Practice makes perfect

Last Tuesday I woke up ready for another day of juice and broth and started well with my lemon water and Green Machine.

But mid-morning my husband told me that the chef of the restaurant next door was cooking us lobster paella for lunch, in the evening we were invited to a dinner of BBQ rabbit with friends, and on the following day we were going away with those same friends to our house in the mountains for a couple of days.  There's no electricity in our mountain house, so no juicer.

So, I gave it some thought and decided that I was happy enough to have achieved my personal objective of consuming just juices and broth for a period of 24 hours.  Now was not the right time to continue. I had successfully completed my one day juice cleanse, and I would do it again.  And one day maybe I will complete the full 3 day juice fast/5 day reset.

Many years ago, I successfully achieved 30 days no sugar and no alcohol.  But not on my first attempt, oh no - it took a lot of "practices" - some of those practices lasted a week or longer, some of them lasted less than a day!  But I kept "practicing" and when the time was right, when I'd practiced enough, finally I achieved it.  And it was easy!  At the outset, I gave myself leeway... I looked at my calendar, and saw that in the middle of the 30 days I had a christening to attend, and said to myself, "On that day, maybe I will have a slice of christening cake and a glass of champagne.  And if I do, it will be ok"  And actually, when that day came, I didn't succumb to either cake or champagne, and it was easy!  So easy that I continued way beyond the 30 days.  It was another rest and reset experience.

So for now, I continue practicing..... for the last week I have continued drinking hardly any alcohol, I continue drinking at least one green, red or orange juice every day, I continue being mindful of what and when I eat, and I continue planning my next one day juice cleanse and thinking about when I might go for 2 or 3 days.....

I've thought about upgrading my little Philips juicer to a cold-press one, so I can make batches of juices in advance, thinking that might make the longer cleanse easier.  But I love this little machine because it's so easy to use and so easy to clean, so I've decided to stick with it for now.

So when is my next juice day?  I've decided to once again take the advice of Milica Vladova - to harness the power of the moon, and fast on the Ekadasi day - because it's easier - and I'm all about making it easier :)

Ekadasi is a Sanskrit word, which means 'the eleventh' - the eleventh day of a fortnight belonging to a lunar month - so generally, there are two Ekadasi days in each month. Apparently, because atmospheric pressure is lowest on Ekadasi days, this is the best/easiest time to fast.

Here in Spain, the next Ekadashi day begins just before 7pm today, Wednesday 15 July and ends just after 8 pm tomorrow, Thursday 16 July.  So these will be my fasting hours.  Which means my next task today is to prepare my veg broth.

In conclusion, here are my top tips for a successful juice cleanse

1) Choose your days carefully

2) Communicate to those around you what you plan to do and why (eg it's for primarily for health reasons, to boost immunity - really important with all this virus madness around us now)

3) PREPARE - make sure you have your juice ingredients and most important of all, make sure your broth is ready.  The veg broth is what really gets you through this :)

4) Enjoy it!  Celebrate your successes, and keep practicing :)