"It is not that we have such a short space of time, but that we waste much of it. Life is long enough, and it has been given in sufficiently generous measure to allow the accomplishment of the very greatest things if the whole of it is well invested. But when it is squandered in luxury and carelessness, when it is devoted to no good end, forced at last by the ultimate necessity we perceive that it has passed away before we were aware that it was passing. So it is - the life we receive is not short, but we make it so, nor do we have any lack of it, but are wasteful of it. Just as great and princely wealth is scattered in a moment when it comes into the hands of a bad owner, while wealth, however limited, if it is entrusted to a good guardian, increases by use, so our life is amply long for him who orders it properly."

- Lucius Annaeus Seneca, "On the Shortness of Life"

Juice Feasting requires a gentle and conscious diligence. Before Day 1, you have set your determination to draw in the best things possible in your life, to break through, transform, and transcend the challenges that have kept you from realizing your true potential. Each moment, experience, and object in your life has now become an opportunity for you. Let's now pre-load in your mind what your days as a Juice Feaster are going to look like, so that you can prepare yourself in every way to have an excellent Juice Feast, taking advantage of what is available to you, and making sure that you develop an excellent Feasting life-practice.

Great things await you every day of your Juice Feast. Because of the great intention with which you heal yourself, and the purity of the foods you are taking in, you become a vortex for wonderful things to come into your life. Synchronicities will happen, and even the events which do not look initially positive will turn out to be very good. You may not believe us right now, but just remember that we mentioned synchronicities and Juice Feasting, and you will experience this for yourself.

You may want to start each day of your Juice Feast with the above poem by Thich Nhat Hanh, or a prayer of your own that can set a positive energy for the day right away.

Once your feet hit the floor, the first thing you should be looking for (other than the toilet if you need to pee) is WATER.

Start every day with one quart of water with 1/2 lemon squeezed in, and between 1/2 tsp and 2 Tablespoons of MSM powder, depending on what your tolerance is (the way to know is by taste and whether you get the runs... MSM has no toxicity level, however, so there are no worries other than the runs...)

Why water? We are 90% water when we are born, and by the time most of us die, we are about 50-60% water. As we dehydrate, our tissues become toxic and stiffen. Nutrients are not properly assimilated, and toxic matter does not leave our cells and lymphatic fluid in a timely manner. Our blood thickens. Brain function is compromised. Do you know what a hangover is? Dehydration. Most westerners are dehydrated every day of their lives, waking up agitated and groggy, and thinking that another dehydrating agent, coffee, is going to get them going. It will only kick you further down. Water is your best energizer in the morning, and that is why we are training you now to develop as a life practice drinking 1 quart of water each morning. Drinking water will wake up your mind, hydrate your tissues (reducing chronic pain), and some water will go down to your bowel to help you eliminate the waste matter accumulated during the night, so that you do not carry it around during the day and re-assimilate old fecal material back into your system, giving you more problems... This is something you will learn much more about on Days 33 and 34 of the Juice Feasting Program.

Now, in that quart of water you are adding another hydrator, lemon juice. Citrus is a hydrogen concentrator, and the element hydrogen hydrates. Lemon is also fairly high in Vitamin C, and that brings us to our next morning water element, MSM.

MSM is a sulfur compound, and sulfur is the third most prevalent mineral in the body. It just so happens that MSM breaks up scar tissue, reduces inflammation better than any anti-inflammatory drug out there, and has no side effects (other than the runs if you take more than your body knows how to use). A therapeutic amount of MSM is over 3 Tablespoons a day, but for most of us, the body will need to learn how to use MSM before we can reach that amount.

MSM is potentiated, or made more bioavailable (and therefore effective) in your body, when combined with Vitamin C. Also, the lemon in your water will soften the taste of the MSM, which will take a few days to get used to. Just start with a low amount as mentioned above, and move up as your body and tastebuds adjust.

This is a life practice that you are developing: 1 Quart of water, 1/2 Lemon, and 1 Tablespoon of MSM.

Now that you are up and hydrated, you want to do an enema first thing in the morning. Why an enema, and why in the morning? Your body is processing old matter for release faster than it can actually get it out, by virtue of the cleansing physiology that you have created drinking only fresh juices (particularly Green Vegetable Juice, which acts like liquid plumber). The surest way to create a negative cleansing reaction on a cleanse is to not support your organs of elimination, and your colon is number 1. Have you ever heard the phrase, "Nature abhors a vacuum?" It does, and as your bowel empties out of years-old fecal matter and childhood toys that were left up in there, every cell in your body gets the message that it, too can release old waste and move it to the bowel for elimination. You do not want to slow the progress of old matter leaving your body. Doing so by not doing enemas, or any of the other aids to elimination will ensure a back-up and reabsorption of old toxic matter that will make you feel weak, and ill. The Juice Feast is designed to nearly eliminate this possibility, provided that you do the necessary things.

You want to do an enema first thing in the morning because your body has done a lot of work processing stuff during the night that is ready for release. You do not want to carry this stuff around any longer than necessary. Doing an enema in the morning will be a great boost to your energy level, and to the efficiency of the cleansing aspect of the Juice Feast.

To do an enema: Make sure you have the bathroom to yourself. Put down a towel or blanket, and even a pillow if you are new to doing enemas. You want to be comfortable. Put on some nice music that you find relaxing. Close off the valve on the enema kit, and fill the bag with warm water. Hang the bag from a coat hanger or towel rod, at least 3 feet from the floor. Release any air in the line of the tube by holding the end of the tube over the toilet and opening the valve until the water runs without air bubbles, and close it off.

Use unrefined coconut oil to lubricate the tip of the enema kit and your anus. The reason for using unrefined coconut oil is that it is the most resistant to rancidity of all the oils. It has a pleasant smell. Finally, it is an excellent antimicrobial, antibacterial, antifungal agent.

When you insert the tip of the enema kit, remember that you have had bowel movements larger than the tip of the kit, and you control how slowly it enters. Many of us have a hard time with this the first time or two, because we are used to that being an "exit only" area, but getting warm water up into your bowel is essential for your healing, and enemas are well over 2000 years in use, so you are a-okay. Get on all fours, or on your back, and breathe deeply for a minute before you insert the tip of the kit inside yourself. Slowly open the valve and you will feel the water go up inside you. When the pressure is enough, close off the valve, and slowly pull the tip out of you. The first time you do this, you may only take in a cup of water. This is because you have impacted fecal matter inside of you that needs to come out, and as it does, it will allow for more water to go in until you are able to take in the whole bag at one time.

Hold the water for 3-5 minutes minimum, 6-8 minutes is better. The first time you do an enema, you may not be able to hold it more that 30 seconds. That is okay, your body wants to release, so let it do so. After a few times you will be more comfortable, and holding the warm water in your bowel longer will be easier. Lay on your back and massage your abdomen. The water will come in your colon up your left side, accross under your rib cage, and down your right side, and exit in the reverse order. Massage the water up your left side, accross under your abdomen, and down your right side, paying particular attention to areas where you are feeling pain. If you do, there is constipation there and you should massage that area gently with more attention to release the impacted matter.

When you release, squat on the toilet if you can. We call it "rim surfing." Better yet (and safer), get a Nature's Platform at www.naturesplatform.com. Why squat? Dr. John Chiene discovered toilet users suffered from incomplete elimination compared with squatting position users. He actually (yes, actually) weighed and compared his own fecal mass passed on the toilet with that passed in a squatting position. He found that he always eliminated less weight when he used the toilet alone. In many countries worldwide, toilets are made so that people squat when they have a bowel movement. Again, you want to eliminate. It is just you in there, and it is your health. Claim it and do this simple pratice, please.

Lastly, how long should you do enemas on the Juice Feast? Everyone regardless of bowel health should do an enema each morning for the first 10-14 days of the Feast. After that, you come to know what an enema does for you, and how you feel when you need to support your body in eliminating the massive amount of toxic material that comes forth as you cleanse. We do an enema about every 3rd day after that initial round on a Juice Feast. If you have been constipated for years, however, and you have a lot of weight to lose, you can continue to do an enema each day for the entire 92-Day Juice Feast.

Your daily regimen should begin with skin brushing for a period of three to five minutes. I believe skin brushing is one of the finest of all "baths." No soap can wash the skin as clean as the new skin that you have under the old. You make a new top layer of skin every twenty-four hours. Skin brushing removes the old top layer and lets this clean new layer come to the surface.

The skin is one of the five main elimination channels of the body, throwing off about two pounds of toxic material each day in the form of perspiration. The skin has been called the third kidney because of its ability to rid the body of toxic waste material. Do not hinder the skin by using oils, cremes, or other noxious glop that serves only to clog it in the name of beauty. Instead, see what regular skin brushing can do for you.

Skin brushing is accomplished using a natural-bristle brush with a long handle to reach those hard-to-get-at places. The whole body (except the face) should be brushed one-half hour after rising and prior to the morning bath or shower. You may wish to skin brush again before retiring for the night. Note the powder that comes off your skin as you brush. These are crystals of uric acid and other dried waste products that came out with the perspiration.

Always brush the skin when it is dry, and never expose the brush to water. Although the bristles may seem a bit stiff at first, this is because the brush is new and your skin is not yet used to the brushing. If you find the brush is too stiff, you may, just once, hold the bristles in hot water for no longer than one minute and no deeper than one-half inch. This will soften the bristles a little. However, it will not be long before you desire a stiffer brush! Your skin will love you for brushing it regularly, and you will love the way your skin feels and looks, too.

This is a great life practice! Please continue to skin brush each morning after the Juice Feast!

This is an excellent practice on any cleansing programme, such as a Juice Fast or Juice Feast. It is critical that we support the organs and processes of elimination, and using hot/cold treatment is an excellent and accessible, no-cost way to move lymphatic fluid and blood.
 
To use hydrotherapy on a Juice Feast, take a hot shower, and at the point in your shower when it is feeling like it is time to get out, begin cranking the water back toward cool, and leave it there for about a minute. Then slowly crank it back toward warm/hot for a minute, then back toward cool for a minute, and so on:

 

HOT    shower 5-7 minutes
COOL  1 minute
HOT    1 minute
COOL  1 minute
HOT    1 minute
COOL  1 minute
HOT    1 minute
COOL  1 minute and out

Then get out of the shower, ending on cool, which is stimulating. When we do a Juice Feast or other cleanse, we usually do this with each shower as a matter of course, and have noticed that it is invigorating and is a valuable part of our cleansing reaction/healing crisis minimization, making life much more pleasant on a cleanse.

Also, make sure that you are filtering out the chlorine from your shower water, if necessary. Carbon filters are available online and at your local Whole Foods/Wild Oats. Exposing yourself to chlorine is less than the best idea, as you will learn on Day 33: Safe and Healthy Public Water.

Oral hygeine is really important to keep in mind not only in the morning, but throughout the day. Even your Green Vegetable Juices are a about 60% carbohydrate, so you can get a coating of plaque in your mouth if you do not rinse after drinking juice.

After you leave the shower, use a tongue scraper. During any cleanse, you will often find a yellow or white coating on your tongue, which many cleansing professionals over the years consider a reflection of your bowel toxicity. You may want to take your tongue scraper with you to work if that coating returns during the day.

Dr. Richard Anderson, in his excellent book Cleanse and Purify Thyself, has this to say about the tongue during a cleanse:

Many people notice that as they cleanse, their tongues turn whitish-gray and filmy, and the breath becomes more and more foul. This reflects what is happening in the digestive canal. As they drink fresh juice, mucoid layers will soften, and so they may notice that the abdomen swells. As more and more mucoid layers are removed, the swelling goes down, the tongue gradually becomes clearer, and the breath improves. This is a good gauge as to how clean a person is becoming, for when you are totally clean, the tongue will be shiny red (just like a newborn baby's). It will be free of all whiteness or film, and the breath will be sweet (unless we eat onions or garlic).

For more on oral hygeine and Biological Dentistry, including a discussion of Root Canals, Mercury Fillings, and Fluoride, see Day 44: Biological Dentistry and Teeth in the 92-Day Juice Feasting Program.

Allow 1 1/2 hours each morning to make your juice for the day.

We are going to figure that you go to work, and need to take your juices with you. If you are fortunate enough to be able to make juice at home all day, you have the option of making each quart fresh right before you drink it, and that is wonderful. For most of us, however, taking juice to work is reality.

You don't have a lot of time in the morning. This is why we suggest making all of your juices in the high-speed blender and then straining the pulp from the juice with a nut mylk bag. By yourself it will take 60-90 minutes to make 4 quarts of juice. Clean-up is easy with the high-speed blender, and you just wipe off the counter, and go.

MAKE SURE YOU LEAVE THE HOUSE WITH 4 QUARTS OF JUICE. One inside your body that you have drank right away, and three in your quart-sized canning jars to take with you, preferably in a cooler with a cold pack, or to be placed in the fridge when you get to work. Keep your juices cold, or they will not keep well.

The surest way to invite in hell on a Juice Feast is to leave the house without enough juice. This is a Feast of abundance, and you will get hungry if you do not have enough juice. Please, please, please, get up early enough to take care of your personal hygeine, including an enema, and to make juice. A gentle diligence is crucial.

Also remember that the 60-90 minutes you spend making juice is not a lot of time. We usually spend more than that going out to eat, and making food at home. We have had workaholic students who have Juice Feasted with us who love drinking juice, because it saves them time from having to go out for food.

You will find yourself accomplishing more on a Juice Feast, due to the time savings, reduced need for sleep, better focus, and increased nutrition. People will gravitate more to you as you become more vibrant, and synchronicities will happen. This is a delightful suprise for everyone who Feasts.

Drink juice every 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Any more than that, and you are going to feel huuuungry. And that is when your physiology will send messages to your brain to find whatever food is familiar and available. Keep the wolf away from the door, and drink juices regularly.

Finally, swish your mouth with clean water, or salt water (using Himalayan or Celtic Sea Salt) after you drink your juice. This will alkalize your mouth, and prevent you from getting a sore mouth or wearing down the enamel on your teeth from an acidic oral environment that is constantly in a state of digestion, or still has something like lemon juice in it. This is a very important practice to keep your mouth happy on a Juice Feast.

After that first juice, then you are ready for Fruit Juice as your second or third juice. The reason for this is that you have been active mentally and physically, and your body is more ready for carbohydrate, provided that fruit juice is appropriate for you on the Feast. If you are doing Fruit Juices, do make sure that you mix in Green Superfood Powders and even some bee pollen. Remember, one place that we get in trouble with food is eating high-sugar. low mineral foods. By adding in Green Superfood Powder Concentrates, you raise the mineral profile of your juices significantly.

Finally, at the end of the day, have a Green Vegetable Juice. It will satiate you for the rest of the evening, and greens and celery are calming (alkalinizing things are calming to your system) which will make you more ready to relax and fall into a deep sleep a few hours later.

SUMMARY: Your Juices schedule goes as follows:

1. Morning by 8:00 am: Green Vegetable Juice (1 Quart)

2. Mid-Morning around 10:30 am: Green Vegetable Juice or Fruit Juice (1 Quart)

3. Lunchtime: Green Vegetable Juice or Fruit Juice (1 Quart)

4. Late afternoon: Green Vegetable Juice (1 Quart)

5. Early Evening: If hungry, Green Vegetable Juice (1/2 to 1 Quart) that you made after work at home

Feeding your body juices consistently is a key factor in your success on the Juice Feast.

Exercise is the golden key to making any lifestyle healthy, and the same is true in times of cleansing! Exercise is one of the best and most crucial helpers to your body in times of detox. Even while eating, or juicing, the best foods possible, if you do not move your body, toxins will accumulate and cause unnecessary un-happyness and even disease. We can not express enough how important it is to get execise on a cleanse, as your body is working very hard to move toxins out and you can greatly help it do this by moving it! There are several types of exercise that we recommend during a Juice Feast, and to be carried on as a Life Practice once your Feast is complete.

Begin with Yoga! Everyone can do some form or level of yoga, which includes movement and stretching, in the form of asanas (poses of postures). We recommend doing gentle yoga throughout the Feast, and especially in the first month when you are doing most of your cleansing. Durring this time your body will be using a lot of energy to clean out old waste, so don't over do it on exercise now, but do be sure to move and get that lymph flowing! Yoga is perfect for this, as the practice of yoga cleanses and purifies your whole being, mind, body and spirit in unity. I (Katrina) have found yoga to be not only a physical detoxifier, but also an emotional one, and have left many a class feeling uplifted and clear, leaving not only sweat but tears of release in the post-class shower! There are many different styles of yoga, so try a few out and see which one resonates with you. Sign up for a local yoga class, or get an instructional DVD, and if you have never done yoga, now is a great time to start as your body will become flexible and fluid very quickly with all the hydrating juices you are feeding it! Even if you only have ten minutes to pull out your yoga mat, do it! Yoga and Juice Feasting are soul mates, you will see!

Also begin with Walking! Walking is our favorite daily form of exercise. It gets you outside, moving through the fresh outside air, and often brings you in contact with nature. Even in the city there are parks where you can go and commune with the trees. For most people, a brisk walk for little more than half an hour per day will meet their exercise requirements. This form of exercise also generates a nearly 70% reduction in the occurance of breast cancer in women! Use your stomach muscles as you are walking to flatten your tummy and strengthen your back, and take deep breaths. Lack of oxygen is behind many symptoms of illness, especially a dull mind. If you want to invigorate your mind, step outside and take at least ten long, deep, mindful breaths.

Next, add in Rebounding! Who doesn't love jumping on a trampoline? Well, rebounding is just that accept you get your own personal mini trampoline. According to Nasa "Rebound exercise is the most efficient and effective form of exercise yet devised by man" That being said, it is the perfect "busy person" exercise, and according to rebounder manufacturers, 10 minutes of rebounding produces the same results as 30 minutes of jogging! I (Katrina) find it hard to bounce for only 10 minutes though, and have been known to jump around for over an hour. Our favorite rebounder is by far the Qi Bounder, found here, but any rebounder will do. You can bounce, jump, run on the spot, dance, do jumping jacks, wave your arms around, what ever you like really! All the while you will be improving your lymphatic flow, bone density, coordination, joint flexibility, muscle tone, vascular strength, and much more. Shazzie says about rebounding "As rebounding affects every single cell, muscle and organ all at the same time, your body quickly undergoes noticeable positive changes." Hooray. Like yoga and walking, rebounding can be implemented in the early days of your Feast, just be sure to listen to your body and give it the intensity of bouncing that it is happy with.

Oh, and you should always Dance! This one is easy, we all know how to do this. Turn on your favorite song and dance around. We have a friend who likes to hold daily dance parties with her two year old daughter, and they dance up a storm together! Dancing is magical.

And finally, Weight Training! Yes, you heard correctly, you can build muscle while on a Juice Feast. Remember the four elements of Juice Feasting? Cleanse, Re-build, Re-hydrate, and Alkalize? Well, this is where re-building can really be put to task. We recommend that you wait until around Day 60 to start in on any serious training as your body will be doing some serious house cleaning until that time. Around Day 60 though, you can start turning all that green juice into some hard, strong, sexy muscle! One of my (Katrina) favorite muscle building books for women is Smart Girls Do Dumbbells by Judith Sherman-Wolin. It is not a raw/vegan muscle building book, so as soon as one of you writes one, let us know! You can also check out Storm, who is a raw/vegan body builder. Also check out Robbie Hazeley. There are many more inspiring raw vegans out there for any one who is feeling skeptical about strong raw vegans, just Google "raw vegan body builders!" It is not necessary to become muscle bound, and indeed you won't unless you try very very hard, but muscle is the tissue of youth, and will create a healthy hormonal balance in your body among many other things. See Day 29 on the Juice Feasting Program for more on weight lifting. Anywhere between fifteen to forty five minutes of weights a day is perfect.

This is a tricky and important aspect of Juice Feasting. Food is everywhere. If you have a family, you may be making food for your loved ones. If you are in business, hosting lunches and dinners may be your reality.

First, remember that your health is the most important thing to you. Know that excellent health will make you a better spouse, parent, friend, and businessperson. You will be exponentially more effective at what you do as time goes on. Juice Feasting is a conscious Act of Love and Abundance.

So, how do we Juice Feast with a family, social, and business life?

 

There is a line in a favorite song of mine that says "you spend half of the morning, just trying to wake up. Half the evening, trying to calm down." No longer!

Just as you no longer need a stimulant to get you going in the morning (such as coffee or a sweet bun), you no longer need to dull your mind with television or random web surfing at the end of the day. Because you are no longer putting toxic foods into your body, you will also notice that you are much more aware of protecting your mind from toxic information, images, suggestions, stories and even music. You can cleanse your mind the same way you are cleansing your body, flood it with nutrient dense, beautiful, life affirming information, and the old stuff will be swept out. Draw in the best things possible!

Quite possibly a large amount of time has opened up to you during your evenings. Depending on your energy level, these are a few suggestions of things you can do to wind down at the end of your day, while also adding to the depth and quality of your life (TV does NOT do this!): 

• relax with a book 
• go to a health lecture
• attend a personal development workshop or class
• go to a yoga class
• sit with a loved one and a warm mug of tea and really listen to each other
• go for a stroll in the setting sun
• write in your journal, or blog
• volunteer for a Community Supported Agriculture Project
• grow some sprouts for your juices
• have a loved one give you a massage (to help your body flush out toxins!)
• write a letter
• read JuiceFeasting.com
• sew yourself a new shirt
• take drawing classes
• learn how to play an instrument, or play your instrument
• sing, join a choir

This is an excellent time to grab a hold of your passion for creativity, and as you clear out any old, stagnant, or negative mind patterns, your mindscape will be flooded with beauty and positive thoughts! Just remember to water your possitive seeds and with care and attention, they will bear beautiful fruit with even more possitive seeds for the garden of your mind!

You will notice that "winding down" and preparing for sleep is very natural when you are taking only natural things into your body and mind. A sense of calm in the mind follows a calm body that is not being flooded with strange foods, chemicals, caffeine, and excitotoxins all day. If you do not feel this right away, don't worry, as you coninue to cleanse and to feed your mind positive, healthy vibrations, you will reach a mental clarity that makes the end of the day a very enjoyable, peaceful, and creatively abundant time.

Your body is able to do an incredible amount of wonderful things now that you are no longer dumping toxic foods into it. Instead, you are feeding every cell in your body some of the most amazing nutrition on the planet.

You can assist it in taking full advantage of this opportunity by getting adequate rest and sleep. While you are resting or sleeping, you free up energy so that your body can get to work at flushing out that old red dye #40 from your liver where it has been storing it because it was just too busy trying to keep up with all the MSG and other toxic things coming at it. Also while you are resting your body can safely remove that layer of mucus lining your intestine and bowel, that worked to protect you from the over 3,000 synthetic chemicals that are regularly added to food products (among other things) but has also (sadly) been preventing you from assimilating and absorbing valuable nutrients from your food. Remember: you absorb 90% of your nutrition through the wall of the small intestine. If that wall is lined with uneliminated waste matter, you will become malnourished. Thankfully this old matter will release and get flushed out by the Green Vegetable Juices and Intestinal Drawing Formula on the Feast.

Rest is not a waste of time! Imagine if you left your bathroom light on all the time. No matter what type of bulb it was, it would only last half as long or less than if you turned it off when you were not in the bathroom. You are like a lightbulb, and you need rest too, and not only do you not burn out as fast, but you actually re-energize yourself so that you may burn even brighter when you are on! Make use of resting in a peaceful spot during the day, sitting on a park bench, getting hugs, meditiation, deep breathing, going for a sauna, sunbathing, going to bed early, or yoga. You will find over time that your rest is very restful, and that your "on" time is very energetic and bright!

Sleep is not a waste of time! The sleeping brain and body do many important things, including regulating gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, and immune functions. Adequate sleep is especially important to hormone regulation. Lack of sleep creates hormonal imbalances that equate to metabolic disasters. It has even been shown in a ground-breaking study that after only a week of sleep deprivation, healthy, young men with no risk factor reached a pre-diabetic state. Why? Because without sleep, the central nervous system becomes more active, which inhibits the pancreas from producing enough insulin - an essential hormone that works to digest glucose, thus creating pre-diabetic blood sugar levels. Had the study's participants' sleep deprivation continued, as it does for so many people, these young men could well have turned diabetic, as so many young people currently are. So you can see, hormonal balance is very sensitive and very important, and it is extremely dependent on adequate sleep. To learn more about the importance of sleep, you can go to Day 30, Sleep and Insomnia.

Don't feel bad if you find you need more sleep than usual during the first part of your Juice Feast. You are only giving your body more time and energy to clean and repair house.

According to Sam Graci in his book The Food Connection, North America is the nation of the Great Un-Slept, being kept awake longer and longer by TV, telephones, electrical lights, the Internet, and e-mail. 

Don't let this happen to you! Give yourself the gift of sleep and rest, and honor this amazing body you have been given! And remember, although sleep experts recommend eight and half hours of sleep per night, in the 1920's the average adult got nine to ten hours a night. And our ancient ancestors, following the rhythms of the sun and moon, got between ten and twelve hours of sleep. Again, don't feel bad if you are sleeping long hours; feel proud that you are doing something for your body that it desperately needs, especially if you are making up for years of inadequate sleep.

We recommend going to bed around the same time every night so that you can develop a healthy regular sleeping pattern. This will better ensure that you wake up at a regular time as well, probably without the use of an alarm clock (though make sure you do get up early enough to make your Juices!). Also, daily exercise is important to getting a good night's sleep. If you haven't yet, scroll back up this page and read the section on exercise. Make sure that you are sleeping in a completely dark room, as even the red light on an alarm clock will affect the delicate light-sensitive cells in our skin and thus our neurotransmitters that switch hormones "on" or "off." In nature, these light-sensitive cells would trigger the daytime hormones to be switched on during the light of day, and the night time hormones to be switched on during the dark of night. You do not want daytime hormones running around your body at night, thinking that there is still a bit of daylight because the red light on your alarm clock is keeping them activated. One easy solution for this is to throw a shirt over your clock. It is a good idea to turn off any electronics that share your sleeping space with you.

Remember, if you are hungry right before bed time and have another juice, make sure it is a green juice, not fruit juice, as the sugar in the fruit juice will keep you awake. The green juice will quiet you though, and send you into a nice peaceful sleep.

Sweet Dreams! You are going to love how deeply you sleep as the Juice Feast goes on!