Preparing to Juice Feast

I've been reading a lot about detoxing and Juice Feasting and I want to make certain I get off on a strong start so that I don't fail. Much of what of been reading stresses the importance of "moving into" the juicing stage with a preparatory diet. So, for the next five days I will be following a pretty set routine which provides roughly 1000 calories and very little fat:

 Pre-Breakfast:
Lemony Ginger Blast - 1 lemon, 1 lime, 1 T honey, 1 inch piece ginger, 1/2 serrano, 1 stalk celery, 1 apple, 1 cup water and ice

Breakfast:
Smoothie - 3 fruits (1c serving each choosing from strawberries, grapes, bananas, plums, pears, cherries, apples, blueberries, blackberries, kiwi, mango)

Mid-Morning Snack:
1-2 c Watermelon

Lunch: Large Salad - dressed with lemon or lime juice seasoned with garlic and capers 
Pre-dinner: Apple

Dinner: Green Juice - 2 apples, Lemon, Lime, 2 c Spinach, Romaine, or Kale, 2 c Cucumber, 1 stalk celery, 1/2 c. parsley, 1 inch ginger, 1/2 serrano

After Dinner Treat: 1-2 c. Watermelon

In case you too want to read up on the health benefits of a Juice Feast:

I love Juice Fasting and Detoxing for Life by Cherie Calbom MS and John Calbom MA
Quotes from inside book:
"While colon cleansing is far from a sexy subject, the results it achieves are truly exciting. It's one of the most effective keys for weight loss and great health."
"Toxins are a bit like criminals; they hole up anywhere they can find a place to hide."

This book covers all the necessary cleanses: Colon, Liver, Gallbladder, and Kidneys, and also Lungs, Skin, and Lymphatic Systems; but doesn't stop there. There are also chapters for Mental and Emotional Cleansing. And the necessary components and diet ideas for each of the above. This book will be a constant companion and resource.

In case you want to know more about THE WHY behind a living foods diet?

Gabriel Cousens, MD is one of the most influential leaders in the living foods lifestyle. His studies are compelling and there are many books and many video interviews by this man worthy of rereading and rehearing again and again.

Rainbow Green Live Food Cuisine is not the easiest book to read-lots of facts-but for someone interested in the medical and scientific proof behind assuming a living foods lifestyle, he's the guy.

One point that highly resonated with me, because it echoes the yogic philosophy of diet, is his teaching of rainbow phytonutrients. The basic principles are to consume fruits and vegetables from the rainbow: Reds, Oranges, Yellows, Greens, Blues, Purples, and Whites, as the colors directly correlate to chakra health. For example a smoothie with cherries, carrots, lemons, kale, blueberries, grapes, and apples would cover the spectrum. The idea is to use as many colors as possible for each of the main meals.

Quote from the book:
"Dioxin (2,4,5-T), an active compound in Agent Orange, is considered by Dr. Diane Courtney, head of the Toxic Effects Branch of the EPA's National Enviromental Research Center, to be the most toxic chemical known... The EPA has officially recognized that (U.S.) cattle grazing on land sprayed with Dioxin accumulate it in their fat. According to pesticide industry authority Lewis Regenstein, those who eat beef get a dose of dioxin that has been concentrated as it moves up the food chain. Dioxin has been shown to produce cancer, birth defects, miscarriage and death in lab animals in concentrations as low as one part per trillion. It is no wonder, according to David Steinman in Diet for a Poisoned Planet, that deaths from cancer in this country have risen from less than one percent in the beginning of the nineteenth century to one in four American men and one in five American women today."

And from one of the pioneers in the Living Food Lifestyle Movement, many, many, many books by Ann Wigmore. The one I am reading, which is a loaner from a friend and impossible to find right now is: Why You Do Not Need To Grow Old. Let me just say that the title left me skeptical, but the more I read and understand how diet and nutrition affects our quality of life and the way we age, the more I understand the title choice.

Quote from the book:
"What does Self-Healing mean? It means taking responsibility for our own lives and not leaving this for anyone else. It means realizing we are masters of our own destiny. It means giving the body needful nourishment and keeping the colon clean. It means removing the causes instead of suppressing the condition."