Our Forty Day Juice Fast

I am sitting in our upper lounge room, the only place in our house that is not too messy and overrun with people.

Our house has been "invaded" by a large crew of air conditioning technicians and electricians.

They drill holes in our walls, mount huge remote operated systems and run a new electric line into our house, in order to handle the load of six massive air conditioning units.

It is the end of summer, and I have my doubts if we will even need any cooling until next summer.

It feels foolish to spend a small fortune to install air conditioning when the weather is turning colder and colder by the day...

Not only is it no longer warm enough to run air conditioning, but a few days ago when we returned home from the Breckenridge Film Festival, the slopes of Breckenridge mountain were covered in a deep layer of snow.

Cars in Breckenridge were also covered with fresh snow, and on the two hour drive back towards our home, we saw snow dusted all over the mountain range until we reached Vail, where the weather turned sunny and there was no more snow.

Yes... The season is changing and the trees are changing colors, leaves turning golden, and the days are most definitely cooler.

Still ahead of us are a few more sunny days, in which I hope to see the installation of the air conditioning completed.

The guys seem to be doing a great job, very careful about not staining our Tibetan rugs or making any mess.

My studio has also been invaded, and so I spent some time updating my website, adding new  images of paintings that I have completed recently, and removing photos of paintings that I sold long ago.

I have posted my Body-image series in which I explore my own body-image through the changes I have gone through.

Some of the images that I painted from photographs of myself, no longer look like me at all...

I have now lost most of the weight I have put on before I started the Body-Image project.... I guess it is good to look at your body as objective as humanly possible and take action if you do not like what is reflected there....

Speaking of weight loss, we have completed our 17 days of juice fast, drinking nothing but fresh fruit and vegetable juice for 17 days.

We had planned to do a 15-day juice fast, but we enjoyed it SO much that we extended it for two more days.

Then came the Breckenridge Film Festival, where we rented a spacious and beautiful two bedroom apartment and had a wonderful kitchen to make sure that we could continue to eat in a healthy way.  

We did go out to some good restaurants, and had a great time enjoying the films.

There was even a film from New Zealand, in which a kiwi couple documented a year that they spent in Antarctica.

The crowded screening room was filled with people from NZ who came to support the producer and his wife.

If you can find it, it is a cool and funny Documentary called "Antarctica, A Year On Ice."

Then we decided that we would resume our juice fast.

Recently, I have been reading books about the benefits of fasting, and allowing your body to rest and clean up from within.

Then we decided on a total of 40 days....

We had already done 17 days, so 23 more days of juice fasting would make 40.

You might wonder why the number 40?...

Well, in the great city of Alexandria, in ancient Egypt, which was the center of knowledge and education in that era, people had to fast for 40 days before they could enter to study with the Masters of that time.

Their fasting proved that they were determined, and were able to OVERCOME the whims and craving of the body-based ego.

Forty days of fasting was also the required time that the great philosopher Pythagoras, (560 BC - 480 BC) demanded from anyone who wanted to become his disciple.

Pythagoras claimed that after 40 days of fasting, the minds of the students are sufficiently purified and clarified, so they would be able to understand the profound teachings of the beauty and mysteries of life.

The Bible mentions that David, Elijah and Moses fasted for 40 days and of course.... Jesus fasted for 40 days in the wilderness.

After seeing the positive effects of our juice fast, the clarity and increased sensitivity and intuition, we are committed to complete a forty day fast.

We do it with a very good methodical structure.

We start our day with a herbal tea and half a lemon.

Then we drink five large fresh organic vegetables and fruit juices at equal intervals during the day. 

When we wish, we drink an extra juice of raw coconut water. 

I have read, tested and invented many combinations of juices that are so delicious.

A favorite of mine is a juice of carrots, sweet potato, apples, yellow beet  and celery, sprinkled with cinnamon.

Another favorite is a purple juice of red beet, red cabbage, lemon, red grapefruit and apples.

We are on day five of our juice fast now, and it is easier to fast since our house is swarming with people, and we cannot really sit down to enjoy a quiet meal anyway....

The guys will be with us for a minimum of another week, and maybe more.

The timing of this fast is a bit of a bummer, since all the fabulous restaurants in Vail are offering huge end-of-the-season discounts on their amazing and creative menus.

I will end with a few of the physical benefits that were found to help people who fast.

The are lots of spiritual and emotional benefits as well, but they would be a subject for a whole book.

As a health benefit, fasting has been researched in the UK and in the USA extensively for the past 125 years.

In 1988, a group of 88 patients with acute pancreatitis were put on a fasting diet.

It was found that fasting worked better than any other medical intervention or medicine.

Neither nasogastric suction nor cimetidine were found to produce effects as beneficial.

ALL the patients, regardless of the etiology of the disease, showed drastic relief.

Other studies found that:

Fasting and the inevitable loss of bodily weight, has showed to reduce and normalize high blood pressure and blood sugar levels, help with epileptic seizures, balance the body's glucose and improve metabolism, heal cardiovascular diseases, congestive heart failure, reduce triglycerides and cholesterol levels, while increasing beneficial HDL levels.

A number of studies have shown that fasting is beneficial in treating osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory conditions such as back pains due to pressure on the spine.

Fasting has been found to decrease erythrocytes sedimentation rate (ESR), arthralgia, stiffness and migraine headaches.

Fasting has proven effective for people who were exposed to dangerous contamination, who have immune disorders like Lupus, Rosaera and chronic urticaria (which Joe, the Australian futures trader in the movie "Fat Sick and Nearly Dead," was able to heal in himself.)

Wishing you a fabulous weekend!

Tali