My juice fast and healing crisis :)

I’m currently on the final countdown of a juice fast, and for someone who hasn’t eaten in over a month, I sure have been productive. With the upcoming SimplyRaw Festival, I’ve been working around the clock, multi-tasking on multi-levels, in addition to writing articles, participating in various health shows, facilitating detox sessions, tv/radio appearances, and preparing cheesecakes for local stores and clients. Not exactly the ideal way to spend a fast but sometimes you just have to make the best of things. Of course, I’ve been also doing my best to balance the work load with fresh air, exercise and down time in my sauna.  

Juice fasting is nature’s oldest and most effective method of removing accumulated toxins from the body. The nutritional boost of fresh live juices helps one cleanse, rebuild and increase vitality. Typically, I fast 25-40 days but brief fasts are also excellent to help lighten the load on one’s system, and to bring the body to a greater sense of well-being. Even 1 day fasts are beneficial! I also like to fast with every season, preferring to keep things simple – drinking green juices (cucumber, sprouts, celery, kale, jerusalem artichokes), wheatgrass, E3live , water, herbal teas, and when in season, watermelon juice.

As someone who’s been fasting since my late teens, I rarely experience uncomfortable reactions aside from the odd slight headache, fatigue or a touch of “flightiness”.  But this fast was radically different. After jumping on my rebounder 10 minutes or so, my body suddenly went into a severe cleansing crisis. I felt weak, nauseous and completely disoriented. My kidneys were overworked, I could barely stand up and I had periods of intense vomiting. I’ll never forget how worried my mother looked as she sat at my bed. I could barely move or speak, and when I did communicate, I later learned that I made little sense. (Mischa will have some interesting memories about his fasting mom!)  I felt heavily medicated - on a very bad trip -  even Mark mentioned that I seemed drugged out!  I completely regressed back to exactly one year ago with my broken leg, to the point of limping.

Symptoms can be part of a curing process often referred to as a healing crisis or “Herxheimer Reaction” which occurs when the body detoxifes too rapidly and toxins are released faster than the body can eliminate them.  A healing crisis can result from any natural therapy such as fasting, homeopathy, naturopathy,  improved diet, detoxification, etc. People often forget their past health issues, diseases or injuries until reminded during this healing crisis. The heavy drugs (morphine, anesthesia, and other harsh pain killers) given to me at the hospital last year were re-circulating in my blood stream for elimination. And, once this crisis begins, it is important not to surpress these symptoms otherwise the healing process may become interrupted. 

As uncomfortable these reactions were, I refused to break my fast despite the food offerings. Instead, I rested as much as possible, drinking water to help carry out the toxins. I put trust into my body’s capability for self-repair, understanding that these symptoms were temporarary and necessary for healing to occur. The next morning - approximately 18 hours later – I got out of bed, took an enema and wheatgrass implant, drank more water, and felt completely renewed.

Isn’t the body truly a remarkable thing?

Are you looking after yours?
 

my fasting log:

• 3 ozs e3live
• firewater
• fresh orange juice w/Schinoussa Sea Vegetables
• oatstraw tea
• 4 ozs wheatgrass juice
• chlorella
• green juice (cucumber, celery, dandelion, sunflower sprouts, alfalfa, jerusalem artichokes)
• fresh watermelon juice
• micro algae

yesterday’s fasting log:

• 4 ozs e3live
• firewater
• fresh pineapple juice with spirulina
• micro algae
• 4 ozs wheatgrass juice
• green juice (cucumber, kale, celery, broccoli, sunflower, pea, alfalfa sprouts)
• fresh watermelon juice