Feast-Break and Reflections

Draped under two thick woolly covers as rainstorms fill the night sky, I am finding solace in today's juice feasting magic whilst I sip on a warm jar of fresh nettle, mint and raw honey and reflect back over the last week's feast breaking experience. I wanted to write a bit prosaically abour the physical transition back on to food. I hope there are some people out there that will be able to glean something useful from my personal reflections because frankly, this week has been one big tumultuous ride and quite far from the joyful celebration of re-integrating solids back into my diet that I had percipitated. The simple process of juggling so many contrasting ideas, whilst trying to listen to the newborn and deeply sensitive persona of my real nutrtional needs has been challenging and emotionally confusing. I have been contemplating all sorts of contrasting ideas; systematic underreating, rebuilding my strength with four means to get your greens, listening to my body's reduced appetite whilst trying in vain to rekindle a forgotten friendship with food, and returning to Juice Feasting for another 40 days. I have now reached a plateau where my body feels dehydrated without at least a gallon of water and juice a day and I still retain an emphatic desire to continue feeling better and better, confounded by the fact that little by litte my body feels less healthy on solids.

My first advice for fest-breakers based on my experience would be to slow down post-feast and calm the mind. There are so many predicted notions of how the feast-break is going to be, that when it does come around you may experience disappointment in its digression from your expectations. This last week has been somewhat anti-climatic for me in this respect. I believe that this is the most important part of the whole feast and needs to be administered with deep care and attention.

I have noticed two things; I am virtually Phase 1 now; I have absolutely no desire for fruits whatsoever. This can be a little destabilising because a part of my mind wants to reinitiate the comfort relationship with food that I had before. Ironically, food doesn't turn me on in the same way. When I am hungry I eat, all too soon I am satiated and then I am left feeling bewildered as to why that meal did not provide me with emotional and physical satisfaction that I was desiring. I have no desire to prolong the experience with dessert, and thus I am left feeling a little high and dry. On top of that, I reject the idea of rekindling the flame with gourmet raw food - I even tried some cacao the other day and...nothing!!


The next thing is my digestive system has not been as smooth as I had expected, there is a fair amount of grumbling going on after each meal and I feel a little tired. I actually feel ten-times better after a green juice. And this is is exactly where I am going now! Green smoothies also seem a little taxing but after a green juice I feel positively high and in love with life. After two quarts of these and one quart of lemon water, I have almost enough energy and so much tangible joy to get me bouncing through the day. So, I have strongly considered going back on the juices. A part of me wants to get my digestive system used to food first, just to be sure that everything is ok. So for now I am doing half a gallon of green juice and a small salad, with lots of warm water. I also have to acknowledge that I took my feast too far, for whatever reason and experienced some nausea and light-headedness even post-feast. So there may be a part of me that is still recovering, making this experience a little more unique. I do hope so, to ensure that feast breaking is a little more joyous for others. I am glad that I am taking it slowly back to the world of food, because if my stomach was a match for my mind pre-feast, I might be suffering the physical effects right now.

Juice Feasting today was magical!!

I had 3l Spinach, Parsley, Coriander, Carrot, Celery and Apple Juice...heaven!
1l Lemon, MSM, Water
1l Fresh Nettle Tea (baby nettles are poking their heads up all over the place!!)
2l Fresh Mint, Nettle and Honey Tea

Tomorrow may be another one of those juicing days, we will see..