Happy Leap Year!

Another birthday for my poor father who turned only 17 today. All his children have had more birthdays than him. We were 14 at the same time! We celebrated his birthday tonight at my parents home because he was sick. We had planned to go out for a nice meal and I am glad we didn't go because I would have been asking for a bowl to put my 'soup' in. 

It was a gorgeous day with warmer weather and plenty of sun. I got a lot done and it felt great. I had been feeling bad the last couple of days and realized it was time for an enema. Still feels funny to talk about that. Anyway, I did a coffee one early this morning which kept me going strong all day. I highly suggest them for when you have a lot to get done in one day. You won't lose your drive. I wasn't ever really hungry either so I had to force my juices down a few times. I did feel hungry, however, seeing the three flavored raw ice cream that I made for my dad. He hates cake so I made him what he likes only my style. He loved it. I wanted to love it as I forced back my savory nightly tomatoey green drink. I came home and desired sweetness. I made an apple/strawberry/orange/carrot juice. It was superb. I almost stuck it in the ice cream maker and wondered if it was legal to freeze my juices. Does freezing kill the goodness? I would so love some sorbet. I am going to have to find this out. 

Only one week left of juice. I was really excited for solids again but I had such a good day and was mostly not bothered by being juice only so I am nervous to stop. I feel like I could go longer now. I think when I get back from Italy I will try to get on juice for a little while. I wanted to finish out this feast at 92 days but it doesn't really work with ocean crossing air travel. We'll see how I feel when I get back. I will definitely be a monday and morning juicer. I'm just a bit afraid of the food issues I have had in the past. Luckily I have a friend to talk to for support and this blog, in hopes that people read it! My friend and I are going to hold each other up for this transition back into solids. She may be starting her own blog shortly as well.

Well, a happy leap year to all!, especially my father!

xo,

Elizabeth

Traveling Juice

Day 52. Lately I have been having to stop and think about what day I am on because I have been counting down. It's easier to think, only nine days left of juice! 

For the past four days I have been in Chicago. It was a long drive for a juicer but I made the best of it. I was able to bring my juicer along so that was good but in the car I had to make a plan. On the way there I figured I would try ultimate cleanse. It was easy to make a gallon of the mixture the night before and not have to worry about juicing in the morning. I left early, stopping off at my parents house to pick up my mother. I made a quick juice at their house since their juicer is a champion and easier to clean up after than mine. We were on our way. After a few hours I started to feel a little funny. Not bad, just a little light in my head. After eight hours of it, I was ready for juice. I drank almost the whole gallon of the lemonade mixture. 

That night I made pistachio pesto rawviolis and raw spaghetti 

for my friends. Since none of them were actually raw foodists, the pistachio's and the spaghetti sauce were not raw. It was a start at least and they all loved it. One said it was the best meal he has ever had. Lastly I gave them a coconut/blueberry cheesecake that I made with my left over young coconut meat. I can never bear to throw the stuff out after taking the water so I make little cakes for my friends. I am a very strange juicer. One that loves to make raw foods and torture myself by not eating it. Only, I don't find it that bad. I just feel happy to make others happy to eat. 

I also brought along some crepes that I made from the same coconut mix I used for the cheesecakes. I just spread the stuff out in my dehydrator. In the morning I made crepes for breakfast. I made a quick orange cashew creme in a mini cuisinart processor and cut it in half and made the second half orange chocolate. I decorated it and served with fresh orange carrot juice. They loved it. It was too much to have two so they saved the second one for later. One said that it tasted like cannoli. 

That will definitely be something I will like to try when I am back on solids. But not for a while. I think the complex combinations will be hard on my digestion. I find that even with juice my digestion can be disrupted if I drink one juice and then soon after drink another.

 

That was all the prepping I was going to do for food. I was just so ready to make food. I feel obsessed at the moment with thinking about the food of my past. A bacon, egg and cheese biscuit from McDonald's sounds good to me. Yuck! I would never eat that. The food of my

 childhood coming back to haunt me. By the 'going back in time 120 days for every one day of juicing' I am technically 9 years old. I was definitely into McDonald's at this time in my life. It wasn't until I was 14 that I became a vegetarian and started to think about my health in regard to food. I wasn't into my health as far as other things yet because I was just starting to smoke. That lasted 6 years when I finally realized that maybe it was all connected. 

 It was really great to be in the city again. I am a city girl with a need for nature and a garden. It's a strange combo. I hope I can work that out some day. In the meantime I am stuck making gardens in my kitchen! I went out one day in the windy city with no juice. I just figured everything would work out. So from breakfast to 3:30 I had no juice. I felt fine and not hungry the whole time but I don't think this was a good idea. When we made it to The Chicago Diner I was able to have two delicious juices. I was having a hard time while my company ate one of my gluten/dairy/soy/meat free favorites- Nachos. The Diner makes them like a healthy version of the Nachos Bel Grande from Taco Hell. The vegan nacho cheese is made from nutritional yeast and is safe for someone like me. It's not a raw dish but it's good! At the Diner they also always have one raw meal on their menu and a few different raw cheesecakes in their dessert case. Last time I had their chocolate cake. I can't even talk about it, delicious! I highly recommend their three layered fruit cheesecake.

I love going to Chicago because they have everything at hand. There are three restaurants that serve raw food that I know about and another I just found out about in the suburbs. I went to Karyn's one day for a juice while my mother who is also celiac got a raw slice of Chicago pizza. 

I love that they make that. It is very rich but still worth getting. It is just hard to finish all the crust.  Karyn's is great and is stocked up on all your raw food needs. There is a nice restaurant connected to the shop/to go side. Another raw place that I found out about in January is Cousin's Incredible Vitality. The owners are really nice and friendly and eager to share information with their guests. They do a lot of raw food boxes that you can pay for by the month and pick up two boxes per week. A great investment. Their buffet is also wonderful and very cheap for all you can eat raw food at about $12. I bought my first Juice Feast informational book there. Their carrot cake was exceptionally fabulous that day.

It snowed a lot the night before we left making it hard to get the car out of it's spot in the morning. It was probably the last snow I will see for the season so I was happy for it. I miss the snow where I live now. It only snows once a year and usually doesn't stick. The people here aren't used to it so everything closes down. 

When I arrived home I was pleased to see that my wheatgrass was huge. Thanks to my roommate for watering! They are about five inches tall and I think they are supposed to be ready around 7 or 8. I couldn't help but use some this morning in my juice. I got used to using some wheatgrass each morning because I could buy it at Whole Foods in Chicago. I used to work at a Whole Foods in the bakery section when I lived in Michigan. I sampled out breads and cookies and cakes each day and of corse sampled the goodies myself. It was terrible for an unknowing celiac. 

Well, I am off to get ready for the Student Art Show. I hope I place!

Ciao!

Elizabeth

Day 46

Well, Juicing has been feeling like a drag lately. I haven't felt like exercising this whole week. I attribute that to either over doing it with exercise the week before and the harsh detox effects that it seems to have started or working on school projects and deadlines. Either way, I'm pooped. I have done the Tibetan Rites each morning except today. I really enjoy doing them and I almost feel that I need to do it before anything else, my body asks for it. Today was different because it was so cold that I didn't even want to take off my socks. The sudden freezing weather makes me want to stay in bed. 

I am so excited that my Juicing is almost over. Only 15 days of juice left! I have been thinking

 about food lately. It doesn't help that last night I was at an art party after an artists lecture at school and I was standing near the food table and the garlic in the hummus was calling to my nose. It doesn't help that I went to the bookstore to pick something up for my brother and I stopped by the raw cookbook section and browsed through the books and recipes that I wanted. It also doesn't help that I get email updates of when blogs about raw food recipes like those from Sunny Raw Kitchen and they have the most beautiful and delicious looking foods in them! So I am ready for the switch. I am nervous that I might return to some bad eating habits, but hopefully with the help of Angela Stokes' book Raw Food for Weight-loss, I will be in good shape. I have actually been dealing with all of my emotional food issues. I'm talking about it all with my loved ones whom never knew what secret eating habits I had. I'm getting it all out in preparation. I've also been working on clearing out my closets which feels great in addition to clearing out the bad habits from my mind.

Another project I have been working on is growing wheatgrass. It's is coming along nicely except I am wondering why they are coming up so far apart from each other. I thought they should b

e all bunched together like you find it in the store. Last nights batch I put more in the space so hopefully that will solve the problem but perhaps it is the fact that I didn't put something in it to cause all the seeds to germinate. I'll figure it out soon enough. 

I am happy to say that one of my sculptures was accepted in the

 Student Art Show at my school. I hope to place but I will try not to get my hopes up too high. 

I was talking to my juicing partner and she has been chilling almost her whole fast. She seems to get a lot of detox symptoms and I am wondering if she is just that toxic or if I am doing something wrong because I don't get chilled often or have many detox symptoms. I am feeling the most detoxing this week than the whole thing. My symptoms are usually a sort of a uneasy

 or somewhat nauseating feeling in the bowel when releasing stool. Last Saturday was the worst of course. Since then, unfortunately, I have had Brittany Spears song "Toxic" stuck in my head. Boohoo.

I am looking forward to tomorrow. Slightly warmer weather and it is Friday! I will be leaving to Chicago Saturday morning after a visit to a naturopath. I'm actually taking my dad who has some health issues at the moment and I am really excited that he is willing to take an alternative route. His doctor has been prescribing him pain killers for arthritis but we know that the issue runs deeper than just arthritis. My dad just hasn't been taking them. Is it just me or does it seem that most doctors know less about health these days? This is the same doctor who told me that it wasn't possible for me to have celiac's disease when he knew that my sister, nephew and aunt have it. He doesn't know that it is genetic. Why don't doctors know these things! This is a subject that I get heated over easily. 

I hope everyone that was able to see it enjoyed the Lunar eclipse last night! I was unfortunate to have a cloudy sky. 

Cheers for now!

xo

Elizabeth 

 

Well, I'm finally back! The internet has been down so I missed a few posts. I think I forget where I am in my juice feast too! Let's see, day 43. Wow. Well, my worst day so far happened this Saturday and boy was I surprised. I woke up feeling like I had the flu. I felt like such a jerk since I had just told a friend the day before that healthy people don't get sick and another friend I told that I felt like super woman and that I was immune to the flu that has been going around. When I woke up I think my foot was gravitating toward my mouth. So, I was at my friends house and I had my lemon water and a juice and thought I was feeling better and then worse so I went back to bed at 11:30 in the morning. I had the chills and woke a few times with the feeling of tingling throughout my torso. After three hours I got up and had a talk with my friend. She had been doing something while I was asleep and suddenly realized that she had an enema bag in her house. She had been doing at home colonics for her feast. She did an enema and felt really great. So when I woke and told her how I thought I was sick she told me that I was just detoxing. How soon we forget! So I had her go get me a bag and I did it and felt so so so much better. I did a coffee enema. I felt so clear and clean and wonderful. I could put my foot back down again. It was a humbling experience.

Sunday was another good day as was today, although I am quite tired and already ready for bed so I'm cutting out.

Cheers!

Elizabeth

40 Days Juice

Day 40, I  can hardly believe it. Only three weeks to go. I can almost taste those prunes! 

I'm still really into oranges but I made myself cut down today. I made a nice carrot, orange, spinach with only one orange. It looked so beautiful in the bowl. 

Today was a test of my will power. I helped a friend make a raw meal for his girlfriend for a late Valentine's dinner. She became really excited about raw food after a night of discussing juicing and raw food and looking at my non-cooking books. 

Raw meat loaf, onion crackers and a chocolate cheesecake. The cheese cake smelled amazing and I know how good they taste, they are my specialty. 

I had three non-raw helpers in the kitchen and they loved the taste of everything- the raw meat-loaf before dehydrating and the bbq sauce to top it. They wanted to dip their crackers in the sauce. The recipe's for the Meat-loaf came from my raw cook book by Juliano. I believe it is just called RAW. The cheesecake recipe was a semi-altered Black Forest cheesecake recipe from The Sunny Raw Kitchen blog. We didn't add cherries and we used all coconut oil instead of adding cacao butter.

 

It was a fun night but I had to get out of the house after that. I am staying with my juicy friend tonight. Thank goodness because my uncookers where drinking and planning on a long night. I usually have to wear earplugs to bed when that happens. 

My juice buddy and I took mid-way photos and compared them to our starting out photos. It's incredible how much we've changed but I am ready for more. I actually fit into her size 6 corduroys. I am not getting too excited though. They seemed a bit stretchy especially to fit on me and my size 12 body. But it felt good anyway!

It's late again, I'm off to bed.

xo

Elizabeth

Happy Valentine's day again. A gorgeous day that brought many smiles to my face. I had a date on skype with my boyfriend this morning and a big beautiful vase of flowers this afternoon. <3

As for juicing, I thought I would be romantic and make exactly what I was craving. Orange juice. For my morning drink I made orange, carrot, spinach, celery, blackberry. I really only craved orange, carrot, and blackberry but I needed to work my celery and greens in too. It was delicious as you can see and it even came out nice enough that I could make a heart shape in it. 

So, I have been craving Orange juice all day yesterday and today. I attribute it to working out. I've never had such strong cravings as today. I made orange in all my drinks but my last one which I always make savory and similar to V8. I wanted to know if this need for orange juice is okay at this point so I looked on the Juice Feasting website and the timeline showed that I should have tried to cut back on sweet fruity drinks about ten days ago! I thought that It would be okay with working out and I read somewhere that you can start working out harder after forty days...But I was mistaken again. The website said that you can workout harder after 60 days. I've had a pretty rigorous schedule and I am used to it and I don't want to stop. I hope that I am not damaging myself or my juice feast. I think I will do some more research and find out exactly what the consequences would be. 

Back to Msm powder. My friend has been experiencing the same sulfurous symptoms that I had. We decided to cut back and hope that this just means that we don't need it as much. That is another question that I plan to look into.

I almost forgot to mention! My composting worms came today! A bunch of tiny little 

guys ready to see their new home. 

Also, I bought some organic soil and treys to start growing my own wheatgrass. The wheat berries are soaking now. I can't wait! I love saving money by growing my own things!

It's late again and I need to sleep.

-<3-

Elizabeth

Happy V-Day!

It's just past midnight and I am ready to sleep but I thought I would do a quick post.

Today was another amazing day that started with the sun as it rose shining orange through my windows. 7am is my favorite time in my kitchen. I took (another) picture of my green morning juice with some of that morning sun making it even more glorious. 

On my way out the door to my exercise classes two packages arrived! 5 pounds of wheat-grass seeds and an ice-cream maker! I am so happy to know that juiced wheat-grass does not have an autoimmune effect on a celiac. I can't wait to start growing it as I just ran out of my store bought pre-cut grass. 

The ice-cream maker was a special treat, thanks to my credit card company. I saved up enough rewards points to get free things from them and the only thing interesting to me was the ice-cream maker. I am so excited to put some of the raw ice-cream recipes to work that I saw on www.Freshtopia.net. If you haven't seen this raw website/tv show, check it out. The host is wonderful and they go over other topics besides food. Gardening, cancer, helping the environment with fun bits of advise. In only about three weeks that ice-cream maker is getting to work! I may even have a raw ice-cream social. 

I am constantly amazed at how much energy I have while juice feasting. Again, I worked out or did some form of exercise for about three hours. Between swim class, bellydance, and using the work out equipment I feel like I've done a lot but I still have energy. I do such a variety of exercise right now and it feels amazing. I can't wait for yoga tomorrow. I am going to take it easy for a day! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

xo

Elizabeth

Juice as Art

Last night I went to bed with lightning and thunder storms. This morning I woke to the same. My classes start late today so I was able to take it easy this morning. I spent some time in the kitchen with my juicer. 

I was there so long that I started to see my juice as art. A splotch on the countertop, green elixirs in their containers and sprouts growing. I even photographed my chia mistake.

 A jar of juicey gel chia that will not release any liquid through a cheese clothe. No chia sprouts for me...any suggestions for growing? I'd probably benefit from buying a chia pet to grow the

 sprouts.

 

I ended up juicing my chia goo in my last juice of the day. Twas good. 

I'm a quite tired now so this is a short post. I'll let my pictures do the talking.

Cheers!

Elizabeth

Twas a somewhat nasty day. Cold and gray but it didn't get me down. I woke at six again only not on purpose. Every time I wake up at a certain time, I wake up at the same time again the next day. Weird. 

Today I wanted to talk about msm. I started taking it as it came in the mail. 

I started with a tsp, the next day a half Tbsn and the next a whole. I was taking the whole Tbsn for a week before I realized that was what was giving me horrendous gas! I smelled like a sulfur bomb. My poor roommate!  So I stopped taking it for a week. Then while reading A Juice Feasters hand-guide I read the part of what she would have done differently. It said take msm everyday. I started up again but with a half tsp. It seemed alright so I've been taking a tsp

 in my lemon water each morning. Yesterday, however, it struck me again. Why does this happen? I discussed it with my friend who was taking a whole Tbsn her third day and we decided that I just didn't need it as much as she did. I'll have to look into it. 

On top of taking msm internally, I use it in a gel form. I put it on my face and all my scars and stretch marks and it seems to be doing some good.

Something great that happened today was that my Chia seeds arrived by mail. These little tiny

 seeds can absorb 9 times their volume and are extremely nutritious. They are filling and have fiber and are great when eaten with sweet things because they allow the sugars to release more slowly making it a great food for those with sugar problems. Also for those who want to loss weight and and block some carb absorption.  I ordered the chia for when I am back to solids, but I thought I would try to grow the sprouts like the chia pet so I can juice them. Only I ran into a problem. I let the seeds soak and then tried to dump the excess water. There was none! The seeds had absorbed all the liquid and were suspended in their own gel. I don't think my traditional sprout jar sprouting methods are going to work for these little guys. We'll see how it turns out. 

I took a nap again this afternoon. I am not sure if it was because I needed it or because I was procrastinating. There were things I could have done. I had my swimming class today and that always takes a lot out of me. Mondays are my biggest exercise days usually because of that class and then I attend and hour yoga and an hour of belly dance. I was pooped. You should have seen me trying to undulate my body at 8:45pm. It wasn't pretty. 

After a some a long soak in a hot tub with a good book and some sleepy tea. I'm ready to hit the hay.

Buona notte!

Elizabeth

Sunday Mornin'

Day 35 of juice and still kickin. Today was gorgeous. Here's a picture I took of the sunrise as I went out the door. I woke at 6am to go hang with my parents. I love how juice feasting allows me to get up without feeling tired. I just hop out of bed and get on with my day. I had my lemon water with msm powder and headed out without making juice. I brought a lot of things with me because I had a date to make my parents juice for breakfast. Well, breakfast for me, after breakfast for them.

 I arrived and made a beautiful green juice 'Latte' as I like to call them. 

The pineapple really makes them foamy. They loved the juice and it was full of good things like celery, chard, spinach, other leafy greens. After day four of juicing they saw how great my skin was and how it had changed and they became believers in juice. Well, my mom noticed and my dad partakes in her habits. So juice it is for them every morning! My first step at helping others to better health.

 So, Green juice! They are used to having things a little simpler. They make orange juice or carrot juice or carrot, orange and apple. They needed a nudge into the greener side of juicing. I'm actually very proud. They used to use a lot of paper towels and drink bottled water. My mom decided to buy a bunch of white hand towels and just wash them as they use them and to stop with the bottled water and just drink the filtered water from their fridge. I used to take all their recycling for them and they've cut out all the plastic. Now she is talking about alternatives to chemical cleaning supplies! I love it.

I exercised with my mom today in the early afternoon. We walked and did some machine work outs. I felt great but later in the afternoon I started to drag and eventually took a nap around 3 or 4pm. I tend to take a dip at this time each day if I am not occupied. I've been tested before for adrenal function and my lowest point was in the afternoon and they spike around midnight. I was hoping to cure all my imbalances with this feast so here's hoping! I still have 26 days left and a raw lifestyle ahead of that. Wow, 26 days sounds like nothing. I think I will be sad to stop. Even though I think about those first prunes that I will eat and get excited. I hope I don't fall into the common post feast blues. Of course I won't, I'll be in Italy with my boyfriend!

The juices I had today were:

Greens with pineapple

Orange and carrot

grapefruit with bluegreen algae

coconut water with greener grasses

Tbsp of hemp oil

Greenish red juice with tomato, garlic, carrots, celery, greens, beets, sprouts, chard, baby salad greens, cucumber, zucchini, yellow and green bell pepper,  salt, cayenne, chlorella. I really like the pack it in at night!

Tea with honey

Lots of water

Wow, that was a lot. I haven't been keeping track of how much I drink. I was curious around day 10 or so if I was drinking enough. I wasn't so I kept track for a couple of days. I really had to try to drink enough and soon I was drinking a lot. I had over two gallons one day including my water. I stopped adding it up somewhere along the line because I felt that I learned to achieve at least a gallon.

 I usually don't feel so hungry for juice in the morning. The cravings strike the most around mid afternoon, the same time that I get tired. This also happened when I was eating. Sometimes I would skip dinner and just have an extra long lunch because I just could not be satisfied  between 1 and 3. This is one of the things I am hoping to overcome with juicing. I've read Angela's Raw food for weight loss and I intend to apply some of her principles when I come out of this. Wish me luck!

xo,

Elizabeth

It's still Day 34!

It was a beautiful day today with nice sunny weather. Perfect for a walk. I actually went jogging for the first time while on my juice feast. I have been swimming, doing yoga, the Tibetan Rites, taking a belly dance class and working out at the gym a bit. I am fortunate to have all these free classes at school. Everything I have been doing is pretty low impact. So I decided to start jogging to get my heart rate up and help with the weight loss. I also need to be in good "running" order for when my ultimate frisbee class starts in March. Yes, my school actually offers ultimate frisbee as a class. I love the game and am very excited to be exercising that way.

On my jog/walk I thought of millions of things to say on this blog. I've forgotten most now, so I'll just begin with a bit about my juice feast so far. 

My detoxing has not been very bad. I have had very tiny zits occasionally and today being my first occasion for a really big zit right on my cheek! I had sleep in my eyes during the first weeks. Actually my first day or two I felt a bit nauseated and tired. I wanted to sleep long for the first week. After that I was up at 7 every morning without the alarm, even when I went to bed late. 

My energy has been outstanding and sometime I feel obnoxiously so. I've had a few moments of nauseated feelings during enemas. Around day 12 I went to a sauna and did rotation of sauna and cold shower for a while. It felt good to be in the warmth but when I arrived home I was cold and had to bundle up and stay in for the rest of the night. I get occasional chills but not that bad and not often. My tongue was coated for at least the first week and my teeth get a fuzzy feeling. I try to brush as much as I can. 

A funny thing that has happened is that my B.O. sometimes smells like celery. They say to juice one head of celery a day and I have been faithful. Getting two pounds of leafy greens is a bit

 more difficult. 

I have been using supplements such as greener grasses, msm powder, chlorella, kelp granules, dulse, salt, turmeric, and blue green algae.

I use the skin brush almost daily and use msm lotion on my face and areas of old scares, stretch marks and sore joints. 

I do a green juice every morning and every night. I usually add a fruit to my morning greens like pineapple or apples. I just tend to want something sweet at that time. I also have some wheatgrass right now and fortunately I have been blessed with a Greenstar Juicer and can juice it. I just ordered some seeds and I am going to try to give myself a green thumb. I've already been non-stop sprouting. 

Some of my favorite juices are:

Carrot/Orange

Apple/Ginger/Lemon, peel and all (make sure it is organic) This one is fabulous!

Grapefruit juice with bluegreen algae and a squirt of stevia

Squash/Carrot/Vanilla/Salt/Cayenne -Inspired by Angela Stoke's juicings during her feast

Everything green in the fridge plus pineapple or apple

Tomato/Spinach/Carrot/Celery/Garlic/Ginger/Parsley/and anything else in fridge plus salt, cayenne, and turmeric. 

Fresh young coconut water with Greener Grasses powder. Taste amazing! I also got that one from Angela. It tastes sweet and malty.

I use bee pollen , organic honey, hemp oil and coconut oil although not every day. I use the coconut oil every third day and I love to mix my pollen into it.

Off the subject of Juice feasting, Last night I started something that I am 

so excited about. I made my very own indoor worm composting bin. I have been saving all of my pulp in my freezer and then driving it out to my parents home once a week to compost there. My freezer fills up and it is so annoying. I just decided to take care of it right in my kitchen. I learned how by doing a search on Youtube. After a few demos I was ready. I made mine huge! 30 gallons. I took two plastic bins with lids. I poked small holes on the bottom of one and around the top and in the lid. I placed two old Almond butter jars in the bottom of the hole-free bin. Next I placed the holed bin inside of it. There needs to be space for the drippings from the compost. You can use those drippings as fertilizer for your  houseplants. Next I put a store bought flower box bedding thing made out of coconut fiber in the bottom of my holed bin. I made a layer of paper shreds. I used old whole foods paper bags all cut up. Then I sprayed it down to moisten. Next I put a layer of Veggie pulp from juicing and another layer of paper. Another pulp layer and another paper layer and then a bit of soil. They say to wait a couple weeks before adding your worms so that the moisture level is optimal. I ordered my worms today and have no idea when they are coming but are going in as soon as they get here. It won't hurt them to go in early. You need to have Red worms, not just any old worm that you find. I found mine on Amazon. 

Well, That's it for now.

Thanks!

Elizabeth

Day 34

It's day 34. I've been reading other blogs so much during my feasting that I hadn't considered doing my own until now. I guess I will start with a bit about myself. 

I am 26 years old, a college student and I am about to graduate this May with a Bachelor of Fine Art. I have Celiac's disease as well as intolerance to wheat/gluten, dairy, eggs, and soy. My journey to better health started when I was 22. I didn't know I had any of these problems until I took a month trip to Italy to study art. I suppose all the pasta, pizza, and gelato kicked in the symptoms of my problems. I was a tall, thin, and clear skinned girl. 5'9" about 155lbs. By the time my trip was over I gained 10 pounds and had incredible acne. I didn't understand it. I went to the doctor. He tried to give me anti-depressants, topical acne cream, and birth control. I refused. I knew the issue went deeper than these things. I was convinced of a thyroid problem but he said I was within normal range. I cried when I found this out and he said that I was one point away from being under active thyroid so he decided to give me a low doss. After testing again he gave me a higher doss. Through this time, my weight continued to increase, I became depressed and had anxiety. I tried different diets to lose weigh. I tried only fruits and veggies with a handful of nuts each day for two weeks, then a soup diet. Weight would come off and then come back. The thyroid medicine helped a bit. The depression was less but I still wasn't that happy girl I used to be. I asked my doctor if I had celiac's because my sister, aunt, and nephew have it. He said it wasn't possible.

After about three years of this suffering I found an allergist who diagnosed me with cealiac's and the intolerances. This helped tremendously. After some withdrawal I got used to my new diet. It was fun to experiment and make everything that I used to eat out of gluten free ingredients. I was feeling better but still not 100%. I was also taking a lot of vitamins and herbs with my thyroid medication. I didn't feel right about taking 10 or more pills a day even if they were all natural. I started to find out about raw foods. It seemed ideal, no meat (I am a vegetarian), dairy, wheat/gluten, and soy(in most cases) to worry about. I was very excited and went totally raw after fat tuesday of last year. I was raw for three months before going off to Italy to study for the summer. I felt great but when I went to Italy, I was a guest and the woman I lived with cooked for me everyday. My tummy felt terrible for the first week. The transition to cooked was unwanted but I couldn't explain to her about raw. My Italian was very weak and she was very old and set in her ways. It was fortunate enough that she would cook for my celiac's and intolerances. So, I was back to cooked. 

This winter my boyfriend came to visit me from Italy. We went on a road trip across the USA. We were able to eat at different raw food restaurants all over the country. In Santa Fe, Sedona , Santa Monica, San Diego, San Francisco, and Chicago. We found the food so amazing and wonderful. My interest was re-sparked. Somewhere along the line we became interested in Juice Feasting. We bought a book and I read it on the flight home. We started our feast on January 7th. My boyfriend could only join me in this adventure for 4 days before heading back to Italy. In those four days people had already noticed our vibrance. You're glowing they would say. I noticed how hydrated and wonderful my skin looked and still does. I am still getting the comments today. "You look so healthy" and "You're glowing" are the main ones as well as, "you are looking slimmer."

My top weight somewhere in the years of unknowing was about 180 lbs more or less. I am not sure what I weigh now but around day 12 I was about 168 lbs. I planning on not weighing or measuring until day 61. Which brings me to the fact that I have to break my feasting on day 62. I will be going to Italy and I need time to come off of juice before the flight. Sadly, because I would love to finish out the 92 days. 

I am enjoying this feast so much and learning so much from all who are doing it as well and who have done it in the past. I get a lot of information from Angela Stokes and RawReform.com as well as Juicefeasting.com. 

I stopped taking all the vitamins and even the thyroid medication. The vitamins were a given with juice feasting but the thyroid meds, I was unsure about. I have stopped taking them before and would feel okay but after a while I would get down. I would take it again and feel better. So I didn't just want to stop this time. I ended up going to a man named Barry Joneshill. He is an alternative healer. I told him about the thyroid medication and that I have very irregular cycles. He told me that it wasn't actually my thyroid but the isthmus of thyroid that was the problem. I am now taking L-Tyrosine and Sarsaparilla root to deal with those problems. I just open the capsules and put the powder into my juice morning and night. Tastes nasty, but I feel great and have been off my Meds for weeks. My cycles seem to be getting better but that will take some months to really know. 

That is my story for now. I hope I can help some people along the way who might be suffering from similar problems.

Ciao!

Elizabeth