Day 78 - I'm a newborn again!

Today, I'm supposed to be '0 years old' according to the retracing rule. I checked and well... my belly button is still there. Whoo hoo! I was so tired when I woke up this morning. I honestly am looking forward to not having to spend so much time in the kitchen in the morning. I'm also looking forward to making meals ahead of time (Sunday meal extravaganzas!!).

I found out there's a stupid office pot-luck going on on the 17th. I'll be in my 'watery veggies and fruit' stage. I hate pot-lucks to begin with... because they're not the most vegan-friendly thing. But now... it's just downright inconvenient. Oh... we also have to go curling. Curling!?! Who came up with this idea!? I don't know anyone who actually goes curling.... just in case anyone out there thinks it's something all Canadians do. ;) That should be an interesting week.

Hanlie gave me an award today; the 'nice matters' award. I was at work when I found out so I told my coworker Eileen "I got a "nice matters award" to which she replied "What?!! You're not nice!?!?". LOL!!! I'm a bit of a sarcastic bitch most of the time. I think there's something humorous about being cynical sometimes. :P Anyway... I just thought that was funny. I'll try to remember that 'nice matters'. Thanks Hanlie! :)

Actually... on that note, a lady asked me if I had change for a $10 last friday at the bus stop. I guess she didn't have change for the bus and the bus was within sight. I didn't have the change but I just gave her the 2$ she was missing. She was so thankful. I figured, I can't count the times I wish someone would have done that for me. I don't understand why our buses here don't work like in the UK where you can actually pay with notes and get change! Anyway, I was on the bus today and that lady found me (totally forgot about it lol)... she gave me some bus tickets today to repay me for the 2$. I thought it was so cute that she remembered! :) Awww! :)

Today I had:

1.25L water+msm+lemon
1.25L celery/collard greens/parsley
3L watermelon juice
1.5L pineapple/blackberry
1.5L grapefruit juice

Today I also did:

Skin brushing
Zapper (all day)

Well that's all from this end kiddos :)

- Ben

Day 77 - Another lazy day

The kitchen is a mess and I really should be doing laundry but Sundays are the closest thing to a day off as I get right now so I say: “why do today what can be put off until tomorrow?”. Besides, Sunday is TV day so I need to maximize the amount of time I can watch TV. LOL. I had so much stuff loaded onto my TIVO… I think I spent most of the day under my duvet…veging out on the couch. I think we all need those ‘do nothing’ days. One more weekend, Ben…. One more weekend…

I talked to my friend Marissa today on MSN. She’s one of the only people I still talk to from my Art School days. Marissa freakin’ gives me a self esteem boost every time we talk. I told her of my plans to study at the Living Light culinary school and also do the health educator program at Hippocrates. She was really encouraging! Marissa is coming over to my place two weekends from now to help me prepare for the raw-cooking class I’m teaching. I need a ‘live audience’ to practice on to make sure I can teach everything I want to do in 1.5hours. Hehehe :) This should be fun! Love you Marissa!

Today I had:

1.25L celery/kale/dandelion/cilantro
1.5L kiwi/apple
1.5L pineapple/blood orange
750ml grapefruit/orange
Today I also did:Vegging out! Come on… that’s gotta count for something right? I know I know… really should start doing yoga again. Argh!

Previous night’s sleep …uhh day:
8:30am to 1:30pm (much better than the 0 sleep I used to get on Sundays)
TV day! Hurray! Finally caught up on idol! :)

Oh… good news… I’m not a juicy monster afterall. David and Katrina assured me that my body knows best and there’s no such thing as ‘too much juice’ on the juice feast. Good to know!

Lots of love everyone!

- Ben

Day 76 - Lights out!

How was your earth hour? Did you turn your lights off? I honestly had no idea this was even happening until it came up in a team meeting on Friday. I guess this is what happens when you have a strict "no TV rule" during the week. I feel like I should be reading the newspaper or something... but I'd rather be reading about health issues than depressing world issues. Does that make me shallow or something? Nah... I just want to surround myself with positive things right now... :)

Now... I actually slept through most of 'earth hour' because it fell into my 'pre-work nap' time. I did wake up at 8:30 to start prepping food by candle light to go into the vitamix. As soon as 9:00 hit though, the vitamix went on and I started juicing like a mad-man. For a zombie day, I drank lots of juice today again.

Today I had:

1.25L water+msm+lemon
1.5L apple/kiwi
1.25L celery/kale/cilantro/parsley/dandelion+kelp+E3live+Hsalt
1.5L blood orange/red globe grapes/strawberry
1.5L pineapple/blood orange/blackberry
1.25L celery/red chard/spinach/cilantro+E3live+Hsalt

7 litres today! Nuts! :)

Today I did:

Skin brushing
Zapper

Sleep: 10am to 2pm 5:30pm to 8:30pm

I don't have much more to report... I mean... I did sleep most of the day away :P

- Ben

Day 75 - Parade of food

If any of you are confused by what's gone on with my blog over the last three days, I apologize. It's been a tumultuous stretch and I've just now had the time and will to update it. I've backdated each entry for blogging accuracy.

Today was actually a lot of fun... especially when I woke up to find out my headache from hell was gone!

Today was my manager's last day before leaving on maternity-leave. We had organized a little get-together at a central location... an all-you-can-eat American-style buffet. I went and made it clear to the waitress that I was fasting and would only get a tea or something. I sat there with my chamomile tea as 30 fellow coworkers engaged in an endless parade of food. I don't know if there's anything more sickening than all-you-can-eat buffets to be quite honest. The really weird food pairings, the nauseating mixture of smells... seeing people stuff 3 to 5 plates of food down their throats. It's all just very nauseating. Actually... that's how I felt by the end. Nauseated. To the point where I really was feeling sick... by that time, it was time to leave... thankfully. First thing I did when I got to work; run for my juice! I felt MUCH better after. Though, I still had wheatgrass burps from the shot I had right before lunch at a local juice bar. I really hate wheatgrass. I think I'll just take it up the butt from now on! LOL

I feel positive about my work situation. Things do have a way of working out in the end.... I'm not being demoted which is good (as opposed to the former options in which I would have gotten term with benefits with a demotion). I'm keeping my same rate of pay (which I can renegotiate come April 21rst) and I've quit the hotel so I'll just have more 'me time'... which is especially good for the summer.

I think it's time to bring out the bike!! :) It's been so nice out lately that I think it's time to start biking to work again. I just have to figure out a way to transport 5L of juice to work everyday. I think I'll need to invest in a good pannier. This will also be useful for groceries at the farmer's market during the summer! :) I can't wait! :)

*yawn*

Today I had:

1.25L water+msm+lemon
1L watermelon juice
1.25L celery/spinach/cilantro/dandelion greens+E3live+kelp+Hsalt
1.5L Pineapple/blood orange/blackberry
50ml wheatgrass
1.25L watermelon juice
1.25L watermelon juice
500ml grapefruit juice
1.5L blood orange/red globe grape/strawberry
1.25L celery/collard greens/cilantro/parsley+E3live
1Tbsp bee pollen+agave
10 Parasite pills

Whoa... I hit a new record today without knowing it. 9.5 Litres! How is this possible? Should I be concerned? LOL! Hanlie mentioned that other juice feasters are experiencing this increase in juice too... I haven't really noticed? Is it a planetary thing or is it just a stage in the juice feast we all reach at some point?

Today I also did:

Not much... got home and napped... for got to skin brush again.
Zapper (all day)

Prev night's sleep: 10PM to 6AM. Was nice to get a good 8 hours sleep and get rid of that massive headache.

Schlaf gut!

- Ben

Day 74 - Headache from hell

I don't know if it's psychosomatic but I had the worst headache today. It started the minute I walked into work. To start with, I didn't want to be there. I totally got fucked over yesterday with this whole term job thing. Arghh! This headache was pounding into my temples. Everyone kept offering me aspirin. Are you nuts? Aspirin on a juice feast is like offering heroin to the Buddha! Sigh. It finally dawned on me (2 hours later) to apply pressure to the LV3 pressure points to try and get rid of this headache. That would work... but the headache would come roaring back. I wonder if it had anything to do with the intestinal drawing formula I took last night? Is this detox? Is it a cold? What is this!?

I totally would have gone home... but there was no way in hell that was going to happen. I had a ton of regional bulletins to finish and I had to draft a marketing strategy for a conference we're holding at the end of April. I basically worked through lunch because 1) I wasn't hungry... actually by that point, I still had not had any juice... my body didn't wanna hear it (so I just had water) and 2) I didn't know when I'd be done the damn stuff.

By 1PM or so I decided I wanted juice... but I didn't want my morning green juice at all. I wanted my happy pineapple juice. I felt a bit better after that. I had some watermelon juice shortly after. I ended up finishing all the work I had to do early so I decided "I worked through lunch, I'm leaving an hour early". As I was leaving I ran into a coworker I barely ever see; she asked me how my test went and I told her I never did get to do the test...she told me they were holding another test for the position I was offered (later retracted). I ran to my manager's office to tell her this... she ran to my director's office. The door was shut, phone calls were made. They fought tooth and nail for me but there was no way I would be allowed to write that test. Don't you hate red tape and bureaucracy? Anyway, in the end... I was assured that I have a job for the next 8 months nonetheless.

I went to do 'mega groceries' (and sorry to say Lisa, but I got some more organic grapes on sale!) and bought tons of yummy food.

I got home and decided I was sick of working at the hotel. So I sent my letter of resignation! LOL. I think this will do me good. The body wasn't designed to work 7 days a week... or change its body-clock once/week for that matter. My last day is April 6th. It will be nice to have weekends again. :) I mean, my first two weekends off will be consumed by that class I'm teaching... but afterwards... I want lots of "stay in bed ALL WEEKEND" weekends. I think I need to make up for lost sleep.

Today I had:

1.25L water+msm+lemon
1.5L Pineapple/orange/blackberry
2.75L Watermelon juice
1.25L Black kale/parsley+E3live+kelp+Hsalt
2Tbsp bee pollen+agave
10 Parasite pills

Today I also did:

(Frig! I forgot to skin brush today!)
Zapper all day
Acupeds (target:colon)
(That spot on my nose is going away, finally!)

That's all!

- Ben

Day 73 - What goes up must come down

I found out today that the term position I had been offered at work has basically hit a bump in the road. It's not looking good right now. Sigh. Needless to say, I'm pretty bummed.

Today I had:

1.25L water+msm+lemon
1.25L celery/black kale/cilantro/parsley+E3live+kelp+Hsalt
2.75L Pineapple/blackberry/orange
1.5L Watermelon juice
1L Apple/Kale+E3live+Hsalt
2Tbsp bee pollen
10 Parasite pills

6.5L of juice. The juicy-monster trend continues...

Today I also did:

10 min rebounder
20 min yoga
2L Cat's Claw enema
Zapper (all day) I think I need a new battery soon?
Acupeds (target:colon)

TV rule abided by
Previous night's sleep: 0:00AM to 6:00AM

That's all folks ... sorry for the delay!

- Ben

Day 72 - Exciting news!

I'm sure most of you have been eagerly awaiting this 'amazing news' I'm supposed to give you today. Well... too bad, I'm making you simmer some more for a bit. :) I'm so cruel.

I woke up today and ... I don't know how I managed to turn off 3 alarms during my sleep but I did. I was FUCKING LATE.... sorry... Did I mention this blog is PG-13? Anyway. I was freaking out because I really couldn't afford to be late this week (I was late a few times lately and it created a really embarrassing work situation... I wasn't going to let that happen again). It was 6:40 and I needed to be out the door by 8:30. Knowing me, I need that last half hour to shower, get pretty and get out the door. This gave me 1 hour and 15 minutes to make my juice. This normally takes me 2 to 2.5 hours. I was freaking out... but I quickly put a plan of action in place and well... I ended up bringing over 6 Litres of juice to work that day! hahahaha!

Today I had:

(msm water skipped due to time pressures)
1.25L celery/red chard/cilantro/parsley/dandelion greens+E3live+kelp+Hsalt
1.5L pineapple/blackberry/blood orange/grapefruit (don't add grapefruit to this... not as good!)
3.75L watermelon juice
1.5L pineapple/blackberry/orange
500ml water+E3live
2Tbsp bee pollen+agave
10 Parasite pills

That made for 8 litres (or 8.5 if you count the water+E3live) of juice in a day.... What is up with me? I'm like the COOKIE MONSTER.... but with juice... the JUICY MONSTER!!!

Today I also did:

Acupeds (target: colon)
2L Cat's Claw enema
15 min rebounder
Oil wrap (chest)

Prev night's sleep: 11PM to 6:40am
Tonight's sleep: 11:30PM to 5:30am (sorry I realize I messed up somewhere on the blog)
TV Rule: abided by...

The oil wrap consists of massaging a mixture of olive and peanut oil into the psoriasis lesions and then wrapping yourself in cling wrap and going to bed. This basically helps loosen the dead skin cells that psoriasis is known for. I figured if I did this, it would help the skin heal faster because it wouldn't also have to deal with the accumulation of dead cells on the epidermis. Make sure you use old sheets if you do this; you will ruin them.

Okay now FINALLY I will tell you about the Amazing News! :)

Ahem... to get straight to the point.... I'm going to be teaching a raw-vegan 'cooking' class at the end of April!!!! I'm SO EXCITED !!!! Basically, this guy has monthly workshops at his house on various topics (everything from bike maintenance to web design to vegan baking). A friend of mine who did the vegan baking workshop had heard from the organizer that he wanted to do a workshop on raw foods... so she immediately thought of me. I'm so glad she did because this is the kind of thing I wish I could do for a living (and plan to... soon... I hope!). So basically people show up, donate 5$ each and that covers the cost of materials/produce and there's a wee bit left over for me too! :) Exciting. I'm trying to plan a menu already... one with 'Ben original' recipes.... although this is hard when I'm not allowed to cook. This thing on at the end April. This gives me exactly 1 weekend (my salad weekend), one week and one Saturday to perfect those recipes and taste them! I have the menu planned out in my head. The cake is something COMPLETELY original... I'm keeping that a secret... but I'll need to do a lot of experimenting in the kitchen to make sure it's flawless. I'll be using co-workers as guinea pigs I think.

...Whoooo hoooo! :)

- Ben

Day 71 - Juice-a-palooza!

Days off are bliss. I really would like to take some more time off soon. I don’t think that will be possible though….unless I call in sick at the hotel which is pretty pointless for the most part unless I call in sick for the whole weekend. I wonder if I could fake getting an appendectomy or something. Sigh. Although, at this point, I’m sure if I went to see a GP and explained to him my situation, I could easily get a medical letter saying I’m having a burn-out and need to take time off from the hotel. This may be something I need to consider.

I was pretty zombified all day today. I spent most of my day doing…well… nothing. Lie in bed, do some stuff online and watch some TV. Oh yea… totally forgot about the TV rule today… but it’s a day off… I think that’s shouldn’t count, right? :)

I had a massive 8 litres of juice today. Yes, that’s right… 8 LITRES! I have no idea what was going on… I just couldn’t satisfy this really intense hunger I had. I seem to remember David saying this was one of the signs that one is ready to end the JF… but with 20 more days to go… meh! I’ll just drink more juice. In retrospect, I probably should just have had more green juice. Ooops!

Today I had:

1.25L water+msm+lemon
1.25L celery/spinach/dandelion greens/cilantro+E3live+kelp+spirulina+H salt
1.5L Apple/kiwi
5.25L watermelon juice
3tbsp bee pollen+agave
10 Parasite pills

Today I did:

Skin brushing
Acupeds (target: colon)
2L Cat’s claw enema
Zapper (all day)

The good news is, I had some peace and quiet all day. Maybe Sunday’s stunt really got the message through! One could only hope.

I really need to start doing yoga and rebounding again. I have no idea why, but I have really been slacking off in that department lately. Also, I need to be doing daily enemas while doing this parasite thing. I was flipping through a magazine and I found this picture of a human face with different colours. It highlighted each area of the face and pointed to which organ it is linked. According to this, the tip of the nose is linked to the large intestine. This is interesting because since I started juice feasting, I have had a red patch in that spot. It’s not quite psoriasis but it could be I guess… in its early stages? I don’t know. But I guess more enemas couldn’t do any harm. I’m also going to target the large intestine through the acupeds. I really want to get rid of that patch on my nose!

Anyway... that's about it for now...

STAY TUNED FOR TOMORROW'S REPORT!!! EXCITING NEWS !!! :)

- Ben

Day 70 - Random ramblings

As a Pastafarian, I don't really do Easter!

My mom called to wish my happy Easter today and I was so confused. I'm sorry but as a vegan atheist, this holiday is completely lost on me. I mean, this holiday only has meaning if you're Catholic, enjoy chocolate or painting eggs. I consider myself excommunicated and I don't understand why 99% of easter chocolate has to be milk chocolate. Not that it matters this year....

Wow... I'm in a really crummy mood tonight aren't I? Argh. I'm not feeling like myself tonight. Maybe I should just go to bed.... Maybe it's the sleep deprivation.... Maybe I'm just kooky!

Sorry in advance... this is going to be one long-winded post. I'm in one of those moods where all I want to do is write and ramble on endlessly about things you may or may not care about. But that's fine... because while I appreciate having an audience to bounce things off of... tonight's post is for me. I'm feeling very reflective today.

The first thing I wanted to talk about today was yesterday's dream (see day 69). Sorry for freaking everybody out... :) Lisa pointed out that I should look up how I'm doing retracing-wise to see if the dream coincided with anything. I was writing her a comment yesterday and was about to say this: "Well according to my calendar I'm 3 years old now and I don't really remember much from then other than..." and then the light bulb went off. The only memory I have of being 3 years old goes like this: my mom is sick and passed out on the couch. I decide I feel left out and I'm sick too! I go to the medicine cabinet and take two bottles of children's aspirin. I pop them open and pretty much eat the whole thing. My mom woke up and freaked out, rushed me to the hospital where they pumped my stomach. There's something EERILY similar about the dream I had last night (and the stomach/colon spasms I SWEAR I had during the dream) and this memory. Hmmm... :)

This weekend was a bit of an experiment. Working overnights at the hotel really screws things up for the juice feasting schedule, I find. When do I take my morning MSM? Should I drink juice during the night or not? Etc. These are all questions I had to find answers to. I used to not drink any juice at all from 11PM to 8AM to create consistency. The problem with this is I would be starving and light headed by the time I got home and dying for some green juice.... usually would skip the water/msm because the hunger was so consuming. Then I decided I would bring msm/lemon to work so that when I got home, the msm/water would have been drank at the hotel and I could go ahead and have green juice. The problem with that is I'd be so knackered at the hotel that I didn't care much for water/msm. Last weekend I decided to bring watermelon juice for sustenance and that actually was a pretty bright idea. This weekend I brought my evening green juice AND watermelon juice to the hotel. This I think is the way to go. The only problem with this weekend's experiment is when I got home, I had NO desire to drink green juice. My body wanted fruit juice and it wanted it NOW. I'd manage to get in my water/msm but I really wanted some sweet sweet happy juice. It's 10PM now... and I'm just NOW having my morning green juice. BAD BEN! Only 1LB of leafy greens today. Sigh.

My upstairs neighbor is a really inconsiderate woman who has no concept that bass travels more than she realizes. I've talked to her about this once before and she was completely apathetic and unapologetic. Today, she was up to her regular tricks so I thought I would teach her a lesson. I put my stereo on my fridge and my speakers in my top kitchen cabinets and pointed them to the ceiling. I set the bass on high and I put some German chick rock on. I closed the cupboard doors and put the volume on high. It wasn't so loud to me but I'm sure the bass was doing quite a number upstairs...... I'm not proud of this. But some people need to be taught lessons in considerateness. I'm still feeling shaky and distraught about this incident. I hate feeling vengeful and indignant. I just want some peace and quiet? Is that too much to ask?

I should be signing my letter of offer this week which means, the minute I sign on the dotted line, I'm emailing my letter of resignation to the hotel. The irony is, juice feasting would have been a lot easier to do without the weekend job... and by the time I quit, juice feasting will be over! LOL.

I really want a salad.

I'm really into Our Lady Peace and Smashing Pumpkins lately. It's so retro 90's and makes me feel safe in a really weird fucked up kind of way. It's probably not the most Zen music out there... and I'm sure it would kill most houseplants.... but I like it! On the plus side, I'm really into Rachael Yamagata lately too... her voice is very soothing and her lyrics very endearing. So it balances out, right? Okay I know, nice try Ben.

Fuck... I forgot... Parasite pills... BRB....

Back! I was amused to read that Carrie also enjoys the parasite pill-induced clove-flavored burps. Ouch... okay....maybe only try swallowing 2 pills at a time - not 3.

Is anyone else addicted to Scrabulous on facebook?

Today I had:

1.25L water+msm+lemon (3Tbsp msm/2 lemons)
(The above is getting very potent!)
1.5L Pineapple/Blackberry/Blood orange
1.5L Kiwi/Green Apple
1L Celery/black kale/dandelion greens/cilantro+kelp+E3live+spirulina+H salt
3Tbsp bee pollen+agave (oh yea... lazy today so I dipped into the bee pollen)
10 Parasite pills (check!)

Today I did:

Zapper (all night but not all day)

Sleep: 9am to 12:30PM (I typically don't sleep at all on Sundays so this is good guys!)
TV: Finally caught up on Idol... :P Is the writer's strike over yet?? What is going on with that? I want some new episodes of HOUSE!

Gutenachtkuß!

- Ben

Day 69 - Binging on cashews

It was a nice sunny day and everyone was gathered for a nice little picnic. There I was, with my mason jar of green juice... completely hypnotized by this big bowl of cashews. I had enough... honestly... I just wanted solid food. I just wanted one cashew... but one turned into a giant handful and a giant handful turned into 5 giant handfuls. Holy shit... my stomach is NOT happy. I can feel really weird spasms in my colon area... am I going to go to the hospital? Cashews are NOT soaked prunes... I've totally shocked my system! What's going to happen to me now?

Just like that... it's all over!

...And that's when I woke up! I was so confused for a moment. I mean, that dream felt so real. I honestly was pretty sure I had eaten a bowl-full of cashews and probably needed to get my ass to the hospital. I swear, those spasms I felt in my dream felt soooo real. I was sure the JF was all over.

I would like nothing better but to binge on a bowl-full of cashews right now but the truth is, there are still 23 more days to go. I'm going to suck it up... and I'm definitely feast-breaking with PRUNES and not cashews. Whoa!

What is with these intense dreams lately??? I had a few more that aren't worth sharing... maybe it's the sleep deprivation?

Today I had:

1.25L water+msm+lemon
1.5L kiwi-green apple
1.5L "Orgasmic 69" juice (see below)
1.25L Spinach/celery/parsley+kelp+E3live+Hsalt+Spirulina
1.5L Watermelon juice
2Tbsp bee pollen+agave
10 Parasite pills

Today I also did:

Skin brushing
Zapper (all day/all night)
Lots of R&R

Sleep: 9AM to 11AM + 5PM to 8:00PM (it's a hotel night.. what can I say?)
TV: No TV today... Tomorrow is TV day though! Lots of American Idol to catch up on.

I came up with the best juice today! Isn't it just befitting that on day "69" I would come up with one hell of an orgasmic juice? *giggles*

I came up with this quite by accident but it tastes just like that really awesome fruit punch you used to get as a kid. That stuff was made from concentrate and totally loaded with sugar (dear lord... I remember seeing slogans on boxes of juice that used to say "made from 10% real juice!" ... what was the other 90%?). This stuff tastes SUPER yummy and is totally good for you! It's loaded with antioxidants and grapes are known to be a great detoxifier. Without further ado:

Ben's "Orgasmic 69" fruit punch

3 blood oranges
2lbs (1kg) of organic red globe grapes (approx)
2 pink lady apples
1 small container of blackberries

Blenderize in a Vitamix and strain through a nut milk bag. You can also do this in a juicer but I would recommend straining the pulp through a nut milk bag anyway because these ingredients are so juicy, there could be lots of juice left in your pulp! :)

That's all folks!..... Hope I didn't scare you too much into thinking I had 'fallen off the juicy wagon' ;) hehehee.

- Ben

Day 68 - The oatmeal faerie returns

Well... It's Friday night and I'm stuck at the hotel again. I'm frozen again because the heating system sucks here and the area heater is broken. Oh! and I'm juice feasting...right!

I've just spent a good 2 hours looking at raw food porn on goneraw.com and I've also just finished drinking some watermelon juice.... Today was really weird!

I woke up up this morning and discovered I was flaking a lot. I mean... before I started juice feasting, I had to vacuum pretty much everyday or every other day because it was like I lived with an oatmeal faerie who would sprinkle oatmeal flakes all over my apartment. The joys of psoriasis, my friends! Everywhere I went, I'd leave little pieces of Ben-DNA. Around week 1 or 2, I had a massive flake-out and from that point on... I vacuum once a week! I barely flake anymore! Umm... but today I was flaking a lot... I'm not concerned by this at all; I'm actually encouraged by it. I think this might be a sign that I'm hitting a new phase in the healing process. I'm going to help this process along this week by doing an olive oil wrap (more on this later) to loosen the dead flakes of skin that remain...hopefully this will help expose new skin and my body will heal over those open patches with more ease.

I started my day with fruit juice today! It was weird and almost sacrilegious but that's what I wanted... and seeing as I needed to be back in bed for 6PM to nap before work, I thought my two green juices would be best suited for around 5PM and 11PM. It worked! I didn't actually have problems napping before my hotel shift tonight. Way to go intuition!

I started getting ready for work and remembered today is Good Friday; totally forgot that this meant the buses were on a special schedule. Fuuuuuuuck! There was one bus left that could get me downtown at that time of night, and it would have gotten me to work 20 minutes late. So I ran to the main street to get money out of an ATM and subsequently hunt down a cab. I walked to the sketchy area of town to the nearest strip joint where I know there are always cabs waiting. I was right!

I got to work and then had a really drunk prostitute come down from a regular perv's room asking for a cab. She spotted my green juice and parasite formula and we had a wee chat about juice feasting, green smoothies and parasites. She admitted to me that she was an alcoholic and theorized out-loud that maybe I was brought into her life in this moment as a divine intervention to inspire her to get healthy. Whoa. I'm sorry... I'm an atheist and I surely don't think of myself as divine but... you know what... I really do hope I had some sort of positive effect on this really sweet woman. It breaks my heart to see people in these situations. Sigh.

Would it make me hypocritical if I said I drenched my hands in Purell after shaking hands with her (after she left of course)? This is probably the first time since day 1 that I've put some sort of chemical on my skin but... the ex-flight attendant in me was screaming "WASH YOUR HANDS" and the Purell was staring at me with its "kills 99.9% of germs" slogan. :P

Whoa! This is already a huge post!

Today I had:

1.25L water+msm (40ml)+lemon
1.25L Pineapple/Blackberry/Blood orange
1.25L Red grape/blood orange/strawberry
750ml Mix of the above two juices (extra juice that didn't fit in mason jars were combined)
1.25L celery/spinach/cilantro+E3live+kelp+H salt
1.5L watermelon juice
2Tbsp bee pollen+agave
1Tbsp honey
10 Parasite pills (I felt like a junkie taking these)

Today I also did:

Skin Brushing
Zapper (all day-all night)
Lots of R&R

Sleep: 6PM to 9:30PM (no sleep tonight... hotel... will make up for it tomorrow by napping)
TV rule: slacked on that today big time... I had a day off... I figured I could induldge! :)

Jen (the prostitute at the hotel) offered me a cigarette at one point and I had a very intense momentary craving and even considered it for a moment.... but yea 5 seconds later that desire was all gone. I would probably die right now if I had a cigarette! I feel soooo pure right now. I did have a dream 2 nights ago where I smoked (out of peer pressure?) and I felt soooo sad that I had f*cked up the whole juice feast! lol. I woke up feeling so relieved!

... Is it 8am yet? I want to go home!

- Ben

Day 67 - The Exorcist

I had the most intense nightmare last night. I had this really intense dream: I was in a tube station in the UK and this woman approached me to help her child who was supposedly having a medical emergency. I asked the mother if the child was diabetic, when he last ate, etc etc (surprisingly enough, I actually remembered all my first aid training in my dream... SAMPLE:

S: Signs and symptoms
A: Allergies
M: Medications
P: Past medical history
L: Last ate
E: Events leading up to illness

We were all about acronyms in the flight attendant world.)

Okay back to the dream... So I go to this woman's house and the child is FREAKY. He knows my name and starts doing freaky stuff. The child is totally possessed. It was a really freaky dream. I ended up being able to exorcist the daemon out of the child. I don't remember much of the details but it was a scary dream! :) It's quite possible the 'exorcism' is a representation of 'expelling foul matter'. It's also possible that recent events at work that have left me feeling very indignant are the cause of this dream; the exorcism representing my will to 'urgently expel or repress the thoughts about that recent event'. Either way, it was kinda neat! I wish I could have remembered more details, I think it would have made a great movie! I often get brilliant ideas through my dreams... recently I got a recipe via a dream that I can't wait to try.

Today I had:

1.25L water+msm+lemon
1.25L celery/spinach/cilantro
1.5L pineapple/orange/blackberry
1.5L watermelon juice
1.25L carrot/orange/grapefruit
1.5L pomegranate/red grapes/blood orange/strawberry
6 Parasite pills
1 Intestinal movement pill
1 Tbsp bee pollen+agave
1 Tbsp honey

Today I also did:

Skin Brushing
(umm...that's it)

Previous night's sleep: 10PM to 5:30AM
TV rule: abided by
Tonight's sleep: 9PM to 8:30AM
(seeing I as write my blog posts the day AFTER ... it just makes sense that I report that night's sleep...easier to remember)

Did you notice that yummy juice? After that recent post I did where I joked about getting a butler, I thought it would be a great idea to treat myself to an amazing juice. Luckily organic red globe grapes were on sale this week... and organic strawberries were actually really affordable. Whoo hoo! Super tasty. I even had it in a martini glass! It was my way of celebrating the fact that I get 2 days off this week due to the long weekend. Sweet!

Oh... I also discovered peaches can't be juiced. Major bummer!

- Ben

Day 66 - Detoxing....really?

Wonderful. I wake up and massive detox symptoms and, according to the weather network, it’s raining shards of glass outside. Brilliant! Out of nowhere I started getting a runny nose and generally felt like I had been hit by a bus. I guess this might be the parasite pills kicking in. I thought I was done detoxing!

I’m taking the parasite pills along with the intestinal movement formula to keep things moving down there. Wow. Moving they are… I haven’t had this many regular BMs since I started juice feasting. Hanlie also started her parasite cleanse this week and she said she keeps running to the washroom… I’m just happy to be having the normal amount of BMs per day again. After being vegan for 8 years… not going 2-3 times a day feels very alien to me… and that’s pretty much what was going on for much of the JF.

I was actually planning on having a big E (as Carrie likes to call it) when I got home (.........E as in Enema... not the drug! LOL) but I totally fell asleep at 7PM. Passed out cold on the couch. I woke up around 10PM and went straight to bed. I woke up again at 5:00am the next morning to make juices. I guess I was pooped from the previous night when I only got a few hours of sleep. I had a really great friend of mine visit from Ohio so I stayed up late last yesterday night.... She hadn’t seen me in about 2 years; she was blown away by how thin I was and joked about having a “Nicole Richie intervention”. LOL.

Today I had:

1.25L water+lemon+msm
1.25L celery/black kale/cilantro+E3live+kelp+H salt
1.5L Pineapple/blackberry/orange
1.5L Watermelon
1.25L Kiwi/Apple
1Tbsp bee pollen+agave
2Tbsp honey
3 Parasite pills
1 Intestinal movement pill

Today I also did:

Skin Brushing
Acupeds (targeting colon)
Zapper (all day)
Chiropractic adjustment
Previous night’s sleep: 0:30 to 05:30 (eep!) … hence why I passed out last night!
TV rule: abided by!

My chiropractor was still pretty amazed at the transformations that were happening due to the juice feast. She also was blown away by how much weight I had lost. Then she caught me off guard by asking me how I’m getting any protein… LOL. I guess that’s something I expect from the general populace but not from holistic practitionners. Oh well!

For those who asked about that gizmo that gave me all those neat stats from yesterday’s post… It’s http://www.sitemeter.com. And yes… it’s totally free and fun to have around.

Fun times!

- Ben

Day 65 - Blog fun!

Didn't I promise you that you guys would be in for a treat? This is actually freakin' hilarious. I installed this program to count how many hits my blog has had. It's nuts that in just 3 days I've had over 200 hits. It has a really cool function that tells you how people got to your website. Most people are getting here via their own/other people's blogs (yay for mutual linking!) and via juicefeasting.com, globaljuicefeast.com and giveittomeraw.com.

Some people get here via Google by doing the weirdest searches. Here are a few interesting searches I've come across:

• enema (over 10 times...seriously... apparently Google thinks I'm the most knowledgeable person when it comes to enemas....a lot of people think that actually.)
• "that stick to your feet and draw out all the bad" (the bad what??? I'm dying to know!!)
• "How to make a peppermint tea enema" (for minty fresh farts!)
• "I need to pee" (who types that into Google?? Are you looking for an instruction manual on how to use your genitals for urination purposes?)

And my ultimate favorite...

• "enema fun"

LOL! I kid you not! Hahahhahhahaha! Sorry to disappoint you but you won't find any 'enema fun' here. I also found out a lot of people are reading my post about Tropicana's "21 things" ad from day 21. I think it's hilarious that when you type "Tropicana 21 things" into Google I'm the first link that pops up and I basically bash the whole idea and bring up pasteurization and promote juicing fresh organic oranges on your own. Sorry Pepsico... but this ad campaign kinda backfired on you!

Oh – little update on my little ebay kerfuffle. It seems that Healthforce recently changed their formulas so 150 pills is all you need now – not 210. The good news is, I found this out AFTER I emailed that ebay guy. He offered me a 50% refund on the intestinal movement formula and a 25% refund on the parasite formula. Score! I figured he owes me for waiting 7 business days to ship my stuff! :)

Today I had:

1.25L water+lemon+msm (up to 2 ½ tablespoons of MSM now)
1.25L celery/black kale/cilantro/dill/dandelion greens+E3live (only 2 sprigs of dill… but the whole thing just tasted like pickles! Mmm… pickles!)
1.5L Pineapple/blood orange
1.5L Watermelon juice
1L Coconut water+E3live
1.25L celery/red chard/cilantro/dill+kelp+H salt1Tbsp bee pollen+agave
2Tbsp honey
500ml Peppermint tea
Enzymes
1 Parasite formula pill

Today I also did:

Acupeds
Zapper (all day)
Skin brushing
(I’m totally not motivated to exercise lately…sigh)

Sleep: 9:15pm to 5am
TV rule: abided by.

Yep! It’s nuts… been getting about 7L of juice per day lately. I don’t know what’s wrong with me… I’m just hungry all the time lately. I finally get what Angela Stokes was talking about when she said she couldn’t imagine only getting in the required 4L of juice/day. I still can’t believe that was a challenge before.

The other funny thing on that topic is that I got my sister drinking 1L of water+msm+lemon per day in the morning. When I originally told her she replied in shock “you want me to drink 1 litre of water in the morning!??!?!” I was so perplexed as to why this was a big deal but I now remember how big a litre seemed in my pre-juice feasting days. A litre seems so small now! LOL.

That’s it for today! :) Stay juicy everyone!

- Ben

Day 64 - Grand theft...maple-water!

Oh man. I think this might be a long post. A lot of stuff went on today. Let’s see. The day was actually pretty uneventful until I got home and found a card notifying me that my 3 healthforce nutritionals products had arrived (parasite formula, intestinal drawing and intestinal movement formulas). I was super happy because I’ve been waiting over 3 weeks to get these. I went to the post office to pick them up… came home and then decided to do something really bad…. Grand theft…. Grand theft maple water that is. I grabbed three mason jars and headed for the city park. The city is gathering maple water for a maple-syrup festival coming up this weekend. I figured I could score some maple water to substitute as juice. I scored 3Litres! Unfortunately the stuff doesn’t taste as good as I remember it. When I was a kid, my grandparents h ad a 318 acre farm complete with cows, chickens, dogs, cats, huge gardens, amazingly beautiful orchards…and yes… even a maple forest. Spring was always amazing; my grandfather would tap all the trees and brew HUGE batches of maple syrup. I remember having LOTS of maple taffy and other weird concoctions that my grandparents used to make with maple water. Maple water, tastes pretty much like water mixed with white sugar. I tried some last night and … yea… used to love sipping the stuff right out of the metal buckets as a kid but … not into it right now. What a waste! Too bad I can’t brew my own maple syrup with this… maybe I’ll give it a shot!

After getting home from my ‘grand theft maple-water, I decided to open my package. I totally got screwed! The ebayer I bought the stuff from sent me tiny bottles of 120 caps each (for the parasite and intestinal movement formulas). I thought maybe I was a dufus and bought the wrong products… but no… I checked… the guy sent me the wrong sizes. I emailed him and then checked his feedback history… I’m a bit nervous now. The worst part is, I have to delay my parasite cleanse even more because of this. Sigh. I’ve emailed him… lets hope we find a quick solution to this.

Oh! I had my green juice this morning with that ‘conventional celery’… It wasn’t all that bad. I guess I was half-expecting turning into a werewolf or something. It’s crazy really but conventional produce gives me the heebie jeebies. I’m looking forward to picking up more organic produce on Tuesday.

Today I had:

1.25L water+lemon+msm
1.25L celery/black kale/dandelion greens/cilantro
1.5L pineapple/blood orange/blackberry
1.5L watermelon juice
1.25L orange/carrot/dill (just a wee bit of dill)
1.5L pineapple blackberry
250ml maple water
2Tbsp bee pollen+agave
2 Tbsp honey
250ml water+chanca piedra

Today I also did:

Acupeds
Skin brushing
Zapper (all day)
2L Cat’s claw tea enema

Sleep: 11PM to 5AM (eep!)
TV: Cheated! 2 hours of TV….

Ummm… sorry it’s time for another ‘poop report’. I was about to do the cat’s claw enema yesterday morning and decided I would try and have a normal BM first. Well… I was REALLY surprised to have a normal person BM. I will admit that I stared at it completely bewildered for a bit. I haven’t eaten anything in 64 days! Where is this coming from?The enema got even MORE stuff out. I think I’m overdue for a colonic but my colonic hydrotherapist has one hell of a picky schedule (she only works from 10 to 4 or something to avoid traffic)… unless I take half a day off, I can’t really get to her.

Oh yea… I guess all this time I thought I wasn’t losing weight anymore… I was ‘full of shit’… in both senses of the phrase! I’ve finally hit the “lost over 30 pounds” mark. I need to change that graphic tonight! Yay! I’m finally keeping up with Hanlie! :) I figure I can lose another 10lbs and I’ll be happy. That would make me 17 on the BMI scale though which means I’d be underweight. I just want to sit down and not have a spare tire…Is that cool? LOL!

I have a really funny post in the works for tomorrow so stay tuned!Thanks everyone for all the great comments you left re yesterday’s post! I’m glad I was able to make you laugh! :)

- Ben

Day 63 - Ohh Jeeves!

Well its day 63. This means there’s less than a month of juice feasting to go. It’s going to be so easy from here on end. I had an “oh my god I really want sauerkraut” moment today and it was a lot easier to acknowledge that craving and let it go because I know that 29 days from now, I’ll be eating food again.

I was so tired today again. I really needed to do some house cleaning but I just wanted to veg and take advantage of my TV day. The good news is, I TIVO’ed everything so I got to skip those brainwashing commercials. Yay! There was one interruption to ‘veg-out day’; I noticed I would be out of celery and lemons by tomorrow if I didn’t go to the health food store to pick up some more. When I got there, I was informed it was their busiest weekend on record and they were totally sold out of celery! I guess this is part of the ‘challenges’ on the hero’s journey? I was faced with two options; catch another bus to the market and hope I’d find some organic celery or go to the supermarket next door and get some conventional celery. I’m afraid, due to my zombie-nature on Saturday, I caved and went to get 2 conventional celeries. I’ll get some organic ones on Tuesday when that store gets a new order in. This will be the first time on the juice feast that I drink some conventional veggies. The only non-organic produce I use for juicing is pineapples, citrus and melons (when no organic version can be found). I’m sure 2 days won’t hurt though.

The sun is shinning a lot more lately and that’s so encouraging. Hopefully this means I’ll be biking to work again soon. The good thing about getting out of the house to get the produce was I got some sun and it made me happy! :)

Today I had:

1.25L water+orange+msm (yes… that says orange, I ran out of lemon… a boy has to improvise sometimes)
1.25L celery/kale/cilantro/dandelion greens+E3live+kelp+H salt
1.75L watermelon juice
1.5L pineapple/blood orange/blackberry
2Tbsp bee pollen+agave

Today I did :

Napping ? Sleep : 10AM to 1PM… God… that sounds aweful… I really need to quit my second job !
TV: Tons of American idol and other TIVO’ed stuff! :)
Not bad for a zombie day : I didn’t used to be able to get 4L a few weeks back. I’ve consistently gotten over 4L of juice lately! It’s nuts because now I can’t imagine not getting in that much juice. The truth is; I probably would have taken in more juice had it not been for the ‘effort’ it takes to make juice. Times like these, I wish I was rich and had a buttler!................................ *daydream*

Oh Jeeves! Can you make me some Pineapple/blood orange juice please? Oh… add some pomegranate juice to it this time… and I want it served in a martini glass! Mason jars are so bourgeois!

Did I mention Jeeves looks a lot like Axel Hermann in my day dream? Mmmmm…. I won’t get into what he’s wearing! :P

Kuß kuß!

- Ben

Day 62 - I want pickles!

I know it's nuts... but I want pickles... especially sauerkraut. I've been looking at youtube videos on how to make your own.... but I notice Matt has this thing called a 'perfect pickler' on his website for sale. Has anyone used this? Is it worth it? :) I can't wait to have some sauerkraut!

I was TOTALLY knackered today. I barely made it out of my hotel overnight shift alive. I had a government exam (for a gov job...same level as what I was offered) today and I honestly just no-showed. There was no way. I was just too tired. It's what my body wanted. I spent most of the day in bed... the times I wasn't in bed, I was making juice. I can't believe I managed to get over 4L in today!

Today I had:

1.25L water+msm+lemon
1.25L celery/kale/dandelions greens+kelp+E3live+H salt
( I have to admit, I feel like a witch when I make my green juice "a few frog legs here, eye of newt here....") LOL
1.5L grape/strawberry/blood orange
1.25L green apple/alfalfa sprouts/kiwis
1.5L watermelon juice
1Tbsp bee pollen/agave
1Tbsp honey
1tsp coconut oil/honey (I had one teaspoon of this and my body wouldn't hear of it...did not want to deal with the oils today AT ALL)

Today I also did:

Ummm.... nothing? Lots of R&R... I listened to my body and I'm proud of myself! :) But I seriously need to do yoga...

Sleep: (don't forget, I worked overnight) 10am to 1:30PM and 6:00PM to 9:00PM
TV: I cheated today and watched some TIVO'd house and paranormal state.

I have a feeling tomorrow will also be an R&R "totally knackered" day. I can't wait to quit my weekend job and stop working 7 days/week.... one more month... one more month...

- Ben

Day 61 - Tag! I'm it!

Carrie has recently tagged me and I took my sweet ass time to do this but it's time I reveal 5 previously unrevealed facts about myself. Fun fun. This is harder than I thought because, I talk about myself a lot and a lot of the kooky things I wanted to bring up, I've brought up before.

1) My favorite day of the year is the annual Zombie walk. Yep, not Christmas or Halloween or any of those other holidays. The Zombie walk is an annual event where hundreds of Ottawans dress up as zombies and gather in one spot (a local cemetery) and march all the way to Parliament. It has no point whatsoever but it's so much fun. We totally disrupt traffic and scare pedestrians and try to eat their brains! Here are some photos from last year's zombie walk:





Total blast! :)

2) I did an apprenticeship in Berlin one summer to learn about performance art. I stayed by the Ku'dam (Kurfurstendamm... but we cool people just called it the Ku'dam) which is Berlin's shopping district. Despite having been a flight attendant and having seen many cities, Berlin remains my favorite city of all times. There's a certain spot that I'm fond of... where I used to go every morning for a latte. I'd sit on the patio and overlook this half demolished cathedral (Kaiser Whilhem memorial) that was left standing to remind people of the horrors of war. It's a very intense and powerful scene. I'd give anything to be there right now... without the latte and Czech cigarettes, of course!

3) I have quite the collection of drunken pictures of myself. When I was a flight attendant, it was understood that drinking was part of the job. I mean, we had rules to abide by (as per transport canada, one cannot drink 8 hours prior to a flight, our airline increased this rule to 12 hours). We all took this rule very seriously but until that 12 hour mark hit, all hell could break loose. We had some fun times.... but yea... my poor liver. Here is a picture from Christmas 2006 which I spent in London with a really fun crew. And yes, these are the infamous superman underwear. I'm not sure how this happened..........

4) When I was 19 (and 20, I spent my birthday there) I ran off to Costa Rica. I had quite the abusive boyfriend at the time and I needed a break. It was one of the best things I ever did for myself. I had never been on a plane, never crossed a border. I learned to be very self-reliant and I gained a lot more confidence in myself. I spent some time in San Jose, but most of my time in Costa Rica was spent in a very very remote village by the Pacific ocean. I had my own little house with my own boogie board. The 5km of beach was ALWAYS deserted. I lived in the middle of a jungle with monkeys, crocodiles, pelicans, lizards.... it was awesome. I felt like tarzan on most days. The jungle was so lush, sometimes I'd half expect a T-rex to come running out of the foliage! Costa Rica has a very special place in my heart, and I'll admit, when I start feeling overwhelmed.... I often think of hopping on the first available flight there. This thought also seems to pop up when we have crazy snowstorms! hehee. Here are some pictures from my Costa Rican experience:




Oh yea... if you ever climb a 10,000' high volcano.... make sure to bring a sweater... even if you are in a tropical climate, it gets cold at that altitude!

5) Now... this may sound really weird. I want to make it clear that I'm not talking about an aversion or a snobbish disdain here... but a full blown phobia. I have a phobia of.... plastic dishes. Even as I write this I get a bit worked up. I know it sounds super silly, but they freak me out. Specifically the plastic dishes that look like they're made of glass. I've been known to pick up a nice salad bowl thinking it was made of glass only to find out (from its weight) that it's made of plastic.... I basically FREAK OUT and run out of the store. I CAN'T STAND THOSE THINGS. They freak me out so much!!!

Alright. That's my five things. I have to find people to tag now. I'm tagging Kristi, Jessica and Mish.

Now, back to juice feasting! :)

Today I had:

1.25L water+msm+lemon
1.25L celery/kale/cilantro+E3live+kelp+H salt
1.25L grape/blood orange/strawberry (yum!)
1.5L pineapple/blood orange/blueberry
1.5L watermelon juice
1.25L spinach/green apple+H salt+E3live
1tbsp bee pollen+agave
1tbsp coconut oil+honey
2tbsp honey
Forgot about the hemp oil (Freud would say I unconsciously chose to 'forget')

Today I did:

Skin brushing
2L Cat's claw enema

Sleep: 10PM to 5:30am
TV: Still good on the Sunday only TV rule

Uhhh.... I did the enema RIGHT before leaving to go work at the hotel last night and that was a BAD idea. I almost missed the bus cause I kept running back to the loo to evacuate more water. Eeep! When I got onto the bus I kept getting cramping and I was thinking to myself "shit this was a bad idea". No accidents though! LOL. Won't be doing that again!

.... I need to pee... so I'll end this post now! :)

- Ben

Day 60 - A time to reflect....

Photo by Duane Michals

It's day 60 and I think this is a milestone in juice feasting terms. I'm 2/3rds of the way there and those prunes are so close, I can taste them... well I could... if I ever had eaten prunes in my life before this! hahaha. I have no idea what awaits; never had a prune in my life.

This post is huge; here's what's on the agenda for today:

• Today's events
• Plans for the remaining 32 days
• In retrospect
  
• Update on the psoriasis (notice I say "the" instead of "my")
• Another juice feaster's award
  

Today - Day 60

Today was pretty uneventful other than doing mega groceries. I decided not to buy any young coconuts this week and buy 7 watermelons instead. My usual weekday coconut water will be swapped for watermelon juice. I was pretty tired after groceries so I'm afraid this accounts for the lateness of this post along with the uninspiring juices I had today. I bought some great ingredients to make myself a "congratulations juice" for tomorrow.

Today I had:

1.25L water+msm+lemon
1.25L celery/red chard/cilantro+E3live+kelp+Himalayan salt
1.25L Pineapple/blood orange
1.25L Watermelon
1L Coconut water
1L Grannysmith apple/Spinach/Alfalfa sprouts+E3live+Spirulina+Himalayan salt
1Tbsp bee pollen+Agave
1Tbsp coconut oil+honey
1Tbsp hempseed oil+lemon (shot style!)
2Tbsp honey
(totally forgot about the chanca piedra!)

Today I also did:

10 minutes on the rebounder
Skin brushing

Sleep: 10PM to 5:30am (oops!)
TV: Still no TV since Sunday... I'm doing great with this! Thank Buddha for TIVO!

Changes from this point forward

This is just one of the changes I want to do for the rest of juice feasting. Here is a list of ideas I'm entertaining:

• More watermelon juice, less coconut water
• Increased intake of MSM (right now my daily intake is 20ml of MSM per 1.25L of water. I want to double this amount to 40ml of MSM for the same quantity of water
• Visit an infrared sauna 2 or 3 times during the next 32 days
• Do more frequent enemas
• Apply more topical treatments to speed up the healing of the remaining psoriasis
• Continue using acupeds for the remaining 32 days
• Continue taking my oils (I've been doing so good with this!!!)

You're probably wondering how come I haven't mentioned taking the parasite pills yet eh? Well it seems they may be stuck at the border. I ordered them 3 weeks ago to make sure this wouldn't happen. There's no tracking number on the package so it's possible the package is also lost.... which would suck big time! I also had some intestinal drawing and intestinal movement formula in there. I should get it next week.... I hope! :)

In retrospect

It's day 60 and this is so monumental for me. There were days I wasn't entirely sure that I would actually make it this far. Juice feasting can seem, at times, like mount everest. A very tall mountain that is impossible to conquer. That feeling can be overwhelming. All I can say is think of what David says all the time: everyone juice feasts for one day: today. Just focus on today, forget about how many days you have left. This wisdom has kept me sane on many occasions.

I know there's a lot of juice feasters out there right now who are about to hit day 15! That's a milestone too! Feel happy and celebrate; make yourself a really amazing juice. Forget about the cost (I've made a 1L of juice once that cost 23$!)... just do something nice for yourself to celebrate this milestone and keep doing that for each milestone you hit... or on days when you feel really down and juice feasting feels like a challenge... I promise you, being creative in the kitchen with your juice and incorporating things like pomegranates, strawberries, blackberries, grapes, etc will make you feel so good... and the juice will taste amazing too! :)

I'm going to save a lot of this retrospect for day 92 but I just want to pat myself on the back here because for the past few days I have ALWAYS been taking my oils. I owe a lot of this to Mish because she reminded me how hemp oil (with its special blend of omega3/6) is supposed to be really good for psoriasis. I just was avoiding it because I couldn't stand the stuff... and then felt guilty about not taking it. Well I'm taking it now, everyday... along with coconut oil and I'm also not going to feel guilty if I forget to on a day or two. No big deal. But yea... go me! :)

Update on the P!

For those who are wondering on the status of the psoriasis:

Fully healed:
Scalp (was 100%), forehead (was 50%), neck/chin area (was 10-20%)

Almost done healing:
Legs (odd spots left ... less than 5% - was 50%), thighs (odd spots left, less than 5% - was 50%)

Healing differently:
Chest (no more flaking, reduced thickness, light pink where lesions were and healing slowly... lots of new skin.... about 50% coverage - down from 75%), Back (healing in the same way... less than 5% - down from 20%), arms and forearms (lots of new skin, healing in the same way as the chest area... 25% coverage, down from 75%).

I'm not sure if I'll be fully healed by day 92 but I think the chances are really great that I just might be. If not, I know a well-balanced raw food diet will continue the healing that juice feasting has spearheaded. For anyone suffering from psoriasis, all I can say is juice feasting will jumpstart the healing process in a way you can't imagine. It's important to remember that this condition arises out of a weak and toxic colon. Juice feasting merely cleans out the colon, detoxes the body and rebuilds the colon wall (cures leaky-gut syndrome). You can't just go back to eating french fries after this (and you won't want to). You want to ensure that this condition doesn't reappear by being cognizant of what goes into your colon. I know I'll be taking slippery elm and cat's claw tea everyday after juice feasting to ensure my colon walls stay strong.

I'm saving my before/after pictures for day 92, I'm afraid! :)

Juice Feaster award

She doesn't know this yet but I'm awarding a juice feaster
award to Jessica of RAWtacular. Jessica is RAWtacular indeed! She's done two juice feasts so far and has inspired other people around her to give it a shot too. Also, she's juice feasted through an insane snowstorm on her first juice feast. When the power went out, she brought her supplies and blender to a friend's place and made juice there. I personally, have a lot of respect for people who juice feast while cooking for their families and having to face food in their own homes. I'm sooo lucky to be single (for once) and live alone because the temptation isn't there. When I started juice feasting, I gave all my non-juice foods (almonds, other nuts, tofu, etc) to my family so they could get it out of my sight. Hahaha. Way to go Jessica! I'm sure proud of you!!! :) Please visit her blog and congratulate her on another great juice feast and for staying juicy (with green smoothies) post-feast! :)

Well that's it kiddoes.... I have to get to bed!

- Ben

Day 59 - Happy Happy, Joy Joy

Thanks to everyone who replied to yesterday's request (day 58). It was neat to hear from all the readers out there that I didn’t even know were there. Thanks again.

Today was great. Oh my god, the sun is finally coming out more and more these past few days and this has definitely elevated my mood. Also, doing some rebounding has really helped that too. Rebounding makes me really happy. I put some corny music on and bounce/dance along. It’s totally goofy but it lifts my spirits and I think that’s an important component of healing.

I started looking more into studying at Hippocrates yesterday and Living light. I don’t think this can be done within the next year but you know what, after listening to yesterday’s video on globaljuicefeast.com about goals… I think I’ll just write it down as a goal and see what happens in terms of the universe delivering on that goal.

Tomorrow is day 60 and I’m planning a really interesting post; one that reflects back on the past 2 months of juice feasting and also looks ahead, at some changes I want to make to the next 32 days. Stay tuned for that okay? :)

Today I had:

1.25L water+msm+lemon
1.25L celery/green chard/cilantro+E3live+kelp+Himalayan sea salt

250ml water+chanca piedra
1.5L Pineapple/blood orange/blackberry (yuuum!)
250ml water+chanca piedra
1.25L Cantaloupe/orange (I think that cantaloupe was a bit off…meurgh)
1L Coconut water
1L Apple/spinach/alfalfa sprouts
2Tbsp honey
1Tbsp bee pollen+agave nectar
1Tbsp hemp seed oil+lemon (shot glass style)
1Tbsp coconut oil+honey

Today I did:

Skin brushing
2L Cat’s claw tea enema
20 min reboundingAcupeds (still targeting kidneys)
Zapper (all day)

Last night’s sleep: 10PM to 5:30PM (eep! Bit later than I wanted!)

That’s it for today… keeping this short!

Mit Liebe,

- Ben

Day 58 – Who are you?

Yesterday was SO MUCH FUN. I mean, I went to work and that was uneventful… but after work I went to the health food store. I did that thing again where I looked at ALL the foods with a lot of fascination. I mostly craved raw-nola, sauerkraut, wasabi peas (I guess those aren’t raw eh?) and cashews. But yea, I think I’m going to buy that pickling jar from Matt’s site because I’d really like to make my own sauerkraut but the traditional method kind of scares me. I ran into my vegan friend Jill there! She’s on her way to Japan soon! Yay Jill! We talked about juice feasting and she told me how proud she was of me! So sweet! Unbeknownst to be, Jill has been following my blog! HI JILL !! !:)

This brings me to today’s title; I’ve been getting a lot of comments on giveittomeraw and globaljuicefeast from people who have been following my blog for some time but don’t comment. That’s perfectly fine but I’m a very inquisitive person so I’d like to take this opportunity to ask those who read this blog but don’t comment to just say a quick hello and tell me where they’re from and anything else they’d like to say or ask. I’m curious to see who’s out there reading my (sometimes) ineloquent ramblings.

What did I end up buying at the health food store, you ask? PRUNES! No no! Just kisdding! I’m not buying prunes until day 92! I don’t want to be tempted by them. I bought some really awesome soap by Giovanni (hazelnut/vanilla), some hair conditioner (also Giovanni), some honey, raw cold-pressed coconut oil, cilantro, spinach,, cat’s claw tea, MSM, dishwashing liquid (Ecover) and… I think that’s it. Oh! Alfalfa seeds for sprouting!

Afterwards I went to meet up with Vanessa, a University student that is doing her Master’s thesis on the topic of vegetarianism and social activism. It was really neat to do this. It was an hour interview (with lots of intermittent chatting) about my reasons and experiences as a vegan. It was amazing to do this at this point in my juice feast. I really feel like juice feasting is a life-changing event but it’s also a cusp; that is to say, the transition from vegan to raw-vegan for me. I went vegan 8 years ago when there weren’t many cookbooks and ready-made foods for vegans. Now it’s SO EASY to be vegan. I’m planning on transitioning to raw and that’s a bit daunting because I know I have to start all over again. I have to relearn how to be a superstar in the kitchen. I have to deal with the fact that raw products aren’t so prevalent. The raw movement right now is where the vegan movement was 8 years ago when I first went vegan. I’m back to ground zero and it’s going to be interesting. Self reliance and innovation are going to be keys to this being a success though. Lots of cookbooks, lots of help from raw friends online and lots of experimenting in the kitchen. I can deal with that! :) Anyway… it was nice to do this ‘retrospective’ of my experiences as a vegan at this pivotal moment in my vegan journey.

Today I had:

1.25L water+msm+lemon
500 ml water+chanca piedra
1.25 celery/kale/parsley+kelp+Himalayan salt+E3live+Spirulina
500 ml water+chanca piedra
1.25L Pineapple/Blood orange/Blackberry (yum!)
1.25L Grapefruit/Orange/Carrot/Ginger/Cantaloupe (kinda gross, to be honest!)
1L Coconut water
500ml Mint tea
1Tbsp coconut oil
1Tbsp Hemp oil+lemon juice (shot glass style)
1Tbsp bee pollen+agave nectar
2Tbsp honey
Enzymes

Today I also did:

Skin brushing
20 minutes on the rebounder
Acupeds
Parasite zapper (all day)

Previous night’s sleep: 9:15PM to 5:30AM. Mmmm!
TV rule: Still have not turned on the TV since Sunday!

That’s all for me right now… remember… click that comment button and say hello! Especially if you’ve never commented before and follow my blog!

- Ben

PS: Check out David’s video on the Hero’s journey today. It makes a lot more sense to me now, at day 58 than it did when I first read about it, in my first days of juice feasting. Poweful stuff. I’m trying to figure out a way right now that would allow me to go down to the Hippocrates Institute to be trained as a Health Educator within the next 2 years. I’m going to have to do some SERIOUS budgeting. I also am thinking of going to the Living Light Raw culinary arts school. We’ll see what happens. :)