Day 6 Juice Feast -- Back in the Real World

What my mind kept telling me all day (Source)

Monday, Monday. I usually have every other Monday off. Today was not that Monday. I woke up and enjoyed the process of getting my juices made and getting ready for work. With graduate school for the last year or so I often wake up late and just as often rush around with barely enough time to get myself ready and out the door. I've been arriving at work and leaving work on a sliding scale of 15 minutes (I arrive 15 minutes late, I leave 15 minutes late) so much that it felt almost odd to show up precisely on time today. That probably has something to do with daylight starting so much earlier. Nevertheless I felt great this morning when I walked out the door laden with 4 quarts of juice, a half gallon of water and a half gallon of fermented lemon cabbage water (didn't get to this one today) and 1 quart of Schizandra Warrior Juice (sipped a little here and there).  By the time I arrived at work I didn't feel so great and not from carrying all those liquids. I am hoping it's just the lethargy I feel from where my energy is right now. One thing this last week off taught me is just how tired I am.


I wasn't hungry today but once I took my JF into the real world I started to feel the old habits to snack popping into my head.  I had funny thoughts like oh...that bag of potato chips won't throw me off a JF. Yeah, "bad" me was in my head--telling lies! I tossed these thoughts aside over a dozen times today. The JF does permit some solids in small amounts. These are blue green algae, 1/4 tsp kelp powder and 1 TBL bee pollen. I am taking these daily, the first two mix well in drinks.  It helps to chew these things. Of course I chew the juice too--but there is little give and take in the process.

Reading about the abundance of the JF linked me back to a book I started this weekend. At a health conference last month Norm Shealy (I am seriously crushing on this cutie!) presented topics from his book Life Beyond 100. In his book he talks about what longevity really is. It was such a good definition I honestly had to stop and ask myself if I want a long, long life. I don't have an answer but I immediately thought about how I would have to reformulate my retirement plan if their was any possibility I live to 140 or 160.  Even the National Geographic is on to this longer life deal. Shealy goes on to to catch me in this common mistake and talks about this as an issue of abundance: "For many decades, the perennial fear of the elderly has been the poverty that seems to be associated with advanced age--another paradox. Overall, those over age sixty-five are, at this time in America, the wealthiest segment of our society. However, those over sixty-five who have not accumulated significant wealth live in states of constant stress, fearing they will outlive their resources." I have more reading and reflection to do but the real world has jarred me into realizing right now with this JF and my potentially long (strike out really long--I smoked) future I do not have an abundance mindset.