DAY 10 JFP: Know Thyself, Thyjuices

(c) 2008 David and Katrina Rainoshek

Introduction
You should have tested your Fasting Blood Sugar this morning. If not, get that monitor out (or out of the grocery store) and get set to do it tomorrow. Today we will discuss what those numbers mean for you.

Also, you are shifting into a new life for yourself, and some cherished patterns that you have lived are perhaps kicking and whining a little bit as they are not going to be part of your future. At times, you may feel like running back to old haunts, be they physical or mental or relational, that are not conducive to meeting your health challenges and goals. We are going to honor your desire to run as we talk about Positive Diversions.

Those positive diversions are going to help you meet your goals. One of the goal masters out there, David Wolfe, is going to talk about the importance of writing your goals down.

New Life Practice
You have tested your FBS this morning, and the average you arrive at over the next 10 days is really important. Chronically high blood sugar can lead to a host of health challenges, including heart disease, kidney disease, alzheimer’s, diabetes, stroke, hypertension, migraine headaches, dementia, candida yeast syndrome, fibromyalgia, arthritis, overweight, chronic fatigue syndrome, retinopathy… the list goes on. High blood sugar is damaging to almost every tissue and organ in the human body. If you find your levels are outside of a healthy range, you are in luck. By drinking appropriate juices on a Juice Feast, many students have achieved normal blood sugar levels, and have healed some, if not all, of the damage created by hyperglycemia. Let’s look at what these numbers mean in the realm of Juice Feasting and your health.

There is a lot of debate out there in nutritional circles about how much fruit we should be eating, what kinds of fruit, when to eat it, etc., etc. Fruit is a wonderful food. It is hydrating, loaded with antioxidants and phytonutrients, people of all ages enjoy it, and by and large it juices very well. On the Juice Feast, it is very important to know how much fruit juice is appropriate for YOU. When you juice the fruits, the glycemic index of that juice is quite high, meaning that the sugar is going to get into your bloodstream very quickly. If your cells are ready for the sugar, this is not so much of a problem, but for those of us who have health challenges that are aggravated by fruit juices, we need to be prudent.

Those who should minimize or eliminate fruit juices from a Juice Feast can be persons with: high blood sugar (prediabetes or diabetes), hypoglycemia, the yeast overgrowth of candida known as candidiasis, and those with precancerous or cancerous conditions. Again, everyone should consult their health professionals before beginning a Juice Feast. A person who understands juicing and your particular health challenges can advise you on whether fruit juice is appropriate for you.

The way we determine this for our clients on a Juice Feast is by taking an average Fasting Blood Sugar using a blood sugar monitor. These devices sell for $10-20 at most drug stores, and come with 10 free testing strips. With these strips, you can test your Fasting Blood Sugar (FBS) each morning for 10 days before the Feast. Write the number down each morning, and take a 10-Day Average. This will tell you if you are having challenges with high blood sugar. Here is how the averages break down in terms of your health, and how much fruit juice, from this perspective, is appropriate for you.

Average Fasting Blood Sugar over 10 Days
What This Means for Your Health and Juices

85 or less
You have no problem with blood sugar.
Juice Feast: 1 quart of fruit juice each day is a-okay, unless another health challenge mentioned above suggests otherwise

85 – 100
We will call this pre pre-diabetic. Your blood sugar is a little high, which is placing an extra burden on your pancreas, and could lead to a compromise of vital organs such as your brain, kidneys, pancreas, and heart in later life which could be prevented by lowering your blood sugar.
Juice Feast: 1 quart of fruit juice each day is possible, but mix in green superfood powders, and drink mid-day.

100 - 115
Pre-Diabetic. This may be a surprise to you. However, close to 100 million Americans are pre-diabetic. This means that your cells are not taking up sugar efficiently, probably because they are toxic. This level needs to come down or you could develop diabetes within 10 years, according to the American Diabetes Association. This is possible.

Juice Feast: All Green Vegetable Juices with a little carrot, apple, and lemon. You need exercise!

126 and over
Diabetic. Please see a health professional knowledgeable in the reversal of diabetes with Plant-Based Nutrition, such as Dr. Gabriel Cousens, M.D. at the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center or Brian Clement at Hippocrates Health Institute. Do not attempt a Juice Feast on your own, and only begin once you have professional guidance.

Juice Feast: All Green Vegetable Juices without carrot, and apple, and lemon in moderation. Supervised by a health professional. Do not attempt to come off blood sugar medications without professional guidance. Please read There is a Cure for Diabetes with Gabriel Cousens, M.D. with David Rainoshek, M.A.


Kitchen, Bath, and Body
Install Shower Filter. Did you install your shower filter today? If you are needing some more encouragement on the chlorine issue, check this [1] out:

According to Dr. Joseph M. Price, MD, in Moseby's Medical Dictionary:

"Chlorine is the greatest crippler and killer of modern times. It is an insidious poison.".

In a 1992 study that made front-page headlines, and was reported on in the July issue of the American Journal of Public Health researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee found that people who regularly drink tap water containing high levels of chlorine by-products have a greater risk of developing bladder and rectal cancers than people who drink unchlorinated water. The study estimates that about 9 percent of all bladder cancer and 18 percent of all rectal cancer cases are associated with long-term consumption of these by-products. This amounts to over 20,000 new cases each year.

Morris, with epidemiologist Thomas C. Chalmers and his colleagues at Harvard, used a new technique called meta-analysis to combine the results from the 10 best studies, yielding the new findings. They report that people drinking chlorinated water over long periods have a 21% increase in the risk of contracting bladder cancer and a 38% increase in the risk of rectal cancer. "I am quite convinced, based on this study, that there is an association between cancer and chlorinated water.", says Robert D. Morris of the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, who directed the new study.

About 90% of the population is drinking water which may contain hundreds of these Disinfection By-products (DBPs), also known as Trihalomethanes. The Environmental Protection Agency lowered the Maximum Contaminant Level for Disinfection By-products but it will be years before the new standard goes into effect.

In his book, Coronaries/Cholesterol/Chlorine, Joseph M. Price, MD presents startling evidence that trihalomethanes, are the "prime causative agents of artherosclerosis and its inevitable result, the heart attack or stroke." These trihalomethanes are created when the chlorine that is added to the municipal water supply reacts with organic matter such as leaves, twigs, or chemicals from agricultural runoff.


Here's What The Experts Have To Say:
The drinking of chlorinated water has finally been officially linked to an increased incidence of colon cancer. An epidemiologist at Oak Ridge Associated Universities completed a study of colon cancer victims and non-cancer patients and concluded that the drinking of chlorinated water for 15 years or more was conducive to a high rate of colon cancer." Health Freedom News, January/February 1987

"Long-term drinking of chlorinated water appears to increase a person's risk of developing bladder cancer as much as 80%," according to a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Some 45,000 Americans are diagnosed every year with bladder cancer. St. Paul Dispatch & Pioneer Press, December 17, 1987


Exercise
We can and do get chaotic energy as our bodies heal and we shift our diet. Many times running feels like the best option, and often that means running back to things which do not get us where we want to go. We say RUN, but to the best things ever - new and exciting things which still help us run, but forward. We call these things Positive Diversions.

Protect Your Senses With Positive Diversions:
As you chart your course through this program, protect your senses whenever possible--and reinforce great thoughts through reading and re-reading, avoiding media when possible (TV is programming, and often not in the best interest of your solidity and positive thinking), and maintaining a regular and concerted practice of drinking the best food your body can access. I have provided the Positive Diversions aspect of this program, because of our natural - and encouraged - tendency to RUN when our great potential is opening up, or when we are met with temporary difficulties. Soren Kierkegaard once said, "Our greatest fear is knowing our own true potential." The Positive Diversions list is included to honor your desire to run, but here is the kicker:

When you feel like running, RUN - but run to the best thing possible.

Generally, when we feel like running, we run to what we have been pre-programmed to run to: television, bars, restaurants, unhealthy relationships, food, etc. We now have the opportunity to re-program ourselves, not to avoid running, but to run to things that advance our capacities, not diminish them. This is a truly worthwhile and honorable path, and will pay off immensely.

One positive diversion is watching GREAT stuff, and to that end, I have two great possibilities for you. One, I have included well over 250 hand-picked videos on JuiceFeasting.com for you to watch--all of which will satisfy the desire to kick back and watch TV, all engaging and life-changing, without commercials. Two, watch The Secret.

We encourage you to create you own list of Positive Diversions. Do it now, so that when you are feeling low in the shifting terrain of your healing process, you can refer to your beautiful list.

Some Positive Diversions from our list include: meditation, walking, yoga, reading, deep breathing, journaling, gardening, letter writing, create a beautiful juice and drink it in a beautiful place, draw, dance, play your guitar, listen to something from David Wolfe, write down some fantastic goals, go for a bike ride, and love!

Other great resources for overcoming emotional blockages that we enjoy are Byron Katie’s Loving What Is, Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth, Anthony Robbin’s Awaken The Giant Within, Ken Wilber’s Integral Vision or Integral Operating System (which has books, cds, and dvds) any thing by Thich Nhat Hanh, and of course YOU! You are your own best guiding light, and you will be able to draw in the best teachers for yourself as you need them.

Shazzie says “ Picture that all your emotions are locked away in your cells, and as your cells start to release toxins, they also release emotions. At any appropriate time, seek counseling or other emotional therapeutic assistance if you feel uncomfortable with the amount of emotions being released.

Emotional therapeutic assistance will look different for each and every one of us, so create a vibrant list of options for yourself in your Positive Diversions. As Joseph Campbell says “Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.”

Remember also the value of sitting with your emotions. Allow them to be there with you, meditate on them, and watch them evaporate and move through you like waves move through the ocean.

One of our favorite Positive Diversions is Love! Dr. Dean Ornish says about the healing power of love and intimacy: “I am not aware of any other factor in medicine – that has a greater impact on our quality of life, incidence of illness, and premature death from all causes.”

So, love yourself! What you are about to do (or have already begun) is a great act of self love and love for all things. This is important to remember when you are going through those un-comfortable moments, and we find it helps greatly to focus on the mantra of “love.” Take even ten seconds and focus your mind on the word love, repeating it with each in and out breath. Replace un-pleasant thoughts with the word love! It is not always necessary to take every thought to completion, and often thoughts will serve only to drag us deeper in to their own drama. You can quite safely exit the cycle of your un-happy thoughts and begin instead to meditate on love, no matter where you are during your day!

“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.” ~ Joseph Campbell


Multimedia
The goals we have in mind often drive us beyond what we believe we are capable of, and goals written down are even more powerful. Consider this famous goal study Anthony Robbins cites in his book Unlimited Power:

A study of the 1953 graduates of Yale University clearly demonstrates the power of goals. The graduates interviewed were asked if they had a clear, specific set of goals written down with a plan for achieving those goals. Only three percent had written such goals. Twenty years later, in 1973, the researchers went back and interviewed the surviving members of the 1953 graduating class. They discovered that the three percent with written specific goals were worth more in financial terms than the entire other 97 percent put together…The interviewers also discovered that the less measurable or more subjective measures, such as level of happiness and joy that the graduates felt, also seemed to be superior in the three percent with written goals.


Goals of David Rainoshek. For three years I (David Rainoshek) was terribly sick with the complications of toxemia, dehydration, and malnourishment even though I ate an organic cooked vegetarian diet. I had hypoglycemia, acid reflux disease, and arthritic pain all through my body. At the very beginning of that period I wrote down my goals, one of which was to be well before I moved out of Houston. Almost three years later, just six weeks before moving out of the city to the mountains, I discovered Live Food Nutrition, and within three weeks of the move I was symptom-free. Now that is the power of the practice of writing down goals. Don't wait, and refuse to limit yourself!

Goals by David Wolfe. One of my favorite people on goal writing and visioning your life is David Wolfe from whom I have learned a lot on this important Life Practice. Watch this video by David on goals. If you have his book The Sunfood Diet Success System, take some time to read his chapter on Goals, and write down yours for this time of cleansing, one year ahead, and three years ahead. Not only is this a time capsule, but you will consciously and subconsciously work in your life towards the things you write down. This is very powerful information available for you to use right now!


What’s Ahead
Getting into the sun. We are also going to have a very important conversation about talking with your family and friends about your Juice Feast. There are so many books out there on fasting and cleansing, but few even address the issue of how to lovingly involve your family and elicit their support without causing them worry, fear, or discomfort about their own dietary and lifestyle choices. We will get right into it.

[1] “Health Effects of Chlorine in Drinking Water.” GAIA Int. Water Treatment Technologies Edthofer & Petr OEG Bahnstrasse 31, A-3061 Ollersbach Tel.: 0699/ 110 32 006, 0699/ 123 02 449 Fax: 02772/ 55 200, e-mail: gaia2001@europe.com