Spring 2012 Juice Feast: Day One!

There are so many reasons to cleanse. In our society saturated with chemicals, from the polluted air we breathe to all the additives in our foods, not to mention the pesticides used to grow alot of it. Even if you eat only organic and raw foods, there are so many chemicals that we are subjected to on a daily basis that our bodies were never designed to deal with.

My personal reasons for cleansing are:

1. I haven't been eating as well as I should and I know that juice feasting is always a good way for me to get back to clean pure foods.
2. I always cleanse in Spring, always the best time for me :)
3. I have so weight to lose and it's being stubborn.
4. Reason for stubborn weight is my candida issues, which juice feasting will definitely help with!
5. I have an awesome juicer.
6. I have toxin buildup from past bad habits, like smoking, drugs and too much bad foods.
7. My liver has been complaining lately.

I've actually already started having detox symptoms, tongue coating, general detox feeling, cravings and fatigue. The first three days are always the worst, if you can get to day four, you are set to go on a great cleanse. All it takes is keeping your goals in mind! Basically, mind over matter.

I'm so happy to be able to make my own juices! Although I already made on I just couldn't finish. Note to self, celery is strong!

Today I had:
- Kale-Carrot-Orange (1L)
- Black Grape (1L)
- Tomato-Celery-Cucumber (500mL)
- Royal Gala Apple (750mL)
- 2.5 Liters of water

So moving on to day 2! I am so very happy I started this on a day I'm not working. I also have tomorrow to get myself used to it all, then Wednesday is a long day at work then a dinner training, to which I will bringing my own juice!

Hello Sunshine.

It has been such an amazing weekend, the sun is out and we've had crazy warm weather! All week is calling for the same, low to mid twenties (Celsius) and it almost looks like we've skipped thrugh spring and gone straight to summer! I've been wearing dresses and shorts all weekend and will be continuing that allllll week!

I really did get my juicer at the perfect time, summer and fresh juice just got hand in hand! I got some massive cantaloupes and juiced one, which gave me 1.5 liters of deliciousness to enjoy in the morning sun!

I'm right in the middle of moving at the moment, so lots to do. Packing and moving are providing me with great exercise in combination with yoga and my meditation practice that I'm continuing on with. The new place is also very close to a great bike/running path, which means awesome running for me! I'm going to be purchasing my very first officially real running shoes and water pack so that I can actually get into it. I was going to be running a 5k, but then moving made things complicated and when I get busy, I lose track of running because it does take up more time. I have to fix that bad habit of mine!

In other news, I finally got my hands on a good water filtering system. The perks of my job include buying at an extremely discounted price when customers return things that can't necessarily be resold, like this water system:

I love it for many reasons, one being the water tastes great! We have one in the store so I've been sipping at it for a few months now. It has a 8 step process, first a carbon filter, then a 5 step filtration through various natural filters then at the bottom are remineralizing rocks and finally the spout itself has a magnetic function that removes negative ions from the water. I think that having clean water is so important, tap water just does not cut it. Bottled water is expensive and not to mention wasteful. So unless you have direct access to a spring, your best best, imo, is to get something like this. There are a gazillion different models out there, so choosing one is up to personal needs and preference!

Back to packing for this Bunny, have a great fruity week!

Become a JuiceMaster.

Very exciting News! Well it is to me anyways, I got a juicer for my birthday! Oh, and not just any juicer, exactly the one I wanted! A beauty of 11 lbs, with a masticating powerful setup and clean design with small footprint. Here she is:

I think that investing good money in quality appliances, especially on a raw diets, is a not brainer. The best juicers on the market are the masticating type because they keep every nutrient intact during the juicing process. Others, like centrifugal types, heat the juice up with their high RPM's and cause nutrient loss and separation. I think that getting higher quality juice is what's important.

I chose this one because I've seen a very similar one in action and just loved it! My friend Julie, an inspiring woman that you can check out here, is a great advocate of juicing and raw foods, and after tasting juice from hers, I just had to get one.

So for my first test run, I made some yummy grape juice:

... I may have drank it all before I could get a picture of the actual juice. They yield was awesome! Again this morning I made spinach-beet-apple juice that was also amazing :) Only thing is I forgot to change the strainer to the finer one so ended up with a juice that I had to chew, which I normally love with strictly fruit juices, not so much with the green ones.

My morning was great too, did some yoga and meditation, as has become my habit in the morning, plus I woke up to these faces:

Fitness-wise, I've laid off the calisthenics for the last week, and opted for packing and moving as well as some walks and general busyness on account of the awesome weather we've been getting! I should be getting back into running soon enough with outside being much more welcoming!

Every morning I do 10 Sun Salutations and an average of 10 minutes of meditation. It starts off my day on such a great foot and I plan on continuing this forever more. I also realllly need to print out my voucher for 20 yoga classes. I want to get back into it more often, say about 2x a week to start and go from there :)

I am planning on doing a juice feast very soon. Spring is a great time to cleanse and detox, and I think that it will be a great starter to this new season of renewal. I will start with a goal on 14 days and see where I can take it from there. My longest before now was 5 days on only orange juice. I think that with much more variety I can do much longer than that. I will be combining it with a liver cleanse, a herbal mixture with milk thistle and such. I started it not long ago, but haven't finished yet. I can't wait!

Have a great week everyone, and remember to stay fruity!!

xxooxx

Cleansing day Numero Uno.

It's that time of year again, the one here everyone is thinking about cleaning out and starting anew, SPRING!  And so I'm taking this opportunity to cleanse my body, give it a little break after having put it through some tough times, mainly school stress, lacking exercise, etc etc.

And so I've decided to go the orange juice cleanse way. 7 days of homemade fresh orange juice, lots of water and some hardcore determination to get rid of food addictions and give time for my body to heal damage caused by a bad past lifestyle. Also a great way to get myself back onto the fruit wagon!

SO today being day 1, I've had 4 liters of orange juice(about 30 oranges) and 3 liters of water. And yes, frequent trips to the washroom are part of the game.

This is my supply for about 4 days :D :D Looks yummmyyyyy :)

I'd say there's about 130 oranges total. It's funny too cause the guy at the store looked at me like I was crazy when I said I wanted 2 cases! Wonder what he would've done had i bought all 3 cases that I actually need for my weeklong affair with oranges...



 So let's talk serious things now: detox effects for day one. Just a slight headache and a strong craving for salt, but my stubbornness is taking care of that affecting my resolve. Another point: this isnt for weight loss, of course it's usually a welcome side effect but the whole point to this is to clean out toxins so that afterwards it's easier to eat a clean diet and easier to get back into shape.

 As for exercise, just an hour light walk, runnind a few errands and soaking in some much needed Vit D.

Sleep is very important in normal circumstances, but when "fasting" it's a key element to detoxifying your body! So i'm off for a good 8 hours!