Four more days!!!

Have you seen this in your town yet? Special thanks to Heidi for creating the virtual billboard of our dreams!

Hello!

David and I went grocery shopping yesterday, with the thought in mind : We are only going to be eating for five more days!! What an amazing thought! When I think back to how I felt about going without solid food for even one day, long before I knew about Juice Feasting, it is amazing how much my perception has shifted. I was familiar with the concept of water fasting, knew about Master Cleanser, and juice fasting, but did they appeal to me? No way!

I considered doing a juice fast two years ago when I first went raw, but it felt far to overwhelming to me, and I could not afford to take the time off of work that fasting requires. It seemed so extreme to me, taking a whole week off to cleanse, lie around, drink a bit of juice, feel weak, get headaches, feel faint, and all the other things that fasting brings about. Not very open minded of me I know. Today I feel much differently about it all.

My experience to date is one day of water fasting, and ten contiguous days of Juice Feasting. I attempted to water fast about five years ago and it was a disaster! The day that I actually fasted I was fine, it was a Sunday, and I took it easy for the most part. The disaster happened on Monday, when I went back to work. I ate breakfast in the morning, and then rode my bike about 30 minutes to where I was working, and I just could not keep it to together! I felt so weak, dizzy, faint, sick to my stomach, and foggy headed that I had to sit down and eat something right away. I decided that it was not a good idea for me to go with out food, even for a day!! Who would want to feel that way?

Now, on top of my 10 Day Juice Feast, I have also Juice Feasted many one day periods as well. The first of these attempts was almost a disaster as well! I was here in Patagonia with my sister Heather, and we had heard all about the wonders of Juice Feasting from David, and from Angela Stokes' blog, so we decided to try it for a day. It sounded so amazing! I can remember my apprehension even that day...I said that I would try it for at least the morning, but if I started to feel weak or dizzy, forget it! I was going to eat! Remember that I was dealing with blood sugar issues, and my hypoglycemia was such that if I didn't eat every four hours or so, CRASH, on would come the anxiety, the weakness, the feeling that I had to eat something RIGHT NOW!!. So off I went with my sister, very bravely, to begin my day without solid food.

It began very well, a beautiful sunny day, we collected our greens from the TOL cafe, and took them to the kitchen in the student dorm where we were staying, both as apprentices at the Tree of Life to juice them up with some apples, carrots, ginger, and other stuff. We made about two quarts each, and took our first quart out to the arrollo to sit in the sand and drink our green juice in the sunshine. I felt so happy! My sister's smile and voice, the sun on my face, a glowing quart of green liquid sunshine, the knowledge that I was doing something very loving for my body, and such an excitement at the idea that perhaps with this new idea "Juice Feasting" I could go a whole day without solid food and not die (well, I knew I wouldn't die, but I also really disliked sugar crashes with a passion.)

So around rolls 3:00ish, finding Heather and I in our dorm room, piled under blankets on our beds, feeling cold, tired, and like we can't do anything but lie there and read or write in our journals. WHAT!!!??? Heather and I are saying to each other with our glazed over glaces. You aren't supposed to feel like this on a Juice Feast!! About that same time, David finished working with Gabriel, and shows up in his yellow scarf at our door. We report feeling cold and lazy and tired. "How much juice have you had?" is his first question. "Well, about two quarts each, of mostly green juice" we report. "You need more juice!" is the simple answer. "Let's go make more juice!"

But oh no! Tragedy strikes! We did not realize just how much beautiful produce we would need to make 4 quarts (8, with two sisters juicing) of juice! Ill~prepared, under~produced, Juice Feasting neophytes, that is what we were. So, after a lag of time (we were so out of it at this point that we couldn't decide what to do, despite David's helpful suggestions), off we went to the Patagonia Market (Red Mountain was closed for the day) to get two huge bags of oranges, some lemons, a bag of carrots, and ginger. Then we went up to the cafe where dinner was being served, to collect some more greens and to juice some wheat grass. Quick! back to the dorm kitchen to make some juice!! These sisters are about to fall over!!

We made some orange juice first. I so very clearly remember handing a glass of it to my sister, who was so alkaline from the days green juice, wheat grass juice, and not enough juice, that it was like she was hidden behind a soft cloud of fuzz, not really there with her usual spark. On top of that, I was looking through a fuzz myself. She put her lips to the glass, and in went the orange juice, and I watched, like watching the needle on your gas tank go up, as she drank down the juice, up came her spark. She began drinking with her head and eyes cast down, shoulders slightly hunched, tired, slumped, and as that first gulp went down, up came the head, the eyes, she stood up straight, and went "MMMMMMmmmmmm!!!!" and looked at me with bright happy eyes. It is like that with juice, it makes you feel so much better!

The idea with Juice Feasting, as you all know, is that if you are hungry, drink more juice!!

Wonderfully, when we all begin the Global Juice Feast, it will be a Saturday so most of us will not be working, and so if you have the same problem Heather and I did our first day of Juice Feasting, go get more produce!! Make more juice!!

I am so happy to report that the day after my first day of Juice Feasting I felt wonderful, and was able to work all day on my feet in the TOL cafe with no crazy sugar imbalance. Also, I made it the whole day with out solid food, and I did not die!

And now I feel fully confidant to waltz off into our up-coming juicy journey, it is more exciting than Christmas Eve was to four year old Katrina! It is as exciting as setting out on a sailboat, the wide blue sea welcoming and loving you with thousands of sparkles in the sun, the wind blowing thorough your hair, making your lungs feel alive and fresh. The depth of the possibilities that Juice Feasting holds for us as a planet in healing is more exciting than I ever dreamed possible.

GlobalJuiceFeast.com is becoming more and more active, with many beautiful people coming together to share in this magical journey we are all about to embark on together! We now have 225 folks!

I Skyped a beloved friend last night who is planning on joining us from Montreal...which reminds me, have you started a Skype account for yourself yet? I LOVE Skype!! I feel like I have actually spent time with people, laid eyes on their dear faces, seen their sweet physical idiosynchrocies, how they tilt their heads, wave their hands, bat their eyes, and nod their heads. Of course you don't get the whole personal experience, but for a girl living in Southern Arizona with friends and family in Canada, it is a great gift.

You can go to www.skype.com and create an account for yourself for free! If you already have a camera on your computer you are set, if not, you can get one for about $50 or less. Everyone is doing such a wonderful job at supporting each other so far through blogs, the Juice Feasting Enthusiasts Group, and Global Juice Feast, and we feel that this is an amazing additional tool for personal support while Juice Feasting. Check it out! (It might seem a little weird at first, as it did to me, to see someone you love on your computer screen in real time animation, but you will get used to it.)

Another very powerful form of emotional support while Juice Feasting, or at any other time in life, is journaling!! It can be an amazingly cathartic, healing, and clearing process to get those words out of your mind and onto paper. It can help the whole process along by solidifying emotions, transforming mental formations, clarifying your thoughts, and it is a wonderful record of your journey to look back upon in years to come. Once you begin to feel really wonderful, on top of the world, light, blissful, happy, and truly YOU, it is easy to forget where you have come from. I have looked back in my journal several times to be shocked to read what used to go on in my body and mind! Especially on days when you are not feeling so inspired to go on with Juice Feasting (or raw foods) it can be invaluable to look back and see just how far you have come! "Ah Ha, all this juice (or raw food) IS worth it" you can say to yourself! "Keep on trucking, my darling!" Your journals will become rich little landscapes!

Blogs are great. We love blogs, and we are deeply grateful to all those who have been sharing their Juice Feasting experiences with the world, helping to inspire and transform the lives of many people. We don't read the news any more, we read blogs. Some of the most exciting, up lifting, inspiring, hopeful news ever can be found in blogs. Now that's what I call a good thing. (Don't worry about falling behind the times, loosing touch, or any other such non-sense. The news as we know it is a construct of a very dysfunctional system, feeding off of and feeding into our collective "Pain Body," and for a better understanding of that term please please check out Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth.) As you can tell, we use www.blogger.com.

If you do not feel like public journaling is for you, or if you want to go both public and private, get yourself a journal that you love, because you will be spending a lot of intimate time with it. Make sure you enjoy the shape, size, texture, spine, fold, paper weight, smell, and feel of your journal and you will be more likely to use it. I also like having a really nice pen that makes lovely letters on the page.

An amazing book on the art of writing (journaling) is Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. If you are one of those people who gets stuck writing anything, even a private journal, for fear of writing something silly, un-intelligent, or embarrassing, Natalie is your girl. Get her book, dive in, and watch the poetry (or literature nightmare) flow out of you. Natalie makes it clear that you do not need to create genius when you write, you simply must write, as often as possible, and in your expansive sea of words will shine priceless jewels of wisdom!! You will discover the writer in you if you just use your writing muscles. Another great book by Natalie Goldberg is Wild Mind, Living The Writers Life.
We are going up to Phoenix tomorrow, so will post again on Thursday. We filmed a whole video today on how we make juice in our Vita Mix today, only to discover that iMovie '08 does not have a slow motion or double speed feature, and well we kind of wanted to double speed the part where I am chopping all the produce so you don't have to be bored to death. So, we are going to have to figure something else out and get a different video editing software. I love apple, but honestly, how silly to leave out such a basic feature! Or is a clever marketing plan?

By the time this is posted it will be four sleeps, and only three days till GJF!!

I Skyped with my mom today, and she has made definite plans (plane ticket and all) to come and visit us in May and Juice Feast with us!!! Happy happy joy joy!!! She will also be Juice Feasting starting in March, but will be going on a trip with her husband and so will break out for that, and then start up again once she is home. I am so blessed to have such a juicy mom.

I will leave you with these words from other juicies about preparing for a Juice Feast:

I just completed my first ever 30day JF on the 1st Feb 2008; and it was a truly amazing experience for me.Right now I'm also gearing up to start March 1st!! its so exciting right?Extra supplements that I took were (bee-pollen) I thoroughly enjoyed the chewing action! Aloe vera + garlic. I may have missed a few out!? My pre-JF Intentions were:

1) To take each day as it comes-

2) To be non-judgemental about myself and others

3) To step up my yoga practice if (I felt inclined to do so)

4) To take some time out each day to check in with myself

5) To rest when my needs to and to continue with my self-care routine.

6) To notify some people of what I was doing and to ask for support from friends and family members.

Above all- My intentions were and still are to nurture my body, mind, soul and spirit.

Be Well

~Rawchi

Thank you for your wise words Rawchi!

And this from AJ:

Apprehension ripples through my thoughts as I try to face this daunting "calling" to a lifestyle I'm not sure can keep up with...

Yet, I feel this prompting I have come to recognize as God's voice pursuing me like Jonah who tried to get away from what God called him to, and then ended up being fish-food!

I'm also running in the opposite direction, eating everything I think I will miss.I come with no experience, no taste for healthy food, grossed out by the color green, and not much personal discipline. I guess I'm really counting on the grace of God to help me through this!

But I say YES!I get out of my boat and dive into the unknown!Here I come! Catch me....

And another one from AJ that I absolutely love:

I woke up this morning with the intense feeling of being loved!

Yes, I do have a wonderful husband,but not even he can crawl in to the innermost parts of me and pour his love into the depths of my being the way I experienced it this morning.

This morning I experienced the very arms of God around me...

The most amazing part of it was that I was being known for who I am-all my flaws, all my fears, ALL my failures...and it didn't matter one little bit.

I was ready to shame myself into good behavior:"Look what a mess I have made of my life and my health!I know better!"

But Love came this morning and said:I know all about you! Every single little thing...and I love you just the way you are!

I will hold your hand and we'll do this together...Someone once said that a lover will out-serve a server any day,and I feel like I can say something similar today: Love can draw me to go where guilt and shame can never drive me to!

Thank you for Your Love!

AJ, your words are a gift to all of us, thank you!!

That is all for tonight!! We are off to listen to some Ken (as in Wilber, who says amazing things such as "you are beautiful as a gift and the pleasure it brings to all sentient beings....") and sleep sweet sleep.

LOVE!!

Katrina and David Rainoshek