DAY 13 JFP: Walking on Water
(c) 2008 by David and Katrina Rainoshek

Introduction
Today we are going to add in a very valuable Life Practice that will continue to benefit you for years and years! By beginning to add in water to your day, especially your morning, your body is already becoming more vibrant! We are also going to look at getting a few more things for the kitchen…a bamboo cutting board and a really sharp, excellent knife. Good tools make the job so much more enjoyable! You will also be encouraged to try a wonderful treat, the Goji berry, as well as join some excellent online communities of people and create the essential element of support that goes along with any successful life transformation.

New Life Practice
Morning Water with Lemon. Once your feet hit the floor, the first thing you should be looking for (other than the toilet if you need to pee) is WATER.

Start every day with one quart of water with 1/2 lemon squeezed in, and between 1/2 tsp and 2 Tablespoons of MSM powder, depending on what your tolerance is (the way to know is by taste and whether you get the runs... MSM has no toxicity level (called an LD-50) that is the same as water itself.

Why water? We are 90% water when we are born, and by the time most of us die, we are about 50-60% water. As we dehydrate, our tissues become toxic and stiffen. Nutrients are not properly assimilated, and toxic matter does not leave our cells and lymphatic fluid in a timely manner. Our blood thickens. Brain function is compromised. Do you know what a hangover is? Dehydration. Most westerners are dehydrated every day of their lives, waking up agitated and groggy, and thinking that another dehydrating agent, coffee, is going to get them going. It will only kick you further down. Water is your best energizer in the morning, and that is why we are training you now to develop as a life practice drinking 1 quart of water each morning. Drinking water will wake up your mind, hydrate your tissues (reducing chronic pain), and some water will go down to your bowel to help you eliminate the waste matter accumulated during the night, so that you do not carry it around during the day and re-assimilate old fecal material back into your system, thus reducing cleansing reactions!

By the way, water is something you will learn much more about on Day 33 and Day 34 of the Juice Feasting Program, and if this topic interests you start pre-loading some of that information now.

Now, in that quart of water you are adding another hydrator, lemon juice. Citrus is a hydrogen concentrator, and the element hydrogen hydrates. Lemon is also fairly high in Vitamin C, and vitamin C and MSM work synergistically together.

MSM is a sulfur compound, and sulfur is the third most prevalent mineral in the body. We have derived a lot of knowledge about MSM from Dr. Stanley Jacob, who wrote The Miracle of MSM, a book that you will find an indispensable addition to your library. It just so happens that MSM breaks up scar tissue, reduces inflammation better than any anti-inflammatory drug out there, and has no side effects (other than the runs if you take more than your body knows how to use). A therapeutic amount of MSM is 2-3 Tablespoons a day (and more), but for most of us, the body will need to learn how to use MSM before we can reach that amount.

BENEFITS OF MSM
Dr. Stanley Jacob, author of The Miracle of MSM considers the following to be MSM's most significant actions:

· It is an analgesic. It relieves pain.
· It reduces inflammation.
· It passes through cellular membranes of the body, including the skin.
· It dilates blood vessels (vasodilation) and increases blood flow.
· It is a cholinesterase inhibitor. Cholinsterase is an enzyme that stops excessive passage of nerve impulses from one nerve cell to another. I have seen MSM provide swift relief of constipation associated with aging. By blocking the action of cholinesterase, MSM helps restore normal bowel activity (peristalsis).
· It reduces muscle spasm. Injury or inflammation commonly causes spasm in a muscle or group of muscles. Spasm involves a sudden contraction, which is followed by pain and interference with function. Spasm can be felt by a physician's touch or measured with electromyography. If you apply an MSM gel or cream to an affected area and then feel the muscle again later, or measure it electrically, the muscle is looser, the area less tender. MSM taken orally produces a muscle-relaxing effect.
· It alters the crosslinking process in collagen, thus reducing scar tissue. Crosslinking is the process in which new structural proteins are knitted to existing healthy tissue at the sites of surgical incisions or traumatic damage in the body.
· It has antiparasitic properties, particularly for giardia, a protozoan parasite that causes diarrhea.
It has an immune normalizing effect, as observed in some autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and scleroderma.


MSM is potentiated, or made more bioavailable (and therefore effective) in your body, when combined with Vitamin C. Also, the lemon in your water will soften the taste of the MSM, which will take a few days to get accustomed to. Just start with a low amount as mentioned above, and move up as your body and taste buds adjust.

This is a Life Practice that you are developing: 1 Quart of water, 1/2 Lemon, and 1 Tablespoon of MSM.

So, tomorrow morning what is the first thing you are going to do? Drink water! Give those beautiful organs of yours a wonderful clean bath, and re-hydrate all of your cells!

Kitchen, Bath, and Body
Sharp Chef’s Knife. If you already have one of these in your kitchen, excellent! If not, why not treat yourself to one? Or at least a knife sharpener? Having a good sharp knife can make things much smoother and efficient when chopping carrots, celery, apples, etc before they are juiced. You may also want to consider getting a cleaver for opening young coconuts. You will learn more about young coconuts and how to open them during the Program on Day 18. On the Juice Feast, you can drink coconut water in place of some fruit juice, if drinking these high-glycemic juices is appropriate for you. If you do, you will want a suitable cleaver.

Most Asian Markets carry cleavers. Make sure you get a cleaver that has a full metal handle, not the wooden covered ones. The wood will eventually loosen and render the knife useless.

Bamboo Cutting Board. Of course any cutting board will work, but we highly recommend a bamboo one. Bamboo is a beautiful grass that grows to a harvestable height and width between 3 - 5 years. Some species grow up to 2 feet per day! After harvesting, bamboo does not require replanting, it has an extensive root system that continually sends up new shoots, naturally replenishing itself, making it one of the most ren ewable resources known. It is an ecologically renewable alternative to hard woods, and is 16% harder than maple wood, and 1/3 lighter in weight than oak. It can also be as strong as steel. Bamboo holds the promise of a sustainable, cost effective, and ecologically responsible alternative to the widespread clearcutting of our old growth forests. Why not begin with a bamboo cutting board, who knows, maybe one day you'll build a beautiful bamboo house! Because bamboo is so hard and dense, it absorbs very little, making it a very sanitary kitchen cutting board. We like to take our bamboo board with us when ever we travel. That way we can have a little counter top/table no mater where we are!

Oil your cutting boards with coconut oil. It is extremely resistant to rancidity, and is an antimicrobial, antibacterial, antifungal agent. Perfect for your boards!

Supplements and Superfoods
Goji Berries. Have you tried out the infamous Goji Berry yet? If not, lets try them out today! Although they will not be a big part of your Juice Feast, you will want to add them into your diet after you have broken your Feast so lets give them a whirl now. Goji berries contain up to 21 trace minerals and are the richest source of carotenoids of all known foods on earth! They contain 500 times the amount of Vitamin C, by weight, than oranges, making them second only to camu camu berries as the richest vitamin C source. They are also high in vitamins B1, B2, B6, and E.

Goji Berries also contain polysaccharides which fortify the immune system. One polysaccharide found in this fruit has been found to be a powerful secretagogue (a substance that stimulates the secretion of rejuvenative human growth hormone by the pituitary gland). Goji berries have been traditionally regarded as a longevity, strength-building, and sexual potency food of the highest order.

You can also make a juice that we call Arizona Sunrise that is made by blending some soaked goji berries in to your freshly made orange juice, then squeezing out the goji pulp with your nut mylk bag. For an extra special juice, add in MSM too. The color is amazing, and it is SO yummy! For more information on the magic of goji berries (and other berries) see Day 70: Berries on the 92 Day Program!


Exercise
Also begin Walking! Walking is our favorite daily form of exercise. It gets you outside, moving through the fresh outside air, and often brings you in contact with nature. Even in the city there are parks where you can go and commune with the trees. For most people, a brisk walk for little more than half an hour per day will meet their exercise requirements. This form of exercise also generates a nearly 70% reduction in the occurrence of breast cancer in women! Use your stomach muscles as you are walking to flatten your tummy and strengthen your back, and take deep breaths. Lack of oxygen is behind many symptoms of illness, especially a dull mind. If you want to invigorate your mind, step outside and take at least ten long, deep, mindful breaths.

Walking also gets the lymph moving, which is very important to optimal health and is vital for a successful cleanse.

You don’t need to go for a long walk to benefit your body, 10-30 minutes is excellent. 10-30 minutes twice a day is also wonderful! For more on walking see Day 16!

For a short video on walking yoga with Rodney Yee, follow this link.

So, tomorrow morning, after you have your quart of morning water, why not go outside for a walk? Or when you get home from work for the evening, why not go for a walk? Even just around the block will feel good….

Multimedia/Internet
http://www.giveittomeraw.com/
http://www.globaljuicefeast.com/
JuiceFeasting.Blogspot.com


What’s Ahead
Tomorrow we will talk about the importance of sleep, and we are going to go shopping for the very important Blood Sugar Monitor that will help us to determine our level of fruit juice intake over the course of the Juice Feast. We will start taking our FBS (Fasting Blood Sugar) on the morning of Day 10 JFP. We will also get into some really bouncy exercise, fun, fun, fun!