The Green Yogi

Being Calm in the Midst - Day 28 Green Juice Feast

It's been a busy two weeks since my last post.  I know that I have never been this busy or done so many things at once.  Yet, this is the first time in my life while doing many things at once that I have not felt stressed.  At all.  I am the calmest I have ever been in the midst of it all.  Presently the school year at boarding school is winding up to the end.  We had AP's during the past two weeks and since I teach AP Calculus, I gave more extra help to my students in preparation.  I have been finishing off a yoga teacher training, and my plans were due the week before.  I will be leaving the boarding school at the very end of this school year to move to Cape Cod to open a yoga studio and live food coaching business, so I've been getting prepared for that and starting to pack since I am moving the day after my commitments end at the school to start my new life.  I've also been setting up things and purchasing things for my new business and new life.  I am enrolled in a business building program with Karen Knowler that has ongoing homework.  (I took her Raw Food Coach Training in March this year - absolutely fabulous course and Karen is the best coach and mentor ever!)  Of course, being a school teacher at a boarding school is more than full time, and I am dedicated to teaching the students to the best of my ability.  And, I am green juice feasting on top of it all!  I know that it is the greens that are keeping me steady, calm and full of uplifting energy.  I feel just fantastic, and my attitude towards it all is ever positive.  I do what I can, and I know that once school is out, I will be able to catch up on some things.  I do the best I can with the time I have, juggling, and working with priorities.  In the past, in the recent past, this type of pressure would have led me to cooked food or overeating on quick raw foods such as nuts and raw energy bars.  But, with the greens, I don't have cravings, I don't feel the pressure, and the life energy keeps building.  It is truly amazing and magical.

I must note that I do love the school that I am at, I love teaching math to the excellent students, and I love the people here.  Last night, one of my good friends who is also in my yoga class for the faculty and staff here (Yes, I teach yoga once per week too!) gave a going away party that really was the best party ever for me.  As an amazing parting gift, my yoga class and friends bought me the 60 yoga blankets back from the school that we use in class to start my business at the Cape.  I feel such love and gratitude!  Thanks a million to all of my friends!  These are exciting times....   The yoga that I teach is Svaroopa yoga and big colorful plaid blankets are used as yoga props.  This style of yoga is life-changing in so many profound ways.  More to come....

Today's organic juices:

2Q:  cucumber, kale, celery, package of alfalfa sprouts, escarole

2 large green drinks from the Berkshire CO-OP:  kale, spinach, celery, cucumber

Photo by Rick Lee

Limes and candida - Green Juice Feasting Day 14

  One of the main reasons that I decided to embark on this journey of juice feasting, green juice feasting in particular, is because I have been highly sensitive to sugar for years and although I have not been tested, I surmise that I have had a candida problem for most of my life.  When reading raw food books and experimenting with types of raw food diets, I have been highly influenced by Gabriel Cousens at the Tree of Life and his books, Rainbow Green Livefood Cuisine, Spiritual Nutrition, and his latest, There is a Cure for Diabetes.  I spent three weeks at the Tree of Life last summer and participated in three fantastic programs:  Spiritual Fasting, Zero Point, and Conscious Eating.  The spiritual fast consists of drinking four glasses of green juice per day.  If a person has blood sugar problems, this fast is a terrific starting point since it eliminates all sugars and resets the body.  I did not crave sugars at all once on the fast.  After the fast, I continued to eat Gabriel's Phase I low glycemic diet for a while, and I may have continued to do so for 3-6 months as he recommends at that point, but life happens.  While there, after the fast - once I was eating, I couldn't resist the raw desserts.  Then, onward to Sedona for a couple of days after that, and I couldn't resist the raw desserts at Bliss Cafe and Chocolates.    After that, I did pretty well with sticking low glycemic, but I did have a few dates while I was in yoga teacher training in California.  But, I stayed 100% raw the entire time.  I was away from home traveling for 5 weeks, and was 100% raw for 3 months.  During the fall, when I returned to my teaching job, due to time issues and stress, I was not able to stay 100% raw and even ate dairy products occasionally.   It took me until the beginning of 2008 to go 95-100% again, but none of this has been my desired low glycemic Phase I Rainbow Green Live Food Cuisine that Gabriel recommends.  I have taken on-line candida tests, and I am off the charts.  I had anemia when I was a child, and was on anti-biotics.  I'm sure that was the start of the candida issues.  As a young adult I had yeast infections.  I've always been highly sensitive to perfumes - I can't be around them.  My recent physical symptoms have included extreme itchyness of the skin especially after eating dried fruits or even oranges, tooth and gum sensitivity, foggy brain, and tiredness.  At times in the past 6 years when I've been eating a high raw diet, I ate too many dried fruits and raw bars.  During 2004-2006, I was not as raw at times as I would have liked to be, and I ate sugary desserts occasionally due to wanting to conform at my place of employment.  I now know that bouncing back and forth from raw to non-raw is not healthy for the body on a cellular level (thanks to Matt Monarch).  And this post is supposed to be about limes!!  Well, I have found that since I've been doing this green juice feast, that when I have 1/2 lime in water (just in the past 2 days), I get just a little itchy - my nose itches, and I get just a little tooth sensitiviy, and sugar (fruit and dried fruit) cravings.  I must note that I have not had these symptoms at all since about the 2nd day into this green juice feast.  Gabriel does mention that people with blood sugar issues may not tolerate lemons or limes.  I think that lemons are okay for me.  I don't think that limes are. 

Everyone is different.  If you decide to embark on a similar journey, listen to your body's signals.  One of the things that it took me years to learn was not to be dogmatic about the raw food diet.  I would bounce around exactly following different methodologies from the different raw food experts.  Once I started listening to my own body, I set up myself up for being successfully raw.  I hope to stay green (low glycemic) raw for 3-6 months, starting with this green juice feast.  I haven't set a time-line on the feast.  I know I will go for at least 30 days.

Today's organic green juices:

1 ½ Q: bunch of collards, package of salad greens, 2 cucumbers, 1 head of celery, kelp, cayenne

1 ½ Q:  1 bunch kale, ½ red cabbage, package of broccoli sprouts, 1 bunch of celery, 1 hothouse cucumber,1 head of bibb lettuce.  Grateful for it, but not the best tasting ever!  Tasted like a strange cabbagy  flavor – too strong.  I’ve made other cabbage juices that came out great – so it must have been that this combo just was too brassica family.  Perhaps the broccoli sprouts pushed the brassica taste over the edge.  Nice purple – green color though.  Added Himalayan salt and cayenne.

Photos by Rick Lee

Being Green - Juice Feasting Day 13

As I progress on this juice feast, being green gets easier and easier.  In the past two days, I have decided that I don't really even want extra veggies/herbs for flavorings such as fennel or tomatoes.  I really just enjoy the plain green juices.  My present favorite is cucumber-kale-celery-spinach. I do like broccoli-cucumber-celery-lemon-ginger still, the last time I made it.  I'll have to see the next time.  I'm liking getting to know the distinct flavors of the green vegetables themselves.  Collards for example have a sharp spicy taste.  Broccoli juice is not bitter at all, and the above is a nice light green juice, and I feel light after drinking it. (photo by Rick Lee here)

Yesterday was the first day that I felt detox in a while. (I did feel extremely tired on day 3.)    Yesterday I was cold, had deep chills, my nose ran some, my eyes watered a lot, and I was tired.  I also felt emotionally out of sorts, testy and somewhat negative (I am typically very positive).   When I woke up this morning my tongue was heavily coated, and I had a hard time getting out of bed as if I had dairy or cooked food. 

I met with one of my friends last night.  She brought her cooked food, and I drank my green juice.  We had a nice time just talking without worrying about the food.  In the past, we've gone out to eat, and I've typically ordered cooked veggies (which has been a compromise to my self) and salad.  This time, I just mentioned I was on a juice feast, no problem whatsoever, and we didn't make food the focus of our visit.  And, I didn't have to say let's not make food the focus of our visit.  It just naturally occurred.  I believe it's due to my newly confident attitude about being 100% raw and of course being 100% on a green juice feast. 

  Today, I had really high energy and felt like I could just get everything done.  Really high positive energy.  (I am presently doing many things - phasing out of an old life/job and starting up a new life/business - at the same time.)  Raw food, and especially this green juice feast gives me the high energy and will to be able just keep going and doing.

Focus on being your self.  Being your Self.  The more you can heal yourself inside and outside and be who you really are, the better the world and people around you will become.  The time is now.

Today's organic green juices:

At the Berkshire Co-op here:  (2) large celery, cucumber, kale, spinach

1 1/2 Q:  head of celery, bunch of collards, 2 cucumbers, package of spring greens, 1/4 t kelp, pinch cayenne.  Pretty spicy and sharp.  Caution: Not for beginners to drinking straight green juices!

Clarity - Day 8 Green Juice Feast

Today I really noticed a change in clarity.  My mind especially felt very clear, focused, and my recall was just there.  I taught a yoga class tonight, and previous sayings for better pose understanding that I remember my teachers saying that I particularly liked just came out of me.  I hadn't recalled them before.  New explanations about the poses or how the pose affected the body just came out of me as well.  I didn't have to think about it, they just came.  My eyes are starting to clear (become a clearer shade of green) again as they did last summer when I did a Spiritual Fast at the Tree of Life with Gabriel Cousens.

I am also becoming more aware and present.  I could also feel that tonight especially during teaching my yoga class, I was very aware of the separate parts of my body as well as the core of my being in a more profound way.  While saying the guided awareness to my students, it was more meditative to me than ever before.  I believe this is also why new ways of presenting the poses just came out of me without thinking.  Awareness brings clarity.  Clarity brings awareness.

My energy felt very high and light in my core today.  I feel just wonderful, and I love this green juice feast.

Today's organic juices:

2 Q:  2 cucumbers, 1 head of celery, 1 bunch of spinich, 1 package of pea sprouts.  I was going for the sweet taste of peas, and I achieved it. Tastes like spring. 

Tip:  try sprouts in your juices.  If you love the taste of sprouts, buy a container and put the entire container into your juice.  Enzymes galore!  Better yet, grow your own sprouts and juice them as well!

2 Q:  1 cucumber, 1 head of celery, 1 head of bokchoy, 1 large handful of green beans,1 bunch collards.  I loved the green bean juice that I made the other day.  I was trying a different take on it.  I think a red pepper added to this juice would have made it just a bit more tasty.  The bok choy overpowered the green beans just a bit.  I added a bit of cayenne and granulated kelp. 

Hope for A New World

Presently, I teach high school math in a boarding school.  One of my students came by tonight for extra help, and I had just finished my latest green juice creation and was cleaning up the juicer while drinking my juice.  So, I asked her to wait while I cleaned up the juicer.  She was extremely interested in the bright green juice, and wanted to try it!  I was pleasantly surprised.  I gave her a small glass, wondering...  She loved the juice, said it tasted like celery, and pictured sipping it with a straw outside on the patio.  I told her about juice feasting, and she sincerely said, "That's so interesting!"  I know her interest is piqued, and she said she'll be looking for fresh juices over the summer.

Green Juice Feasting Day 6:

Today's organic low-glycemic juices:

20 minute green:  1 Q:  1 celery, 1 cucumber, 1 container of prewashed romaine, 1/2 bunch of parsley.  I really made this in 20 minutes from start to finish including cleanup. 

Tip:  Have prewashed organic salad greens on hand for a speedy juice when you're pressed for time!

Fennel ginger:  Almost 2 Q:  1 bunch celery, 1 cucumber, 1 large head of romaine, 1 bulb of fennel, 1" slice of ginger, 1 bunch of kale.  This is the juice that the student loved.  It is my best creation to date.  No fruit, tastes fantastic!

Green Juice Feasting Day 4

This week I decided to start a juice feast.  A green juice feast.  Today, on day 4, I was full of energy and was on the go non-stop from 5 am onward. 

I make my juices with a Green Star juicer, but a Vitamix or any other juicer will work just fine.  See www.juicefeasting.com for a complete description of how to juice feast in general.  I am specifically feasting on green juices only.  More to come about the why's and how's of green juice feasting soon...

Today's organic green juices:

1 Q:  1 cucumber, 1 head of celery, 1 head of dinosaur kale, 1/2 lemon.  (tasty, but strong green flavor)  Fast juice to make... 

1 1/2 Q: 1 cucumber, 1 head of celery,  large handful of green beans, 1/2 bunch of cilantro, 1 bunch kale.   Delicious if you love green beans!

1 Q: 1 bunch celery, 1 cucumber and 1/2 bunch kale.  Light and refreshing!