Detox Day 5

Indian Spiced Orange - one of my new juice creations

I fell asleep at 11:30pm last night and woke up at 5am with a headache and some body aches.  I treated myself to a 1 hour massage to work out the toxins in my muscles. I rarely get massages but it's one of the perks of doing a detox. SO good for you when you're cleansing.

Today I had:
Vitamineral Green
Lemon juice, water, MSM, probiotic, stevia, cayenne
1 quart cantaloup/cuke/mint
1 quart tomato/celery/basil/garlic/hot pepper
2 cups Indian Spiced Orange (see photo)
2 cups Sea Clear miso soup with crushed garlic
1 cup almond milk with protein powder/Shapeshifter/3 Jewels
1 cup pau d'arco tea
Apple juice with bentonite clay/psyllium husk powder
Clarkia
Intestinal movement formula
15 minutes rebounding/1000 mg niacin/45 minutes far infrared sauna

Overall, today was pretty easy. I had a case of the chills and more hunger aches but I just kept drinking fluids and keeping my stomach full. It didn't help that I had a big batch of my teriyaki coconut jerky in the dehydrator making the whole house smell like P.F. Chang's. My sense of smell is wicked sharp right now. Too sharp. I smell things I do not want to smell. Maybe because my body thinks it's starving, so my senses are more acute?

One fun thing about the juice fast is playing around with juice combinations. I'm coming up with some really tasty ones that I'll be putting in the next book.

A recap of the last 5 days:
*First 2 days were the hardest. I was irritable, sluggish and could hardly focus or leave the couch for that matter. I slept A LOT.
*Days 3-5 I had a lot of energy but was waking up too early in the morning and not able to fall back asleep.
*On average I drank about 3 quarts of juice a day.
*From start to finish (wash, cut, juice, clean) it takes me 1 hour to make the juices.
*I got my glass quart jars from the grocery store and use an Omega 8005 juicer. Not the fastest guy around but a good little workhorse.
*I'm drinking almond milk and protein powder so I don't lose too much muscle mass.
* I've lost almost 2 lbs.

Detox Day 4

This machine kills pimples...kinda.

First off, thank you so much to everyone who left comments with wonderful advice. I ordered Crunchy Betty's eBook Food on Your Face and am so excited to try out the recipes. I also ordered an allergy testing kit from Every Body Cleansing Studio. In addition I also ordered Cultured: Learn to Make Healthy Fermented Foods at Home from Renegade Health. I will let you know how it goes! Here's today's detox:

Pau d'arco tea
Vitamineral Green
Probiotics
Lemon juice, water, MSM, spirulina, stevia and cayenne (blended in a bullet)
1 1/2 quarts cukes, celery, mixed dark greens, burdock root, green apple
1 1/4 quart watermelon/fennel/cuke/mint
1 cup almond milk with Sunwarrior vanilla protein powder, Shapeshifter, 3 Jewels
2 cups Sea Clear miso soup with crushed garlic
Apple juice with bentonite cay/psyllium husk powder
teaspoon coconut oil (Ojio brand...mmm)
15 minutes rebounding
skin brushing

I woke up this morning at 3:30 am but couldn't fall back asleep so I went to my office and answered emails from 4:30am-7am (I get a lot of emails). I was so wired I couldn't believe it. I did have a fantastic day yesterday which was probably the main source of my buzz but I was so surprised how alert I was. I had a lot going on today so the energy went way down hill at 3:30pm just as I was heading to 2 auditions. I didn't pack enough juice for the car ride so I got pretty testy and foggy. Note to self: you can never have too much juice when traveling around the city all afternoon.

My hunger level was not that bad today. I almost feel apathetic to food. I said *almost*. I had a weird craving for spirulina crunchies of all things but for the most part I feel really in control and very zen. The worst detox symptom I'm having is a heavily coated tongue. So gross. A tongue scraper has been helpful but it's still giving me really bad breath. Another symptom or possibly just my body being normal is my skin is super oily. I've gone through an oil blotting sheet every hour today. It's crazy. I read the oil is part of the detox. I hope the fast isn't just aggravating the one symptom I'm trying to have control of. Anyway, that's the news for now.

Thanks for reading.

Judita

Detox Day 3

Juice of one lemon, water, MSM, stevia, cayenne
Vitamineral Green & water
1/2 quart carrot juice & almond milk
1 1/2 quarts mixed vegetable juice (celery, cukes, broccoli, kale, parsley, lemon juice, ginger)
1 cup almond milk with 1 scoop vanilla Sunwarrior protein powder, Shapeshifter, 3 Jewels
1/2 quart coconut water with spinach blended
apple juice with bentonite clay/psyllium husk powder
miso soup
probiotics
zeolites
fulvic acid
parasite herbs (Clarkia)
Intestinal Movement


Today the hunger pangs have subsided quite a bit and my energy has been consistent all day.  The hubs made a veggie burger on a toasted sprouted bun and it didn't even phase me. I can't believe how great I feel physically and mentally. I almost felt high at one point. I hope the feeling continues. I could easily do another 11 days if it goes this well.

Btw, I slept 12 hours last night. That might be a record for me. It's typical to feel run down the first 2-3 days of a juice fast as well as feeling really cold. It's a good idea to start a fast over a weekend when you have no where to be. Stay home, stay warm and let your body adjust.

21 Day Detox - A New Health Journey

The past few months have been very frustrating for me. After all my efforts of eating and living a clean, raw life for the past few years my #1 nemesis has returned with a vengeance. Acne. It's something I've dealt with since my teens but lately its gotten out of control. It started a year ago when I got off birth control pills. I had been on them for years for hormonal balance. I was missing periods for months at a time and then I would bleed for weeks. I was scared to get off of them when I went raw because my doctor told me the irregularity would just come back. I figured if I was giving my body the best diet in the world, it would work itself out. So after 3 years, I tossed my pills and let nature take its course. Happy to say everything is perfect, i.e. on time, like clockwork. Phew! The only bad thing is, every month since stopping the pill, my skin gets more and more oily. So oily, I have breakouts on my face, neck, chest and back. I've been taking probiotics religiously and eating fermented foods in order to get the good bacteria flourishing. I've been cutting out sugar to keep my blood sugar balanced and prevent candida overgrowth. I've tried liver cleanses, sauna, MSM, zinc, neem, bentonite clay, honey masks, not washing my face, not wearing makeup, colonics, green juice, DIM, myomin, parasite herbs, fulvic acid, zeolites, chlorella and a plethora of other supplements. One thing I've never done is a long juice fast. I've done a lot of 3-5-7 day juices but this one will be 14 days of juices and 7 days of easing out of it with soups and smoothies. I would go longer but I actually need to get cracking on recipe development so this is my only window of opportunity.

I would love to hear feedback from anyone else who is struggling with the same thing and if you've been successful. FYI I had severe acne while on the pill, as well, that was corrected by going raw. This is a whole new thing I'm dealing with which seems to be an overproduction of testosterone (or drop in estrogen?). I'll keep you posted how things are going. Here's a recap of yesterday.

Day 1
Juice of 1 lemon with water, stevia, MSM and cayenne
1 scoop vitamineral greens in 8 oz. water
1 1/2 quarts green veggie juice
1 cup miso soup
1 cup almond milk with scoop of Shaman Shack Shapeshifter
1 teaspoon coconut oil
Evening: bentonite clay/psyllium husk with 1 cup apple juice (from Blessed Herbs colon cleanse pack)

I wasn't very hungry and had trouble taking down all the green juice for some reason. I was sluggish and fell asleep for 3 hours in the afternoon.  

Day 2

Juice of 1 lemon with water, stevia, MSM and cayenne 

1 quart watermelon/fennel/cuke 

2 cups orange juice/almond milk/pumpkin pie spice 

3 cups coconut broth

1 teaspoon coconut oil 

Felt energized when I woke up. Started the day off with 1000 mg niacin, 10 minutes of rebounding and 40 minutes of sauna. I have more energy today but some brain fog. It's only 3pm so I'll have more green vegetable juice before the day ends.  

To make Coconut Broth: 

Place 1 cup shredded coconut and 2 cups hot water in a food processor and blend. Strain out pulp using a nut milk bag. 

Bring coconut water to a simmer with additional 1 cup water, 1/4 cup chopped onion, 1 clove minced garlic, chopped cilantro, basil and lemongrass. Let simmer then strain. Stir in 1 tablespoon of miso once it has cooled a bit.

Let Me Be Frank, errr, Judita...

I'll be honest. I'm a bad blogger. Over the years, I have made so many promises to myself and to you, my readers, that I would be better about posting, but the thing is, I'm just not a blogger. I'm usually self absorbed in one or more projects, that when I take a breather from them I don't have the energy to sit down in front of my laptop and write what's on my mind. Things really took a nosedive when I started writing Going Raw and since I'm out of the blogging habit, it's just gotten worse. I feel bad and I'm sorry. I get sad when my favorite blogs go on hiatus. (Gliving, We Like It Raw). I don't know how people have the time to write so much while living busy lives. Kudos to you Gena at Choosing Raw who is in med school, counseling clients AND making recipes and to the busy moms, Kristen's Raw, PURE mamas and Simple Life Journey. Ladies, please share with me your blogging/social media secrets.

But at the least, I can do this much. I can give monthly updates and will try to tweet more (I've gotten a little better at this) and update the Facebook page more often. I've got plenty of good intentions but I will stop here and under promise and over deliver. Deal?

So here's the latest news:

Going Raw is doing amazingly well. It's gotten great reviews and is currently on back order. New (updated!) copies will be in stock middle of September.

I just got back a few days ago from the Hot Chefs, Cool Kitchen showcase which will be available online in two days. Click here to get access to 80 delicious recipes and 24 food prep videos from some of the hottest raw food chefs out there!

I have a Raw Food 101 class in Long Beach, CA on Sept. 11th from 1-4pm. If you know of anyone who needs help getting started, send them my way. I show how to do the basics easily and deliciously. It'll be very informative and will give you a chance to ask all your pressing raw health questions. P.S. classes make great gifts!

I am doing tons of recipe development for book #2. Hoping to hunker down and put it all together early next year.

I am in pre-production for a TV pilot. Yes, another raw food chef trying to get a TV show. This one is different than the usual "stand and stir" but that's about all I can reveal for now. Wish me luck!!

I am doing one-on-one health counseling (via phone) for women who are looking to lose weight, gain energy and recapture that youthful radiance. I offer a free initial consultation to talk about your health concerns and goals. I only have time for a few more clients so if you're interested, please get in touch soon. Check out my health coaching website for more information about my program.

That's about it for now. Lots more stuff on deck but I'll save it for another post.

Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend!!
xoxo
Judita