Live Your Best Life

Well, it's been 1 month since I started my juice fast, which I'm now calling a "Juice Feast" thanks to my friend Beth, who did her own 60 days of juicing last year.  I love her idea of using the word FEAST instead of FAST because that's exactly how it feels.  I haven't felt deprived at all during the last 31 days.  I'm still excited about all of the beautiful organic vegetables and fruit available and continue to try new veggies and juice recipes.  I figured out how to juice large batches (5-6 pints) at a time and I'm even thinking about having a JUICE PARTY to get all of my friends who have also been juicing or are interested in juicing together to share our experience, recipes and juicing tips.  I'm a wild & crazy girl!

My vision for my best life today involves keeping everything simple, from my food choices to my possessions and even my relationships.  I'm beginning to understand that life is only as complicated as I choose to make it and that by simply changing my attitude I am able to recognize the feast of abundance that is available to all of us.  I just never thought that I'd come to that realization as the result of getting rid of most of my personal belongings and juicing.  I guess clarity is another side effect of my recent endeavors. 

What are you doing to live your best life today?

Traveling Lighter

I dropped another 15 lbs this weekend and it wasn't from juicing.  This time the  weight came from my high school yearbooks - all four of them.  I wrote about this in my post   This Will Go Down on Your Permanent Record when I decided to tear out the pages that I wanted to save and scan them into my computer.  I spent Saturday in my pajamas and finished this project.  Now I can make my own yearbook or video with the people I actually knew (and liked) and the memories I want to keep.  

This is all part of my striving to travel lighter and simplify my belongings.  I've also been scanning more of my son's artwork from elementary school and making sure all of our photographs have been scanned.  I've been working on that project for a few years now and I'm pretty sure most of them are now in my computer, which is backed up through the online service Mozy.com several times each day.  So, if anything happens to my computer, I can always restore the images.  If something happens to the internet, I'll probably won't be too concerned with my family photos because I'll probably be too busy running away from zombies.

Halfway Through

Today is the 22nd day of my juice fast and that means I'm halfway to my goal of 44 days (I chose 44 days as a symbolic gesture because I'll be 44 in April).  I've lost 30lbs and feel wonderful.  I haven't had a headache since those first couple of days of detox and only needed ibuprofen once last week when my back was acting up - a quick trip to my chiropractor took care of that issue though.  My skin is getting smoother and softer and I'm sleeping better.  I am amazed how easy the last 3 weeks have been and look forward to the next 3 weeks and trying more new fruits and vegetables to put through my juicer.

I have a pretty good idea now how to break my fast with small portions of fruit and salad for the first week or so and will then begin adding blended smoothies for breakfast, soups and beans and other starches for lunch or dinner.  I'll slowly add high quality, organic meat back into my diet, but will limit it to a few times a week and juicing will continue to be part of my daily routine.  

For some, a 44 day juice fast may seem like an extreme measure or even overkill.  When you have as much weight to lose as I do, extreme measures are necessary.  For me this has been a natural progression of starting from a spiritual place about two years ago and working from the inside out before addressing my daily food intake.  Just like my decision to follow a long-time dream to move to Santa Fe and then radically simplify my possessions, juicing seems to have been the next right thing for me and now I have a Radical Vision of the next 44 years of my life that looks something like this:

~ fewer possessions and more experiences
~ whole food instead of junk food
~ learning to love exercising my body
~ helping as many people as possible organize & redesign their lives
~ learning how to be a Mom, Daughter & Sister from a distance
~ making new friends and staying close to old friends
~ traveling around the world
~ many road trips between Santa Fe and Nebraska
~ finding love in all the right places 

Hopefully I'll meet a few of you along the way as I travel my road to happy destiny.

I Made it Through The Meal

Today is day 17 of my juice fast and I made it through the meal with my family today.  My brother asked me how the juicing was going before we sat down at the table and my niece asked me what was in my juice that I was drinking while they ate dinner.  I knew it wouldn't be as big a deal to them as it was to me.  After I wrote about it the other day and reasoned it out with a couple friends, I felt pretty comfortable this morning.  I just made my juice as usual and set the table for the meal.  When it was time to "eat" I sat down with my glass of juice and participated as I usually would in the conversation.

One of my friends suggested getting comfortable with the idea that I might be uncomfortable and they might be uncomfortable but the bottom line is that nobody ever died from being uncomfortable.  She also reminded me that it's not my job to make other people okay with me.  Our family meals are usually a little uncomfortable anyway, and my juicing didn't seem to make a difference one way or the other today - probably because I didn't make a big deal about it and had taken my friends advice.

While I was typing this post I kept hearing Barry Manilow singing "I Made It Through the Rain" in my head.  I'm sure my family didn't notice, but I feel like I accomplished something today and I because I was able to chase my fears away I made it through the day without feeling like I had to defend my point of view.   So, I'm going to keep dreaming and marching in my own parade.  I'm sure I'll hear Barry every step of the way now too.

 

The Elephant in the Room

It's been 15 days since I started my juice fast and I've lost 22lbs.  I feel more energetic than I have in years and my skin is clear and glowing.  I'm having fun experimenting with new juice combos and had decided to aim for 44 days (1 day for every year of my life) as a symbolic gesture for rebooting & redefining my relationship with food.

Despite this progress, I find myself fighting the urge to break my fast today.  Not because I'm hungry or ready to be done, but because my brother & his family are coming to lunch at my house on Sunday and I dread sitting through a meal with my green juice in hand rather than a fork & knife.  I also don't want to discuss or explain my fast to them.  My weight has always felt like the elephant in the room with my brother & sister-in-law.  If I don't talk about it then I can pretend like it's not there.  Not that he or she has ever said anything negative about my weight, I just feel uncomfortable sharing this part of my journey with them.  

You see, my brother inherited more genes from my Mom's side of the family.  He's tall with an average build.  He's also always been athletic and only recently, in his late 40s, had any issues with weight.  Last year he had some health issues and lost about 40lbs and as far as I know that's the extent of his issues with weight.  I, on the other hand, take after my Dad's side of the family.  I'm only 5'2" and like many of the women in his side of the family tend to gain and hold onto weight, especially in my stomach.  I've also always preferred reading to sports, which hasn't helped my struggle with my weight.  

I just don't think they understand my struggle with food and believe eating less & exercising more is a simple solution to losing weight.  So, I don't feel comfortable discussing my juicing with them over a meal I'm watching them eat, especially since my sister-in-law also is bringing her awesome guacamole.  If it wasn't our postponed Christmas Eve get together or my niece wasn't going back to college next week, I'd just postpone it until next month.  I am dedicated to this process though and know I'll figure out a way to muddle through the meal even if I decide not to sit at the table while they eat.  I'll keep you posted.

Juicing & Scanning

Red cabbage adds great color to my juice.

Still going strong on my juice fast.  Today is the 11th day and I'm truly amazed at how muchenergy I have and that I've haven't really been hungry.  I was really afraid going into this that my hunger would get the best of me, but so far so it's hardly been an issue.  I still get excited about trying new vegetables and added red cabbage & parsley to some of my mixes this week.  I only spend about 20 minutes a day juicing to make enough to get me through the next day.  

I'm hoping to make it to 30 days before breaking my fast and even had a thought yesterday about making it to 43 days (1 day for each year of my life).  I'll just keep taking it a day at a time though and trust my body to tell me when I'm ready to head back into the land of eating.  I have started researching the best way to break my fast and will be thinking about a fun way to do it.  I love that Joe Cross went up in a hot air balloon and ate an apple to break his 60 day fast.  It will be too cold here for a balloon ride, but I'll think of something to commemorate the occasion. 

It's been too cold here to get out and walk and I've been ignoring my treadmill, but I have had some fun scanning a bunch of my son's artwork from when he was a little boy (he's 21 now!).  I will keep a few of his actual drawings, but most of them will be stored in my computer now, which is great because I actually look at them more often than when they were stored away in a box.  Here's one of my favorites.  I think I'm supposed to be the one with the long hair.