Juice Fast Day 1
I have had a dysfunctional relationship with food to various degrees since I was 17 (33 years ago)
I recognise that the roots of the dysfunction start from when I was a very young child, possibly even when I was in utero.
But I consciously became aware of some very faulty thinking and acting around food when I was 17 and have never fully recovered from it although I've tried so very hard, spending thousands of pounds and thousands of hours trying to deal with it. I have some shame around it but i also think that I hang on to my eating disorder like a badge of honour. Like it's part of my identity.
I still spend time most weeks in meetings with fellows who struggle with their food and have had some relief from the problem from time to time.
I gave up eating all dead animals and their products last year, and at the same time gave up what I call recreational sugar!
And for that I am very grateful. And yet there is a little beast living inside me that still finds ways to use food to deal with my feelings rather than for nutrition, regularly binging on whatever I can find.
My wife was 'diagnosed' with ITP which is a disorder of the blood whereby her platelets get very low and she had to be hospitalised a few months ago. ITP is one of the many conditions that the allopathic medical establishment don't understand and they have very blunt instruments (steroids) to deal with it and only with the symptoms, not the cause. And the hospital experience was crazy. The food they fed her was disgusting and there was no fresh air. How can a person be expected to heal in that environment?
I came across some rather extreme approaches to it and other auto immune diseases and illness in general in the form of Dr Robert Morse and recently John Rose. Dr Morse claims successful healing of thousands of people from many diseases including auto immune diseases. (He claims that there is no such thing)
Here is Dr Morse's Youtube channel (which is quite a jungle and not easy to navigate)
https://www.youtube.com/user/robertmorsend
And here is John Rose who is even more extreme and amongst other things, claims that cooking food was the fall of mankind!!
https://www.youtube.com/user/JRawRose
Last week, she decided to go on a juice fast and Yesterday I chose to join her. I actually decided to do so at 8pm rather than having yet another LAST SUPPER and starting in the morning.
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(source: google images)
The moment I started, my mind kicked in. Projecting my past into my future, I could hear the voices getting louder and busier.
How on earth am I going to do this?
What about all the food I have stockpiled at home? It's going to be wasted!
What about family gatherings and functions I am attending?
My mind raced and continues to do so.
I am aware that I eat much of the time very compulsively and that I am looking for emotional relief from the food rather than nutrition. To me, when I take a step back and look at that behaviour, it is insane, even though I know I'm not the only one who does it.
We got the inspiration for the fasting from watching the film 'Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.' I realised that making a documentary about it helped him keep on track, so I have decided to chronicle my fasting experience in the hope that it may help people out there and help me stick to it.
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(source: google images)
I don't know how long it's going to last but I will keep posting here and sharing as truthfully as I can about what's going on.
I know that many uncomfortable feelings are going to come up. Feelings that I have been avoiding for decades with various behaviours, primarily around food but also other addictions. Luckily, I am not alone. I have 12 step meetings that I can attend and people I can call for support when my mind gets me in a bind.
And I am sure some of you guys will have experience with juice fasts.!!
Looking forward to hear what you have to say.
Much Love
Danny
I love your honesty with this article. It can be very hard to admit for some to others and especially to ourselves when food is an issue. I can very much relate to your story as I used to be (and still am sometimes) an emotional eater and a social eater. Meaning that I would eat when others ate, even when I didn't need to. Somehow after my children were born (not during pregnancy) I would always gain weight. More with one than the other. Some of it would leave me again, but some would linger around like flies around a pile of crap. But somehow it was always my mid-section that would hold the weight, no where else. This changed after my youngest son was born, three years ago. Just before last summer, I stepped on the scales and was horrified with what I saw. Looking in the mirror, I saw that I seemed to hold water (and fat) everywhere. Even my face, something I had never had before. Now, I've been studying German New Medicine for a couple of years now. I decided to look up the relationship between weight gain and the mind according to German New Medicine. What I found was very interesting. In short it told me that weight gain (and holding water) was directly linked to a feeling of abandonment. At first I wasn't sure how this correlated to my situation, until it struck me: I had been feeling abandoned during my last pregnancy and after because my son's father wasn't supporting me at all emotionally. It seemed that my pregnancy wasn't convenient to him and old issues that he had left behind him returned (drinking and more). After our son's birth, he showed little interest. It was there, but it always came from my initiative, never his. I realised that that's what it was, I accepted it, let go of the feelings I had and decided to break all ties to him immediately. If it doesn't come from him, there's nothing I can do about it after all. He will have to want his son in his life, I can't force him. Not long after that, things changed. Within a couple of weeks, I lost about 18 pounds, without any effort at all! That was most of the water I was holding gone. After that, my mindset changed. I decided to do a combination of a juice cleanse and the master cleanse. I've done this before and never made it past a couple of days. Somehow this time, it was easy and I made it to 10 days! All together I lost about 37 pounds! The one thing I noticed about this, and you mention this too: you get confronted with yourself, your thoughts and feelings once you lose all those toxins in the body. I used to give up because of it, but this time I underwent it and dealt with it. For someone who's been overweight and had food issues for a long, long time, I think: If I can do it, so can anyone else. I wish you much success with this and look forward to hear about your progress. Thank you so much for sharing. Much love from me, from a rainy Ireland.
Thanks for sharing.
I just read this again to my wife who is the one juicing. Thanks again for what you write. She has held on to body fat and possibly Water for most of her life. Hopefully this will help her emotionally and physically.
I've done a lot of juicing over the last few years. I love it. In fact, it was my gateway into whole food, plant-based living. One of the best things I ever did. Enjoy!
yep,, thats some of the good guys on the net that know a lot about regenerating the body.. on that journey ourselves and starting a solid food vacation in a week or so... thanks for sharing
Yeah, I've done it a few times already! It's very tough in the beginning, but I'm sure you can make it, if you really want to! Good luck :)
good work, been on the jucies/smoothies for a while now, feelin ggreat!!
Best of luck Danny.
I've been juicing about 6 years now and have never felt better.
Among other health improvement, acute eczema which I had for years, making my knuckles, elbows and fingers bleed, cured up completely after about 3 months never to return.
Thanks. It’s amazing what juice fasts can heal.
One little cheat which I have found helpful is, if you just can't stand the thought of another damned juice, rather than breaking the fast with solids, have a little soup.
I might well do that. I have a Vitamix which makes raw soup
Nice one Danny. I did a juice fast a few years ago when I first gave up meat and was surprised to see that I could still go on runs and engage in excercise. I did it for 10 days. It's a good test of willpower, if anything. I have a few articles on here about Veganism and Anarchy, and I'm trying to bridge the gap between vegans and anarchists. Fell free to check it out if interested.
I did a 21 juice clense. I don't know you if want to hear my opinion, but feel free to reach out if you want me to elaborate. :)
Some call it a juice feast. I currently drink between 2 to 4 liters of raw juice everyday for almost a week now. I don't strictly eat my calories from raw juice right now but I feel much better.
Amazing how many people are into this.