t minus 2

blimey. it's here. it really is. i'll be going to bed in a few minutes and when i wake up it will be day 1 of 92.

i finished my job today, after 4 years, and i'm more nervous about starting the juice feast than i am about this major shift in my career. how daft is that?

massive kudos to all those joining the feast in the morning. it's going to be one hell of an adventure!

supplements

so, there are lot of people out there doing or about to start the juice feast and who are taking a bunch of frankly expensive supplements without really knowing what they're doing. i'm not an expert but i do my research before i go out and a) spend the money and b) take something i'm not sure of. here's what i am/am not taking during the juice feast, based on what i believe to be true and appropriate for me. YMMV etc

liquid zeolite: much lauded in some circles for its ability to draw toxins out of the body, especially modern-day evils such as heavy metals. but... there are those who say that in liquid form it's not capable of doing so, the process to turn it into liquid removes its ability to magnetise and trap these toxins. to reap the benefits you must take it ground. when it's ground the honeycomb chambers of the individual zeolite structures are preserved and can still lock away the nasties and take them out of your body. so... since i'm not a scientist i've decided that the logic of the 'ground not liquid' argument wins me over. ground zeolite it is. thank you.

chanca piedra: literally "break-stone" this medicinal extract is for liver/kidney and gall flushes. i think the juice is enough without it.

intestinal movement formula: given that i'm supposed to do regular enemas i think i've got this one covered. i also have my trusty oxy-powder should i require it.

intestinal drawing formula: i like the sound of this in theory but i have heard awful things (specifically from colon hydrotherapists, so i tend to believe them) that anything containing bentonite or other clays are just not meant to go into your intenstines. the clay does what it naturally inclines to and binds with the water and forms a big, solid rock. in your bowel. not for me, thanks.

parastroy: just sounds too conspiracy theory for me. i have no suspicions that i've got parasites therefore i'm not taking it.

vitalzym: described as a perfect, synergistic blend of enzymes (you get that from a decent blend of juices. enzymes is what raw food is good at.) supposed to be good at breaking down scar tissues, fibrins (as in fibrosis) so i don't see why i would need this. juice feasts repair old tissue anyway and i have no intention of taking something designed to fix something i can't tell if i've got. everyone who has posted a testimony to the vitalzym site states the same amazing things that happen when you're a few weeks/months into a raw food diet. i'm not spending £70 on a bottle of raw food diet. sorry.

oils: i will alternate between coconut oil (i'm going to steal carrie's lovely idea of making honeyed coconut oil hearts) and 'cool oil' which is a cold-pressed omega-rich blend. i know i need oils as i've done a 30 day juice fast in the past and my skin became extremely dry. can't imagine what it'd be like after 92 days of no oil. though a friend did suggest i blend an avocado into my green juice which, i have to say, might not be as crazy as it sounds.

supergreens: yes. i forget to take this on a regular basis, so will make sure i incorporate a generous teaspoon in my first green juice of the day. i have a great blend with grasses, seaweeds, probiotics, NSOs and more, so it covers a wide spectrum of goodness.

pollen: yes. probably in my lunchtime fruit juice.

msm: yes, though i don't fancy the litre of lemon water method. we'll see. i've heard some great things about it and it's recommended for sports peeps so YummyHubby and i take it when i remember... not very often, then.

honey: yes. i love honey. having juice fasted previously the idea of actually being allowed honey is just fantastic. i'll take it in herbal teas throughout the day, as i already do on a daily basis.

there are a few other supplements on the list. if they're not here i'm not taking them. at least, not at first.

i'll also be doing the skin brushing as i do have a brush and wish i could make this a habit. i've, so far, found it annoying and time-consuming, but maybe i'll start to feel the same way about it as terilynn does. that would be cool.

twemes

sounds a little odd, i know, but i'm pushing for us - the juicefeast community - to use this as i think it could be really useful.

twemes (twitter+memes) collates twitters, del.icio.us links and flickr posts tagged into one place. so if you add a hash and a tag to your twitter post it will go and join all other identically tagged items. the same tags used in del.icio.us and on flickr appear in the sidebar. 

so, go to http://twemes.com/juicefeast to find - at present very few - twitter posts, a few delicious links, some of which are mine and a photo thumbnail of katrina rainoshek wielding a bag of oranges!

it could become a great one-stop resource for those on the fast and i encourage you all to use it. so just add "juicefeast" as a tag when you save a link over at del.icio.us or put a juicy photo on flickr.

go on. you know you want to.

nerves

it's silly, really, i know, but i'm starting to get a little bit nervous now! 

have crossed everything off my list from last week bar testing out the rebounder. awaiting some things in the post, still, but they're on their way. sooo looking forward to seeing that mountain of produce due to arrive on friday evening :)

YummyHubby is going to help out by taking some photos for me to adorn my blog. i've been very much inspired by the lovely numerical photos Terilynn's used on her juicefeast blog, so we're going to make some of our own. 

YummyHubby is going to be joining me for juice at weekends and, he reckons, for dinners. i think he'll find he's too hungry and that he'll need to eat as well as have the juice. though i'm also trying to convince him to join me full-time for the first week of the fast if he can take a few days off work to deal with the inevitable detox he'll get.

second day of blood sugar (glucose) testing and i scored a 5. that's fairly low, but ok for fasting glucose levels.

crazy

so everyone thinks i'm crazy. except for YummyHubby, the lovely people on give it to me raw and the juice feasting community. 

my mum said, "but you need to chew." what a fantastic response. no, "surely it can't be healthy to restrict your food groups," which is, to be honest, what i would say if i didn't know as much as i do about  nutrition these days. maybe she's given up, since i've gone raw, on taking that tack. maybe she's just come to accept that her daughter is weird. who knows.

a work colleague, to whom i didn't divulge the details, just mentioned i'd be juicing so i wouldn't be drinking/eating at an event we're having next week, said, "you're always doing this weird stuff." to which i could only manage to reply, "yep. bonkers."

oh well. never mind.

deep down i'm thinking all the while, "just wait till you see me on june 5th! then what will you be thinking?" i'll be slim, toned, glowing, vibrant, healthy, full of energy, clear-eyed and clear-headed. weird? you betcha!

blood glucose

one of the items on the prep list is to get an average fasting glucose (blood sugar) reading. i've bought an accu-chek compact system and had a trial run yesterday to see how it works and my first real - fasting - reading this morning was 4.6, which is fine for first thing in the morning, according to bupa, the uk diabetes organisation and the nhs. so far so good.

so then i went to compare this to the numbers on the rainoshek's blog only to find they use a different system. doh! 

a quick google later and i now know that in the US they use mg/dl and here in the UK we measure mmol/L. that means the following conversion holds (using the groupings the rainosheks provide)

US to UK blood sugar measurement conversion

US               UK

85                 4.7
85-100         4.7-5.5
100-115        5.5-6.4
126               7

i found the algorithm here and as i've never heard of the site before i checked it out across various sites and the numbers above do  hold up to inspection.

as for taking a measurement, it's really quite easy and it doesn't hurt (phew!) the kit comes with a reader powered by batteries and with some really clear lcd readouts, a 'pen' to prick your skin, a bunch of 'lancelets' which aren't a type of medieval knight but are the little disposable sharps that go in the pen and a set of testing papers. oh, and a lot of instructions. you can set a depth for the sharp and i found i only need a very low setting. you massage your finger a bit and the blood wells up into a juicy red drop. you stick the test paper into the blood and the reader bips to say it's got enough for the test. seconds later you get a readout. easy peasy.

gearing up

i've set myself a to-do list, ready for the big day. i'm starting this weekend with a few of the things on the list and i'll work my through the rest over the next week. so, my preparation involves:

order ph strips and enema kit from the fresh network

buy glucose testing kit from chemist

set up weekly order with the organic produce company

clean out the fridge to make space for all the fruit and veg

buy a big-ass wooden fruit bowl and empty one of the wicker baskets to contain the stuff which won't fit in the fridge

buy small juicer to take to work

get hold of liquid zeolite (update: have decided to get ground instead of liquid, more on that in a later post)

find a place in the house where the rebounder won't shake downstairs's ceiling too badly (it's been decommissioned since we moved in here as the floors are so flimsy, but i'll give it a go...)

i'm very lucky - those lovely stars aligning for me again, for which i'm truly grateful - that i'm swapping jobs and the first week of march is my week off between finishing at one and starting at the new one. so a paradigm shift commences on many levels of my life. but it also gives me the amazing opportunity to spend the first week of the juice feast with time to spare to start it all properly and give myself the chance to set myself up for success. i will have to do stuff, lots of paperwork and organising ready for my new career but no 9-5 to fit in. plus, once i start the new job i'll be able to go in with a set of behaviours that have been settling in over the previous week. so much easier to present myself to a group of people as 'loulou who doesn't eat solids or drink coffee' rather than people who know me thinking i've finally overstepped the normal barrier, which was looking a bit hazy in my case anyway, what with those glasses of swamp gunk i'm so fond of...

so, thank you! universe, for pulling this all together for me. i'm so excited, and a little nervous. i can't wait to begin!

the countdown begins

on their blog the rainosheks give you a bunch of things to do or think about or learn each day building up to the start of the juice feast. since i've been dithering about whether or not to do this i haven't been following the preparation blog, so i've got some catching up to do! here are a few things i've learned so far.

to supplement or not to supplement?

having read further i've found that they say if you don't want to do the supplements, or at least not yet, that's ok. phew. i will do the MSM, bee pollen and various oils as i already have them and use them, albeit somewhat erratically. i'm not so keen on the clay-based formulas anyway, as i've heard too many people feel bloated and uncomfortable using them.

toxins - better out than in

secondly, i've been talking with a friend, whose judgement i trust implicitly, about the daily enemas. her opinion is that once you get past the "icky!" mental reaction to them they are actually not awful to do and make you feel really good afterwards. and, of course, the theory goes that they are essential for clearing out all the toxins that get released back into the blood if you don't shift them out first. toxins flooding back into my blood after they've been trapped in my body's fat cells for years is just not something i want to experience. that's what makes detox so horrendous, makes you come out in spots, headaches, rashes, irritability. so, apparently, regular flushing out of these newly loosened nasties, prevents lots of the symptoms of detox.

but nevertheless, there's no getting around the fact that they are extremely time-consuming. good job i'm at home for the first week of march so i will be able to do them during the most important period of the juice feast... as long as i can face the whole palaver. ugh. there's a nice little natural health centre just round the corner and there's a colonic irrigation therapist, so i'll be booking myself in for one of those. let the professionals handle it, i say.

juicers and blenders

i've spotted a little juicer that i could buy to take to work. it's cheap but sturdy enough to last the duration of the feast. that way i can make green juices at home and take them with me and then make my fruit based juice (apple, carrot, beetroot and ginger anyone? or pear, cucumber and mint?) at work in the afternoon. that'll be one less flask to carry to work. 2's heavy enough!

the rainosheks recommend using your blender for green juices, then straining using some muslin or a nut milk bag (which i already have) based on the theory that your average juicer doesn't get enough of the juice out of the leafy greens, it's just not capable of shredding the cell walls to release the fluid. sounds like a bit of a faff to me, but then washing the juicer is a bit of a nightmare...

and that's it for now. more learning tomorrow!

a blogger's tale

(of woe)

i've only written one post and already blogger thinks i'm a spammer. great.

apparently their wise spam detecting robots sussed out that this here new blog of mine is a spam blog so they've put a captcha test on, so every time i want to create a draft or save an edit to my post i've got to jump through a hoop. pretty tiresome, i can tell you.

what intrigues me, though, is what they saw in my first blog post to make them think it was a spam blog. there was one link and a quote but otherwise it was just my thoughts.

come on, blogger. show us your spam algorithms ;)

by way of introduction

so, i've decided to join in the global juice feast. you're most likely here 'cos you know what i'm talking about already, but for those innocent web wanderers who stumble across these pages, here's the lowdown.

the global juice feast starts on march 1st 2008 and is being co-ordinated by David and Katrina Rainoshek over at www.juicefeasting.com 

they're encouraging the world to join in by starting at the same time and staying on for the ride as long as they can commit to. a month is a good attempt, or two, or three. they suggest lots of supplements, some of which i am going to take but most of which i personally feel are excessive or i just can't get hold of them in the UK. they also recommend a number of practices which i'm, er, also considering leaving by the wayside. they do say they want this to be doable by all, and acknowledge that most people have jobs and family to co-ordinate, but the time commitment is still exceptionally high. they say: 

A way must be provided that is accessible to all - considering financial, time, family, karmic, and work realities - in which all persons can, at home taking care of their daily responsibilities, transform their health challenges completely, pushing the reset button on their physiology and training their whole being at the cellular, emotional, and spiritual levels to ask for the best foods possible. - The Juice Feasting Imperative

but on a daily basis they are asking you to do yoga, meditation, skin brushing and, uh, enemas, alongside all the time spent washing, chopping and juicing fruit and veg. plus there are daily charts to fill in and the majority of those who've already started the program ahead of the global date are blogging daily about their experiences. and i, of course, will have to do that bit too.

i'm going to try and complete the 92-day programme which is a challenge and has already started raising eyebrows... why so long? i mean, come on! well, the theory goes that 92 days is long enough to "reset your physiology" in other words, it sweeps away all the physical and psychological habits garnered over the years, and you come out the other end pure, clean and ready for a fresh start, which is what i really want! i've been yo-yoing with raw food and been healthy/unhealthy in rapid cycles and i've had enough. it's time.