Day 18 - I *heart* my spine

Today was a good day! The cravings weren't so bad today. I don't really think I had any, actually. I kept drinking juice, and lots of it... and it helped! :)

I got some great advice from David and Katrina Rainoshek on cravings. From now on, I'll try to remember that cravings are fleeting and I shouldn't worry about them too much. I've honestly felt a bit depressed lately, but that's finally lifting. I think, if the "going back 120 days for each day of juice feasting" theory is true, then I'm about 19-20 right now... and that was a rough time for me. Maybe there are some repressed emotions that my body is reliving....

In any case, today was a great day! I drank TONS of juice. I also did an enema with the burdock root tea.... I wasn't able to hold it for very long; it made me release a lot of stuff. I can't believe it's 18 days and I'm still having solid BMs.

Today I had:

1.25L water+msm+lemon (up to 1tbsp of msm)
1.25L celery/red chard/parlsey+kelp+spirulina+msm
1L apple/red cabbage (yum!)
1.25L pineapple/pear
1L young coconut water + left over pineapple juice
1L apple/kale
1tbsp coconut oil

5.5L of juice!!!! Can you believe it!!?!?!! I sure can't! :) I'm so proud of myself. Now if only I could remember to take my hemp oil. I just find it so thick... I might just take it on its own instead of adding it to the juices.

Also! Today I went to the chiropractor for my regular adjustment. I get adjusted every 2 weeks. I used to go a lot more often, but most of my subluxations have been fixed. When I first went to the Chiropractor, I was subluxated in 51 out of 56 possible subluxations. Now, 51 has turned into 7. My chiro asked me how the juice feast was going and I told her it was going pretty well. She was amazed at the changes in my skin and mentioned how radiant my face is and how I'm glowing. :) I noticed that myself, this morning. I am starting to get 'the glow'. :)

Edgar Cayce reported that people with psoriasis usually have subluxations in the specific areas which "upset the coordination of circulation through the kidneys and the liver". I'm happy that my spine is doing a lot better than it was. Not only am I in less pain, I know that my brain is communicating effectively (as the messages pass through my spine) to all parts of my body. This is greatly enhancing my quest for smooth, healthy skin. :)

That's all for today :)

- Ben

PS: Katrina gave me some homework so I'm going to go read the "Positive Diversions" file (Day 5) on juicefeasting.com :) Should help me with the cravings. :)

Day 17 - Reflecting on Edgar Cayce

I watched a show on TV recently about Edgar Cayce. His life is just absolutely amazing. The show focused mainly on his prophecies; how he predicted the 1929 stock market crash, WW2, etc. Cayce also could diagnose and describe how to cure various conditions. The man had no medical background. He was a simple farmer with the extraordinary ability to go into a deep trance that enabled him to place his mind in contact with all time and space. From this state he could respond to questions as diverse as, "What are the secrets of the universe?" to "How can I remove a wart?"

It's interesting that Edgar Cayce described psoriasis as being a cause of 'leaky gut syndrome' before LGS was ever diagnosed on anyone:

The cause is the thinning of the walls of the intestinal system, which allows the escaping of poisons - or the absorption of same by the muco-membranes which surround same, and becomes effective in the irritation through the lymph and emunctory reactions in the body.

- Edgar Cayce

Why is juice feasting helping?

"An effective cure for same is first being mindful of the diet, during the periods when these necessary elements would be given for creating those activities within the system to close such conditions."

"The diet during such periods should be more of vegetables than of meats or sweets, so that there are those reactions that make for better unification in the membranes' reaction within the body."

One of Cayce's recommendations is to have American Saffon (Hong Hua in Chinese medicine) tea to detox the body and slippery elm in the drinking water in the morning to help repair the colon.

I haven't been doing those two things... but I think after day 30, I may start doing this. I guess this means I'll be drinking a lot more water! Hehhe :)

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

Now back to Juice feasting! Would you believe, I cracked a mason jar today? I was sooo mad because it had yummy pineapple/blackberry juice in it! I had set it down gently onto the fridge and a circular hole formed at the bottom of the jar and juice started spilling everywhere! It made a big mess in the office lunchroom. I cleaned it all up as much as I could and then I called the building cleaners to take care of the stuff I couldn't fix (carpets!).

Embarassing! Also, I got chards of glass in my hand... urgh! All good now!

Today I had:

1.25L water+msm+lemon
1.25L celery/collard greens/cilantro+kelp+spirulina+bee pollen
1L young coconut water+a wee bit of pineapple/blackberry juice
1L carrot/orange

I was short today...but I blame the mason jar incident! hahaha! oh well! I also forgot to take my hempseed oil and coconut oil! Eep! I became a bit narcoleptic ... so ... sorry :)

That's it for now :)

- Ben

Day 16 - Cravings are back

Ahh yes. Don't ask me why, but I was craving mustard today. Weird. It would be much easier to do this in the country... or if I worked from home. I think that the constant bombarding of ads, smells and countless restaurant fronts on my way to and from work is a bit much for a juice feaster. Refraining from watching TV would also help... hehe. But hey, we all have our vices right?

Today I had:

1L water+msm+lemon
1.25L celery/collard greens/parsley+kelp+bee pollen+spirulina
1.25L pineapple/blackberry
750ml coconut water + left over pineapple blackberry juice
750ml carrot/apple

That's all for today. Nothing to report. I'm happy that I've had no stomach pains for the last little while despite having citrus and apples. Yay!

Day 15 - Hic !

Yes! Hiccups! I don't know why... but I've had them for most of the day. Off and on, of course. It started last night and continued throughout the day today. Could this be a detox symptom or is it just a fluke? Oh well! :)

I had MASSIVE amounts of juice today! I also discovered that my mason jars, if filled to the rim, hold 1.25L... not 1L! So this means I've been consuming more juice than I thought, this entire time! I won't amend my previous stats... but I feel good knowing that the days where I only got 3L, I actually was getting at least 3.5L.

I also want to mention how I had a f$#%ing kiosk to do this morning, which meant I had to be at work for 7am. Despite not getting a lot of sleep (I don't know why, I stayed up late watching TV LOL), I got up at 4am and made my juices, skin brushed, contrast showered, got pretty and ran out the door. On my way to work I realized... that in my pre-JF days, I would have been utterly knackered; zombie-like, groggy, bitchy and ready to stab anyone that stood between me and a venti soy latte........ This is how much energy you have while juice feasting! It's unreal! And I just thought I wasn't a morning person!

Today I had:

1L water+msm+lemon
1.25L celery/red chard/cilantro+kelp+hemp seed oil
1.25L Cantaloupe
500ml Apple/Orange/Strawberry (BoosterJuice)
60ml Wheatgrass (BoosterJuice)
750ml Carrot/Orange (yuuuum!)
750ml Pear

Total! 4.56L!!!! I'm so happy to have finally broken the 4L mark. I think back to Angela Stokes' blog and how she used to drink 5 or 6L in one day and I feel silly that I can't manage to do the same. Though, I guess, I do have to take into account that I am working 60 hours/week while juice feasting...

I wanted to ask other juice feasters about their juice-drinking habits. When it comes time to drink your juices, do you drink a juice in one sitting or do you find that it takes a while to get through 1L of juice? I personally find that I alternate.... the yummy juices will go down easy... but the morning green juice and the coconut juices might take me an hour to drink down. Don't worry; I am chewing all my juices... despite how much my coworkers think that's weird!

PS: I just wanted to say how much I LOVE all the comments I've been getting on my blog. It's fun to know that people are actually reading this :) I appreciate the comments, feedback, suggestions and little hellos from other juice feasters! I feel the love! :)

Can you believe I'm 1/6th of the way there? I sure can't! :)

Day 14 - Coffee?

Don't worry! I didn't go nuts and run to the nearest Starbucks for a nice latte. I did perform a coffee enema today to help my liver rid itself of excess toxins. I was really happy that I managed to hold it for the 20 minute period. The first 15 minutes were uneventful. Some weird noises started happening during the last 5 minutes. I could feel something weird happening around my duodenum. I really feel that this got rid of some nasty stuff. I'll have to do this again next weekend.

Today was pretty uneventful... but I have been craving solid food pretty badly today... especially pesto. Arrghh! :P

Today I had:

1L water+lemon+msm
1.5L celery/cabbage/dates+kelp+ Himalayan salt+spirulina
750ml coconut water/piel de sapo melon
750ml piel de sapo melon/blackberry
500ml apple/kale

I had a wee bit of salt with my morning juice because I was concerned about the salt I probably lost with the coffee enema.

Meh... that's all I'm writing today... time for bed! :)

- Ben

Day 13 - Transformations

It's day 13 and there is no bad luck in sight! I was born on a Friday the 13th so I've always been fond of the number 13. The only bad luck today was that I fell asleep while watching TV and consequently only got 3L of juice in. Booo!

Today I had:

1L water+msm+lemon
1L celery/watercress/green chard/cilantro
1L Pineapple/blackberry (I can't get enough of this one!)
600ml clementines juice (too much work! lol)
400ml carrot/beet juice

So... still no stomach pains! I'm very happy about this, considering how I had beet juice today. Tomorrow I'm going to have a coffee enema to help the liver's detoxing. I'm excited about this; I know it sounds silly. I've only ever done water enemas. I also bought organic burdock tea for future enemas.

Transformations

The blog has a new look!!! It's only befitting because I am also feeling some pretty neat transformations. I hope you like the new look. It was inspired by my other blog: a decadent conspiracy. That blog used to be my "Vegan cooking" blog. I'm not doing much of that right now though, as you can imagine.

But back to me, I am feeling some transformations lately. I feel like juice feasting is my form of pupation. The following transformations have occurred:

Sense of smell: You wouldn't believe how intense my sense of smell is right now! Has anyone else gone through this? I could actually smell the roast beef from the apartment next door yesterday... from my own apartment! How is this even possible? I also smelled a chemical smell yesterday when I opened a package of paper towels! Insane!
Skin on my face: My face is looking radiant! No more puberty! I can't explain it... it just has a glow. The psoriasis on my forehead is only a faint memory; the skin there has only a wee bit farther to go... but right now, the redness is all gone. It just has tiny specs of skin build up.

Psoriasis: I honestly am gobsmacked. I never imagined I would see improvement this fast. There are spots on my arms that have completely healed; the skin is completely normal except for a deeper coloration that outlines where the psoriasis spots used to be. Inside the outline, the coloration is a bit more pink. It looks a bit 'cheetah-like', but there is no scaling, flaking, cracking or bleeding. My chest is healing differently. It is healing more evenly; the whole area is turning a very light pink; very different from the angry reddish coloration normally associated with psoriasis. There is no more cracking, scaling...and very minimal flaking. Some areas are healing nicely and I can see new skin forming. My legs are healing much in the same way...except for my right leg:

The right leg has been a guinea pig for my own little 'psoriasis formula'. It is healing so nicely; no dark outlines, no flaking, scaling or cracking. It's nice, smooth skin with no dark outlines. The new skin is very light pink... but smooth to the touch. :) What did I do? I applied a mix of coconut oil + msm. I've done done two applications and the change is dramatic! I'm going to keep using this leg as a 'test' for a little longer before I decide to use this formula on the rest of my body. But so far, this is very promising! :)

I think I may take pictures tomorrow to document the healing progression. I originally had not intended to do that. I'm sure you can imagine, if you had a disfiguring dis-ease, you wouldn't want to be taking pictures of it all the time... but I honestly want to help other people if I manage to heal myself of psoriasis. It's a horrible disease that has affected my self esteem and quality of life for a long time... I honestly hope that juice feasting will rid me of this disease and this daily account of my experiences will make it easier for others to do the same.

I honestly hope things keep progressing the way they are. Fingers crossed!

- Ben

Day 12 - Mystery revealed!

The aforementioned "mystery melon" is no longer a mystery. I paid close attention today when I went shopping and found out that it is called "Piel de Sapo" melon. This translates to "toad skin" melon. :) It's very yummy and yeilds over 1L of juice if you juice an entire melon.

Piel de Sapo (family Cucurbitaceae, Cucumis melo, Inodorus group) is a type of of melon widely available in the Northern Hemisphere, with a green blotched skin after which it is named. (Piel De Sapo translates as "toad skin"). Piel de Sapo originated in Spain where is widely grown (about 30.000 hectares are grown every year).

- Wikipedia

I bought TONS of groceries today. I just wish there was more variety in the organic produce available right now; I would especially like to find organic grapes. I haven't seen any since November :(

Today I had:

1L Water+msm+lemon
1L Celery/black kale/green kale/parsley+kelp
750ml Electrolyte drink: young coconut water/lemon/agave nectar/Himalayan salt
(I was really excited about this electrolyte drink.. but it tasted gross lol)
1L Cantaloupe juice
125ml wheatgrass juice
500ml apple juice
1tbsp coconut oil

I don't want to jinx anything, but no stomach pains today either. I tried to do a wheatgrass implant but failed miserably. I think I'll wait for the right equipment to get here before I try that again. I ordered an open bag version, it should get here soon :)

I'm thinking more and more that I may in fact go 'raw' after this juice feast. I'm not entirely convinced because I do have a lot of attachment to several vegan cooked foods... maybe a balance of raw and vegan will be key for me... That being said, there are key ingredients that will never enter this body again; tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, paprika (nightshade family), refined cane sugar, white flour, aspartame, caffeinated coffee and hard alcohol. Also, I'll stay away from highly refined vegan foods; soy meats, soy cream cheese, things like that. We'll see; I did say I wouldn't decide anything until day 92. :P

- Ben

Day 11 - In dreams

Freud determined that dreams are the manifestation of an unconscious desire. If dreams truly are representations of repressed wishes, then I must really be wanting solid food. I've been dreaming of eating food practically every night. Even some non-vegan things. The annoying thing is I usually wake up thinking I messed up the juice feasting only to realize that I, in fact, didn't really eat anything after all. Has anyone else had this kind of experience while juice feasting? I can definitely attest to having much more vivid dreams since I've been juicing.

The odd thing is, I keep craving muffins lately. I rarely eat muffins! So this is extra weird. LOL.

Today I had:

1L water+msm+lemon
1L Celery/Collar greens/cilantro+kelp+E3live
1L Pineapple/blackberry (yum!)
600ml peppermint tea
500ml Carrot/Celery/Spinach+E3live
500ml Coconut water

Eeep! I know! I did bad today... I'll make it up tomorrow hehehe. Good news is, NO TUMMY PAINS at all today :) :) Yipee!

I also decided to treat myself today. I work 7 days a week normally, and have done so for 8 months now. I'm taking tomorrow off and possibly the weekend too. I need some relaxing time. I have tons of energy during the day on this, but when I start getting sleepy at night, there's no gray area... I just pass out! I need more 'me time'. I feel like all I've done lately is juice, work, clean, sleep.

Tscheuss!

Day 10 - Sweeeeeeeeet!

It's day 10! And boy, was this ever a good day. I made the BEST juices today. Also, I made it a point to pamper myself a bit. :)

Today I had:

1L water+msm+lemon (up to 2tsp of msm now)
1L celery/cilantro/red chard E3live+kelp
500ml Peppermint tea
1L pineapple/blackberry (Yuuuuuuum!)
500ml coconut water+mystery melon (Mmmmm!)
750ml Orange/Carrot (extra yuuuuuuuum!)
500ml celery/field greens juice (yuuuuck!!!) + hempseed oil
1Tbsp bee pollen

Okay so that last juice was so nasty I was only able to drink half of the 1L I made. Don't make that juice. It's nasty! The other 3 were really good though!!! :) I was worried about the carrot/orange one, after Katrina Rainoshek warned me about mixing citrus with other things... but this was SOOO TASTY and it didn't give me any stomach pains. :) I did have a wee bit of stomach pain earlier in the day, immediately after nibbling on the bee pollen.... This was exactly the same time as yesterday. So... I'm not going to take any bee pollen for a bit and see what happens. Maybe it's taking bee pollen on an empty stomach?

So when I got home, I decided I needed to treat myself. I had stopped by the health food store to pick up organic oatmeal and avocados. No no! I wasn't about to cheat and eat any solid food! I made a facial mask out of avocado, almond oil, oatmeal, aloe gel, veggie glycerin and coconut oil. :) yay! My face needed it; it's been a dry and cold winter so far.

I made a similar mix for my hands... which are SO dry from washing all those veggies. I just... don't want to put anything unnatural on my skin right now.

I'm toying with the idea of making a cream out of coconut oil, msm and almond oil to put on my psoriasis to see if heals faster... maybe I can try it on a few patches? Some areas are already healing nicely... fingers crossed that it all goes away by day 92! :)

- Ben

Day 9 - More stomach pains

Day 9 already! I'm already 10% of the way there!

Today I had:

1L Water+msm+lemon
1L Celery/Collar greens/Cilantro+ kelp+ E3Live
1L Mystery melon (white flesh melon?)
600ml Apple/kiwi+hemp seed oil
600ml Coconut water+ E3Live
800ml Cucumber/Romaine/Leafy green lettuce/Pear
1Tbps bee pollen

That last juice was kind of nasty. :P

At around 11am I started getting major stomach pains again. All I had had to drink so far was the green juice. I was right about to start a kiosk and I was honestly feeling faint from the pain. I went and got a peppermint tea and in about 30-40 minutes I was all better. While I abhor getting these recurring stomach pains, I'm comforted to know that peppermint tea always fixes it. I had the regular chills again yesterday. Not as intense as before... but honestly, it doesn't help that our office is cooler to begin with.

Also, I've lost 10lbs in 9 days. That's gotta be rough for my body right?

I'm really happy I managed to hit the 1 gallon mark today. I think, last week, I was trying to ration foods as much as possible. This week, I've bought an enormous amount of food and I know that, should I run out, there's a health food store on my way home from work where I can buy fresh organic produce.

My nut milk bags are getting here today! *Loves Canada Post tracking* so that means I should be able to use my vitamix more now. I'm hoping this will really cut down on prep time. I'm spending about 1.5 hours in the kitchen each morning. Normally, I'm not a morning person, but getting up at 5:00am isn't so hard right now. Wow! Juicy energy, eh? But yea... I am passing out on the couch around 8 or 10pm every night! haha. I feel like a loser!

Day 8 - I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts!

It's day 8! That means I've made it an entire week! This is getting easier and easier... if you ever juice feast and are about to drop out around day 3-4-5... just try to stick it out! It gets easier!

Today I had:

1L water+msm+lemon
1L celery/kale/parsley+kelp+E3live
1L Cantaloupe (that took an entire cantaloupe)
600ml young coconut water+E3live
600ml Carrot/pear+hemp seed oil
750ml Apple/Spinach
1Tbsp bee pollen

Whoo hoo! I pretty much hit the gallon mark! I need to drink more water though.

Yesterday, after having drank the Carrot/Pear juice... I got SOOO cold at work. I was already wearing three layers and I had to put my winter coat on... I was shivering! I have no idea where those chills came from! Probably because the juice was cold and the office wasn't the warmest... it was also RIDICULOUSLY cold yesterday in Ottawa. -28C with wind chill! Regardless, I think this means I'm not past the detox phase at all. I also got really grumpy and irritated yesterday at some point haha.

I have SO much energy though. It's ridiculous! My energy level is comparable to how I normally function after a coffee.

So I was really happy with the young coconuts! I love the taste and I believe they actually have more water in them than the old coconuts. I think I'll try to buy more of those from now on. The coconut water with E3live was great; I couldn't really taste the E3live. I actually really like the E3live a lot better than the spirulina powder. I think I'll reintroduce the spirulina when my nut milk bags get here and I can start to use the Vitamix... I'll strain, put back in the vitamix and blend again. I find that the powder gets chunky otherwise. yuck!

So yea... apparently coconut water + E3live is suuuuper good for you :) So I'm having that again tomorrow, this time with old coconut water. Mmmm coconuts!

That's it ! :)

- Ben

Day 7 - Puberty all over again

As someone who rarely gets any blemishes, I'm kind of pissed right now. I've got one the size of Jupiter! Wow... I guess my body is getting rid of some nasty stuff.

On the psoriasis topic, my chest area and forehead are showing signs of improvement already. This is encouraging.

Well... this marks the end of week 1! I have some goals for week 2:

- MUST do yoga everyday. I have no excuse this week... I don't think I'll be doing overtime and I won't be too tired from detox symptoms.
- MUST remember to take my hemp oil and other supplements. I'm going to print out the daily journal page from juicefeasting.com. This should help! :)
- MUST hit the gallon mark this week

Today I had:

- 1L water+msm+lemon
- 1L celery/green chard+E3live
- 500 ml granny smith apple/kiwi
- 500 ml coconut water

The apple/kiwi juice was especially yummy. Marks and Spencer used to have a version of this that I used to drink all the time when I was a flight attendant in the UK. Lucky me! I found some organic kiwis this week... Expensive though, 3$ for about 6 or 7.

I went all over town to shop for organic fruits and veggies yesterday. I got TONS of stuff. Especially coconuts... tons of those too! I finally managed to get some young coconuts. Looking forward to trying those. I'm also happy I found some organic beets! That means that this week, the only things I'm drinking that are not organic are the melons, papaya and coconuts. For those who are wondering, I'm spending about 150$/week right now on the juice feast for fruits/veggies. This does not take into account the supplements which were bought prior to the juice feast.

I think this is all I have to report for today :)

- Ben

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

Day 5 - Simplicity and evil beets

Today was a great day for juice feasting!

The cravings and detox symptoms are subsiding and I'm starting to feel much better. I'm also starting to learn a lot about my body and how to juice-feast properly according to my own body. To be perfectly honest, the first 4 days were really rough, and I doubted whether I would last 92 days... despite my determination. However, things shifted today... I'm content in my juice feasting and I really think 92 days isn't really all that bad! I'm already 5% of the way there! Right? :)

Today I had:

1L water+msm+lemon
1L Celery/Green chard/Cilantro
500ml Pineapple juice (nice and simple!)
600ml Cinnamon tea
500ml Carrot/Beet juice
600ml Peppermint tea
500ml Apple juice
500ml Celery+E3live+ kelp
500ml water

I know, I know... I'm still not hitting the gallon mark today. It'll come! Fridays are going to be awful though; I work 7 days a week.... days on weekdays, nights on weekends. Therefore, Fridays, I work 9 to 5 and then midnight to 8am. So between 6 and 10, I'm sleeping. That accounts for the lower amount of juice :) I was also bad today with my supplements; I missed out on the hemp seed oil and other goodies... I'll try to be better with that.

After I had my very simple beet juice, I started getting stomach pains again. The same ones I had on day 2. I think what is happening is that the beet juice is stimulating the liver to release bile and toxins, much in the same way a coffee enema would. If that's the case, I think I need to approach it in the same way I would a coffee enema; ensure my colon is clean and free of obstructions before drinking beet juice. Therefore, I'm going to scratch off beet juice from my "bring to work" juice list for the next little while. I'm going to try drinking it only after having an enema in the evening. We'll see if that helps.

The good news is, when I started having stomach pains, I went downstairs to the cafeteria and grabbed some peppermint tea. It did the trick! Within minutes, my stomach pain was gone! But then ummm... a few hours later I had a weird elimination. Let's just say, if I had forgotten that I drank beet juice, I would have thought that something in my colon was releasing massive amounts of blood. Yea... it was weird!

I went to a health food store today and also picked up tons of goodies for juicing! Even bok choi and black kale! :)

I also picked up all natural, plant based cleaning supplies. I figured, I've made so many changes in an effort to rid myself of chemicals, I should really follow through with all of them. Therefore, I got the following things;

- All natural dishwasher tablets
- All natural laundry detergent
- All natural dish-washing soap
I wanted to pick up a spray bottle for cleaning the counter but I forgot!

I think this would be a good time to also enumerate the numerous other changes I've recently made:

- All natural shampoo and conditioner (Giovanni)
- All natural toothpaste (Dr Ken's)
- Replaced showerhead with one that has a charcoal filter and quartz
- Stopped using Listerine and gum
- Stopped smoking (was smoking 1 pack/week)
- Stopped drinking coffee (1-2 cups/day)

I think that's all I'm going to babble on about for now :)

- Ben

Day 4 - Essential Oils Massage

Finally! I'm so happy today is my last kiosk this month. I can finally get back to doing my usual 9 to 5 job. I brought my rollie/icepack combo again and it worked marvelously! All my mason jars of juice stayed icy cold! :)

Today I had:

1L Water+MSM+lemon
1L Celery/Collard Greens/Cilantro
1L Mystery melon juice
500ml chamomile tea
1L Beet/Romaine/Sweet potato/cucumber+hemp seed oil
500ml Carrot/Apple/Pear+ Spirulina+kelp
750ml water
25oml Coconut water
1 tbsp bee pollen
1/2 tbsp coconut oil

After drinking the beet juice, I realized that from now on... I want to stick to 1 or 2 ingredients in my juices...3 max. The sweet potato in the juice was a bad idea... made the juice incredibly thick. I felt a bit nauseated. No more of those for me! Therefore, this weekend I'll go back to Canadian Tire and pick up more mason jars.. but 500ml ones... I figure my body would rather drink more varieties of individual juices. I'm sure I'll manage to break the 1 gallon mark by doing this.

I'm already out of organic apples! I'll have to stop by the store tomorrow... I think I may be able to keep this at 150$/week... which is 30$ more than what I normally spend on

Detox symptoms? I'm feeling a wee bit chilly still but it's normal for body temperature to lower when you're raw anyway so I'm not too worried about it. Plus it is winter here!

I finally took the time to get my juicefeasting.com membership! Wow! So much reading material! :)

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I had a 2hr essential oils massage tonight: the perfect ending to a hectic week. My RMT used a variety of pure, undiluted essential oils. I was a bit worried at first, having read that essential oils shouldn't come into direct contact with skin. Apparently that is an American thing; a way to guard against lawsuits. As long as essential oils have basic cooling effects, they are safe to use as part of a massage. I asked my RMT to use oils that would enhance the detox process.

Some of the oils used were:
- Mexican lime
- Bay leaf
- Black Cumin
- Frankincense
- Myrrh
- lots more!

Needless to say, I feel quite content right now. I also smell like I fell in a pot of herbs! My RMT suggested I take an Epsom salt bath tomorrow... it'll have to wait until Saturday... but that's a really good idea!

That's it for now! :)

- Ben

PS: Having the weirdest spontaneous cravings for muffins! I'm so not into muffins usually... weird! Gotta get those out of my head!

Day 3 - My true reason for juicing

Today was really great! I had another kiosk to host at a conference today and my rollie and ice pack combo saved the day! No excuses! Anyone can juice feast no matter how busy their lives are. I decided not to do any overtime today and be nice to my body and go home after 8 hours. It's been a looong week!

I got home and discovered I had a comment from David and Katrina Rainoshek of juicefeasting.com! I was very surprised and felt so honored! :) Thank you sooo much Katrina for your tips. I'm very very grateful! I'll admit, I was relying on citrus because of their high juice content... but I'll be more careful with them from now on. It seems mixing the citrus with other juices may have been the cause of my really bad tummy aches yesterday.

Katrina also asked me if I've been doing enemas. Enemas are incredibly important when detoxing: I've been doing an enema in the morning, every morning so far. I usually do them 30 minutes after drinking my MSM-water... a wee bit before starting to drink my morning green juice. After enemas, I go ahead and start skin brushing. After skin brushing comes a nice refreshing shower. I've been doing contrast showers... they aren't so bad anymore! I think I may be building a tolerance to them! :)

Today I felt great!!!
No tummy aches! No chills!.... but I did have this one weird symptom... I woke up and I could smell something really odd. A mixture of sulphur/rancid/basement? I can't describe it. I thought the smell may have been in the kitchen, but then I could smell it everywhere. I thought maybe my skin was releasing something nasty so I showered and made sure to scrub really good.... I could still smell it! I don't know if the smell was confined to my nose or what... but it was odd! I could randomly smell it at different times during the day. Still a wee bit now.

I guess the body does weird things when it detoxes and this is to be expected.

Today I had:

1L Water + 1 tsp MSM and half a lemon
1L Celery/Cilantro/Spinach
1L Mystery melon/Cucumber
60ml Wheatgrass juice (from booster juice)
500ml Carrot/Parsley/Spinach/Celery (from booster juice)
1L Carrot/Spinach/Pear juice with kelp and spirulina
250ml Coconut water (to be drank)

I'm a bit short right now... I was going to drink this beet juice I made but I think there's citrus in there. Based on yesterday's events... I don't want to touch that juice right now.

Tomorrow I want to experiment with my E3Live... I haven't had any yet and Spirulina is seriously grossing me out. Sigh. I'm not easily grossed out! It takes a lot to gross me out. Only Rapini can do that!

- - - - - - - - - -

I also came to a decision today that I should "come clean" about why I'm really doing this. I have had severe psoriasis for years. This is my current condition:

50% coverage on forehead
10% coverage under chin/neck
60-75% coverage on arms
10-20% coverage on back
60-75% coverage on chest area
40-50% coverage on legs
Scalp also affected

I have 'before photos' that I'm saving for day 92.

So there you go. I've done it all; steroids, UV treatments, acupuncture, vitamins... Nothing has ever offered much relief. The last regimen I was on was the Pagano diet: a detox regimen specifically for psoriasis sufferers. I did see some improvement but I believe the diet failed for a few reasons:

- I was a flight attendant at the time and subject to many toxins and radiation
- Bizarre sleeping patterns were taxing on the body
- I could easily (but not often) justify "cheating" by eating a lot of alkaline forming foods after.
- I wasn't able to afford regular chiropractic appointments

I'm not at all suggesting the diet is faulty: I absolutely believe that the Pagano diet is designed to cure "leaky gut syndrome" which is (according to Dr Pagano) at the root of psoriasis.

I believe that Juice feasting will essentially do the same thing. By juice feasting I will detoxify my body. My internal organs will benefit from the 'break' of solid foods and focus on healing themselves. Finally, my skin should benefit from all the nutrients and the amazingly hydrating juices I'm feeding my body.

I'm also receiving regular chiropractic adjustments throughout this juice feast and plan on splurging on a few massages, colonics and steam baths. :)

- - - - - - - -

Phew! Huge entry! :)

- Ben

Day 2 - Major detox symptoms

Hello again!

I believe the detox symptoms are starting. Today I felt the following:

- Chills... hypothermia style!
- Cramping... ouch! poor tummy
- Runny nose (at random and short-lived intervals)
- Nausea
- Headaches
- Fatigue

The weird thing is, these symptoms usually kicked in shortly after having juice... and would subside after drinking water. Hmm! How cool is that?

I had a conference today where I was hosting a kiosk. It was a 7am to 6pm day. If I managed to juice feast on a day like today, then... I'm sure I can juice feast until day 92! I packed up my old flight attendant rollie with tons of ice packs and stuffed my mason jars in there and off I went! Brilliant! Of course, I also packed the rollie with towels to prevent "clink clink" noises and also to provide insulation.

Today I had:

1L Water + juice of half a lemon + 1 tsp MSM
1L Green juice: Celery/Cilantro/Green Chard (Seriously...1LB of green chard!)
1L Pineapple goodness juice: Pineapple/Honeydew/cucumber
1L Beet/grapefruit/ginger/field greens juice (+ hemp seed oil)
1L Water
500ml Chamomile tea
1L Carrot/Spinach juice + spirulina and kelp

The beet juice made my stomach really hurt so I still have a wee bit of that to go. The carrot/spinach juice is waiting for me too. I think I'll make sure to take my enzymes before drinking those. I noticed the enzymes make the tummy happy.

I really want to get some blood oranges... I wonder if I can find some here? Sigh.

Tonight... must force self to do yoga... It's been a looong day and I honestly just want to crawl into bed. Also debating whether or not to take Cascara Sagrada tonight or give it another few days. My tummy just hurts and I want it to stop :)

That's it for me....

- Ben

Day 1 - Start of a new journey!

Hello everyone! :)

So... I did mean to make a first post yesterday, but truth be told, I fell asleep. I guess my last meal made me really sleepy! For those who are curious what I ate as my last meal... it was artichoke and almond pesto on spelt noodles. Yum! :)

Yesterday was also the "get all the produce I need for the week" day. I managed to get some CHEAP coconuts (I'm allowed to drink coconut water) in Chinatown. I'm told the young coconuts arrive tomorrow. I'll be going to Chinatown on Wednesday to pick some of those up. Funny enough, the hardest thing to find were the Mason jars I needed to make my juices portable. I now am the proud owner of 12 Mason jars.

In any case... today is day 1 of my juice feasting journey. Over the next 92 days, I will only be ingesting solids. My juice feast will end on April 15th. Juice feasting is not a form of fasting. I'm supposed to drink 1 gallon+ of juice each day. In addition to this, there are numerous supplements I must take to enhance the detoxification process and ensure my basic daily dietary needs are met. Over the course of this juice feast, I will be providing my body with an incredible amount of easily assimilated nutrients, vitamins and minerals. Also, my body will be able to focus more on detoxification and regeneration during this "break" from digesting solids.

I'm really not doing this for weight loss (though a few pounds off would be nice!). I'm really focused on detoxifying my body and using this as a transition to a better diet. I have been vegan for 8 years. Now, most people would assume that's quite healthy... and it is! However, there still are TONS of processed foods that are vegan that I've indulged in. I think it's time to just... start over! Whether I go raw or just stay vegan after the feast... I'll decide that on day 92! :)

Today I had:

1L water + lemon and MSM
1L celery/spinach/romaine lettuce juice
1L Pineapple/melon/cucumber juice
500ml Water
1L Beet/Grapefruit/Parsley juice + hempseed oil
1L Carrot/pear...something else juice (I forget... I made this at 5am!)
The water of 1 coconut + kelp and spirulina
1tbsp bee pollen (gross! tastes like what barns smell like!)

Current weight: 169.4lbs

I had to make all the juices with my Samson juicer this morning. I was hoping to make my morning green juice with the Vitamix... but I forgot to buy nut milk bags. These are a wee bit harder to find than I imagined. I'm going to have to investigate if I can find these locally. Sigh. But the Samson juicer is really cool though! Just a wee bit time consuming!

I did all the other fun stuff one would normally do while juice feasting: skin brushing, contrast showers, enemas... fun fun!

In terms of how my body has reacted to it so far... Well this morning was great until about 10am... and then my stomach started hurting a bit... that went away 30 minutes later after I drank some water. The pineapple juice gave me a real jolt that helped me get through the rest of the day. I felt absolutely normal... I was ran through the building at one point and felt great! I walk to work daily so that's my usual exercise. Fun fun!

Tonight I have to do some yoga though! :) Yay!

That's it for me :)

- Ben