Apples of My Eye - Day Fifteen

My day started at 4 am today. It was the first day of Spring Break 2008 for us and that meant we were on our way to Tulsa International Airport to put Taylor, our eleven year old, on a plane with 30+ other fifth graders to fly to our nation's capital, Washington D.C.! It was all very exciting for the kids and this 4 day excursion will be action packed from start to finish. Many of you may not know this but Taylor is actually not my daughter. Taylor is my husband's granddaughter, but we are helping to co-raise her, as Gordon's ex-wife has legal custody of "The Tay." I love her as much as if she were my own and she has been such a gift in my life. Although we're a blended family, it works beautifully and we know that God brought us together because we all needed one another. Paraphrasing from Dr. Evil to Mini Me, "They complete me!"

Once Taylor was safety in the air, Gordon started working and I was off and running with the rest of my day. I went on a produce shopping extravaganza, visiting Whole Foods, Akin's-our local health food store, and Center One Market-a "she she" boutique market that showcases local growers and local chef's.....it's cool, maybe too cool for this town, and it is pricey. With those three stops, I scored big on beautiful organic greens and vibrant fruits that are now beautifying my kitchen island. When in my kitchen, sometimes I just stand and admire the bounty laid out before me in awe, almost as if it were a shrine. Does being with fresh, organic, ripe produce ever cause you to well up a bit? I've noticed I can get moved this way when I am at an open air farmer's market or at my dad's house, in his organic garden. It is just a passion for me. I have propped up my un-cook book from Cafe Gratitude to be displayed right next to the spread because I love the name and it says it all, I Am Grateful. True that.

Then in the late afternoon, I spent some time chauffeuring my daughter and her friends to and from the mall, movies and dinner. Gabrielle will be 15 in May. Hard to believe my baby is now a lovely young lady. She is a beautiful girl, inside and out, and I am very proud of her. However, her diet is polar opposite of mine. If it's raw or green, forget about it. I hold to the belief that her opinions and tastes will evolve and develop as she matures. I, too, despised healthy food when I was young, and over time, my body simply stopped allowing the dietary abuse and here I am today, working towards undoing all I can from the damage caused by years of poor choices. Anyway, coming back to the present...we have a house full of giggling and shrieking teen girls running around the house and I am enjoying this time of finally winding down to rest and count my many blessings. And since tomorrow is Palm Sunday, a spirit of thanksgiving seems to fit perfectly.

PS....Nub, the wisdom tooth, seems to have stopped hurting today. Thanks to everyone for your holistic dental suggestions....they appear to be working!!

Saturday's Daily Juice:
water-MSM-lemon
ginger tea w/ raw honey & lemon
1.5 qt. celery, kale, dandelion greens, apples, & lime.
1 qt. spinach, tangerine, blueberry
Tulsi vanilla tea
1 qt. cucumber, orange bell pepper, onion sprouts, yellow onion, asparagus, broccoli, cilantro, parsley, carrot, tomato, garlic, jalepeno, & Celtic sea salt. (sounds strong...it was and I loved it!)

Fun Friday - Day Fourteen

DAY 14!!! It's been two blissful weeks of juicy juicing and I am loving it. I feel so blessed because other than an occasional race of the cha-chas, I haven't had any real struggles with detox symptoms, physical or emotional. The only bother, as I wrote yesterday, is the nub of a wisdom tooth that has suddenly decided to rear it's wee little head and act out. At this point I am a bit concerned that it's abscessed. I even broke down and took an Advil this afternoon because the pain was so strong and distracting. I am on this feast to cleanse and detoxify, so my intention was to take NO medications of any kind. Could this tooth issue be related to detoxing? I've not heard of such a symptom, but it might be like me to get a weird one just to spice things up a bit. I moved my dental appointment up to this coming Monday, so I'll have it investigated. That's all I know to do at this point.

On a pleasant note....I had the most marvelous afternoon to celebrate two weeks. I had a colonic, which was pretty uneventful. It made me think of the old movie, Road To Wellville, a story of Will Lightbody (Matthew Broderick) and his wife, Eleanor (Bridget Fonda) who are guests at the health spa of cereal mogul Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (Anthony Hopkins). In the words of Dr. Kellogg, " My stools are perfect! And, have no more odor than a hot biscuit." Hopefully readership didn't just go down with that quote. Time to elevate....

After the afore mentioned appointment, I went to Aquarian Age to have a sauna, steam and marvelous massage by Gena. Gena pummeled me like a grape. I may even end up slightly bruised by tomorrow, but I am pretty sure she schmushed most of my cellulite up and out of my eye sockets. As my husband commented, a good masseuse will do that for you. Rigorous as it was, it was an hour and a half well spent and a great way to celebrate Day 14!

Friday's Daily Juice:
water-MSM-lemon
olive leaf tea
1 qt. celery, kale, broccoli, cucumber, radish, carrots, purple cabbage, basil, tomatoes, garlic, Celtic sea salt.
1 qt. grapefruit, tangerine, Crystal Manna
1 qt. carrot apple, lemon, ginger
1 qt. (see green juice above)
olive leaf tea

NY Frame of Mind - Day Thirteen

I'm not sure what got me started, but today I've been obsessing with thoughts of being in New York. The picture to the left was taken about 18 months ago while I was visiting the Union Square Green Market. It seems like my creative energies have started flowing and I am full of passion & ideas. This kind of energy, adrenaline rush or whatever it is, is something I haven't felt in a long while. I have been knocking an idea around in my head for sometime about wanting to maintain my home here in Tulsa, but also keep an apartment in Manhattan. No, I'm not uber wealthy nor do I have a job/career that causes me to travel there on business.....yet. That's right, one of my top five goals that I wrote down on January 1st of this year was about this very plan. Suddenly, thoughts are starting to materialize and I am seeing this desire/dream/goal/vision start to seem like it really can materialize. We'll see how the days ahead progress.

Moving on....I have been feeling great overall, but I did awake this morning with a weird symptom. I have a wisdom tooth that is only partially in and it has never been a bother, ever. My dentist always inquires about it, but never a pain or sensation comes from the poor little nub of a tooth. Well, this morning, Little Nub was my first awareness of the day. A throbbing soreness that radiates down into my jaw bone...did I brush too hard? I AM brushing my teeth much more frequently these days, due to juice feaster's furry teeth syndrome. Whatever the cause, I am perplexed by this odd pain and fortunately I do have a routine dental appointment scheduled in just over a week. Again, we'll just have to see about Nub.

Thursday's Daily Juice:
water-MSM-lemon
Passionberry Tea
1 qt. parsley, dandelion greens, spinach, english cucumber, apples, pear, lemons
1.5 qt. cantaloupe, broccoli sprouts
1.5 qt. pineapple, spinach, cilantro, apple, lime
I also drank a ton of water today.
(Tragedy occurred....I ran out of organic celery. Guess I'll have to double up tomorrow)

Borscht For Breakfast - Day Twelve

This morning I awoke with fresh juice inspiration. I don't think I have ever dreamed of eating borscht before and to be honest, I don't think I've ever made it in the traditional style either. But today it was borscht for breakfast sans the shot of Russian vodka that I was shooting back in my Kremlin-esque dream. I pulled out a few old cookbooks and what I came up with in the way of a recipe is detailed in today's daily juice at the bottom of this posting. This nourishing vegetable cocktail is a rich and opulent treat for a juice feaster. My only suggestion is that one might prefer it as an evening drink as opposed to the first juice of the day, but it seemed to be just what my inner dreamer ordered!

Now onto an important matter at hand. the lovely Miss Charissa of Raw Royalty has chosen to tag me. What this means is that I am to tell five little known facts about myself. I have thought about this for a couple of days and this is what I have come up with.....
1.) When I was elementary school, my family and I attended a county fair where I won first place in the watermelon seed spitting contest. (I remain quite proud of this achievement ;- )
2.) During my Sophomore year in high school, I was voted Miss Congeniality in the Bixby Green Corn Pageant. This was after I forgot the words to my song and hummed a few bars of Matchmaker from Fiddler On The Roof.
3.) When I was 16, my brother and I formed a new wave band, of which I was the lead singer. I got into all kinds of clubs to perform even though I was underage....thus our name, Circus Circus.
4.) When I was in college I was so poor that I remember watching a guy eat a partial package of Dolly Madison crumb cakes and then dispose the half eaten package in the trash. After I made sure the coast was clear, I dumpster dived, grabbed the crumb cakes and gobbled them down.
5.) My mother died at the age of 57 from a metastasized malignant melanoma. I was only 22 and that was one of the defining moments that I attribute to setting me onto this winding road towards natural health, eventually raw foods and most recently juice feasting.

So that is just a few small tidbits from my personal story and now I would like to tag my dears - Dea, Michelle, LouLou, Blaqberry, and Linda. If any of you lovelies have already been tagged to tell 5 interesting or little known facts, please disregard my tagging. These are just a few of the special ladies who make an impact in my raw and juicy life!

Wednesday's Daily Juice:
water-MSM-lemon
ginger tea w/ raw honey & lemon
1 qt. Borscht for Breakfast! 2 beets w/ tops, 1 head celery, 6 medium carrots, 2 lemons, 2 cloves garlic, 1/4 head purple cabbage, 1/2 red onion, hand full of fresh dill, 1/2 tsp. Celtic sea salt.
1 qt. watercress, red chard, cucumber, apples, lemons
1 qt. grapefruit, tangerine, water w/ Crystal Manna flakes
1 qt. kale, dandelion greens, cilantro, clover sprouts, asparagus, broccol, red bell pepper, tomato, carrot, onion, garlic, lime, Celtic sea salt.

I have been doing much better this week at getting my full gallon of juice in a day. I feel really balanced and emotionally stable. I still am experiencing really runny loose stools and with borscht for breakfast.....well, you can imagine. Scheesh.

Pico De Gallo - Day Eleven

First of all, I had a really busy schedule today. I decided that this morning would be a good time to mix up a couple of quarts of the master cleanser since I wouldn't be near home, juicer or a refrigerator for a large part of the day. By 2:30 pm, when I finally made it back home I was shaky, cranky and jonesin' for juice. It was the first time since probably Day 2 that I actually started to think I wanted food...I'm talking food in my mouth, chewing and tasting something like ruffles potato chips and french onion dip. OH Boy...Help Me Jesus! So I quickly squeezed a couple of grapefruits, diluted it with pure water and added some crystal manna. Within 5 minutes I was completely satisfied and I haven't had a weird moment since. So this just proves that I can't count on the Master Cleanse to carry me through a pinch.

But what I ended up juicing a little later was really awesome. I am telling you it tasted very much like pico de gallo and for a girl who has a fondness for Mexican food, this juice is a very good alternative. I'll post the ingredients below. I had my husband take a sip and he was really impressed. Even my non-juice drinking neighbor, cute Candace, took a sip and said she really liked it. I will have to keep this on my top 5 list of satisfying savory juice combos. I've kind of gotten into being a mixologist lately. I want to find ways to get creative so that I don't get burnt out or tire of the same juice everyday. I'm trying to get a good variety of greens into my juices because they each have their own unique nutritional properties and I've read that if you rotate your greens, you won't get bored or tired of juicing. So far so good!

One of the main differences I continue to notice on this feast is the state of peace and tranquility I feel. I am very steady and my disposition is really patient and compassionate. I am usually very loving, but there seems to be an intensification of that. David Rainoshek says that if we get enough greens (around 2 pounds/day), we greatly increase the alkalinity of our bodies. One of the many positive side effects of having a Ph balance that is more alkaline is a sense of peace and well being. So, that must mean I'm getting less and less acidic because all anxiety or agitation appears to have been removed from my psyche. Don't you know the husband and kids are high fiving themselves! I can't begin to tell you how thankful I am to have made the decision to commit to this extreme sport of juice feasting. Although it sounds radical to many, now that I am in the groove, it feels so good and perfectly natural. Juicing, it's what I do.

Tuesday's Daily Juice:
water-MSM-lemon
2 qts. Master Cleanser
1 qt. grapefruits, tangerine, water & Crystal Manna flakes
2 qts. Pico De Gallo! 1 head celery, carton of grape tomatoes, 1 yellow onion, 4 cloves garlic, 1/2 bunch cilantro, 1 red bell pepper, 1 lime, few big handfulls of spinach, 1 english cucumber, 6 stalks of asparagus, 1 jalepeno, celtic sea salt

Keeping It Juicy - Day Ten

I was so excited to find a nice big watermelon during my recent trip to Sam's Wholesale. I have never been a big Sam's shopper, but since I've started this feast, I've found that I can get some of my bulk produce there for a considerable savings. I would rather support local growers, which I look forward to doing as the season progresses. And my next choice is Whole Foods, which as getting a nice chunk of change from me every few days. But as I have mentioned in an earlier post, Sam's is good for bulk spinach and some greens, as well as thick skinned fruits.

The watermelon from Sam's did not disappoint. I did as Katrina Rainoshek suggested, and juiced the melon along with citrus (tangerine and lime) for a watermelon-aide that was deliciously satisfying. The color of the juice was simply glorious. I was able to extract 2 quarts from only half of the melon. The kids feasted on the remains and were quite happy to have melon so early in the season. It made for happy times in the kitchen this afternoon.

Day 10 has been pretty uneventful, but I am still receiving calls from yesterday's article in the Tulsa World. I have felt a support and interest from others that I didn't anticipate. The nice side benefit of the article is that it has eliminated the need for me to explain to others why I am unable to go do lunch or why we are turning down dinner party invitations for the spring. A couple of friends want to meet up at the juice bar to just get caught up and hang out, which is so thoughtful. Who would have thought this former "let's meet for happy hour girl" would be where I am today? Juice.....it does a body good!

Monday's Daily Juice:
water-MSM-lemon
olive leaf tea
1 qt. spinach, parsley, lime, carrot
2 qt. watermelon, tangerine, lime
a 2 oz. shot of wheat grass
1 qt. celery, romaine, scallion, radish, red bell pepper, cherry tomato, asparagus, carrot, cilantro, garlic, jalepeno, lime, Himalayan sea salt. (This was really good and tasted a lot like Pico De Gallo!)

PS....I lost another pound! I haven't been doing much exercise and I am starting to feel ready to get this body moving. The weather is going to be spring like so I plan to hit the river trail tomorrow.

Deep Thoughts - Day Nine

As many of you already know, my local paper, The Tulsa World, featured an article in the Scene section of this morning's paper about yours truly and juice feasting. I have had many calls, texts and emails, most of which have been genuinely supportive and encouraging. When I was contacted about being interviewed, I had a bit of hesitation, yet I also felt that it might raise awareness and help people consider ways of taking charge of their health that they perhaps hadn't considered. I also hoped that my story could be of encouragement to some who were once proactive in caring for their bodies and maybe have forgotten or lost momentum. I've already heard from a few that they are knocking the dust off their juicer and planning to get back to drinking more fresh juice. YEAH! If you didn't get a paper or if you are outside of Tulsa, you can read the article here.

Now for the heart of today's entry. As I said yesterday, I wanted to share my thoughts regarding the spiritual aspect of fasting. I know, what I'm doing is considered a feast, but I personally look at it as a fast due to the absence of the ritual of dining and enjoying meals as a daily activity. Therefore I am technically in a fasted state of being. As a Christian, the concept of fasting is not new or foreign to me at all. Regardless of your spiritual background, most religious communities consider fasting and prayer/meditation to be a sacred part of their faith practice.

I believe that when we fast for spiritual reasons, we are to be solidly committed by arranging special time each day to be alone with God. This precious time is absolutely crucial in attaining intimate communion with our Creator. During a fast, just as the physical body releases toxins, so it's true of our spirit and emotions because there will be times in which you can feel weak, small, confused, uncertain or irritable. During these times, it is so helpful to just be open and vunerable with God. Allow those doubts, outdated or dysfunctional thought processes and old emotional wounds to surface and receive healing. Meditating on the Divine Presence, reading sacred scriptures or spiritually edifying books, listening to music that is filled with words of grace, gratitude and thanksgiving, these are all ways we can focus on the transformative power of God's Holy Spirit within us.

Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, has a very informative website that is all about the spiritual discipline of fasting. Bill Bright states that his major reason for fasting (and he has done a number of long term, 40+ day fasts) is for personal restoration, and for that of our nation and world. He believes that by prayers of humility, as you fast, you will help bring God's perfect will into this earth and into your own personal situations. He adds that a renewed closeness with God and a greater sensitivity to spiritual things are usually the results of a fast. Although one is not to be disappointed if there is no "mountaintop experience," as some have. Many people who have successfully completed extended fasts tell of feeling a nearness to God that they have never before known, but others who have honestly sought His presence report no particular outward results at all. But in either case, people typically report that God honored their commitment, often times in ways they wouldn't have expected.

So, for me, this time of juice feasting is multi-faceted. It is not just to have a physical cleansing and renewal. It is not just to attain an emotional makeover or simply a means of attaining personal happiness. It goes much deeper.

Sunday's daily juice:
water-MSM-lemon
Passionfruit tea
1 qt. carrot, tangerine, celery & 1 Tbsp. hemp oil
1qt. celery, spinach, purple cabbage, cucumber, garlic, onion, oregano, red bell pepper, basil, radish, lime, cayenne pepper, Himalayan sea salt.
1qt. grapefruit, water, Crystal Manna flakes
1qt. pineapple, cilantro, lime