The journey continues....

A Healthy Conspiracy

Juice feasting may be over, but you can still follow my path towards good health on my new blog: A Healthy Conspiracy. The journey that begun through juice feasting continues in the form of a healthy raw-food diet. I also explore the psychosomatic side of illness; healing through forgiveness and letting go of resentment. Please visit my new blog!

A Crunchy Conspiracy

I also have another new endeavor; A Crunchy Conspiracy. On this blog, I post yummy raw recipes. Make sure to stop by to find some tasty crunchy raw recipes!

In the meantime, this blog, A Juicy Conspiracy, will live on as a journal of my 92 days of juice feasting. If you plan on juice feasting, I think this will give you great insight on how this journey can play out. Juice feasting is a magical experience; it can also be quite a roller coaster ride. Remember always: take it one day at a time.

Thank you for stopping by,

- Ben Kaelan

Day 98 - Last day of feast-breaking

Well... That's it! I guess juice feasting is really over. What a great journey this has been! :)

Today was another fun-filled salad day. I kept things relatively simple again today. In fact, I opted for the same salads I had yesterday (more or less) since ... they just were so good. I had SO much energy today. It really was just amazing. Not only was I filled with energy but I was also MOTIVATED as hell to get things going in my apartment.

I emptied out all the nice ikea jars that were filled with non raw ingredients (couscous, lentils, flour, sugar, split peas, sushi rice, etc) and I put all of these into ziplock bags which will be donated shortly. I washed them all out and proceeded to start putting all my raw staples into them (nuts, dried fruits, etc). I'm going to need a few more jars :) My kitchen is starting to look more and more raw. I also took my microwave outside yesterday and put a sign on it that said "I still work - take me home". I'm happy to report, when I left for work this morning, my microwave had a new home.

I had a lot of fun reorganizing my kitchen. I guess it's that spring cleaning spirit eh?

Today I had:

8:00am
1.25L water+msm+lime
1 cascara sagrada cap

10:00am
1/2 a small watermelon
1 Intestinal movement cap

1:00pm
1 salad (baby spinach, avocado, alfalfa sprouts, sauerkraut, lime)
sun dried olives (so tasty and herby!!)
enzymes

4:00pm
flax crackers

5:00pm
1L water

7:00pm
Nori rolls (sprouts, baby spinach, avocado, carrot, cucumber, sauerkraut, mung bean sprouts, nama shoyu)
2 small chocolate macaroons
2 apples

10:00pm
1.5L grape/strawberry/orange

- - - - -

It's a bit weird to feel hungry and know that you can actually do something about it. :) Anyway... this journey is over and a new one is about to begin. This will be my last post on this blog (until perhaps there comes a time when I decide to juice feast again). In the meantime, you can continue to follow my healthy adventures at "A healthy conspiracy". I still need to work on making a graphic for that blog but it will come soon enough. Bear with me. :)

The reason why I'm 'moving' is to make this blog a resource that is more easily navigable should anyone wish to look at what I've done while juice feasting. I think that juice feasting was one novel... and "Phase II" as I like to call it is a sequel to this. Therefore, each should be its own 'book'. :)

There will be a really GREAT post on "A healthy conspiracy" tomorrow. I'm too pooped to do it now. :)

Hugs!

- Ben

PS: Thanks to everyone, once again, that has supported me on this journey, sent me love, advice and praise. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I truly feel honored to have such great friends on this road to health. :)

Day 97 - Orgasmic salad!

How freakin' wonderful it was to have a salad after all this time. I think I could honestly eat salad for the rest of my life and be completely content. I had the most orgasmic first salad ever... and it was QUITE basic. I wanted to keep things simple but healing at the same time. I used to drench my salads in dressing... I didn't want that at this stage anyway (I make a mean tahini-garlic dressing by the way!). A squeeze of lime was all this salad needed! :)

I also popped open a jar of raw unpasteurized sauerkraut yesterday and couldn't get enough of it. As I've mentioned before, I've been craving sauerkraut like mad but I've only ever had it once in my life at a raw food festival. This sauerkraut tastes nothing like the festival kind. It tasted like... dill-pickle Lays potato chips.... as crazy as that sounds. YUM!!

Halfway through the day, I realized I REALLY was craving juice like mad. I had no fruits left in the fridge so I hopped on the bike and went to the grocery store. I biked home with 40lbs of groceries in my backpack. Thank the Universe for that HUGE backpack I won at work a few years back! :P

The night ended with some tasty nori rolls. It was so much fun to make these. I think I made WAY too much though but I ate the whole thing anyway. :)

Today I had:

8:00AM Water+msm+lemon
1 Cascara Sagrada cap

10:00AM Half a watermelon (small)
1 Intestinal movement cap

1:00PM Orgasmic Salad: Avocado, Sauerkraut, broccoli sprouts, Alfalfa sprouts, baby spinach, arugula, sun dried olives, lime.

3:00PM Dates

7:00PM 1 Litre water

8:00PM 4 Nori Rolls with Carrots, Cucumbers, broccoli sprouts, Alfalfa sprouts, baby spinach, red onions. ( I was tempted to pop open the nama shoyu but I ate them as is)

9:00PM Pineapple/orange/blackberry juice (I was about to strain this through a nut milk bag because the samson juicer leaves little bits in the juice and then I realized... I don't have to do that anymore! YAY!)

11:00PM 2 small apples
2 Enzymes caps

(forgot to take probiotics today but given all the sauerkraut I ate, I don't think that's a problem!)

I'm DEFINITELY having another orgasmic salad tomorrow! :) You have no idea how intense the flavours were. The avocado felt sooo smooth and tasty. I don't think I've ever had a better-tasting avocado in my life! The sun-dried olives were DELICIOUS... I could taste each single herb. My sense of taste has been so incredibly heightened.

I think I have a surprise in store for you tomorrow... stay tuned ! :)

- Ben

PS: Ramona: you asked if I had bought a whole new wardrobe given the 30lbs I've lost. I haven't yet. I'm relying on belts to keep my pants up and I have a few pair of pants that I bought when I was skinner (I dropped to 145lbs when I was on the Pagano diet 2 years ago but quickly gained it back) that I'm wearing more often than others. I DESPERATELY want to go buy new clothes (and I have a 120$ gift certificate for RW&co sitting on my dresser) but I want to see how my weight evens out over the next month as I reintroduce solids. I'm expecting to gain back some weight...whether that's 5lbs or 10lbs or 15lbs remains to be seen. I honestly don't want to gain more than 5lbs because I REALLY like being 140-145lbs but we'll see if I can maintain this weight on a raw diet. *hugs* :)

Day 96 - More fruit.... (and some cheating!)

Today was another fruity fruity day... except for the bag of dulse I broke into later in the day.... I rationalized that the 12 hour difference from end of fruit day to beginning of salad day was negligible so I should be able to pull this off. I must be the first person in the world who feels bad about "cheating" on his diet with DULSE! Dear lord... it's so good for you! :P It's funny how I managed to stay on the straight and narrow and not cheat on the juice feast at all and somehow I couldn't wait 12 hours for a bag of dulse. LOL! Oh well... we all have our weaker moments eh? :)

My body is slowly getting used to the idea of having solids in it again. I'm starting to have regular BMs again and there was significantly less bloating today. My skin is having a major reaction to all this, though. I'm flaking A LOT right now. I'd be tempted to freak out right about now and run back to juicing but I have a feeling this is completely normal given the circumstances. I know that once I start eating salads again and tons of other yummy alkaline foods, this should get better.

I actually saw my chiropractor on day 94 and forgot to report this. It was actually time for my quarterly evaluation. My neck and back have had no pain in the last 2 months which is awesome! Whenever my chiro would adjust me during the juice feast, she would always comment on how fasting had made me much more malleable and receptive to the changes she was making through chiropractic adjustments. My evaluation went really well except when she went down each vertebrae to see if any subluxations were affecting my spine... she found TONS of them. Now.... when I first started going to the chiropractor.... I think I had 7 spots that weren't subluxated out of 56. Can you say majorly fucked up? Back in December, this reversed... so out of 56 spots. only 7 were subluxated. Major improvement!!

This number has now risen which is nuts. This means my spine has suddenly and recently gotten WORSE! My chiro was also surprised and said "you're not normally like this". She had a very simple explanation; through reintroducing solids into my system, I'm creating some chemical changes in my body and most of these changes happen in and will affect my neck area. It's normal apparently for me to feel some neck discomfort over the next little while.

I can only assume that these same chemical changes are affecting the psoriasis. I'm just going to wait it out and see what happens. There are a few "battle elements" I am going to introduce once we reach the end of the feast breaking period.

Anyway. Today was fun and very low stress; a contrast to what Fridays usually look like in our shop. Typically, the shit always hits the fan on Fridays. I actually got to leave early today and took the opportunity to go buy a very sexy OXO mandolin. *droooool* First of all, everything OXO makes is sexy. Second of all, this mandolin is hot. It even does waffle cuts which is great for bringing waffle slices of beets and carrots to work as a snack. :)

I also bought some pine nuts today... I now have all the ingredients I need to make my top-secret delicious pesto recipe. It's unlike any pesto I've ever had... so yummy! :) I'm saving this one for the cookbook. :) I hope to have some of that on Monday but I'm missing a spiralizer to make zucchini noodles. I need to go to the west end and buy one. I can do that next weekend and get a ride there or I can hop on the bus and get there in an hour and take another hour to get back home. Sigh. We'll see how motivated I feel.

Next weekend, my mom and I are going SHOPPING. We're going to IKEA (few items I need to pick up: a clever for young coconuts, LOTS of glass jars for all the nuts and dried fruits I now have...) and a few health food stores. I'm going to bring her to a vegan/raw restaurant in a hip part of town too! :) I also need to pick up some more tupperwear and some nifty lunch boxes I saw (well more like tupperwear) that have many compartments and a space for ice packs. These would be great for sushi, salads, wraps, sandwiches, etc. :) There's also an organic farmer's market in the south end of town I would love to go check out with her. There's even a company there that sells only RAW foods at really great prices. They sell sesame seeds for dirt cheap!! :)

Today I had:

7:00AM
1 cascara sagrada cap
1.25L water+msm+lemon
250ml soak water
260gr prunes!
250ml grape/blood orange/strawberry/acai
1 intestinal movement cap
2 probiotic caps

10:00 AM
1.25L celery/kale/cilantro+kelp+E3live+Hsalt
2 Enzymes caps

12:00 PM
2 cups of watermelon

1PM
half a mango
1/2 cup strawberries
half a cucumber

4PM
1.25L grape/blood orange/strawberry/acai

7PM
2 cups of strawberries
half a small watermelon
half a cucumber

9PM
Totally cheated!! EEP! :P I had 80gr of fresh tender tasty salty dulse! Mmmmm!!! :)
2 Enzymes caps

Tomorrow's salad day! Thank god! :) I can't wait to have me some sauerkraut! :)

- Ben

Day 95 - Fruit! Finally! :)

It’s fruit day! Consequently, this is the first day I’m actually been able to chew really flavorful things. There was no apprehension about the fruit, my friends. I really wanted some tasty yummy fruity goodness. The flavours of the fruits were SO intense... each mouthful was .... almost orgasmic! Here’s a quick overview of what today looked like:

Early morning:
1 Intestinal mouvement cap
1 Cascara Sagrada cap
2 Probiotics caps
260gr soaked prunes
250ml soak water

10AM:
1.25L celery/collar greens/parsley/dandelion

12:30PM:
Half a mango
¾ cup Strawberries
2 kiwis

2PM
1.25L grapefruit/blood orange/acai

4PM
Half a cucumber
1/3 of a pineapple

7PM:
6 or 7 kiwis
1 blood orange
1/3 of a pineapple

Before bed:
1 Intestinal movement cap

Today’s tummy adventures were a bit weirder. The good news is, the ‘plumbing’ is working again. Things are moving down there again. I got REALLY bloated yesterday though. It was not pleasant at all! But yea… all better now.

After work, I went to do ultra-super-duper-mega groceries. I spent roughly 350$ yesterday. Don’t faint or anything… most of that was raw staples; cold pressed oils, raw vinegars, raw nut butters, raw olives, raw nuts etc etc. I got tons of fun stuff to make salads! I especially wanted some SPROUTS. I also got some sauerkraut… can’t wait to have some of that. I think I should be allowed to have this during salad days.

When I got home and ate all those kiwis and pineapple, I managed to ‘burn’ my tongue really badly. You know when you eat too much acid fruit? I think it may have been the bromelain in the pineapple that dissolved my tongue! LOL. I guess that was too much pineapple and kiwis at once.

Bad Mamajama asked me what I use as probiotics. I use the 8 strain Adult blend by Udo’s choice. I find it in the refrigerated section of health food stores. It’s much more expensive than other probiotics but it’s also much better. I highly recommend it! Probiotic powders should only really be used for making yogurts. For therapeutic doses, use probiotics in capsules. Always go for probiotics capsules that are refrigerated for maximum benefit.

That’s all for today (finding it really hard right now not to bust open a bag of dulse and eat the whole thing!... temptation is in my cupboards again… oh my!)

- Ben

Day 94 - More prunes

Well it's day 94. I had that lovely long-awaited BM this morning which was good because I was really getting worried about how nothing was moving. The prunes tasted even better this morning. I actually set two alarms to wake up this morning; one at 3am to get up, add water to the prunes and go back to bed. The second alarm was to wake up at 6am to make more juice and get ready for work. By then my prunes were nice and plump. Mmmmm.

Today I had:

1 Intestinal movement cap
1 Cascara Sagrada cap
1.25L water+msm+lemon
230g soaked prunes
250ml soak water
1.5L pineapple/blood orange/strawberry
2.5L watermelon juice
1.5L grape/blood orange/strawberry
1 intestinal movement cap
Enzymes
Probiotics

(Did I mention how I feel like a pill-junkie right now?)

Thanks everyone for all the nice comments that continue to pour in. :) Very very sweet! :) Today was pretty uneventful. I biked to the grocery store after work to buy a bunch of fruit for tomorrow's fruit day. Super excited about that. I even got MANGO which I'm not the biggest fan of (other than in salad dressings) but for whatever reason... I'm CRAVING it right now. Yay!

Salad day can't come soon enough! hehehe! :)

- Ben

Day 93 - Prunes day, the full story

Day 93 was actually a really good day. I was supposed to take the day off work but there's just so much going on at work right now that I ended up working from home. I think that was a nice compromise. I was able to sleep in, make juices as I needed them and use my half-hour lunch to do a quick video of me eating prunes (which I'm glad you all enjoyed hehe!).

The post-prune moments were very uneventful. I mean, I wasn't sure if I'd get cramps, be running for the toilet, etc. Yea. It was just uneventful. I ended up taking cascara sagrada to get things moving down there. I had already taken an intestinal movement formula capsule early that morning to make sure things WOULD be moving... but yea. Nothing. By the time I was ready to go to bed, still nothing had happened. I took another intestinal movement formula capsule...waited a while... still nothing. This worried me but I went to bed nonetheless. (As I'm writing this on day 94, I can tell you now that things finally 'moved' the next morning. Yay!)

The prunes were kinda good :) Mushy... but good. I was able to eat nearly the whole 260 grams. Suddenly, when I only had 3 prunes left to go my body became adamant that it wanted no more.

Like I said in the video... this has been an amazing journey and I think the best part of this journey was juicing alongside all these other amazing people. Juice feasting just wouldn't have been the same without that kinship. I honestly believe I wouldn't have made it 92 days without this public forum...without this constant symbiosis of encouragement. I have SO many people to thank and I don't want to do it in any particular order (and I'm too lazy to do it alphabetically) so in no particular order... here goes :) Queue the academy awards music?

David and Katrina: you have opened my eyes to a whole new world and have gracefully nudged me towards a path to health. I know deep in my soul that you have forever changed my view of life and health and profoundly changed my inner self. Words cannot convey the gratitude I feel when I think of you two. Thank you so much for bringing juice feasting into my life and guiding me along the more tumultuous times. Thank you so much for all the time you have invested in the global juice feast; I love love love watching your videos! It's like I get to sit down with my water+msm everyday with you two and learn more about health. Thank you!! :)

Carrie & B: despite making me salivate all the time lately, whenever I view your blog... I have to say it's been a pleasure juice feasting alongside you. I can honestly say I've felt a strong kinship with those with whom I juice feasted closely with and you guys are part of that group. Thanks for all your advice along the way and your comments. I can't wait to see you guys and have some fun in NYC ASAP! :) Hugs!!! :) Can't wait to make you guys an awesome "thank you" dinner :P

Hanlie: thank you for commenting so often on my blog. I loved getting your comments all the time and they always put a smile on my face. It's really been great being on this journey with you and sharing the ups and downs of juice feasting. I'll never forget that poignant post for which I awarded you the juice feaster award. I am so proud of you for the commitment you've made for your health and your baby, who is waiting for the right moment to bless you with his/her presence. :)

Michelle: It's been great juicing through the ups and downs with you. I distinctly remember a point where we both were about to throw in the towel at the same time. It was great to know that I wasn't the only one feeling it. I'm really glad we both stuck it through! You're almost done too!! Isn't it crazy how fast this has gone? :) Hugs! Really appreciate all your comments throughout this. Thanks!

Poppy: My juicy sister! :) I loved how we were just a few days apart on this journey. Your blog continues to be an endless source of inspiration. Your writing is incredibly eloquent. I am thrilled to hear of all the positive things that are happening to you right now and am glad you've continued to blog. I definitely want to hear more about your raw-foodie adventures. :) Bisous!

Philip: You're almost there too! :) Thanks for all the great insightful comments and inspiring me to go to bed earlier (well... or trying to) and give up TV during weekdays. You're definitely and inspirational guy and I can't wait to see how your quest for health continues to unfold. What you've done so far is truly amazing! Can't wait to see you when I get to NYC later this Spring!

Kyle: I'll never forget that poop-post! I learned more about poop in one blog post than I knew all my life! Thanks for that :P hehe! Thanks also for all the great comments and the juicy camaraderie! It was awesome to juice feast alongside you :) Can't wait to hang out at Pure Food and Wine with you too :P *giggles*! :)

Kristi: You're another amazingly eloquent blogger that I am truly grateful to have crossed paths with. Thank you so much for sharing your inspirational journey with such insightful details. Definitely proud to have juiced through the cold climate with you! :) Thanks for all the great comments. I hope your computer lets you watch the video eventually; had a lot of fun making it. We'll have to swap raw-recipes soon :) Prunes tasted even better on day 94! :P

Mish: It's been especially nice to feast with someone who was going through the same issues I have. You're one positive ray of sunshine and I can't thank you enough for all that great advice when I was having that rough time with my mom. I also haven't had a chance to formally thank you yet for your amazing gift. I've been going through it and it's freakin' amazing! Thank you so much for sending that to me! I owe you one! :) That was really thoughtful. I know you're out in the middle of an ocean somewhere right now but... when you get to read this... Thanks and lots of love from Ben!!! :)

Malynda: Luuuuv ya! :) *giggles* Nope... Wasn't going to pass out... If I've learned anything throughout this juice feast it's to CHEW!!! I used to be a freakin' hoover and suck down food so fast. I'm not going to do that anymore! :) Aaanyway :) Thanks for making me giggle throughout this and encouraging me through the juice feast. It's really been great making a cool friend like you! :)

Lisa from NZ: Thank you so much for that great advice when that mysterious neck thing came about! Thank you for all the great comments along the way; juice feasting with a buddy like you has been great. To reply to your comment: I totally think, in retrospect, after having watched this video 20 times, that I was indeed high off prunes. It's still really weird to think that foreigners think I have an 'accent' :P But... as long as it's a pleasant sounding accent that's fine by me :P I dated a kiwi once and I liked his accent so hopefully the feeling was mutual... hmmm :P hehehe. Those were indeed some SCARY prunes; they were soaked which is why I think they looked so scary. Juicy on!

Nettle: My fellow Ottawan juice feaster; sorry we never made that juice-luck happen. Thanks for all the great Ottawa-advice. It was really great to juice feast with someone who knew the city, share tips and all. I definitely hope we get to meet soon. We'll have to go to the wild oat for a nice raw lunch sometime! :)
Lisa from TX: Thank you so much for your frequent visits and great comments..... and today's shout out! :) I feel so special!!! *loved* :) Loved the poem by the way... I feel so bad that I've been so swamped and haven't had a chance to thank you for that; super cute and super sweet! :)

Jessica: Where is my Jessica? Sniff sniff. I miss youuuu! Even if you seem to have disappeared, I couldn't do this thank you without thanking you because you ALWAYS brought a smile to my face throughout this juice feast. Your videos inspired me to juice feast alllllll the way back in October. You're a juicy superstar in my world; anyone who can juice feast with a baby, people cooking food around them and crazy-ass storms is a juicy hero in my books! :)

Penni: You're halfway done! That's awesome! Thank you so much for your frequent comments; I read them all and feel really bad that I haven't had a chance to visit everyone else's blogs lately. Totally love Trotter and Klein and will definitely have to post pictures of anything I make out of that cookbook. :) Big hugs!!! :) Still in awe of how radiant you look right now! :)

Loulou: Sorry again; been super swamped lately and have really been bad at keeping up with everyone's juicy journey. I really appreciate all the great uplifting comments (even if you thought you were trying to be my mom hahaha!) :) Hang in there... the last half of the juice feast goes by really quick! :) Just think of it in terms of weeks... you'll be amazed how quickly the countdown goes!

Jack & Jill: You guys seem to have disappeared but thanks for the award and the great comments and thank you for giving me the idea of fast tuesdays :) I think I need a break from juice for the next little but but I definitely will be stealing this idea from you soon :)

SUKI!!: Thank you so much for your advice :) Really appreciate it and yea... we totally need to hang out next time I'm in London. You'll have to show me where to get some yummy raw foods seeing as my favorite M&S Edamame salad is now off the list! :P

There are COUNTLESS other people who have touched my heart on this journey and my thanks goes out to you as well. I thank everyone who has left comments on this blog and encouraged me and cheered me up on the more challenging days. There are so many of you that are on this journey and I wish you all the best of luck. Thank you so much to Lynda, Terilynn, Ramona, bad mamajama (you can send all your cute gay friends my way!! no problem!!)... I hope I'm not forgetting anyone... everyone has been so amazing :)

Anyway.... this took hours to write so I better post it. I just really want to apologize to everyone though because I have been REALLY busy lately and haven't had a chance to keep up with everyone's blogs and ... yea.... I'll try to catch up soon enough. :) Hugs for everyone! :)

Shit I almost forgot:

Today I had:

1 Intestinal Movement cap
1.25L water+lemon+MSM
250ml soak water
230g PRUNES!
3L apple/kiwi
1 cascara sagrada cap
1 intestinal movement cap
probiotics

Today I also did:

3Km bike ride (to the grocery store and back...with 30lbs of groceries in my backpack)
Skin brushing
Zapper

- Ben