After the Feast...

I had someone ask me a few days ago how things are going for me now that I'm back on solid food again. She also wanted to know if I'd gained back any weight and if I still think going on an extended fast was a good idea. The short answer to the last question is yes I still think the juice feast was a good idea and that it helped me to achieve a greater level of health and awareness about myself. I've gained back 5lbs over the past month and a half (which I expected). I believe that if your only goal is to lose weight juice feasting may not be the solution for you. Fasting does help your body release weight but, if you come off the juice feast and jump right back in to eating how you ate before you will gain the weight back (and probably more because your metabolism will be much slower). If you go into it with other goals in mind, healing a health problem, gaining a greater understanding of yourself and your body for instance or as an aid in helping to transition into a healthier diet - I would still say - yes - go for it. Check out David & Katrina's juice feasting site to research what is involved to do it in a healthy informed way before you start (under my links or click on the "Juice feasting" logo above my photo to the right and it will take you there). If you want to connect with others doing a juice feast they also offer a free community site www.globaljuicefeast.com - you will find blogs, discussions, moral support and the like there (both are great resources).

I'm still finding my footing post feast. In many ways juicing every day was much easier than planning healthy menus. I still have days where I will choose to juice for most of the day because I'm busy and don't want to have to think about what I might want to eat - no I'm not sick of juice (amazing isn't it?) - I actually crave it a lot of the time. I still start my days with warm water, fresh lemon juice and msm powder. For breakfast I usually have fruit juice with blue green algae mixed in or a green smoothy, lunch is a salad, blended raw soup or green juice depending on how busy my day is and you've seen what I've been eating for dinner :). Some of my allergy issues have resurfaced so I'm focused now on reducing stress, and investigating which foods make me feel best. I'm reading a lot about Doshas and trying to follow some of the guidelines of Ayurvedic nutrition for my body type.