This is the start of day 7 of our 10 day juice fast. WOW! There was a time on day 3 when I thought I would just scrap the whole thing right then and there. Yesterday I wrote on FB, the recipes that we had throughout the day but I didn't get to writing anything on the blog so I figured I'd do that today. Day 6 almost felt like 2 days rolled into one. There were some points when I felt like it was day 6 but then maybe it was day 7 now. What day is it? I think everything is starting to roll together into one big day. I think I felt like I could just do this fast forever and it doesn't matter about counting it out anymore. I'm feeling really good in my body. 10 pounds are gone, wow! Loads of inflammation is gone. I hope to see neither of them again! I'm running up the stairs again. WOW! It's been a long long time since I've done that. We are going through so much produce. I've ordered more for this coming week. We've talked about continuing on with the addition of smoothies for the next 10 days. So it would be green juice, smoothie and then green juice. We'll see how it goes. We also want to start a bigger exercise program so for me that will mean a little bit of weights along with the walking and biking and yoga that I do. I'm inspired not only by that movie Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead but also by this amazing body builder, Ernestine Shepherd who started her body building at age 56. When I saw her website and story, I thought, "if she can do it, I can do it." And after I watched Joe and Phil in Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, I thought, "if they can do it, I can do it too." These people are amazingly focused and unwavering in their intentions and actions. This is key, I think. Working at the cafe yesterday was good. It wasn't super busy and I got a lot of things done. I slowed my brain down while I was there. I get into multi-tasking mode so easily there. It's really the nature of how things go: I've got a list of things I want to do, our employees have their own list, many of which need questions answered by me or whatever, customers come in, phone calls come in. I'm getting pulled into many directions. Even when things are slower, I still get myself into that habit of being pulled into many directions so yesterday, I had the opportunity and I took it to slow things down. I didn't try to make myself super efficient and get as much done as possible. I did one thing at a time until it was done. I slowed down my breathing and my pace. It was very enjoyable. Matt brought over a juice and that tied me over for about 3 or so hours. Somewhere around 3:30, I was hungry so I had some young coconut water and added a bit of coconut kefir water in it. It hit the spot incredibly well. The evenings still are the hardest part for me on the juice fast. I'm used to having liquids for breakfast and lunch. I'm used to not snacking (although I really did get back into the bad habit of snacking at the cafe.) But the evenings are when it's time to make dinner for the kids that the sights and smells are just there. Last night was no exception. It wasn't torturous or anything, but I was definitely looking at their meal with a little bit of longing in my eyes. :-) It's best, I'm finding, to keep active when the mind starts longing for something. We went to see the Harry Potter movie in the theater again last night. I'm also finding that I'm writing more, I'm reading more, I'm staying off my email more. I'm even cleaning and organizing more. I have this thing that I want to be a really highly-functioning being and I want my house to be highly-functioning too. So old rickety tables and chairs, if they aren't going to get fixed, are out and are replaced with newer models that I found off of craigslist. (Still into reusing/recycling, mind you!) :-) Things we've held onto that we don't use or have come to the conclusion that we aren't going to fix them, just have to go. My mind is also feeling clearer which is great. It's still just a part of the journey and I've got a long journey ahead of me. The other thing I'm noticing is that when the dinner is out and I've got that longing, I really employ my intention a lot. Same for when my stomach is starting to growl and I'm at work and it would be too easy just to grab some cheezy cauliflower and pop them in my mouth as I'm helping a customer. I'm glad I wrote out that intention because it's how I get myself back in focus of the bigger picture. That is the key to help shatter any self-talk that might try to convince me to just stop this silliness of doing only juice for 10 days. When I've got my intention back into focus, I can speak to that gremlin in my head and say, "Be quiet now. This is only 10 days. A person can do anything for 10 days and I choose to do this. I feel good and I'm going to continue." We all definitely have monkey-brain sometimes. So that's the recap now here's the recipes from yesterday... We drank a lot more juices yesterday:
