Day 29

Hello lovelies!

My my, it has been a very full few days! Where to start? Last week was a pretty intense week, but great none the less. I came out of it feeling like I purged and let go of a lot of baggage and feeling stronger and more centered than I have in ages. I also woke up yesterday with a strong message from my body that I was ready to transition into a modified juice feast. This surprised me because I had decided to keep going on just juice for another 30 days. But for the past three of four days I got hungrier and hungrier while at the same time the thought of juice was making me nauseous. Then all the juices started tasting really bitter and weird. Amazing how our bodies can send such strong signals!

So after a good conversation with David and Katrina Rainoshek we all agreed that I should listen to my body and start transitioning today back into blended smoothies and eventually to blended soups and some salads and fresh fruit. I felt a little mixed
about not going the full 30 days, but I've decided that it's more important to follow my intuition than to push myself just for the sake of pushing. It's that sort of thinking that drove me to burning out and getting sick in the first place. My body and I have been having some pretty open, honest conversations this past month and I'm trying to be very respectful of the communication that I have finally developed with myself.

So! Yesterday I did a couple of things to celebrate the successful completion of my first juice feast. First: I made the yummiest juices all day, and really ENJOYED them, thanking life and my body as I drank for all the health and healing we have accomplished in just 28 days. Second: I had a juice toast with my parents, complete with pineapple, blood orange filled wine glasses. This was particularly symbolic as it's been my family that's had the hardest time accepting my choice to go through this experience. But they have really shifted their views over the past week which felt like a big accomplishment. And third: I went over to my friend Robyn's house and we had a lovely dinner juice party with main course and dessert juices. Here are some pictures. The juices were so good:





Dinner: tomato, spinach, celery, carrot, cilantro, garlic
Dessert: red grape, pineapple, lemon, ginger (this tasted like ginger lemonade and is SO good!!!)

Now...it's Monday! And you know what that means. Time for the stats!

Here we go:

Weight: 136 Lbs -4 this week...I guess that's the water fasting - at 5"7 I'm now in my target healthy weight range. I'm feelin pretty darn happy about that, working on feeling satisfied with where I am right now, in this moment. *snaps for the moment!*

Skin: pretty darn smooth, face is much clearer. the Hawaiian sun should help too

Mood: even and happy. feeling optimistic, proud of myself and excited for the next stage of this process

Energy: 8/10 This weekend I went out and "did" stuff for the first time in a while. Socialized, had fun, got things done. It felt really great.

BMs: I know I haven't talked about this in a while. Well today I performed my last enema. The past week or so I have continued with 1/day to keep the toxins moving on out, but now that I'm re-introducing fiber into my diet that should take care of itself all on its own. I think my family's pretty happy about that...and I'm glad I won't be performing enemas in the shared bathroom in Hawaii.

Immune System: I'm still mucus-y and stuffed up, but getting better. I'm going to up my probiotic dose this week to 2/day to help boost my immune system. I feel strong though, and I'm hoping my days as a chronically sick lil lady are coming to a close

The Cold Factor: Still feeling the chill, but less than before. My body is warming up faster on its own and I'm able to do more heat building things like Ashtanga again

High Points of the Week: joining the www.globaljuicefeast.com community, receiving an email from Anthony the raw model (oh my!), lots of supportive comments and emails from friends and other raw foodies, and generally having FUN! (remember fun?)

This whole year has been such an amazing learning process. I think I'm getting to be a bit of an expert in curing depression and burnout, after hundreds of hours of reading, trying different methods, sampling different techniques. And the better I get, the more I think about working within a healing field, using what I have learned to help others overcome labeled "chronic" or "incurable" illnesses. I'm feeling so inspired to use my photography, art and writing to take me further down this path. I've also been thinking about becoming a Juice Feasting Consultant. I may or may not have mentioned before that my good friend Heather Cunliffe, in partnership with MoLe restaurant, is opening a 100% organic raw food cafe and juice bar downtown Victoria this spring. Well I am going to work for her at the cafe when it opens! This will provide me not only with a part time income that will support my continuing work as an artist and photographer, but it will also give me a social venue to talk with people about healing and health and meet others who are passionate about these things! I'm really excited about this (can you tell?)

Another thing I did this week was sit down and figure out what exactly I want out of life now that I am feeling ready to re-enter the "real" world.

This is what I realized (in order)
1: inspiring, creative, socially responsible work that gives me enough money to
2: move into my own home, an open concept apartment near downtown where I can have a
3: studio, and continue to grow as an artist and photographer, while living a
4: low impact, environmentally aware lifestyle, being an active part of my community
5: and I want to get a dog!!! (this has been a dream my entire life)

That, ladies and gentlemen, is my six month plan. I've been writing out many goals and affirmations (Over 100 in fact!) which I obviously won't bore you with, but this is the gist of what I am going to focus on this spring.

I know this post today is gosh darn long, that's what happens when I wait to write for a few days. There's just so many exciting things to report!

I'm going to leave you with a little movie I shot for your viewing pleasure so that you can all share my "breaking of the feast." What was my first meal you ask? Effectively green blended gloop, yummy! (oh and ummm, sorry for the butt shot, I really don't know why the video froze oh that)



Here's today's picture. I'm sporting a really warm and cozy hat made by my friend Jenny. Thanks Jenny you're the best!



Sending out so much love and happiness to all you lovely people. Thanks for patiently reading about my silly little life. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

“Because of your smile, you make life more beautiful.”

“The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.”

Thich Nhat Hanh quote