Day 1
Upon rising
hot water with lemon and cayenne to stimulate the digestive system and hydrate tissues
45 minutes of active (AIS) stretching and mindful movement (pilates/yoga)

Breakfast
16-20 ounces of green juice
2 mile brisk walk

Late-Morning snack
16-20 ounces of roots juice

Lunch
16 ounces of homemade almond milk with a shot of E3 Live

Afternoon snack
16-20 ounces of green Juice

Evening walk in the woods 40 minutes

Dinner
16-20 ounces of pineapple juice with aloe vera 
I went to bed at 9:00PM, ready for the next day and knowing how good this was for my body   

Key Points

-Make yummy juice.  Lemons and ginger makes a difference but it doesn’t take much.

-Stay out of the kitchen and keep busy with your hands.  

-Be connected with people that understand, support you and your healthy life style

-Know your body.  You may have to practice easy exercise so cravings and hunger don’t take over.

-Drink enough water, take deep, even, full breaths, sweat, dry brush your skin before showering, and practice yoga with twists and bends.

-Always travel with juice.  Never leave home without it during the three days.

-When weak moments come, they are short lived.

-I did notice that I was colder than usual.  So the herbal teas hit the spot.

-Whenever I would feel a hunger spell kick in I knew it was time to start another juice.  I didn’t pay attention to the time of day.  

-The almond milk with dates was like a milkshake.  It was nice break from the other juices.  

-On the 2nd and 3rd day, experiment with different juice recipes.  It helps to keep things appealing.

How Did I Feel After 3 Days?

No side effects other than being cold.  I slept well and woke up ready to take on each day.  I really had a sense of well being and lightness.  I lost any bloated heavy feeling and the scales dropped 5 lbs, but that wasn’t the point.  The point was to flood my body with nutrients and give my digestive system a retreat.  As I continue to eat very well, I am still noticing how productive I am without “crashing” around 3p.m. or craving a coffee for a pick me up.  This is huge for me. My days flow much better now.  I feel more naturally energetic.
   
Want to give it a try?

If you are interested in juicing or anything else I have written about in my past blogs, what are you waiting for?  If you follow the wellness plan that I have touched on, get ready to see changes in your body.  You will see firsthand how it is possible to feel vibrant all day long.  Your eyes will be brighter, your tummy will feel flatter, and your body will feel like it is literally humming.  The ancient saying, “healthy mind in a healthy body” will ring true.

Contact me at [email protected] and bring 3-4 of your girlfriends out for a day-long retreat this Spring at my home in Shacklefords, Virginia.

Sample day 

1.  Upon rising, start your day with hot water with lemon and cayenne

2.  Arrive in Shacklefords at 8am for a serving of organic garden green juice followed by Active Isolated Stretching and a walk.

3.  Juicing demonstration and wellness plan discussion as we prepare organic garden root juice for lunch.

4.  Mindful movement (yoga /pilates class) followed by free time by pool (complimentary mud facial optional) 
                                                                                       
5.  Juicing demonstration before dinner to prepare nut milk

6.  Go home feeling fresh and empowered!

Looking for more in depth information?

www.pressedjuicery.com has wonderful information about “how to prepare” and “why cleanse” as well as a nice Q&A section.  

If you want to learn even more, I recommend the New York Times bestseller, CLEAN by Alejandro Junger, MD

TUNE UP

Part B

It’s easy to get into bad eating habits, eat when we aren’t hungry, and overeat.  This often results in bloating, lethargy and a generally heavy feeling.  Who wants that?  Has the thought about giving up certain foods for a few weeks to test the body’s response ever crossed your mind?  It has for me, even though I eat a healthy diet.  I’m always up for an experiment.  So, I started with some research.

This is what I found… The Standard American Diet (abbreviated as SAD;(, does not have our best interest at heart.  Americans typically consume 3 meals a day and many snacks.  It takes the body 18 hours to eliminate one meal.  Our bodies already work 24/7 and we create unnecessary work when we overfill them.  On top of the excess, food is no longer basic or natural -- modern food has created a whole new vocabulary. 

The body can only handle so much “SAD”-ness before showing signs of illness.  In her smash hit, Crazy Sexy Diet, Kris Carr says, “if we fill our bodies with anti-nutrients, or too many fats, proteins, sugars, salts, and so on,  the leftovers create stagnation and blockages that result in clogged arteries, weight gain, poor circulation, lack of oxygen and energy, to name a few.”  I also read that up to 90% of disease can be linked back to an unhealthy digestive system.  We control what we eat, right?

If we care about our bodies, we have to decipher what we should be eating and what to avoid.  One thing has always been clear, eating mostly vegetables and fruits is always a great choice.  This is one of the forces behind what seems to be a growing juice cleansing movement.  Being a health fanatic, I decided to “get involved” to see what this movement is all about.  I mean, who wouldn’t want to cleanse their bodies with light liquid nutrition to maximize body’s natural flow.     

One of the most healthful properties of juicing is that vitamins, minerals, enzymes, antioxidants, and phyto-nutruients from raw fruits and vegetables go straight into the bloodstream with little effort.  I’ve read that 90% of the anti-oxidant action in produce is in the fruit (or vegie), not the fiber.  Juicing removes the fiber from produce, allowing the body to more quickly absorb and gain nutrients. 

Frequent juicers report a number of benefits like:

-          A nice glow

-          Fewer colds

-          Better sleep

-          Energy

-          Strong bones

-          Healthy organs

-          Leaner body

-          Balanced blood sugar

-          Lower cholesterol and blood pressure

Who wouldn’t want these benefits?

To prepare for my first juice cleanse, I eliminated most acidic foods from my diet and focused on alkaline boosters, such as dark leafy greens, green juices and smoothies, almonds, avocados, and certain grains like millet.  Steven Bailey ND, author of Juice Alive, says these alkaline foods flood the body with chlorophyll, enzymes, vitamins, minerals and oxygen.  The PH Miracle’s Dr. Robert Young MD also emphasizes that an inflammatory, highly acid forming diet, made up of meats, dairy products, sugar, wheat, and coffee can cause the body to have to work diligently to balance pH levels, leaving you feeling lethargic and foggy.  

So, my typical day now begins with a hot water, lemon and a dash of cayenne – the capsaicin stimulates circulation to the digestive tract.  I complete my Active Isolated Stretching and Strengthening routine before having something like the Bright Green Mega-Nutrient Smoothie (recipe below), always aiming for a 3:1 ratio of vegetables to fruits.  I add fruits and lightly steamed vegetables with quinoa, brown rice or millet throughout the day, supplementing this with vitamin D, B12, Multi, and calcium along with plenty of water and herbal tea.

In a week’s time with these changes, I am honestly sensing more clarity, a natural balance, and good vibes – I really do feel like I am taking the right steps to help my body thrive.  Now that I have found a rhythm eating even more delicious, nutrient-dense, fiber rich foods than I’m even used to, it’s time to give my body the more intense break it deserves.  My new juicer has arrived, and it’s time for my first 3-day juice cleanse!   This is fun.

Are you ready to revolutionize the way you eat?  Are you ready to give up meat and dairy, or maybe try a 3-day juice cleanse to break bad habits and cravings to increase vitality?  Even a small commitment can shift your way of thinking.  If your eating habits have you feeling flat, challenge yourself.  Do something different.  Shake things up.  If you do, I predict the changes you experience will be perfect and appropriate for you.  You will learn something new.  You will grow.  And hopefully, your body will be thanking you for freeing up extra energy so it can focus on repairing and rejuvenation.  You are a healer and you can heal yourself. 

Stay tuned for my 3-day juice cleanse diary…

Bright Green Mega-Nutrient Smoothie

1 cup coconut water

1 juicy pear

1 scoop hemp protein powder

½  avocado

1 small cucumber

1 TBsp bee pollen

1 TBsp maca, and maqui, 

Spirulina powder

Fist of spinach

4 -5 leaves of romaine

5 ice cubes

Stevia

“Practice makes perfect…  More like perfect practice makes perfect”  -- Gray Cook

Have you ever noticed that one side of your body seems tighter, weaker or just feels different?  I went years with solid fitness and performance results knowing that my left hip was tight and causing imbalances throughout my body.  When I was riding or running, I always felt like my left leg was behind my right.  I would also have difficulty lifting my left thigh when practicing back strengtheners, like locust in yoga and swan-dive in Pilates.  Things just felt awkward.  I chalked it up to my childhood diagnosis of scoliosis – something I was managing to keep pain-free.

As the New York Times bestselling author Kathy Freston said “Wellness is a continuum”.  We get better as we go, get more informed, find a better way, and through the process are continually reminded that everything is connected.  As I explained in my earlier story, this latter point was stamped into my consciousness with every painful movement!  Move something here, and something else moves there.  The concept was really starting to hit home.

Rewind 5 years…  I can remember being told by my husband’s long-time coach and massage therapist, Al Devereaux, that I had a visible imbalance, probably originating in the psoas.  He could see what I felt.  He also suggested Active Isolated Stretching and Strengthening (AIS).  AIS was pioneered by kinesiotherapist Aaron Mattes from Sarasota, Florida and popularized in the running world by NYC musculoskeletal rehab gurus Jim and Phil Wharton.  It has helped countless professional athletes, dancers and others to rebuild and maintain balance throughout their careers. 

This was promising information, but it was not until I was recently forced to slow down that it really resonated.  Wellness is a continuum, right?!

So, I finally learned AIS, which confirmed the tight left psoas and a weak left glute, even after years of yoga and Pilates.  More importantly, I learned firsthand these can be improved with focus, attention and time.  I’ve been working on this every day since and it is making a big difference!  Something that I have noticed since I was a kid in ballet, is improving and feeling better.  That’s a great feeling.

It is helpful to be aware of your imbalances.  It is even better to face them head on before they knock you down.  You can stomp most of them out with perfect practice.

In 2011 I broke my clavicle into 3 pieces on the bike.  Before the accident, a typical day would begin with cardio, either on the bike or running, move to teaching one or two pilates/yoga classes, and end with 60 minutes of cardio/strength work.  In a split second, I went from a vital athlete and fitness professional, to an out of work, chair ridden patient with little to no movement.  In fact, any movement was filled with pain.  This pain forced me into three weeks of trying to sleep upright in a chair, six weeks of walking downstairs backwards, and five months of no cardio.  

Collarbones usually heal, right?  However, each checkup verified what I feared most, that my collarbone was not healing.  It was just floating in pieces that would not stick together.  After four months of stagnation, I decided to try riding the bike again and exercising in the pool.  I also tried light jogging on the treadmill.  Things seemed slightly better until I tried to pump a tire.  That's when I really knew something more drastic was necessary to put me back together.

After my husband's obsessive research -- yes, I was  crabby -- I decided to have surgery with the world's leading expert on clavicle pin fixation, Dr. Carl Basamania.  Unfortunately, he was no longer at Duke University -- just a 3 hour drive.  He moved to Seattle!  So, Steve and I flew to his clinic in hopes that Mr. Clavicle himself could get me moving again.  Dr. B. did his magic and connected the bones with a cutting edge new 5 inch pin he helped invent.  While easier than a traditional plate and screw surgery, it was still a painful road ahead with no guarantees -- the pin was scheduled to be in for 6 months!  During the surgery, he found out that my bones were totally separated by muscle and would likely have never healed correctly.

We all get frustrated, and believe me, I was beyond frustrated.  When we cannot workout the way we are accustomed to, and inevitably focus on the fitness we are losing -- and all the toneness, flexibility, and cardio benefits that come along with being fit -- it is natural to dwell on the loss.  But what I learned as I began to recover is that this obstacle, like many others people face, turned out to be a tremendous opportunity for me to slow down, pay attention, and be in the moment.  It reawakened me and helped me to rediscover and learn what my body needed.

Each day boils down to a series of decisions centered on convenience and comfort.  It’s common to develop a schedule that contains the same fitness classes, running trails and bike routes.  With that comes complacency and often mindlessness.  Injuries shuffle the cards and force us react in a different way.  

Instead of coffee and a brisk run, which I wasn’t able to do, I had hot tea and practiced restorative poses.  My range of motion was limited through the shoulders, upper back, and neck.  So, I had to give strong thought to every motion and take my routine in new directions.  I switched from pushups, planks, and chaturangas, to standing balances and seated poses.  These were poses I tended to avoid.  They had to be relearned so I could understand the essence of each, and reap the benefits.  I was really learning firsthand how one body of the part affects the other, and because I had to be present and in the moment, I was doing it with a deeper spirit of joy and delight.  

It's been a year since the accident, and I'm on the eve of returning to Seattle to get the pin removed.  As I look back, I clearly see the major shift it forced in my life.  It even affected the way I teach.  I am committed to make every class more about the essence of the move and providing a more complete moving experience, and less about how many calories burned.  If I have any advice to give students and other instructors based on my experience, it would be to truly learn to work in your body, and know it fully, and to teach the essence of each movement.

So the next time you are thrown off of your exercise routine, look to it as an opportunity to take a new path.  It might not feel pleasant at first, but promise yourself to be open to the new experience.  It will ultimately help you excel in a new direction!

-Treat your body well and your mind will follow.