DAY 11 JFP: Loving Reading Your Skin

(c) 2008 David and Katrina Rainoshek

Introduction
Hello Juicy Folks! Today we are going to light a fire under you to read – and in a different way than you were taught in school. We will also re-visit the power of skin brushing, add in a wonderful shower filter, tell you about our favorite soap, and introduce you to one of nature’s most amazing skin foods. Finally, we will look at a new development in the world of cleansing: Weight Training.


New Life Practices
Reading. Reading may or may not be a new Life Practice for you. You might be like we are, and you have been reading like a maniac since the age of five, but it never hurts to water your best seeds! It is so important to have reading as part of your toolbox of life practices, as part of your spiritual cross-training. Tony Robbins has been saying for years, “Readers are leaders.” Quite right.

To begin with you may want to go and read our previous reading post if you haven’t already. Follow this link!

“I totally concede that the gift of juice feasting is a wonderful opportunity to reflect upon and consume knowledge in tune with your needs. I do not usually have the time or energy to read so much so it is such a pleasure to develop this now. Love, Poppy”


"When you sell someone a book, you don't sell them 12 ounces of paper and ink and glue - you sell him a whole new life." - Christopher Morley

I (David) have chosen two important commentaries on reading today: Malcolm X and David Wolfe, as each have very important things to say on being inspired to read, and reading itself. In The Autobiography of Malcolm X, one of the experiences that most impressed upon me in undergraduate school was Malcolm's burning desire to read and educate himself above the so-called education (read: indoctrination) he received from public schooling and living on the street. A few excerpts:

Anyone who has read a great deal can imagine the new world that opened. Let me tell you something: from then until I left that prison, in every free moment I had, if I was not reading in the library, I was reading on my bunk. You couldn't have gotten me out of books with a wedge.

Fortunately, right outside my door was a corridor light that cast a glow into my room. The glow was enough to read by, once my eyes adjusted to it. So when “lights out” came, I would sit on the floor where I could continue reading in that glow.

At one-hour intervals the night guards paced past every room. Each time I heard the approaching footsteps, I jumped into bed and feigned sleep. And as soon as the guard passed, I got back out of bed onto the floor area of that light-glow, where I would read for another fifty-eight minutes-until the guard approached again. That went on until three or four every morning. Three or four hours of sleep a night was enough for me. Often in the years in. the streets I had slept less than that.

I have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading opened to me. I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive. I certainly wasn't seeking any degree, the way a college confers a status symbol upon its students. My homemade education gave me, with every additional book that I read, a little bit more sensitivity to the deafness, dumb–ness, and blindness that was afflicting the black race in America. Not long ago, an English writer telephoned me from London,' asking questions. One was, "What's your alma mater?" I told him, "Books."

You will never catch me with a free fifteen minutes in which I'm not studying something I feel might be able to help the black man.

This is the natural result of the inspiration we experience when we finally understand a way out of the miserable situation we are in, individually and collectively. Speaking for myself, David Rainoshek, you will not find me wasting time... What you are going to learn about in this course has the potential to impact over 3 Trillion dollars in the U.S. economy each year, and save literally millions and millions of lives. . .

Once you are inspired to read and know that there are so many, many things you want to know about, the key is how to assimilate the information and knowledge in an effective manner. There are two main keys to this: activating your conscious mind, and your subconscious. Let’s start with the conscious mind.

This book Triple Your Reading Speed by Wade Cutler is the best I have encountered for adjusting your conscious mind to seeing words and groups of words as pictures. I have reviewed many books on speed reading over the last three years, and this one is the best for training yourself. This technique alone will revolutionize your life but cutting down on your reading time and enabling you to access a wider range of material.

Photo Reading by Paul Scheele will address your subconscious ability, and don’t knock the subconscious! A recent study was done in which participants were shown a group of several dozen pictures in quick succession. They were invited back a couple of days later, and were asked to pick out, among a group of photos they did and did not see the first time, which ones were shown in their first visit. Participants chose the right pictures 95% of the time, and did so even when 10,000 photos were shown in the first visit. The subconscious mind is so very powerful. Photo Reading is based on this ability to pick up information and store it, even when the conscious mind could not possibly be engaged enough to grasp it all. So check out this technology in concert with Triple Your Reading Speed.


Kitchen, Bath, and Body
It is skin time. Juice Feasting is amazing for the skin, as your skin is an outer reflection of what is going on inside. After you have been Feasting for a few weeks, your skin will begin to clear, become less puffy, and many Feasters find comments coming their way along the lines of being radiant, and “loooookin’ gooood.” So we are going to take care of your skin by cleaning from the inside out, by taking care of it for its own sake, and by doing some practices that support the skin’s eliminative abilities.

Skin Brushing. That is, dry skin brushing. If you have not done this before, it may sound a little weird. However, there is nothing better before a shower to loosen up the 2.5 lbs of matter released through your skin in the last 24 hours, open up your pores, and stimulate the flow of lymphatic fluid. Your lymph does not have a heart to pump it, so skin brushing, rebounding, walking, yoga, and hot/cool showers are very important for ensuring your lymph flows and drains, keeping you from develping a cleansing reaction during your Juice Feast.

The time to dry skin brush is right before you shower. You can start doing this as soon as you have a Yerba Prima dry skin brush, or equivalent. It will be scratchy at first, but keep doing it for 2-5 minutes before each shower, and after 3-4 days you will start to crave it – it will feel good. Once you are Juice Feasting, this Life Practice will happen after your enema, and before you step into the shower in the morning.

Shower Filter. Chlorine is a very harmful element to your skin, lungs, hair, eyes, nostrils, etc. Chances are, the local water company is putting it in your water. Get it out with a carbon filter. The carbon in the filter acts like a magnet and grabs onto chlorine. These filters are about 40 bucks in the U.S., and install on your shower head in minutes. Another benefit to having one of these is that you can fill up your enema kit with warm water out of the shower head, sans the chlorine in your water.

Dr. Bronner’s Soap. Thank goodness for this hemp oil based soap. It is completely non-toxic, and if you use the peppermint variety during your Juice Feast, it will help you smell like a fresh candycane instead of detoxification, thus eliminating your need for toxic underarm deodorant, which should also go in the waste bin today if you have it. Deodorants are loaded with heavy metals and carcinogens, and antiperspirants are, as well. You are putting this right on an area of release, and where lymph flows. These toxic body products contribute to breast cancer in women by blocking the flow of toxins from the pores in one’s armpits. Once you have Juice Feasted, you won’t need deodorant anymore, particularly with the peppermint Bronner’s soap.

Aloe Vera. Loaded with sulfur, one of your main beauty minerals. It is also great for shaving the face, underarms, and legs, in place of soap. If you nick yourself, the aloe is right there to soothe and aid in healing! Give it a try!


Supplements and Superfoods
Bee Pollen. Go out and get some of this amazing superfood today. This is our number one favorite superfood. You cannot beat it, dollars per nutrient.

There are several reasons we include pollen as part of the Juice Feast:

ONE: NUTRITION: Pollen is said to contain all the elements necessary for the sustenance of human life. The San Francisco Medical Research Foundation estimates that pollen has more than 5000 different enzymes and co-enzymes, which is more than any other food in existence. The high amount of enzymes, such as catalase, amylase, and pectin-splitting enzymes, make pollen and aid to digestion. Some research suggests that pollen is absorbed directly from the stomach into the bloodstream. Pollen is a vegetarian source of human-active B12, most of the B vitamins, vitamins A, C, D, and E, rutin, all the essential amino acids, the essential fatty acid called linoleic acid, fats, complex carbohydrates, simple sugars, RNA and DNA, steroid hormone substances, a plant hormone similar to a secretion of the human pituitary called gonadotrpin, 15% lecithin, and many other unknown factors. According to research by doctors from France, Italy, and the former USSR, pollen is the richest source of protein in nature. Gram for gram, pollen contains an estimated 5-7 times more protein than meat, eggs, or cheese. The protein in pollen is in a predigested form and therefore easy to assimilate. Pollen is also abundant in trace minerals, such as calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, manganese, potassium, copper, silicon, sulphur choline, titanium, and sodium. These minerals are highly assimilable because they are bound organically from plant metabolism.

TWO: COMPASSION: We miss chewing anything on a Juice Feast. This is one thing that you can chew on for the entire Feast, whether it is 7 days or 92.

THREE: LIFE PRACTICE: This is a major longevity food. By eating about 1 Tablespoon per day, you will develop a strong positive bond with this food that will last for a lifetime.

When buying pollen, get it from a reputable source, organic, and preferably from a refrigerator. It should cost no more than $12-15 a pound, and can cost as little as $6-7 when bought from the beekeeper.

On the Juice Feast: 1 Tablespoon per day, maximum. Everyone who is new to bee pollen should start by placing 1 pollen granule under the tongue, to check for an allergic reaction. About 1/2 of 1 percent of the population is allergic to pollen as a food, but please check. If you are in doubt, please consult an allergist. Many people using pollen who have allergies during pollen season find a partial or complete resolution of their allergies by combining a plant-based diet and eating bee pollen as a life practice.


Exercise
Strength Training. This information is incredible:

You can weight train on a Juice Feast.


This is incredible news, because water fasting and traditional juice fasting do not provide the sustenance necessary for weight training: there is not enough food to energize and build muscle tissue. But the Juice Feast provides all the carbohydrates, fats, and protein and calories for you to be able to weight train, if you drink a sufficient quantity of juice - approximately 2000 - 2500 calories per day. There is a caveat, however.

For the first 30-45 days of the Feast, your body is in more of a breaking-down-old-tissue, cleansing mode, and much less in a rebuilding mode, although that is going on. For the first 30-45 days, it is less than advisable to do weight training, because you want your body to stay focused more on cleansing and reorganizing, not building. I have placed this file at this point in the Program so that you have two weeks before the middle of the Feast to locate a health club or some weight equipment so that you can begin weight training at that time.

Around Day 60 you can start turning all that green juice into some hard, strong, sexy muscle! One of my (Katrina) favorite muscle building books for women is Smart Girls Do Dumbells by Judith Sherman-Wolin. It is not a raw/vegan muscle building book, so as soon as one of you writes one, let us know! You can also check out Storm, who is a raw/vegan body builder. Also check out Robbie Hazeley. There are many more inspiring raw vegans out there for any one who is feeling skeptical about strong raw vegans, just google "raw vegan body builders!" It is not necessary to become muscle bound, and indeed you won't unless you try very very hard, but muscle is the tissue of youth, and will create a healthy hormonal balance in your body among many other things. Anywhere between fifteen to forty five minutes of weights a day is perfect.

Any exercise you do will require more juice, so be aware of that. You are looking at a minimum of 1.5 gallons of juice each day to weight train on a Juice Feast, and you should consult your health practitioner first! Do not overextend yourself at any point in the Feast - the body is always doing a lot of new work, so be aware of that and exercise accordingly under the guidance of a professional.

Live Food Nutrition provides the best building blocks possible. If you watch the 2008 Global Juice Feast, you are going to see me (David Rainoshek) build muscle on juice during a Juice Feast. This will create a paradigm shift in the world of cleansing.

So where is the information that we can weight train and build muscle on a raw, plant-based diet? A fantastic example is Peter Ragnar of http://www.roaringlionpublishing.com/, and his free! e-book: How to Build Muscle on a Raw Food Diet.


Multimedia
We have a video on Day 15: Persistence that I would like for you to watch now. It is Anthony Robbins talking about Sly Stallone and producing his blockbuster film Rocky. It is so important to water your seeds of persistence and determination now, before you Juice Feast. Perhaps you have been working with a health challenge for years, and if you are like I (David) was, persistence and faith in my ability to find the answers, to heal myself, were most important in my eventual transformation. This talk by Robbins on Sly Stallone will water these seeds in you to know your outcome and keep moving towards it.


What’s Ahead
Tomorrow you will test your Fasting Blood Sugar (FBS) for the first of a ten-day period. Place your blood sugar monitor by your bedside tonight so that you remember it in the morning. You are going to add in some of the skin care elements we discussed today, and we are going to talk about Positive Diversions.