Hi folks,
I haven't been on this forum for awhile. I took a break from raw, but have continued to do juice fasts and intermittent fasting.
Well, it's that time: spring is upon us and I feel a HUGE inner urge to do a long juice fast. I'm starting today, and I'm really committed to seeing it through, which is part of my reason for posting on this board.
In the past couple years I've juice fasted quite a few times, but seemed to always lose steam after a few days. */* For someone with a history of long fasts like me (i.e. a month, 40 days, etc.), that's humbling. But I'm back, and ready to really take charge and be my own boss this time and see it through to the end. :-)
This morning I had my first juice of the fast: 4 handfuls of baby spinach, 1/2 bunch of parsley, 1/2 bunch of celery, 1 apple, and 1 beet-- making 24 oz. of delicious juice. I will have another 2 of these today, as well as some non-sweetened 'lemonade' (lemon juice in spring water, actually).
I remember SO vividly how unfreakin'believably FABULOUS I feel after even 3 weeks of juice fasting. And after that it just gets better and better... and better: energy increases, the feeling of inner peace and 'natural 24/7 meditation without trying' pervades, and one feels almost exhilarated, as well as highly focused and motivated. In other words, a natural high. :-) For me, this only happens if I stick to 85-90% vegetable juices. I don't know exactly why; I just don't question it anymore. (Believe me, I've tried many, many times to get more into fruit, and my body just says 'NO.') Even after 30-some years of almost exclusively raw food diet, I seem to need to stick with vegetables and greens much more than fruit. According to Harvey & Marilyn Diamond, people who had their appendix removed have major problems digesting fruit, and have weight problems and bloating-- perhaps that is my problem (my appendix was removed when i was about 9 years old). Or it could be related to some other medical interventions I had when I was young (massive injectins of prednizone and other nasty stuff when I was 8, for several weeks), that compromised my insulin response. I don't care-- I'm 62 and I ain't dead yet! Whatever I have to do to tweak my diet in order to be healthy, I will do it.
Wish me luck. XOXO

Sharrhan:


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Hi Kwan! OMG, you're 62?! What a great advertisement for raw! Could you please give me an example of a veggie juice you like? It seems like the recipes inevitably include apples and such. Also I was wondering if you could give me some tips on how to begin a juice feast (I can't believe you said ONLY 3 weeks! I am not looking for something that intense but even getting started is a bit daunting.).

Good Luck and Best Wishes to you Kwan.
I know what you mean about Fruit. It seems Sugar of any kind tends to set me off. I do Best on Greens. I do allow a little Carrot...even though it's high in sugar.
Your 'Long Juice Fast' seems to be just what the doctor ordered. I may join you for part of it. Keep us posted as to how you're doing......WY

Hi bw!
(THANKS!!)
Right off the top of my head, I can think of a few REAL simple ones I always like to make:

carrot w/ginger --just a little chunk of ginger does it; slice real thin so your juicer doesn't balk at it

carrot w/lemon --fresh is best; Meyer is really great. I like to put half a lemon in the juicer with the carrots and juice, rather than squeeze it, as for some reason it's zestier. If the lemon is organic, cut off a little of the lemon peel and juice it too-- yum!

pineapple/celery --about equal parts (I don't think I'll be doing this one this time, though, at least not yet)

celery --yep, just plain old celery; juice a whole bunch. Celery is REALLY good for the joints, as are grapefruit and carrot/spinach, or carrot alone.

I'll try to think of some more-- I'm a little rusty, lol!

In the meantime, here's a suggestion: if you aren't real revved up about a full-on juice fast, think about doing juice + a smoothie or two. One of my favorite smoothies (relatively low glycemic) is the following:

Sharrhan's Pumpkin Pie Smoothie:
Juice the following:
6 med. carrots (approx.)
1 small apple
2-3 oz. of pumpkin or squash**
Pour into blender.
Add 1-2 T of almond flour (you can grind almonds in a coffee grinder too)
Add a pinch of pumpkin pie spice
If you're a naughty hedonist, add a little macca. :-) (Not necessary.)
I usually add a couple ice cubes.
Blend till really frothy and enjoy.

**(I admit, I used organic canned pumpkin for this step.)

Sharrhan:


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Thanks WY!
You are, in my estimation, 'the juicing expert's juicing expert'. ;-p I always respect your comments and suggestions, because you seem to have always really walked the talk.
I'll keep you posted on my progress.
Today was an extraordinarily auspicious beginning to my fast. It started out like any day, but by the time I was in the steamroom at the Y today, wow!, I just felt SO good. I'm in this for the duration.

Sharrhan:


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Sharrhan nice to see you here !! <3 hugs <3 ! ! !

happy trails on yer juice fast

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

the pumpkin pie smoothie sounds yummy!

1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup celery
1/2 cup red seedless grapes
1 sweet apple, cored and chopped
Squeeze of lemon juice
Lettuce

tastes like Waldorf salad

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

Hi Jodi! <3<3<3

Day 3-- goin' good! One thing I love about juice fasting is it heightens the revealing of the inner 'window' into the higher dimensions of Light. If you ever have trouble meditating or accessing the inner realms, just take a load off your digestive system for a couple days, and voila!

Yesterday I had 18 oz. of celery juice, 18 oz. of carrot/spinach/apple juice, and a quart of unsweetened almond milk.

So far today I've just had some unsweetened almond milk. Looking forward to juicing a large bunch of celery shortly.

Sharrhan:


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Tonight I am having a small glass of very dry white wine. I guess you could say I'm not a purist, lol! I still feel like I'm securely on my juice fast. I am not a big wine drinker-- I go weeks without touching the stuff. Tonight, it feels like the right thing to do. Instinct.

Sharrhan:


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kwan,

So good to see you again. ::::kwan::::

With you heart and soul please don't be a stranger!!!

Paul

Should not this be called a juice feast?
A fast is NOT EATING.

Thank you, Paul. I'll stick around this time.

RP-- I'd call it a juice feast, but it seems the juice feast folks add a lot of supplments and super-foods to their juices, and I don't want to do that. So for now I'll just stick with 'fast,' even if it's not quite correct.

From experience, I can attest to the fact that juicing, like fasting, is incredibly beneficial and healing. So despite semantic flaws, calling it fasting works for me. :-)

Sharrhan:


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Hey sweet girl, have you got a dehydrator? If I were doing this I'd be making crackers and bread every day to eat when I was finished fasting. If I didn't have to do food prep I'd have so much more time for putting dried food by. Sigh, never happen with kids in the house though. Some day...
Best of luck with your juicey feasting doll, have fun with it .

Hi Kwan, congrats and best wishes. You look great, and no-way would I have guessed your age. Plz keep us posted on your progress

Coco-- Yes! I have a big 6 tray round contraption I found at a secondhand store many years ago; it's seen a few batches of kale chips and vegie crisps, and even a few raw cookies for camping. I'd love to do raw crackers in the evening, but I'm afraid I'd go off on an eating tangent. If I find myself floundering on the fast, however, I'll give it a whirl. Thanks, lovely.

Geo-- Awwww.... gee, thanks! :-)

Sharrhan:


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LOL, something to do with all that pulp but maybe not worth it if it's going to push you off course. I didn't even think of that... see how long it's been since I fasted? Ha ha.

I really appreciate that you are so conscious of not wasting food, Coco-- not many people would be concerned about it. Every time I dump out the pulp, I feel kind of guilty, like 'Wow, can't something be done with all of this food?'. Maybe I will make crackers for Jonathan. However, he is having major digestive troubles (he's allergic to sulfites, we are finding out), so convincing him to try new things may be a little difficult. Vegetables are allowed, though, as long as i don't put a lot of heavy spices in the crackers, so I think I'll try it on him.
He loves the vegie chips I've gotten for him at the co-op ($7.99 a package!!!), so if I pull this off, woo-hoo, I will be very happy.

Sharrhan:


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Today I really noticed the difference in how my face and body look. (Day 4?) Enough of a change, I wanted to take a picture to document it. (Haven't edited it for the 'board' yet-- coming.)

Today I've had grapefruit juice and unsweetened almond milk. Later I'll have a couple more combinations: carrot spinach and celery.

I'm doing a juice regimen for joint health, because my hip joints are beginning to be stiff and uncomfortable at times, and grapefruit is one of the ones recommended by Dr. Walker. I am so thankful that I got into juicing and learned about raw food, juicing, and food combining at a very young age. I wasn't very well when I was in my 20s; sometimes our sufferings are a blessing in disguise, because they force us to begin 'the search' and 'the spiritual path' in our youth, instead of when we grow old and haggard. :-)

Wishing all of you a wonderful weekend filled with love, joy and peace.

Sharrhan:


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Well, that didn't last long. I lasted 6 days. I had a meal last night. It suddenly got really warm here in Cambridge-- it went from the 40s to the 70s in 24 hours, and tomorrow it's going to be in the 40s again. Yo-yoing temperatures tend to disrupt my resolve when I'm cleansing. I'm not giving up; just readjusting. I will definitely continue juicing, but I'm not sure whether I'll have a meal every night or continue 100% juicing.

Sharrhan:


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Hooray for you and congratulations on juicing again! I know it feels AMAZING! Im just finishing an extended juice feast right now.

Actually I've done LOTS of short juice fasts over the past 2-3 years (whenever it was I stopped posting regularly on rawfoods.com). I was shooting for a long juice fast, but I have to go with my instinct and honor my body--- sometimes 'I' have grand plans, but they are n't necessarily in the best interests of my body and energy system.

:-)

It's all good. I may yet do a long juice fast.... or not.... might or might not start right up again on it tomorrow morning. Either way, juicing is an importnat part of my diet and lifestyle.

Sharrhan:


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This is my least favourite time to fast actually. I find the fluctuations in temperature uncomfortable already, never mind the additional feeling of being chilled I get from going without food. This is so much easier for me in summer when it's hot, even at night, when the body metabolism speeds up, when fresh produce is in abundance.
Maybe you'll feel like trying again in a month or two when the risk of frost is gone for good.

Coco--

I'm a strange one. I USED to get really cold when I fasted, but in recent years I run warm most of the time. (And yes, I'm way post-menopausal, so it's not that, lol!) I think my circulation improved dramatically when I started spending time in the steamroom and sauna on a regular basis at the gym.

So I will probably start juicing again tomorrow.

My hassles with temperature fluctuations have more to do with sudden spaciness and a little bit of a heavy, bloated feeling I get when the temperature suddenly changes within 24 hours from the 40s to the 70s, as it did a few days ago, and again last night. Our weather has been delightfully crazy lately.

Sharrhan:


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So.... I'm back on a juice fast again. Right now I'm working on 18 oz. of celery/apple juice (1 whole bunch of celery + 1 small apple). It's a good wake-up juice, and it's good for the joints.

Hopefully this time I will keep going for awhile.

Sharrhan:


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kwan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hopefully this time I will keep going for awhile.

A good way to Fast (or eat) is to have an alternate plan if you fall off the Wagon. For example.....Kwan, if you feel like you must break your Juice Fast, fall to the next Level...but no farther. Treat each level as a Fast in itself. The levels, based on severity, could be....
1. Dry Fasting
2. Water Fasting
3. Juice Fasting
4. 100% Raw Vegan
5. Vegan
6. 100% Vegetarian
7. Vegetarian

I'm preparing my Body to start soon at level 2. Upon 'breaking' my Water Fast, I'll begin Juice Fasting......WY

GREAT advice-- thank you, WY! I will post your note exactly as formulated, on a notepad on my computer desktop to remind myself. :-)

Sharrhan:


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I have a 10 Day Juice Feast that is wonderfully food combined and very energizing, detoxifying and more-I had one person doing it that lost 19 pounds-in 10 days-basically just lost all the SAD from his colon-lol...Start slow, ease into it and don't try making huge changes all at once....that's a helpful start. I would start with upping your water in take to 1/2 your body weight in ounces (at least). This helps flush. You can even eliminate everything white in your diet...white sugar, white flour, white rice, white potatoes, etc... Then when you are ready try eating raw for one whole meal and include more raw food in your other meals. Slowly work raw into every meal 100%. Then you can do smoothies and juices a lot easier if you take the time to allow your stomach to shrink and get accustomed to raw and more fluids...Good Luck!

Balancing Mind, Body and Spirit with Love, Light and Health,
Kelly Vaccarelli
www.LivingFoodVillage.com
www.facebook.com/livingrawfoodvillage

Thanks Kelly-- good advice, although I'm not a newbie, so I probably have different issues. I don't do heavy carbs, ever. I've been doing a mostly raw vegan diet since around 1980; I've done lots of long fasts (40 days on juice, 2 weeks on water, etc.). Main thing is timing; when I want to do a long regimen, I just have to respect my body and wait till the inspiration is strong, and then dive in and stick with it.

Sharrhan:


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Just water today!--- woohoo!!! :-)

I think I've turned a corner and it's going to be easier now.

Sharrhan:


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