The 40 day water fast of last year was very exhausting. It was done for primarily spiritual reasons and took a long time to recover from. I remember waiting for the coated tongue to disappear and the serious hunger to resume but it never did. This has led me to believe I have more work to do.

During the final week of the fast I began to develop a foamy, bitter spit that would form in my mouth. No matter how much I spit this foam out, it seemed there was always more. It was accompanied by an ever present nausea that lasted almost the entire 40 days. This spittle went away overnight when I switched from distilled water to spring water.

I have experienced significant physical, emotional, and spiritual rebirth since adopting the raw food lifestyle on the 5th of July, but have found that I have quickly landed on a plateau. I have once again found myself eating to fill emotional needs and gotten lazy about my yoga practice, working out, and meditation. I have also noticed I have been letting my house get very messy before I am forced to clean up by the impending arrival of a guest.

The rules of the game are this:
1) The juice from 2 pounds of green leaves must be consumed each day. Chlorophyl is magic.
2) The juice of one head of celery must be consumed each day. Electrolytes abound.
3) Any other fresh juice may be consumed to provide adequate caloric intake to perform all daily activities. Even coconut water.
4) Juice should be chewed to allow the salivary enzymes time to do their work before moving to the next stage of digestion. The act of chewing also triggers hormonal activity throughout the GI tract.
5) No solid food.

I will also settle back into a routine of daily meditation, yoga, running, push-ups, and pull-ups. I may employ colonics periodically to enable better flushing of the toxins.

It is my intention to keep a public log of this in order to inspire others and to place more weight on the event to keep me going. Your input is welcome.

I have been gearing up for this event for about 3 weeks. It seemed like the day would never get here. Food had become a loathsome burden to me. Last night, as I ate a whole durian, which was my brain saying I needed one last big meal, it felt very similar to Christmas eve.

There are 3 or 4 other people around the world who are joining me in this pursuit. It helps to have the support of others through this. More are welcome.

Day 1 - Completed what I could remember of my yoga routine, meditated for about 10 minutes, sungazed 10 minutes, went on a micro run (less than a mile), did 1 set of 5 pull-ups and 1 set of 20 push-ups. Consumed the juice of 1 lemon, 3 grapefruit, and 4 oranges for breakfast.
Juiced two bunches of spinach, about 20 radishes and many, many carrots. Juiced a sweet potato with two red hot peppers and a spaghetti squash. Feeling light and bouncy but a little weak.

Feeling a bit empty. Want to eat something… like nuts. But I won’t. Gotta get used to this idea of feeling empty.Day 2 - I did my micro run, 6 + 5 pull-ups, 20 + 20 push-ups, yoga, oj, carrot-spinach, celery. I feel very light.

Day ..3 - Woke up too late for running, and yoga, will do push-ups and pull-ups tonight.

I tried the horseradish treatment that Norman Walker recommends. Wow! It really burned and it really cleared my sinuses up. I will keep doing it until they stay that way. I have noticed a very light feeling but I still feel energetic. Not as strong as I would like. Breathing has gotten way easy. My lungs seem to have all the room they need now. Also, I am feeling fidgety, like a kid. I am training for a new job right now and am just sitting and reading for hours and hours. I find myself wiggling around and spinning in my chair like a 6 year old.

Today I juiced spinach and carrots, celery, watermelon (yum). The spinach carrot juice is tasting like milk to me. I want to try other greens but have decided to keep following my body’s promptings. And right now I am completely infatuated with spinach. I offered some of it to my coworkers, 3 of 10 tried it. No one liked it. I guzzled the remaining portion and felt so satisfied. I think my taste buds have totally changed.

I am wondering if I get all the benefits out of this that are claimed, why would I start eating food again. Maybe juice is better?

Day 4

Woke up with a very weak feeling in my forearms. Didn’t want to get out of bed. Finally got up and made 1 liter of carrot spinach juice. Then added an apple to the juice of a head of celery. Huge improvement for me. The sweetness of the apple brings out the saltiness of the celery and hides its bitter after taste. Bought a case of coconuts. Then something happened at the grocery store. It is my latest physical change on this fast.

When I was a child, if I drew a breath in to quickly through my nose I would feel a burning sensation in the area I now know as the nasal concha. This has returned!!!

The yogis believe that this is where prana is directly absorbed into the brain. There is a special chlorine like aroma associated with it. I haven’t smelled this smell in a long time, but now as I do, I distinctly remember it. Was it the horseradish?! I am quite pleased.

see drawing here:

http://www.bartelby.net/107/illus170.html

In search of more strength - must go crack open a coconut.

Day 5

This morning I woke up and bam! I had energy! This is what I spent it on: 1) yoga 2) meditation, 3) internet surfing 4) downing a live version of Stanley Burrows Master Cleanse (juice of 3 oranges, juice of 3 limes, and couple teaspoons of 270K HU cayenne powder 5) 5+10+5 pull-ups (I haven’t done over 9 pull-ups in a row for over 10 years) 30+20 push-ups 7) ran 2+ miles cleaned my bedroom (no I mean CLEANED it, like everything out, sweep and mop, and selectively put things back. I even ironed a crease out of my sheets!) 9)drank 2.2 pints of spinach carrot juice, heavy on the spinach. Amazing stuff.
I suddenly feel like I want my outer world to be in order as my inner world becomes so.
This is a crazy amount of energy. I’m not sure if it’s a fluke, if I’m about to hit the wall, or what. But I like it.
An amazing day. Not sure if that was the peak or what. We shall see.

Day 6

I ate a carrot today. Well, I chewed a carrot. And spit out the pulp. I needed some serious chewing action. Then i chewed a spinach plant and spit out the pulp. It was good. I have come to the following conclusions about juice.

1) Chewing is different than biting. The best you can do with juice is bite it. A chew requires moderate resistance throughout the range of motion. Also, the amount of chewing needed for one carrot was daunting. Let alone the amount of chewing that would be required to get through the sackful needed to make a glass of juice. It would be as much as I will ‘pretend chew’ for a month. Extended mouth time with joint movement is the largest benefit to biting your juice that I see.

2) It seems odd that we would pull out the fiber of a particular food only to add back the fiber psyllium. Then we attempt to design a jaw exercising tool. I can imagine a natural man chuckling about such nonsense.

3) It’s rather expensive.

4) It is a drastic measure for a drastic circumstance.

5) It enabled me to do 10 pull-ups in a row.

6) Spinach and carrot juice tastes like milk to me but turns my coworkers off.

7) It is giving me electric tingly feelings throughout my body. At one point I began to feel a vibration in my skull when I was thinking excessively happy and peaceful thoughts.

Celery juice is very hydrating. My mouth is always wet and happy. May be a sign of what is going on cellularly. This makes me very happy.

9) When juicing, one misses out on the rupturing of the cells inside the mouth. Some yogic material I read talks about the prana (or something) escaping in this instant while in the mouth and going straight to the brain.

10) I love my Greenstar but I don’t like cleaning it.

Stats:

Pulse 84, no exercise, yoga, or meditation today. Spinach carrot juice again - yum. Cantaloupe juice, celery juice with pear, oj with lime juice and cayenne pepper, horseradish with lime juice treatment, dipped into the honey jar… a lot. Dowsing my liver with a half cup of olive oil as soon as I finish here, will keep you posted on any gall stones that come shooting out.

Day 7

I am not quite comprehending the fact that the first week is over. It went by so quickly. This fast is nothing like water fasting. I do not know if at the end of this fast if I will be inclined to give up the daily regimen of celery and green juice. It feels so alive! My mouth feels so wet in spite of the fact that I am not drinking any water.

I have found the tingling, electric feeling in my head is something I can indirectly control by my will. Tonight I did it in the grocery store. All I have to do is focus all my energy on letting go of the grip I try to place on life. I seem to hold this in my solar plexus area, so physiologically it would show up as a releasing of tension there. I believe if I were on a CAT scan machine during this exercise, there would be activity encircling the cap of my skull. It is quite pleasant.

I woke up this morning and saw that I had forgotten to drink my oil. I drank it tonight though. Stay tuned for the results. My energy level is good and steady but I have felt the need to let my body rest and not take it out for a workout or even yoga. I have neglected my meditation for the past 2 days also. I get distracted when my kids come to visit.

Pulse - 60.

I drank more spinach and carrot juice, master cleanse, beet-cucumber-carrot, tomato-carrot-celery-red pepper-cilantro-lime-tamarind-orange-habinaro, celery-apple. Teeth are still furry. Not happy about that. A friend read to me, out of “Intuitive Eating,” that spinach and carrot are great for the liver and colon. I am continuing to follow my intuition for which items to juice. Spinach is still singing to me in the market, so I buy it. I am trying to juice 2 pounds of green leaves everyday. In spinach, that translates to 1 pint. It is beautiful in the glass. Second hand solar radiation flowing to my inward parts. I am still wrestling with the old me. It feels like it is coming from my gut. Considering where the negative energy is originating from is a new concept to me.
I am getting the upper hand, but there is still fight left in my evil twin. The battle continues. Your prayers of love and light are welcome.

Day 8

This is so easy I feel strange talking about it. I have all the energy I need and my mind has a clarity that I just may get used to. My pulse is 56 and strong. This was a work day so I had to work around that.

I made oj for breakfast then went straight into juicing 2 pounds of spinach and a pint of carrot juice. I mixed those and drank them about 30 minutes after the oj. Then I moved straight into juicing the celery. I added a lime and a jalapeno. The apple was better.I didn’t need to drink anything else all day.

I just got home and made my “cheater” juice. I call it that cause i don’t think it would quite meet regulations. It had cucumber-watermelon-lime-tamarind-jalapeno-cayenne- (all of which would be on the list of things i can juice) but then I put all that in the blender and whipped a banana into the mix. I strained it but I know that the banana pulp goes right through. It was so yummy. See, I had these bananas left over from the weekend and …

Did a quick version of my yoga routine this morning. Did not run, do pushups or pull-ups. I can feel my intestines moving around. I hope they’re reacting to the spinach juice and bustin some old stuff lose. Feeling good, but as I’ve said before i would prefer to have more strength.

No results yet from the 1/2 cup of olive oil I downed before bed last night.

Day 10

Still tired but a little more emotionally up today. Took a sauna (pronounced sow-nu) at a freinds house tonight. Before we roasted ourselves we worked out. Me just a little. 10+6 pull-ups, some curls, 20 pushups, and a little yoga. After the sauna I broke out the coconuts and poured us a tall glass each. My friend and his wife did not care for it, which i am just amazed at. I suppose their taste buds are so trained on moutain dew and the like, that natural food tastes bland and strange.

Juiced some cilantro this morning for my green quota. I could tell when I reached for it in the fridge that it was incorrect. That it was not for me right now. But I owned it, had no other greens, and wasn’t going to let it go bad. I could barely choke down the juice. Mind you, a month ago I could not get enough cilantro. I generally love the stuff. But not today. I trust my body so cilantro is off the menu for a while.

Having recently gotten my fill of spinach, I am still waiting to see which green leaf my body will ask for next. I am using romaine as a default until i figure it out. I think it will be sweet and gentle during the interim.

I had a coworker check my BP. 96/56! This is very low for me. I am generally 120s over 80s. Pulse was 56. Blood pressure and pulse are influenced by receptors in the body that tell the heart if they are recieving adequate oxygen. My theory is that on this diet, my blood vessels are becoming so clean that the heart is able to oxygenate the cells with very little pressure and a decreased rate.

Day 11

One more day finished. I am starting to get tired of juice. Starting to think of romaine burritos with sunflower-pinenut “refried beans.” Wanting to bite down on something that offers a little resistance.

I will keep going. Just juice.

One peculiar aspect of this “weakness” I am experiencing is the lack of objective proof of its reality. I keep saying I feel weak and yet i am setting records with pull ups. I don’t feel like doing them, but once I start, they are easier than they used to be. I have heard that around day 20 one begins to feel strong again. That will be nice.

Pulse is 58. Abdominal girth is 33″.

Day 12

Still struggling with the remnants of the old me. Am being confronted with the old religious teachings of my youth. I have been struggling for liberation from the death that some of these teachings yield. It has been ingrained into me since I was a babe. Much of it was the bare truth. But much of it was steeped in superstitious mis-beliefs that condemn all those who do not conform to their guidelines. Their echoes still haunt me. Even threaten me. I will not give in to their terroristic messages. The truth is bigger than the fear that these teachings attempt to wield.

This journey of cleansing my body has caused me to face the ugliness that still resides at deep levels of my soul. As it rises up I will become a student of its shameful features and look it straight in the eye, unflinching and unwavering.

Day 13

I am finding that fasting does not make one more spiritual… at all. All it does is take away the comfort that food brings that we use to pad ourselves from ourselves and others.

Life is painful. Rather than accepting it as that, we can choose thousands of diversions that distract. There are many ways people try to get out of the pain of life. Blaming others, proving we are better than others (gossip), countless addictions - TV, smoking, drugs, abusing others, sex addiction, outward beautification, acquisition of wealth or esteem.

But the bottom line is this. The most healthy thing we can do is remove all of these barriers and simply say OOOOWWWW!!! We must accept the pain as a woman in childbirth. There is no getting out of it. As the children’s song says “Can’t go around it! Can’t go over it! Can’t go under it! Gotta go through it!”

So that is what I am seeing that fasting helps to facilitate. Barrier removal.

Day 14

This morning I caught myself doing what Peter Parker did in the mirror the morning after the spider bite. My body is changing. It’s fun to watch. I’m wanting to be the after picture. Lately I’ve been feeling like the guy in the before picture. I know it will happen, just wanting it to hurry up.

I must recommend the horseradish treatment that Norman Walker talks about.
Get some horseradish root, peel it, grind it with a little water in your blender, let it sit for at least 3 minutes exposed to the air (this is when it gets hot, the longer it sits the hotter it gets) add the juice of a lemon or lime. Take enough to cause your nose to burn and drain (Norman says morning and evening - “How bad do you want it?”) which will be about a half a tablespoon. Let it sit in your mouth and do its work. Man-o-man! When your done your nasal passages are so clean. Norman said that you will know when you are done because the sinuses cease to burn after they become clean. Who knew?

Had a BM today. Ya know that anything still in me after this much time on the fast was not doing me any good. I’m just glad it’s gone.

Ever tried fennel juice? It’s so yummy. Much milder than expected. It’s like celery with good flavor. I must admit that celery juice is not my favorite as far as taste. But it is so hydrating that I love to drink it. I don’t think I’ll be stopping that even when the fast is completed.
Just made this juice that was so yummy! Here’s what it had: the juice of 8 oranges, 3 limes, 3 large stalks of celery, 2 large red bell peppers, 4 tomatoes, and 1 habenaro. It was like a V8 only good for you.

Day 15

Over the weekend, slowly, almost imperceptibly, I seem to have slipped into the next phase of the fast. Everything just feels easier.

At the start of the third week, I decided it was time to get more serious about running. I woke up at 4:00 AM, 1 hour before the alarm, and made myself celery-apple juice. Then, with the prodding of a friend, pried myself out of the house to face a chilly morning breeze.

Inspired by the tale of Dr. Douglas Graham, who reportedly wears shorts, socks, and shoes to run in, regardless of the weather, I had every intention of doing the same. But I lost heart as I sat in my room, mentally preparing.So I bundled up to face the 35 degree air.

The first quarter of the run I was sure glad I had made that choice. Heck, even Dr. Graham himself said that the first year or two being raw you could expect to have cold intolerance. And during a fast I assume the effects are heightened. The second quarter of the run I forgot about the temperature. The third quarter I started seeing how I could have gone with just shorts and shoes because my face, which was initially shocked by the stinging air, had become accustomed to the feel and I saw that my whole body would have done the same. By the fourth quarter I was starting to really sweat and wishing I had gone hard core. Maybe next time.

By the way, I tried sleeping on the floor last night. After 40 minutes of rolling around i hopped up on my bed.

Day 16

I am having fun digesting a liter of orange juice that I just made with my brand new citrus juicer. I had to do it. It just felt so right to buy the big boy. It’s a Breville and is made to last at least a lifetime. It weighs about 10 or 15 pounds. I bought a cheapy (Cuizinart - what a turd that was) when my other one failed last week. It sucked.

This morning all of heaven witnessed me naked in my kitchen cursing this juicer that is spilling liquid gold all over my counter and me trying to lap it up like a dog. So I knew I needed to get something that really worked. I found the best citrus juicer out there and paid dearly for it. $150.00. But I read some reviews last night and everyone who bought one of these things loved it and would buy it again.

I juiced 12 oranges for breakfast with the cuizenart and got 2 cups of juice. I then juiced 12 oranges from the same box, with the Breville for dinner and got 4 cups of juice! And it strains the juice for you too. Wow. I should be selling these things.

Feeling good today. I think I am slipping into a groove with this thing. What is blowing me away is the emotional changes occurring in me upon each bowel movement. It has led me to believe that science knows so very little about what is going on in this wonderful body of ours. It was designed by a genius. We can’t fully understand it. What does a colon have to do with my outlook on life?

A lot! Of what, I have know idea though.

I believe this is where faith comes in. Though i do not understand how it works, I trust that if i follow the instincts inside of me, everything will be taken care of for me. I have studied science a bit including anatomy and physiology, chemistry, and biology. When i read the “scientific proof” that we should eat a raw food diet against the “scientific proof” that says that cooked food is ok, i must say i am left confused and discouraged. But when i listen to the stories and see the before and after pictures of those who have embarked wholeheartedly on this raw path, I am convinced. Convinced enough to follow the instincts that God has placed in my heart.

I passed a pancake house today and had a huge craving for pancakes. The greens I chose today, parsley, were glowing from my stomach out toward my whole trunk. It made me wonder if the aromatic oils have properties similar to alcohol which allow it to pass through cell walls.

Day 18

What happened to day 17? Wow, this is flying by. Nothing major to report. I am feeling more settled in and less consumed with the idea of food. One of my friends reminded me that sometimes we raw ones can get quite obsessed with what we eat. Always improving and cutting things out as we progress. I would finally like to establish what it is that i am going to eat and forget about it.

Today I took a coworker to a convenience store that had a subway sandwich shop inside. i waited in the car while she ordered and watched as the customers hurriedly shuffled in and out the door. I saw expressions of desperation in their faces, years of overindulgence on their bellies. Very little peace. They seemed to me to be very similar to drug addicts going for their fix.

I am getting to a place where i can observe more and judge less. I can see that there is clearly a better way than the way they are choosing, but I acknowledge that many beings can see better ways for me to go too. It seems we are all trying to do our best to get what we think will bring us happiness.

I’ve been getting these annoying little food cravings that have not been part of my life for several months. Pancakes, Taco Bell, bread. Many food items from my past are starting to sound yummy to me. But I will keep juicing. I believe I am the most curious sceptic I know. In the back of my mind there are still questions about the validity of all of this raw lifestyle. You would think that these questions would melt away as i am finding so much success with this path. But they linger on. I so desperately want to know for myself that I will just keep juicing.

Day 19

. Today i drank 1 liter of OJ for breakfast followed by green juice with Romaine-pineapple-fennel-red pepper. The citrus juicer is still a dream to wake up to. During my work day, where I have no access to a juicer nor time to juice, I had coconut water from 3 coconuts. I love it. Then because I had a concert a few hours after getting home from work, I drank 1 liter of OJ again. I have found if I eat within 4 hours of performing I have trouble with digestive stuff during the show. (My burps are plenty loud enough without putting them through a microphone.)

So the juice did very well at getting absorbed into me quickly and giving me plenty of energy. I am pleased to report that my caloric needs seem to be decreasing.

The show was possibly my best musical experience to date. For some reason, many supportive people showed up all at the same show. Whenever i finished a song they all were so pleased. They were quite kind to me and really built me up. I found that in that environment I was able to give one of my best performances. My fear dissipated but as always, I was able to draw a tremendous amount of energy from the audience.

I did my yoga routine (abbreviated version) pullups, and pushups. I think I am getting used to this feeling of ‘weakness.’ I don’t feel the normal level of strength coursing through my arms, but when i ask them to do something for me, they are able.

Day 20

It felt good to type that. 20 days feels like a good mile marker. Day 20 was filled with even more food cravings. My kids are visiting and they love Taco Bell. The rich smells of roasted corn fill my car. As i pass through these restaurants to by meals for my kiddies, i am so tempted to just have a little snack. But I know for me this would be disastrous. I am an all or nothing type person. If I fudge a little, the whole wall will come down. What a mess that would be.

I ran out of honey 2 days ago. I must confess it was becoming my little escape from the scour of this cleanse. I have chosen not to buy more… for now. I think it is important that i stop all types of emotional eating. My brain starts playing tricks on me during these times of intense temptations, questioning the validity of the original purpose of starting such a path. But I long to be clean and shiny like the ones I met in Sedona, Arizona a few months ago at the Raw Spirit Festival. Next year i would like to attend again and reflect the love I feel with more clarity. So I juice. Just keep juicing.

The OJ feels like it is doing good things for me. Yesterday i drank about 3 pints of it and the water from about 4 coconuts. I also had a green juice with Romaine-pineapple-fennel and a tomato-tamarind-lime-pieapple-jalapeno drink. I again did the horseradish treatment that Norman Walker talks about. Is it really possible that if i continue to cleanse my nasal passages in this way that the horseradish will lose its burn?

I did 6 pullups, and 20 pushups but very little yoga and no running. In the near future I may break off for a few days into the Master Cleanse preached by Stanley Boroughs. This is the lemonade diet with maple syrup, lime/lemon juice, and cayenne pepper mixed into water. Since I am almost 100% convinced of the powers of living food, and a recovering honey addict, and the owner of the worlds finest citrus juicer, I will sweeten my drink with orange juice instead of maple syrup. I believe I will supplement this with the celery and green juice to make sure I am getting the protein and electrolytes my cells need.

Day 21

Three weeks in and something has definitely changed. Something has happened to me in the last 24 hours. I feel great. Really great. Like I’m on drugs but no negative side effects.

I went on a 4 mile run a little bit ago wearing shorts, shoes and socks (SSS). I ran it in a better time than when I was eating everything I wanted 2 years ago. Every so often I would break out into a semi sprint that would last for around 30 seconds or so. When I came to the killer hill in the last mile I determined not to slow my cadence down. When I got home I did some pullups just for fun. I had already done the requisite daily requirement of pushups and pullups, but I just felt so good I had to blow off some steam.

Here’s when it all started happening. This morning I took the kiddies bowling. Now, I’m not a bowler, so if you are don’t laugh at my scores. I was feeling “weak’ as always since this fast began, and bowled the first game. I broke a hundred which is enough to keep me from feeling embarrassed. Then before the second game started I began to examine my feelings of weakness. I realized that I had always pushed against my gut area to gain leverage for moving things. I began to realize that what I am calling weakness is really just a decrease in the weight of my gut.

I thought of the times when I was learning to swim as a child and would hold on to the side of the pool. I recalled how much comfort I got from the knowledge that the side was within reach. I saw that my reliance on my gut as my source of strength was similar to relying on the edge of the pool and that as I advanced in my skills, I could perform better away from the edge.

I refocused my energies as we started the second game. I pointed out to myself that every objective measurement showed that I was indeed as strong as ever regardless of my feelings. I grabbed the bowling ball and demonstrated to myself how easily I wielded its mass with my wrist muscles, noting, however, that my gut could not, and need not be a part of that maneuver. I then focused my energy on letting go of the results and just rolled the ball down the alley with a clean heart and pure concentration. The pins seemed to explode into a strike! I went on to get several more during the game and ended with a score of 162. This is an all time high for me.

This day was fueled by nothing more than orange-lime-cayenne/jalapeno juice and coconut water. Just where did I get my protein? By all conservative thinking, even in the raw world, shouldn’t I have been in a flurry of sugar ups and downs? And yet I had a stable supply of energy all day long despite the mega-dose loading I did with the oj (I can chug 2 pints of oj in less than a minute) that were followed by long periods of no caloric intake. I did not get a sugar rush nor did I suffer from any signs of hypoglycemia after. I think new research needs to be done to show that when sugar is in its natural raw form, mixed with compounds known and unknown in fresh ripe fruit, the effects are not even similar to eating processed sugar.

Day 22

I woke up late this morning and didn’t have time to juice so I grabbed a couple coconuts and a dozen oranges with my little had held juicer and headed to work. It would have been better to have had more juice today. I got real hungry and I could tell my blood sugar dipped pretty low late in the afternoon. My alarm is set for 5:00 AM tomorrow.

I wrote to a team of raw vegans who are all training for a marathon. I would like to join this team. I am impressed with one of the members of the team who, though he was not athletic before going raw, has decided at the age of 40 to attempt to be an Olympic athlete. I am impressed and I wish him well.

Something I said earlier is holding true today. Fasting does not make you spiritual. For me today it has just continued to leave me feeling bare to all of myself. Quite a scary place to be. I am happy to not be doing this alone; I have friends scattered throughout this hemisphere who have undertaken the same path with me. Curiosity and hope lead me on, wondering just where this trail leads.

Day 23

Good morning to today! It is 5:20 and I just got out of the shower, am ready to juice and then will embark on my first day solo at work.

One thing I am amazed at is the fact that I am not sore from my run. My calves were sore just after the run so I expected them to get real tender the day or two after. I suspect the raw food or live juice is having something to do with this quick recovery period though I’m not certain what is happening physiologically. It is likely due to increased blood flow from a general unclogging of my system which has allowed oxygen and other revitalizing elements to flood damaged tissue quickly. Could it be that the pain “normally” associated with physical activity is because our blood is addled with the toxins and acids found in those who regularly consume flesh and Cheetos and other scrumptious poisons?

One thing that has come into my brain is the acknowledgment that the flavors of the foods that were killing me still appeal to me. Though less than when I first started, these cravings linger. Especially yesterday when I got real hungry, every waft that carried the aroma of my coworkers microwaved death plates smelled wondrous to me. I would prefer it if my body could discern the reality of the smells with disgust to aid my soul with the moral struggle to do that which is best. It is enough for the wise to know the good. And that is all I have to resist with these days. But will I be wise? Actually it is not in question weather I will remain for the duration of this fasting game that I am in at the moment. What is more in question is whether I can continue to infuse my cells with only the best sources of nourishment after the rigid guidelines of this fast have been fulfilled and my dietary choices cease to be in public display.

Day 26

I have noticed today that food that previously did not taste salty to me is beginning to. I am currently drinking a glass of celery-apple-ginger-lime juice. And it tastes nice and salty to me. Of course I have read that the sodium content in celery is high but I have never tasted it as strongly as i do today.

Yesterday I woke up achy in my joints and perhaps a little feverish. Not sure of the cause.

Things from my past are coming up to my consciousness. I recalled a time many, many years ago when I was still a boy and I was able to meet a local celebrity who was the host of a kid’s show. I remembered how excited I was to meet him followed by the disappointment of him barely noticing me and spending the time talking with my mother. He acted nothing like his fun self that I saw on the show every morning.
Then I had a craving for a hungry-man TV dinner. I remember that our family used to go to the grocery store and we could each choose a TV dinner from the frozen food section. I, with budding esoteric tastes, would often choose the Mexican meal. I wonder if I am going back in time to visit old parts of my life.

Oh! Big discovery! I have been going to town with the orange juice. I listened to an interview with Storm last night and he was saying that he has been using oj as a body building fuel for years. He said he could put on 5 pounds of muscle mass in one week on just oj if he worked out hard. The big discovery was something I found in David Wolfe’s book “Sunfood Diet Success System.” He mentions how hard the citrus family can be on the teeth and suggests chewing leafy greens right after drinking the juice in order to balance the pH in your mouth. I have been doing that and it feels really good in my mouth. Very salty though. Can you believe that spinach leaves taste salty to me?

Day 27

The last couple of days i have had less energy and spunk than I had expected by this time. I thought that the day that I went on my run was the start of new phase and that that same energy level would continue to grow as i continued to feed my cells the very best I knew how. But through the disappointment of these ups and downs of energy I continue to hope for the breakthrough that Storm had when he went raw. He said that for months he drank quarts of green juice. I asked him what his energy level was like during this time. “I road my bike nearly a hundred miles a day… I rode my bike from Detroit to Costa Rica! ”
So I wait with eager anticipation for this to happen to me.

I am very cold this evening and have been so for the past few nights. I get so chilled that I have to crank my heater up and soak in a hot bath just to get comfy. Also I am struggling with my dark side. Struggling? Battling would be a more accurate term.

A quote from “The Spiritual Property of Herbs”
“Peoples thoughts influence the ethers. Thus, if thoughts are of a positive nature, vibrations in the ethers will be uplifting and helpful. If your thoughts relate to power over others, willingness to cause harm, various negative states, or even just adherence to ignorance, such vibrations also set up vibrations in the the ethers.”
Here’s to creating no more new negative ripples. The selfish “little” me is bombastic, wants what he wants, and cares not about the ripple effect except as it relates to his immediate enjoyment. The big me, is quiet and waits for opportune times to gently suggest the best course of action.

Day 28

My meditation experience was to strange to post publicly here. If you would like the details you may send me a message and i will share it with you.

Day 29

I am headed to my cabin this morning for a sauna and jump into the creek, but before I left I wanted to share a new recipe that I discovered this morning. Since the fast began i have been researching foods
to discover the best sources of nutrition.

Beets have come up on numerous occasions as an excellent blood builder. I have had some sitting in the fridge and have wanted to include them in the juice but haven’t found a good way. I considered them too strong to drink alone because of a nauseating experience years ago. I have tried putting them in green juices, and in fact that was my intention this morning, however, I don’t like to do that because it turns the drink brown, (Like we learned in kindergarten - red + green = brown:)which i find aesthetically unappealing.

I had my green juice finished and sitting on the counter. It was a beautiful shimmering green from the lacinato kale and I hated the idea of turning it brown. So when finished juicing the granny smith apples and the beets I decided to taste it before adding it to the green juice.

It was amazing!

I shall call it harvard beet juice because it reminds me of a recipe my mother used to make for me as a child. The acid and sugar in the apples is a living replacement for the sugar and vinegar normally added to this recipe. I will be adding beets to my routine for a while now. Here’s to happy blood building!

I went to the cabin last night, so, since there is no electricity there, I had to make all my requisite juices at home and drink them in the car on the way up. I brought a case of oranges with a little hand operated juicer and a coconut.

The sauna routine at the cabin includes melting yourself at 180 degrees with steam wafting up from hot stones until you know you’ve had enough followed by a plunge into the creek. A novelty of this trip were the icicles and ice sheets on the rocks. The water was so fricken cold!!! It has become my new reference point for the amount of cold my body can experience here on earth. As I got in up to my belt line, my legs started aching to the bone and I questioned weather this could possibly kill me. I reasoned very quickly that it probably would not and plunged all the way in for a couple of seconds then almost in a panic climbed out of the ice water, careful not to slip on the ice.

Standing on the rocks afterward, my body became so calm and warm, even my feet that were on the stones. I just stood there for a few minutes, proud of my accomplishment and basking in the tingling of my freshly roused cells.

My whole time up there (24 hours) I consumed nothing but fresh clean air and a tiny amount of water, maybe a pint or two. The air is so clean you don’t need food up there. (see Dr. Barbara Moore’s story) I had tons of energy and was carrying glass 5 gallon water bottles I filled at the creek up to the car. I also hiked about 4 miles in the snow.

I discovered the spiritual implications of some foods from a book on that topic, one of which was hemlock. On my hike I found a downed hemlock and made some tea with it. I then put it in the water that I throw on the sauna stove stones and steaped it for a while. Then when I threw the tea on the stones, the steam carried the purifying aroma deep into my body.

I am back now and have been juicing like crazy. i just consumed a pint of beet-granny smith followed by a pint of spinach-coconut water-pineapple, and am now working on a garlic-tomato-chili pepper-oj-lime. It is great even though I went a little crazy with the garlic (1-1/2 bulbs).

Day 31

Well, we are one third finished with the program. Today when I showed my ID at a store, the check out girl looked at the photo that was taken a couple of years ago and asked suspiciously if the photo was of me. I think she did not believe me. So all in all I’d say the raw diet, and now the juice only is having a rejuvenating effect on my cells that shows up on my face and body.

As I walked through the malls doing my last minute shopping tonight, I still found that the smells and sites coming from the fast food places was appealing to me. Seasoned raw fooders that i have hung around have told me that at some point all of that stuff starts to look disgusting. It makes sense that since it is degrading to our health that eventually after the addiction is broken long enough, that we would no longer be attracted to it.

I was reading about the fast today and David Rain says that around day 30-45 you will start to have the strength to begin working out. This eased a lot of pressure for me because i have not felt like working out most days so far. Now I can look forward to my strength returning soon. Yay!

Day 33

Still juicing. Coworkers were eating banana bread in front of me today during our meeting. It was killing me. My longing for foods like that is increasing. Pizza sounds heavenly to me. I need to continue to recall what that food was doing to me. How i was aging and gaining weight. How my spirit was bogged down to the point of not being heard. How my lust and anger was outside of my ability to manage well.

When I was eating burritos and pizza and pad thai, I was in a state of dying… of aging. Now in this cleansing mode i am youthing.

I ran 4 miles last night. It felt good. I intended, again, to wear only shorts, socks, and shoes but the rain scared me into a t-shirt and jacket. Next time?
Bowel movements continue. I have not yet determined if this is the solid part of the juice after my colon extracts all the water, or if it is colon glue being disolved from my persistent state of alkalinity.

Day 34

The cravings continue to rage as my children dine on their Taco Bell toxins in a bag and the smells are driving me crazy. You may wonder why i buy my children Taco Bell if i know it’s poisonous. Well, my father gives me free will here on earth, and so in this situation I have granted my children almost total freedom of choice regarding food. It is my intention to live my ideals out before them in the hopes that maybe later they will look back and see the choices I have made and make the best choices for themselves. For now, especially since i am the one who trained them to love junk food, they can have what they want.

For the past couple of days I have noticed my face is looking pretty haggard and gaunt. It frightens me. It brings up thoughts that I am being foolish to go for so long without solid food. It makes me question the idea that juice is a healing food. I want to eat so badly and I definitely feel that i am looking worse.

Then today I read something in David Wolfe’s Sunfood diet book:
“After you detoxify your body, when you become a raw enthusiast, when at last you reach the point of maximum weight loss, when your body has emptied itself of all toxins…that is when your outer appearance will alter. You will literally push out your old persona (your false body) and, as it is purged, you will momentarily take on that appearance. You will see it in the mirror. Some have called it “the alternating faces of detoxification.” It is one of the most stunning revelations one can experience. After that you will be a transformed person.”

If anyone has experienced this, and can confirm that this indeed will happen, i could use the encouragement about now to put to rest fears of malnutrition.

Day 35

My son Joseph and I played a vigorous game of tennis this morning and when we came back home I began to make my spinach juice. He was watching me and started eating some of the spinach leaves. Then I asked if I could make him a salad with the leaves. We put a layer of spinach then a layer of avocado then some cucumber and fresh pineapple topped with lime juice and Himalayan salt.

While he was munching on this bowl of living and life giving plant food he mentioned to me that he has imagined that there are two sets of warriors in his body. The good warriors are able to defeat their enemies when he chooses to feed them healthy foods. The bad warriors are strengthened by foods like candy, coke and sugar.

I told him that this was not just his imagination, that in fact that his cells are truly celebrating when he eats salads like the one I made him and that there are ‘composting’ elements that become activated by unhealthy food consumption. Joseph wants me to write that ‘most plants are good for you.’

Day 37

I was encouraged to read that David Wolfe aspires to one day be a liquidarion. I have been reading his sunfood diet success system book. It is misnamed. It sounds like a fadish diet book. It should be called “everything you need to know about the raw food diet.” It is so full of useful information. If I only had one book on raw, this would be the one I would choose.

Through this book, I have been challenged to buy organic. Until today, i have been buying mostly conventionally grown foods. I believe Dr. Graham when he said that cooking organic food is like running from a bee and getting hit by a train. I so badly want to prove that this method of eating is available to everyone. I want to show people that you can even shop at Walmart and get healthy. That, and the extra cost, has kept me buying conventionally grown foods up till now.

Tonight I went to the natural store Wild Oats. The prices were crazy high. I am a very talented shopper and have found very good deals for the food items I buy a lot of. For instance, I buy 40 pound boxes of oranges for 13 dollars, pay 25 cents a pound for celery, was paying 79 cents for a head of spinach.

Tonight I payed more. It hurt, but I did it. David makes a good argument that we should be casting our vote to stop using sprays that are poisoning us. That we should reward the agricultural pioneers who have ventured out away from the mainstream. I don’t know if i can completely switch to organic all the time, but I wanted to see what it felt like to go to the fancy store. i wish organic was sold at my cheap stores without all the extra costs of having such a vogue store.

David also challenged me to stop eating hybridized foods. He said that pineapple, bananas, oranges w/o seeds and many many other of my favorite foods, are grossly different than their wild ancestors and are not beneficial to us. Well, Dave, I just aint there yet. Gonna keep eating my hybridized junk food for a while longer

There is a part of me though… a part that longs to completely transform into what my creator had in mind for me when he knit my DNA together and sent me on this earthly adventure. I have been questioning lately, just what a human… this human, would look like if only wild, fresh, foraged in season food was consumed for a sustained period of time.

Days 38-92:  http://curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=1184&i=183