The Battle Between Body and Mind...is Juice Feasting an Answer?

Its funny that my body is smarter than my mind sometimes, especially when it comes to eating habits. My body is saying: "you're full, you don't want that!". But my mind is saying: "just eat it anyway, it'll make you happy!". These are the same battles I went through two years ago when I quit smoking (actually, this battle was quite long-it lasted seven years).

I've been reading a lot of juice feasting blogs lately and I feel drawn to this challenge because I want to break my mental addiction to food. I am very happy with the shifts that I have made to a healthier diet through juicing, eating primarily raw, and choosing a vegan diet. At the same time, I know that there are issues I have not overcome in terms of my relationship with food. I want to look at food as nourishment, not as comfort. Maybe a juice feast would help me make this transition...If you are interested in learning about the life of a juice feaster, check out these blogs:

Philip at Loving Raw
Angela at Raw Reform
David and Katrina at Juice Feasting
Penni at Real Juice Daily
Courtney at Radical Radiance

Day 3

Last night was a struggle. I ate a small amount of cooked food at dinner. It is difficult to explain why I am trying to eat raw food and juices to certain people. I feel like I have to defend myself sometimes, but I know that the people who are questioning me only do so because they care. I am trying to be true to myself despite this discouragement. I am adding raw nuts, salads, fruit, Lara Bars, and raw recipe's from Natalia Rose's book, to my daily diet. Juice will continue to be my first "meal" of the day and I will try to incorporate it later in the day as well.

Today, my first meal is 32 oz. of the following juice:

• 1 head of celery
• 2 apples
• 1/2 inch of ginger
• A few pinches of Cayenne
• 1 lemon (with peel)
• A few leaves of Kale

I feel very clear-headed today and relaxed. The juices are also becoming more palatable. I hope that I'll learn to love them. I drank a carrot-beet-apple-lemon juice yesterday that was very nice. Tomorrow I will be returning to teaching yoga, nannying, and writing full-time so we'll see how things go. I will have to do some meal planning today!

Day 2: Juice Feast/Eating 100% Raw

Its only day two and I'm feeling financially stressed by the juicing. Its a lot of work too! I'm sure once I become a pro, it'll be much quicker. I think that 50% juice and 50% Raw Food will be my route. I am going to follow Natalia Rose's book: The Raw Food Detox Diet to guide me. The only food I've eaten since Saturday evening is hand full of raw almonds. I think I'll have a big salad for dinner and snack on some raw nuts and a Lara Bar tonight. I am bring some bottled 100% vegetable and fruit juice to my Dad's, since I'll be staying the night and I'll need breakfast! So far, so good. More updates soon! I'm doing a photo journal each day too, which I'll post in a few weeks.

Juice Feast Begins!

I'm back and I'm starting a juice feast tomorrow morning. For the next 21 days straight I plan to only drink vegetable and fruit juices, courtesy of my new Breville Fountain Plus juicer (a Christmas present from my husband). I will take a weekend break when I visit the Sivananda Yoga Ranch and evaluate at that time whether I will return to the feast the following Monday. I started this evening with the following juice:
1/4 inch of ginger
4 carrots
1 apple
It's delicious! More details to come tomorrow morning!