Global Juice Feast Day 39!

I Love Goji Berries!

Juice Feast Day 39

The Daily Juice Journal:

Back to our regular juice line up today! I hope that we aren't too boring as Juice Feasters, always making the same juices! The produce we picked up yesterday is BEAUTIFUL and lush and it couldn’t have been better unless from our own garden. Yes, it must be growing season again. The only thing that is sadly missing is celery, I don’t know why but there was not a head of celery available on the market for the week. We will have to drive in to Nogales if we want it for the week, and we most likely will once we run out of citrus, which will be SOON at the rate we drink it up.

This morning we made 3 quarts GVJ with cucumber, spinach, romaine, parsley, carrot, yam, apple and ginger. We also made two quarts orange, pineapple and grapefruit, two quarts orange, pineapple and goji berry, (just add the dried berries to your juice in the blender, blend, and strain out the berry pulp) and two quarts grapefruit garlic, and one quart watermelon lemon.

DAVID:

1 QUARTS GVJ, 3.5 QUARTS FRUIT.

TOTAL JUICE: 4.5 QUARTS

KATRINA:

2 QUARTS GVJ, 3.5 QUARTS.

TOTAL JUICE: 5.5 QUARTS JUICE

We both meant to drink one more quart of GVJ, but then we stayed over at Courtney and Thim's later than we had thought, so we filled up on good company rather than more juice!

Added to juices: bee pollen, maca, spirulina, flax/DHA oil, hemp oil, kelp granules, and Vitamineral Green

Also taken: Vitalzym, Break Stone Tea, and water.

Rainoshek’s (sometimes) Daily Tips;

Cleaning the Bathroom

How wonderful it is to scrub and clean.
Day by day, the heart and mind grow clearer.

Most of us do not like cleaning the bathroom. But when we work in full awareness of the present moment, we can find purity in each act. To purify means to become clear and calm. Cleaning the bathroom, we clear and purify our environment and ourselves.
In centers for meditation practice, often there is a vase of flowers in every bathroom. Flowers arranged with skill and care remind us that we can live in such a way to clarify and calm our hearts and minds. I hope you will put a vase of flowers in your bathroom at home.

~Thich Naht Hanh, Present Moment, Wonderful Moment.

Personal Journal.

Have I mentioned yet that I cut all of David’s hair off the other day? You have most likely seen it on the daily videos. So crisp and clean. After I did it, he was so ecstatic, loving every breath of wind, the falling shower water, my touch, the sunshine, all on his scalp. I wanted to shave my head too! I could feel my head asking to be naked, it cried out, “I want to feel the water drops, the wind, let me out of this eternal blanket of hair!!” (I have had long hair my whole life, the shortest being just below my shoulders) I felt emotionally it was the next step to letting go of my ego, my attachment to the way this body looks and how people react to it.

A good experiment in thinking.

I decided in the end to keep my hair. Perhaps at another time. I am still working on the release of ego and attachment though.

Michelle made an interesting point that I have been thinking a lot about, even before I read it. (I love this about the blogging community, that we can all discover aspects of our development and thoughts there in our friend’s words!) She wrote that weight loss, despite what it looks like, is a deeply spiritual practice. I whole heartedly agree, when weight loss is healthy, it most certainly is spiritual. When weight loss happens as a positive side affect of health, it is most certainly spiritual. It is respecting with great love the sacred body that we have been given to care for. It is enjoying the gift of physical strength, pleasure, enjoyments, and fitness. It is honoring the mother and father who brought us to life, including the Eternal Mother and Father. It is loving the planet and being gracious for all of its gifts. It is wanting to give back by creating beauty wherever we are simply by being a happy, healthy person. It is deep self love, and this always goes hand and hand for deep love of every being and thing.

Ken Wilber would agree too, as he says that weight lifting can be spiritual as well. I agree, as I believe to feel healthy and strong is a manifestation of our respect for the Divine Blueprint.

In One Taste, Ken mentions a book called the Body Project by Joan Brumberg, which tracks girls and their bodies over the last two centuries. A typical entry in the late eighteen hundreds ran: “To work seriously. To be dignified. Interest myself in others.” A typical entry today reads: “I will loose weight. Get new lenses, good makeup, new clothes, and accessories.” Brumberg comments “Before the twentieth century, girls simply did not organize their thinking around their bodies. Today they believe that the body is the ultimate expression of the self.”

I found this very interesting. What I see happening though, is that when women move beyond the body as an ultimate expression of self, their self knowledge and wisdom runs very deep. It has been, un-doubt-ably, a movement towards releasing ego and moving into a deeper awareness of Self. After all, we create and maintain a healthy body so that we can best create the loving work we are here to do!

I realize once again, the work on self begins anew with every moment!

We just ordered a bunch of books, and I am looking forward to reading A Woman’s Worth, and When Food is Love: Exploring the Relationship Between Eating and Intimacy, recommended by my friend Courtney, among many others. Although I am generally very happy with the way I eat, I am still wanting to focus on getting in touch with what happens when I eat for emotional reasons, which I still do quite often. I believe that yes, eating can be a deeply emotional and satisfying event, but it need not be a band-aid for something painful, troublesome, or irritating.

I just read a wonderful bit from Loving What Is by Byron Katie about these uncomfortable feelings that often lead us to eating when not hungry:

It is easy to be swept away by some overwhelming feeling, so it’s helpful to remember that any stressful feeling is like a compassionate alarm clock that says, “You’re caught in the dream.”
Depression, pain, and fear are gifts that say, “Sweet heart, take a look at what you’re thinking right now. You’re living in a story that isn’t true for you.”

She also points out “I have never experienced a stressful feeling that wasn’t caused by attaching to an untrue thought. Behind every uncomfortable feeling, there is a thought that isn’t true for us. “The wind shouldn’t be blowing” “My husband should agree with me” “I am too fat” We have a thought that argues with reality, then we have a stressful feeling.”

I know whenever I inquire into my unpleasant feelings, this is always true! And often the thought contains the word “want” or “should” One of the most common, stressful thoughts to enter my head and often goes unnoticed until I am feeling really sad is “I want to go home.” I seem to fall into thinking this, like a mantra, whenever I am frustrated, confused, overwhelmed, or sad. I have begun to pay very close attention to whenever this phrase pops into my head, and instead I feel “I am home.”

We have faithfully been getting up at 4:45 am to meditate! This means that meditation, morning cuddles, and juice making are all done by around 7:30 or 8, leaving lots of time for some exercise before David’s first consultation. This morning we did the full Bikram’s yoga session, yesterday we went on a long, early morning walk. I LOVE this schedule! This really was one of my main goals of Juice Feasting, to get into a regular meditation and exercise routine. Happy, happy, happy Katrina.

We spent the evening visiting with the lovely Courtney and Thim. We went over to look at a couch that they have for sale, and ended up staying until bedtime, we all had so much to talk about! I love those two, kiss kiss, hug hug.

That's all for today folks! See you on Day 40!!

Love, kiss kiss, hug hug,

Katrina and David