Girls only, sorry boys

After the up and downs of yesterday, I was rather spaced out this morning, but I would think this is not because of the juices but rather the after-effect of the painkillers I had to take at night. I am sorry to announce this in public space, although virtual, but I am sick and tired of my extremely painful periods! I can't wait for my body to heal enough to stop hurting so much while something really quite normal and natural is going on inside it. I know that eating drugs is the last thing a juice feaster should do, but no amount of hot water bottles and tender loving self care would make any difference in my situation, plus, I did have to make it to work, at least for a short while.

I have decided to carry on with green smoothies for breakfast until my sparkling new super juicer arrives - hopefully at some point this week - as I want to make sure that I consume enough fresh greens and keep my energy balanced. I think it did the trick, as apart from the pain followed by drug induced spaciness I felt pretty good all day ;-) .

Breakfast:
3 apples
1 banana
5 strawberries
2 handfuls of baby spinach
water
very very smooth and loooovely

At work today. As hunger and belly emptiness arrived around 11 am, I made a half litre mug of Master Cleanse with hot water. It made me feel good and warm, and the hunger went away for a short while. I also had a mug of fruit and a mug of peppermint tea, before having another mug of MC, all this while cradling ahot water bottle in my lap. There is at least some advantage to working in female only environment.

I sadly had to take two more painkillers as I thought I was going to pass out from the pain. Anybody out there has similar trouble? I have been suffering from bad period pains for years, and the only advice I got from the medical people was to take a painkiller... Well, thanks! Very helpful and insightful. Ever since I have been reading about raw, though, I came accross some super success stories that gave me hope. One of the recommended things for general hormonal balance is Maca, the great peruvian radish, which we can buy in Europe in its powdered form. It is supposed to help with the pain as well. For me it was a question of taste (I did not like it to begin with), but as the promise of no pain was very aluring, I did take it religiously for about a month before my previous period - and - success. I was not without pain, but the amount of nasty tablets I absolutely had to take dropped rather dramatically. I have unfortunately fallen of the wagon and have not taken it almost at all last month - and - here we are. In pain. So, ladies, I definitelly recommend investigating this amazing plant. If you blend it with some bananas, cacao powder and nut milk, you won't even know it is in your shake. If you really cannot stand the taste, you can buy it in capsule form, but remember that this means much harder work for your stomach.

Late lunch:
juice from
beetroot
carrot
cucumber
with some spirulina
from Crush juice bar

I felt very powerful and light this afternoon. Supplied my body with another pint of hot MC, then had a lovely juicy dinner:

2 white grapefruits

3 oranges

1.5 t Nature's Green Superfood

0.5 powdered ginger

1T flax oil

made a lovely almost creamy juice

Sunny Stormy Sunday

Woke up today feeling OH SO ACHEY from the yoga yesterday. It is the danger of a slow motion class, I reckon, as it lours you into going deeper into your postures and it pulls you out of your cocoon and then ... AUCH! But it is all for a good reason, nothing that a few stretches and perhaps a hot bath would not take care of, and in the long term my body will be all the more flexible and well oiled in the future (or so I am telling myself while feeling a bit like an invalid).

While I was expertly cooking a typical English breakfast for Cooked Husband and our Friend, I manage to squeeze juice from some plump tangerines for my own breakfast. It was like a liquid sunshine, it smelled almost intoxicating, I LOVED every little drop and really felt sunny inside. It was also sunny outside, but windy like crazy. Before I managed to make it outside, it was raining and thundering - a real April weather a month too soon.

My body unfortunately reflected this. My sunny feeling was replaced by unquenchable hunger, I was feeling very cold and shivering despite wearing woolly socks and a sweater. As I do not have a juicer, I was filling up on mugs of Master Cleanse diluted with hot water and I think it was all this sugar from the citrus and the maple syrup that gave me totally up and down energy. I could carry the world in my arms one second and then you would find me collapsed on the sofa the next. Eventually I created some citrus juice with powdered greens and flax oil to slow down the metabolism, and then promptly fell asleep for a couple of hours on the above-mentioned sofa. Thanks goodness today was Sunday!

By the evening I was feeling weird, shaky and headachey, and so I gave in and had some yummy green smoothie for dinner. Much better. Short but very valuable lesson: I need some fresh greens. I would happily live on fruits if I could eat them whole, but pure fruit juice is just too much for me, at the present moment anyway. So I decided that until my super maxi awaited juicer arrives, I will have green smoothie for breakfast, and then follow this up with the rest of the day on juices. Let's see how that goes...

Breakfast:

7 fresh tangerines

squeezed by hand

Elevenses and lunch:

Master Cleanse (MC) by Stanley Burroughs

6 - 8 T lemon juice

6 - 8 T maple syrup / raw honey / raw agave syrup

1/10 90.000 Heat Unit Cayenne pepper

1 liter of water

You can adjust the sweetness / sourness of this and also the heat to your taste. Start carefully with the cayenne, as it is very powerful. I was overheating after the first mug so much I had to go and wonder around the garden for a while in the close to hurricane wind...

Snack:

2 grapefruits

4 oranges

juiced and blended with

1 t Nature's Green Superfood

1 T cold pressed flax oil

Dinner:

2 apples

1 banana

handful of baby spinach leaves

decorated with strawberries

= life saving for this juice feasting novice

While looking after my body physically like this, I must be good and remember to do some 'self care' for my mind, soul and spirit. As the evening was spent talking and planning trips and holidays with Cooked Husband, this mission was accomplished for today. Very nice indeed, dreaming... And all the travel talk brought back some memories from the round the world trip we did in 2007, and so here I share with you picture of me savouring one of my first Dragon fruits in Krabi, Thailand. If you have lots of time to waste and want to see some fun pictures from round the globe, look at http://www.davidandblanka.wordpress.com/

During the day: 1 liter of water and two large fruit teas