A juice fast, which is essentially a short-term abstinence from solid food and a diet consisting of only raw vegetable and fruit juices, is a system being promoted by natural health professionals worldwide. One of the main benefits of a juice fast is weight loss. By limiting your caloric intake without depriving your body of essential nutrients and minerals, you’ll speed the weight loss process.

Tips for Doing a Juice Fast

To make your juice fast as worthwhile as possible, here’s what the experts recommend:

• Do your juice fast in the spring, or at the very least during the warm months. Your body will be more apt to lose weight during these times.
• To really kick-start your juice fast, begin to eliminate unhealthy habits and foods—caffeine, nicotine, white flour, fast and processed foods, sugar, dairy—from your life 7-10 days before you begin the juice fast. Add in lots of beans, vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and legumes.
• When juicing, try to choose only organic fruits and vegetables to avoid agricultural chemicals like pesticides, insecticides, and fertilizers that can harm your body.

Just remember: if you’re pregnant or nursing, or if you are a diabetic, a juice fast is not recommended. Other cleansing methods such as diet-specific detoxes would be more suitable for you. Before beginning a fruit detox diet, consult with your doctor first, especially if you are on any medications or have any medical problems.

To cry is uniquely human, to weep for joy even more so. I cry every day.

I cry for all the years I wanted and needed to cry and didn’t. I cry for the loneliness and pain I”ve felt. I cry for the sheer delight of being alive. I cry for the pleasure that moving my body brings, and for ability to dance and stretch and sweat. I cry in gratitude for the life I have now.

I was a cute little girl. I loved laughing and playing with my friends. Then, When I was eight years old, I experienced the devastating trauma of incest. In order to cope with that physical, mental and emotional nightmare, I made two unconscious decisions: First, I wanted to be as ugly ad possible, second, I didn’t want to think or feel. I knew if I let myself feel anything, it would be too much for me.

So I started eating. When the fear came, I ate when the pain came, I ate. By the time I was 12, I weighed 200 pounds.

I spent most of my time by myself, doing things with my hands or watching TV. Even with my brothers and sisters, I felt alone. I was never asked out to dance or to a movie or on a date. I was socially invisible.

By the time I was 25, I weighed 420 pounds. My doctor gave me six months to live. My body couldn’t support the fat I was carrying. I didn’t leave my house for two years. I literally couldn’t move. I had to lose the weight if I wanted to live. And I decided I would do whatever the doctor told me to do to lose it.

I lost my first 100 pounds and I felt so light I wanted to dance. But I started to gain it back, and I realized I had to go deeper and deal with root of my problem- the unfelt pain. I began therapy, joined a Twelve-step program and accepted the love and support of my family and friends. At 35, I cried for first time since of my weight loss.

Once I turned that corner, it was up to me to continue the work and to be conscious one day at a time. It was a process of growing self-knowledge and self-acceptance. I continued my therapy. I started to study nutrition, and I learned that for me , eating fat is a sedative. I watched my behavior and monitored what brought on my need to eat. When I found myself knee-deep in Haagen-Dazs, I stopped and asked myself how I got there.

Though there were times when I would backslide, it was my acceptance of myself in all my strengths and weaknesses that helped me get back up and keep going. My goal was to be better- not perfect.

When I see childhood obesity now, it breaks my heart. We wouldn’t dream of laughing at a child who has no arm or leg or who uses a wheelchair. But people will tease and ostracize a child who has an eating disorder and is obese. We still don’t understand that the weight such a child carries is the weight of that child’s own pain.

Healing my life wasn’t just about losing weight. I had to learn how to live life as an adult. I had never learned basic social skills- once, at work, a man talked to me at the water cooler and I giggled like a 14 year-old girl. I started the process of learning about relationships and growing up.

Now, at 46, I am an adult, I have become a person I truly love. My weight is the average range, I exercise regularly and I have a career I love as motivational speaker. I recognize that good things that came from my years of childhood pain and isolation: my love for classical music, my ability to sew and to do stained glass-to create beauty with my hands. Even my ability to speak well and engagingly can be traced to many hours I spent watching such great entertainers as Lucille Ball and Milton Berle on TV

I am grateful for blessing in my life now, and I accept the events in my life as gifts of growth that create strength of character and strength of faith. Today I cry in gratitude for the life I have.

Always remember to forget the troubles that pass your way;
BUT NEVER forget the blessings that come each day.
Have a wonderful day with many *smiles*
Take the time to live!!!
Life is too short.
Whoo-hoo!