This information can be quoted, if you attribute the authorship.
© Adam Atman 2006
The 2010 Group Juice Fast |
Its that time of year again, when the body and soul yearn for exercise and expansion and cleansing and detoxification.
We will be conducting another group detoxification from Friday May 07 to Tuesday June 04.
This will be a 30 day cleanse using the Ejuva detoxification system, with individual modifications as needed. We have secured a group price of $239 for the cleanse, which is a really good price as it normally retails for $325. This cleanse is a four week cleanse culminating in a seven day juice fast.
Participants of the group cleanse will have access to a yahoo group to share information, recipes, experiences etc. . I will also conduct live teleconference support to answer any questions 2 mornings a week, and I will be available by phone or email should any questions arise.
The group cleanse will cost $289. This cost covers $239 for the Ejuva cleanse and $50 for the support services.
For information about the practice and value of Juice Fasting and detoxification see below:
The Juice Fast
- A Powerful and Gentle Way to Detox the Body and Upgrade the Soul
Table of Contents
Prior to cleansing: A precautionary note
These notes were written for forty participants who did a ten day fast together in 2006. This cleanse is a powerful and gentle way to detox, and I recommend it with a reminder or warning for newcomers. During this cleanse I personally supervised this process for my patients. .If you are not my patient, please follow the guidance of a health care provider familiar with juice fasting and detoxification protocols. Keep in touch with your health care provider, and learn how your body responds through gentle and gradual practices.
What you need to have - to do the 2010 Group Juice Fast
Contraindications
Make sure that none of these contrainidications apply to you:
This juice fast may be inappropriate if the following conditions exist:
1/ Pregnancy or breastfeeding
2/ type I diabetes or insulin dependant diabetes
3/ the weight loss of advanced cancer, AIDS or tuberculosis
4/ anorexia
5/ severe hypoglycemia
6/ kidney failure
7/ severe liver disease
8/ severe anemia
9/ long term steroid medication use
10/ Medium-Chain Acyl-CoA Dehydrogenase (MCAD) Deficiency Syndrome
(if you have this you probably know about it!)
You must consult with me if you are on any prescription or over-the-counter medications before embarking on the juice fast. There are certain considerations about medications which make it very important to evaluate your situation individually before you commence a fast, so please bring it up with me prior to commencing.
You need a commitment!
Deciding is 51% of the difficulty. Once you've decided, stay firm in the decision.
It’s best not to schedule a lot of dinner engagements; family visits by disapproving relatives or extensive flying schedules. Having said that though, you could have all of these things happen and still have a great juice fast!
Running a marathon or other extensive forms of exertion, beyond your normal limits, could pose challenges and are not recommended unless you have quite a bit of experience with fasting. (it is with experience perhaps do-able – Peter Ragnar (see www.roaringlionpublishing.com ) ran a mile in four minutes and fifteen seconds on his seventieth birthday. He was on the seventh day of water fast and at the seven mile point of the 10 mile run he decided to increase his speed!)
During the juice fast it is fine to exercise but -listen to your body and don’t force yourself.. I like to run on the third day to help accelerate the elimination of toxins through sweating.. Excessive physical exercise can be draining on a juice fast. Towards the end of the juice fast the exercise schedule should probably be lighter. You want your body to have energy for detoxification and repair, so you don't want to use up all your Qi with extreme exercise.
Once you are Commited - sign up.
You can sign up from the link at the top of the page. The total cost is $289.
Signing up gets you the Ejuva cleanse at a really great rate - $239 (it retails for $325)
$50 covers the optional bi-weekly teleconferences, yahoo group access to share recipes, ask questions, etc. and phone support in answering urgent questions.
The sooner you sign up the better for us to organize the logistics of the cleanse.
Getting the Ejuva Cleanse Products
The Ejuva cleanse normally takes at least a week to arrive.
They will be made once you at the address you supply with the online sign up form and once your paypal payment has been received
At Ejuva they don't start making the cleanse until they receive the order, as they believe that when products sit on shelves for months at a time they lose a lot of their Qi or inherent healing power.
How to Use the Ejuva Cleanse Products
The Ejuva cleanse is a kit with six products in it. They are designed to be taken together as a meal replacement when fasting and detoxing. Just follow the directions which come with the kit.
You will receive from Ejuva all the LIVE products needed to complete a 4 week Cleanse. This Cleanse includes
When you get the cleanse read the instructions carefully so that you know how and when to take the products. Keep in mind the following:
You need a Juicer!
You can buy a juicer for $60 from any kitchen appliance store which will get the job done just fine! As juicers have hit the mass market the price has come down. The better juicers such as the champion, Omega 4000, Jack Lelanne Power Juicer or Breville juicers do preserve the juice integrity better, but any juicer will do fine for your juice fast.
The Champion juicer is normally considered the best, but any juicer is better than none. The Champion Juicer has a large motor which lasts. It is also easy to clean. It retails for around $250. Another good brand of juicer is an Omega 4000.
For juicing wheatgrass and delicate stems you need a separate wheatgrass juicer, or a Green Power Juicer or Green Life Juicer which retails from $449 to $550. These machines juice wheatgrass as well as greens and vegetables. If you take a look on the internet you can find discussion on the best kind of juicer. You don’t need these kind of juicers to do your juice fast however!
Remember, a juicer is not a blender. Some people use super-high speed blenders like the vitamix type blenders. A blender liquidizes the fibrous pulp of fruits and vegetables. This is fine for healthy dieting and nutrition, but it is not what we want for the juice fast. We want to extract the liquid from fruits and vegetables – this is what a juicer does, not turn the solids into a liquefied mass, which is what a blender does. The idea is to give your digestive tract a complete rest from solids.
You may also want to get a mechanical citrus juicer, as it is much easier to juice oranges, grapefruits etc with this. They are not very expensive.
Why Juice Fasting?
For ages many cultures have used periodic fasting and diets to heal the body. The juice fast doesn’t interrupt the intake of nutrition. In this cleanse, plentiful and diverse nutrients are taken in daily through juice. The healing potential of fasting is mostly unknown to modern westerners. The juice fast heals the body but our consensus culture and media disdains the practice of fasting, claiming it to be dangerous and of no medical value.. Fortunately there is an unbroken tradition of fasting that has come through disciplined and dedicated individuals including doctors who recorded their findings and adapted practices for the conditions and needs of diverse types of contemporary people. The protocol I have developed synthesizes the best practices from veteran doctors and researchers of fasting methods including: Paavo Airola, Dr. Bernard Jensen, (who supervised more than 50,000 patients on juice fasts), Steve Hurwitz, (the founder of the Ejuva cleansing system). The studies of these veterans and pioneers are represented in this fast, combined with the documented experience of my patients and learning communities, furthered by my personal fasting experience for over twenty-five years.
Quotes from experts on why fasting works
Evart Loomis M.D. -"Fasting is the world's most ancient and natural healing mechanism. Fasting triggers a truly wondrous cleansing process that reaches right down to each and every cell and tissue in the body. Within 24 hours of curtailing food intake, enzymes stop entering the stomach and travel instead into the intestines and into the bloodstream, where they circulate and gobble up all sorts of waste matter, including dead and damaged cells, unwelcome microbes, metabolic wastes, and pollutants. All organs and glands get a much-needed and well-deserved rest, during which their tissues are purified and rejuvenated and their functions balanced and regulated. The entire alimentary canal is swept clean. By rebuilding immunity, health is naturally restored and disease disappears. If health and immunity are thereafter conscientiously maintained, the individual is no longer vulnerable to disease and dieting become unnecessary. Surely one of the most overlooked and yet most valuable modes of healing that will be rediscovered in the future of the new medicine is the fast. This is because of the increasing interest in looking to oneself for healing powers. For the fast is an inward process and cannot be entered upon only from an outer approach with any expectation of a lasting benefit. The person must invariably be involved with the overall results. This therapeutic encounter is in direct contrast to the usual non-involvement in the physician-directed, disease-oriented medical practice of today."
Patricia Bragg Ph.D.- "Proven throughout history for physical, mental and spiritual rejuvenation, fasting promotes cleansing and healing; helps normalize weight, blood pressure, cholesterol; rebuilds the immune system; and helps reverse the aging process. If we are to get these poisons out of our bodies we must fast. By fasting we give our bodies a physiological rest. This rest builds Vital Force. The more Vital Force we have, the more toxins are going to be eliminated from the body to help keep it clean, pure and healthy."
Benjamin Franklin - "The best of all medicines are rest and fasting"
Ron Kennedy MD. “When we overload our bodies with food, even if we are able to burn it up without gaining weight, we create a chronic condition of low grade toxemia. Here resides the problem. The plasma membrane of each cell can somehow sense the concentration of toxic wastes in the circulatory system. If this concentration is above legal limit, the plasma membrane denies an exit visa for toxic wastes inside the cell until conditions outside the cell improve. Each cell becomes a storage unit for unusable, toxic molecules. This is not what a doctor would call "toxemia," because it is not life-threatening. However, if what you are interested in is the most health and vitality possible for you, this is definitely a chronic condition of low grade toxemia. Only children who are on a health supporting diet are immune from a chronic condition of low grade toxemia. All adults are suffering from this condition in some degree. Fasting creates a condition of low concentration of toxic wastes in the circulatory system. This is sensed by the plasma membrane of each cell and each cell will then let go of its load of toxic wastes. Any degree of overloading your body with food results in the intracellular collection of waste products. Fasting allows you to tip the scales in the other direction, so that your body can release itself from this condition of autointoxication.
More on Ejuva
The following is a quote from www.ejuva.com
"EJUVA is 100% RAW 100% Vegan 100% Gluten Free with 100% Organic and or Wild Crafted ingredients. EJUVA has over 90 Raw, organic and Wild Crafted ingredients that inspire the body to cleanse. EJUVA goes to great pains collecting their herbs to avoid the radiated, gassed or steamed herbs found in this country (legally labeled under organic).
EJUVA is simply the most pure, gentle, yet deeply effective body cleanse on the planet! EJUVA is NOT just a Colon Cleanse! Ejuva cleanses the Liver, Lungs, Spleen, Pancreas, Kidneys, Gall Balder, (all the organs of the body) as well as your tissue, your entire Lymph system, your entire Alimentary canal from your throat to your rectum. And, offers specific herbs for balancing your hormonal or Endocrine system.
EJUVA uses no fillers, binders, excipients or heat in their proprietary processing methods; We do not even lubricate our tableting machine. Even Vegetarian Capsules are not pure enough for EJUVA's strict standards as they are made with polymers (plastics). We had to severely alter a standard tableting machine to accommodate our needs.
EJUVA does not use Bentonite Clay as its Carrier as so many do. Clay (or dirt), with its 22% Aluminum content is acidic and dead. Clay dehydrates the human intestines and like everything acidic and dead costs the body in valuable Vitamins, Minerals, Enzymes, Co Enzymes and Energy to expel from the human body. The human body is NOT designed to consume dirt. Instead EJUVA uses Ayurvedic fruits that are alive and organic for its carrier. These fruits not only do a better job at carrying out the toxins than does Clay. But the fruits actually have a nourishing effect on the body.
EJUVA is the ONLY cleanse that addresses the emotional side of cleansing with its vibrational elixir called Vibram. Containing pure plant oils and vibrational elixirs of Diamond, Gold, Quartz, Sapphire, Amethyst among others.
EJUVA is balanced! Meaning you can do all your daily functions as normal when consuming EJUVA. In fact, most report feeling better while cleansing with EJUVA then they normally do.
Most herbal cleanses are 7 to 14 days, for those who believe your body can effectively cleanse in these short periods of time we at EJUVA strongly disagree. No matter your belief, imagine what your body could do in 30 days with the Worlds most pure cleanse consisting of over 90 LIVE herbs and NO chemicals or dirt whatsoever.
EJUVA freshness is also unsurpassed! EJUVA is NOT sitting on some shelf under fluorescent lights waiting for someone to finally buy it. EJUVA isn't made UNTIL YOU ORDER IT! Not only wouldn't we place our herbs in veggie caps, we would NEVER place them in plastic storage containers for obvious reasons."
The Ejuva cleanse costs a little more than some other cleanses but I believe it is worth the extra expense as it is a very well designed cleanse. There are other detox protocols and products available. Some are too harsh and cathartic, some are not as comprehensive as they need to be and some are badly designed. Here is how the cleanse is described:
The Ejuva Cleanse has been designed to be taken in 4 stages, each lasting approximately one week. The key benefit of completing phases 1-4 in sequential order is to help eliminate toxins gradually and safely without placing too much stress upon the liver and kidneys, which reduces cleansing reactions. This phasing technique also helps your body adjust to the herbs.
The First Three Weeks - Preparing for the Juice Fast
The first week of the Cleanse
Phase 1 The Ejuva herbs and shake are consumed once a day and three meals may be eaten per day.
Start taking the Ejuva products, once a day at the same time each day.
This is experimental. Every ‘body’ is different. Experience how the support products feel in your body. The support products have been selected to synergistically maximize detoxification while minimizing discomfort.
This is the most mild of the phases, it prepares the body for deep cleansing. First time cleansers, toxic individuals, meat eaters, those with chronic diseases or physical problems start here. Even at this stage, old fecal and mucoid matter are expelled from the body.
Your diet will consist of fruits, vegetables, beans, seeds and nuts. Eating a ‘lighter’ diet, with a higher percentage of raw food will change the way you feel within a day or two.
The Second week of the Cleanse
Phase 2 - During this phase only two meals may be eaten per day. These meals should now be 100% raw and vegan. Warm herb tea is fine to drink.
The Ejuva cleanse is now taken twice per day. Morning and evening is best.
The Third week of the Cleanse
Phase 3 - One meal may be eaten per day and juicing is encouraged as often as you need to feel energized.
The Ejuva Cleanse is now taken 3 times per day, energizing and allowing for deep cleansing.
The Fourth week of the Cleanse - The Juice Fast
Phase 4 - This is the most potent phase of the program. No solid food is eaten during this phase, this phase is a juice fast consisting of fresh fruit and vegetable juices.
The Ejuva Cleanse is now taken 4 times per day, to energize and to allow for deep cleansing.
From www.ejuva.com:
"The body cannot digest solid foodstuff and cleanse. The human body will always choose digestion over cleansing. However, while juicing your body receives more nutrients than when eating solid foodstuff.
Your body digests juice in a manner that is called Osmosis which absorbs all the nutrients straight into the blood stream without using the normal channels of digestion. Juice fasting will allow your body to cleanse 24/7. The herbs and shake are consumed 4 x's per day during this phase. This phase allows for maximum cleansing and detoxification and most report feeling their best while on this phase."
Ejuva product ingredients
Power
Ingredients: Agrimony, Alfalfa powder, Angelica root, Cascara Sagrada, Calendula Flowers, Chamomile, Chickweed, Dandelion, Devils Claw, Echinacea Root (angustifolia), Elderflower berries, Fennel seed, Golden Seal, Green Papaya Powder, Horsetail, Icelandic Moss, Amla, Red Raspberry leaf, Sassafras root bark, Stinging nettle, Turkey Rhubarb, Yarrow flowers, Yellow dock, Triphala, Date.
Balance
Ingredients: Ashwanganda, Astragalus, Dashamula, Fo Ti, Ginseng Rt., Guggulu, Hawthorn berry, Hibiscus, Chinese Licorice, Marshmallow root, Paeonia, Pau d'Arco, Hips, Sarsaparilla root, Schizandra, Slippery Elm, Shih Hu, Suma root powder, Date.
Moflora
On the day of production, Moflora contains 20 billion beneficial bacteria per gram of the following species: Lactobacillus Acidophilus, Lacto-bacillus lactis, Bifidobacterium Bifidum, Bifidobacterium infantis, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus salifarius, and Lactobacillus caseii. These probiotics are bound in a base of vegetable fructooligosaccharides. Moflora is lactose free and is certified to be free of E. Coli, Salmonella, Staph. and other pathogens.
Combi Shake
Combi is designed to be taken as a shake with water or juice.Ingredients: wildcrafted Psyllium Seed Husk powder, Slippery Elm powder, Flax and Chia seeds.
Renew
Renew contains a combination of ayurvedic herbs to draw out toxins. This makes it far superior to betonite, which may contain up to 21% aluminum. Ingredients: Amalaki, Bibhitaki, Haritaki, Trikatu, Date, Vidanga, Kataja, Kamala, Cascara Sagrada, Turkey Rhubarb, Pau d'Arco, New Zealand Pseudowintera colorata (leaf), Japanese Parsley, Cnicus, Mandarin Orange, Liquorice, Atractylis, Cypress, Cinnamon, Hoelen, Ginger, Rehmannia, Cloves, Peony, Coptis.
Vibram
Vibram is desinged to be applied externally, to balance the emotional changes which may arise during cleansing. Ingredients: Pure plant oils and essences of Ashwanganda, Basil, Nutmeg, and Saffron plus vibration elixirs of Diamond, Lapis Lazuli, Amethyst, Thulite, Beryl, Limestone, Coal, Rosa Macrophylla, White Quartz, Aloe Eru, Gold, and Sapphire.
Common misconceptions about fasting
Westerners are conditioned to believe that we must continually consume food no matter what. It is commonly believed that humans starve for protein quickly, and that protein deprivation creates a famished and exhausted physical condition, depriving the body of vital nutrients. We’ve been sold on the falsehood that humans can’t live without supplements, that fasting is dangerous for people who are thin or people who are fat…We have been told that fasting makes people sick. Lets look at these ideas one at a time:
Protein
The support product called Vitamineral Green provides plenty of daily protein. We generally eat far more protein than we need, most of which putrefies in the intestines and acidifies the tissue. Protein malnutrition begins to occur after a long period of starvation. There are ample documents in the historical record of individuals taking on 100 day juice fasts to cure cancer, all the while maintaining their weight, appearing in vibrant health and not suffering from protein malnutrition at all! So you and I can fast for a week and not suffer from malnutrition at all – in fact we will have super-nutrition! It is possible to lose weight and even a little muscle mass on a fast, but don’t worry, the muscle mass will come right back after the fast if you exercise.
Fatigue, discomfort and symptoms of detoxification
On a juice fast you may have a day or two where you are in a detoxification phase and you feel more fatigued than usual. You will also pass through phases when you feel really fine, better than fine! Slight discomfort that sometimes occurs in the beginning simply means that your body is shifting gears and dumping toxins. These shifts often occur around day 2-3 and / or day 6-7, but they can appear at anytime during or after a fast, or during the days of altering your diet. Welcome these days!
During these times you may experience transient physical symptoms such as a headache or a body ache. Remember one thing when fasting – Your body is controlled by Nature’s advanced intelligence, so relax and trust a little! When nature decides it is time for you to release you will get the release. You are in good hands and she knows what she is doing.
Doing what the Animals Do - Periodic Fasting
Healing is returning to nature, and fasting is one of the simplest ways to do this. Every dog or cat knows this. When mammals get sick they eat only grass to heal themselves. . The grass causes vomiting and diarrhea and then the animal fasts until it feels better. In the juice fast the support herbs clean you out, but in a gentle way. Fasting, especially juice fasting, is very safe and will in fact heal you. If you feel fatigued on a juice fast just drink more juice! It will energize you. Also you can take more of the 'Balance' product'. Adding a green drink is also useful here. Let yourself get extra sleep if you can. On a juice fast the body is sometimes busy rebuilding.
Healing Crisis
In some cases of pain from arthritis, joint injuries, fibromyalgia, the condition may appear to worsen temporarily before improving. This is normal, and it is a good sign that the fast is detoxifying the body. Normally this ‘healing crisis’ resolves itself in a few days. Generally the condition will be better than before the start of the fast.
Sometimes during a fast you can get a cold or a fever. The body likes to discharge toxins, but in normal daily life we are in a state of high ‘compensation’. This means that the normal stress state of life involving adrenal stimulation over activates the sympathetic nervous system at the expense of the parasympathetic nervous system. We are in ‘fight or flight’ mode. We feel engaged in the game of life, but in this state the body holds on tight and doesn’t release toxins. After a few days of fasting and withdrawal from adrenal stimulants like caffeine and sugar the body catches on that we are in ‘release’ mode. Discharges may occur such as a runny nose, sinus drainage, sweating, occasional vomiting. This is all a good sign. So if you are seeking to heal allergies which cause mucous build up, then don’t be surprised if the discharging process sometimes lingers for a while. If you are detoxing increasing the intake of the Renew product can sometimes be helpful.
Hunger
Pangs of hunger are OK to feel when we relax.. Most of us are on some level terrified of feeling hunger. Yet when you stop and let yourself feel it, it is not such a big deal. One of the surprises of fasting is that after day 2, 3 or 4 the actual physical hunger goes away! Sometimes the mind says it is time to eat just out of habit, but there is not much force behind it. The ‘Combi’ support product is a bulking agent which also reduces the physical aspect of hunger by gently filling the intestines. The Balance product also reduces hunger.
When juice fasting: adopt the attitude that you are becoming physically one with nature, and the deep power of nature to heal. Thousands of people have healed cancer, heart disease and other very serious conditions with juice fasting. Dr. Bernard Jensen developed prostate cancer in his eighties and just drank carrot juice for four months. He eliminated the cancer and lived in great health for another ten years. Dr. Day reversed very serious breast cancer (see www.drday.com for before and after pictures), and likewise… you have the potential to heal whatever illness is present in the body or even latent in the body, having not yet fully manifested.
Vitamins
You do not need to take all your vitamins on a juice fast. Individual products are best considered on a case by case basis. Sometimes it is useful to take a certain herb or homeopathic to target a specific organ system. We can discuss this via phone consultation or on the conference calls.
Too thin, too fat, weight loss etc.
Practitioners of juice fasting have consistently noticed that people who are thin will often put on weight after a fast and maintain that increased weight gain. Of course you will probably lose weight during the fast, but often being too thin is a sign that the body needs support in effectively absorbing nutrients. The concentrated nutrients of juices are thus very beneficial. Being overweight is also a non-issue. There are some conditions where rapid weight loss occurs as part of the healing process, but for most of us this is not really the case when juice fasting.
Cynthia Foster MD: “In cases of severe toxicity, the body must break down many toxins before it can get to the task of rebuilding the body. Sometimes we see that cancer patients lose a lot of weight during a juice fast. This is temporary and nothing to be alarmed about, but it can be quite dramatic. Cancer patients typically lose a lot of weight even when they are on a diet full of cheeseburgers, steak and fried chicken. In fact, they usually have cancer because they have eaten these highly toxic foods their whole life. Medical doctors fret over this and usually prescribe a diet of very fatty and unhealthy foods. It usually never works to help the patient gain weight, but usually always succeeds in making the patient constipated and even more toxic.
Cancer patients lose weight because cancer is a degenerative disease. The body is breaking itself down because the metabolism is so deranged that these patients cannot digest or assimilate even the simplest of foods - much less fried foods or hamburgers! The technical term for this is cachexia. Cachexia is sometimes also called "wasting disease," and is a direct result of the severe toxicity that occurs in cancer, NOT from juicing. The DISEASE cancer causes people to lose too much weight even if they never did a juice fast. When the body is cleansed sufficiently, the cachexia reverses, and it will then be possible to put on weight - but it's not possible to do this beforehand. If one DOESN'T do any juicing, it may not be possible to detoxify the body enough to reverse the cancer, and the chemotherapy often fails.”
I know my body - I just can't go without food
If you really knew your own body and were completely in tune with it, you would know that your body wants to fast. Fasting is a natural human reflex and has been part of every wisdom culture on planet earth. A good argument could be made that the spiritual initiatory experiences of fasting are what is being unconsciously replicated in teenage onset anorexia. When we say “I know my body and I can’t fast” one means they know their body of habits, that limits the flow of options.
Won't I feel weak? I'm too weak to do a juice fast!
Cynthia Foster MD:
“Most people don't realize that a juice fast will provide even more energy than they normally have. I've also put people who were bedridden with bodies full of cancer on a juice fast and it helped them tremendously, and got many of them out of bed. I've never found a person who was too weak to do a juice fast. Juice fasting is a time when the mind is stimulated and all sorts of creative ideas flow. It is the perfect method to use to unleash creativity for artists, musicians, actors, writers and any other sort of creative profession. It takes 30% of the body's entire energy to digest food. This is a lot of energy!
When one does not have to digest solid food, one has this much more energy in the body with which to heal. Since the body is always moving towards health, it will use this energy to bring itself back into balance. It will do things such as dissolve calcium deposits in the joints, release toxins stored in the liver, kidneys, muscles, and fat. It will dissolve scar tissue in the body, and begin to regenerate and clean up aging, injured and infected organs. Since juice is so full of enzymes, the body does not need to use up extra energy to create enzymes to digest it. Instead of digestive enzymes, the body will manufacture other types of enzymes that it can use to break up deposits and toxins settled in the tissues.”
I’m too busy to juice fast
Are you too busy to live? Do you really mean you are too busy to be uncomfortable, or too busy to change your unhealthy habits, are you too busy to stop putting poison into your body? Are you too busy killing yourself to live?
Can I stay Active on a Juice Fast?
It’s best not to schedule a lot of dinner engagements; family visits by disapproving relatives or extensive flying schedules. Having said that though, you could have all of these things happen and still have a great juice fast!
Running a marathon or other extensive forms of exertion could pose challenges and are not recommended unless you have quite a bit of experience with fasting. (it is with experience perhaps do-able – Peter Ragnar (see www.roaringlionpublishing.com ) ran a mile in four minutes and fifteen seconds on his seventieth birthday. He was on the seventh day of water fast and at the seven mile point of the 10 mile run he decided to increase his speed!
During the juice fast it is fine to exercise but -listen to your body and don’t force yourself.. I like to run on the third day to help accelerate the elimination of toxins through sweating.. Excessive physical exercise can be draining on a juice fast.
When to Juice
Ideally, one should make juices fresh and drink them immediately. Juice contains the most healing nutrients and life-force energy just after juicing. The released enzymes of the plant cells within the juice begin auto-digestion of the nutrients in the juice, so drink quickly. You want these enzymes to be absorbed through your stomach lining to help digest your toxins, rather than the components of the juice itself.
However, if you are setting out for a busy day, make extra juice and bring it along in a cooler. This does not have to be difficult. If you cannot bring juice with you, go by a juice bar, and have them make it for you.
Live non-pasturized juices are definitely what you want to create or buy. If you go to a juice bar remember to ask for juices which are made fresh, rather than from frozen ingredients. Frozen vegetables and fruit have lost much of their life-force. And remember it is juices not smoothies that you are looking for.
You can get great results on your juice fast even if you sometimes buy store-bought bottled juice. If you are buying Odwalla or similar juices you must do the following – do not drink juices containing Mango or banana as these contain too much of the pulp of the fruit and they are in fact purees. Also make sure that any juice you buy is 100% juice so there is no the excuse that you cannot find juice. With a little planning, it is not difficult.
How much Juice to Drink
Really on a juice fast, especially taking all the detoxification products we will be using, it is best to drink as much as you want to. Drink when you are hungry and if you get tired. I recommend that either you dilute your juices 25- 50% with water, or that you also drink plenty of water. Don’t drink tap water. Many fasting authorities recommend steam distilled water for fasting as it has the capacity to also pull toxins out of the body. Expect to drink up to a gallon of juices a day, and more if you want to. In some ways it is better almost to drink too much than too little, as the fluids will greatly assist in flushing out toxins. With this much fluid intake you will often find yourself with a full bladder. This is normal, don’t be alarmed. At some time during your fast, your body may release extra fluids and toxins. You may be voiding even greater quantities of fluid than you are drinking in, and you may lose weight as you shed this excess fluid. This is all part of the normal detoxification.
What to Juice - Recipes
Locate a source of organically grown fruits and vegetables, normally your local health food store. Try to use organic produce. You will be juicing a lot of produce, it’s important to avoid pesticide residues. You may choose vegetables to combine and fruits to combine according to your own recipes.. The key word here is variety. If you make a variety of juices, you will be less likely to become bored with your juice fast, and much more likely to receive a completely balanced complement of vitamins and minerals. You may be tempted to juice fruits as they taste so yummy, and really they are fine to use unless you are struggling with candida overgrowth, sugar addiction or diabetes. It is however beneficial to also include lots of vegetables. The taste of vegetable juices can be a challenge. Good base juices are carrot (sweet and very good for you), cucumber, celery and tomato. They are more neutral and can balance some of the stronger tastes. Vegetables like cabbage, onion, garlic, parsley and ginger are stronger, delicious and very good for you, they can be used more sparingly. Beets are powerful healers and very sweet. Dandelions, spinach, chard and greens in general are very healing but have to be balanced with sweeter juices to make them palatable.
Green apples, lemons and limes can combine with green and other vegetables, roots of ginger and turmeric to make delicious juices that are easily digestible food combining.
Here are some links for good juice recipes
http://www.freedomyou.com/fasting_book/juice%20recipes.htm
http://www.living-foods.com/recipes/juicerecipes.html
http://www.earthportals.com/Portal_Net/juice.html
http://www.healingdaily.com/juicing-for-health/juicing-recipes.htm
for juicing recipe books and books on juicing
http://www.healingdaily.com/juicing-for-health/juicing-books.htm
Possible effects during the detoxification phase of the Juice Fast
If you go through a period of more rapid detoxification during the fast you might experience some temporary symptoms of the internal spring cleanse. Such ‘effects' are usually relatively mild and are not threatening to your health at all. Remember that your body is guided by, and is the vehicle of, a great intelligence which is using the fasting opportunity to improve your health by ‘taking out the trash’. These temporary effects can include the following:
It is important to know that you will probably feel great for the majority of the time during this juice fast, and that you may not have any of these reactions at all, just know that if you do it is just a healing to be welcomed.
Normal Physiological changes which may occur while juice fasting
Activities which support the Juice Fast
To perform a coffee enema. Use organic coffee only… see: http://www.ineedcoffee.com/01/01/enema/
Colonics are a high enema performed by a colonic hygiene therapist or colon hydrotherapist. Colonics are often very useful for detoxification, but the Perfect Seven support product will be doing much of this work for you. If you want to know more see: http://colonhealth.net/colon_hydrotherapy/mantell1.htm They also have a search engine for finding a colon hydrotherapist in your area.
How to come off the Juice Fast
Every authority on fasting consistently says that how you break the fast is critical to reaping the rewards of the fast. If you break the fast by sitting down to an extravagant break-fast of fried eggs and bacon you will throw your body and digestive tract into shock.
It is important to acknowledge that you have created a major shift in your body’s energy equilibrium. You have adapted to a process of catabolic detoxification. This means you have adapted to burning through a portion of the toxic load your body carries. We produce toxins naturally through our normal metabolic processes (endotoxins) and we take in far too many toxins from the environment due to pollution. Fasting is a natural methodology to clear these out. I believe that humans are actually designed to periodically fast for optimal physical and spiritual health.
Having completed a juice fast your body has learnt to economize on energy. If you start eating large amounts of rich food right away apart from shocking your body, you can also easily rob yourself of the opportunity to listen to what will really nourish you.
After a fast listening to what truly nourishes you is easier. It is easier because you will naturally feel so much more sensitive to foods. Here is an interesting fact. Before you put any ANY food in your mouth, you already feel what it will do to you. You already feel exactly what it will do to you. Its just that we cover up that sensitivity with habits, routine and mental noise. During and after a fast this knowing can be heard more strongly, if you let yourself tune into it. If you ask yourself each time, before you eat – what is this going to do for me – you will feel it.
However, after a fast you may be quite hungry. We don’t really experience a lot of physical food hunger in our lives, and the experience can frighten some people into eating too much. Just remember that life is a balance. If you have satiety – the satisfaction of food desire three or four times a day, day in and day out, year in and year out, then where is the balance? It is necessary to feel hunger sometimes, and just get comfortable with it. But here’s the thing. Even if you eat steak after a fast you might still feel hunger for a few days, because the hunger is originating in the body, not the stomach. So the best way to break a fast is to pretend you are still on it! To not make a distinction that says – “thank God that’s over now I can eat again to chase away all feelings of hunger” – I prefer to invite hunger in as a gift for the body, because ythe body needs it as much as it needs satisfaction.
You may also find that by the tenth day of the fast that you are not in the slightest bit hungry and in fact feel on top of the world! In which case on Saturday morning, don’t force yourself to eat. All fasting authorities recommend continuing a fast until your body sends you a distinct hunger message. Until then just continue.
Most authorities recommend taking half the time you were on the fast to come off of the fast. For a ten day fast we take five days to return from it.
On the first day I recommend taking broths and soups during the day and having a salad at night. Take the herbs twice that day.
On the second day, I recommend fruit in the morning and salads and raw food for lunch. Consider skipping dinner and just taking the Perfect Seven and the Vitamineral Green support products. Remember your digestive tract is still adapting to food intake – do not overload it with food.
On the third to fifth day after the fast consider eating a 70-90% raw food diet. Take the Perfect Seven and the Vitamineral Green twice each day.
Simple vegetable meals, salads, or soups are good. Soaked prunes or figs are helpful. Well-cooked rice, a baked potato or millet work well if you want to introduce cooked food. I would avoid breads, brown rice and too many raw nuts until you feel your digestive function is fully active. Simple cooked starches are actually normally very digestible after a fast. When eating raw food, bear in mind that too many raw nuts and raw fibrous vegetables can be quite a bit of work for the digestion and so don’t overdo it. Do not mix too many foods at a meal.
Try not to eat to fill the void of hunger. Though it is a natural instinct to want to eat to the point of satisfaction, that point will be hard to find immediately after a fast. Here is a story from the prophet Mohammed:
“Once it so happened that Prophet Mohammed had forty followers. One doctor attached himself to them, so that if anyone fell sick, he would give him some medicine. For six months the doctor remained with them but nobody fell ill. Then he came to the Prophet and said, "Well, nobody has fallen sick, so there is no use in my being here." Prophet Mohammed told him, "Well look here, so long as they follow my behests, they will not be ill. I tell them to take one morsel of food less than they really feel like, not to have a full diet, to eat a little less, so that when they leave the table, they are still a little hungry. I tell them to eat twice a day and during the day they should work hard. They should also do their meditations. If they follow these behests, nobody will fall sick." http://www.ruhanisatsangusa.org/mt/naturaldiet.htm
Sauerkraut, a fermented cabbage, is a useful food to eat (in moderation) after a fast as it helps to activate the digestion. Grapes or soaked or stewed prunes, can be useful to promote bowel movements.
Eat slowly and chew well. Ghandi said: “Eat your drinks and drink your foods”. The idea here is to sip drinks and savor them and to chew food very thoroughly, so that they are more like liquid.
When reintroducing solid foods it is a great time to study your individual responses and reactions to them.. If you’ve had any chronic health problems prior to the Juice Fast: problems with the digestion, with allergies, sinus conditions, skin breakouts, joint or muscle pain, headaches, energy level, insomnia, etc. It is often useful to keep notes. Pay attention to intestinal function, sleep patterns, food desires and symptoms. One of the easiest ways to do this is to buy a little notebook and draw a line down the middle of each page. Use one page for each day and date the pages. At the end of the day on the left side of the page write down what you ate, when you ate it and how you ate it (e.g. hurried or relaxed, too much or just the right amount etc.). On the right side of the page write down how you felt, your bowel movements, energy level and any physical or mental symptoms. Record reactions to certain foods can occur immediately, soon after eating the food, later on that day, the next day or even a few days later. If you identify a food you respond poorly to, avoid it for a while, perhaps a month. You can always test it again later.
There are certain foods that we can generalize and say – this food doesn’t work well for anyone – Junk food, almost all white flour products, (white breads, white pastas), refined sugar – dairy combinations (e.g. ice cream), white flour dairy combinations (e.g. macaroni and cheese), white flour baked to very high temperatures (e.g. pizza), artificial sweeteners, sodas, candy.
Typical Allergy and sensitivity causing foods
There are some foods which cause problems for some people but others tolerate them well, these include:
When examining food reactions, bear in mind that in the month or so following a cleanse you may not react to anything negatively, as you have cleared out the toxic stores! Once they get filled up again you may have continued reactions.
Now is also a good time to examine the consequences of what we eat as well as the consequences of how we eat.
There are a number of areas to explore:
One of the practices that is very supportive following a fast is to periodically do shorter-fasts to reconnect to the energy of the juice fast and to break the three-meals-a-day hypnotic spell of endless consuming.
A Message about the Juice Fast from Liz Rymland
From early on in our cleanse we grow aware that we are shifting our dependence from material sustenance to celestial sustenance. As Adam described, the flow of substance in the body begins to receive and circulate universal energy eagerly participating in the digestion and elimination of toxins. In Andean mysticism, the Q’ero of Peru describe their foundation spiritual practice as,the act of digesting hucha (heavy and disorganized energy) and replenishing it with Sami (light and organized celestial energy). This is the foundation of all spiritual work. The metaphor of digestion is especially lively because humans on Earth digest the heavy blows and impacts of experiences in their own time cycles, and as we digest heavy impacts and losses over time, this generates insight and loving energy. The practice of fasting is exceptionally pleasing to our invisible helpers also known as: all buddhas throughout space and time, the deities, the ancient ones who have passed this way before us, divine beings, Sun, Moon and Stars. We will feel their appreciation and love to the extent that we are empty and open to this, and we will grow spacious and open to this while fasting if we are paying attention. During a fast you can feel the love of the Sun and the moonlight, the wind and the stars.
Prior to embarking on the cleanse it is wise to firmly set one’s spiritual ideal, if you haven’t already done so, and just a single word will do. We can commence the fast in a group session or solo…by seeing the spiritual ideal, its various facets and by feeling its presence. Once we know this spiritual ideal, we can dedicate our cleanse to upgrade particular habits including habits of mind to approach our spiritual ideal. Any fast or cleanse serves to moves us closer to sustained Source connection. It is natural to feel ourselves becoming Source, as the mind and habits move toward that which is ideal.
Examples;
I have dedicated various cleanses to the elimination of habits such as: procrastination, physical inertia; difficulties with loved ones, errors in my speech that don’t reflect my knowing, alignment with my universal mission, self-destructive habits, needs for changes in my environment and need for changes in self-support and self-care.. Just these dedications have had immediate and life-long consequences because I backed up my requests for assistance with an energetic sacrifice and the Universal masters took me seriously and removed the problem. After a short period of fasting one begins to see falsehoods or errors of mind drop away, you will begin to see and speak the truth more clearly and peacefully.
I propose we embark on this spiritual adventure as a mass observation experiment with artful documentation. The cleanse is a time to create unprecedented pure gestures, something we have secretly wanted to do for a while. This may be an increase in daily love gestures of service or praise; or gestures toward reconciliation of ancient grievances; dances, songs, a pilgrimage or daytrip to a meaningful place or person; an increase in physical exertion. This quiet, private offering of pure gesture opens new dimensions of selfhood, opens doors to new corridors of self-extension because our lights will be on, our thoughts are broadcast on the astral, the invisible helpers are watching us. We may extend ourselves by exploring new terrain of mind or action.
These offerings of unprecedented and pure gestures of heart, mind, service, help to feed the spiritual substrate with our beauty.
Soon we’ll get to see how nature responds and we can document these changes. We begin to observe how the mind of nature shifts to meet the elevating nature of our process. The universe will supply us with surprises to the extent that we extend its voice and doings to fellow creatures, fellow humans. The invisible helpers will show more appreciation as we make pure gestures of offering. The universe wants us to be its voice and messenger… and will respond as we artfully document the magical responsiveness of nature, of the universe.