Juice Feast-Day 12

A Few Obstacles Today

Today has been tough. It started out great, but as the day progressed, I started to feel down in the dumps. I'm not even sure why. Toxic thoughts? Blood chemistry? Anyway, if it was my thoughts that created my gloomy feeling, I wasn't paying attention to how it all started. I only suddenly became aware that I was feeling down. Throughout the day my thoughts turned increasingly toxic (I can't! It's too long! I want pizza!), followed by one or two hardcore food cravings. In short, I had a really difficult time stepping outside of my head today. Today was also the first day since beginning this feast that I felt really ill-equipped to handle stress. I was one cranky pup by mid-afternoon. And despite never feeling hungry, I really wanted to eat something, anything, in fact. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I when I opened a can of cat food today, I nearly paused to consider it (not really, but it smelled divine to me! *blushes*)

Also contributing to my blues today was the absence of my better half. I've been flying solo all week because my husband's away on a fishing trip. It's always a bummer when you lose your wingman. I'm SO ready for him to come home! He brings such a calm, serene energy to everything he does. Plus, he's my biggest fan! We've been calling and texting each other all week like a couple of love-sick teenagers. His fishing buddies probably either think we're crazy, or incredibly lucky. Both are true! :)
Anyway...chin up, Ellen! Keep on the sunny side! This too shall pass! One thing that has helped me tremendously today is reading the posts of my feaster friends over on Raw Food Talk. I find so much support and encouragement over there that I can no longer imagine walking this path without them.

Equally inspiring are posts from the blog of the divine Miss Aleesha Stephenson over at Aleesha's Raw Life. Aleesha is about a week ahead of me on this feast, and I have found it very helpful to go back and read posts of hers that correspond to the day I'm on. When comparing notes, it looks like I'm right on schedule with the blahs :) Today was an opportunity to strengthen my will. What will tomorrow bring? I know one thing it will bring. Chris comes home! Yippeeeeeeee!!!!!

Juicy Tip

Here's a groovy trick I discovered today:

Pour a bit of water into your juicer while it's running after you finish juicing. It's a great way to recover a lot of extra goodies hiding in there that didn't get pushed through. This worked great today with some blackberries I was juicing. Even though I pushed a pear through afterwards, adding a tiny bit of water pushed out a whole lot more blackberry juice.

Fruit and vegetable pulp can also both be tossed into your juicer a second time around to wring out any extra juice.
Juicy Diary-Day 12

Today's Juices & Supplements

32 oz water + MSM + cascara sagrada

8 oz psyllium/bentonite shake

12 oz water

14 oz cantaloupe/strawberry

32 oz water

24 oz kale/apple/carrot/ginger

32 oz water

47 oz kale/green pepper/cucumber/celery/carrots/red onion/jalapeno

32 oz water

32 oz pineapple/blackberry/pear

Total juice =117 oz (0.91 gallons)

Total water = 147 oz (1.15 gallons)

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Sleep & Dreams: I slept for 5 1/2 to 6 hours last night but woke feeling rested.

Exercise: 1-mile hike with dog.

Sauna: 30 minutes

Energy: Steady. It was mostly brain fatigue today :)

Physical Observations: I produced some more pooplets today (hooray! 3 days in a row:). I know it seems weird to discuss BMs on a blog, but as other feasters will attest, this is the kind of stuff that matters :) I plan to close out this week with another enema (will only be my 3rd so far). I still have a good case of acne going, too. A mild, short-lived headache appeared later in the evening and I've had bouts of very fuzzy thinking all day.
Emotional Observations: I was certainly in the emotional dumper today. This was by far the toughest day mentally that I've had so far. All I did all day was play mind games to get out of this feast. Glad to be closing out this day...

Onward to tomorrow ------------------------>>>