal absorption.  I had a "Dinner" juice today made from 1/2 bunch of parsley, one medium/large cucumber, 1/2 bunch of celery, 1 lemon, and a small avocado.   I also added some MSM powder with a citrus-y taste.

While weight loss isn't my primary goal for trying this fast, I've lost 7 pounds.  I'd be happy to lose more, but my main goal is to see my skin look fresher, my muscle tone firmer.