Day Five, Feeling ALIVE!!!

Create a quiet place....
Juice Feast Day 5

The Daily Juice Journal:

I am no longer going to try and keep track of how much water we are drinking, but on average it is about 2-3 quarts per day.

DAVID:

MORNING WATER: 1 quart water with lemon, 1 TBS MSM with 1 capsule Vitalzym

JUICE # 1 : 8:30 AM 1 QUART GVJ with romaine, spinach, mixed baby greens, parsley, celery, cucumber, carrot, apple, and lemon.

JUICE # 2: 12:30: 1 QUART orange, grapefruit and pineapple with 2 TBS Chlorella

JUICE # 3: 3:30 1 QUART GVJ (same as above) with 1 TBS hemp oil and ¼ tsp kelp

JUICE #4: 4:430 1 QUART watermelon and blueberry juice with 2 TBS Chlorella.

JUICE # 5: 6:00 1 QUART GVJ (same as above) with a pinch of Himalayan crystal salt.

JUICE # 6: 8:00 1 QUART watermelon and blueberry juice with 1 TBS Chlorella.

TEA: 8:00 16 oz Good Earth Original.

TOTAL JUICE: 6 QUARTS

Detox helpers: morning enema, skin brushing, walking

Exercise: 20 minute morning walk, 20 minutes resistance training.

KATRINA:

Morning Water: 1 quart water with lemon and 1 TBS MSM with 1 capsule Vitalzym

JUICE # 1: 8:30 AM 1 QUART GVJ with romaine, spinach, mixed baby greens, parsley, celery, cucumber, carrot, apple, and lemon.

JUICE # 2: 10:00 1 QUART orange, grapefruit, pineapple juice.

JUICE # 3: 12:30: 1 QUART orange, grapefruit and pineapple with 2 TBS bee pollen.

Juice #4: 3:30: 1 QUART GVJ (same as above) with 1 TBS hemp oil and ¼ tsp kelp

JUICE # 5: 6:00: 1 QUART GVJ (same as above)

TEA: 8:00 16 oz Good Earth Original.

TOTAL JUICE: 5 QUARTS

Detox helpers: Morning enema, skin brushing, hot/cool shower, walking, tongue scraping.

Exercise: 20 minute morning walk.

Rainoshek’s Daily Tips:

~Make sure to add some calorie rich foods to your juices!! We encourage you to drink lots and lots of green juice, along with celery and cucumber. But, because these are high water content foods, they are also low calorie foods. What are the highest calorie foods to add to your juices? Root crops!! Beet, carrots and yam are very good for upping the calories in your juice. Yam is the highest! Other high calorie juicing foods are asparagus, cabbage, onion, zucchini, and okra. I haven’t tried any of these in juice yet, and I would recommend going easy on them for the taste!! I can tell you though that yam and carrot are both good on their own and with green juice.

Your Questions:

Hi guys!

I am a newbie feaster and I have a question I was hoping you could address...

I have a history with eating disorders and although I am doing extremely well now (it hasn't crossed my mind to starve myself in quite some time : )...) I am worried that the weight that I might lose on the feast might make me wary to eat again for fear of weight gain.

I know that I am a much stronger person now, and that I really want to continue feasting... but I can't help but have that little thought pop up every now and again. I just really don't want that to happen... and I don't want to live in fear of the weight that I will gain back after coming off the feast.

Thanks so much,
Steph

We say:

Hello Steph,

Thank you for posting this very important question. We celebrate you in coming so far in you journey to health, and for being loving to yourself on this path.

Here is what we tell people who are coming to Juice Feasting with your history: We do not personally coach people who are working with eating disorders unless they are also working with a counselor of some kind to help them transform the mental formations that have created the eating disorder. Juice Feasting can be a very powerful way of transforming old mental habits and clear out those that are not longer useful, but it is important that you create a support network for yourself while this is happening and to be clear that Juice Feasting is not being used to support old habits. We also recommend seeking out help from a health professional, perhaps a naturopath who is understanding of fasting and live foods, to work with you if you feel you need extra support.

That being said, you have told us that you have moved through much of your eating disorder, and are feeling much stronger now. This is wonderful, and we are so happy to hear this!!

What we would like to suggest to you is that you continue Juice Feasting for very short time, so that you are familiar with it and what it can do. Then, move back into a diet of nutrient dense, raw foods, building a relationship of love and respect between your body and the foods that you are eating.

The way of eating live foods that David and I practice, and what we recommend to all of our students, is what David calls “The Four Means To Get Your Greens” This way of eating will be perfect for you, you will not live in fear of weight gain and you will be feeding your body with amazing nutrition. In a nutshell, if you eat enough greens, you will not feel the physiological need to over eat fat or sweets, allowing your body to maintain a healthy weight with out thinking about it. Try to get in 1-2 lbs of greens a day by 1. Eating them (in salads) 2. Green smoothies 3. Green soups, and 4. Juicing them. Eat lots of greens, your most nutrient dense foods!! Then on top of your greens of course you will be eating lots of other beautiful things….David’s book on The Four Means will be out soon! Just make the bulk of your meals with gorgeous greens!

We also encourage you to keep reading about raw foods and live food nutrition, and also keep feeding your soul!! When we eat in ways that are un-healthful to us, it is often out of a lack of self-respect and self-love, sometimes it is out of lack of education. Some of the books that have been extremely helpful to me in the avenue of self-respect and love in regards to my eating habits have been Victoria Boutenko’s 12 Steps to Raw, Shazzie’s Detox Your World, Byron Katie’s Loving What Is, and anything and everything by Thich Nhat Hanh. Courtney Pool has also highly recommended Marianne Williamson’s A Woman’s Worth which I look forward to reading soon. You may also want to check out Angela Stokes’ upcoming book Raw Emotions, which you can find on her website www.rawreform.com.

We would love to see you move back into eating a “Four Means to Get Your Greens” diet and further foster a loving relationship with food until you feel ready to Juice Feast again without fear of breaking the Feast and moving back into solid food!!

On a nutritional note:

Zinc deficiency causes a decrease in appetite that can degenerate in anorexia nervosa (AN), appetite disorders and, notably, inadequate zinc nutriture. The use of zinc in the treatment of anorexia nervosa has been advocated since 1979 by Bakan. At least five trials showed that zinc improved weight gain in anorexia. A 1994 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial showed that zinc (14 mg per day) doubled the rate of body mass increase in the treatment of AN.

So, you may want to look into this more, and see if you can add in more zinc to your diet through pumpkin seeds, mesquite, sesame seeds, green leafy vegetables, and bee pollen.

I will leave you with this quote from Thich Nhat Hanh

Eating is a deep practice. When I eat, I enjoy every morsel of my food. I am aware of the food, aware that I am eating. We can practice mindfulness of eating – we know what we are chewing. We chew our food very carefully and with a lot of joy. From time to time, we stop chewing and get in touch with the friends, family, or sangha – community of practitioners – around us. We appreciate that it is wonderful to be sitting here chewing like this, not worrying about anything. When we eat mindfully, we are not eating or chewing our anger, our anxiety, our projects. We are chewing the food, (or drinking the juice for all you Juice Feasters reading this!!) prepared lovingly by others. It is very pleasant.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

With love and peaceful steps,

David and Katrina Raionshek

Personal Journal:

I feel like I could sleep for hours today. So different than yesterday. My creativity is coming on like a snail on a hot day, and my eyes feel so heavy! I am craving eating quite a bit and have found the only thing that works is sitting quietly and re-connecting with my stillness. It is interesting that I am not craving any food, just the act of eating, and I realize once again how easily we cover up tough emotions with the motions of eating.

David and I have spent quite a bit of time talking about how your being becomes more liquid, more fluid, while Juice Feasting. There really is no buffer there between you and your emotions, and things flow in and out, in and out. This can feel quite chaotic without a way of being with that energy, especially as we detox old cellular waste and memories.

So create space for your self to feel these things and move through them. This is a magical time of healing and deep work. Find a space, or create a space that is safe for you to go and be silent, and to really be with what ever it is that is coming up for you. Maybe it is your church, your bedroom, your meditation room, your garden, or a special corner in your house that is dedicated to sitting still. If you are unable to physically be in that special quiet place due to work or family obligations, tune into that place and find the stillness that you feel while you are there. The stillness is in you at all times, in all places!! It can take some time to learn how to access it at all times, but it is there.

Yours in love and in learning!!

David and Katrina Rainoshek

Day Four, Juice it up Some More!!

Bring on the garlic!!
Juice Feast Day 4

The Daily Juice Journal:

DAVID:

MORNING WATER: 1 quart water with lemon, 1 TBS MSM with 1 capsule Vitalzym

JUICE # 1 : 8:30 AM 1 QUART GVJ with romaine, spinach, parsley, celery, cucumber, carrot, lemon and ginger.

JUICE # 2 : 9:30 AM 1 PINT orange juice

JUICE # 3 : 12:30: 1 QUART GVJ (same as above)

JUICE # 4 : 2:30 1 QUART fruit orange, grapefruit, and lemon

JUICE # 5: 6:00 1 QUART GVJ (same as above) with 1 TBS hemp oil and ¼ tsp kelp granules

JUICE # 6: 8:30 1 QUART yam and carrot with 1 TBS Chlorella

TEA: 8:00 16 oz Good Earth Original with honey

TOTAL JUICE: 5.5 QUARTS

Detox helpers: Morning enema, skin brushing, tongue scraping, rebounding

Exercise: 20 minutes resistance trainings, 10 minutes rebounding

KATRINA:

Morning Water: 1 quart water with lemon and 1 TBS MSM with 1 capsule Vitalzym

JUICE # 1: 8:30 AM 1 QUART GVJ with romaine, spinach, parsley, celery, cucumber, lemon and ginger. (notice no carrot? I am liking it GREEN!)

JUICE # 2: 9:00 1 PINT orange juice.

JUICE # 3: 11:30: 1 QUART fruit with orange, grapefruit and pineapple. Water: 1 QUART with 1 TBS Vitamineral Green (phew, I had to balance out all that fruit juice!)

Juice #4: 1 12:30 QUART GVJ (same as above) JUICE # 5: 2:30 1 QUART fruit with orange, grapefruit, and lemon

JUICE # 6: 5:50 1 QUART GVJ with tomatoes, spinach, baby greens, dill, red pepper, garlic (WOW, this was a strong yummy juice. David doesn’t like tomato juice all that much, so I got it all!) with 1 TBS hemp oil and ¼ tsp kelp granules.

Water: 1 PINT TEA: 8:00 16 oz Good Earth Original with honey

Water: 1 PINT

TOTAL JUICE: 5.5 QUARTS

Detox helpers: Morning enema, skin brushing, hot/cool shower (first one of the Juice Feast so far, felt amazing!!) tongue scraping, rebounding.

Exercise: Rebounding 25 minutes.

Rainoshek’s Daily Tips:

~What did I re-learn today? The power of the hot/cool shower!! They make you feel so glowing and alive. One of my favorite books is Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins, a whacky, kooky novel about a couple who has discovered the secret of eternal life and one of their many tricks is hot and cold treatment! Maybe not such a far-fetched crazy story after all. Oh, and another one of their secrets is to make love, of course. Starting my day with one of these babies (the shower part) has left me feeling fantastic all day!!

~ Sleep and rest are very important on a Juice Feast, especially in the initial weeks. Your body will tell you how much rest you need, so listen to it. A lot of your energy is going inward to do deep cleansing and healing, and adequate sleep and rest are ways of optimizing this process. Why do I say this? Well, because it is true, and also because I needed to remind myself of this. We have not been getting enough sleep, and we are feeling it today. Take full advantage of what you are giving yourself, this Juice Feast, and sleep like you mean it!

Here is a bit from the A Day in the Life of a Juice Feaster on winding down for sleep:

There is a line in a favorite song of mine that says "you spend half of the morning, just trying to wake up. Half the evening, trying to calm down."

No longer! Just as you will no longer need a stimulant to get you going in the morning (such as coffee or a sweet bun), you will no longer need to dull your mind with television or random web surfing at the end of the day. Because you are no longer putting toxic foods into your body, you will also notice that you are much more aware of protecting your mind from toxic information, images, suggestions, stories and even music.

You can cleanse your mind the same way you are cleansing your body, flood it with nutrient dense, beautiful, life affirming information, and the old stuff will be swept out. Draw in the best things possible!

Quite possibly a large amount of time has opened up to you during your evenings. Depending on your energy level, these are a few suggestions of things you can do to wind down at the end of your day, while also adding to the depth and quality of your life (TV does NOT do this!):

*relax with a book
*go to a health lecture
*attend a personal development workshop or class
*go to a yoga class
*sit with a loved one and a warm mug of tea and really listen to each other
*go for a stroll in the setting sun
*write in your journal, or blog
*volunteer for a Community Supported Agriculture Project
*grow some sprouts for your juices
*have a loved one give you a massage (to help your body flush out toxins!)
*write a letter
*read on JuiceFeasting.com
*sew yourself a new shirt
*take drawing classes
*learn how to play an instrument, or play your instrument
*sing, join a choir

This is an excellent time to grab a hold of your passion for creativity, and as you clear out any old, stagnant, or negative mind patterns, your mindscape will be flooded with beauty and positive thoughts! Just remember to water your possitive seeds and with care and attention, they will bear beautiful fruit with even more possitive seeds for the garden of your mind!

You will notice that "winding down" and preparing for sleep is very natural when you are taking only natural things into your body and mind. A sense of calm in the mind follows a calm body that is not being flooded with strange foods, chemicals, caffeine, and excitotoxins all day. If you do not feel this right away, don't worry, as you coninue to cleanse and to feed your mind positive, healthy vibrations, you will reach a mental clarity that makes the end of the day a very enjoyable, peaceful, and creatively abundant time.

~ Drink YOUR JUICE!! Have I mentioned this yet?

Your Questions:

I started to have major cravings for nuts at about Day 8. To be honest, twice I've had a handful of raw cashews from the freezer (where they were intended to rest until spring) and then felt calmed. Not sure what is causing the cravings ... But in response I tried juicing roots - yams, Jerusalem artichokes, and even burdock - to feed the craving but it didn't work. The Jerusalem artichoke a little ... What else can I try? I was thinking Miso but don't think that is on the feast ... Also, how detrimental are the nuts to the effectiveness of the feast or the state of my body? Thanks. Amy

We Say: Amy, have you tried adding a pinch of salt into your juices? If not, please do try this as we have found that it helps people who are experiencing cravings like you are. Miso is not included on a Juice Feast as it is not fresh and raw, and will arrest your beautiful cleansing. Don't forget to use sea salt or Himalayan crystal salt, NOT iodized table salt. Nuts are also detrimental to your cleanse, so please stay away from them. They are mucus forming, acid forming, and will arrest your cleansing. When cravings arise, try out some positive diversions to shift your mood and release the pressure caused by your cravings. Check out Day 5 for the Positive Diversions file. If you find that your cravings for nuts are causing you too much suffering, and that you are unable to avoid eating them, then perhaps you should consider breaking your Feast for now, go back to eating (Four Means to Get Your Greens, baby! Day 83), and return to Feasting at a time when you feel better equipped to stay the course! If the salt seems to do the trick, HOORAY!!! For everyone reading: We all experience cravings and "tough" emotions on different levels while doing something such as a Juice Feast, and we all learn to work with and through them in different ways, so be kind to yourself. If you find yourself "eating" while on a Juice Feast, do not work with guilt, but instead work with growth. Also, don't forget to chew your juice!

Amy said: You are an angel! Thank you so much for the Himalayan or sea salt recommendation. I put a pinch in my juice and it killed the craving for nuts. I NEVER would have thought of that. Thanks! Happy day!

Personal Journal

I am feeling GOOD today! I love my juices, I love my clear mind, I love the feelings of love I have. I’m not sure what the difference is from yesterday, perhaps just the elimination of “stuff”, or perhaps I feel better because I drank more juice today than yesterday. I had an extra quart of amazingly strong juice with GARLIC!! It gave me ever so brief tummy rumbles, but once those were over I could feel the power of garlic all through me. That is one magical bulb.

It has been a very busy few days for us, we are trying very hard to be done and off of our computers by 10 tonight rather than 12. We are finding our rhythm with all of it though. I feel much stronger in this Feast so far than I did when I Feasted for 10 Days.

We had to go grocery shopping AGAIN today! We brought a cooler full of produce over for the Global Juice Feast Kick Off Party, and so we ended up needing to go sooner than expected. A quick drive to Nogales, and two more shopping carts full of beautiful produce solved the problem. We are very close to the Mexican border here, and so most of the people in Nogales are of the beautiful dark skinned family, with melted chocolate eyes!! I haven’t been across to Mexico since being here because I am a renegade Canadian with no proper papers yet, but as soon as I get them I would love to do a drive down to the land of coconuts!

OK juicy ones! That is all for Day 4. May Day 5 be full of great things for all of you, and we will see you then!!

With love and juicy blessings, David and Katrina

PS. David and I cannot stop laughing about our daily video today. We hope you enjoy and that no one is offended LOL!!!

Day Three

David on Day 3 Making GVJ.
Katrina on Day 3 Drinking the GVJ!

Juice Feast Day 3

The Daily Juice Journal:

DAVID:

MORNING WATER: 1 quart water with lemon, with 1 capsule Vitalzym

JUICE # 1 : 8 AM 1 QUART GVJ with romaine, dandelion greens, Swiss chard, parsley, celery, cucumber, carrot, Jerusalem artichoke, and ginger.

JUICE # 2 : 8:30 AM 1 PINT orange juice

JUICE # 3 : 11:30: 1 QUART fruit juice with orange and grapefruit, with 1 TBS Chlorella.

JUICE # 4 : 1:30: 1 QUART fruit juice with orange and pineapple

Water: 1 QUART

2 TBS bee pollen

JUICE # 5: 7:00 1 QUART GVJ (same as above) with 2 TBS E3AFA and Phenalmin flakes.

TEA: 8:00 16 oz Ginger, lemon and honey

TOTAL JUICE: 4.5 QUARTS

Detox helpers: Morning enema, skin brushing, walking, tongue scraping, rebounding

Exercise: Morning Walk 30 minutes, resistance training 15 minutes, rebounding 10 minutes

KATRINA:

Morning Water: 1 quart water with lemon with 1 capsule Vitalzym

JUICE # 1: 8 AM 1 QUART GVJ with romaine, dandelion greens, Swiss chard, parsley, celery, cucumber, carrot, Jerusalem artichoke, and ginger.

JUICE # 2: 8:30: 1 PINT orange juice.

JUICE # 3: 11:30: 1 QUART GVJ (same as above) with ¼ tsp kelp granules, 1 TBS hemp oil, and 1 TBS Chlorella.

Water: 1 QUART

JUICE # 4: 1:30 1 QUART fruit juice orange and pineapple

2 TBS bee pollen

JUICE # 5: 7:00 1 QUART GVJ (same as above)

Water: 1 PINT

TEA: 8:00 16 oz Ginger, lemon and honey.

TOTAL JUICE: 4.5 QUARTS

Detox helpers: Morning enema, skin brushing, walking, tongue scraping, rebounding.

Exercise: Morning Walk 30 minutes, Rebounding 10 minutes.

Rainoshek’s Daily Tips:

~Salt water swish out!! After you drink your juices, be sure to swish your mouth out using water. This will clear out all the digestive juices from your mouth and prevent them from damaging your teeth. We really like using salt water. Just mix some Himalayan crystal salt or sea salt in water in one of your handy dandy quart size jars to have at the ready for some salt water swishing. This will also prevent you from getting sores on the inside of your mouth, which can pop up as a sign of detox. If you are already developing detox sores in your mouth, start swishing baby!

~ Brush those teeth, scrape that tongue! Have you got fur on your teeth yet? All part of the lovely process we know as detox! Yesterday I must have brushed my teeth six times (gently, so as not to hurt my gums) and my teeth still felt fuzzy! Today is much better on that front, and my teeth have been feeling clear all day. You will also notice a white film arriving on your tongue. More detox! Scrape that off using a tongue scraper, by the end of all this you will have a beautiful fresh, pink tongue like a baby.

~ Drink your juice!! Did you get at least 4 quarts today?

Your Questions:

Oh David and Katrina! RIDICULOUS DISASTER!

I’m having a hard time, technically speaking. I am only doing greens, no fruit (I have psoriasis & candida), and I really hate the Champion. It gets all backed up and I have to scrape all the green fibers off the Champion's teeth like, 4 times a session. And the machine gets HOT. Jamming the plunger so hard now my back hurts. This is a new machine as of last yr. Then there is SO much foam I had to transfer the juice from the bowl under the machine to a glass measuring cup with a pour spout and filter the juice 3 times thru a metal sieve until the pulp was out.. TOTALLY LABORIOUS
So I made 1 SERVING (a liter) today and it took 2 hours NOT including clean up. And it was a fat mess spread all over the kitchen. And I was 45 min late for work. And this is day three. And I wont have the other 3 servings today. Ill have burdock tea and lemon juice and Natural Calm drink. I don’t know how I’m gonna manage. :-(
The Vitamix I have is the 3600 and to get the greens homoginized I have to add what seems like too much water / lemon juice. Also, it seems SOOO expensive!
I am not a complainer.OR a whiner (I lived in NYC for 8 yrs, Im a tough cookie)! I dont know how people do this, and exercise, and work,, etc...
Kinda desperate...Tips please!
GRATEFULLY, GRATEFULLY, GRATEFULLY
Mish

We say:

Hello Mish!!

Oh dear!! We are so sorry to hear about your
ridiculous disaster!! But please don't worry, this
is not a ridiculous disaster, this is a learning
curve. You are growing, that is challenging
sometimes. We like to call what is happening for
you the trials of a hero's journey. So, here is
our suggestion to you: until you can find a way to
afford and make yourself at least 4 quarts of
juice, please wait to Juice Feast!
The four quarts a day is very, very important if you are going to do an unsupervised cleanse of any length.

We recommend selling your Champion, your stove,
your microwave, anything!!! and get yourself a
Vita Mix 5000 for yourself. It will serve you not
only for your Juice Feast but for years of
nutrient dense living afterwards. You will also
get more juice out of your produce, thus lessening
the cost of each juice. Also, look into ways of
getting yourself produce that you can afford.
Perhaps in bulk, or creating a Juice Feasting
buying co-op...there are several people that we
have noticed who are Juice Feasting in your area,
see if you can work something out with them!! You can also check out the forum on Global Juice Feast.com called “Tips for Juice Feasting on a Budget.”

Until you can do the 4 quarts a day (which you will be able to do, there are just some things that need to fall into place first for you), you can be drinking as much juice as you want, and enjoying smoothies, salads, and raw green soups.
Don't worry, we will still be Juice Feasting right
along side of you when you start up again!!

You are going to be one well prepared Juice
Feaster, we can feel it!!

For everyone reading: Please don't feel presure to begin your Juice Feast before YOU are technically and emotionally ready. The Global Juice Feast is on, but darling, it will always be on. Also remember that 92 Days is not for everyone!! Depending on your physical health and emotional health realities, you may want to go for one day a week, or ten days, or 30, or 60!! Please use your incredibly valuable self knowledge and go on a journey of self discovery to see where you are at and what role Juice Feasting can play in your life.

This is from Lissa:

I'm deciding that for now Juice Feasting is not for me, but I plan to revisit this in the future when I am more prepaired and ready.My goals for now are adding at least a liter of green juices to my raw diet a day and making a goal to avoid added sugars in my raw diet. I also plan to do day juice feasts.So...that's where I'm at! I will be back when I am ready.

We say good for you Lissa!! We really do not want to see Juice Feasting be an overwhelming emotional struggle for people. Ultimately, this is about personal exploration, self knowledge, and self love! So, if Juice Feasting is not right for you right now, that is OK! We do encourage you to start adding in more juice to your diet (Feast on Juices!!), keep it mostly raw, eat your greens, and as you move further down the path towards your health and healthy relationships with the food that nourishes you, you may want to consider a Juice Feast again!

Personal Journal

I still can’t quite believe that I am Juice Feasting. I have wanted to for over a year now, ever since I began to follow Angela’s journey, before I even met David! I am in a constant state of gratitude and awe over all of this.

It has been such a transformative, immense year for me already I almost can’t imagine things shifting all that much more. But bring it on baby! It was just in January 2007 that I packed up my things, sold my house, left my relationship, my job, and came here to Patagonia. Things just keep spiraling up and up! That old saying that says “jump and the universe will catch you?” It is true.

Thank you dear universal net of love!!

~I am feeling a little detox today! How? Just a little woozy and sleepy feeling, I can feel my energy going inside and doing wonderful things. I have also been feeling cold all day. I was still able to work all day, walk, rebound, and go get water with out it being a stretch, and it is now 10 PM already!! (How does it get so late so quickly?) Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could somehow see what was going on in there, in the magical workings of our bodies? If we could get a little note from in there letting us know “Hey, it’s ok, you might feel a bit rough out there but in here we are so BUSY doing wonderful things for you. Just let us have this extra energy for now dusting things off in here, and then we will give it back to you ten~fold! Right now we are totally upgrading your liver!”

Then again, maybe not. That is what intuition is for.

I also have my first big spot in a long time, right on my cheek.

Day three’s enema was amazing! I can really feel the difference even after three days, things are much clearer down there. Day one I could barely take all the water in, and had to release it RIGHT AWAY! This morning, zip, it all went in, and I could scarcely feel it! It didn’t have any competition for space from other STUFF.

My stomach feels so nice and spacious!! I love the feeling. I haven’t yet made the time to do yoga since Juice Feasting, but I imagine it will feel so good to have such a clear core while stretching.

Global Juice Feast.com is really getting vibrant! Thank you to all of you who are putting your juicy love into creating such a supportive and loving community!!!

We’ve also been finding more Juice Feasting blogs popping up. Such treasures! Check out the blog list along the side and visit our juicy new friends Bronwyn, Loulou, Linda, Penni, and Kyle!!

More breaking news in the Juice Feasting world is that the juicy Madonna hip raw mamma over at Inspiration:Life, Terilynn has added the famous prunes after 93 Days of a beautifully done, inspirational, well documented and epic Juice Feast! She has even promised us a Feast Breaking video, so keep your eyes pealed for that. CONGRATULATIONS Terilynn!! Thank you for sharing your Juice Feast experience with all of us, we have loved following your journey.

May you all have a beautiful day on Day 4!!

With love and blessings, David and Katrina

WHOO HOO!! Day TWO!!

Breakfast (this is a few months ago, time to take some new juicing pictures!)

Juice Feast Day 2

OK, here it is, the Juice Journal!!

DAVID:

MORNING WATER: 1 quart water with lemon, 2 drops NCD, and 1 TBS MSM with 1 capsule Vitalzym

JUICE # 1: 8 AM 1 QUART GVJ with romaine, dandelion greens, spinach, parsley, celery, cucumber, carrot, apple, Jerusalem artichoke and 1 TBS Vitamineral Green.

JUICE # 2: 8:30 AM 1 PINT yam juice

JUICE # 3: 10:30: 1 PINT fruit juice with orange, grapefruit and lemon.

JUICE # 4: 12:30: 1 QUART GVJ (same as above) with ¼ tsp kelp granules, 1 TBS hemp oil, and 1 TBS Chlorella. NOTE: we took the oil on its own, chased back with the juice.

Water: 1 QUART

JUICE # 5: 3:00 1 QUART fruit juice (same as above) with 2 TBS bee pollen

JUICE # 6: 6:00 1 PINT GVJ (same as above)

JUICE # 7: 7:30 1 PINT yam juice with 5 TBS E3Live

TEA: 8:00 8 oz Good Earth Original with 1 tsp. honey (Rooibos, chicory, cassia, rosehips, honeybush, lemongrass, peppermint, chamomile, ginger root.)

TOTAL JUICE: 5 QUARTS

Detox helpers: Morning enema, skin brushing, walking, tongue scraping

Exercise: Morning Walk 30 minutes, resistance training 30 minutes

KATRINA:

Morning Water: 1 quart water with lemon, 2 drops NCD, and 1 TBS MSM with 1 capsule Vitalzym

JUICE # 1: 8 AM 1 QUART GVJ with romaine, dandelion greens, spinach, parsley, celery, cucumber, carrot, apple, Jerusalem artichoke and 1 TBS Vitamineral Green.

JUICE # 2: 10:30: 1 PINT fruit juice with orange, grapefruit and lemon.

JUICE # 3: 12:30: 1 QUART GVJ (same as above) with ¼ tsp kelp granules, 1 TBS hemp oil, and 1 TBS Chlorella. NOTE: we took the oil on its own, chased back with the juice. (It made me gag ever so slightly until I got the taste out of my mouth. David didn’t wince a bit.)

Water: 1 PINT

JUICE # 4: 3:00 1 QUART fruit juice (same as above) with 2 TBS bee pollen

JUICE # 5: 6:00 1 PINT GVJ (same as above)

Water: 1 PINT

TEA: 8:00 8 oz Good Earth Original with 1 tsp. honey (Rooibos, chicory, cassia, rosehips, honeybush, lemongrass, peppermint, chamomile, ginger root.)

TOTAL JUICE: 4 QUARTS

Detox helpers: Morning enema, skin brushing, walking, tongue scraping, brushing fuzzy teeth, rebounding.

Exercise: Morning Walk 30 minutes, Rebounding 20 minutes.

Rainoshek’s Daily Tips:

~ We have found with our students that it is very important for people to drink their juices in such a way that they can keep track of the amount that they are drinking. If you are new to Juice Feasting, you might feel like you are drinking a lot of juice when you really aren’t quite making it to a gallon. Then when 4 o’clock rolls around and you are feeling foggy headed and weak, you can realize “oh, I’ve only had 2 quarts of juice! No wonder! I’d better drink more, and make sure that I drink more earlier on in the day tomorrow.” We saw this exact thing happen with our dear friends who are Juice Feasting with us Global Juice Feasters yesterday on the first day of their Juice Feast: they lost track of how much juice they were drinking, waited too long between juices, and started to feel rough.

There are three excellent ways of making sure that you are drinking enough juice. One is to make all of your juice into wide mouth quart sized canning jars (and make sure that you are getting in at least 4 of these a day! Any less and you will be fasting, which is a whole different ball game when it comes to detox symptoms, length of time you can cleanse, and your healing) Another, and this is what we do, is to make all your juice for the day in the morning, at least 4 quarts!! This way too, you will not reach 4 or 5 o’clock with low energy and fuzz head, and have no juice, loose inspiration to make juice and/or not enjoy making your juice because you are so hungry. If you want more juice at 5 o’clock and you have had your 4 quarts already, you will have enough energy and zip to get into the kitchen and make more! The third way is to take advantage of David's Daily Quick Chart, which you can download from the bottom of this page.

~ Learn as much as you can about Juice Feasting and cleansing as you possibly can! You may have begun this Juice Feast knowing very little about the cleansing technology of Juice Feasting, and if so, this is great! You do not need to know everything about your journey when you take the first step. You do need to have the determination to learn as you go though, so get out there and learn from all the amazing resources available to you to make your Juice Feast the most successful one you can for yourself! Of course we highly recommend a membership with www.JuiceFeasting.com, but you can also check out numerous other books about cleansing, including Angela Stokes’ pertinent book, A Juice Feaster’s Handbook. Read and re-read the Juice Feasting Intro pages on JuiceFeasting.com! There is a wonderful FAQ section on there that we are adding too as often as we can. Please get out there and educate yourself about how it all works!

YOU are your own best gift to yourself! In other words, give yourself the best possible Juice Feast by being a knowledgeable Juice Feaster!! The joy of the Internet and books with this kind of thing is that you don’t have to start from scratch. Years and years of research and experimentation have culminated into creating the program that we share on our site, and we are so happy to have you with us!! BTW: Heidi and JS Ohlander wrote up a beautiful review of the website recently. To read it go here!! Thanks you guys!!

Personal Journal:
On our morning walk this morning David and I were talking about weight and how he plans on keeping his. Well, he plans on drinking loads of juice for one thing (he is not quite there yet, but will work his way up.) Another thing he is going to do to keep his weight on is to begin resistance training, light resistance training, right from the beginning. As you know, we do not typically recommend doing this until Day 60 of a Juice Feast, but because David has Juice Feasted in the past and has been eating a live foods diet for five years now, the cleansing his body needs to do is minimal. Working his muscles will signal to his body to keep the weight, and to re-build. He is also going to keep his cardio to a minimum.

I had a dram that David lost too much weight and he started to disappear!! I will have to make very certain that this does not happen!! NOTE: If you are at or below your ideal weight and are Juice Feasting please make sure that you are maintaining your weight or gaining weight. If you are not able to do this, we do not recommend that you continue to Juice Feast, and that perhaps a modified Juice Feast is a better idea for your long term cleansing. 92 Days the length of our program, but it is not a generic number for everyone!!

We also talked a little bit about Prana, and using the breath to fed your cells. Here is a wonderful film about pranic breathing that you can watch. I love this concept, using love as nutrition!! We both tried Jasmuheen’s teachings as we were walking along, imagining as we breathed in that heart is a nose breathing in love, and then as we breathed out we imagined that we were breathing love into our bodies. Try it!! You’ll like it! We could actually feel our bodies become more alive, awake, and aware as we did this.

Going to bed on Day 2 feeling very happy. We are up late tonight, still learning the finesse of video editing (o there is so much more we wish we had time to do, and will as we getter better at it as we go so will have time to add fancy stuff like credits and introductions, it is the text that we are having such a stick with!)

Goodnight, sweet dreams,

Juicy Love,

David and Katrina

Setting Sail; Global Juice Feast 2008 Day 1!!

We've got wind in our sails baby!

The ship has left the dock ladies and gentlemen! We have officially set sail with the first annual Global Juice Feast, 2008!!! The forecast is clear, with possible showers ahead, but hey, we all need those once in awhile right? Let's keep it real darlings! But for now skies are blue, the wind is sweet, and the water is electric blue!!

This is going to be a long first post, so enjoy it because I can't promise any consistency as the Feast progresses!

I really did have a hard time sleeping last night, that was no story. I don't know about the mouse, but me, I don't do well with cacao for dinner, it keeps my eyes wide open like an owl all night! I think I got about four hours of restless sleep.

The day began with sitting meditation for half an hour, then it was juice making time! We are trying to quickly adjust to sharing via video and finding space for that, so while juicing, David was also trying to up-load our Last Supper video, and trying to arrange youtube accounts, and now our main project of the day is figuring out how our new video editing software works. No small task.

We made five quarts of GVJ, and two of amazing citrus/pineapple that we made from oranges, blood oranges, mandarin oranges, grapefruit, and pineapple. Later on in the afternoon we made some crazy amazing watermelon/blueberry/cherry juice. The Last Supper did not get finished last night, so this juice was made with Last Supper berries. Then we also made a mix of various different juices for our Patagonia Juice Feasting buddies at the Global Juice Feast 2008 Kick Off Party!

After juice making it was into the bathroom for that little red kit routine, skin brushing, shower, and then out for a bounce on the Bellicon, and then for a morning walk.

Have I properly discussed why David and I are Juice Feasting? We are, after all, in very good health as it is, and eat only foods that create health (raw vegan.) Why would we want to Juice Feast? Well, there are so many reasons! Juice Feasting goes beyond nutrition, as it feeds your being all the way up the chain of being!! For me personally, I have never done any extended cleansing and feel I still have some subtle tweaks to make to my health. Here are my Juice Feasting wishes:

~I would like to see my blood sugar stabalize even more than it has with the magic of raw foods. (BTW, my fasting blood sugar was at 81 yesterday morning!!)

~I would like to develop an even healthier, more loving relationship with the food that nourishes me.

~I would like to detox some unhealthy fat that I am still carrying in my hips and elsewhere and replace it with healthy, happy weight. I don't know what I weighed at my heaviest, but I'm sure it was close to 190 lbs. Because I am tall, my frame hides an extra 30 lbs quite well, but I could really feel and see the difference. I am still showing signs of those extra bits that I would love to see transformed.

Here is a little bit of that story: When I was at my heaviest, about two and a half years ago, age 26, I felt like I had fallen off of the side of the mountain called youth. I was a very active kid, and a big eater, lovingly known as my mother's "hollow leg." When I was 18, a boyfriend watched as I was eating dinner one day and he commented "You won't be able to eat like that for long you know! As you get older, you will have to start eating less." I didn't believe him and thought that because I had slim parents, was active, and had always been a healthy weight, that I could eat what ever amount I pleased. WRONG!! It was true that while I was eating vegetarian and getting lots of exercise, I could eat quite a lot with out any ill effects. But then I graduated from university and a few things changed: I started to make more money than before so it was no longer brown rice, salads, oatmeal, and apples, I started to eat fancy cheeses, baguettes, fish, meat, and rich, heavy, creamy, white flour, white sugar foods. I was still eating all my beautiful salads, but my system started to get thrown off. I believe that eating meat, after growing up vegetarian (I had no idea what to do with beef or chicken in the kitchen until around age 24!) had a hugely negative effect on me. I would wake up in the morning and the first thought that would be in head was "I hate my life." Also the processed white sugar and flour foods threw my whole system into blood sugar havoc. Here too, I had grown up with home made, whole wheat bread, whole wheat pasta, and excellent health, so I noticed a huge difference, but couldn't seem to stop eating the white, processed stuff. I felt like I was addicted to bread! I started to gain weight, despite the fact that I was running, riding my bike to work, and going on long walks. Believing that if a person got enough exercise, they could eat whatever they were hungry for, I kept eating! What I didn't realize was that my body was getting under nourished because of my activity level and the foods I was eating, and that the huger I felt was not true hunger but often blood sugar ups and downs. One day I called my boyfriend into the bathroom to look at my thighs, which had big lumps of fat on them. "I think there is something wrong with me" I said "Look at my legs! Should I go see a doctor?" He in all honestly replied "No, you are just getting fat." I thank him for saying that to this day, because it was what I needed to hear. All in all, I wasn't myself, and I knew it, and I knew I had to do something about it. For a time I was so in the darkness of how my mind and body felt, that I thought maybe this was just what it was like to get older, somehow I had missed out on my mom's healthy genes, and was given some bum deal. After all, I was surrounded by people who had had this happen, this mysterious getting older collapse into ill health, why should I be any different? But no! There was not a chance! I knew it was possible to age well, and I was going to do it! So I began to read about health....I was very fortunate to cross paths with raw food almost right away, and I was hooked. This has all lead me here, feeling better than I can remember feeling EVER and happy as can be.

I feel very blessed to have grown up with such wonderful health, and that my inner wisdom did not get buried too deep by white powdered crap!! (I don't believe that any body's does, we can always find our way back if we want to.) There, that is just a little bit of my "How I Got In To Raw Foods" story, I need to work on an "about me" page so you all know where I have come from! I know I love hearing other people's stories.

~I would like to get deeper into lucid dreaming, stretching, yoga, and develop a solid exercise routine that will stick!! To see just how strong, clear, and light I can feel.

~Massive heart opening, deeper meditation, connection to all things, and a true connection to the consciousness that with us in every moment.

~To take things to the next level. To remain open to what comes. I am curious to see what will occur on all levels!

~To get ready for baby Rainoshek, who is waiting in the wings as I write, I can feel it!

We will see tomorrow if we can get David to discuss in a bit of detail why he is Juice Feasting, AGAIN!!!

Want some statistics? You got it!

David: weight 132.o lbs at 5'7"

Katrina: weight 161.4 lbs at 6'1"

Our weight goals are different for the Feast, I would like to loose some, David would like to stay the same or gain some. We would both like to tone, tighten, and sleek up with some nice useful muscles. I have a feeling that this is going to mean A LOT of juice for us both!! We will find out as the days progress.

Notes on Day 1:

~The nut mylk bags supplied by Matt and Angela are awesome! Stronger than any we have used, with no squirting pulp everywhere out of holes on the first day.

~ Watching my mind eating. I am not eating, but I notice my mind eats before I have, and I will reach for a piece of apple thinking "I am going to eat this" before I stop and say, wait, no I'm not!

Daily Juices~

David~ 1 quart GVJ (celery, cucumber, Swiss chard, romaine lettuce, spinach, apple, carrot, parsley, lemon, and kale), 1 quart GVJ (same), 1 quart citrus/pineapple juice, .5 quarts GVJ (same), 1 quart watermelon/blueberry/cherry juice, .5 quart Global Juice Feast Kick Off Party GVJ!!!

Total juice: 5 quarts
Other: 1/2 tsp kelp granules, 2 TBS bee pollen, 2 quarts water

Katrina~1 quart GVJ (same as David's), 1 quart GVJ, 1 quart citrus/pineapple, .5 quart GVJ (same), 1 quart watermelon/blueberry/cherry, .5 quart Global Juice Feast Kick Off Party GVJ!!!

Total juice: 5 quarts
Other: 2 quarts water

Exercise: 10 minute morning walk, 20 minutes of rebounding, very brief resistance training. Stretches.

How do we feel? Fantastic!!

We just got home from the Global Juice Feast 2008 Kick Off Party, the Patagonia chapter, and are feeling so lucky to have some locals to get juicy with. There was 7 of us, and we all made juice, talked Juice Feasting, and felt loving and mellow. We realized that next time we have a Juice Feasting Party on the first day of a Juice Feast, we need to do it sooner than 7 o'clock! We all watched a riot of a juice gag that you can see here. When we got home we Skyped with my Dad's house where the GJF '08 KOP, the Victoria chapter was happening. They had 12 people come, get silly and high on juice, and we had a very happy, silly skype call.

May your dreams be juicy and sweet, thank you all for being a part of this amazing process!!

With love,

Katrina and David Rainoshek

Global Juice Feast Eve!!

Twas the night before GJF and all through the house......

not a creature was sleeping!! not even the mouse!!

They were far too excited and had drank too much Cacao

so what happens then, well golly gee wow!!

They danced and they sang and they jumped up and down

while others cried out "why, there's no produce left in this town!"

The juicies had bought it all up for their juice,

so farmers got rich, organic greens became the golden goose!!

Doctors and pharmacy clerks ran with glee from their posts crying "juice is the cure"

and they dug their hands deep into the dirt with no fear!!

Everyone started planting seeds left and right

and all were so busy with wonderful tasks there was no time to fight!!

The next 92 Days were juicy for sure

as every last lovely felt strong, clean, and pure!!

So join us, why don't you??

It's sure to be great, as we all flow along and become what we create!!!

Hello!!

Well, tomorrow morning we will all wake up and begin this journey together.

Be sure to read A Day In The Life Of A Juice Feaster if you haven't already done so, and also carefully review Getting Juicy: Making Beautiful Juices. Make sure you watch Blind Guru making juice with a Vita Mix if this is going to be your way of making juice (our version of making juice with a Vita Mix is coming soon.) Grocery Shopping also has lots of information on the things that you will juicing, and there is a very handy shopping list for you to download at the bottom of the page.

In a nut shell, you will be waking up, feeling excited that today you are embarking on a journey of incredible depth and transformation, grateful for the space that has come into your life to allow this to manifest. (If you wake up feeling grumpy, crabby, afraid of juicing, and wondering why you ever even entertained the idea at all, that is OK too, your morning mood will shift and become brighter and brighter as you get further into your Juice Feast.)

The first thing you will do is make your morning water, one quart with half a lemon squeezed juice and 1-3 TBS of MSM. Then, you can go do an enema, skin brush, have your shower ending with hot/cool. Then you can go and make your juice!! 4 quarts and you are set for the day. You don't have to think about making food, what am I going to eat?, getting in the kitchen, doing dishes, or any of that for the rest of the day (unless you are a domestic god or goddess and are still creating food for your loved ones, in which case we salute you.) You have the rest of the day to do what ever you do!! When you are hungry, drink more juice!! If you drink all 4 quarts and are still hungry, make more juice and drink it!!

This is from our Juice Feasting Intro on how to drink your juice successfully on your Juice Feast:
Drink juice every 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Any more than that, and you are going to feel huuuungry. And that is when your physiology will send messages to your brain to find whatever food is familiar and available. Keep the wolf away from the door, and drink juices regularly.

The order of your juices between Green Vegetable Juice and Fruit Juice is important. Start your morning with a Green Vegetable Juice. Why? Several really good reasons. First, we are not used to drinking greens, or eating them, for that matter. You are getting in a Green Juice first thing in the morning, which means that you already have one done. Also, you are training your taste buds to ask for greens by making them the first thing that hits your tongue that is food. This is good training for adopting the Four Means to Get Your Greens, my real-world, raw food paradigm outlined on Day 83 of the Juice Feasting Program, which starts your day with a Green Smoothie (a fruit smoothie, really). Finally, starting your day with a Green Vegetable Juice means that you are not raising your blood sugar too high first thing in the morning, and are giving your body fuel which will last for hours. This is fuel that alkalinizes your body.

After that first juice, then you are ready for Fruit Juice as your second or third juice. The reason for this is that you have been active mentally and physically, and your body is more ready for carbohydrate, provided that fruit juice is appropriate for you on the Feast. If you are doing Fruit Juices, do make sure that you mix in Green Superfood Powders and even some bee pollen. Remember, one place that we get in trouble with food is eating high-sugar. low mineral foods. By adding in Green Superfood Powder Concentrates, you raise the mineral profile of your juices significantly.

Finally, at the end of the day, have a Green Vegetable Juice. It will satiate you for the rest of the evening, and greens and celery are calming (alkalinizing things are calming to your system) which will make you more ready to relax and fall into a deep sleep a few hours later.

SUMMARY: Your Juices schedule goes as follows:

1. Morning by 8:00 am: Green Vegetable Juice (1 Quart)

2. Mid-Morning around 10:30 am: Green Vegetable Juice or Fruit Juice (1 Quart)

3. Lunchtime: Green Vegetable Juice or Fruit Juice (1 Quart)

4. Late afternoon: Green Vegetable Juice (1 Quart)

5. Early Evening: If hungry, Green Vegetable Juice (1/2 to 1 Quart) that you made after work at home

Feeding your body juices consistently is a key factor in your success on the Juice Feast.

OK, so that wasn't really in a nut shell.

Angela Stokes has just made available a series of Juice Feasting conference calls, and here is what she has to say about them:

'O, I’m very excited to say that on the eve of this worldwide foray into feasting we’ve just managed to put up a new set of Juice Feasting Calls for download. ;) This ‘Juice Feasting Conference Call’ series, comprises 4 one-hour calls, which were recorded live in May 2007, after my own 92-day Juice Feast was completed. This is a new way to access in-depth
information about Juice Feasting - these calls go deeper into the 'knitty-gritty' than my Juice Feasters Handbook'.

You can find these calls here. We haven't listened to these calls yet, but knowing Angela we are sure they are wonderful, inspiring and informative.

And if you are still looking for inspiration to start your Juice Feast, check out this blog entry form the resplendent Carrie, who has just completed her Juice Feast:

Before I get completely swept up in the culinary wonders sweet B has in store for me, I would just like to take a moment to reflect upon this whole process.......AMAZING!!!!! One of the craziest, best things I have done for myself to date. A true culmination of so much that I have learned over the years, tidied into a brilliantly laid out, beautiful, rational package of such love, abundance and full-hearted-ness. Of everything I knew about whole foods, raw, vegan nutrition, this is absolutely the next step, the thing to take it all to the next level as a platform for life transformation. In the process of committing to and following a largely self-directed juicing protocol, I willingly crawled out of my safe cave into a community of some of the most open-hearted, generous, benevolent creatures I have ever had the good fortune to encounter. I also stepped unwittingly into a public persona that has given me tremendous pleasure and courage, self-confidence and humility.

The information matrix that is Juice Feasting, and the paradigm of nutrition and personal/global health that surrounds it resonates with me deeply to my core, and so inspires me to incorporate it on a fundamental level in my professional work with clients, whether it be bodywork, energy work, or acupuncture. Finding a teacher in David Rainoshek is the answer to a specific request I have had pending with the universe for some time now. I am ecstatically overwhelmed with all the directions I want to go in, from here, the center point that keeps madly multiplying. My joy is great, my inspiration abundantly fueled, my satisfaction fulfilled and overflowing, and my time....I want more! I think I shall never be bored again for as long as I live, and that is a wondrous thing. I have endless relationships that I would like to cultivate, new friends in several countries to visit, personal and professional dreams to manifest, and delicious, divine green food to make it all happen, with grace, serenity, and delight!

~Carrie

Carrie, we are blessed to have you in our world, you are a true gem!! We are so glad you loved your Juice Feast, rock on juicy one!

Oh, and I forgot to add a few things to our shopping list of the last blog, believe it or not there was more! We also got 4 yams, 24 lemons (the price was right) and 3 Jerusalem artichokes. We just got our new nut mylk bags in the mail from Mr. Monarch, and I treated myself to three of the Anastasia books that came as well. I look forward to reading them after hearing so much about them. I think we are all set!

We were talking with some friends who are here in Patagonia today who are going to be Juice Feasting along with us. They said that the grocer, and the produce supplier just could not believe the amount of produce that is being ordered into this little town!! Like nothing they have ever seen, they said to our friends "What is going on in this town?!!" Of course our friends replied "JUICE FEASTING!!"

And finally, the last Rainoshek supper for 92 Days!!




With love and gratitude, we are so looking forward to juicing with you all and being the change we wish to see in the world!

David and Katrina Rainoshek

Growing Pings and Poppies and Two More Sleeps!

Open wide, sweet poppies! There is a lot of sunshine coming in!
Hello!!

Good evening, how are you?

We had a great day yesterday picking up a crazy weight lifting contraption that is going to help us build some very vibrant, important MUSCLES!! We also went to pick up some produce...two grocery carts full!! Wow. For those of you curious about what David and Katrina got in preparation for their first days of Juice Feasting, here it is:

10 lbs of romaine lettuce
8 bunches of spinach (we would have got more, but the place we went to had a sad, sorry choice of spinach)
10 heads of celery
8 cucumbers
5 bunches of parsley
2 bunches of swiss chard
1 head of dandelion greens
6 bunches of kale
1 huge knob of ginger
3 heads of garlic
15 lbs of carrots
3 watermelons
6 pineapples
2 bags of apples
one box full of oranges
one box full of grapefruit

We left the grocery store with amazing looking carts! The girl in the line up behind us said "Are you guys raw foodists?" so of course we had to tell her about Juice Feasting. It is really exciting that someone would pick that up, rather than just thinking "these folks are obviously feeding a very large, produce chomping monster that lives in their basement." Raw food is getting out there!

As we packed the truck, our poetry reading, bike riding friend came over to trade some poetry for a tip, and we gave him some oranges as a poetry bonus. He told us that God had told him to come to the parking lot at that moment to see us, and that he really loves us, we said "we love you too!"

Somehow, along with the help of two coolers, we managed to fit it all in our fridge! We have a very small kitchen with a very small fridge (a little bar fridge) but lucky for us there is a full size fridge in the garage. I enjoy going out side to get my greens every morning, I think I should always keep my fridge outside, it is an unavoidable reason to go outdoors. It is much quieter too.

So is anyone feeling growing pings and poppies yet? (we used to feel growing pains, but lets not get pain mixed us with the flowering of our beautiful selves) Yes, it can feel like pain, but it is really just an expansion as you stretch to embrace the vastness and depth that is life. As our hearts open, it can feel a bit like a breaking apart. Lovely, more cracks for the light to get in!

I am feeling it, pings, poppies, openings, growing, and everything that comes with growing and opening up. It just goes on and on doesn't it?

We are getting heavy into Ken Wilber right now and just signed up for his website, www.integralinstitute.com. An AMAZING resource, check him out! He will blow your mind, plant good seeds, hand you golden life skills tools, and much much more.

My last post I mentioned that we were going to watch some Ken before going to sleep, and we did. I had some awe inspiring dreams that night that I would love to share snippets of. Dreams have always been very bright guiding lights for me. Dreams give me access to the deeper places in me that get buried under daily stuff, my sub-consciousness that is finely and deeply tuned into the world's Wisdom.

I was in an apocalyptic moment, the world as we know it was drawing to a end, and the town were I was living was warned that the water was running out and that we all needed to evacuate, get as far away from there as possible, and go find water. I, among others, decided to stay. What we discovered as time passed, was that the water did run dry. It continued to flow from the taps, clean, clear, life giving. It was a revelation! We had been lied to! There was never any danger of the water running out, we just had to believe that there would be water, and there would be water.

I have had end of the world as we know it dreams before, full of explosions, screaming and other unpleasant things. What always happens for me though, after intense discomfort and distress, is that I am overcome with an overwhelming sense of peace. I realize that I CHOOSE to be here at this time, I wanted to be here, for whatever reason, at this exact epoch in history, and it is all well, and all will be well. In this case though, it was wonderful to realize that the end was not as real as we thought it might be. I really believe this to be the case in real life as well, lets not all go around thinking the end is near, but lets believe with all our hearts that the water will keep flowing clean and abundant, the air will be clean and fresh, the forests, the oceans, the fields, the mountains, all will be well!! When we truly believe this, we also live our lives in a way that will allow for life to flourish. I liken it to any holiday, take Christmas or Ramadan or Wesak for example, if enough of us believe in it, it happens!! What if we all woke up tomorrow morning, all of us, knowing that world peace was real? I think it will happen.

David and I had somehow ended up caring for an amazingly obese baby, it was not ours, but we were responsible for it. It was so heavy that we could scarcely lift it up, and we were trying to journey by foot to a far off village. I was thinking "what are we doing, looking after this huge baby!" and yet I knew the baby was very important, very precious, and very valuable. It had to be taken care of very well. It was a struggle to carry that baby, yet I loved it. Then, as the dream went on, the baby got smaller and smaller, lighter and lighter, until I didn't even notice I was carrying it. Oh what a precious little baby! I was so happy that I had worked so hard to bring it with us!

When I told this part of the dream to David in the morning he thought about it for a while. Then he said that the baby was signifying something new and very important to me, and at first that something was just too big to be comfortable. Then, as time passed, it became lighter and easier to carry. This is how I feel about new things often, especially important, life shifting ones. I felt this way about raw foods as well when I first started out, and now I barely notice that I eat in a radically different way than before (accept of course, I feel radically different and am in a life radically different.) This is how I feel about the information that Ken brings to the table right now, it is so huge and important I don't quite know how to take it all. So lets all carry our precious, heavy babies with love, knowing they will become easier and easier to carry as our hearts and minds grow to meet them!

The third dream snippet I wanted to share was one from David's dream:

I was here on Earth, and I couldn't find you anywhere. Then I found you, but it was just your image, and I could somehow talk to you through that image. You told me that you didn't know where you where, but that you had left your image behind!

This was really mind blowing to me because just before going to sleep I had read a bit from Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth, and had been reading all about the world of form and non-form! He talks about the importance of releasing our perceived notions of importance of form in order to end ego, to end suffering, and I had gone to sleep meditating on the release of form. I didn't even mention this to David!!

I look forward to some even more amazing dreaming while Juice Feasting!

I am so glad that we are all here together, it brings tears of happiness to our eyes at least once a day.

Only two more sleeps!

With Love,

Katrina and David