Day 28

Photo by Gare and Kitty on Flickr

Juices, Supplements etc. in order of consumption
1 quart spinach, cilantro, yellow pepper, celery, cucumber, kelp, turmeric
1/2 lb spinach, 1 bunch cilantro, 1/2 yellow pepper, 5 stalks celery, 1 cucumber
It was pretty good.

1 quart leaf lettuce, cilantro, red pepper, celery, cucumber, garlic, onion, lime
1/2 lg head leaf lettuce, 1/2 bunch cilantro, 1/2 red pepper, 4 stalks celery, 1 cucumber, 2 garlic, 2 sm. green onion, 1 lime
This was delightful. I really enjoyed it. Since I was enjoying it so much, my husband decided to take a sip and he gagged. :o) It just goes to show you how quickly our taste buds can change if we stick with it.

more than 3/4 quart spinach, jicama, onion, lemon, red pepper, cucumber, garlic, kelp, turmeric
1/2 lb spinach, about 4" piece jicama, 1 green onion, 1/2 lemon, 1/2 red pepper, 1/2 cucumber, 2 garlic
I did not enjoy this juice. It was spicy in a weird way. I had to drink it rather quickly and I just couldn't choke down the last bit of it.

Weight
Starting 173.5
Today 157.5

Sleep
7 hours

Exercise
1 hour yoga

Physically
I woke up feeling pretty good. A bit sluggish but not too bad. My stomach is on its way. I am feeling like it is more underlying again where I can feel it is not perfect but it isn't so bad that I can't tolerate it. After yoga I felt pretty darn good physically. I was a bit woozy in the legs but I felt a nice energy surge.

I decided to do an enema today because I haven't been to the bathroom at all since my colonic on Wed. I didn't feel really horrible but I thought I should clean out. Let me tell you, this enema was much more "productive" than any of the enemas I had done before the colonic. I cannot stress the importance of getting colonics early in the juice feast. I wish I would have gone sooner.

Positive changes
Weight loss
Skin smooth
Face is changing

Detox
Coated tongue
Geographic tongue
Bad taste in mouth today

Emotionally
I had a good day. We went to a friend's house for dinner. I had just had a juice so I wasn't hungry. They all ate pizza for dinner and it was a little hard. I felt myself starting to feel sorry for myself and then I just pushed through it. I didn't get emotional really.

I found myself a little emotional during the meditation of yoga. It was a good emotional though. I was feeling very happy and I almost cried. I remember learning at the Journey that certain body types don't like to do yoga because they store their emotions in their body and that yoga will bring them out. So, if you are on a juice feast and you want to bring up your emotions so you can release them for freedom you might want to try yoga, even if you think you don't like it.

Cravings
I had a very brief craving for miso. It was just for a second and then it passed.

Trash Bag Tango
I cleaned out my purse

Meditation
None except the brief meditation at yoga

Ramblings
So last night, my friend called to ask if I was going to go to yoga with her. I said yes. When I got up in the morning I read Ben's comment and I thought, gulp, maybe I shouldn't go. What he said made a lot of sense. Then I thought, I can't cancel now. I will just go and get it over with. I have never been good about doing yoga at home. I have tapes and I just don't enjoy it much and I joined the health club so I could do yoga there.

Well it turned out fine. I had a few moments where I felt self conscious especially since the neighborhood hot mom was extremely flexible and strong and did all the advanced variations even though she had never once taken a yoga class. I just stayed focused on me and it seemed to work.

The guy who lead the class was a bit high strung for me. He played more upbeat music and talked really fast even during the meditation. It was definitely a physical type of yoga. When we finished I ran into another friend of mine who said there is another location and the yoga there was "boring." She said the woman who ran it was very slow and meditative. I laughed and said that sounds like something I would enjoy. I checked out the schedule and that club has yoga on different days than my club so I think I will go over there and check it out. It will give me a little variety. That club also had Tai Chi which Hanlie was talking about. I might try that too.

Even though I had a bit of suffering with being around pizza, pop and cookies today, I felt more grounded about it. My mind wasn't racing, I didn't feel panicked. I had this sense of knowing that I was OK. It felt good. I also had some moments of pure joy. The sun was out again and I enjoy the sun so much. I was driving to the store, the sun shining on my face, the music playing and I was overcome with this happiness, this sense of gratitude and love. I couldn't help but smile.

When I was checking out at the grocery store today my food looked even more unusual because I didn't have any fruit. There was a young guy ringing me up, a young girl bagging and an old lady behind me. The young people started asking me all kinds of questions about what I was buying; what do you do with this, what is this. Then the guy asked what I was going to do with my enormous jicama that I bought and I said juice it. They all looked at me like I was an alien. I then said that all of that food would be juiced.

The old woman behind me said, "Are you on a detox?" I smiled and told her that yes, I was. She then said, "I am going to get the detox foot pads. It seems so much easier."

Then the guy said, "That isn't healthy for you. You need to eat meat!" He was really adamant about it. He was under 21. I smiled and said that that wasn't true. He wanted to argue with me but I just smiled at him and the conversation ended.

Isn't it funny how brainwashed and lazy we have become? The woman who wanted the foot detox pads really looked like she could benefit from a real detox. If I had to guess I would say she was a smoker at some time in her life. You could see it on her face. As usual in this country everyone wants the easy way. The pill to feel better. Now that more people are hearing the term detox, they have to come up with an easy way to do that. Just slap on a pad and go to sleep. You will be all cleaned out in the morning.

Everyone I know has said, "I could never do that. It is too hard. I would miss food too much." And I sit and listen to them talk about how crappy they feel, how tired they are, about which medications they are on. I just smile and listen because I know they are not ready to hear it. Even people who have come to me and asked me what to do don't want to hear what I have to say. The thing is I start them off slow with removing dairy, removing packaged and processed foods, adding salads and smoothies to their diet. On the whole, they don't want to even do those changes. What do they expect me to do, wave my magic wand and make them feel better?

There has to be some self responsibility in this world. It is time to stop going to the doctors and blindly listening to them, taking whatever pill they give and hoping for the best. It is time to learn about your body, learn about the consequences of what you put into it, and learn about how you can heal yourself. Only then will we have the power to heal ourselves and free ourselves from this rat race we call medicine.

Sorry to sound so preachy, this post just took on a life of its own. I just started typing and this is what came out. :o)

Day 27

Photo by The Artist on Flickr

Juices, Supplements etc. in order of consumption
1 quart leaf lettuce, garlic, celery, snap peas, asparagus, cilantro, lemon, kelp
1/2 head leaf lettuce, 1 garlic, ton of celery, handful snap peas, 4 asparagus, 2 handfuls cilantro, 1/2 lemon

This had a nice taste. I couldn't even taste the asparagus.

1 quart romaine, cilantro, celery, yellow pepper, garlic, kelp

1 head romaine, 1 bunch cilantro, 4 celery, 1/4 lg. yellow pepper, 1 garlic

I love cilantro!

1 quart leaf lettuce, dill, celery, asparagus, lemon, onion, garlic

1 head leaf lettuce, 2 handfuls dill, 4 celery, 6 asparagus, 1/2 lemon, 2 onion, 2 garlic

Not so good.

You will notice that I had NO fruit today. I am going to try and cut it out and see how I do. The only time it was weird was in the morning. I always feel like I should have some kind of fruit in the morning.

Weight
Starting 173.5
Today forgot to weigh again!

Sleep
8 hours

Exercise
None

Physically
I have a bit of heartburn, gas and gurgling today. It has lessened a bit today. It may be winding down.

Positive changes
Weight loss

Skin smooth

Face is changing

Detox
Coated tongue

Geographic tongue

Bad taste in mouth today

BO again today

Emotionally
I felt good today. The sun was shining and it got up to 41 degrees today. You know you've had a bad winter when you are excited about being out in 41 degrees. I saw neighbors out walking with their kids that I haven't seen since Halloween. It felt fresh, uplifting and exciting. I was smiling a lot today.

Cravings
None, not even fruit!

Trash Bag Tango
I continued to work on my blue room. I cleaned through old magazines, cleaned off my desk, hubby helped me hang some pictures and I reorganized some things. I still have a bit of work tomorrow.

Meditation
I pulled the "soul" card from my Water Crystal Oracle. I only spent a few minutes meditating on it but I did place it under my water for 2 hours again and then drank the water.

Ramblings
I am an apple. All the women in my family are pears and I am an apple. I have skinny little legs and when I gain weight, I gain it in my stomach first. The women were all sitting around complaining once about their big butts and their "saddlebags." I told them that they should be glad because there are plenty of men who like a big butt; it turns them on. There aren't that many guys who like a big stomach. My uncle was quick to say yes to that. I guess he's an ass man.

So anyway, I was listening to Brian Clement talk about juice feasting and foods to eat to lose body fat in the stomach. He was saying that the new generation has given us some bright light on the subject of detox (juice feasting). He was saying green and sprout juices are so high in protein that they really limit the hunger in people.

He also talked about losing stomach fat. He said that unfortunately he can't give us a food but that everyone should be doing abdominal exercises every day, 7 days a week. He has worked up to doing just under 400 a day, every day! Wow. You might want to listen to it. It is only 3 min. long.

Speaking of exercise, I have been lacking in this area. I read what Anthony the raw model wrote on We Like it Raw. This quote was meaningful to me:

You MUST come from pleasure if you expect a new habit to take hold. By forcing yourself to do something that you don't yet WANT to do, even if you know that you really should do it, you will only secure your failure for later. Which usually happens after people loose the initial momentum of getting started.

I am going to invest in some audio books that I can listen to while exercising so that I will change my "limiting mentality." In fact, I am going to be all alone tonight. Hubby is playing poker, and all the kids are sleeping over at someone else's house. I think I might mosey on over to the bookstore and see what I can find. I have money that I found when I cleaned my room :o)

I was invited to go to yoga class with 2 of my friends tomorrow morning. We all joined the same health club that just opened up about 1 1/2 weeks ago. I haven't even gone yet. I absolutely am dying to go do yoga. The thing is I am having a hard time bringing myself to go with these two women. They happen to be the thinnest women I know and one of them is the neighborhood dream girl. All the men in our area, married or not, drool over her. I am feeling very uncomfortable going.

Now I know this is my insecurity talking. I know it shouldn't make a difference. I know, I know, I know. I just can't seem to get over it. I feel like even if I force myself to go I will be so self conscious that I won't even enjoy myself. It is so crazy and it just pisses me off! I will probably force myself to go anyway to get out of my comfort zone and because I really want to do yoga. I just want to do it alone. Keep me in your thoughts.

I was reading my Eckhart Tolle book, A New Earth at my son's basketball game today and the woman next to me started talking about it. She said she got it because of Oprah. Then my husband dropped my kids off at a friend's house and when he came home he said, "Amy wants to know if you are reading Oprah's Book club book." I love Oprah!!! How cool is it that so many people are being introduced to this because of her?

I was telling the woman at the basketball game that I wish I could just live in the book, roll around in it and absorb all of the words, all of the teachings through osmosis. That is truly how I feel about it. It is really touching me. I will leave you with a quote.

If you complain, feel self-pity, or resent being ill, your ego becomes stronger. It also becomes stronger if you make the illness part of your conceptual identity: "I am the sufferer of such and such a disease." Ah, so now we know who you are.