Life on the other side...

Huge promoters of all things green and glorious - Green Living - http://gliving.tv/ today have my JUICY story up on their front page...if you go there and follow the links about Juice Feasting, you'll find this fabulous article they put together describing Feasting:

http://gliving.tv/bodydesign/27/92-days-of-nothing-but-juice/

I was really impressed with this article - they really put some nice info in there ;) hurray for the GMonkey, spreading the word...


Today I have had:

water of 4 DELICIOUS young green coconuts
a big slice of watermelon
1 medium papaya
1 litre water
small green salad - parsley, cilantro, dulse, fresh orange juice squeezed over as dressing
water AND MEAT of 2 young coconuts
one small watermelon
500ml water

WOW - the young cocos here are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO delicious - the ones by the beach are sweetest and absolutely mineral-packed - feel fantastic to me...plus today I ATE the meat from 2 of them - first time since getting to CR, due to the Juice Feasting - wow...so simple and tasty and easy on my body - all feels easy on my body right now, the foods I'm choosing - mono-mealing with fruits, getting my greens in...loving it...
ahhhhhhhhhhh, what a beautiful day...I woke by the beach and went out to collect shells, drank loads of yummy coconuts, then hired a bike and went for a 12km bike ride along the coast...so beautiful here...and HOT...sat on the beach and ate a whole papaya and ended up a sticky mess of sand and sea water and sweat and juice...lol...it felt great to get so much exercise though, with all the biking...
Two things I am noticing are different about this body since stopping feasting are that:

1. I seem to often have phlegm in my throat upon waking...this is quite curious, as I'm not consuming anything different than while I was feasting, in terms of ingredients...the only real difference is the fact that now some of it is solids and some juice...so, I find that very interesting, that my body can take in the same foods, in a different form and produce mucus/phlegm as a result...

2. I have started setting off car alarms...lol...not on purpose you understand...it seems as if my energy field has become bigger or more powerful or something, as I literally rarely take a walk anywhere these days without setting off alarms as I walk along the street...it's quite bizarre and I find it very interesting also...

one love,
Angela. xxx

IRIE...

I´M IN THE CARIBBEAN... :)well...kind of...I´m on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica at least :)I have wanted to come over here the entire time I´ve been in CR and today...was the day...I LOVE IT...SUCH a different vibe over here - strong Caribbean Island influences, a lot of rastas and music and art and a really laid-back-vibe..PLUS...it turns out the woman who runs the guesthouse I´m staying at is raw...lol...I do love the way the universe works :)
I am looking at the Caribbean Sea again for the first time in about 10 years and feeling really relaxed and great...people are friendly and the amount of available coconuts is quite absurdly abundant...Hurrah...

Today I have had...

1 litre water
500ml beet-carrot-beet green-chard juice with water of one old coconut
400ml orange juice
1 mango
1 pack sugar cane sticks
1 small green salad - parsley, cilantro, dulse, fresh orange juice and coconut oilç
400ml water
1-2 watermelon
500ml water

wow, travelling feels quite a bit easier again, post-Feasting...just to buy a watermelon and eat it for example, without juicing first - feels nice...I do so love being on the road...I mean literally, the journey part of it - the travelling - once it starts, I find I don´t want it to end - there is something that resonates with me so much...I feel liberated and comforted by the space I feel and seeing all the sites from the window and so on...ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, wonderful times...

A guy is playing ´Redemption Song´ out in the street...I´m off to enjoy :)
ONE LOVE,
Angela. xxx

CELEBRATION TIME :)))

HURRAY :))) IT”S FINALLY FINISHED :))
My new e-book – A Juice Feaster’s Handbook – is ready for download NOW on the RawReform site :)
I am soooooooooooooooo happy and relieved to have this completed and ready for people to access – the response has been HUGE to this whole Juice Feasting process and I’m delighted to be able to share the info that people are really wanting and needing, all in one package…
Thanks to all of you who pre-ordered the book…hopefully you have all happily received it by now by email and are rapidly absorbing its juicy info…the 6 WINNERS have also now been selected at random for the ‘Post-Feast FEAST’ prize giveaway of YUMMY raw treat gift packs…and I’m thrilled to be able to announce that the lucky winners ARE…

(DRRRRRRRUM RRRRRRRRRRRROLL PLLLLLLLLLLEASE ;)

…Representing the UK/Europe/right-of-the-Atlantic tribe, we have:

Nadine Coulson
Jane Marriott
AND
Julia Barnes

…and on the left side of the Atlantic, we have the oh-so-lucky:

Linda Stockton
Joyce Jackson
AND
Sharon Danukos

CONGRATULATIONS and FELICITATIONS to you all…your prizes will be winging their way to you soon – ENJOY :)


So, as you perhaps noticed, in the furore of e-book finalising, blogging fell by the sideline yesterday, so, here’s how it went…

On Feb 25th I had:

500ml water
500ml prune soak water
200g/7oz soaked prunes
1 litre celery/red pepper/garlic/orange juice
3 small papayas
green salad – lettuce, cilantro (coriander), basil, hemp oil, lime juice, dulse flakes
1 litre water
½ tbsp coconut oil w/dulse flakes
water of 2 old coconuts with green powder
500ml water

…this was Day 6 of Feast-Breaking for me – officially the last day of the Feast-Breaking Protocol, which spreads out over 6 days…and…all went well :) I’m delighted in fact with how smoothly it has gone…the only thing that slightly disturbs me to see is that as soon as I eat a salad, like I’ve been having the last couple of days, my mind automatically then wants something sweet afterwards – it wants dessert – that’s how I’ve always eaten, all my life – dessert after a meal, so, that habit has been poking its head back round the door now that solids are back on the menu…I’m not very interested in letting it in though…maybe now and then for a visit, but not to stay ;) It just doesn’t serve me so well to mix too many foods into the same blend, so, catching these kinds of patterns NOW, before they start to deepen and get re-rooted again is the best thing I feel I can do to honour my new state of health…

Lots of people have been laughing about the prunes ;) lol…I know, I know…they don’t really have much ‘sex appeal’…and I’m sure we can all think of things that sound much more exciting to break a lengthy Feast with, but hey, it works ;) and they’re yummy…I think prunes are overlooked…I’m willing to become an ambassador for prunes…;) besides which, I’ve spent most of my life looking for excitement and fulfilment in food – I don’t necessarily want to choose to do that anymore…so, choosing this path of concentrating much more on the healthy, body-fuelling aspect of what I broke this Feast with than the emotion-fuelling aspect was vital for me…
Something else I noticed, while eating the papayas, was HOW much easier the fruit sugars felt to my body eaten as a WHOLE food – wow – such a difference…I really came to understand from a whole-body perspective the saying to ‘eat your fruits and drink your vegetables.’ The fruits WITH the fibre intact just seem like such a more balanced package, letting the fibre off-set the impact of the sugar-rush…the papayas were ABSOLUTELY DIVINE…yuummmmm :)

And so, to today – Feb 26th…it is 100 days today since I started Juice Feasting…that kind of puts a cap on it for me…I had always looked on it as a 100 day process, more or less, to include both the juicing and the Feast-Breaking protocol…so…today was really like my first day back in the ‘real’ world…hello :) …nice to be back…

Here’s what I had:

300ml water
500ml prune soak water
200g/7oz soaked prunes
1 litre water
1 pack sugar cane sticks
water of one old coconut with green powder
1 small honeydew melon
750ml red pepper/garlic/orange juice
green salad (lettuce, cilantro, basil) with dulse leaves and coconut oil
250ml water

Ok, so I want to get smthg clear – MANY people write asking me which fasting/retreat centre I have been staying at here in Costa Rica… I haven’t been at a centre here…I’m just living here in a house and juicing :) That’s one of the JOYS of juice FEASTing rather than fasting – it is so user-friendly – it’s designed to be something that people can do in their homes, while getting on with ‘normal life’…unlike a more traditional fast, where one might end up feeling weak/incapacitated etc and prefer to be supervised in a centre – FEASTing is all about masses of fuel and being FUNctional ;) and hey, now my Juicing HANDBOOK is out there, you can read ALL about it and get juicing yourself if you feel so inclined…;) That’s not to say of course that it’s not a wonderful experience to share this with others at centres and I’ll definitely be holding space for more and more events like that in the future – starting in Michigan this April – but I just want to make it clear that this is smthg anyone can access, in their own homes – you don’t have to be in Costa Rica (though it definitely is fun ;)…

One love,
Angela. xxx

Reaching Clarity...

Wow…I had my first salad today… (see pic – yes, it is in a bizarre kind of little white ‘bucket’…lol…as I said, I’m not equipped for eating in this house, just juicing…but hey, rather a bucket o’salad than a bucket o’wings or smthg… ;)
This salad was quite some experience and opened up a lot of stuff for me… It was a deliciously simple combination of about five lettuce leaves with half a bunch of cilantro (coriander) and a handful of basil leaves. I dressed it with hemp oil, lime juice and some dulse flakes. It is the first thing I have eaten containing more than one ingredient since starting to break this feast and it was amazing… The taste explosions in my mouth were like nothing I’ve ever experienced – so intense. I could feel and taste each part of it and sat chewing and marvelling at how incredibly satisfying such a simple salad could be…
It was then that I saw clearly one of the huge gifts this Juice Feast has brought me – prior to beginning this Feast, I was at the end of many months of travelling from raw talk to raw talk, restaurants, retreats and so on – I had been surrounded by delicious foods for months on end and had been eating all kinds of less-than-optimal combinations and complicated mixtures…my inner being could easily tell me over and over again that it would be great for me to eat more simply, yet actually DOING that felt very challenging at that time…now, the picture is of course completely different…wow, such a turn-around…this 3-month break from solids has put me in a position where it is INFINITELY more easy for me to eat simply and thoroughly enjoy it…whereas I’m sure a salad like I just ate tonight would have felt extremely bland a few months back and I would have experienced a feeling of ‘lack’ or missing out on something… another thing I noticed while preparing the salad was how much care I was taking to make sure every piece of greenery I was about to put into my body was fresh and healthy looking…I don’t think I’ve ever paid such close attention to that as I did today – there was a complete desire to just fuel this body with the best possible produce I can…and again, this is not something that has patterned much for me in my past.
As an obese person, my self-esteem was very low and what I can see now is that my prevailing attitude towards myself in all areas was that ‘anything will do’ because I felt so little self-worth, that I was not prepared to ask for the best for myself. It always seemed like I was ‘lucky’ to have or get anything at all, as I didn’t really ‘deserve’ anything…attention from others, nice clothes, the things I really wanted – whatever it was – I didn’t really feel like I was ‘worthy’… as a result, I was pretty much boundary-less in most areas of life – it was too much of a challenge for me to define what I really wanted/needed/desired, as I didn’t feel like I was really ‘deserving’ of any of it, so I held my energetic boundaries wide open towards everything. I didn’t make my choices clear. Any food was ‘good enough’, any attention from people was a bonus – especially any male attention - and so on…
I would look at other women and couldn’t get my head around how they could be so small. Lol…that maybe sounds funny to others, but everything about them looked so small to me – little feet in little pretty shoes, tiny clothes, small handbags – littlelittle people…how did they fit into those little spaces? How was it that they ironed their clothes and had them folded and hanging on rails in closets, when mine were in a big bundle exploding out of my backpack…? Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t suddenly have post-Feast aspirations to start ironing my clothes and wearing kitten heels ;) ...but it does show me some key things about my patterns…mainly how much I have NOT been choosing clarity for myself, how my boundaries have been big and broad and not very ‘clean/clear’… I like the way David Rain uses the analogy of coming out of the end of a Juice Feast with a very ‘clean’ body as like getting a brand new car…you don’t want just ANYONE and ANYTHING in that new vehicle…you don’t want dirty feet and stinking foods and grubby hands…you want to preserve that ‘new-car-vibe’ for as long as possible…right? Suddenly there are new rules – no more eating ice cream in the car, no more getting in with muddy shoes, no more hands on the windows – the old ways aren’t acceptable any more… Well…that’s what this feels like too…new body, new rules :) Hmmmmmm…long may it last…

Today I have had:

500ml (1 pint) water
500ml (1 pint) prune soak water
7oz/200g soaked prunes
150g/5oz diced papaya
water of one old coconut
½ medium watermelon
500ml (1 pint) water
1 green salad – lettuce, cilantro, basil, hemp oil, lime juice, dulse flakes
1.2 litres (1.2 quarts) celery/red pepper/garlic/orange juice

I LOVE PRUNES…I really do…they are really pleasing me at the moment – sooo sweet and simple and yummy…the papaya was great too – another new addition for today – I actually bought a lot more of it in the shop, but decided to share it with an old begging woman on the street as it was so delicious and she seemed so interested in it…she seemed pleased…I also tried a new experiment today of inhaling green powder straight into my mouth with a straw…I don’t recommend it…lol…

Today is the last day to buy my juicing e-book at the pre-order price of $10. ‘A Juice Feaster’s Handbook’ will be sent out tomorrow evening to all those who have pre-ordered and the price will increase to $15 from then on…so, if you haven’t already ordered, you can get your copy HERE now :)

One love,
Angela. xxx

Going for Green ;)

The Juice Feast Breaking video I put out earlier this week was today added to Al Gore’s Current TV site – you can see it with the link below and if you click on ‘Give it a Greenlight’, it will increase the video’s ranking and help get it onto TV, to spread the raw healing message even further…So, go on, give it some greens ;)

http://www.current.tv/watch/22860522

Today I have had:

600ml (2.5 cups) water
600ml (2.5 cups) celery/red pepper/garlic/orange juice
½ a medium watermelon
4 small mangoes
1 tbsp green powder
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 tbsp dulse flakes
water of three young green coconuts
400ml (1.5 cups) swiss chard and pineapple juice
250ml (1 cup) water

which is about…2.7 litres of liquids or 0.7 GALLONS…eeeeeeeek – under a gallon, for the first time since November…wow, that's a shock…but I guess the juicy fruits are giving me so much water in a different form that I don’t feel the need for so much actual liquid…
Eating the watermelon today, out in the sun, was such a lovely experience…I just LOVE the structure of watermelon – especially when I can see all the patterns and colours in it in the sunlight…and sinking my teeth into it, crunching on the yummy seeds and so on after all this time – it was blissful…
I also drank the greens/pineapple drink along with some of the coconut water at the same time – I named this drink ‘Green-a Colada’ and it was yummy :)

Today I have been continuing to enjoy this unfolding new life of simple food choices…and I am repeatedly reminded of things that Matt Monarch introduced me to last year…he would often emphasise the importance of not ‘overlapping’ meals – i.e., allowing one meal to digest before eating anything else…and I never really understood it at the time…but now I am at a point where this body feels so clean and sensitive that I finally feel I can really integrate what he was saying, because I can totally experience it for myself now…back then I still felt so full of ‘junk’ inside that it was hard for me to associate with what he was describing, but now, at this point of ‘cleanliness’, I simply don’t want to create digestive issues for myself by adding in complex mixtures of anything…I am sure that over the coming weeks my intake will get gradually more complicated, but right now, this feels amazing…so, thanks Matt :) I get it now…

I am also happy to note at the moment that I do not feel any ‘dampening down’ of my energy or depression etc, since starting back with solids – in fact, if anything, quite the contrary – I feel great and even a bit more energised perhaps…I’m definitely happy to observe that, as people often seem to report going into a slump after juicing for extended periods then starting solids again…ahhhhhhhhhhhh, life is good :)

One love,
Angela. xxx

Cracking Open the Fruits...

So, my idea to try out a slower Feast Breaking process was bypassed today after consulting further with David Rain of www.juicefeasting.com. David does not recommend taking the process any more slowly than the 6 days outline – here’s what he had to say on the matter:

“…you want to give your body enough solid food to prompt peristalsis, and small amounts of food will not do that. Your body can handle it - go ahead and eat, just according to the order and timing of the protocol…your colon will be glad to have something to work with.”

And so it was that, somewhat reluctantly, I started to add in juicy fruits again today too, along with the prunes…

Today I have had:

1 litre (1 quart) water with lemon and ginger
500ml (1 pint) prune soak water
7oz/200g soaked dried prunes
200ml (.75 cups) orange juice with hemp oil
1 litre (1 quart) celery/red pepper/garlic/orange juice
1tbsp coconut oil
½ tbsp dulse flakes
600ml (2.5 cups) water
5 mandarins
Water of one old coconut with green powder
A 1-inch/2cm thick slice of pineapple cut into chunks

Which is about 3.8 litres of liquids, or roughly 1 gallon…I guess that number's going to just keep on declining…hmmm…it feels strange to see that…

I am so interested to see how my body reacts SO precisely now to tell me when it has had enough of smthg. I have read often of this phenomenon – how a body that is very clean will immediately indicate at the point when it has had enough of something by triggering a change in the taste buds, so that something that tasted good suddenly tastes strange and unpleasant. I experienced that ‘tipping point’ with all the things I ate today. I am loving experimenting with mono-mealing for that reason alone….it’s amazing – something tastes good and good and good, then BAM, it suddenly tastes bizarre and I can’t eat any more. The strongest reaction came with the pineapple, which often tends to affect people strongly anyway – the effect was so instantaneous that I literally could not take another bite…prior to eating the pineapple, I realised I’d forgotten that it is a food that can be eaten, not just a juice ingredient…lol…I was deciding which fruit to eat in the evening and didn’t even consider the pineapple at first – I guess I’ve just juiced them so much these last months I’d forgotten it’s possible to eat them too…it felt very peculiar to cut it up and just put it in my mouth – no mechanical intervention inbetween…I'm definitely enjoying the fact that I can just pick something up and eat it now like that again - it feels strange still, but fun and cuts down meal prep time enormously ;)
I also realised today that I am almost entirely unequipped to eat solid foods in this house – I have never eaten here, so there are no plates, no utensils, no nuthin’ except mason jars and a couple of spoons…hmmmmm…could be a challenge when it comes to eating salads in a couple of days’ time ;)

So…how am I feeling now? Hmmmm…well, overall, still going great, happy to be taking things slow enough that it feels like each thing is fully digested in my body before I put something else in, getting used to the heavier feeling in my stomach and intestines again and noticing tonight that my scalp is very itchy again, which tends to happen when I’ve had more fruits than greens - I think more greens today would have balanced that for me a bit better…it’s definitely another new learning curve…another shift in gears...

I’ve been sent some great video links today for different raw-themed clips – here’s my favourite one – it’s a hilarious little animation about the perils of prescription pill popping…

www.cafeoflifepikespeak.com/Videos/Licensed%20To%20Pill.swf

ENJOY :)
All love,
Angela. xxx

Feast-Breaking Vid Online :)

Alrighty then, as promised, the video of me breaking my Juice Feast yesterday is now online for your viewing pleasure ;)
Here is the link:

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=2055968753902029556&hl=en-GB

and I have also embedded it below for those of you whose browsers will allow you to see it that way…

It has been so much fun to share this message with the world and put this video out there today – thank you all SO much for all the wonderful feedback – it has been quite amazing…
Many people have been asking about my eyes – yes, they do seem to have become more blue and clearer over the last years of being raw and especially over these last 3 months of juicing…it’s definitely another nice side effect ;)

Today I have had:

400ml (1.5 cups) water with lemon juice and ginger root powder
850ml (3.5 cups) celery/red pepper/garlic/orange juice
500ml (1 pint) prune soak juice
7oz/200g SOAKED DRIED PRUNES
600ml (2.5 cups) water
1 pack sugar cane sticks
water of one old coconut with green powder
1 litre (1 quart) pineapple/celery/red pepper juice
300ml (1.25 cups) water

which makes…about 4.3 litres of liquids today or…1.14 gallons…

So…bowel movements…after having the prunes yesterday, I was ‘due’ to have a bowel movement (BM) around 3-6 hours later…well…it didn’t happen that way for me, so the next step then is to take some cascara sagrada to stimulate peristalsis. I was a little cautious of doing that before going to sleep last night though, so left it until this morning…plus had yummy water with lemon juice and ginger root powder too to encourage more movement…which all did indeed stimulate a BM…
Then onwards with more prunes after that…they taste sooo great to me – so simple and delightful, friendly…I could not in fact finish the whole 7oz/200g in one sitting today – felt too much – which is quite a novelty for me – to feel that kind of thing and acknowledge it and not just finish it all at once. I ate abt 2/3rds, then left the rest for later, when they actually looked appealing again. I had been kind of intending to increase to 2 packets of them today, but there just was no need – my body didn’t need any more than that. I feel my Feast-breaking process may in fact take longer than the ‘recommended’ 6 days, as I’m just so enjoying taking it slowly – don’t feel any need to rush back into solids – nothing I’m hankering for…so for the next few days at least I’ll likely keep it very simple still…I just can't imagine right now being at a point in 4 days time where I'm back to eating full salads...which I'm happy about - I'm much happier to be feeling like this than to be magnetised to the fridge and frantically re-emerging myself in solids, which had been a fear for me - ahhhhhh, the releasing joys of just sharing those fears - getting them out, then watching the energy dissipate out of them :)
I also noticed today how my body seemed to want water very soon after having the prunes – it was like it was a shock to have smthg that solid – not liquids – and it was asking for more water to try to handle this new input…
It’s so funny for me to observe myself – how slow and methodical and detached from solid food I am right now – I find I still avoid fibre like it’s a hazard or smthg…lol…like this evening when I was making juice, some of the pineapple pulp fell back into the juice and I immediately went to grab it out, as if it would jeopardize everything, before realising that actually, fibre’s back on the menu now…I think that’s going to take some getting used to again now – I’ve been really re-trained these last 3 months…

All love,
Angela. xxx

The Pleasure of Prunes...

Wow…what a WONDERFUL day this has been for me…

Today was the day I broke my 92-Day Juice Feast…

I ate solids for the first time in 3 months…and I feel GREAT :)

I woke feeling reluctant to get up and face the prunes I’d put to soak the night before…more than anything else, I felt fear of them…lol…how many people were dealing with that issue in the world today? Fear of prunes…I bet there’s an official term for it though… ;) I avoided them all morning…
Then the energy started to shift for me…I started to feel like it was my birthday or something – I felt a special glow inside and a joy and appreciation for all this Juice Feast has brought into my life…I did a really enjoyable radio interview with the delightful Dagger of HighVibe.com in New York, which will be available on internet radio next week, then it was time…time to face the prunes…

They tasted sweet and simple to me and felt soft and enjoyable in my mouth...I sat with them in a beautiful Zen garden and reflected on the wonders of this Feast so far and my intentions for eating from here on in...I made a little film of the experience, which I hope to be able to share with you tomorrow when I have YouTube cooperation...
I felt SOOOO buzzed afterwards…really happy and excited and high on the joy of life…the prunes felt kind of ‘full’ inside me – nothing unpleasant, just a bit unusual somehow…and it was all such a transformation from the fear and reluctance I’d felt in the morning...now I was just delighted with life and the choices I have here…wow, what a great experience…

So, today I have had:

750ml (3 cups) water
700ml (2.5 cups) orange juice with hemp oil
500ml (1 pint) soak water from prunes
200G/7OZ SOAKED DRIED PRUNES
600ml (2.5 cups) water
1 litre (1 quart) celery/red pepper/garlic/orange juice
water of one old coconut with green powder
250ml (1 cup) water

which makes…about 4.3 litres of liquids today…or about 1.14 gallons
PLUS…the PRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNES… ;) solids…prunes…imagine…
I am taking the view in my head that I am pretty much just carrying on with a liquid-y lifestyle, just adding in bits and pieces of fruit etc on the way as I work through the Feast-breaking protocol – that helps me keep perspective…

I discovered this evening that the new maid who has been frenetically cleaning this house the last couple of days has thrown away my nut milk bags…lol…I guess she didn’t approve of them then, or was confused…anyway, very fitting timing at least…and I don’t mind – those nut milk bags have worked extremely hard the last few months and were surely due for retirement…besides which, I’m just delighted she’s here taking care of the cleaning…she is (clearly) ultra-efficient…
So, no more hand-squeezed watermelon juice for me until I get a new bag…oh well, now I can EAT it anyway ;) FUN... :)

All love,
Angela. xxx

The final 24 hours of a liquid life...

Today I completed editing of my new e-book – ‘A Juice Feaster’s Handbook’ – YAY :) Thanks to all those who have already pre-ordered this book – you have all been entered into the prize draw to win one of 6 hampers of yummy raw treats, chocolates and snacks. If you have not already placed your order, there is still time to get an order in and your name into the prize draw – just click HERE to pre-order the book for $10 and you will automatically be entered into the Post-Feast Feast giveaway…
The E-Book is currently being read over by an external editor and will be ready to send out by the end of this week. I’m really excited to be able to offer this information like this – there have been so many emails and questions during the course of this Feast and I have combined all of those answers, plus all of the things that I too wanted to know and also came to understand/realise during the course of Feasting, into one volume…I feel it really is an indispensable little guide to Juice Feasting…hurray :)

Today I have had:

500ml (1 pint) water
800ml (3.5 cups) orange juice with hemp oil
1 packet sugar cane sticks
water of one old coconut with green powder
1 tsp coconut oil
1 litre (1 quart) mozote
½ litre (1 pint) celery/red pepper/hot pepper/garlic/orange juice
1 litre (1 quart) celery/swiss chard juice w/ water of 1 old coconut
250ml (1 cup) water

which be-eth…about 4.7 litres of fluids today or…around 1.24 gallons…

Well then, so…here we are…Day 92…and how do I feel?
Hmmmmmmm…well…quiet, mainly…reflective…it seems at once all so huge and yet so fleeting…
This whole juicing experience seems to have passed so quickly…and yet I look at my chopsticks and eating with them seems like a distant memory, from a by-gone era…lol…
I have thought a lot today about how much I desire to keep things simple post-Feast…it is going to take so little to physically satisfy my stomach – that is not really the issue – the issue will be with my mind –the longer I can keep a simple focus on things and remember how easy it has been to nourish this body optimally on plain juices for 3 months, the better…this body doesn’t need complicated foods or recipes – in fact, quite the opposite…long may I remember that…

Over the last three months I have lived and juiced through the ups and downs of green juice rejection, pancreas issues, sugar withdrawals, massive mucus expulsion, intrepid hiking trips, housing upheavals and more… You could probably fill a swimming pool with the amount of juice I’ve consumed…and going by the theory that we ‘go back in time 120 days for each day of juice feasting’, I have gone back in time over 30 years now…which means…I am pre-birth again I guess… ;) well, that’s nice…time to rise like a phoenix again then… and so I emerge now on the other side of three months on just liquids feeling clearer, happier, more balanced, calmer, 18lbs lighter and extremely thankful for having chosen this experience…
This has been an amazing journey of discovery for me and I thank you all for sharing in it – for your comments, feedback, questions and support…

Apparently it ain’t over ‘til the f*t lady sings though…well, I love singing, but I don’t think I really qualify for that title anymore…these gorgeous soul sistas do a great job though…I love this song – it’s one of my absolute favourites to dance to, so please, if you will, humour me for a few minutes here, press play, get up, get grateful and DAAAAANCE ;) Celebrate this end of an era with me…yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-HAH :)



Thanks…
I appreciate it. ;)
I’m off to soak me prunes now…
See you on the other side…
All love,
Angela. xxx

Beware the Juice Banshee...

Well, well, well…WHAT a day I’ve been experiencing here…it’s been a day of intense energy for me, mostly in the form of irritation. I woke agitated and the feeling pretty much persisted for most of the day…
The energy in me was reflected back at me strongly in the weather pattern outside – wild, blustery winds, a heavy, dark, moody sky, tension in the air…the electricity flickered and the internet connections jumped…
I felt ready to explode with energy – powerful, very sharp, fearless, fierce – I drank very little compared to usual and yet was absolutely wired with power – I danced like a crazy banshee in my room to release some of it…lol…and I jogged…and I blasted through my work schedule…and I sang along SO loudly to Alanis Morrisette, wrenching out her heartache and bitterness on ‘Jagged Little Pill’…yep…it was that kind of day… ;) If anyone has any doubt that a person can still be functional after 3 months with no solid food, they should have seen me today – I felt like I could have run a marathon…
…it all finally came to a head around 5.30pm, when the heavens finally broke and the rain came. It felt relieving to me. It is the first time it has rained here in weeks. Then dusk came in too and with it, a relaxing, a softening and the dissipation of all this tension…pheeeeeeeeeeeeeewww…wow, I guess one of the side-effects of juicing for so long is greater connection to nature and I surely felt that today…intense…

Today I have consumed:

500ml (1 pint) water
500ml (1 pint) orange juice with hemp oil
1 litre (1 quart) water
water of 2 old coconuts with green powder
900ml (3.5 cups) watermelon juice
1 litre (1 quart) celery/swiss chard juice with coconut water
1 tsp coconut oil
500ml (1 pint) water

which makes…around 5.2 litres of liquids today or…about 1.37 gallons…a lot of water…
I had mainly coconuts today. I could not face fruits. My descending colon said no – it is hurting at the moment – I feel like it wants a couple of days with minimal sweet things…when I went to the supermarket and tried to buy a pineapple, my colon was in strong disagreement. I stood looking round the produce area for quite some time and nothing looked like it would work except the coconuts, so…coconuts it was…I could feel the strong need for greens today too, so made straight celery and swiss chard juice and sat down to drink it with a coconut in the other hand. I was prepared for the worst – I was pretty sure the greens were going to taste foul to me. I was completely surprised to find that in fact the greens tasted great and the coconut actually tasted a bit odd…hmmm…wow – really needing greens then I guess…
I feel like at some point later this year I’d love to do another green juice fast – get off the sweet stuff totally for a number of days – maybe 10 days or so…for now, this is the penultimate day of this Feast…tomorrow is my last totally liquid day…ahhhh, the end of an era… ;)

One love,
Angela. xxx

New Pics on Day 90...

DAY 90…well, well, well…nearly done now...into the final 48-hours of full-on juicy action...
A few days back Audry posted a comment on this blog enquiring abt weight loss and to see more recent pics of me –

There is one thing I am very curious about: pictures of you during this feast.
Have you grown to be very, very thin? Would you mind posting some pictures of what you look like right now? If you have lost a significant amount of weight on this feast, how do you feel about the way your body looks? Is is mentally/emotionally difficult to see yourself very thin?

…well, here we are…today I was excited to get my hair cut, so took a few snaps – here are some before/afters from today…

In response to the questions, I do not feel I am ‘very very thin’ right now, though I am definitely smaller than when I started feasting. I believe I have lost somewhere around 18lbs during this feast – I’ll find some scales to measure that properly in the next couple of days…
I feel great about the way my body looks at the moment. I feel like it is getting healthier all the time and a very good weight for my size and build (I’m 5’7” and currently around 138lbs/62kg). I am in fact a bit surprised that I have not become excessively thin at any point during this feast, which suggests that for me, there is likely still significant cleansing work to do at some point in the future, to really clean out deeper before more re-building. I’m prepared for that and happy to be where I’m at with things right now.
I enjoy this new body. It is always so much fun for me these days to go clothes shopping for example...today I actually bought a top which is XS size…XS…I used to be XXXL…imagine…little things like that are fun for me to experience and acknowledge…it’s such a different reality for me now…and I love it :)

Today I have had:

1 litre (1 quart) water
1.2 litre (1.2 quarts) pineapple/celery/red pepper juice
1 litre (1 quart) watermelon juice
1 packet sugar cane sticks
water one old coconut with green powder
1 litre (1 quart) celery/red pepper/garlic/orange juice
1 tsp coconut oil
750ml (3 cups) water

which is about 5.5 litres of liquids…or…1.45 gallons…
yes…my juice intake has definitely become very simple of late – the same kind of mixes, small amounts, minimum hassle…I feel like I’m just finally getting a really good handle on this whole juicing business – and now my feast is nearly ending… ;) well, that's the learning curve I guess...and I will naturally carry on juicing daily…
Today I was reading other peoples’ online accounts of coming off feasts/fasts…many seem to find it extremely challenging to not overeat - especially during the initial stages of feast breaking – it was a bit disturbing to read, especially as someone with a definite background in food addiction issues, but I was glad to be reading it now – I feel like it steeled me further in my desire to eat ‘optimally’ for this body from here on in…

One love to all,
Angela. xxx

Flowing...

Wow, the daytime ‘summertime’ vibe here in San Jose is just beautiful at the moment…I feel so uplifted with it – I get enraptured with that blissful, carefree summer feeling where it feels like life is so light and everything’s unquestionably possible – the song ‘Summertime’ by Will Smith so encapsulates that vibe for me…I love it…it’s tough for me to concentrate on work though with that kind of feeling buzzing all around me… I know many of you are reading this in far off, colder lands, so relating right now might be a bit tricky, but I hope the YouTube video at least bridges the gap a bit ;)

Today I have had:

750ml (3 cups) water
500ml (1 pint) orange juice with hemp oil
1 litre (1 quart) pineapple/cilantro/celery/red pepper juice
1 packet sugar cane sticks
water of 2 old coconuts with green powder
1 litre (1 quart) watermelon juice
½ tbsp dulse flakes
500ml (1 pint) orange juice with hemp oil
250ml (1 cup) water

which makes about…5 litres of liquids today or…1.32 gallons…

I released an extraordinary amount of mucus in bowel movements today…quite bizarre…I had not done an enema in a really long time though, so decided to do one this evening. It was good. I discovered that there was a huge amount of pain at one point in the top of my descending colon as I massaged it. I stayed with the pain until it was all released, which was gruelling, but felt worth it afterwards, when I pressed that area again and found the pain was gone…

An article of mine on how to be a great house guest was published this week by the Guardian in the UK – you can read it here:

http://www.guardianabroad.co.uk/lifestyle/article/224

As you may be aware, I have been ‘on-the-road’ for most of the last decade, so it was fun to put together this article on enjoying homestays with others…speaking of which, I also opened a ‘Travelling in the Raw’ board on the Raw Re-FORUM today – you can see it HERE – add your travel tips, post requests for hosting, seek travel buddies…as you like :) enjoy…

I’m looking forward to the new moon tomorrow morning…in Aquarius…time for radical change, shedding old patterns that no longer serve, freeing the self, visualizing profound change…
Yeeeeeeeeeeee-HAH…
Read more HERE: http://www.astrowisdom.com/thisnewmoon.htm

…and all blessings to you for accepting and flowing with that beautiful, radical new flow…
One love,
Angela. xxx

Liquids for Life...?

I went jogging today in the glorious sunshine here – wow, summertime here in Costa Rica really is beautiful – I find it very hard to resist being out in the full wonder of it all…I hadn’t been jogging for quite some days, so decided to get active outside. I found I needed to take it quite carefully though. After feeling quite out-of-energy post-travelling with no fresh greens earlier this week, I feel like my body is still on an upwards recovery trend from there – not full-speed again yet – I ended up walking about half the time, to give my body a break…it felt good though, overall, to be back out there running again…and soaking up the sun…

Today I have had:
1 litre (1 quart) water
500ml (1 pint) orange juice with hemp oil
1.2 litres (1.2 quarts) pineapple/red pepper/celery juice
500ml (1 pint) water
1 tbsp pollen
750ml (3 cups) watermelon juice
1 packet sugar cane sticks
1 litre (1 quart) celery/red pepper/garlic/orange juice
2 tbsp green powder
water of one old coconut

which makes…about 5.5 litres of liquids today or…about 1.45 gallons…
I notice that I make smaller quantities of juice these days…it used to be more like 1.5 - 2 litres/quarts at a time – now it tends to be around the 1 litre/quart mark – it just feels more ‘manageable’ to me that way – it’s enough to satisfy me, but not so much that I tire of it…I also know very clearly now which juices and combos I do and don’t like and can just stay with them – it has become less about experimenting and more just rhythmic for me, this juicy life…
I can really anticipate remaining with a high juice/liquids intake post-Feast…I just read a recent NewsTarget interview with David Wolfe actually, in which he also talks about his current lifestyle as being mainly liquidarian…here is an extract:

“…I'm way behind the current curve when it comes to making food. I just end up throwing everything into a blender, blending it up and running out the door.

You’ve got to go through a learning curve. I had this one guy who traveled with me for some time who was new to raw food and he was blending cabbage with MSM powder and water and eating it. I was dry-heaving watching him, but you know, he had to go through that learning curve of finding out what tastes good. You pretend like you know what you're doing until you figure it out -- and eventually you do.

What you can do with a blender is amazing -- I know about 50 different things I should be eating every day. You can't sit down there and eat 50 different things, but with a blender, you can throw 20 different things in there in the morning, 20 different things in there for lunch, 10 different things in for dinner -- you get it all, and then you have the most complete, rounded-out nutrition you've ever had in your life. It's a lot of fun and you can make it taste good.

People say, "Well, you know, I don't want to blend everything," but after a while you've been on this path -- the sensation of actually having to chew up all that food and then being tired after a meal is a drag. You want to have the energy to keep going and going, and therefore liquid nutrition becomes -- after a while when you're ready -- a better alternative.”

Mmmmmmmm-hmmmmmmmmmm…I hear that…well, we shall see how it all unfolds for me…I definitely don't want to miss out on chewing stuff altogether and weaken my jaw/teeth, but am loving the liquid life...
If you want to read that whole NewsTarget Wolfie interview, you can check it out here: http://www.newstarget.com/021540.html

Enjoy :)
One love,
Angela. xxx

Can YOU feel the L O V E tonight...?

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Well, I hope everyone has been enjoying as great a LOVE day as I’ve been experiencing here :) Could you FEEL the love today? I LOVE Valentine’s Day for that reason – it feels like such a magical time of year to me, when so many people around the world are focused on love, caring and sharing… I am single right now, but sent my love out to one and all today and received such beautiful messages back from the universe in response…life…is…amazing…I feel like I do when I have cacao normally…lol…high and happy and blessed and like all is possible and joyous…in fact, I have begun today to look forward to having fresh raw cacao again here, straight from the pod…someday in the not very distant future ;) I guess all the happy chemicals my body was releasing today triggered a similar body reaction as if I’d had cacao and brought it to mind… ;)
It was funny for me to go to the supermarket today and see all the happy people buying wine, chocolates and cakes for their loved ones and to be there myself with…hmmm…celery, coconuts and sugar cane sticks…lol…I’m sure the workers there think I’m quite insane by now…but I guess we all have our own way of expressing our love and my loving gift to myself today, as for the last 86 days, was lashings of lovely juice…

Today I have had:
500ml (1 pint) water
750ml (3 cups) orange juice with hemp oil
water of one old coconut with green powder
1 tbsp pollen
1.2 litres (1.2 quarts) pineapple/celery/red pepper juice (YUMMMM)
750ml (3 cups) watermelon juice
1 packet sugar cane sticks
1 litre (1 quart) celery/red pepper/orsnge juice/garlic juice
250 ml (1 cup) water
½ tbsp coconut oil
water of one old coconut with green powder

which is about…5.3 litres…or 1.4 gallons…I love the old cocos at the moment – they’re so easy to use – in case you’re not familiar with them, they have 3 holes – ‘eyes’ at the top – two of them are always roughly the same size and shape and the other is a little different – often bigger. This third one is the one which is easier to access. I just stick the pointy part of my hair clip straight into that hole, shove in a straw and start drinking – YUM :) especially straight from the fridge – great stuff…
Thanks be today to all who have sent thoughts to support the peaceful exodus of the fruit flies from my kitchen – they’re gone now ;) THANKS :)

I’m SOOO excited – I’ve been busily putting together new talks and events and the first couple are now up on my website events calendar.
The next event will be here in Costa Rica on March 3rd-4th. It is a weekend event combining an intro to Raw Foods, then a day on Juice Feasting. A bargain at just $60 for the weekend, including a yoga session each morning. Raw lunch freshly made daily. Find out more HERE.

Another exciting raw event unfolding in the UK is the opening of the new raw restaurant, Alchemy, in King’s Cross – here’s some info from the delightful Suki at www.qito.co.uk:

Alchemy THC, London, UK, has opened it's delicious doors to the public…
An organic gourmet raw menu, fresh green juices, smoothies, raw chocolate, superfoods, the best products & new friends await you! @ 10 Caledonian Road or 1 Omega Place, Kings Cross (nee Tony's Hemp Corner). Watch this place - London will never be the same again… check out www.myspace.com/alchemythc for more info...

I am so excited to see that London is getting access to amazing raw creations like this – under the guidance of master raw chef ‘Juicy’ Joel this place is going to be phenomenal…can’t wait to try it out when I get back to the UK later this year…
And while we’re over on the other side of the Atlantic, here’s a wonderful tip emailed in by Jane from London recently:

"This is a tip for people on a low budget, wanting to embark on a long "Juice Feast"! Buy an inexpensive little booklet called, "The Sprouters Handbook", by Edward Cairney. This will tell you how to grow fresh organic greens at home, using sunflower seeds (you can also use whole buckwheat), a plastic tray and an inch of decent soil. I live in a flat in inner London, so I don't have a garden (and there are no local allotments). I grow sunflower greens to supplement the organic greens I can afford, which are wonderful! This tip may help other people on a low budget."

Thanks Jane, great guidance :)
Thanks and BIG love to all of you, tonight and always,
Angela. xxx

Into the last week...

Well, here we are at the end of my last juicy Tuesday ;) by this time next week, I’ll be back in the world of solids...I am starting to look forward to it a bit by now…juicing has begun to feel a bit more of a challenge without optimal equipment here these last few days and the thought of just eating something again, like watermelon, rather than all the extra effort of juicing it, sounds like fun ;) we’ll see…
Here are a few more pictures from the beautiful Ometepe island in Nicaragua where I passed this last weekend…

Today I have had:

200ml (.75 cups) water
250ml (1 cup) mandarin juice with hemp oil
700ml (2.75 cups) watermelon juice
250ml (1 cup) cane juice
600ml (2.5 cups) water of old coconut
1.5 litres (1.5 quarts) celery/pineapple/red pepper juice
200ml (.75 cups) water
1 pack sugar cane sticks
1 tbsp green powder
1 tbsp coconut oil
½ tsp dulse granules
1 litre (1 quart) chard/celery/pineapple juice

which makes…about 4.9 litres of liquids today or…1.3 gallons...
I felt very run down and weak this morning, after 4 days or so without fresh celery or greens…I got it together to go to the supermarket and get what I needed. As soon as I had the celery juice I started to feel lifted and balanced…wow…it really is great stuff…different friends have been saying lately how that’s the one juice they would not go without and as little as I like the flavour of it, I could really resonate with that feeling today – it really is SO hydrating...
The kitchen in my place has become suddenly and quite disturbingly full of fruit flies…I have done my best today to minimize their interest in being there – putting all produce away, throwing all rubbish out immediately, cleaning surfaces thoroughly etc, yet…they still seem to think it’s a great place to be…hmmm…if anyone has any recommendations/top tips for convincing them to leave, I’d be very interested to hear them…

Ok, a glut of questions for today…

- how thick-thin are your juices? and are smoothies allowed from time to time?
Thickness of the juices depends, naturally, on the ingredients. In general though, for cleansing purposes, the thinner, the better. Any ‘thicker’, more pulpy juices such as might be obtained from mango or papaya, will only serve to slow down the cleansing process.
Smoothies are not recommended in this particular cleansing programme, as again, they are just slowing down the cleansing process with the fibre they still contain. This cleansing is about taking a break from solid foods/fibre.

-have you made any colonic hydrotherapy during the fast or do you think it works automaticly on the same basis with only the feast?
I have been doing enemas throughout this juice feast, with great results. The idea is to use them to keep everything flowing through – creating a ‘vacuum’ in the colon by cleaning it out encourages the body to dump out more old toxins from the small intestines and elsewhere. I have not received any professional colonics during the course of this feast, primarily as I am in Costa Rica and there do not seem to be many colon hydrotherapists practicing here…I definitely think they would be beneficial though - yes, the feasting certainly cleans us out to a great degree, but the colon cleansing really helps the process along...

-if green organic vegetables are not everytime avialable do you reckon that you can swap it with selfgrown Wheatgrass, Spirulina etc.etc.?
Yes, you can swap other things in for the greens on occasion, but I would not really recommend making that a constant feature of your juice feast, especially if you’re intending to feast for a long time (i.e. more than a couple of weeks). Home grown sprouts, micro-greens and so on will of course be great, but dried things are not really an ideal substitute for fresh greens.

-are raw nut-seed milk allowed during the feast?
Nut and seed milks are not used during this feasting process. They are mucus-forming and again would slow down the cleansing.

-have you tried to make some dry or water fasting from time to time (once at week?) between the many juices days to allow your body to enter in stronger in contact with the spiritual part and get more emotional-mental stability? Do you think it could be integrated if desired?
I have not been having water or dry days during this feast. I do not feel at this point in my life that is something I would really want to choose for myself. My metabolism is quite sensitive and I feel that water or dry fasting would be very demanding for me. That is not to say that others may not find it beneficial as part of their cleansing process. Certainly there are days when I desire to have more/less juice, but at this point, water and dry fasting do not hold much appeal for me. A concern for me about anyone mixing that in with the feasting process is that the body may receive confusing messages about whether or not it is going to get physical nutrition or not and the fluctuation between intake might in the end be more disturbing to your system than beneficial.

Thanks for all the questions. In fact, the answers to all these kind of common queries and more are found in my new ebook, ‘A Juice Feaster’s Handbook’ which is on pre-order at the moment for $10 and will be released next week… (remember, all those who pre-order now are entered into a prize giveaway to win yummy raw treats like snack bars, goji hearts and raw chocolates ;)…

One love,
Angela. xxx

Juicing - the Nicaragua Chapter

Helllloooooooooooooo and welcome to DAY 86 of my feast :O
How did we get so far…??? ;)
One week from today, I will be breaking this feast with a meal of soaked prunes – my first solid food in 3 months…

Well, back to the present…I have been away for the last few days on a visa run to Nicaragua – hence the pause in blog entries – internet access was almost non-existent on the BEAUTIFUL island of Ometepe on Lake Nicaragua, where I’ve been exploring for the weekend…
It was a simply wonderful weekend of relaxation, away from the city and computer, just out in the semi-wild, experiencing the very simple, laid-back, slow pace of life there on these incredible volcanic islands. The lake is enormous – so large it seems like the ocean, with waves and beaches and even sharks. The island of Ometepe consists of 2 volcanoes, joined by a thin strip of land. One volcano is active, the other dormant, with a lake filling its crater. On the day we arrived by ferry, the active volcano had blown that morning ;O…we had an incredible clear view of both cones – apparently extremely rare there, as both cones are usually shrouded in clouds…it is a really beautiful place...

So, here’s what I’ve been surviving on these last days out on the road…

On Feb 9th I had:

1 litre water
1 litre orange juice with hemp oil
250ml tangerine juice
2 packets sugar cane
500ml watermelon juice
water of 2 old coconuts with green powder
1 tbsp kelp with cayenne
500ml blackberry and pineapple juice
½ tbsp coconut oil
500ml water

which is about…4.7 litres of liquids or…1.24 gallons
I woke at 5.30am that day – really bleary, as that is really early for me to be up, but I was meeting my friend to get the bus up to Nicaragua…I hand-squeezed juice the entire trip, with a nut milk bag and mason jar. I travelled very light – just a few bits of clothing, a couple of books and whatever foods I had on me to juice that day. I really enjoy that now – travelling light ;)
Entering Nicaragua, I came to realise the contrast between Costa Rica and its neighbours. Nicaragua feels SO much less developed – as soon as we crossed the border, we were met with beggars and hustlers on the streets. The people looked and talked different, everything was cheaper than in Costa Rica, the infrastructure was much less developed and the properties had far less security around them…it was quite a surprise for me, to see how different the places are. I came to appreciate the fact that I ‘ended up’ in Costa Rica during this period as I did, as I really didn’t put much planning into being here at all…yet it seems to be one of the cleanest, most organised, free-thinking and developed countries in this region…
We took the ferry out to the island of Ometepe, meeting some other friendly travellers on the way, found a nice little place to crash for about $7/person/night by the beach and wandered by the water under the stars…mmmmmmm…bliss :)

On February the 10th I had:

500ml water
water of 4 young coconuts
500ml pineapple juice
1 tbsp coconut oil
400ml watermelon juice
1 litre water
water of 2 young coconuts
700ml orange juice with hemp oil
1 tbsp green powder
½ tbsp dulse flakes

which is about…4.6 litres of liquids or…1.21 gallons...
This was such a delightful, relaxing day for me. We woke by the beach and went out for a morning walk by the water, basking in the sunlight and drinking fresh young coconuts for about 25cents/12pence each…people were out jogging on the sand, kids splashed happily in the water with a rubber dingy and beautiful blue long-tailed birds flew among the trees and hotel fronts…
We set out for a nearby natural spring. It was lovely – cool, clear, refreshing water. The climate is very hot there on the islands – though not so humid and thankfully there seem to be very few biting insects and a lot of nice breezes. We cooled off in the waters where the locals were playing with their kids in the waters and the young guys performed cool tricks with the rope swing over the water.
We caught a local bus from there round to the other side of the island – the other volcano – which is less inhabited – apparently round the far side of this volcano, people still live more or less ‘wild’ – there is no real road, people are just out there in the forests…we didn’t make it round there to check for ourselves, but I can imagine…it’s all very ‘rustic’ feeling…houses are wide open to the streets, pigs, dogs, chickens, cattle and kittens roam around at will and it feels generally like the pace of life is a little beyond ‘survival’ mode in many places…though it is far more common to see people swigging soft drinks and chewing sweets than drinking coconuts or eating fruits...
We found our way to a nice organic farm-stay place called ‘Zopilote’ and went to sleep in a very cute little wooden house on stilts, with hammocks on the porch – yummy :)

On February the 11th I consumed:

500ml water
600ml pineapple juice with green powder
300ml orange juice
water of 5 young green coconuts
1 litre water
300ml tangerine juice
water of 3 young green coconuts
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 tbsp dulse flakes
½ tbsp kelp with cayenne
250ml orange juice
150ml chamomile tea
water of 3 young green coconuts with green powder
500ml water

which makes…about 5 litres of liquids today or…1.32 gallons...
On this day I woke feeling hungry –the impact of being away from a good source of veg to juice was starting to set in and I went out first thing to pick oranges for morning juice…I found the tree and collected plentiful oranges, plus some fresh noni fruits for my friend – it was a really great experience for me to be out foraging like that on my own – I realised suddenly that every time I have foraged in the past, I have been with guys, who have known what they’re looking at and told me what each tree is. Being out there on my own was a different experience, as I really had to look for myself and work things out for myself – it was fun – it felt like seeing with different eyes – not just a blurry mass of green, but individual trees and plants with different things on offer…
The oranges unfortunately turned out to be really sour… lol… my friend appreciated the noni though…and we set off across the island again, walking with all our stuff (oh, the JOY of travelling light ;) to the lovely Finca Magdalena organic farm and hostel, where a big permaculture course is currently underway. We met up with friends there who had just returned from climbing to the top of the dormant volcano in mud, rain and cloud-cover…we all headed back over to the beach area...
By this time I was feeling quite worn out from not having green juice for the last few days. It was quite challenging for both my friend and I to find enough sustaining raw food on this trip, BUT, it is do-able and we both found ways. The coconuts are incredible and really balancing and sustaining for me and I love the fact that oranges/mandarins are so easy to juice by mouth, just walking along, sucking the juice out and discarding the pulp. For me, it is so much about having the will and the commitment to stay with it – there is a solution for every apparent ‘problem’ - I just do my best, working with what I have. An intake of mainly coconuts, orange juice and green powder was however starting to feel a little depleting and I was very spacey by the night-time and went to sleep early.

On Feb 12th I had…

500ml water
800ml coconut water
200ml orange juice
500ml watermelon juice
600ml orange juice
½ tbsp green powder
1 litre water
400ml orange juice
1 litre watermelon juice
500ml water
1 tbsp green powder
½ tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp hemp oil
1 tbsp pollen
300ml water

which is…about 5.8 litres of liquid or…1.53 gallons…
I woke by the beach after a very long and restful sleep, packed up, got the guys at a local shop to fill my mason jar with fresh coconut water and we set off early for the ferry back to the mainland. It was a gorgeously hot and sunny day and I squeezed lots of refreshing watermelon juice on the ship back too…
The bus journey back down into Costa Rica was a very special experience for me. I really LOVE journeys like that where it feels like there is a lot of time for contemplation. I was drawn to use the time to examine how it is that my life came to be at the point it currently is at…I took myself back to 2 years ago and traced my path forward to where I am now, seeing clearly how it all moved and pieced together. I rarely go into old stuff like this and it gave me SUCH an overview and different perspective on things – it felt like watching a film of someone’s life, understanding the whole thing from the ‘bigger picture’, rather than at the day-to-day level…wow…it was amazing…I felt like I understand myself so much better afterwards…
So, back to San Jose and my little lovely place :) Happy to be home and back to access of celery juice for a start ;) Rabies the kitten was waiting for me when I returned, extremely happy to see me too…
It was a GREAT trip – I really had a fantastically relaxing time and enjoyed the beauty and sun and wilderness so much…mmmmmmm…

One love to all,
Angela. xxx

Announcing the Post-feast Feast :)

Day 81 today…eeeeeeeeeeeeeek…only 11 days left to go…I was so excited to announce a new prize giveaway in the RawReform Newsletter yesterday. It is a ‘Post-Feast FEAST’ giveaway, to celebrate the imminent end of my feasting and the prizes include an amazing range of yummy treats – here’s a re-cap for those of you who didn’t yet see it…
________________________________________

Larawlicious Raw Treats offer a box of their simply divine Goji Goddess Hearts (see pic). These luscious raw sweeties are chewy and cacao-free. (If you want to order some for Valentine’s Day, get your order in quick to info@hunabku.biz)

www.lydiasorganics.com have gifted us a selection of their fabulous dehydrated goods, handmade with love. Yummies include apple-ginger bars, savory trail mix and grain-less apple cereal.

www.RawLiving.co.uk have donated a mixed selection from their best-selling range of raw chocs and trail mixes - hi-crunch, whoosh, be the change, bullet ride, hi-trail goji and magic mix.

www.TheRawChocolateCompany.com offer up a bundle of each of their outstanding bars – Cacaobars, Sunberry and Vanoffe (my personal favourite raw food treat ;)

www.TheRawFoodWorld.com is offering a mixture of the delicious Raw Crunch bars in Wild Blueberry and Wildcrafted Goji Berry flavours.

www.Yaoh.co.uk want to share with you some of each of their award-winning hemp seed raw snack bars – tropical, apple and cinnamon and date/walnut flavours.

It will likely be a long time yet before I personally get back round to eating things like raw snack bars and chocolates – it’s going to be prunes, juicy fruits and salads for me for a good few weeks yet... So, in the meantime, you may soon be the lucky winner of a lush bounty of raw snacks to enjoy on my behalf ;) Each hamper contains at least £15/$30 worth of treats…yummmmmmm… :)

HOW TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY
All those who pre-order my upcoming E-Book – ‘A Juice Feaster’s Handbook’ will be entered into the draw to win one of the prizes. This insightful e-book outlines in an easy-to-understand format, the who/what/when/why and how of Juice Feasting, whether you’d like to do it for a weekend or the full 92-Days…

This E-Book will be published around the end of February, when my Juice Feast is over. At that time, all pre-orders will be fulfilled for the e-book and if you are one of those picked, a taster hamper of treats will be winging its way to you too, along with your new book.

To pre-order YOUR copy of ‘A Juice Feaster’s Handbook’ for just $10 and be in with a chance of winning, CLICK HERE.

PLEASE remember to provide your postal address with your order, so that we can get your celebration hamper to you if you are one of the lucky winners picked at random. The winners will be announced in the next newsletter.
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Today I have had…

300ml (1.25 cups) water
500ml (1 pint) orange juice with hemp oil
½ tbsp pollen
½ tbsp coconut oil
½ tbsp kelp with cayenne
1.2 litres (1.2 quarts) pineapple/celery/mint
1 packet sugar cane
900ml (3.5 cups) watermelon juice
750ml (3 cups) beet/carrot/parsley/chard/ginger
1 tbsp green powder
400ml (1.5 cups) tangerine juice
500ml (1 pint) water

which makes about…4.7 litres of liquids today or…1.24 gallons…

Update: a friend here informed me today that coconut oil IS actually available here in Costa Rica, however, it is unfortunately all heated and processed – nothing raw…so…a definite gap in the market there ;)

Questions, questions…

what to do if organic is out of reach? I live in a country where organic is very expensive, the greens for the juice would be about 10-15$ for 2 pounds. I would love to do a juice feast but financing it is a problem.

Well, what to do indeed…in my opinion it is best to choose organic when we can. However, it’s a tricky conundrum if organics are not easily available or affordable. PERSONALLY, I would choose to not do this if I did not have good access to organic produce. Of course, different people will feel differently about that – only you can make the choices for your own body. My feeling is that greens in particular are so high in water content and vulnerable while growing, that I do not want to bring that amount of potential pesticides into my body that has likely been used on non-organic produce. Here in Costa Rica for example, apparently the laws are lax to the point where the crops can be sprayed up until the day before they are picked…hmmmmmm…no thanks… So, my personal choice would be to not do a juice feast of this length or intensity if I did not have good access to organics. Perhaps a shorter feast WOULD be affordable though…OR prepare yourself for it, by growing your own things in advance, if that’s possible…OR take a trip somewhere else where the organics are cheaper and more abundant and possibly find that you get a holiday and feast all in one for the same amount as juice feasting at home might cost you ;) Hope those ideas helped…

My visa here in Costa Rica runs out this weekend, so I’m about to head out of the country tomorrow for the weekend to Nicaragua, all being well…so…back to juicing and blogging randomly on the road it seems ;)

One love,
Angela. xxx

Coconuts on the Costa...

DAY 80 today of juice feasting for me…eeeeeeeek…how did THAT happen…? Just all slipped by…
I remember David Rain mentioning before I started this that by Day 80 of his first feast, he was still having solid bowel movements. I was so surprised and yet, here I am too, 80 days in and in the same position…it’s so curious…I can definitely feel there is still a lot of cleansing work for this body to go through yet…I can imagine I will enjoy to take a break from juice feasting after this, get back into the world of solids for a while, then return to juice feasting again at some point in the future…

Today I have had…

300ml water
600ml orange juice with hemp oil
400ml watermelon juice
1.2 litres pineapple/celery/mint juice
water of 1 old coconut with greens
1 packet sugar cane
1 tbsp pollen
400ml water
½ tbsp coconut oil
½ tbsp kelp with cayenne
500ml orange juice
water of one old coconut with greens

which be…about 4 litres of liquid today…or about a gallon…wow, not much today…and precious little greens…hmmmmm…I feel it too – my body is very sensitive now and not having greens feels less than optimal right now…it was a very full-on day for me here though and my juice choices were all quite ‘fast’ for that reason…except the pineapple/celery/mint earlier in the day, which felt EXTREMELY powerful to me – it actually raised my heart beat too – it was potent…

Another question…

are you able to find coconut butter/oil easily in costa rica? i cannot find it here in brazil. interestingly i am in bahia, the state of coconuts and no oil/butter. i guess all of it gets exported from here.

Hmmmmm, yes, a very similar situation here in Costa Rica…abundance of FRESH coconuts, but no oil/butter to be found…people in fact seem to often throw the coconut meat away here – just drink the water…well, maybe more so with the young cocos than the old…definitely seems like an untapped market though – no coconut oil here that I’ve ever seen…I use Cocopura stuff that I brought down here from the States…it’s divine…feels very clean and pure to me – from the South Pacific Islands…

I do love coconuts...they are truly amazing sources of nourishment...I love that we are able to live on just their water for extended periods - they provide all that we need and were indeed 'life-savers' for me today in my busy state, to just reach for one, poke a whole through one of the 'eyes' and stick a straw in...I feel very grateful to be in a place where they are available in such abundance...

I’m pretty much off honey at the moment. I feel like it’s triggering too much unmanageable sugar stuff for me – I have a bit and want more and I’m sure any lingering candida get more enjoyment out of it ultimately than I do, so, I’ve stopped using it.
My energy at the moment in general is very good. I sleep around 7 hours a night, wake up refreshed and ready to go, feel sustained pretty much consistently during the day and then wind down towards sleep around midnight. It feels like a very nice, stable, healthy pattern to me. I think back to how much my energy jolted around all over the place nearer the beginning of this feast and see that I am so much clearer and more stable now…nice… :)

Here’s to my last couple of weeks of juicy living – for now :)
One love,
Angela. xxx