Day 41 - Bouncy!

Yep! This kid is the newest juice feaster to own a rebounder. There's a store in the city's west end selling Needaks for really cheap; 199$ for a non-folding model, 229$ for a folding model. Needless to say, in a small apartment, the folding option comes in handy....especially with my minimalist penchant for interior design. This thing even has a carrying case and slides right under my designer couch! :) Whooo hoo! I looooooves it! I looooooves it! :)

Today was not-so mega grocery day; we've decided to move mega grocery day to Thursday evenings. Maybe this will be better; I know a few stores get some produce in on that day. I couldn't find organic pineapples anywhere in this city today (well rainbow foods had organic pineapples the size of my fist for sale... hardly worth the price!). Organic greens were dirt cheap at Herb & Spice this week! Spinach bunches were going for 2$! :) Mmmmm... spinach! :) Black kale (which normally goes for $3.99) was going for $2.49!

I didn't drink much juice today because of the overnight thing/napping during the day. I was supposed to get in 4L but I slept through my alarm. I had to choose between taking a shower and making juice... shower won! I'd rather be starving than stinky! :P I'm a bit nervous about how tonight is going to go... hopefully if I drink a lot of water I won't feel hungry (and if I abstain from looking at raw cooking blogs lol). In case you're wondering, I also missed my daily water/msm combo for the FIRST TIME since I began JFing... I know! It's very sad... I just couldn't be bothered this morning when I got home from the hotel; I was sooooo hungry!

Today I had:

500ml water+slippery elm
1L celery/kale+kelp
1.25L granny smith apple/kiwi
1.00L cantaloupe juice+hemp oil (shot glass + chaser LOL)
1L cat's claw tea and/or American saffron tea (throughout the night, I hope)
1Tbsp bee pollen+agave
6 probiotic caps

Today I also did:

30 minutes on the rebounder
(was running late, no time for skin brushing or anything!)

I was on globaljuicefeast.com today and I realized how much we're all so blessed to have this innate kinship with other juice feasters throughout this process. I think, without the company and support of fellow juice feasters in the blogging world or the globaljuicefeast.com website, this would be quite a solitary journey. I don't feel alone at all in this, and it's all because of you guys. So thanks a lot :) If I had a mason jar of green juice with me right now, I'd raise it and toast to you guys ! :) Big hugs! :)

This reminds me, if you haven't joined globaljuicefeast.com yet, get your juicy butt in gear and do it now! :)

- Ben

Day 34 - The teenage years

Today was mega-groceries day again. If it weren't for the fact that the way I buy groceries whilst juice feasting is exceptionally planned out, I would move mega groceries day to another day. I'll have to explore that option.

Saturday mornings at 8am, my mom or dad picks me up with their car so I can venture out for mega groceries. I don't have a car... so it would have practically impossible to do a week's worth of groceries on the bus. When my dad comes, it's awesome. My dad is the calm and relaxed one. When my mom comes.... Well today was a 'mom' day and it didn't go so well. My mom is the most nervous and stressed out person you will ever meet. Driving in the city stressed her out... on a Saturday. She CONSTANTLY second guesses everything I do (or in this case, purchase). She CONSTANTLY gives advice on what I "should" do.... She can be frustrating to be around. I know that it stems from a good place, a place of caring... but after working an overnight shift, being sleep-deprived and grumpy... it's aggravating. We got on each other's nerves a lot today. I could feel my skin reacting to her negativity. I've tried, in the past, to explain how her stressful nature stresses me out, and impedes my ability to heal my psoriasis.... She just doesn't get it.

Sigh... it feels good to let that out in the open. Don't get me wrong, I love my mom and I really appreciate the fact that she acted like a taxi for me today but man... take a chill pill! I'm wondering if she was harder to handle today because I'm 15 years old (retracing-wise) right now and am reliving teenage angst/rebellion? ;)

I got home and I took a well deserved nap. I made some REALLY awesome juices AND I did lots of yoga to some episodes of Namaste I had TIVOed. That show isn't easy to follow... but I think I did good today. I want to try doing those episodes again. I like the flow.... and the challenging asanas that I'm not quite familiar with.

Today I had:

250ml water+slippery elm
1.25L water+msm
1.25L celery/collard greens/parsley
750ml blood orange juice (I think I'll always think of Carrie everytime I see a blood orange from now on! LOL)
750ml Summery juice (see below)
1.00L Grannysmith apple/Spinach
1tbsp Bee pollen+agave
500ml America Saffron tea

Today I also did:

Skin brushing
40 minutes yoga
Napping

Can I just say... for a 'zombie day'... I'm surprised and really proud of myself for getting 4L of juice in... plus all my 'psoriasis superfoods'. :) Yay Ben!

Summery juice

I noticed today that I was missing being innovative and inventive in the kitchen. Suddenly I conjured up this juice. It's very tasty! Tangy yet mellow... :)

1 grapefruit
2 red gala apples
1/4 cantaloupe
1 cup butternut squash (cut into tiny cubes)
2 dates (pitted, finely chopped, soaked for 5 minutes)

Into the vitamix it goes! Strain through nut mylk bag and enjoy! I was going to add a spice but after tasting it, I decided it didn't really need anything. :)

Restez juteux! :)

- Ben

Day 23 - The ex factor

Isn't this knife holder the neatest thing ever? :)

Is my juice feasting conjuring up some bizarre cosmic effect? I had a kiosk today to host and this guy I dated when I was 17 showed up. I was only 17 and I had high hopes about him at the time... but he broke my heart in a very cowardly way. I was crushed. Such is teenage love!

I think I only recognized him because of his name-tag. It's been 8 years! It was bizarre. It's funny to think that I'm going back 120 days on each day of juice feasting, and that right now I'm almost 18 years old. Coincidence? Regardless, he gave me his card and asked me to call him. I have to say, he is gorgeous. I had a weird feeling about it though... so I went online and found out he's married (to a man, it's legal here)! So ha! I put the card in the trash. Normally I would have felt distraught over running into an ex.... but I think the combination of juice feasting and doing yoga has me feeling very empowered and grounded. I'm focusing on myself right now... and doing what's right for me. I'm single... and I think for the first time in a long while, I can honestly say I'm content with that.

It's like the tree pose in yoga... I'm a well grounded tree... balanced and calm... moving slightly with the winds but cannot be easily toppled over. :)

Speaking of calm; my kiosk was right next to the buffet! A few weeks ago, being subjected to this parade of food would have driven me nuts. Today... I was perplexed and apathetic. I remembered something Angela Stokes once said about reaching a point where you don't quite understand what all these people are doing with all that food. It felt alien to me, watching people eat... If things stay the way they are, I have no doubts I'll reach day 92.

Today I had:

1.25L water+msm+lemon
1.25L celery/green chard/parsley+bee pollen+kelp powder+spirulina
1.25L Pineapple/Blackberry
1.00L Apple/Red Cabbage
1.00L Young coconut water/a wee bit of P&B juice that was left over
1.00L Granny Smith Apple/Kale/Daikon
1.00L Water
1tbsp coconut oil
1tbsp hemp oil

I also did:

Skin brushing
20 min morning yoga
40 min evening yoga
20 min meditation

Can I just say... I ROCK!? 5.5 litres of juice, 2 litres of water and 1 hour of exercise. On top of that, I managed to get in all my supplements today! :) *Happy Dance*

I finally got my 2L enema bag in the mail today... so I know what I'll be doing tomorrow morning! yay! I know... who gets excited over enemas? LOL! We juice feasters are an odd bunch. :)

Oh in other news, I was reading on the global juice feasting website (which rocks!) about how to be frugal while juice feasting. It was brought up that paint strainers are cheaper versions of nut mylk bags. I immediately called my dad (who's always in a home depot or canadian tire... aka hardware store) and asked him to pick some up. By the time I got to Katrina's reply about paint strainers being a bit more toxic and not as durable... it was too late! My dad did however, pick up "jelly bags". The packaging says "large reusable bags for straining juice for making jelly". They work AMAZINGLY...dare I say... BETTER than nut mylk bags. The juice comes out FASTER! I was worried that maybe it was letting out more pulp... so I restrained my juice through a nut mylk bag and found maybe 1/4 of a teaspoon worth of pulp. I am a pulp-nazi though... on the juice feast anyway. So maybe I'll just do that.... Strain through the jelly bag first, and second strain through a nut mylk bag... it's faster anyway! :) Did I mention they're 2 for 6$? :)

Okay... sleepy time for Ben! :)

...Z z z z z z z z z z

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