Day 58 Juice Feast
Whew, I’m having some very interesting back pain that has flared up again. I keep meaning to record it in my blog, but for the past 2 weeks or so, every day, I’ve had varying degrees of back pain and soreness in my lower back area. This is totally unheard of for me – back pain is never something I’ve experienced. It is likely my kidneys detoxing, so I’m just waiting it out and taking it as a sign that I might need to do some sort of kidney cleanse soon.
Today’s Feast, in order of consumption:
1/2 tsp each of coriolus, agaricus, cordyceps and reishi in 1 cup water
32 oz. green juice w/ lemon, ginger, cayenne, turmeric and salt
2 TBS bee pollen
16 oz. green juice w/ lemon, ginger, cayenne, turmeric and salt
32 oz. orange/grapefruit juice
30 oz. orange/apple/grapefruit juice
We had the lovely experience tonight of spending some time with David and Katrina Rainoshek of juicefeasting.com. They are incredible people and we love them so much! We talked a lot about the importance of learning to grow your own food – the implications of the oil peak are likely to be nudging us in that direction in several ways. I’m planning on checking out some gardening books asap!
A question from a reader:
Hi Courtney, I have questions:
1. I’m wondering about the difference between juice feasting and eating raw in terms of greens. If two pounds of leafy greens and one head of celery need to be juiced every day for a balanced feast, how much is needed when eating raw? Or is it the same? Is that volume of juiced greens filling in for nutrients that I’d normally only get when eating raw and if so, what raw foods are they? I’m wondering because I was thinking I’d get maximum nutrients by juicing because I can drink much more greens than I can eat so perhaps I need the same volume either way? Hope this makes sense. As you can see, I’m new and a bit muddled still…
2. Do you combine your bee pollen with any of your juices or just take it on its own? I ask because I tried some yesterday and was a little startled by the taste….
Thanks again for your help and inspiration.
Very, very good question!! Eating one to two pounds of leafy greens per day is an excellent practice, one that I will be avidly adopting when I begin eating again. David and Katrina Rainoshek also advocate this chlorphyll rich regimen, and are writing a book which will come out soon on the subject called “Four Means to Get Your Greens”. While I don’t think it is necessary to eat a whole head of celery each day, I usually eat at least a few stalks of celery every day when I’m eating – celery is an incredible source of organic sodium and it is intuitive for my body to want it. You are right in that it may be true that you can get more of those greens and celery in via juicing them because you aren’t taking in the volume of the pulp. Even when you are eating, juicing some of your greens and maybe celery is a totally valid and wonderful way to get in your greens.
I eat my bee pollen alone. It might taste strange if you’ve never had it before – that’s normal. I’ve written a bit on bee pollen earlier in the blog, but I want to reiterate that LOCAL, fresh pollen is ideal as opposed to pollen coming from somewhere else and sitting for longer. They are truly different foods. I have gotten ‘the best’ organic bee pollen from New Zealand before and it is NOTHING compared to the fresh Arizona bee pollen I get often within a week or two of harvesting. I don’t even consider local bee pollen and non local bee pollen to be the same food. HOWEVER, all bee pollen has amazing benefits and if you don’t have access to local, it’s ok!
You are talking about dropping sizes so was wondering if I can ask you a question about weight and juice feasting. Last I weighed in at the doctor, I was 130 lbs at 5ft 8 (I’m female btw), my normal weight. I have feasted for 4 days and even though I do not have a scale at home, I and others have noticed that I am close to looking like skeletor. I drank 6 quarts of juice, half of them pure green juices made from celery and dandelion, the others from bell pepper, carrot and oranges. The orange juice, of which I drank 2-3 quarts gave me horrible sour stomach and I don’t think I want to drink it again ever But anyways, I seem to dissolve into thin air on only juice. Which I don’t if I eat the fruits and vegetables raw as they are. Though I do work out a lot, I have not worked out or burned extra calories during those days.
Is there some initial weight loss through loss of retained water that stops after a few days or what might be going on?
First of all, most people will lose a bit of weight on a Juice Feast. This is ok – you can lose as much as 10% of your body weight and be ok. If you are juice feasting properly, your body will only lose toxic weight, and then it will begin to build back up again. To avoid losing too much weight, you definitely need to be getting in all your leafy greens, and it would be a great idea to up your intake of green powders and algaes as well. You’ll also want to be drinking a lot of juice – 6 quarts, like you’re doing, is great. If you are doing all these things, and you’ve lost more than 10% and your weight doesn’t seem to be coming back on after a while or you’re continuing to lose weight, then you may consider breaking the feast. You may not need to do a full 92 day juice feast or any long length.
How the hay do you you squeeze 2lbs of greens and a head of celery into 1 quart/4 cups of juice?? My 1 lb. of greens and 3/4 head of celery made almost 3 quarts! Do I just put too much water in with my greens? Thanks for answering my question again :o)
Haha, well, if you’ve seen I’ve only gotten 1 quart of ‘green juice’ in one particular day, then I probably haven’t had quite the total greens. I tend to take closer to 1 lb of greens in per day than 2 lbs, it is a matter of accessibility for me, but get as close to 2 lbs as you can. As far as water, I usually put in about 3/4 – 1 cup of water in with a full vitamix of greens.