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| taking pictures of oneself drinking juice is awkward |
I've also been thinking about this 30 day goal. I'm going to stick with it, but why 30 days? Dont get me wrong, I'm sticking with it unless I float away into space first, I'm just sayin it's such an arbitrary number. I suppose I chose it to push myself harder than I've pushed myself before, like 3 times harder, and maybe it's because a couple of people inspired me.
Toward the end of my year in Costa Rica, I met a man named Gary. Gary was a really interesting man who owned a huge plot of land in a small town along the southern Pacific coast. Gary invited me to visit his property, much of which is pristine jungle, much of which he is returning to jungle, and some of which he is building and farming on, very very naturally. Anyway, Gary was living off the grid in a more intense way than anyone I'd met yet. He lived very minimally, I mean seriously minimally, with his resource consumption, in all ways. One night we started talking about fasts, and I'd mentioned I'd been craving a fast since I hadn't done one in the year I'd been in Costa Rica. He asked why not and I mentioned I didn't have a juicer. He then told me he did 50-60 water fasts once or twice a year. He did this because he'd made a promise to himself that if he lived to 50 (he didn't think he was going to and was the first male in his family for several generations to do so) he'd do a 50 water fast. And he did it. I'd always read that water fasts were dangerous and so I asked a lot of questions. I'm not going to share the whole conversation, but Gary was now many years beyond 50, and does this water fast once or twice a year still. He kept telling me that I should go for at least 30 days if I really want to get the full potential out of a fast. He's vibrant, energetic, healthy as shit, and he radiates. So Gary got me thinking and he encouraged me to take my fasts deeper. Because of who he is, I mean the totality of everything that he is, not just that he fasts but because he busts ass in life and is shining for it, I trust him and his encouragement led me to want to take my fast deeper.
Another person who inspired me was my former neighbor Molly (Molly, I so deeply miss your presence), whom I love and adore, who is a fellow faster and juicer like me. When I moved in next door to her, we slowly delighted in discovering similarities, and we both had chamion juicers- squeel! Well, we didn't squeel, but maybe a little..... we did, ok fine. Anyway, again, while I was spending a year in Costa Rica, Molly decided to do a 30 juice fast for the first time, all times before I believe she went for 10 days, or maybe 12 or something. I remember her telling me afterward that, first of all, she felt amazing, and second of all, 30 days makes 10 days feel pointless, in the same way that 10 days makes 5 days seem pointless.
And so it's the memories I have of others who have shared their experiences that motivates me to try harder and go deeper. I guess those people are teachers to me, and as always, I've got so much love, respect and gratitude for the teachers I've had in this life. So from me, feeling motivated and awesome on Day 5, I thank you:)
Recipes and tedious calorie counting follow:
Weight: I didn't weigh myself, still don't have a scale
Grapefruit, Orange, Mango, Blackberry
24 oz grapefruit- 288
24 oz orange juice-336
4 oz mango juice- 64 calories
4 oz blackberry juice-46
56 oz at 734 calories
I expected to like this one more than I did, but I think mango and grapefruit aren't the best combo, I mean it wasn't bad, just not the best.
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| this was a really nice change of pace |
Pear, Spinach and stuff
6 oz pear-112
2 oz spinach-3.5
4 oz papaya-70
6 oz cucumber- 52
6 oz apple-90
2 oz celery- 11
26 oz- 338 calories
I realized I've got to start adding variety with my combos and I've got to add some new fruits and vegetables, so this oneis just a slightly different combo with papaya. I read later that papaya is mostly sugar, so I might use it sparingly.
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| I love these big bowls of chopped things waiting to course through me |
From the Mean Green Juice recipe #3
1 oz beet greens- 5 calories
1 oz poplano pepper and ginger mixed- none?
3 oz kale- 18
2 oz beet juice- 10 calories
10 oz carrot- 117 calories
13 oz apple-156
30 oz- 306 calories
Total for the day: 112 oz at 1378- still not at 120 ounces, damn it!
Maybe Steve has something lying around his studio you could strap to your boots so you don't float away..... I need you there when I get back.
ReplyDeleteLOVE
So are you carrying on an active lifestyle or conserving energy throughout the day? Just curious, i may one day try it out.
ReplyDeletemy life style is pretty normal i suppose, and during a fast it is recommended that you slow down, do less socializing, expend less energy outward and turn the focus inward. That said, I have a daily yoga practice that is quite challanging, and usually lasts about an hour and a half or two hours. I go on long walks, like 5 - 7 mile walks. And I'm working, which included cleaning houses- pretty active, teaching yoga, and kind of being a bit of a handyman. I'm socializing about once or twice a week, but not for as long, I've been the first to arrive and the first to leave lately, but that's good. I'm not standing around mindlessly jabbering while getting drunk- I can do that sometimes. In general, I'm not straying too far from what had become normal for me over the past several months, but a little bit maybe. I have a friend who did outdoor landscaping here in Austin, and would do the mastercleanse for 10 days in July. That means over 100 degree heat, high humidy and very hard labor, all while on a fast. He always said he had more energy and felt great. He was also a really big guy with some reserves to burn through, but still....
ReplyDeletegood luck if you give it a shot. I'd recommend starting small, like a 3 or 5 day fast. But keep in mind that the first 3 days are the hardest, like a lot harder than the rest of it. The first 3 days you're having extreme reactions to quitting all the things, and your hunger is high. That all begins to subside on day 4, so it's worth it to make it a couple days beyond day 3 just because you did all that work to get past it- you might as well enjoy it.