What I consumed today: 

• 250 ml warm water, lemon  juice, cayenne pepper
• 500 ml Barleylife
• 250 ml Herbal Fiberblend
• 2 liters orange, carrot, celery, cucumber,
• 1 liter spinach, apple, green pepper, spring onion, tomato, chili
• lots of water
• MSM
• Flaxseed Oil

Weight: 

• Starting weight  - 157 kg.
• Weight on Tuesday 26 Feb - 145.5 kg
• Total loss - 11.5 kg

Exercise: 

• Much needed Kegel exercises!

Energy levels:  I was wiped out after my grocery and post office trip. 

Positive Changes: 

• My skin is soft and smooth all over.
• I am no longer retaining water
• My hair and body stay clean longer
• The skin condition on my hands is healing again. 
• My face is no longer oily.

Detox symptoms: 

• My tongue is only slightly coated now
• My skin has broken out in pimples.
• I feel puffy and have lost the “glow”.
• I have the flu.
• The lymph nodes in my left armpit are swollen and very painful, probably due to a lack of exercise and body brushing.  I used to have this often in the past for about 2-3 days before the onset of my period, but since using natural progesterone, I haven’t experienced this.  Of course, I’m  not using the progesterone during the juice feast, so this may be hormonal, but my period is only due in about 7 days.  I’ll try and do some body brushing tomorrow (it’s not so much fun when your head feels like giant oozing pumpkin about to explode!)

Food cravings:   Nothing.   

Self Care: 

• An inspirational video.
• A long sleep this afternoon.

Emotions:   I’m excited about the Global Juice Feast starting tomorrow.  I think it’s going to be great!

Thoughts on the Day:

• I feel as if a train’s gone over me.  My body is so sore from all the violent sneezes.  Sadly, all the Pilates I’ve been doing these past six weeks has still not tightened my pelvic floor muscles enough for me to not wet my feet in the post office this morning following another hurricane-strength sneeze.  Fortunately I was the only person in the post office!  Just as well I’m not pregnant, the little tyke would just fall out, as happened here!  Do your Kegels!
• As I’m sitting here, my friends are at the wedding that I had my own private reasons for not wanting to attend.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the bridal couple and I dearly wanted to see Lizana, but I think I was slightly resentful about being coerced into going when I really didn’t want to.  Which makes me think I’m a nasty, selfish bitch, but also that I probably created this flu as a way out!  I was watching an old (for you guys, we’re about 4-5 months behind) episode of Oprah with Dr. Christiane Northrup, whom I love!  And having listened to CD’s of hers, and having read her book “Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom” (this will blow your mind!), I know that every condition in the body has an emotional root.  Conversely, healing is as much an emotional as a physical journey.  I know that I’ve been shying away from emotions on this journey so far, which is very telling.  It has definitely slowed down my detox… in fact, I’m fairly stuck right now.  But with the Global Juice Feast starting tomorrow, I have decided to throw myself wholeheartedly back into the fray again.  I will survive the bad feelings that come up!  They will not send me on a path to self-destruction again!  I can do this!  I can heal!
• I only had about half of my green juice today.  My taste buds still want the orangy juices, not the green ones (except Barleylife, I can have that all day, and I should, until I’m better).  I’m still drinking a lot of water and expelling a lot of mucous.  I suspect that my chest is about to get in on the action…  I smoked 20+ a day for 19 years and there must be a ton of toxins waiting to get out.  Bring it on, I guess!
• So, all in all, I’m not in great shape, but I’m optimistic and in good spirits.  This is what happens on a detox!
• Remember, tomorrow I will be doing my Weekend Roundup post again, where I answer all your questions.  So, if there’s anything you’d like to know, ask now or you’ll have to wait another week for the answer!
• Hope you had a great Leap Day!
• Thanks for all the encouragement and good wishes! You rock!

It is so gratifying to see that many of my blogging buddies are taking positive steps towards a healthier, more plant-based diet. Chanda has asked for some recipes, so I will post one every Friday.

Hanlie’s Favourite Tomato Soup 

• 1-2 tbsp vegetable stock
• 4 leeks, sliced very finely
• 2 tins Italian Tomato Puree
• 2 tins Italian Crushed Tomatoes
• 10-12 ripe tomatoes, diced
• 6 sweet carrots, grated
• 1-2 large sweet potatoes (yams), grated
• 1 liter (~ 1 quart) water
• 1-2 tsp herbal salt
• freshly ground black pepper

Simmer gently until the vegetables are well cooked.  Serve with a dash of olive oil and some chopped fresh basil.

This soup freezes well and if blended, makes an amazing pasta sauce!

This is truly one of my favourite recipes.  The carrots and the sweet potatoes tone down the sourness of the tomatoes, so you don’t need to add any sugar or other sweeteners.  The reason I use the Italian brands of tinned tomatoes is that they are naturally sweeter.  As always, read the labels and buy the ones without added sugar, salt, preservatives, colourants, stabilizers, etc. 

This recipe is based on one formulated by Mary-Ann Shearer, founder of The Natural Way.

I love Tertia Albertyn. She wrote a painfully funny, brilliant book, So Close, about her harrowing journey to motherhood, via 9 IVF’s, numerous miscarriages, the death of her firstborn and the eventual birth of her twins, Adam and Kate, now three years old. Tertia introduced me to blogging. Without her I’d be a much poorer person in so many ways.

Tertia’s a real go-getter! And she’s about to launch an exciting new venture, that promises to change the lives of many people.

We are delighted to announce the launch of South Africa’s premier Egg Donor Program.

nurture Egg Donor Program is a concept conceived by two people who are passionate about the world of infertility and egg donation. Tertia Albertyn, well-known author, former infertility patient and now mother of twins, and Melany Bartok, former egg donor herself and the country’s leading Egg Donation Director are both elated to be doing what they feel is their life’s calling!

At nurture, our focus is on recruiting, selecting and supporting top quality donors who are committed to the process of donating. Our objective is to provide complete donor care – encompassing education, information and support throughout the entire process, from application through to donation and beyond.

We look forward to connecting with you and all the other people whose desire it is to give others a chance to realize their dreams.

For more information about Nurture Egg Donor Program please contact either Tertia (tertia@nurture.co.za / 0824418639) or Melany (melany@nurture.co.za / 0766848489)

It is still very early days. We might not have our website up yet or fancy stationery etc, but what we do have is lots and lots of passion and excitement; and 100% conviction that this is going to be absolutely wonderful, not only for us, but for everyone involved - the egg donors, the recipients and the clinics as well! We are totally into creating a situation where everyone benefits - a win-win situation for all.

PS: If you are a young, healthy 20-34 year old South African woman who would like to find out more about egg donation, please send an email to info@nurture.co.za. If you are an old bat with tired, overcooked (vrot) eggs like mine, but you know of young, healthy women who would like to find out more about egg donation, tell them to give us a shout.

PPS: If you are a South African blogger, please consider posting a note on your blog to spread the word about Nurture Egg Donor Program.

PPPS: If you are a man, thanks but no thanks. We don’t need your sperm right now, but thanks for the kind offer!

PPPPS: Woooo hooooo!!!! Do you have any idea how excited I am about doing something that could potentially mean so much to so many people! Very, very excited indeed.

What I consumed today: 

• 250 ml warm water, lemon  juice, cayenne pepper
• 500 ml Barleylife
• 250 ml Herbal Fiberblend
• 2 liters orange, mint, carrot, celery, cucumber, butternut, ginger 
• 250 ml chai tea
• 500 ml  Hanlie’s cold and flu remedy
• lots of water
• MSM
• Flaxseed Oil

Weight: 

• Starting weight  - 157 kg.
• Weight on Tuesday 26 Feb - 145.5 kg
• Total loss - 11.5 kg

Exercise: 

• None

Energy levels:  None detected yet! 

Positive Changes: 

• My skin is soft and smooth all over.
• I am no longer retaining water
• I snore less.
• My hair and body stay clean longer.
• My face is no longer oily.

Detox symptoms: 

• My tongue is only slightly coated now
• My skin has broken out in pimples.
• I feel puffy and have lost the “glow”.
• I am releasing a lot of mucous through my bowel AND MY NOSE!!!!
• The skin condition on my hands is flaring up again. 
• I have the flu.

Food cravings:   None, I have that cardboard taste in my mouth… 

Self Care: 

• Lots of sleep.

Emotions:   Upbeat!  This too shall pass, right?  Right?

Thoughts on the Day:

• It wasn’t a bad day, as sick days go.  There were the odd moments when I didn’t feel totally miserable, and managed to read a sentence or two.  My body is still sore, so I can’t lie in bed for too long, or sit at the computer too long and I have frequent chills and fevers.  I would walk around with a toilet roll, but Pepper (our latest addition to the feline side of the family) is the nemesis of every toilet roll in sight, so I have to hide my tissues in the pockets of my robe (which, by the way, closes nicely around me these days!).
• I have to go to the post office tomorrow and get a few supplies, but other than that I will be found in and around my bed again.  I won’t be attending the wedding I was supposed to go to, which means that I won’t be seeing Lizana.  I hate that! 
• I still have a penchant for yellow juices and avoid the greens.  I’m drinking water by the liter.
• Michelle wrote to David and Katrina about extending our Juice Feast beyond 92 days, for various reasons and received a reply back from then.  In short they’re saying that one of the factors that determine when one should stop juice feasting is one’s weight.  If you fall below your ideal weight, you should stop.  Well folks, that’s just not going to happen to me any time soon.  The Global Juice Feast starts Saturday 1 March and I have ammended my plans to feast alongside for the entire duration (until 31 May).
• Being an equal opportunities kind of person, I fantasized about Queen Latifa today. 

I found this in my inbox today, courtesy of my friend Carina, and I had such a good giggle, I thought I’d share it with you.

 *This is an actual letter from an Austin woman sent to American company Proctor and Gamble regarding their feminine products. She really gets rolling after the first paragraph. It’s PC Magazine’s 2007 editors’ choice for best webmail-award-winning letter.* 

Dear Mr. Thatcher,

I have been a loyal user of your ‘Always’ maxi pads for over 20 years and I appreciate many of their features. Why, without the LeakGuard Core or Dri-Weave absorbency, I’d probably never go horseback riding or salsa dancing, and I’d certainly steer clear of running up and down the beach in tight, white shorts. But my favorite feature has to be your revolutionary Flexi-Wings. Kudos on being the only company smart enough to realize how crucial it is that maxi pads be aerodynamic. I can’t tell you how safe and secure I feel each month knowing there’s a little F-16 in my pants.

Have you ever had a menstrual period, Mr. Thatcher? Ever suffered from the curse’? I’m guessing you haven’t. Well, my time of the month is starting right now. As I type, I can already feel hormonal forces violently surging through my body. Just a few minutes from now, my body will adjust and I’ll be transformed into what my husband likes to call ‘an inbred hillbilly with knife skills.’ Isn’t the human body amazing?

As Brand Manager in the Feminine-Hygiene Division, you’ve no doubt seen quite a bit of research on what exactly happens during your customers monthly visits from ‘Aunt Flo’. Therefore, you must know about the bloating, puffiness, and cramping we endure, and about our intense mood swings, crying, jags, and out-of-control behaviour. You surely realize it’s a tough time for most women. In fact, only last week, my friend Jennifer fought the violent urge to shove her boyfriend’s testicles into a George Foreman Grill just because he told her he thought Grey’s Anatomy was written by drunken chimps.  Crazy!

The point is, sir, you of all people must realize that America is just crawling with homicidal maniacs in Capri pants… Which brings me to the reason for my letter. Last month, while in the throes of cramping so painful I wanted to reach inside my body and yank out my uterus, I opened an Always maxi-pad, and there, printed on the adhesive backing, were these words: ‘Have a Happy Period.’

Are you fu*ing kidding me? What I mean is, does any part of your tiny middle-manager brain really think happiness - actual smiling, laughing happiness is possible during a menstrual period? Did anything mentioned above sound the least bit pleasurable? Well, did it, James?  FYI, unless you’re some kind of sick S&M freak girl, there will never be anything ‘happy’ about a day in which you have to jack yourself up on Motrin and Kahlua and lock yourself in your house just so you don’t march down to the local Walgreen’s armed with a hunting rifle and a sketchy plan to end your life in a blaze of glory.

For the love of God, pull your head out, man! If you just have to slap a moronic message on a maxi pad, wouldn’t it make more sense to say something that’s actually pertinent, like ‘Put down the Hammer’ or ‘Vehicular Manslaughter is Wrong’, or are you just picking on us?

Sir, please inform your Accounting Department that, effective immediately, there will be an $8 drop in monthly profits, for I have chosen to take my maxi-pad business elsewhere. And though I will certainly miss your Flex-Wings, I will not for one minute miss your brand of condescending bull sh*t. And that’s a promise I will keep.  Always.

Best,
Wendi Aarons
Austin , TX

Quite frankly, I’d be offended by such a message too, especially since every period serves as a reminder to me that I’ve once again failed to conceive.  Oh sure, I tell myself that it’s the start of a brand new cycle, yada yada,  but I tell ya, it feels as if the blood is coming straight from my heart.  Chirpy messages like that would drive me to commit unspeakable acts!

What I consumed today: 

• 250 ml warm water, lemon  juice, cayenne pepper
• 750 ml Barleylife
• 250 ml Herbal Fiberblend
• 1 liter orange, mint
• 500 ml chai tea
• 500 ml  Hanlie’s cold and flu remedy*
• lots of water
• MSM
• Flaxseed Oil

Weight: 

• Starting weight  - 157 kg.
• Weight on Tuesday 26 Feb - 145.5 kg
• Total loss - 11.5 kg

Exercise: 

• None

Energy levels:  Energy?  What energy? 

Positive Changes: 

• My skin is soft and smooth all over.
• I am no longer retaining water
• I snore less.
• My hair and body stay clean longer.
• My face is no longer oily.

Detox symptoms: 

• My tongue is only slightly coated now
• My skin has broken out in pimples.
• I feel puffy and have lost the “glow”.
• I am releasing a lot of mucous through my bowel AND MY NOSE!!!!
• The skin condition on my hands is flaring up again. 
• I have the flu.

Food cravings:   I want to say hearty soup, because that’s the accepted “remedy” for when one is feeling ill, but in fact I have no appetite at all and I wasn’t craving anything. 

Self Care: 

• Spent most of the day in bed fantasizing about Joaquin Phoenix recovering from my flu.

Emotions:   Apart from feeling sorry for myself?   Nothing to write home about.

Thoughts on the Day:

• I’ve decided to let go of my fixation with the scale.  I’ll weigh myself once a week, on Tuesdays, for now.  The Juice Feast is about so much more than weight loss and I feel as if I’ve been reducing it to a weight loss regime.  No more, I’m throwing myself into it heart and soul.  When I’m better of course.
• I had no green juice today, apart from Barleylife.  First of all, I really didn’t feel like making any, but also because I had no appetite and I’m listening to my body.  And my body doesn’t want lots of calories right now.  It’s quite happy with water.
• Lizana tells me that there’s a particularly horrible foreign flu going around.  I’m trusting that I don’t have that.  Craig is slightly better today, so hopefully I will start improving by tomorrow.  I’ll decide tomorrow night, depending on how I feel, whether I will be going to the wedding on Friday.  Probably not,  because not only do I feel crap, but I also feel ugly, and that’s just not a winning recipe for me!  I’d be much more comfortable facing these people when I’m my usual gorgeous and divine self!
• I had to go to the bank this afternoon and popped in to the bookstore to buy the   Brandon Bays book.  I didn’t find The Journey, but they had Freedom Is, so I got that.  Then I saw something that I didn’t expect to have reached our shores yet, Eckhard Tolle’s A New Earth.  I grabbed the last copy in the store!  So if I spend my day in bed tomorrow, I’ll have lots to keep me occupied.
• I have started taping Oprah in the afternoons (it’s on at 4 pm and rebroadcast at 10:15 pm), so that Craig and I can watch it in the evenings.  Heaven knows, there’s little else to watch and we both love Oprah!

 —————————————————————————————–

*Hanlie’s Cold and Flu Remedy 

2 cm piece of fresh ginger, grated

½ tsp dried sage

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp turmeric

juice of ½ lemon

1-2 tsp honey

1 cup boiling water 

Steep all the ingredients in the boiled water, strain and serve.  Cover yourself warmly and get into bed.  This mixture will make you sweat and will help thin mucous from the chest and sinuses, thus removing that “stuffy” feeling.  We don’t believe in medication, in fact we don’t even have headache tablets in our house!

The ever-inspiring Philip from Loving Raw wrote this very insightful post a few weeks ago, which I’m quoting here, since I know that not everybody has time to click on links!

One of the most common comments I hear this time of year is:

Don’t you miss warm foods in the winter?
I need hot soup to keep me warm.
I could never be raw in the winter.

Umm…. since when has food had so many responsibilities?

We want food to comfort us when we are depressed.
We want food to be our friend when we are alone.
We want food to cheer us up when we are sad.
We want food to entertain us when we are bored.
We want food to party with us when we are happy.
We want food to warm us up when we are cold.

It’s all a lie!

Food only has one responsibility, to nourish and heal us.
That’s it…. anything else is a bonus.

Yes… you can make it pleasing to the eye.
Yes… you can make it tasty for your palette.
Yes… you can put your love into creating it.

That’s all real, and all good.
Just don’t get it twisted.

If you are replacing dealing with an emotion, with food… you are doing yourself a disservice.

Lets take responsibility and own what is really ours.

Let us be free to experience the emotion, let it flow and let it go, and be the overcomers that we were all born to be!

It certainly made me think!

What I consumed today: 

• 250 ml warm water, lemon  juice, cayenne pepper
• 250 ml Barleylife
• 250 ml Herbal Fiberblend
• 1 liter apple, orange, spinach
• 500 ml beetroot, cucumber
• 2 liters spinach, apple, spring onion, chili, celery, tomato, butternut 
• MSM
• Flaxseed Oil

Weight:  Starting weight 157 kg. My weight this morning was 145.5, which means my total loss is 11.5 kg.  

Exercise: 

• One hour Pilates 

Energy levels:  Very low all day. 

Positive Changes: 

• My skin is soft and smooth all over.
• I am no longer retaining water
• I snore less.
• My hair and body stay clean longer.
• My face is no longer oily.

Detox symptoms: 

• My tongue is only slightly coated now
• My skin has broken out in pimples.
• I feel puffy and have lost the “glow”.
• I am releasing a lot of mucous through my bowel.
• The skin condition on my hands is flaring up again. 
• I seem to be coming down with a cold!  Is that even possible on a Juice Feast?

Food cravings:  I’m not craving specific things.  I just want to binge.  Anything will do! 

Self Care: 

• Inspirational video
• Body brushing
• Contrast showers 

Emotions:   I think my body is acting because I’m not facing my emotions.  I will start working on it tomorrow!

Healthy You Challenge Weekly Check-In:

• I lost 1 kg (2.2 pounds) this week.  I’m just 1 pound away from my first mini-goal.
• I got some new bling!  Yes, my total loss now stands at 25.3 pounds!
• I also got an Exercise button, because I did eight hours of exercise this week (I aim for six).

Thoughts on the Day:

• I have managed to pawn our houseguests off on my parents.  Craig is sick and I’m getting sick, so we won’t be good company.  It’s my niece and her fiance, who are moving to another part of the country and vacating their apartment tomorrow.    They have to be fetched from the apartment, put up for the night and taken to the airport on Thursday and quite frankly, I just don’t feel up to it.
• Besides, with all my defenses down like this, this is the ideal time to stay in bed and do some emotional work.  I’m going to work through “The Journey” by Brandon Bays.  I’ve been paralysed with fear these last few days and may do a post about it in the near future, as I think a lot of people go through that.  The difference is that this time I can’t fall back on my old faithful solution to problems, binging!  I tried to ignore the emotions, but now my body is taking strain.  There is only one option and that is to face the problem and work through it.
• I learnt today that not all chilis were created equal.  Holy cow, I don’t know what kind of chili I put into my juice, but I’m surprised that any virus can survive this.  I’m going to have to chop the chilis up and only use a small piece in future!  I’m still drinking, albeit slowly!
• Juice feasting is not something to be undertaken without a partner.  My feasting partner, Michelle, lives on the other side of the world, but I couldn’t do this without her!  Thanks Michelle!  You’re an angel!

What I consumed today: 

• 250 ml warm water, lemon  juice, cayenne pepper
• 500 ml Barleylife
• 250 ml Herbal Fiberblend
• 1 liter apple, orange, peach, cucumber, mint
• 500 ml beetroot and carrot 
• 2 liters spinach, red bell pepper, apple, spring onion, garlic, celery, tomato, butternut 
• MSM
• Flaxseed Oil

Weight:  Starting weight 157 kg. My weight this morning was 145.8, which means my total loss is 11.2 kg.  

Exercise: 

• One hour aqua aerobics.  
• One hour Pilates 

Energy levels:  I really lacked energy this morning and struggled through my aqua class.  I attribute it to the lack of juice and the fact that we were so active yesterday (my official rest day). 

Positive Changes: 

• My skin is soft and smooth all over.
• I am no longer retaining water and can actually get shoes on!
• I snore less.
• My hair and body stay clean longer.
• My face is no longer oily.

Detox symptoms: 

• My tongue is still only slightly coated now
• My skin has broken out in pimples.
• I feel very bloated and full at the moment and I’ve lost the “glow”.
• I am releasing a lot of mucous through my bowel.
• The skin condition on my hands is flaring up again. 

Food cravings:  None 

Self Care: 

• Inspirational video
• Sauna
• Cold shower.  It was going to be an alternate hot and cold shower, but I showered at gym between my two classes and for some unknown reason there was no hot water.

Emotions:   I think I’m getting somewhere…

Thoughts on the Day:

• Sorry that I didn’t update Day 24, but we had such a tiring day that I went to bed quite early.  We went shooting on the farm where my sister and her husband live and ended up visiting with them and with my parents on a nearby farm.  I didn’t think we’d be away from home so long and didn’t take any juice with me.  I had 2 cups of herbal tea, and was too tired to make and drink juice when we got home.  This means that I only consumed about 1.5 liters of juice yesterday, hence the lack of energy this morning.  I found the whole outing very tiring.
• I woke up with cold symptoms this morning, but I think the cold shower shocked me back to health, because they simply disappeared!  Craig is still feeling bad, though.  He should be juice feasting for immunity!
• I’ve signed up for the Global Juice Feast, which starts 1 March.   Since then I’ve been contacted by a juice feaster from Mozambique.  It’s nice to know that someone else in my neck of the woods (about 2000 miles away) will also be juice feasting.
• We will have houseguests on Wednesday night, so I’ll have to cook something.  It’s quite hard when you’re not all that attracted to food anymore!
• I keep reading about spaghetti squash.  We don’t have that over here.  Maybe someone can smuggle send me some seeds in the post…
• The reason this post is so late is because I couldn’t resist watching the recorded broadcast of the Oscars!  Is it only me or were the songs uniformly lame this year?  And I’m all for the “natural look”, but ladies, this is the Oscars!  Put some make-up on Tilda (who looked as if she was wearing a batsuit and hadn’t washed her hair) and Cameron (who looked rather washed out in pale pink). 
• Another social occasion has popped up - my in-laws have invited us for dinner next week for Craig’s birthday.  Four events in 11 days!  That’s normally what we do in a season!