Posts Tagged ‘CHI’

The annual 92 day Global Juice Feast will be underway again soon. They added a 30 day Feast in January – the 92 day feast begins in March. This will be their 2nd annual Juice Feast. I feasted with the Global Juice Feasters for 35 days last March – quite a ride! Met lots of people from all over the world. I recommend it even if you only do a week.

I myself have been gearing up to do another fast. Preparing the body by eating less, eating light and eating raw. I felt called to do another extended fast for some deep physical and emotional healing. I’ll start in a day or so and listen to the intelligence of the body to see how long I should fast.
I realized that without consciously planning it, I have engaged in an annual cleansing or fast once a year for a few years. Most experts agree that an annual cleanse is beneficial to your health and longevity.

• I enjoyed a 35 day juice feast with the Global Juice Feasters in March this year. It was a blast meeting people from all over the world. I recommend it even if you only do it for a week. The site is a social network site so you can create your own blog, participate in discussions, upload photos and learn from each other.

• Last year I did a 21 day internal cleansing program that included eating very light, juicing, raw foods using the Blessed Herbs Internal Cleansing Program. This is a good “kit” to order if you need direction and dicipline for a lengthy cleanse. (As a designer, I thought the package design was outstanding) Everything is spelled out for you with the included how-guides. It was pretty cool, people noticed saying things like my skin looked so great.

• The year before that I attended the 2 week raw food fast and detox program at Creative Health Institute – (based on Dr. Ann Wigmores program)

• The year before that I did a week long juice fast.

I first learned of fasting in high school when I began the first of many years of yoga classes. It wasn’t until my 20s that I tried 3 and 5 day water fasts. I learned that for me, anything less than 5 days was cutting short the healing opportunity. 3 days is right when things start going easy, your energy returns, you aren’t hungry, you quit thinking about food every hour of the day.

Fast – True fasting is taking nothing by mouth except water. This stops the continual overloaded work of our digestive tract. When eating a SAD diet (standard American Diet) the poor overworked digestion never gets a break and often works into the night. This work diverts the energy from what it should be doing – healing, cleaning and repairing the body. Our amazing bodies are designed to heal themselves – we just never give it a chance.

Feast – When juice feasting, you are drinking only fresh juices and lots of them. Drinking 4-5 or more quarts a day you are receiving all the calories needed and there is no deprivation. Being total liquid (juices preferably strained through nut milk bags to remove all pulp) the digestion is given a rest. In the Global Juice Feast logo it says “Cleanse, Rebuild, Rehydrate, Alkalize.”

I had an interesting side benefit – I wonder if it had to do with being more cleansed and alkalized: I used to be plagued by mosquitoes – during mosquito season, I walk outside and will get 10 bites right away. They loved me. During the feast, I noticed that they would fly around me, but not light on my skin! I never wanted to spray toxic repellant on myself, so walking the dog was a real pain – I would get so many bites sometimes that I would have a histamine reaction. They would swell, my whole body would itch and it would hurt under the skin so bad. It was something I just lived with. So this benefit of the Feast was a real miracle to me! And it has continued. I no longer get swarmed by mosquitoes. When I do get an occasional bite, it doesn’t swell and itch and hurt all over.

Recommended reading for fasting info – Fasting and Eating for Health: A Medical Doctor’s Program for Conquering Disease by Joel Fuhrman, MD. Interesting overall good health info book – not just about fasting.
Recommended sites for Juice Feasting info – JuiceFeasting.com lots of info, but if you choose to do the paid membership (I did it for a month) you will have access to an unbelievable quantity of information you can download. And GlobalJuiceFeast.com – both hosted by David and Katrina Rainoshek.

Woke up really early feeling rested and energtic. Walked the dog, cleaned the kitchen and mopped the floor. Lots of energy! Made my first quart of the day.

2 pound weight loss from yesterday. Didn’t do the recommended enema – didn’t need to – twice. Also, I have been checking my blood sugar and blood pressure for the past few days. Both are in the normal range, though the blood pressure could be lower I think. Pretty good considering the amount of weight I need to lose.

It’s a wonderful thing to be connected through the Global Juice Feast to a world of awesome raw beings. I had given up looking for support and decided that I would have to be my own support. I wasn’t one of those that learned about raw and living food and changed overnight. After a rough start and finally discovering that cooked food is an addiction – (thank you Victoria Boutenko!) I am on firmer raw ground now. After I attended the 2 week retreat at the Creative Health Institute – I was on my way.

Last year I tried to accomplish a 92 day juice feast – but only did a few days. My body was not ready for it all. I’ve been mostly raw now and feel lots better and feel that this feast is different. I am so excited about it and the support on the GJF site.

Reading everyones blogging on the site shows me that we all have so much in common. When most begin to learn about raw – we inherently know it is the best thing for us. I’ve never been a fanatic about much but this can change the world!

I wanted to make sure I was using the word inherently correctly and looked it up: “existing in someone or something as a permanent and inseparable element.”
Permanent and inseparable is right. Some call this ‘raw food thing’ a fad. . . But as you all know – it’s most defiantly a lifestyle.

There was a time at the beginning of my raw journey that I wish I had never heard of it – because now that I knew it, I couldn’t un-know it. But I was only thinking that because I was struggling. Now I am thankful and happy that I am on the vibrant, healthy, raw living food path.

Today is Sunday. It’s is going to be a beautiful day. I’m going to spend my time today, cleaning, playing, planning, walking, juicing – while I have all this energy – ’cause I know the detox is coming…