Our Juice Fast and Shanna Tova (Happy New Year)

It is the Jewish New Year and I got this email from Israel:

"Dear God,

For the New Year, I would like to ask you for a thin body and a fat bank account.

I would like to thank you very much in advance, and implore you... please be very careful, because last year you seemed to have confused the two...."

Speaking of a thin body...

I would like to recommend two documentaries for those of you who struggle with extra weight or have chronic dis-eases, for which you are taking pills.

The first movie is called "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead."

The movie was made by Joe, a successful commodity trader from Sidney, Australia, who "celebrated" his success until all the partying and all the fine dining got him....... Well, fat, sick and nearly dead.

He decided to reverse his condition by going on a trip across the USA and to eat nothing but fresh squeezed juices during those sixty days.

Joe's journey has inspired many others since the movie was released.

In England after the release of the movie, you could not buy a juicer from any of the major retailers for months.

They were all sold out.

The second documentary is "Forks Over Knives."

This movie documents a few doctors who were able to reverse many terminal illnesses and hopeless conditions in their patients, by putting them on a vegan, plant based diet.

The movie is filled with useful information, even if you are not ready to make major dietary changes,.... although.... One of the surgeons said that many people told him that a plant based diet, is too extreme.

His answer was that taking a long vein out of their legs and making a heart bypass, IS what he would classify as an extreme measure. 

Since I watched these movies, we have gone back to eating a mostly vegan diet.

Recently we started a 15 days juice fast.

We are on our 5th day and we drink five large vegetable and fruit juices per day, and lots of water....nothing else.

We have lost a lot of weight, and we're well on our way to the weight we were in our early twenties.

We are Spirits, but as long as we are attached to a human body, it might as well be healthy, energetic, lean and beautiful.

Beside these recommendations...

We are having a wonderful summer in Colorado full of adventures and excitement, with still more ahead of us, before the summer turns into fall and we fly back to New Zealand.  

Our intention for staying this whole summer in Colorado was to install an air conditioning system in our mountain home.

It took us months to get the enormous estimates for the air conditioning installation, and to narrow it down to one company. 

Summer has been truly fabulous.

We attended the Aspen music festival, and participated in a mushroom festival, in which we foraged in the forests and learned to identify the wild edible mushrooms we found.  

We have taken a trip through the stunning landscape of Western Colorado and into Utah, where we stayed at the Sundance resort  (that belongs to Robert Redford, and where they run the Sundance film festival.)

In Sundance, we hiked Sundance mountain to Stewart waterfall, and walked among a bounty of wildflowers. It was magical.

We visited the ski resort town of Deer Valley, where we  listened to a local band and ate a lovely lunch in a cafe seated under a canopy of trees. 

In Salt Lake City, we stayed in a beautiful historic hotel and hiked Mount Solitude, saw a couple of huge moose, ate some delicious food and visited the Mormon sites of the city.

We flew to Portland Maine to visit Jules' daughter, and had a great time strolling in the botanical garden, hiking a coastal forest, feasting on amazing lobster rolls, and paddling flat boards on the deep blue waters of Maine, with the view of small fishing boats, and hundreds of lobster traps.

It was lots of fun.

We also took a few mini vacations in our own area, where we checked into luxury hotels in Vail, enjoyed the fine dining, hiked the ski mountain and pretended that we were tourists in our own town.

Ahead of us is the Breckenridge film festival.

It has been going on for many years, but we've never attended it before.

We plan to stay in Breckenridge during the film festival and between screenings, I hope we will go hiking on that high mountain.

Our juice fast is going so well and I am so pleased with our results, that I have decided to recommend it for all who are willing to give it a try, or at least... See the movies and make up your own mind.

With many smiles,

Tali