uk Therapy

Juice Feasting.

This is the finally push on my bid for good health. Having gone 80% raw then 100% raw, then 100% raw with less than 10 % of the calories from fat, this is the final leg - juice feasting. (until I discover something else?).

I have come from a place of depressingly bad health, sleeping 18 hours a day, feet hurting if I walked on them, swollen and tender ankles, occasional swollen face, over weight and no energy what so ever, mind fog, depression and aches and pains everywhere. I had begun to wonder if life was worth living or if indeed I was going to have an option to live very long I felt that unwell. I had been hospitalized once for ten days for extreme pain just all over my body with no apparent cause.

In search of better health I kept coming across testimonies from people eating nothing but raw food.

I went 80% raw for 30 days in 2007 and found it hard. But I did see an improvement in my health and gradually 80% didn’t seem like such a big deal.

I then tried to go 100% for 30 days. This I found even harder. There were more slip ups towards the end and I finished up feeling pretty unimpressed by my efforts but my health had improved. By this time I was no longer sleeping 18 hours a day and I wasn’t just sitting when I wasn't asleep, I was active to a degree.  I still had brain fog and aches and pains but things had improved. I couldn’t maintain 100% and slipped back into 80% and occasional total regression that left me bed bound and feeling terrible. But I kept aiming for 100%raw. I just felt it was the answer.

By 2008 I felt strong enough to sign up to a raw food on-line boot camp.100% raw with 10% or less of calories from fat. Check-in's every morning, short written assignments everyday, a commitment to walk a minimum of an hour a day.

This had great results. After the first month I felt very much better. My energy increased, my sleep decreased and nearly all my symptoms disappeared. I had a 4 day break at the end of the 30 days and then decided to go for month number two. This saw the end to nearly all my symptoms but by then I was beginning to find the commitment to walking, (now built up 2 hours a day, at the briskest pace possible and including some steep hills) very hard. Also  the assignments took such a big chunk of my day there seemed to be little time for anything else. Not heeding these warning signs at the end of that month I choose to do one more month.

As is my way with many things in my life this last month was me over doing things. I push myself with the walking and I increased my expectation of how much better I could feel. I became disappointed at slow improvements in the tiny last elements of health improvement and my body began to object to being pushed in every direction 7 days a week. I finished the last of these 3 months exhausted with a painful knee.

But my over all health had improve dramatically, I was sleeping less than 9 hours a day, no swollen ankles, no aching bones, no stomach troubles, the bags under my eyes had just vanished ( raw food seems to do that for me!), I had lost 25 pounds in weight and felt and looked 10 years younger.

It has taken 2 years for some but not all, of the weight to sneak back on. In this two years I have wobbled between long periods of 100%raw, shorter periods of 80%raw with occasional days of abandonment.  Boiled potatoes are now  my weakness where  chocolate once stood. My whole mind set has shifted and I feel like I have fallen off the health wagon if I steam my vegetables -  which is a far cry from my old ways of ordering a take away pizza and 6 beers!

However, just recently, I have been seeing old ailments beginning to reappear and disappear in passing visits. My hips ache to some degree pretty continuously at night, the result of years of Karate and kick boxing training no doubt. So having slipped back a bit, still experiencing a brain fog and still not bursting with energy I began to wonder if I should take action.

Then I started with a migraine which wouldn’t go away. It continued for 4 days and then I took to my bed for 2 days and so I felt forced into taking drastic action and decided to embark on a juice feast.

This is not to be confused with juice fasting. When you fast you take in less calories than you need. With juice feasting you have 4 quart (roughly 4 liters) of vegetables and fruit juice a day. This is all the calories you need to carry on you normal life but the beauty of it is that you do not use  the same amount of energy digesting and the juice is just packed with vitamins and mineral so your body gets an abundance of good stuff for very little effort. The energy not used on the usual tasks of breaking down food is use to repair the body, where ever it needs rejuvenation.

People have had life changing experiences whilst juice feasting and illnesses have been turned around.

So when my migraine ease to bearable for an hour  I read about juicefeasting on line and happening to  have vegetables to spare that day. I didn't prepare for my juicefeast and nor did I have support. I just decided on a whim (or rather pushed by the relentless pain and nausea of the migraine). I didn’t even consider how long I was going to feast for, just each day as it came, as long as the migraine went away I didn’t care..

These are the notes from my diary ;

Day 1

Need to juice 2lbs of leafy veg including one bunch of celery each day. Celery is full of organic sodium, which is one of most important alkalinizing minerals. The idea of juice feasting, apart from giving your digestion a rest, is to re-alkalinize the body. Diets that include meat, dairy, wheat, processed sugar, is acid forming leading to various ailments. Putting  organic sodium into your body will reduce or even eliminate acid reflux disease, ease gastric discomfort, heal the lining of the stomach, help digestion of proteins, and alkalinize the bile of the liver and gallbladder (the acid gives you gallstones). Well, that’s what I read.

Today I juiced spinach, celery, cucumber, romaine lettuce and apples. I juiced 4quarts and it took two hours with my little Moulinex juicer. Bit of a drag.

Took my first sip and my body did an internal back flip. It responded like it was suddenly getting everything it had been missing and it was electric. Each quart had the same affect on me through the day -amazing.

My migraine is at a livable level but getting me down emotionally.

Day 2

I couldn’t wait for my first juice of the day. My body zinged with pleasure.

Felt like I wanted to crunch on something in the evening but didn’t.

Migraine still lingering on it’s 8^th day!

Day 4

It is Sunday and I have been reading up on things I will need if I am going to do this juice feasting for any length of time. There is quite a list of supplements I need which I don’t suppose I will be able to get (nor afford) where I live.

One day at a time. If I am still juice feasting after a week I may buy some of the things recommended. What I need tomorrow is more vegetables.

Migraine could possibly be classed as a headache now. Yipee!

Day 5

Time to go shopping.

I went to local market and bought for the next 5-7 days:

10bls of spinach

10bls of carrot

5 heads of celery

10 cucumbers

7 artichokes (very expensive so I felt I had to restrict these, which was just as well because they yielded very little juice. I thought to include them because one artichoke provides 6% of the Recommended Daily Value of phosphorus, 10% of magnesium, 8% of manganese, 10% of chromium, 5% of potassium, 4% of iron and 2% of calcium and iron.)

23 apples

5 fennel roots

I bunch of baby beetroots with greens.

I left a lot of smiling faces in the market.

They do say that the produce for juice feasting should be organic so I choose the stalls at the mark that looked like they were just local men who had grown a few extra bits of produce and where trying to make an extra euro or two, rather than the big stalls with boxed produce that showed signs of fertilizer and weedkiller. I figured that the local men would probably not bother doing much more than stick the seeds in the ground and hope to get lucky. I look for aphids and slug trail and found plenty. I cannot afford organic and these men looked like they needed my trade. When I left everyone happy.

The kitchen is overflowing with produce so I have lined up boxes in the hall and….. no headache!

Day 6

I think I need a bigger juicer. My little Moulinex does fine but the opening to put the produce in is so small it takes hours and it is very hard to clean. Slight headache.

One whole week! Who would have believed it. It has felt easy. No, better than that, it has felt positive and revitalizing and strength building. I am loving it. (I do need a new juicer though.) I also need to get some of the supplements I think. Headache gone!

Day 8

Time to go shopping.

I found in the local biological shop

Spirillina tablets

Kelp tablets

MSM tablets

This lot cost me  58 euros!!

Just as well the rest of the things on list hadn’t even been heard of the biological shop staff!

I was surprised that the local chemist shop had an enema bag. It did make the girl blush though. Daughter  working along side her parents. That has got to be embarrassing in a chemist shop.

“Excuse me young lady I want to buy some condoms, can you recommend any.”

“Er sorry no, I’ll asked my Dad”!

So tomorrow I will start the day with my usual one liter of water/lemon juice and an enema!

I am finding the liter of water/lemon juice very hard to get down. I have found water of any flavor very hard to actually swallow for some years now.

Day 9

OMG what a difference an enema can make. I feel so different. My headache is absolutely and completely gone and I feel light and clean and almost energetic! I feel like a load of toxic material has been unloaded. Fantastic!

To make up one jug of juice I needed two colanders of vegetables. Today this was made up of

2 cucumbers

4apples

1 fennel bulb

11 carrots

1 artichoke.

Went into town and found Bee Pollen

But I couldn’t get

CascaraSagrada

Cayenne pepper 90,000 HU

Or hemp oil.

Days 10, 11, and 12

Just chugging along. I am managing (only just) to drink a liter of water and lemon juice on rising.

Then I do a 2 liter enema.

Then I dry skin brush. I couldn’t find a skin brush so I use a dry loofa. It is a bit scratchy but it really gets my circulation going and feels refreshing.

Then I juice. This is becoming a drag. I bought a new juicer. A Rohnson 850 watt juicer. Greek make. It has a bigger opening at the top and is much faster. However it doesn’t juice as well as the moulinex. The pulp is wet and I need more produce for the same amount of juice, which is expensive and wasteful. I have been putting the pulp through again, twice, but this process is adding on half an hour in juicing and quarter of an hour in clean up time. Ho hum!

Day 13

I spoke too soon. I feel really tired today. Maybe I have been just been overdoing things the moment I have some energy. Spent the day slobbing around and even slept in the afternoon.

Day 14

Would you look at this! Two weeks with no effort what so ever. I definitely have more energy. The enemas are really helping. I have had no hint of an headache. I feel really in the groove. I have notice I am feeling more positive. Something is changing!

Day 15

Feeling OK.

.

Day 16

A friend came to stay for the weekend. I went to the end of the narrow lane to show her where to come in. Her daughter jumped out and I RACED HER to the gate(50 meters). I ran! I actually ran for the fun of it! I cannot remember the last time I ran for the fun it!. I officially have energy!

Day 17

Woke up early naturally! My friends daughter was also up so we went UP THE HILL for a walk! When my friend and my family got up I made my juice and then we went along the coast for another walk. Two walks in one day. I can hardly believe it. I feel so energetic!

Yesterday and today I have not had sufficient alone time to do an enema and I can feel the difference. I am looking forward to doing one tomorrow!

Feeling better for the enema.

This is what I have Juiced most days

1 head of romaine lettuce

2 cucumbers

2 – 6  courgettes/zuchinni

1 head of celery

4 apples

2 beets

A bunch of some green leafy stuff which I have no idea what it is but it is bitter.

Half a carrier bag of spinach.

1 fennel bulb

5 carrots

Sometime a clove of garlic, sometime a cube of ginger.

And then I shove in whatever else I have or I fancy to make this up to four liters (quarts to be exact)

My friend left.

Day 19

Awoke early again.

Made a list of jobs I needed to do.

Had to go to the dentist but car is in the garage. So I cycled the 4 kilometers to town and caught a bus to the dentist. Afterwards I caught the bus back and then  walk the 4 kilometers home. I couldn’t cycle back as the bike is my daughters and it is too small for me so I had made myself unbelievably saddle sore just going!

Got back ok and started on my list of jobs, weeding the drive, washing the bedroom floor, mowing the lawn etc. I just kept going and going. Amazing. And then suddenly my eye felt sleepy. My body could have keep going but my eyes felt so heavy. I lay down and was asleep in minutes.

This is how life should be!

Day 20

Learnt about bottled fermented vegetables and how it keeps in jars for up to a year. I have started the vegetable garden and I am hoping to become at least 90% old if not 100% self sufficient with fruit and vegetables. We have already planted an apple tree, a peach tree and a lemon tree. We have one wild and one domestic olive tree and 5 old and very productive pomegranates and an abundant orange tree. Next door (which, presently, isn’t used by anyone.) has the more enormous and abundant fig tree. Hundreds more oranges, literally, surround us and I am learning to recognized the wild plants that the local gather and eat.

Which reminds me, we have mint. I love mint tea. Obviously whilst juice feasting I am not drinking coffee and it has not occurred to me until just now that I have had no struggles, actually, not even any recognition that I have given up (my beloved) coffee. That is unbelievable. I (am) was a ‘cafeteria to herself’ type girl, a serious coffee drinker. Now I am not!

Day 21

I cannot manage the quart of water with lemon juice every morning. It is taking me longer and longer to drink and it is pushing back when I drink my first juice. Also, one of the things I have been missing is a strange drink introduced to me by my mother in law for rheumatism. Cider vinegar and honey. Who would have thought that I would start missing what was, pre-juicing, my ’medicine’.

Day 22

Feel a little down today. But I have done some research on-line and discovered that the lemon water in the morning is partly to hydrate me but also the lemon helps to start of the day on an alkali note. But, and I got very excited when I read this, cider vinegar is even more alkali than lemon. So I can have the drink I crave instead of the lemon juice first thing. Yipee!

Oh, and I think it is also worth mentioning that all my aches and pains have gone. I can lay in any position when I am sleeping in no pain what so ever where as before I started the juice feast my hip pains had got to the point where I could only lay on my back or on my front 

Day 23

I feel empowered when I go to the market and buy a car full of vegetables. 

I am watching other people eat these days?

Day 24

I am juicing later and later in the day. I am not pushed on by hunger now that I am managing a quart of water and cider vinegar. It just seems such a big job.

I went for two walks today.

I am also craving bananas and avocadoes. A little research told me that a teaspoon of hemp oil a day is a good idea when juice feasting.

I can’t find hemp oil. I have found cold pressed flax oil which will have to do for now. I have ordered hemp oil from The Hemp Company in the UK.

Also I have  a sweet craving.

I still have a sweet craving and so I have juiced pears and apples.

Bubble bubble bubble. My stomach feels like a bubble machine. I can also hear it.

I am so bloated, argh, I might explode!

Can’t deal with this stomach anymore. Looked up natural remedies and found ginger to be the cure. Juiced 2 cubic inches of ginger and half a lemon and gulped it down. 

Magic! 20 minutes later and all is calm.

It reminds me of when I was pregnant and the doctors were concerned that I was a week over due and said they would induce me. I didn’t like the sound of that (I have no idea how they do it, but my guess is it is not natural). So I went to the local library. I was living on the Isle of Man at the time and the local library contained only contained donated books. The majority were Mills and Boon. The rest travel books. Make what you will of that! But in the corner, third shelf down was a slim pamphlet on home cures.

This suggested ‘To induce a pregnancy take 50 ml of caster oil, the juice of 6 oranges and a tablespoon of sugar.’

I only had 3 oranges and only looked at the label of the caster oil after I had taken it where it clearly stated  ‘Caution DO NOT TAKE IF YOU ARE PREGNANT”

I panicked for a second before rushing to the loo. The rest of the day was interrupted with frequent trips to the loo and 12 hours later, to the minute, I went into labour.

I also  remember ‘curing’ diarrhea in 15 minutes before an exam with fresh raspberry leaf tea.

Natural cures seem so much more effective than the lotions and potions of the doctors.

Day 28

I feel like nothing is digesting. The first juice of the day is just sitting there. I have tried the ginger juice to see if it would help and I have also done an enema. But everything seems to have shut down.

A little online research suggested I wasn’t drinking enough water. With 4 quart ( round about 4 liters) of juice a day I had felt no urge to drink.

So I am trying to drink more water and cider vinegar ‘tea’.

However it is now  7.30pm and I have only had 2 quarts of juice and I feel too bloated to have any more.

Craving tomatoes.

Well, my belly has gone down and I feel light. I won’t be mixing fruit and vegetable juice again. In fact I don’t think  I will be juicing pears at all.

Day 30

Would you look at that, a whole month has past by. Yesterday I drank plenty of water and today I drank my juice first thing. But 20 minutes later I had stomach ache. But my energy levels are great. I was up at7.00am and I, quite literally, haven’t sat down all day and it is now 5.30pm. I have only manage two and a half quarts of juice but I am feeling good. Juicing celery, red peppers, tomatoes and adding ceyanne pepper and or garlic.Felling I need warm food.

Day 31

Went to bed at midnight, which is very late for me but still woke up at 8.00am.Incredible!

Day 32

I am still not digesting very well and I am researching into this. Water fast today as I could face the non digestion.

Day 33

Someone on line has said that water fasting can be use for a day or two when juice feasting. So that’s good.

Day 34

I think I have found the problem. Because I sourced my supplements local I did not get spirillina powder or MSM powder or kelp powder. I got these in table form. I think the problem is that although I take them on an empty stomach with my cider vinegar water first thing I don’t think that they are digested by the time I have my first juice. So my stomach tries to digest them before passing it into my colon but this means my juice is sitting fermenting in my stomach waiting for this process to happen. The result is it feels as if my juice is not digesting (which it is not) and the juice is fermenting, creating gas which is making me feel and look bloated. So today I ground up the tablets and took them with water. It was seriously disgusting to the taste but so far digestion seems to be slowly working. It created a massive shift in my body.

Still craving tomatoes which is all I craved when I was pregnant!

Day 35

Digestion is working and I feel really hungry. I have had 3 quarts of juice and it is only mid afternoon! I really want something to eat. I am wondering if I have reach my limit. This feast has been difficult since my digestion seemed to pack in. Now it is working I am fidgeting to eat again! 

Gave in and ate a small piece of avocado.

Day 36

I have a headache and feel bloated again. Generally not feeling so good. I am wondering if I am trying to do too long on my first juice feast? I felt great at day 26 but it has felt like an increasing struggle since then. My digestion seems to be getting very sensitive and I feel a bit out of my depth as to what is best to do. I have asked on various forums if there are benefits to be had for feasting for longer in peoples experiences but the only positive answer I have had for for this was someone curing psoriasis and someone doing it for weight loss. No one else had either done it or had found added benefits. Decided to continue until day 40 and see how I feel then.

Oh, something that is interesting and worth mentioning. When I began I didn’t go to the loo at all and relied on the enemas. Now something has changed and I am going to the loo twice a day! This is unheard of form as I have been a once every three days person since I was about12 years old.

Ate another sliver of avocado.

Day 37

Tries making recipe juices today and adding new flavours. Other people recipes are very different from mine. Manage not to eat any avocado today.

Day 38

Stayed on the juice today. Not enjoying it as I did up until day 26.

Day 39

Both hubby and daughter have gone through terrible cold this Last 2 weeks. I seem to have avoided it (or was the juicing helping?) until today. Today I have a sore throat and really want warm food. I feel the air is damp and that I need tobe warm.

Day 40

So here it is. Only I feel like the cold is taking hold and I have a sense of being chilled in the chest and I crave hot soup.  

I think my drive has gone and I am managing on willpower. Juiced till the evening and then had a few lettuce leaves and then two very mushy pieces of boiled potato. The warmth lifted me.

Hubby and daughter early to bed with their colds and my mother in law who is staying with us was up in the night being sick. I think I warm getting off very lightly with just a so throat and a desire for warm food.

Day 41

Stayed in bed with a soar throat. Got up later and made some juice and gently warmed till it was just above tepid before chewing it.(It is said to be better to ’chew’ your juice as your saliva starts the digestive process.) Had a small salad in the evening.

Day 42

Wishing I had the will power to still be juicing. I have a bit of a cold but feel OK but I miss how I felt when I was juicing. How did I feel? Hummmm. Light, in touch with my body, whole, ‘at one with myself”, radiant, happy. I also lost 15 bls without jumping on the scales every day or thinking about exercise or restricting my calories. A happy bye product.

Day 47

Well I think we can say I am officially off the juice feast now. My digestion is better than I can ever remember it being. I can practically feel my body eating up food and for the first time in my life I have a poo twice a day(rather than once every three days).  I have had some moments in the last 5 days when I just wanted to eat things for the love of eating and ended up eating more then I would normally. (3 avocados in one day!) But this morning I felt that nothing I could think of eating would truly ‘hit the mark’ and so eating for taste was futile. This has resulted in my making juice for breakfast. Spinach, celery, carrot and half a lemon.

My juicer is at the repair shop. I have had three electric shocks from it. It has no earth. The shop wouldn’t give me my money back (Very Greek!) but I could take it to their repair shop, which will no doubt be a long and futile procedure as I believe it is a design fault. So to juice today I liquidized my vegetables with a cup of water and then squeezed the result through a new pair of tights. This resulted in lots of juice from very little ingredience, very little mess and clear up time. My first sip made my body go  zing. Here we go again…..

All credit to this juice feasting idea goes to David and Katrina Rainoshek and their website www.juicefeasting.com where there is unbelievable amounts of information and guidance as well as the offer of personal support.

A great deal of personal experience and support came to me through www.giveittomeraw.com juice enthusiast group. This is a great sight for information and support.

I also give credit to Angela Stokes Monach and Matt Monach for their daily RawFoodworld TV show Youtube for giving me a bit of daily motivation and feeling that I wasn’t alone in my search for better health. These guys are completely crazy and make me feel quite sain!

(Check out Angela Stokes Monach story on www.rawreform.com. for someone who has healed herself through raw food and juice feasting.)