This is the very last day of my parasite cleanse. It definitely worked, let me tell you. Throughout this last month I have gone through every insane craving in the book while those little suckers clung on for dear life and demanded that I feed them delicious treats. It was incredibly overwhelming emotionally, and it's unearthed a lot of things within myself that I find...unpleasant. But now that the bugs are good and dead, I'm going to revamp my entire body and mind with a Juice Feast. I wrote a short blog about the concept of juice feasting which you can read here.
I haven't set an exact amount of time for this feast, but I'm aiming to go at least one week without solid food, so if you were going to invite me to lunch, I probably won't be able to make it. Although, I'll come and visit you if you like...Although I do have a hotel booked and 2 tickets to see my fave band for over 10 years, The Pet Shop Boys in San Francisco on September 23rd, so I'll have to break for about 48 hours. The length of the juice feast will depend on a lot of factors including detox symptoms, emotional health, and just plain will, although I definitely anticipate a good exercise in restraint. I'm mostly interested in discovery, both in the self and in the world around me. I want to know what it feels like to lack that addictive heaviness and emotional satisfaction that comes from eating food. I want to experience that void, and fill it with self-love and remove any dependency on "a full stomach".
Our modern lifestyle has dictated that if there's nothing in our stomachs, then we are hungry. We feel as though we aren't satisfied unless our stomachs feel a heaviness that we correspond with being "full", which is a dangerous habit to get into. Unfortunately, it's not only recognized as an addiction, it's actually encouraged, and the constant barrage of television commercials and advertisements for fast food restaurants and giant portions of EVERYTHING do nothing but feed the collective addiction. I am going to remove myself from this mentality as best I can, to try and gain an understanding of what it is like to be totally nourished and yet completely free from the burden of digestion.
I will actually be consuming a large amount of calories on the juice feast, plenty of calories for someone of my BMI and even more than most dieters I know. The beauty of juice "feasting" as opposed to fasting is that there is no deprivation. You get all the calories you need, much more of the essential nutrients than you could ever get by eating, and your body never has to stop what it's doing to sluggishly digest a meal. So what this means is that instead of digesting, my body will then begin to use all it's extra time to clean house. And trust me when I say that there's plenty in there that needs cleaning. I try to maintain a vibrant diet but for 24 years I lived and loved with all worst that modern life has to offer: Fast food, pre-packaged processed foods, sweets, cigarettes, alcohol, and worse. Through doing short cleanses I've been able to remove a good amount of buildup but my level of health education alone tells me that cellular detox is a must. And since I really don't feel like fasting for a week, it's juice feasting all the way!
So, my goals are:
Remove pounds of toxins in the body and buildup in the colon
Eliminate cravings
Emotional detoxification
Give my digestive system a break
Everything I want to accomplish can be filed under one or more of these categories. But because I want to to a serious cleansing, I'm also going to be consuming supplements to assist with cleansing, and I will also be taking my regular rounds of supplementation. The menu is:
Detoxification Herbal Tea, which is a blend of loose herbs I've put together to assist my liver in cleansing and to purify my blood.
Multivitamin
Multimineral
Hemp powder
MSM
B Complex
Kombucha tea
I'll probably knock off the enzymes since my body will be getting loads of those through an entirely raw diet. I won't be cooking anything so I won't be destroying the real LIVE enzymes in everything I'll be drinking. Oh, the bliss...As far as my psyllium husks, well, the jury's still out. The point of the cleanse is to remove the need for digestions, but I am considering using it for the first few days to get everything moving out, if you know what I mean.
I'll do my best to keep a good log of anything fun that happens. Expect lots of bright pictures of multicolored juices, since I am going for variety here. If it can be juiced, I plan on trying it. I'm going to be including mostly veggies and adding fruits in to increase calories, but I will not be drinking any pure fruit juice since I am not physically well enough to tolerate a fast rise in blood sugar. If we were talking about unjuiced fruit, then I am all for fruit meals, even all-fruit days, but that's because fruit has so much fiber it's incredibly to spike your blood sugar unless you eat unnatrual hybridized fruits. But I will be removing most of the fiber through juicing, and my blood sugar is a little on the whack side at the moment, so I'll be grounding my drinks with plenty of veggies and dark, leafy greens. There's a big old bundle of kale in the fridge right now calling my name...
Also, if you want to read an already finished, amazing juice feast blog, check out Steve Pavlina's journey here. I first discovered his blog through his raw 80-10-10 trial, a style of eating which I am a fan of, and have enjoyed many articles since. This one is no different, and very inspiring.
In the meantime, I'm spending time at home, working with some amazing clients and playing the somewhat new Shin Megami Tensei for DS. It's awesome :)
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