Day 22 - Answering Questions

May 17, 2008

I was so tired today and just could not get a good picture. Hopefully tomorrow.

I thought today I'd answer a couple questions that have been asked:

Hi Melissa, Congratulations on completing week 3! I am curious about how often you drink your juice, especially on a "run around" day like you mentioned today. How do your days out and about differ from a more typical day?

(I left off the name because I am unsure about blogging etiquette...)

I probably drink a half to a quart of juice every 1 1/2 or 2 hours I think (I follow my hunger). Usually I make my juice in the morning: at least 2 quarts of some sweet juice and 2-3 quarts of savory. When I go out I take at least one quart of sweet and one quart of savory just so all my cravings are covered. I put a couple ice cubes into my juice jars, and if I'm taking the car I will take a cooler and put all my juices in there. I also usually take a canvas bag so I can carry at least one juice around with me - usually I'll put in two (one sweet, one savory.)

Today I had:

• water, lemon and MSM (I also took an enzyme capsule this morning)
• juice of two oranges with water, bee pollen and chlorophyll
• 1 quart green vegetable juice from yesterday (the one with squash)
• 1 Tbsp coconut oil, honey, spirulina
• 1 quart: tomato, celery, yellow pepper, onion, garlic, ginger, lime, cilantro, spinach, parsley, with hemp oil and spirulina
• juice from a couple young Thai coconuts (shared with Ella)
• some avocado with lemon juice and salt
• 1 quart: celery, cuke, carrots, ginger, garlic, onion, pepper, mints, greens, apple, lemon, lime, salt
• nettle tea
• 1/2 quart water with lemon, honey and MSM

Another question I received:

I am curious about the small amount of avocado that I see you've had along with your feasting. Is that just something you're for a reason? I thought maybe you know something I don't.

No, actually, avocados are not really on the juice feast. They contain fiber and so should not technically be eaten - it slows down the cleanse. I don't know why I continue to eat them - probably some emotional crutch that I haven't let go of, yet. (I also don't filter all the pulp out after squeezing my orange juice - yikes!)

Finally, I'm asked quite a lot about fiber, as in, "but there is no fiber! That's not really natural..."

It is true this feast does not contain fiber. For the best and complete information, please see www.juicefeasting.com. From what I understand, this juice feast is not meant to be a diet that is followed indefinitely. It is meant as a healing diet which can safely be followed at home (due to the high nutrient and calorie content, unlike something like extended water fasting.) Once people have reached their ideal weight and have NO health issues remaining, it is best to go off the feast, or go to a modified juice feast (watch David and Katrina's Day 71 video on www.globaljuicefeast.com. Basically a modified juice feast consists of a diet high in juice: 2 - 4 quarts, plus fruits and veggies, but no nuts and seeds.) This juice feast is meant to span up to 3 months (92 days) or so, when tackling health issues. If after that length of time health issues still remain, it is still best to come off this feast and go onto a modified juice feast, in which you eat healthfully in addition to consuming lots of juice (the Gerson diet is one example of this.)

The lack of fiber allows the body to go into a cleansing and detoxifying mode. The purposes of this feast are to: rehydrate, alkalize, cleanse and rebuild.

I've also been asked for some recipes and more about the supplements, so I will get to those soon!

Thanks for reading!
xoxo
~Melissa

Day 23 - I need a blue sky holiday...

May 19, 2008

Where is the moment we needed the most
You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost
They tell me your blue skies fade to gray
They tell me your passion's gone away
And I don't need no carryin' on
...Daniel Powter, Bad Day

I did juice today, but what made the day so BAD was that in Trader Joe's, I saw the doctor who was responsible for Molly's "care" (read: death). I always wondered what I'd do if I saw him...all I managed was to leave the store and retreat to a nearby yarn store and wait for Dave and Ella to finish shopping (and cry and cry.) To top it off: he has the reputation of being THE BEST doctor in all of Children's Hospital. Yes, the best they offer is a doctor who would not listen to us, over medicate to the hilt (until she was unconscious, therefore "more comfortable" in their view,) and not feed her for a week, then insist she's too thin (duh!) and needs G-tube surgery. This is why we all need to stay as healthy as possible and keep away from the doctors! And the sad thing is - I knew that - but I was at a point where I thought I needed some help figuring out what was wrong/why she was so uncomfortable, and I walked right into the lion's den.

Ok, enough of that. Later that day I asked Dave to take my week 3 picture, and that did not go too well, either. When I related the story to my friend Wendi of www.purejeevan.com, she told me to post the pics (and story) anyway, so here it is:

So first, I ask him to take my picture so I can put it up. He stays sitting on the couch and when he takes the picture it's at an "up" angle, and I look like a giant:



So I ask him to please stand up so he can take a level picture, but instead of standing up he just holds the camera above his head and clicks, but of course his hand moves and it turns out fuzzy and out of focus:



And finally, by the time he gets up I am so annoyed it's impossible to smile for a nice picture:



But anyway, you can still contrast it to my "before" picture (just 23 days before):



My juices today:

• orange juice with bee pollen and chlorophyll
• quart of gvj from yesterday
• quart watermelon juice
• quart delicious: tomato, cuke, celery, carrot, pepper, onion, garlic, ginger, spinach, sunflower sprouts, cilantro
• I also had my MSM, hemp oil, coconut oil with spirulina and honey, and avocado, which must totally be a crutch because after seeing that doctor all I wanted to do was EAT, so I settled with the avocado....

Day 24 - "Love Who You Are and Forgive" - Louise Hay

May 19, 2008

I found such an excellent juice feasting blog today: Michelle's Juice Feast. She recently finished her feast, and her blog is such a wealth of experience and information! I found it as a link on Penni's juice feasting blog (which I read everyday!) I am going to have to update my list of links.

Today was a strange day: freezing cold here in Pittsburgh, I could not get warm. (Typically I am a "hot" person.) I'm still wearing my shawl/scarf, and I went on the rebounder three times just to keep warm. I also kept drinking cups of red roobios chai with honey.

I craved tomatoes and cilantro all day...all I wanted was green veggie juice made with cilantro and tomatoes! I know that cilantro is supposed to take out heavy metals, and I read recently tomatoes are cleansing to the liver...but I'd like to find out more about these foods. (Actually, Penni's blog, that I mentioned above, has a recent entry all about cilantro.) I didn't want fruit juice at all, but I did have lots of orange and grapefruit juice, because I could use the hand citrus juicer, and Ella was sleeping in the hammock in the living room and I didn't want to wake her by turning on a juicing machine.

My sprout bag ripped at the seem...pulp was squirting out at I was squeezing it through. I'm going to pull out my Champion Juicer, and I hope that spinach greens, cilantro and parsley (and the like) go through there well. I read (on Courtney Pool's blog) that you can apparently get some sort of paint straining cloth at places like Lowe's and Home Depot that can be used to strain juice, but I haven't been able to locate it either online or at a hardware store.

Today I had:

• a quart of green veggie juice from yesterday
• 1/2 qt honeydew juice with 1/2 Tbsp chlorophyll (I actually made a quart of this juice with a Tbsp chlorophyll...but the melon was not organic, and it really bothered me! I got a headache and felt a scratchiness in my throat, I just couldn't finish it.)
• juice of one grapefruit and one orange with water
• 3 qts (throughout the day) of GVJ: tomatoes, onion, yellow pepper, ginger, garlic, cilantro, spinach, carrots, cucumber, celery
• juice of five oranges with bee pollen and water
• 1/2 avo with dulse, lemon and salt
• coconut oil with honey and spirulina
• lots of red tea/chai with honey (naturally caffeine free)
• extra water

I had a pain under my left ribs all day today; really bothersome. Thought maybe it was all the tea or possibly not enough water so I drank extra water but it didn't help. I'll try an enema within the next couple days.

Also, I was a total irritable crankpot today! Just so grouchy. Still felt emotionally down and heavy with sadness from yesterday. I think that what is going on is that I haven't been able to forgive myself and that is what is coming up, because I need to do that. The quote in the subject line: Love Who You Are and Forgive is from Louise Hay. I just heard it today when I was listening to her interview on Raw Vegan Radio.

And, my face is breaking out a bit. Detox, detox, detox (I'm guessing.)

Has everyone noticed the beautiful full moon tonight? It's so lovely. Last night, it was amazing as black clouds covered and uncovered it in incredible ways. I am awake a lot at night. It's nice to be able to see the moon out the window.

Day 25!!!

May 20, 2008

Today, since my sprout bag sprung a leak, I dug out my Champion Juicer. It worked pretty well! I had to cut up the fruits and veggies much thinner than I was used to (I could just throw big chunks into the blender and the Jack Lelanne's opening was big enough for whole apples!) Also, the motor got very hot with all the juices I made; I had to stop and rest it a few times, and also take some pulp out from over the screen a couple times. But, all in all, it seemed to work well. It did well juicing the spinach, parsley and cilantro, which was my main concern. The Lelanne does not do greens well at all: just spits them out the back. I did run the pulp back through the Champion at the end to get some more juice out of it.

Today I had:

• 1 qt watermelon juice (juiced with skin and all - organic) with 1 Tbsp cholorphyll
• 3 quarts GVJ: tomatoes, cuke, celery, carrots, onion, garlic, ginger, yellow pepper, spinach, parsley, cilantro, lemon (drank throughout day...am drinking the last of it right now)
• 1 qt apple, strawberry, celery, spinach
• 1/2 quart orange, carrot, ginger, spinach, strawberry with 1/2 quart water and bee pollen
• Also: coconut oil with honey and spirulina, spirulina and hemp oil in GVJ, avo

Rebounded a bit today to stay warm, didn't go out with D and E to walk dog - too cold. Though I wish I had gotten a walk in. I took a hot bath today and when I got out was light headed and shaky. Juice helped, but I do notice shakiness that I never had before when I'm hungry, which I hope does not continue throughout feast (and I hope I'm not throwing my blood sugar/body off in any way.) It was way worse at beginning. Still had the pain under left rib. Other than that...wow...25 days!

Day 26...strong cravings to eat

May 21, 2008

I wanted food terribly today. Getting Ani Phyo's book Ani's Raw Food Kitchenfrom our library certainly did not help. I should not do this to myself! But that book looks fantastic, so I put some of my books up on half.com. Hopefully I will sell enough to warrant me purchasing Ani's book!

Another great question:

Congrats on Day 25 - that is so awesome. I gave up on greens in the Jack Ll also - but I have been able to get baby bok choy to go through pretty well. I also have been loving a few asparagus spears mixed with fruits. How would I do greens if I dont have the Champion?

I was blending my greens in my regular Kitchen Aid Blender (I don't have a Vita-Mix) with a bit of water and other veggies such as tomatoes, onion, garlic, etc. Then I would strain the mixture through a Sprout Bag. Alas, my bag, which was a gift, has ripped at the seem. However, Dave found some jam/jelly straining bags at the Kitchen store in the Strip (for Pittsburghers!) - 2 reusable bags for $3.99. I didn't see them, though, and he didn't know if the holes/mesh were too big, so I can't say for sure. I may order some more from the link I put in, I've heard their bags are very good. And it's amazing...even after I juiced carrots, apples, celery, cukes in the Jack Lelanne, I put the pulp into the sprout bag and would literally get CUPS more juice out!

Today's Juices:

• 1 qt apple, strawberry, mint
• 2 quarts (drank throughout day) of same green veggie juice, but today all the greens were greens/wild edibles from the garden! (with hemp oil)
• 1 qt watermelon juice with 1 Tbsp chlorophyll
• 1 qt orange, carrot, yam, spinach
• 1/2 quart grapefruit, orange juice with bee pollen
• coconut oil with honey and spirulina
• lots of red chai with honey

I also did an enema this morning, and it has helped with that pain under my left ribs. I also went to a Mommy and Me type of yoga class this morning with Ella. I am loving yoga, but I really want to add some walking/running and even lift a little weights. I love working out - it feels so good to me! I just need to get motivated.

I also arranged Ella's books on her shelves by color today: red through purple (and black and whites at ends.) I saw it on someone's blog and it looked fun. It was. I'd take a picture, but she only has a few little shelves and it's not really that dramatic. Also, my computer shuts itself down when I upload new pictures, so I won't do it tonight, but maybe I'll take a few pics to post in upcoming days.

Day 27's confession

May 22, 2008


My dog Maggie

I'm just so proud of my dog Maggie today! At the end of Ani Phyo's book Ani's Raw Food Kitchen she has pictures of her raw vegan dog with dog treat recipes and dog feeding ideas - including giving the dog the ends cut off veggies (the ends of cukes, etc.) And so I thought about all my pulp...

We've fed Maggie various diets, following various philosophies, cooked veggie, raw meat and veggies, etc, and she doesn't seem to do much better on anything. She's such a great dog...but kind of low energy, itchy ears, and she's getting older. But of course, I would love to feed her healthy foods again (versus the dry dog food.) So I scooped up a big bowl of veggie pulp (no onions, though! Onions are not good for dogs,) but I knew she wouldn't eat it. She is a very picky eater and doesn't even really like dog food (which probably shows good taste on her part, actually). So of course, she did not touch the pulp. I sprinkled nutritional yeast on it, and drizzled olive oil on top, but she still wanted nothing to do with it. Then I thought about cheese - her very favorite foods are beans and cheese - and I grated a bit on top. Of course she ate the cheese, but she continued to gingerly eat around the bowl and eventually she ate nearly the whole bowl of raw veggie pulp! Go Maggie! So now I'm thinking about her diet again....

Today my juices were:

• water with 1/2 Tbsp msm and lemon
• 1 qt apple, strawberry, mints from garden with chlorophyll
• 1 qt butternut squash, tomato, garlic, yellow bell pepper, celery, hemp oil, spinach, cilantro
• 1/2 qt watermelon juice with chlorophyll
• 1 quart veggie juice with the squash (as above)
• juice of 1/2 grapefruit and one orange with bee pollen
• will have more watermelon and/or veggie juice because I am hungry.)

I am out of coconut oil! I didn't even get my treat today (coconut oil with honey and spirulina.) I have some coming from iherb.com (remember - you can use code MEL526 on your first order and you will get $5-off.)

Also out of yellow bell peppers and avocados.

Today I have a confession. Along with my avocado (which isn't actually on the juice feast), I grated a bit of carrot and chopped a bit of tomato and ate it with lemon juice, salt and dulse. It was a tiny plate, but so filling and satifying. (I was so hungry and had made D and E amazing-looking veggie sandwiches! I should have made my juice first....)

But anyway...I'm still continuing forward. Still counting up my days. All in all I feel I am getting lots of benefits and I'm doing fairly well...so onward.

Added a bit later...

So, after writing the above entry (and trying not to feel bad), I read in Matt Monarch's blog about the book that started his raw journey: Become Younger by Norman Walker (our library doesn't have it! I'll have to try one of those interlibrary loans....) Dr. Walker's keys to vibrant health were:

1. Eating a 100% Raw Food Diet
2. Drinking a Variety of Vegetable Juices Daily
3. Cleansing the Colon Periodically

So, ok...still doing ok. I even did an enema this morning.

Pulp Ideas - day 28 (week 4!)

May 23, 2008


before (above), and at the end of week 4

starting weight: 182
today's weight: 165 (lost 17 lbs so far!)

I'm sleepy today and it's only 6:45 pm.

I went running this morning (23 minutes) and then to my yoga class, which was nice. Today I drank juice while the family and in-laws ate food from a delicious Thai restaurant, not easy! My juice was intense: most of the greens were wild edibles including garlic mustard, comfrey, plantain, dandelion.... plus chives, arugula, spinach, kale from the garden. I think the garlic-mustard, chives and arugula made it quite sharp (and it was bitter, too, probably from the dandelion greens.)

My juices:

• pineapple, mints, plantain and comfrey
• squash, tomato, cuke, celery, garlic and wild edibles + garden greens
• watermelon juice
• juice of a young coconut (but then I also ate the very young, pudding-like flesh
• yam, carrot, celery, ginger, garlic, spinach
• juice of 1 grapefruit and 3 oranges with water and 1 Tbsp bee pollen

I also took six tablets of spirulina, put hemp oil in my veggie smoothies and had MSM (which I think makes me feel nervous/anxious...I'm going to have to watch that.) Also had roobios red chai with honey.

It's also hard to type right now because the middle finger on my right hand has a painful crack. (That's not meant to be complain-y, I'm just noting a symptom, here.)

And here's a response to another question: what do you do with all that pulp? People wonder about all the pulp generated by juice feasting, so I was thinking about some suggestions of use for it (especially to people who are also eating with juicing.)

• We have started mixing it into our dog's food. Today I put it in with black beans, nutritional yeast, olive oil and cheese and she ate a good amount. Just be careful not to have onions in it...onions are bad for dogs.
  
• compost it. We do this a lot and at least then it goes back to the earth and nourishes the soil we will use for the garden next year.
  
• If cooking: put it into muffins, pancakes, cakes, etc. If it's savory (like mine was tonight) I put it into black bean/mung sprout pancakes that I made for the family for dinner (oh, my, did they smell good!)
  
• put it into dehydrated flax crackers...yum.
  
• When I was eating cooked foods but juicing a lot, I would mix some mayonnaise right into the pulp (mostly carrot and some celery) and this was excellent as a sandwich spread! At the time I used regular mayo, but you could use raw mayo, too. It would make a good sandwich spread, cracker topping or dip.
  
• Use it in raw mock tuna salad. Ani Phyo calls for carrot pulp in mock salmon recipes.
  
• Use for raw carrot cake - especially good if you've made apple carrot juice! Can use the pulp and mix some raisins and nuts in, with some cinnamon, cloves or other spices...very good.

There are lots of recipes for raw carrot cake and mock tuna salads in raw food prep books, and recipe sites on line, like www.goneraw.com or www.living-foods.com. (The recipes on goneraw seem amazing...I cannot wait to try them when I am eating again.

So...hopefully this is helpful!

And finally...

who is that crazy lady doing a handstand?
:-)

Day 29: Water Fasting

May 24, 2008

my water, next to chive flowers and dandelion

Yesterday evening I sat down with the book Fasting and Eating for Health by Joel Fuhrman, MD(mentioned in David and Katrina's Day 71 video.)

Here is a quote from page 58:

"It is not aging that makes us sick; it is the stresses we place on ourselves that continue their insidious work over the years and eventually cause damage to the body."

After reading through some of the book, I was motivated to do a water fast today! Tomorrow I'll go back to juicing. One day of just water is sufficient for me for now. I'm quite hungry right now...but it's 5 pm and I made it through the day relatively easily (though I did drink a lot of water! Over a gallon, but I didn't keep track so I'm not sure how much exactly.)

I jogged slowly for 20 minutes today, and soaked up as much sun as I could. I have really missed the sun, and have been so cold lately (I'm usually a "hot" sort of person.)

But right now I'm inside, winding down, and it'll probably be an early evening so I can wake up bright and early tomorrow and have some juice!

Day 30 + Garden pics

May 25, 2008

harvesting comfrey from our garden - to dry

Day 30! For me that is monumental because I am often unable to stick with positive dietary changes for very long. I actually have quite a bit to write, but I am soooo tired. Last night (water fasting), I slept from 6 pm until 9 pm, and then was awake all night! I finally did fall asleep from about 4 am until 7 am, but wow, I am tired.

Today I wasn't into my juices at all. Nothing tasted great to me. I decided to go a week without nightshades (tomatoes and peppers) to see if that helps my joint pain and stiffness (more on this tomorrow). I did juice the last 2 of my tomatoes today, but I made another green juice without tomatoes and it was just yucky. Carrots, celery, beets (orange beets), garlic, lemon, greens....

I also made a quart of watermelon juice and a couple quarts of apple, pineapple, strawberry, mints and greens with chlorophyll. That was more palatable (as was the w'melon juice.)

The final quart was squash, tomato, garlic, greens, celery, lemon...and even that did not thrill me. I didn't drink all the juice for today and I am hungry now. Dave is squeezing me orange juice and adding bee pollen right now.

I'll write more about the tomatoes tomorrow, but now I'll leave you with pictures from our garden:

I never realized that sage flowers look like this:



Here is one section of our garden...see the cilantro in the close row:



Our fig bush (maybe we'll get figs this year!) with our blackberry bush in the background:



the bed of greens - lettuces, spinach, collards, chard:



Look at all the mulberries getting ready to ripen:



Our peach tree's first year for peaches! I hope they get big and ripe:

Day 31 - first tomato-less day

May 26, 2008

Teeny tiny tomato plant from our garden. Why isn't it growing? Maybe it's saving me from myself...

A day without tomatoes.

After 31 days of juice feasting, I still have quite a lot of joint pain: right ankle, left elbow, low back. Plus stiffness still in the morning as I get up and get going. I do plan to increase the MSM and I've begun to take enzymes now, but I decided to forgo the nightshades for a bit.

Here is what Frederic Patenaude says about tomatoes on pp. 62-63 of Sunfood Cuisine:

"The tomato is the most famous member of the nightshade family....but with all members of the nightshade family, it is wise to not eat too many tomatoes, or at least to not eat them everyday, because of their oxalic acid content.....people suffering from arthritic conditions should avoid foods from the nightshade family completely. This includes eggplant, potatoes, tomatoes and peppers."

And in Juicing for Life,Calbom and Keane say this on pay 52, under osteoarthritis:

"Try eliminating the nightshade family - tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, eggplant and tobacco. If symptoms improve even slightly, continue to avoid these foods."

So, of course, bummer. But, hey, once I am totally healed and free of all pain and conditions, I'm sure eating a tomato or two won't bother me!

Today's juices so far:

• juice of one orange and 2 apples plus chlorophyll and bee pollen
• 1 1/2 qt cucumber, celery, apples, orange, and garden baby greens and weeds (kale, collards, lettuce, spinach, lamb's quarters, lemon balm, brocolini.)
• peppermint tea (from a tea bag) with honey
• about a quart of butternut squash, celery, sprouts, cilantro, garlic, ginger, lemon with salt, pepper (oops! shoot), kelp, dulse, spirulina and hemp oil.
• red roobios chai (oh, does that have pepper I wonder? I'll have to check) and honey
• I'll add the rest tonight or tomorrow, probably some watermelon juice or some beet/carrot/apple...nothing made yet.

Other symptoms I'm having are strong pain (much less today, though) in my left armpit, and left outer ear pain (to the touch.)

Exercise:

I've been doing yoga in the morning for about 3 mornings in a row, now. Just a few minutes of cat/cow, down dog, plank, sun salutes, warrior, twists, squat, and then I end with handstands.

I ran (well...slowly jogged) for 30 minutes today.

So...how long is this feast going to be?

I still haven't decided how long to go for! I made the 30 day mark which was my first goal, because David Rainoshek says on juicefeasting.com that every day after 30 days doing juice feasting you go back 120 days. So, now I've started to go back in time!

The end points I'm deciding between are:

60/61 days, (two months) and then going into a modified feast, with pretty much the same amount of juice but adding a salad or other raw meal here and there (after the prunes and feast breaking, of course.)

92 days: the traditional end. The catch is that my mom will be visiting days 88 - 92. So, we'd drop her off at the airport and I'd come home and eat my prunes. Her visits are go-out-to-eat-every-meal type visits, so it may be nice to still be juicing, so as not to have to deal with temptation at my favorite restaurants.

100 days: because that's a nice round number, and it would end on August 3, and a week later is my birthday.

Possibly going to my birthday (107 days.)

Right now, the 61 or 92 day mark seems right, but, I'm not troubling myself too much about it just yet.

Day 32 - fruit juices yum, veggie...not so great

May 27, 2008

Cacao Tree at Phipps (surrounded by some kind of brilliant ferns)

Today I haven't been overly excited about my juices. Well, that's not entirely true...the fruit juices have been out of this world!

Juices:

• 1 quart: pineapple, orange, strawberry, carrot and mint
• 1 quart: borscht - cabbage (I'm not a big cabbage juice fan, as it turns out. I'm planning to make raw sauerkraut out of the rest - for after my feast), beet, ginger, garlic, scallions, celery, parsley, greens, apple, hemp oil
• 1 quart watermelon juice
• 1 quart celery, cuke, apples, cilantro and greens, hemp oil
• juice of three oranges with water, chlorophyll and bee pollen

I'm still waiting for my coconut oil! I really thought it would arrive today. And - you'll notice - no longer are avocados gracing my menus.

Edit: It's here! I'm eating it now with honey and spirulina. It's so good! Hooray!

It is not good when you notice while making juice that the juicer is smoking! I turned it off and opened it up - my pulp was burning hot! The engine was so heated up by the fiber on the celery and all the greens. So, I assume most of my juice was raw, but some of it certainly was heated above 105 degrees, sadly. Tomorrow Dave will pick up those jelly bags when E and I are at yoga and hopefully they'll work out. Oh, I can also sew the hole of the nut mylk bag closed. Then I can use the blender and squeeze method again for celery and greens. That worked quite nicely.

Here are some more picture of my day at Phipps (where we go so often that the cafe workers come up and ask me what juice I have today!)

close up of the cacao pods growing on the tree - they look like delicata squash:


there is a chocolate exhibit going on now (at Phipps):

Monsieur Mousse is a lucky fellow...imagining, of course, those are all raw ingredients: ;-)



And from the butterfly room:

Side note:

Maggie (our dog) is totally grooving on her new diet! She loves it, we love it, it's awesome. While not all raw, she is now vegetarian and she loves her meals. Tonight I made some white bean/mung bean pancakes for E and D. I left out the onions (substituting garlic, which is supposed to be ok) and so I was able to give her some of those. Also: lentils and rice mixed with chopped raw bean sprouts, yogurt and olive oil. In her earlier meal she had other supplements: nutritional yeast, kelp and egg shell for calcium.

Day 33

May 28, 2008

this is a beautiful salad I had made once for Molly, before I blended it for her to eat

Today is a rough day in that all I want to do is eat. And not just fresh beautiful salads...potato salad, the bean burgers my family is eating with melted cheese on bread.... It's 6:30 and I feel too tired to go for a run (but maybe I'll go take a walk). My energy has actually been quite low. I go to bed early and don't feel much like getting out of bed in the mornings. And my juices don't seem fantastic to me anymore.

Juices:

• 1 qt pineapple, carrot, strawberry, orange, mint (OK, this one was quite good, but now we're out of pineapple. If we had more I'd have drank only that all day.)
• 1 qt beet, carrot, celery, apple, greens, ginger, garlic
• 2 qts watermelon, lime, ginger, apples, greens, chlorophyll
• water of 1/2 young coconut (shared with Ella) and also ate about half the very young pudding-like flesh (shared with Ella again)
• Tbsp coconut oil with honey
• red roobios chai with honey

Though "bigger picture" motivation usually doesn't work for me, today I did think about "the big why" (as Karen Knowler says) ...about my past miscarriages and ill-health and my desire to have another child, that kept me from eating all sorts of things.

Day 34: Another rawking pulp idea - fermented veggies!

May 29, 2008


Today I had another idea for using the pulp: include them in fermented veggies!

I had decided to make fermented veggies so as not to waste the beautiful organic cabbage that I bought but did not like in juice. I LOVE making (and eating) fermented veggies. I even got to see Sandor Katz recently at our coop: I love his book Wild Fermentation.

I cut up the cabbage, added some of the pulp from my beet, carrot, green juice from today, added some broccoli from the fridge and some arugula from the garden (I love arugula in salads, and it is at its peak right now in our garden, but it tastes too overwhelmingly spicy to me in juices. Yesterday I gave most away to a good friend, and today I chopped some into the fermented veggies.) I mixed it all up with salt, kelp and some unpasteurized mellow white miso (which I have been craving!) and water. I've never used miso before in fermenting veggies, but I've heard of it being used. Then I stuffed it into a couple of jars (picture below), and it'll ferment on the counter top for a few days and then I'll refrigerate it until after my feast.



My juices today:

• 1/2 qt: watermelon, apple, ginger, lime and greens from yesterday
• 1 qt: strawberry, apple, celery, cuke, mint
• 1 1 /2 qts: beet, carrot, celery, apple, ginger, garlic, cuke, parsley, cilantro, sprouts with hemp oil and spirulina
• 3/4 qt: apple, orange with water and bee pollen

I haven't drank all the juices from today yet, and I'll possibly make more of green something later. I'll add if I do.

end of week 5! (Day 36)

May 31, 2008



I didn't get to post yesterday, but above is a picture taken this morning: after 5 weeks of juice feasting! You can visit here for "before" and "week 4" pics.



A couple days ago I learned about Black Locust Flowers from Anthony (The Raw Model)'s blog, and we had to go out in search. We found one just down the street, overflowing with ripe flowers! We harvested them and of course I had to try them (or I'd have to wait until next year.) They were sweet and delicious and would be lovely in juice. The one we found was really just past it's prime, but driving around we see them everywhere, so if another opportunity presents itself, I'll harvest a bunch more for juice and report back.

Here is a closer view of the flowers:



They look like pea flowers and the tree is in fact a legume. Here is more information about Black Locust Flowers.

My juices today:

• 2 quarts watermelon with 1 Tbsp chlorophyll
• 1 1/2 quarts beet, carrot, apple, garlic, ginger, celery, cucumber, parsley, cilantro, greens with hemp oil, kelp and spirulina
• 1/2 quart orange juice with water and bee pollen
• 1 qt tomato, yellow pepper, onion, garlic, cilantro, celery, basil, olive oil, lemon, salt - I decided to add the nightshades back in because a week without them didn't make any difference in my achiness

And back from grocery shopping, so I did chop up a bit of avocado with DULSE (which I was absolutely craving...still am) and fermented veggies. I wonder if I'm craving salt/sea veggies because I haven't been quite getting my full bunch of celery in every day? That would put me lower in sodium and probably craving it.

Oh, a special note: those jam/jelly bags from the kitchen store work brilliantly! Really, really well (dare I say better?) They are nylon, but don't have the tie string, instead they have an elastic band around the top. So I couldn't hang it up, but it didn't really matter - I hooked it around my big measuring cup and held it open, poured in the blended juice (yeah! The blender is sooo much easier to use and clean than the Champion!) and squeezed it through. So easy! So sturdy! I'm so happy about that! They were: Fox Run Kitchens (TM) 2 Jelly Strainer Bags for $3.99 at "In the Kitchen" - a kitchen store in The Strip (Pittsburgh.)

Day 38

June 2, 2008

Yesterday I ran the Greenfield Glide (5K = 3.1 miles)...slower than slow! And then my ankle hurt the rest of the day and I was asleep by about 6:30 pm. But I had fun, and E and D ran, too...Ella got a medal for finishing! Yeah, Ella! And our friends also went and their three children also all finished.

I drank a whole gallon of juice by noon, though. (2 quarts green veggie, 2 quarts watermelon.) I think I must have made more, but I don't even remember, and it was only yesterday!

Today I made:

• 2 quarts (though a lot of it was water) peach, raspberry, green apple, mineola orange + chlorophyll and bee pollen
• 3 quarts tomato, yellow pepper, ginger, garlic, onion, greens, cilantro, parsley, cucumber, celery, green apple + hemp oil, spirulina, kelp
• Also had about a Tbsp msm in water with lemon
• tiny salad of avocado, tomato, yellow pepper with lemon juice, dulse and fermented veggies
• I'll probably make some watermelon juice to take with me into work tonight (along with some of the green veggie juice)

Also, I must say a big THANK YOU to everyone who has been following my blog and encouraging me along the way! Your comments and emails are so great, and it's amazing to be out and about and run into people who tell me they've been following my blog. I really appreciate the support. Thanks again.

xoxo

Day 39 - Tips from David Rainoshek

June 3, 2008

Tonight I listened to the hour long interview that Kevin Gianni did with David Rainoshek, the man behind the 92-day juice-feasting program (though he explains that he learned about the concept of raw foods and juice feasting from his friend John Rose - ? - oops, not sure if I have his name right...should have written it down. Maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong.) The interview can be listened to on www.globaljuicefeast.com.

Here are some of the notes I took:

• Before juice feasting, it is recommended to buy a blood sugar monitor and test your fasting blood sugar first thing in the morning. Do it for 10 mornings and get an average, then follow this protocol:
  
  1. 70 - 85 is normal, you can have 2 qts fruit juice and 2 quarts green veggie juice
  
  2. 85 - 100 is pre-prediabetic, should drink only 1 qt fruit juice and 3 quarts gvj daily
  
  3. 100 - 115 is prediabetic (according to Dr. Gabriel Cousens) and should consume only gvj with no carrots, apple, yam, beets. At this point, you are considered insulin resistant.
  
  4. 115 + means you are diabetic and should see a doctor and maybe go to a center such as Tree of Life (his recommendation).
  
• We need to be juicing 2 lbs of leafy greens and 1 bunch celery a day (more on why to follow)
  
• Magnesium is 17 times as prevelent in the human heart as in other tissues. The chlorophyll molecule is identical to blood, except that chlorophyll (the green pigment in plants) has Magnesium in its center whereas blood has iron. The color of the heart chakra is green and greens literally feed the heart.
  
• Although fiber is an essential nutrient, we take it out on the juice feast so that the body can do cleansing and house cleaning, ridding itself of old scar tissues and inflammation.
  
• Reasons for juice feasting: cleanse, rebuild, rehydrate, and alkalize. Organic sodium (not table salt) is the main alkalizing material the body. When our body's pH drops the pH of our bile drops toward acid and gallstones form. Celery contains abundant organic sodium. In fact, David Rainoshek claims that 1 head of celery a day for two weeks is a cure for acid reflux (which he suffered from before finding the living foods diet.)
  
• other books and authors he mentions are: David Wolfe's Sunfood Diet Success System, Hero's Journey by Joseph Campbell, Helen and Scott Nearing's The Good Life, Eliot Coleman's Four Season's Harvest, Thich Nhat Hanh (Buddhist monk, poet, peace activist) and Hanh's Plum Village.
  

Today has been a slippery day for me, in that I ate a bit. I collected greens from the garden, massaged them with salt, oil and garlic and ate some with a bit of avocado, tomato and pepper and lemon juice.

I also was craving seaweed and so I soaked some wakame and made a dressing of honey, tamari, hemp oil and lemon juice. I felt quite full and tired after that and had to lay down a bit. The tamari was wheat-free, but not Nama Shoyu, so it was indeed a pasteurized food.

For juices:

• 1 quart watermelon, mint and chlorophyll from yesterday
• 1 quart green veggie juice from yesterday, which had kelp, hemp oil and spirulina
• 1 quart apples, strawberry, mint and chlorophyll
• juice of 3 oranges with water and bee pollen
• 1 quart of lemonade: water, juice of a lemon, ginger, handful frozen blueberries and honey, through straining bag
• 3/4 quart of the remaining green veggie juice from yesterday

I'm actually quite hungry now and could use more green veggie juice, but Ella is asleep in her hammock and I don't want to wake her by making more juice.

I've also taken MSM in water and lemon juice a couple times today, and am drinking water, nettle tea, and a bit of chai with honey (earlier.)

Day 40!!!

June 4, 2008

Wow, day 40. Today has been such a better day.

Last night was pretty bad: I must have been having some kind of blood sugar reaction, which I've never had before going on this juice feast. I think for me having too much fruit juice (the lack of fiber in everything, the sugar just makes my blood sugar sky rocket and then drop) throws me way off. Also, the honey in the lemonade I had last night seemed not to do me good. I should have done that blood sugar monitor thing before starting. Anyway, last night I was very woozy and light-headed, even as I lay in bed focusing on my breathing. I drank some really strong nettle tea and some water with chlorophyll, which helped but did not totally alleviate. I felt better by this morning.

Today I had mostly green veggie juice. I juiced my entire bunch of celery, plus a huge bag of greens from the garden (but was it 2 lbs? I don't know,) and parsley with tomato, ginger, garlic, onion, pepper, cucumber and one green apple, which made 3 quarts of juice (almost.)

I had two quarts of this (with hemp oil added) before having one quart of watermelon juice for lunch, and the rest of the day finished up the green juice. Wow, so much better!

I also had some coconut oil with honey and spirulina.

Twice I almost had an avocado or the rest of my green salad from yesterday, but a voice in my head said, "No, let the cleansing continue," ...or something like that, and I was able to walk away.

I read Penni's blog entry for her day forty (way back in April), and I really like what she had to say about the significance of the number forty. Interesting.

Day 41 - Greens to the rescue

June 5, 2008


Here is the big colander full of GREENS, mostly from the garden, but there were some beet tops from store bought organic beets in there. I juiced all of it for my green juices today. I think that must have been 2 pounds? I don't know, but it was a lot of greens! Plus, of course, the bunch of celery and the cucumber.

Our garden is amazing this year. I am in awe of it! The cilantro - which I've tried to grow many times - unsuccessfully - in the past, is flourishing. The spinach, lettuces, kale, chard and collards are overflowing. And then the wild things...! Last year I really started getting into wild edibles, combing our yard for lamb's quarters to add to my green smoothies. They were there, but I had to search and once I harvested them I had to wait for them to grow back to harvest again. This year: there must be well over a thousand, WELL OVER, little plants shooting up all over the place! It's like they said, "You want us? Here we are!"

And then our tiny tomato sprouts that I was lamenting over a few weeks ago...they are still small, but starting to grow. But, we have found two much bigger tomato plants that we did not purposefully plant...one growing in a large pot on the porch with a cucumber, and one in the garden in the beet patch, that are doing very well! And then...Dave moved our big compost barrel (not an easy task, but it was taking up prime sun/gardening space in our little 20 by 60 foot yard), and now, where the compost was, hundreds of little tomato shoots are coming up. Wow. I am so in awe of the abundance of nature.

So, today I made a gallon of green veggie juice. Celery, cucumber, tomato, ginger, garlic, onion, yellow pepper, green apple, and greens galore. Included were beet greens, cilantro, spinach, lettuce, chard, (I didn't even make it over to the collard patch today!), lamb's quarters, comfrey leaves, plantain leaves, quickweed...hmmm, what else? There was just so much to harvest out there! Oh, I thinned the carrots (carrots! we have never been able to grow carrots either!) and I didn't use their greens because I don't know if they're ok to eat or not (though I know I have sauteed them in the past when I was macrobiotic), but I put the tiny baby carrots in my juice. Fun! So, I made three quarts of that green juice (and drank it today), and then I used some of the greens in a carrot, beet, apple juice, which I did not get to today. My fourth quart was: apples, strawberries, raspberries, mint and plantain leaves. In that juice I added bee pollen and chlorophyll. In the GVJ I added hemp oil. I also had my coconut oil, honey, and spirulina "dessert."

But, I must admit, I did eat some raw food again today...and felt so full! I nibbled a couple peas right from the garden this morning (sooo good). Later I had a bit of avocado and the homemade sauerkraut, two small tomato slices with dulse, some green salad from the other day, and a grape or two and a strawberry. I was thinking, "Should I just be on a modified juice feast?" But then I think if I decide that, I'll just give myself permission to skimp on the juice and eat more, and it's a slippery slope from there to cooked foods (the pita pizzas (lunch), potatoes and peanut noodles I made for my family today sure smelled good!) So, I'll just buckle down and keep cheering myself on.

Week 6 Pictures

June 6, 2008

Top: Today, after 6 weeks of juice feasting; Below is the before picture

Wow, I really do see a difference. Which makes it stink even more that I ate some (cooked) food tonight. Yes, I am annoyed with myself. I was so tired and hungry after having been out all day and my green veggie juice was so oddly tasteless and uninspiring, which I have no idea why. I'm also stressed that my parents are coming Sunday and I know they'll want to eat out and they don't know I'm juice feasting and they are not usually supportive of things like this. But as my husband says, "there's no reason you can't go and juice again tomorrow."

Starting weight: 182 lbs
Today: 161 lbs

Today's juices:

• almost a quart juice of a bunch of oranges with water and bee pollen and chlorophyll.
• 1 quart beet, carrot, apple and greens with hemp (very good)
• 1 quart watermelon with chlorophyll
• 1 1/2 quarts green veggie juice: greens (I'll write about them below), yellow pepper, ginger, garlic, onion, tomato, cucumber, celery, cilantro, parsley.

Above are my garden greens and weeds that went into my juice today. You will see some nice big red clover blossoms on top! Today I've included information about some of the herbal greenery that goes into my drinks: comfrey, plantain, borage, red clover, lamb's quarters.

Comfrey: Peter Holmes, in The Energetics of Western Herbs Volume II, writes: "There is no doubt that Comfrey has always held pride of place as the foremost botanical for promoting tissue healing." It is mainly used for treating bone fractures, hemorrhages, wounds and ulcers, as well as all types of lung ailments, especially bronchitis. It is also particularly effective in treating painful arthritis, gout and the like.

Plantain: In Holmes' book plantain is categorized as "clears heat and toxins, reduces infection, inflammation and relieves swelling; promotes detoxification, removes lymph congestion and benefits the skin."

Plantain: Plantago Minor

Borage: Similar to comfrey, borage also clears heat in the lungs. It also relieves constipation and promotes lactation (great for me!), supports the heart and lifts the spirit. Nice. I had some in my juice today...I'll be sure to add some more leaves tomorrow. (The blue star shaped flowers haven't bloomed just yet in my garden.)

Red Clover flower: According to Holmes, red clover flower promotes detoxification, clears damp (a term used in Chinese medicine), dissolves deposits, relieves eczema and reduces tumors; promotes urination and relieves irritation.

red clover blossom on the left, lamb's quarters to the right

Lamb's Quarters: my herb book does not contain lamb's quarters...but this is one of my favorite edibles! Here is what wildman's website says: "This European relative of spinach and beets, which grows throughout the North America, bears large quantities of edible, spinach-flavored leaves you can collect from mid-spring to late fall. It's one of the best sources of beta-carotene, calcium, potassium, and iron in the world; also a great source of trace minerals, B-complex vitamins, vitamin C, and fiber."

close up of lamb's quarters

Much love,
~ Melissa

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Moving into eating again

June 7, 2008

Today I drank 3 quarts of juice, and ate some delicious raw food. It feels so nice to be eating again. However, last night after eating the cooked food I developed a symptom: a feeling of bloating, bearing down and slight pain (not really pain, just sensation of an area I usually can't feel), of my reproductive organs: mostly on the left but now it's both sides, around my ovaries. I did go for a very light walk/jog this morning which did not exacerbate the symptoms, but they have not gone away. I also did an enema this morning which I'm sure was good but didn't alleviate. I'm hoping that as I stay on raw food and juice it will go away, but if not I wonder if it indicates I really need to continue juicing (especially since the main reason was to heal my reproductive organs!)

I think (know) that the non-vegan cooked foods last night - though not a large amount - was just too hard on my system and not the best thing to do. I think that a raw food diet in and of itself is very healing, so we'll see. I'll revisit this mid-week, (when my parents leave), and see if it may be better to go back to only juicing. Though I'm sure I will juice feast again, I am hoping that the raw diet and juice will help me since I am really loving eating.

Also: thanks again to everyone with your words of support! It really means so much to me that you are following along this juice journey, and that you take the time to read and comment and email. Your support is so incredibly helpful!

Today's juices:

• 2 1/2 quarts beet, carrot, apple + the green juice from yesterday
• 1/2 quart orange juice with chlorophyll and bee pollen

And I ate:

• a couple pieces of flax/seed bread (Ani Phyo's bread recipe), split up throughout the day
• beautiful salad with greens and peas from the garden and tomato, celery, yellow pepper and cucumber with orange miso dressing (orange, unpasteurized white miso, olive oil, water, garlic and ginger blended.)
• flax cracker
• couple of dried sweet potato chips...after 17 hours of dehydrating they were still not crunchy! Just chewy, like dried mangoes. Do they just not ever get crunchy?
• slices of tomato and 1/8 avocado with dulse
• a prune and a date
• strawberries

I know the seeds are a bit hard on the system, too. I didn't eat all the seed bread at one time...I cut some into little pieces for crutons on my salad, had a 1/2 slice with the tomato and avo on top.

Other than the symptom I mentioned above (which is significant to me), I feel great, though, and very happy to be eating.

Moody mood ring, or miracle?

June 8, 2008

I had a nice day today: starting with an outdoor yoga class up on Grandview Park (Mt. Washington) overlooking Pittsburgh, through Breathe Yoga Studio. Before class I had 1/2 qt orange juice with bee pollen and chlorophyll.

I felt a very spiritual connection at yoga today. Most (all?) the instructors at Breathe have you silently sent an intention or dedication at the beginning of class and then check back in with that at the end, and today was just very moving/spiritual/connected for me in that way.

After class E D and I were walking around and E gave me her little ring to hold: a heart shaped white stone. When I gave it back to her I noticed it had turned this most beautiful shade of rosy/pinkish/red. I hadn't realized it was a mood ring (we'd only ever seen it white) so I explained to her what a mood ring was. But the whole rest of the day, no matter who held or wore the ring or for how long, it stayed white! Is it a mood ring? Did some kind of plastic kid's ring miracle occur? We heated the ring up, cooled it against ice, wore it, held it, etc, and it did not change. Hmmmmm....

Getting home I made beet, carrot, apple, ginger, garlic, cucumber, celery and greens (from the garden) juice...about 2 quarts. I only drank a quart of it today, though, which is less juice that I'd have liked.

I marinated a portabello mushroom (in olive oil, tamari and garlic) and had some of that with my delicious salad, ate an apple, some flax crackers and some of the flax/seed bread with avo, tomato and cuke on top. I also ate some of a raw cacao bar that my friend Wendi had given me because Ella was just so anxious for me to open it. She actually ate most of it. It had blue-green algae, cacao and maca in it and was quite good. There's a bit still left in the freezer.

Then we went to dinner with my parents and I had a lovely salad: mixed greens, raw corn, avocado, grape tomatoes. Simple but lovely. I had the cilantro lime dressing on the side, but the vinegar was too strong for me so I topped it with some of the orange miso dressing that I had made and brought with me.

Symptoms today: Constipation! I did another enema last night which was helpful, but I am back being bloated and painfully unable to go. I soaked some prunes and had them with me today, but didn't have the opportunity to eat them. Now it's late and I'm not hungry so they are soaking in the fridge until morning.

Guacamole at Cheesecake Factory and 'Zine-making

June 9, 2008

Two additional restaurant finds are:

~ At the Cheesecake Factory: made-to-order guacamole with a small tossed salad (not-so-small beautiful raw salad with lettuce, carrot, zucchini, beets and cukes.) I asked for sliced cukes to replace the tortilla chips with the guac order and I brought my own miso-orange dressing (but the guac itself actually made a great dressing, with a little extra lemon juice and salt over the greens.)

No tomatoes or salsas, though, because of the recent "Salmonella scare", which I feel may be being used as a scare tactic to make people fear raw veggies and so people will want the gov't to "take care of us" by doing things like pasteurizing almonds and mangoes and genetically altering things for our "safety." Of course, this is another entire issue, but I really do think the money is in keeping people sick but alive, and fresh raw fruits and veggies defeat this purpose and so are a big threat to the powers that be!

~ At Kassab's Lebanese restaurant: fatoush without the pita chips. Parsley, lettuce, tomatoes (oh yes, they used tomatoes...not that I trust these pale wilty restaurant tomatoes, mind you...I'm not saying there isn't salmonella out there, especially with factory farm grown tomatoes), onions, cukes with lemon juice, sumac, salt and other spices.

I wouldn't make it a habit of eating out on raw, but since my parents only want to eat out, I have been happily surprised to find these lovely options around town.

Of course, I did bring a big beautiful salad from our garden, with a delicious salsa I made with our luscious cilantro and some more of my marinated portabello. I ate that for dinner along with the fatoush. I also munched flax crackers and the flax/seed bread throughout the day, and had some soaked prunes this morning. Oh, and I ate the mint cacao raw bar Wendi gave me, and I did make (and eat a little) raw cacao fudge: pecans, shredded coconut, cacao powder, coconut butter/oil, honey and a tiny bit of salt and vanilla.

Today's juice:

• 1 qt of the beet, carrot, apple, green etc juice from yesterday
• 1 quart (split into 1/2 quart am and 1/2 pm) of orange juice with water and chlorophyll. The morning juice also had bee pollen.

I heard that the Carnegie Library in Oakland is doing a girls and women zine exchange at the end of July! I love zine-making, though I haven't made one since college. But I thought I'd make a zine about my 42 day juice feast. I am very excited about it. I'll probably write summaries/highlights/experiences of each week and add artwork, pictures, quotes, whatever! I'll put recipes and resources and lots of other juicy things.

Post-Feast Retrospective

June 11, 2008

Today I wanted to take a few minutes and share what shifted and changed for me on my 40+ day juice feast:

1. I was never able to allow liquid (juice, smoothie) to be a meal. This was both physical and psychological. I always still felt hungry as I was used to eating large amounts, and psychologically, it just didn't seem like enough. If ever I said I was hungry and Dave said, "Make Juice," I would get annoyed and not even consider it. In the morning, I'd try to have a green smoothie for b'fast, but then afterwards I'd also have French toast, eggs, whatever else.
   
   Now, I am able to feel when I am really hungry, and juice is incredibly satisfying. I can easily have it as a meal, or even go a day (or two, or forty-two) with just juice and feel satisfied.
   
2. I lost 21 pounds. I wish I had done measurements like many other people did, but sadly I did not.
   
3. I totally enjoyed water fasting for a day.
   
4. I was able to survive and thrive on just juice for 6 weeks. I began doing yoga again, continued to nurse my daughter, began running and ran a race (5K), gardened, worked and did many other things while only drinking juice.
   
5. I felt so much better, almost immediately, to how I felt before feasting. I was anemic from the hemorrhage and was able to sense healing on a body, mind and spiritual level.
   
6. I got more connected to an online raw community, met people through their blogs, twitter, and their comments on my blog! I also heard from people from Pittsburgh who knew of me through the Birch Center, and I hope to meet the people I have met only virtually soon! This aspect was amazing.
   
7. learned about things I hadn't before: enemas, bee pollen, MSM, and revisited closely greens and spirulina.
   
8. found I have a taste for savory juices! Juiced onions, garlic, yellow bell pepper...who'd have thought they'd be so delicious?
   
9. I have such an appreciation for raw foods! Now raw food eating feels decadent and so far I have no desire to eat cooked foods! Wow, this is amazing.
   
10. Have clarified my healing goals and started in that direction (what a great beginning!)
    
11. Am loving gardening and am amazed at the abundance of our garden! Am also loving those Anastasia books that I bought. She says that as your garden gets to know you (through your presence, touch, bare feet on the soil...) that it creates the fruits and veggies you need specifically to heal yourself. How funny that we have literally hundreds of volunteer tomato plants shooting up all over the place! (And at one point during the feast, I stopped eating tomatoes, though I craved them, because I thought maybe the nightshades were bad for my joints.) The mind knows so little compared to the energy field!

That seems about it for now. If I think of more I will add them. I am also going to continue posting on this blog...about my raw foods journey, my garden, wild edibles, a possible water fast now and then, and maybe even revisit juice feasting. I hope you'll stay with me!

Today I had:

• green smoothie with garden greens, banana, frozen pineapple and frozen strawberries
• quart of beet, carrot, apple, celery, cuke, onion, garlic, ginger, cilantro, green juice
• flax/seed bread with avo and tomato
• juice and flesh of very young coconut (shared with Ella)
• flax crackers with miso/coconut oil "butter"
• raw fudge: raisins, pecans, shredded coconut, cacao nibs and powder, coconut oil, honey, salt and vanilla
• nori rolls and seaweed salad with miso/orange dressing
• green smoothie with lamb's quarters, red clover, banana, frozen pineapple and frozen mangoes
• lots of water