Well, officially I have begun my juice feast. I am now on Day 3 (if you don't count the two days previous where I drank 4+L of juice daily but still ate minimal amounts of food - a banana and some carrots sticks one day, for example... so really, those are nearly juice feasting days as well). Anwyays, the past two days I have had no solid food whatsoever. I am making some really yummy juices, including one that I just LOVE that is from Angela Stokes' book, The Juice Feaster's Handbook (available at http://www.rawreform.com/): Pineapple, celery, and red pepper. who KNEW this would be such a delicious combination?! (well, Angela, for one - LOL) I am SO grateful to have her book to turn to. It is such a wealth of knowledge and experience packed into it. I'd highly recommend having it beside you if you attempt to juice feast.
So far, no massive pangs of hunger. I did go on a nutritional analysis website one day and calculate out if I was meeting my RDAs through juicing and was delighted to see that I am, with just a few minor exceptions (my fat intake was low (I had 10g; they recommended 73g), and my sodium was half of what the RDA is(1000mg:2400mg); protein I had 30+ grams and they recommended 50). I was 1500 calories, where they recommended 2200, but I know that 1500 is not overly low. I have read various research that indicates people live longer on lower calorie lifestyles - like 1200-1500, not the 2000 generally recommended in North America. But good things were that I am meeting the RDAs for things like iron, calcium, potassium, riboflavin and thiamine, vitamins C & A. Oh, and OOPS, my cholesterol intake was only 0.57mg compared to the RDA of 300. I guess my raw vegan juicing diet isn't as unhealthy for you as the standard North American diet (I can't remember the last time I had Hamburger Helper or Kraft Dinner or a Twinkie).
And I had a moment of panic yesterday morning when I realized there was only one apple in the house. LOL I thought, oh noooooo, how am I ever going to get through the day without more apples?! But I did. In one juice I used pomegranate, in another I used frozen blue and blackberries, and of course there was that pineapple. So I managed.
I had considered adding my beginning measurements on here, but I'm not going to. I don't want this to the juice feast to be about weight loss. I want to maintain the focus on general health and well-being. So while I know what my measurements are, I won't be sharing them. I am planning, at this moment, to feast for probably 30 or 45 days, but will remain open and listen to my body. It may be that the best decision will be to end it early. In any case, on day 3 already, I am successfully juice feasting as we speak. :)
I am making sure I get an entire head of celery juiced and into me each day, as well as lots of greens (I'm aiming for 4 as the magic number: 4 bunches daily of kale/chard/spinach/lettuce blend/parsley - dark leafy greens). Apart from that, carrots are cheap here this time of year, generally. I bought two large boxes of org. apples recently and have them in cold storage at a friend's. I am finding cucumber juice is really helping clear my skin up (one long english cucumber juiced daily), but certainly do find the green juices very cooling on my body, so I am using ginger in the juices to warm up, and am not opposed to a glass of warm water with lemon juice and a little cayenne as well. That, and a hot bath or shower. :) I realized that pomegranates are quite expensive to be juicing at $2 each, as are pineapples and cucumbers, really, as well, at over $2 each. I calculated one day at nearly $30 of produce that I juiced, so that's not really affordable for many people on a long-term basis ($900/month per person for groceries?!). So I'll have to remember how affordable celery and carrots are. :)
Other than juicing, I completed the first half of the Taoist Tai Chi internal arts and methods Instructor Training on the weekend and really enjoyed it. I also did 10 minutes of sitting meditation both morning and night and a set of tai chi daily for the past 4 days and am amazed how effortlessly the discipline is coming to do this, and how much I'm enjoying it.
My favourite new kids book is called Peaceful Piggy Meditation by Kerry Lynn MacLean , that we picked up in Halifax at Drala Books on Grafton St (http://www.dralabooks.com/). Absolutely LOVE this book and so do the kids. A must-have, imo, for families. :)
Namaste
~n~
