Saturday, January 19, 2008

Day 6 - Enamored of contrast showers


Day 6 was kind of special in many ways. The intense and short lived hunger fits and acute cravings have, for the most part, disappeared. I believe that I needed a bit of time for my stomach to shrink down. I used to eat such huge portions of food.... I was honestly quite worried about how my overnight shift (at the hotel) would go sans-coffee and sans-solids. I'm happy to report that I had MORE energy than normal. I was actually wired by 8am. It wasn't the artificial coffee-induced kind of wired either.

When I got home, I had my water with msm. Despite not drinking juice in almost 14 hours and being a wee bit hungry, I was able to take my sweet time making my green juice. I really do believe this is because my stomach shrunk. I actually find the 500ml juices really filling now. Which brings me to this:

Today I had:

1L water+msm+lemon
1L Celery/Spinach juice
500ml Pineapple-Apple juice
500ml Grapefruit juice
500ml Kale/Bok Choi+E3Live
1Tbps bee pollen ( I found a trick for this!)


Eeep! I did really badly today in terms of reaching the 1 gallon mark. Again, I think that's because it's the weekend and I'm pretty much zombified every weekend from working overnights. I also need more organic fruits. Tomorrow I'm going shopping for week 2 of juice feasting. Hoping to find tons of coconuts! :)

I also wanted to report that drinking grapefruit juice on its own wasn't conducive to any stomach pains whatsoever! yay! :)

Regarding the bee pollen, I used to take the whole tablespoon in my mouth, chew it down and swallow. The taste could only be described as "what barns smell like". Luckily, last night, I found a trick! Seeing as the tastebuds for sweetness are at the tip of the tongue, I found that taking small amounts (5-10 granules/time) and chewing them with the front teeth actually makes it taste pretty decent! :)

In terms of 'eliminations'... I just wanted to mention that, while I thought most of the detoxing was behind me, weird things started to happen today. Not to gross anyone out but... I was surprised today by my body purging 'mucus'. I'm definitely sticking with the daily enemas for a few more days and then moving to 1 every 2 days. I just ordered an open bag enema kit online... right now all I have is a bulb enema kit and that's not the best tool.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Contrast showers!

It sounds like a weird form of torture, but they're actually not so bad once you get used to them! I think I've reached that point. For those who don't know, contrast showers involve changing the waster temperature from warm to cool at regular intervals while you shower. I actually find this very invigorating.

I usually start with a warm shower and once I've rinsed the shampoo out of my hair, I put the shower on cool and place moisturizer in my hair. This is where I start having fun! When I first started doing these, I would keep all my limbs close to my body, shiver and rotate in the shower like a chicken in a roaster.... Now, I make it a point to loosen up; it makes it less 'painful'. Also, I find dancing through the cool cycle makes it a lot more bearable! I know, it's goofy...but it works and it's really fun!

Contrast showers end on a cool cycle so have a towel handy to warm you up! :) Try them out! They're great for preventing colds, improving lymphatic circulation and enhancing the detoxification process! :)

That's enough ranting for one night :) Schlaf gut!

- Ben

3 comments:

urban vegan said...

Wow, Ben. 92 days is sure ambitious. A one-day juice fast for me is a coup!

Neeta said...

Hi Ben,

Just discovered your blog today, great to see how you are doing.....
I'm on day 20 and its been absolutely amazing :-)

Look forward to reading more and thanks for sharing your journey....

Neeta

Carrie Cegelis said...

Welcome Juicy Ben!
I too, just found your blog.
Neeta and I are on the same feasting schedule. It's great to have such wonderful feasting buddies. Looking forward to keeping tabs on your progress.
Best,
Carrie