The First Bite

I just took my first bite of food since starting a juice fast 65 days ago.  I choose a beautiful, organic Gala apple for distinction.  I'm about half way through the apple and starting to feel full.  That's a good reminder that the next couple of weeks are not going to be like riding a bike.  I'm going to be learning a whole new way of eating that involves less food - better quality, but much less of it.  I think that's the theme of this whole process of simplifying my life - Quality not Quantity.  It's the same thing I tell my clients all the time, and I've been following my own advice in many ways since starting on the radical road of simplifying every aspect of my own life.

I also weighed myself this morning and I've lost a total of 60lbs during my fast.  That number is hard to comprehend and a friend of mine suggested going to the store and lifting to 30lb bags of dog food to let it sink in.  I still have quite a bit of weight to lose, but I'm confident that I can make healthier choices now.  I tested this out yesterday when I went shopping to restock my pantry.  I've been a label reader for a long time now, but having cleaned out my body so well I'm being very cautious about what I purchase to nourish it going forward.  Not everything will be organic, but it will be as minimally processed as possible.  Plus, I'll continue to juice, so vegetables and fruit will be the foundation of my food plan.

I've heard from quite a few people during this time who've been inspired to try juicing and simplify their lives.  For that I am truly grateful.  I feel very inspired myself and more than happy to share that here with all of you.  I woman I work with has been juice fasting for a little over a week and lost 10lbs and I'm getting together this afternoon with a friend to help her start a 2 day fast.  I also have plans to eat some of the greens I'll be juicing later today.  

As I finish typing this post I've eaten the whole apple and I'm almost done drinking a pint of apple/carrot/ginger juice.  I also get to help a client organize her home this afternoon.  Today is gonna be a good day!

A Fist Full of Bacon

I had a dream last night that I broke my juice fast by grabbing a fist full of bacon from a big pile of bacon I found in the bottom drawer of a fridge.  With only a couple days left of what will be a 65 day juice fast, I think this means I'm ready to start eating again.  Bacon won't be on my menu anytime soon though, unless it's organic and even then only on the rare occasion.

I told a friend about my dream today and she asked me what I'd most like to eat after my fast.  I had to think about it because my old favorites are highly processed and not part of my plan for continuing to loose weight & eat healthier.  My answer did include bacon though.  I'll be heading to the Blue Planet Natural Grill at some point in March to get their California grass-fed beef burger with bacon, avocado and Swiss cheese (with out the bun) and a side of air-baked, sweet potato fries.  Blue Planet was one of my favorite restaurants and I'm sure I'll find a similar place to eat in Santa Fe. In the meantime, I continue to be amazed at the catalyst of change that juicing has provided for me and look forward to the abundance of new and healthy food choices ahead of me.

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.

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.