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My August 2016 Juice Cleanse, And Does It Get Easier?
I’ve finished a 5-day Juice Cleanse about a week ago, and I told my newsletter subscribers that I’d write about it, so here I am taking to my blog. Some of you are clients of mine right now and were so kind tell me good luck and ask me how I was doing on my cleanse. It was odd to have the roles reversed!
Advice From A 10-Year Vegan
I’m a little late in posting this; the late summer of this year marked 10 years of veganism for me! There are so many ways people write “veganniversary” blogs, but for mine, I decided to create a Q&A with common questions people ask of me. So let’s dig right in!
Health and Compulsive Eating: How to Get Through the Holidays, Part 2
Hi friends! I wrote Part 1 in this series, called Health & Compulsive Eating: How to Get Through the Holidays, Part 1 a while ago about food and the holidays. This is a series I’m really enjoying writing. All of what I write blends with my personal experience, but this topic is especially important to me because I used to be that person who dreaded the weight gain of the holidays, and who did indeed always gain weight during the holidays, and feel overall pretty awful by the end of them. The holiday season was one where I always felt totally preoccupied and anxious, and in retrospect, I can see how little I really was able to actually enjoy the holidays because of that. And now I have had the experience of what it’s like to have the holiday season hold no fear. I don’t worry I will eat too much, I don’t worry I’ll eat lots of junk food, I don’t worry I’ll gain weight, and — I don’t. I would love for everyone to have that experience. We all certainly deserve it and are capable of it! And thus, it’s time for Part 2!
Is It Rude To Eat Differently From My Family and Friends?
Are these scenarios familiar?
You go to your family member’s house and they have prepared food for everyone, which is the kind of food they eat, but not the kind you eat (or want to be eating). You feel like you’d be rude not to eat what they prepare, or inconsiderate to insist on eating your own way. Perhaps they even tell you that you are indeed rude, or inconsiderate, or difficult. So you eat what they make, and it makes your body feel bad, or it brings you a conflict morally (ie. if your different way of eating is vegan or vegetarian for ethics).
My Decision: My “Before and After” Photos
When I posted my first blog two weeks ago, called “Should I Post My ‘Before and Afters’?” I knew that hearing from you would be helpful, but the entire topic allowed for a rich and powerful discussion on the bigger topics of body image, shame, achievement, and inspiration. And out of the dozens and dozens of comments and thoughts about it that I received, everyone was so loving towards me and towards each other on the various threads. I just love that.
Should I Post My “Before and Afters”?
I’d love your thoughts on a serious subject that I’ve been thinking about for a while: my own “before and after” photos.
I sometimes get the feedback from people who are struggling with compulsive eating that they don’t totally feel they can relate to me, because all my pictures of myself up on my blog and social media are of me since I have healed a lot of my compulsive eating, and generally looking pretty happy and healthy (which I am now). Many of the people I work with (though not all) have weight issues due to compulsive eating and feel their extra weight is unhealthy or uncomfortable, and may have a lot of emotional pain about struggling with weight, too. I was in the same place, as I’ve written lots about, and yet there aren’t any pictures of when I was overweight.
Guest Post: Mary Ann’s 7-Day Juice Cleanse
7-day Juice Feast Blog by Mary Ann:
I am an emotional eater. I love chocolate and alcohol – ugh. I have been trying to figure out why I choose to “numb out” and decided that a Juice Feast would help me find the answer. My goal is to unhook from sugar, let my body heal and my cravings cease. And start the road – again – to losing the 40 pounds that HAVE NO BUSINESS ON MY BODY! (Whoa, that sounded a bit angry.) What a thrill to be starting this Feast with the wisdom and guidance from Courtney, who coached me through 21-days of juice feasting last March. I had such fun filling my cart with produce as I got ready to plunge into Day One. Tip: Clean out the fridge before you go shopping – it’s a ton of veggies!
My January 2014 Juice Cleanse: Days 5-7
I have finished my January week-long Juice Cleanse and am glad that I did it! If you didn’t catch my recap of Days 1-4, you can read about it by clicking here. I actually found it to be the easiest winter juice cleanse I’ve done; the cold weather didn’t bother me so much this time around. I just bundled up and used a lot of blankets, and hey, who can say that’s not cozy?
My January 2014 Juice Cleanse: Days 1-4
I have embarked on my first juice cleanse since I moved to Colorado, and this is also the juice cleanse which, as of today, will officially put me over 200 days of juice cleansing total. That’s over about 8 years, but still a big number when I look at it. Those 200 days have been some of the more transformating of my life, partly because of the physical healing, and partly because of the emotional healing.
Reddish Beet Kale Green Juice – A Radical Radiance Recipe
Though this juice is reddish because of the beet, it is a green juice! And it can be fun to introduce people to green juice through juices with beet, because the color isn’t as repulsive as when it’s green. It’s really just placebo, but it’s awesome!
How to Have New Year’s Resolutions and Goals – And Be Nice to Yourself
It’s that time again–the time when millions of people make New Year’s Resolutions for their bodies and health. For the past week, as is typical every year around this time, I’ve seen slews of articles about how to make new years resolutions, what you should make them for, and even, many articles saying, “screw New Year’s Resolutions–they just make you feel bad about yourself.” I don’t have any strong opinion on whether you should have them or not. My feeling is that the most important thing to examine is whether or not you’re being kind to yourself if you’re going to have them.
“Snow Shake” Green Smoothie – A Radical Radiance Recipe
I unintentionally made a very festive smoothie the other day and I decided to re-create it and record all the quantities for you! This is a thick (thought you could make it any consistency you like), really satisfying treat. I say treat because it has a fair amount of fruit in it, but also SO much spinach – a really good greens hit!
Health & Compulsive Eating: How to Get Through the Holidays, Part 1
Happy Holidays! Holidays bring mixed feelings for many people who struggle with eating and weight. Many of us look forward to the holidays in some ways, but simultaneously feel worry (or even dread!) about the possibility of overeating, junk food, and how it will affect our weight. By exploring why we go off the deep end, and what’s behind that behavior, we can prevent a great deal of stress and suffering during the holidays (and any time of year). So, let’s dive in!
How Anger and Compulsive Eating Are Related
This quote rings true. Suppressed emotions cause problems. One problem they can cause is compulsive eating. We overeat, compulsively eat, or eat too much junk food because we are trying to avoid, suppress or minimize an emotion in that moment. And so, in the process of healing compulsive eating, we all have to face these emotions we have been avoiding, and often haven’t been aware we even have. If these emotions are ones we have wanted to avoid so much that we use food to suppress them, we can imagine they’re not going to be easy ones for us to feel. These emotions can include sadness, grief, fear, pain, loneliness, insecurity, unworthiness, sorrow–anything really. And they can be about “big” things or “little” things. And they can be about the past, the present, or the future.
David Rainoshek Interviews Me About Juice Cleansing
One of my mentors in plant-based nutrition and juice cleansing is the amazing David Rainoshek, M.A. whom I studied with to becomig a Juice Feasting Coach. David hosts the website JuiceFeast.com and is a great friend.
My 8-Year Vegan Anniversary!
Well, it’s almost over, but this month marks 8 years eating vegan for me! In honor of this anniversary, I decided to ask all of you via Facebook and Twitter if you had any questions for me. I received some great questions and am looking forward to answering them, Q&A style, right now!
Tips For Managing Social Situations While Juice Cleansing
In our world, food is virtually inseparable from socializing. Food is everywhere and it’s almost always a part of every social situation we are part of. So if you’re considering a juice cleanse, you’re bound to wonder how you will get through it without either offending people because you aren’t eating or boarding up your house and taking shelter as a juicy hermit until you’re done with your juice cleanse. And for many of my Juice Feasters who embark on cleanses several weeks or months in length, that’s a long time to stay in recluse. I’ve covered a few aspects of this in previous blog posts. I talked about how to talk with people about the fact that you’re doing a cleanse in the post Telling Unsupportive People That You’re Cleansing, and I addressed why you must value yourself and your desire to change your health in Why You Deserve To Change Your Diet. Our relationships and interactions with others around diet and cleansing are big topics, so I’ll just cover a few angles of this here.
Your Career Might Be Making You a Compulsive Eater
“When I’m at work, I can’t help but eat the doughnuts and cookies people bring.” “I get so stressed at work that I eat to get through it.” “When I get home from a long day at work, I’m so stressed and tired and I end up eating a lot at night.” and sometimes people say, “I eat much better on days off.”
These are common things I hear from my clients when they describe the terrain of their compulsive eating patterns. Of course, not everyone who compulsively eats does so in relation to their work or career, but a great percentage do — enough to make me want to write a blog post about it.
My March Juice Cleanse, Days 5-7
Greetings, blog readers! I have finished my Juice Cleanse, which I decided to just have be one week this time around. I am feeling physically amazing as always happens when you drink a lot of green juice, and am very glad to have this spring cleaning. I’m looking at this lovely spring bouquet in my window. It’s sunny outside and nearly 50 degrees!
Days 5-7 were great and fine. Physically, there is not much to say other than that I felt fantastic and productive – I almost always feel even more productive and efficient on Juice Cleanses than otherwise – and grateful for the bounty which allows me to make fresh juice!
Myths About Healing Compulsive Eating
Throughout my years of healing my own relationship with food and letting go of compulsive eating, and also talking with many, many people on their own journeys doing the same, I’ve identified some common myths about healing compulsive eating. These were myths that I believed and many people with whom I work also believe(d).