Right now I am savoring an unexpectedly good tasting green juice. For days, perhaps even weeks, I haven't really been feeling the love connection with my savory green juices as I once did. However, I think its pretty normal to be feeling that way at this stage of the feast. I've really tried to follow the majority of the hardcore juice feaster's blogs, and from what I can surmise, what I am experiencing is pretty standard. More than anything, for me, it's just being flat weary of the intensity of the whole juicing process. After three months, anything that receives this much of ones attention can get a bit rigorous.
I had the pleasure of speaking with my very good friend, Philip McCluskey today. I have mentioned Philip, of
Loving Raw, a number of times here on the blog. Philip successfully finished his 100 day juice feast earlier in May. We talked about many things, but 2 points main points stood out to me from our conversation.....Philip and I both approached our juice feast in a similar manner, as if it was our job. We took it very seriously and had a plan and were commitment to seeing it through to completion. Making the commitment to juice that much for an extended period truly does require a vision, dedication and focus. So, it's not to be entered into lightly. Philip also shared that it is equally as important to maintain that same level of commitment as one breaks their juice feast. As you can imagine, it's not cool to drink all of this amazing, mineralizing and alkalizing, organic juice for 90+ days and then go right back into complex, hard to digest foods or even high fat foods anytime soon. Think of a baby who has just been weaned from it's mother....what is the best source of nutrition for that baby? Foods that are blended, easy to assimilate, digestable and simple. If we have been juicing exclusively for any length of time, so it should be with our transition back into the world of solid foods. I trust the idea behind this approach and I'm creating my own plan now to transition very slowly and methodically back to whole foods in a similar fashion. So I will basically be moving into a modified version of a juice feast for them next month and a half.
This is the commonality of the message that I'm hearing from those who have traveled this road before me. My dear friend and amazing raw chef,
Peter Cervoni, has done a number of 40+ day juice fasts and he has repeatedly expressed to me the need to re-enter very deliberately and carefully.
Matt Monarch of Raw Success has taught on this subject for a quite some time as well. The mentor of both Matt and Peter,
Dr. Fred Bisci, is a wise sage on this subject matter and his teachings are well respected and quoted on
JuiceFeasting.com. I am simply sharing all of this with you to help you understand the importance of taking the last phase of your juice feasting process as seriously as you took it from the very beginning, if not more so.
Thursday's Daily Juice:2 qt. Master Cleanse
.5 qt. orange/grapefruit/spirulina
1.5 qt. celery, cucumber, cilantro, scallion, red bell pepper, garlic, jalapeño, lime juice, sea salt, apple cider vinegar, macadamia nut oil.
Gordon and I rarely have a moment to ourselves, but today we were able to plan a short getaway to Stone Bluff, Oklahoma for the 7th annual Lavender and Wine Festival. People from surrounding regions are always so surprised when I tell them that Oklahoma has productive and thriving vineyards. The soil here in Northeastern Oklahoma is considered to be some of the richest dirt anywhere. I grew up just miles from Stone Bluff, where the fertile soil is a product of the sandy lome cultivated by the neighboring Arkansas River. My hometown, Bixby, is known as the Garden Spot of Oklahoma. I suppose that's why my gifted, gardening parents chose such an epicenter for our home and their muse. Below is a slide show featuring our super fun adventures today...
