Juicy! Day One.

Here I sit in the last few hours of Juice Cleanse Day One. And I feel great! Maryam and I have committed to at least two days of juicing for wellness, because we thought it would be fun. Really. We've been pretty excited about this for weeks now. So we prepared this weekend by buying bulks of veggies and fruits- carrots, celery, apples, beets, spinach, parsley, green peppers, red peppers, bananas, mangoes, grapes, avocados, watermelon, and ginger. Endless combination possibilities! We wrote up a menu for the next couple days and stayed up till midnight chopping up what we could in advance.

We got up this morning all ready to juice with our huge bowl of fruits and veggies, set up the juicer, flipped on the power switch..... and nothing happened. We tried to troubleshoot to no avail. It was quite a setback to have masses of things to juice and a clear and good intention to do so and a faulty juicer. A setback but not a problem. Maryam went off to work and got some fresh juice from whole foods and I improvised and used my blender. I had the morning off so I went to Target and got another juicer, came home, plugged it in, and it worked!

So here was my beautiful super deeelish juice feast today:

Breakfast: mango, almond milk, vitamineral green

Lunch: carrot, beet, celery, apple, parsley

Dinner: mango, avocado, spinach, green pepper, apple

And now I sit here drinking some warm ginger/lemon/apple cider vinegar/honey tea. These juices are so gooooooood that I didn't miss eating and though I did get hungry in the afternoon it's all nice and satisfying. And oh so tasty.

Why am I even doing this....... i love eating, i love food. And that's why. A practice in letting go. Giving my body and mind a break. Exercising willpower and commitment. To detox, clean out my digestive system, and eliminate toxins. I was a bit concerned since I am very moody when hungry and I have to be careful not to let my blood sugar drop or I turn into a crazy person. So I thought oh man how am I not gonna eat.... but I realized I've done it before. I was on a liquid diet for a week after getting a tonsillectomy and earlier this year when I got sick in India and this is a billion times healthier than drinking salty lime sodas and eating crackers for a week. So today all is well. I prepared for this by going vegetarian for a week before, and the weekend before eating smaller meals, and my last meal last night was nice light and healthy sproutada from the Green Temple.

Another concern I have is the emotional one that comes up anytime I've detoxed or cleansed. I've done numerous sugar detoxes, a yeast cleanse, and vaman at the ashram. And each time the challenge was dealing with a change in mood. This time I welcome any feelings that want to present themselves and will be present to coexisting with them. Since this is a whole body/mind/emotional thing I've also committed to daily meditation and not communicating with any person I have an unbalanced relationship with. Using these next few days to be kind to myself, strong in character, and honoring my best and healthiest self.