Vegetable/Fruit Juicing Fast Begins Today!!!

                     I want to get faster and the extra pounds I am carrying on me are not helping me reach that goal. Vegetable/fruit fasting is the only and healthiest way I have found to lose those extra pounds that will also benefit your body and not deprive it in any way. Last time I did a fast was 2 years ago with the master cleanser and the entire experience made me feel a huge disconnect with my body, therefore the vegetables and fruits are the way to go for me. Plus, I have been juicing daily already for over 1.5 years so upping the amounts will be quite gentle on my body. 

                     I decided to do this fast after this weekend's long run where I, unknowingly, beat my pace by about 40 seconds per mile. That is HUGE!!! I am now under 11 minute a mile runner....that is quite amazing, I could not be more excited.  I now have new aspirations for my running, one I never even cared for, speed. In total honesty, speed has never been my goal in this running journey. I was perfectly happy to be an average 11 minute a mile runner, but after 8 months of running I am seeing that very slowly I am getting faster, just naturally. Yes, blasting merengue, salsa and mambo on my itunes helps with speed, but this new speed came so naturally, without effort. 

                     Another reason I am doing a vegetable/fruit fast is because I am trying to move myself (and my family eventually) towards a more plant-based diet overall. This weekend I happened across a video called, 'You Will Not Believe Your Eyes' (see below). Although it's only a trailer for a movie, it affected me deeply. I felt so helpless afterwards, I hate seeing animals suffer but do you make something like issue this better? Most of me wanted to move away from it, move on and ignore how I felt, but the affects it had on me persisted. 

                  I am aware that not eating animals may not directly help these very birds on this very island; perhaps it will never even help any animals at all, even the ones being slaughtered right now. But what I do know is that most of me wants to opt out of my dependency on animals for sustenance period. I am going to make a monumental effort to take myself out of the equation altogether, no matter how inconsequential its impact. I choose to be free of needing animals to live. Call it stupid, call it what you like, but karmically, that is what I need to work towards to better align my life to my beliefs and it feels right moving in that direction. For now, I know I need to seriously teach myself how to cook and eat more plant-based foods and try to reduce the only animal products I do eat such as cheese, eggs and chicken. I will work on me first and hope my family will follow, but I need to start with me. 




Here is another movie I watched this weekend and in the end (the last 25 minutes or so) they explain how the deep water fishing has wiped out this specific population of fish that can live to over 100 years, but also how it has destroyed thousands of years' worth of corals which fish depend on to live.

A growing relationship with.....my body

                        Running really forces you to have a relationship with your body. Not just any relationship. A very intensely aware and respectful relationship with your body. I look back now at my days of doing the Master Cleanser and feeding my body lemon juice for 8 days and later thinking what would my body be thinking this very moment. Most likely asking, 'why are you not feeding me?'. I have nothing against fasting really, but when only feeding my own body nothing but lemon juice with paprika for 8 days I did feel very guilty not treating my body better. I did not see it as a healthy approach and so I vowed never to treat my body this way again. I would much rather do a vegetable juice fast though, that intuitively sounds more healthy. My body will be fed, fed very well....my cells will feast on yummy things. I am actually considering doing a juice fast but need to plan it first. It cannot be when I travel, or have some birthday, or holiday.....I need a few days in a row that have nothing in particular going on. I am doing daily juicing anyway. Daily I drink about 34 oz. of vegetable juice which I make in the morning, but I am curious to know how better nutrition would do to my running.

                       Last week I ran for 11 miles straight. I know this may be an easy task for some seasoned runners out there, but to me this was simply amazing and eye opening experience. Not only that but my body healed very quickly because I have been slowly doing more and more. After doing this how could I not have a renewed sense of respect for what my body and what it is able to accomplish. I once had a friend whom I complained to about my tummy. I told her that after 2 c-sections I was very unhappy with my mommy tummy. She suggested I talk to my tummy. I know, I made a face too and filed away the comment as senseless. But much, much later....years later, I still remember her words and now they have taken on a new meaning. Perhaps she meant instead of being mad at your body, have a relationship with it. I now embrace my body and feel proud of what it's proven to me it's able to do....

                      As a young woman going to high school in NYC I don't think I ever felt good about my body. My body was always this other entity that I needed to work with and tolerate. Waif-thin was always the goal and although I was not overweight, I was certainly not 'thin'. I look at my high school pictures now and think how much I'd love to be that body now.....what the HELL was I complaining about!! I guess years later I can only make it better by maybe saving my daughter from the same fate and making sure she grows up loving her body. But in all my years living with this mind body disconnect, running has been able to finally stop the mental chatter about my body not being right, not good enough, not this and not that. Running has delivered me to me....