Smasty - your journal

[Migrou]

Hello Sue,

I just read in your journal about your spiritual juice fast you did last year. Can you talk more about that, how long it lasted, what did you drink/eat and so on. Sounds really interesting!

Thanks :)

[smasty]

Hi Migrou!

Sure, I'd be happy to talk about it. Heck, it's what let me to raw.

I'm a huge stress eater, and I found myself last May out of control eating tons of junk food, never feeling satisfied, and hating myself. I was dealing with some nasty things in my life emotionally, and was very new on a Christian path. I decided I needed some space in my life to deal with my emotions and had read a book called Fasting to Freedom. I was inspired to try a juice fast. I had a period of time where I wouldn't have to travel, and though I was still working hard, I thought the timing was right for being able to give fasting the unique attention it requires.

I went cold turkey into it, not easing in w/ increased fruits/veggies as is recommended. I would make very large batches of juice and freeze them in 16oz water bottles. I've found 16 oz water bottles make the PERFECT container for frozen juice. They are easy to store, easy to carry to work in lunch bags and they defrost at just the right rate for drinking throughout the day. Except for the impact to the environment, they are very disposable, since you don't want to re-use that type of plastic bottle.

I know freezing juice isn't as optimal as drinking it right away, but logistically it's all I could do with my schedule. I've said before...if a baby can be born from 30-year-old frozen sperm...I don't worry too much about my juice being frozen for a couple days.

I never let myself get hungry...if that meant drinking a ton of high-calorie fruit juice, I'd do it. Very quickly I settled into a routine though where I'd have 4-6 16oz juices a day, 2 of them fruit-based and the rest veggie based.

I did this for 21 days, and it was the most amazing thing I've ever done. I felt a total removal of distraction and anxiety in my life...particularly the food-based anxiety I'd been feeling. I had time for deep prayer and focus on things I needed to deal with and change. EVERY single prayer was answered. There were days I felt like I was walking with angels...I felt like I was on a different plane. I have a VERY easy detox...I rarely felt bad at all...so I was very lucky from that standpoint.

I lost something like 21 pounds in those 3 weeks. But...I didn't weigh during the fast! Since this was for spiritual and detox purposes, I didn't want the distraction of weighing and having my motivation shift. When it came time to break the fast, I did it VERY slowly, and because of that, all the weight stayed off and I continued to lose.

I feel like the fast set me up for a perfect transition to 100% raw. All the detox and cravings were gone, my body was clean and I had the "high" of the fast...so going into raw was so very easy after that.

It was such a great experience that I'm looking forward to doing it again, it will definitely be a yearly event for me I think.

My favorite juice recipes: #1...Orange/Jalapeno, #2: carrot/yam/apple, #3 veggie (all different kinds of veggies), #4 frozen juice as sorbet...blueberry, mango, pineapple.

Oh, one final thing...many proponents of extended juice fasting are also proponents of enemas. Ick...just couldn't do it. So every other day I'd take some psyllium fiber and do smooth move tea, and that worked really well.

[Migrou]

Awesome Sue, very inspiring! Sounds like something I would love to do. I am currently breastfeeding my 4 months old baby boy but as soon as I finish breastfeeding I definitely want to go back to 100% raw and that sounds like the right way to start.

One more question if you don't mind, how did you break your fast, what did you eat and on what period of time?

Also the psylium tea, the powder in warm water?

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions I appreciate it! I've been following your journey trough your journal and yours is an interesting one. Very inspiring and motivating.

[smasty]

Hi Michelle...
To answer your last questions
1. Breaking the fast: Day one I had a small amount of fruit, then juices all day, then a small salad for dinner
2. Day two, more of the fruit, continued juice, a larger salad....so on.

Although I didn't know it at the time, I was following strict food combining principals for the first 5-6 days. I very slowly brought nuts and dried fruit back into my diet. I can't emphasize enough what a benefit it was to breaking the fast in a slow disciplined manner.

On the psyllium, every other day I'd have a teaspoon in water (first thing in the a.m.) then that night I'd have "Smooth Move" tea. It's really important to use a timer on the smooth move tea (steeping time). Start with 1 minute and see what response you get the next morning, then increase 1 minute each time until you get the perfect (predictable) "response."

Also...many people strain their juice to get any remaining pulp out..for one main reason: they want the digestive system nearly totally shut down for healing purposes, and pulp adds fiber which requires digestion. I never worried about that, particularly since I wasn't doing enemas and needed the fiber anyway to keep things moving.

[hmacias]

Smasty,
Is there anything else you could take other than Psyillium husk? I would like to try the fast, I also have the Fasting to Freedom, but couldn't make it past the 4th day. Any suggestions. I am also a Christian, and would like to see my relationship drastically improve with God! Thanks.
Heather

[smasty]

(note to Alissa...you might want to add "Fasting" to the "Juicing section" and move this thread)


Hi Heather...

I'm not sure what else you could do other than psyllium. The master-cleanse flush (drinking a gallon of salt water) but I never felt comfortable with that concept. Why do you want to avoid psyllium?

Spiritual Fasting.....

This is a different thing than just health and detox fasting. I will PM you my thoughts on this.

Sue