Valentines Day

Photo by Mayr on Flickr

With Valentines Day quickly approaching I thought I would share this post by the fabulous Freshtopia crew. If you haven't checked them out, well, you should!

Here is a quote off their "About Us" page.

Freshtopia.net is a fun and engaging place to come for news and information on food, sustainability and the environment. We’re enthusiasts of sustainability, healthy living, alternative energy, and treating the world and ourselves right… but we’re not yet experts. Help us grow. Watch, comment, suggest a topic. Try out the ideas you see here and let us know what you think. If you like what you see, let others know about it, we would love your assistance in building the freshtopia.net community. Let’s build this big green ship together.

The team is comprised of Tanya the host, Oscar the director and Barb the production manager. Together they creat shows that are fun and funky and oh so informative. They cover a variety of topics. When it comes to raw food they not only make some fantastic recipes and show you step by step how to do it, they also give some history on the different kinds of ingredients that are out there. On the green earth side of things they talk about bees, worm composting, an other green tips. The latest episode is all about the history of Valentines day and tomorrow they will be making a raw dessert to help celebrate. Since I am juice feasting, try it out for me.

Day 14

Photo by Green Apple Grenade on Flickr

Juices, Supplements etc. in order of consumption
Bentonite and Psyllium shake

1quart orange, spinach, celery
4 oranges, 1/2 lb spinach, 2 stalks celery
Yummy

1 quart romaine, swiss chard, cucumber, carrot, garlic, parsley, hemp oil, kelp
1 lg head romaine, 2 stalks swiss chard, 1 cucumber, 2 garlic cloves, handful carrots, handful parsley
Yummy

1 quart spinach, pear, cucumber, blackberries
1/2 lb spinach, 1 pear, 1 cucumber, 6 oz. blackberries
Good.

Only 3 quarts again. When I sleep in late on the weekends it is really hard to do a fourth quart. I would have to drink it at 9:00 or 10:00.

Weight
Starting 173.5
I didn't weigh myself today. Oops.

Sleep
7 1/2 hours

Exercise
None

Physically
I woke up feeling pretty good. I didn't feel groggy. I woke up on my own. I had good energy which I needed for all the cleaning we did!

Positive changes
Skin is smooth
Stomach is getting flatter
Heartburn is almost gone

Detox
Coated tongue
Sore in my mouth
Few pimples
B.O. today again

Emotionally
It was a good emotional day today. I didn't tackle any of the mementos yet so I didn't get emotional. All the other stuff I cleaned I was glad to get rid of and clean out.

Cravings
None.

Trash Bag Tango
My hubby and I spent the entire day cleaning our room again. I mean really, isn't that ridiculous? Our room didn't look that bad but lurking in the corners, drawers and hidden places of the room were all kinds of garbage that needed to get tossed.

We moved my husband's old dresser into the closet and it is so nice. We each have 3 drawers and now we can just go in the closet and get dressed. It's like our own dressing room. I feel so posh.

As the day wore on into night I was almost finished and I realized I hadn't cleaned up under the bed. I knew I should do it but I was so tired I really didn't want to. As I vacuumed I kept going back and forth with myself and finally I just moved the bed and did it. So now the whole room is clean with the exception of the memorabilia that is waiting to be cleared. I will go through a little every day until it is done.

Meditation
None

Ramblings
I didn't do any of my morning routine this morning except for the lemon water. Isn't that terrible? I just really wanted to get cleaning so I jumped in full force. I am planning on taking a nice shower tonight and going to bed nice and clean in my nice and clean room. It does feel good.

Now I just have to paint and decorate. You see, I have a ridiculously big bedroom. When I first moved into this house I put my king sized bed in and everyone that came to see the house said, "Now you just need to get a king sized bed." I would try to explain that the bed was a king and that the room just made it look small. No one could believe it. It is one of the few things about my house that I would change. It is such a waste of space.

Shortly after we moved in my husband lost his job and since then we have been living on a lot less money than we were accustomed to. Decorating the house has always taken a back seat to the kids' things so after 5 years we still have an unpainted bedroom with hardly any furniture in it. I am not complaining because it is a choice I have made and now I want to start trying to get it looking good. A little at a time will have to do.

I have been thinking a lot about Ann Wigmore and her teachings. I actually just completed a home study course of her work. One of the things she talked about was that fruit was good to eat in the morning because fruit is cleansing and helps you break your fast from the night before.

I am naturally drawn to sweeter things in the morning so it has been hard to try to have a green drink in the morning that isn't sweet and I have been enjoying my citrus in the morning with a bit of guilt. So I have decided to release the guilt and enjoy the oranges knowing that I am aiding in the cleansing of my body from the night before. Done.

I have some people reading the blog who are not too familiar with juice feasting and have asked what my morning routine is so I thought I would post it here.

Morning Routine
1 quart water with 1/2 lemon squeezed in
Five Tibetans
Enema
Skin Brushing
Hot/Cool shower
Moisturize with coconut oil
Floss and brush teeth, scrape tongue
Make-up, get dressed, dry hair
Bentonite and psyllium shake
Wait 1 hour to drink my first juice

This usually takes me about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Nighty night and sweet dreams.

Day 13

Photo by Tuija on Flickr

Juices, Supplements etc. in order of consumption
Bentonite and psyllium shake

1 quart orange, celery, romaine

3 oranges, 2 stalks celery, 1 1/2 heads romaine

Nice breakfast.

1 quart Bok Choy, celery, cucumber, blueberries

1 head bok choy, 6 stalks celery, 1 cucumber, 1 pint blueberries
OK, so I figured out what is causing my juice to separate. Finally. It is the...drumroll please...bok choy. This juice separated so fast and it got so disgusting that I couldn't even drink it. I am not sure you can see it that good in the picture but it was a clear liquid on the bottom and chunks of green on the top. Yuck. What a waste.

1 quart Romaine, Cucumber, Red Pepper, green onion, garlic, basil, hemp oil, kelp
1 1/2 heads romaine, 1 cucumber, 1/4 red pepper, 1 green onion, 1 clove garlic, handful basil
Yum. I struggle with adding more garlic because I love garlic but it becomes spicy because it's raw. I have gone as high as 2 cloves and it was a bit much. 1 1/2 is better.

1 quart Romaine, pineapple, celery, mint
1 large head romaine, 1/2 pineapple, 5 stalks celery, handful mint
Nice and light. I enjoyed it.

You can see that I had a lot of romaine today. I didn't intend for it and I didn't even realize it until I was looking over my notes. Also, I didn't have a full 4 quarts today but I was looking on the sheet to record what you eat each day and it says 3-4 quarts of juice so I had 3.

Weight
Starting 173.5
Today 163.5

Woo hoo! 10 lbs down.

Sleep
8 1/2 hours

Exercise

Five Tibetans
Full Day of cleaning house

Physically

I woke up feeling hung over today. I don't really understand it. I felt just awful. I was groggy, fuzzy and I had a headache. I could barely do the Five Tibetans I was so physically weak. I did my usual morning routine and felt a bit better and as time went by I felt better and better.

Positive changes

My tummy is looking smaller
My skin is sooo soft, it's luscious
I think I see my cheekbones trying to peak out from under the fat
My heartburn is so much better. It is almost gone!

Detox

Coated tongue (it looked a little lighter for a brief time today)
Had a bit of B.O today :o(
Pimples on my face which I almost never get

Emotionally/Trash Bag Tango
I had quite an emotional day today. I asked my husband to watch the Oprah show with me about the cleaning and this morning he agreed to help me clean out our master bathroom closet. I have a huge closet and it is chock-a-block with stuff. I mean tons and tons of stuff. It was quite a big project and I was doing good until we got to the back and I started pulling out my scrapbooking, memorabilia, and photographs. I have so much of it. Boxes and boxes.

I started thinking about some of the things Peter Walsh was saying on his show; "What do you want your house to feel like? Does this stuff accomplish that?" The answer was "no" but I am obviously so attached to all of it that I can't let it go. It is like a tug-of-war that was being raged inside of me and I lost it. I just started sobbing.

My hubby soothed me and reminded me that this is a process, one that can't be fixed overnight. We decided to push all of those boxes over into the corner of the room and I will go through them and weed them out tomorrow. I save too much stuff so I am going to go back and only save a few things that are truly special. I am also planning on getting some new containers to hold all the things I keep so that I am honoring them more and not just throwing them in an old beer box in and piling them in the back of my closet.

The closet is on its way. My mom helped a bit when she came over and we didn't even go out. We just cleaned. We did it all day and there is more to do tomorrow but it feels good and I know it is what we need to do.

Cravings
Does a craving from an organizer and a team to help count? No? Then no cravings.

Meditation

None. I am not even going to plan on meditating on the weekends. It is impossible in this house.

Ramblings
When I was doing my enema in the morning I was shocked and a bit disgusted at the smell of cigarettes that came into the room. I mean yuck. I used to smoke years ago. I haven't touched a cigarette in 13 years so how weird is that?

Also while doing my enema I noticed that my colon is higher up in my abdomen. It isn't where it is supposed to be but it has definitely moved up. I really can't explain it because I haven't had any huge release of matter from there but it has moved up so I will stop asking why and just be grateful. I still have my colonic scheduled for next week so I am really looking forward to getting a professional to give me some answers.

That's it for now. Think of me on Sunday cleaning, purging and probably crying. Exactly what I need!

Day 12

Photo by Robokow on Flickr

Juices, Supplements etc. in order of consumption
Orange, Spinach
5 oranges, 1/2 lb spinach
yum!

Cucumber, Apple, Kale, Romaine, Ginger
1 cucumber, 1 apple, 3 kale leaves, 1 head romaine, 1 inch ginger
Good.

Pineapple, Spinach, Celery, Mint
1/2 small pineapple, 1/2 pound spinach, 1/2 head celery, handful mint
Ooooooh I looooove pineapple and mint. Delish!

Swiss Chard, celery, carrot, red pepper, garlic, green onion cilantro, hemp oil, kelp
2 stalks Swiss chard, 1/2 head celery, 4 oz carrots, 1/2 red pepper, 1 clove garlic, 1 green onion
Spicy! It was good though.

I am trying to figure out why this particular juice keeps separating. I have tried it without the carrot and without the tomato but I still find crunchy chunks in the bottom and have to throw it away. I will keep trying.

Weight
Starting 173.5
Today

Sleep
hours 7 hours

Exercise
Five Tibetans

Physically
I feel good. I woke up feeling groggy and fuzzy but it lifted and then I felt good.

Positive changes
Skin looks good
I smell like celery instead of B.O.
I look more vibrant
Thinking has cleared a bit

Detox
Coated tongue
Hands are dry
Mucus in throat
Clear, fluid filled bump is back on my lip
I'm freezing

Cravings
Oh baby, bring 'em on! I was hit with a big one today! I went grocery shopping today at my Italian grocery store and when I walked in the door I was overwhelmed with the smell of Italian food! Oh the horror of it! It is my absolute favorite food on the planet. I love Italian food!

I did pretty good while shopping and then I was in the check out line and I started wondering why I have this attachment to Italian food. I wasn't really clear on what I was thinking but it brought up a big surge of emotion in me and I almost started to cry right there in the line.

Emotionally
When I got home from shopping I sat down and did a Journey process. Finally after 12 days I got my Journey in. I focused on the lure of Italian food and I was shocked at the power of the emotion that came up.

I went back to a memory of when I was a child and this deep loneliness and sadness came up. I went through the entire process and emptied out all the feelings of unworthiness, loneliness, emptiness that I had with the people in the memory and I was able to forgive everyone completely, including myself.

When I went to free myself of the attachment to this food I was surprised that I couldn't do it. When I looked deeper I realized that I had a strong belief around this food. Here is what came out; This food is my love. Wow, so powerful. How could I give up something that is my love? Well, I did a quick belief change and replaced it with a new belief that I am my love. That did the trick and I was free.

I can't tell you how powerful this process can be. It has freed me of so much emotional baggage over the past 2 years and now it is helping release my addiction to food. It is simply amazing.

Trash Bag Tango
I cleaned out a drawer in my kitchen.

Meditation
15 minutes listening to the Moola Mantra

Ramblings
I realized this morning that I didn't have my son's reality store this week. It is next week. It's so funny because I have this huge dry erase board on my wall that I sectioned off into a weekly calendar. It has a spot for each person in the family for each day of the week. I am so good about keeping it up to date so that everyone knows what is going on. It is only as good as my calendar though. If I write the wrong date on the yearly calendar then I end up doing stuff like this. Hee hee. Oh well, no harm no foul.

My mom is coming tomorrow night to watch the kids so my husband and I can go out. It is so funny because we are both at a loss for what we should do. We can't go out to eat. I am not sure I am up to being in a movie theater with popcorn! One addiction at a time thank you very much. We can't go to a bar, it's freezing outside so we can't take a nice walk or anything. We really have no idea. Any suggestions?

Digestion Part 1

In my quest to learn more about my digestive system I have decided to create some posts about it to share. I will be breaking the digestive system down into sections and today I am starting with the mouth.

All digestion begins in the mouth when we chew our food. The salivary and parotid glands secrete alkaline enzymes in the saliva that begin to break down the food. The goal is to convert the food into a liquid before it is swallowed. Failure to do so can cause undigested food to pass through the system and be expelled through the feces.

Chew your food, your stomach doesn't have teeth.

So often we tend to eat in a mindless fashion while we are watching TV or reading that we don't really pay attention to how much we chew our food. It is a good idea to take some time to relearn the art of chewing. You can begin by counting the number of times you chew before you swallow. It should be between 30 to 50. Once you spend some time doing this you will get a sense of how the food feels in your mouth when it is properly chewed and you will lose the need for counting.

When consuming something like juice and smoothies that are liquid but contain nutrients it is a good idea to slow down and "chew" the liquids. Swish them around in your mouth and do a bit of chewing to get the saliva production going. In her book Green For Life , Victoria Boutenko talks about the importance of chewing in more detail.

The tongue is a good indication for how your digestive system is functioning. There is actually something called tongue diagnosis where a practitioner can look for discoloration and/or sensitivity of particular areas.

This diagnosis goes all the way back to the Shang Dynasty (1600 B.C. -1000). It has been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurvedic Medicine. It is believed that the tongue body is an accurate reflection of the inner organs and the coating is a reflection of the Qi as formed by the stomach and kidney.

A practitioner who is examining the tongue will look for color, shape, coating, and moisture. A normal tongue has a general healthy look, is pale red, supple, not cracked, neither swollen nor thing, has no sores on it, has a thin white coat and is slightly moist.

If you would like to try your hand at tongue diagnosis you can go to the Beyond Well Being site where you can go through a step by step tongue diagnosis. Get a mirror and match your tongue up to the pictures they have and see what your tongue has to say.

One of the things that happens when we are cleansing is that we get a heavier coating on the tongue. This is said to be a sign that the body is releasing toxins. Not only does it look bad, it also doesn't feel so good and can smell bad too. So it is important to keep it clean and the best way to do that is with a tongue scraper.

They are quick and easy to use and will make your mouth feel and smell better. The tongue scraper isn't just for fasting, feasting and detox. It is good for everyday use to keep your breath fresh and to keep all that bacteria that likes to hang out on the tongue from getting on the teeth. You might even want to give one to your loved one so you can get some cleaner kisses. ;o)

I love mine and since my tongue is heavily coated right now I have been using it just about every time I drink a juice so my tongue won't be green. I took a picture of it and was going to post it but it looks so yucky that I just can't bring myself to do it. You'll just have to use your imagination.

TUT

I just wanted to let you all know about TUT which stands for Totally Unique Thoughts. I subscribed to their newsletter years ago and I can't tell you how many times the little thought is just what I need to hear. Here is what I got today:

The "easy way" is rarely the glamorous way, Michelle.

Tallyho, ho, ho - The Universe

Unless, of course, Michelle, you can see the glamour in baby steps and blue jeans.

See what I mean? How bad do I need to hear that? :o) They have the free newsletter, free e-cards, and they sell books, audio programs, T-shirts, screen savers, and more. They even have a manifestation cruise to Hawaii!

Their purpose is to use thoughts and things, to touch people and remind us all of life's everyday magic. Isn't that refreshing?

It is a real family affair at TUT. Two brothers, Andy and Mike Dooley and their mom Sheelagh Mawe are all a part of the website. Sheelagh has written several books that are for sale on the site. So check it out and you can start getting Notes From the Universe too.

Day 11

Photo by Chotda on Flickr

Juices, Supplements etc. in order of consumption

Bentonite and psyllium shake

1 quart Celery, Orange, Spinach

3 stalks celery, 4 oranges, 1/2 lb spinach

I really like the taste of this juice but I am wondering if it is too much sugar. I don't really know how to change it though. I will have to play around with it.

Celery, Romaine, green onion, basil, garlic, cucumber, tomato, hemp oil and kelp

4 stalks celery, 1 head romaine, 1 green onion, handful basil, 1 clove garlic, 1 cucumber, 4 oz tomato

I really enjoy the taste of this juice but it keeps separating and there are chunks of food in it. This is the only juice that this happens to. I don't get it.

Spinach, carrot, celery

7 stalks spinach, 4 oz carrots, 1/2 lb spinach

It was good for not having any fruit in it. It made my mouth burn a bit though.

Bok Choy, cucumber, pear, lemon, ginger

1/2 head bok choy, 1 cucumber, 1 pear, 1/2 lemon, small knob ginger

Yummy.

I decided not to post the water anymore. I will drink 1 quart of water every morning with lemon in it and I will drink a quart of water inbetween most of the juices.

Weight

Starting 173.5

Today 164.5

Sleep

7 hours

Exercise
Five Tibetans

10 min. on rebounder

15 min. house cleaning

Physically

I felt good today. I had a good amount of energy and my mind seemed a bit clearer. My stomach seems to be working better so that is completely exciting. I jumped on the rebounder while I watched the Oprah show I posted about earlier. I really like the rebounder. It warms me up too. Now when I get cold instead of wrapping up in a billion blankets I can just spend 5 min doing some fun jumping.

Detox

Coated tongue

Some low grade headaches today

Mucus buildup

Dry hands

Positive changes

I liked looking at myself in the mirror again today :o)

No body odor

Emotionally

Most of the day was really calm and I felt good. About 7:30 I had a huge rush of anger that came out and unfortunately was poured out onto my 15 year old son. Don't get me wrong, he deserved it but I have really been working on how I react to the kids by keeping my cool. I have been repeating "I release the need for conflict, I release the need for drama." over and over again and I even heard myself say it in the middle of my tirade.

For the past 3 days my son has been pushing my buttons and I have been doing really good not letting it affect me. Today, I couldn't do it anymore. I lost it. I am not proud of it. It came over me like a wave and rushed through my body. They say that when you are trying to make changes there will be tests that come up. I guess I failed the test.

I wonder if this detox is going to be bringing up more emotions for me. It will prove to be interesting since my main emotional issue has to do with anger. I have done a good job getting it under control as of late so hopefully this was just a little speed bump and I will be back on track.

It could just be living with teenagers. ;o)

Cravings
No cravings

Trash Bag Tango

I spent about 15 minutes cleaning a cabinet in my kitchen. I cleared out all kinds of crazy things that I haven't even looked at in ages. I set it all up for my mason jars with a little basket to hold all the lids. It looks so nice and feels so good.

Ramblings

So I have been thinking a lot about why I am having this emotional disconnect from my juice feast lately and it occurred to me that when I made the decision to do this I was having daily experiences with my inner self through meditation. Since starting the feast I haven't set aside the time for meditation like I used to. It seems that the juice feast takes a lot of actual time and mental time so I just wasn't making it a priority.

I realize that this must change. That I am a happier person when I am meditating (except for my anger episode today). So I will meditate for at least 15 min. each day. Now when I say meditate I don't necessarily mean that I will simply sit and meditate. Of course sometimes I will but I will also be listening to guided visualizations and my favorite the Moola Mantra. You can read about it on my other blog Michelle's Raw Adventure.

This is what I did today. I listened to the Moola Mantra for 30 min. and then spent another 15 min. in silent meditation. Oh, it felt so good. I really love the way I feel when I meditate. I was buzzing, and I mean buzzing. I could feel the energy surging through me. Love it!

The picture I posted today is in honor of the earlier post on clutter. I love, love, love the way those books look on the shelves, organized by color. How cool is that?

So, after saying I would post in the mornings from now on, I go ahead and post at night. Tomorrow morning I have to go to the high school and volunteer at my son's reality store. This is where the kids choose an occupation and spend the day trying to live on the wages. My son wants to be in law enforcement but he picked neurosurgeon for his occupation for the game. I asked him where the reality was. By the way, we both apologized to each other since I started this post so all is good.