Day 5: 365-Day Transformation through Love Project

It's already day # 5 on my journey to myself!!! Today was the best day I've had so far. I was so happy and wanted to share my happiness with everyone. This doesn't happen to me so often.

Also, I could not only drink about 4 liters of juice, which is a lot for my tiny weight of 95 pounds, but also meditate, spend time outside and exercise. So far I did these activities in small portions, but I can see the power of balance. It is very important to take a holistic approach and try changing your entire life style in addition to just changing your eating habits.

I have also received two great books on yoga. One of them, The Yoga Body Diet: Slim and Sexy in 4 Weeks (Without the Stress), it's a long title, focuses on ayurvedic aspects and helps you to determine your dosha type. The second book, A Year of Living Your Yoga, provides inspirational thoughts for every day of the year. I'm excited about the first book. It's a good idea to review my notes on ayurveda. It also will work well with the book, The Tao of Healthy Eating, that I'm reading right now. The second one is a nice addition to my library too. These are actually my first two books on yoga. 

One of my goals is to determine the best diet for my body for the time when the juice feast is over. Now I now how important it is to be organized and prepared for different situations. A lot of our bad habits, including overeating and eating poor-quality foods, comes from just lack of planning and giving in to circumstances. It can be avoided if we set our priorities clearly and know what we wan to eat or do in our life. It all comes down to taking responsibility for our life.

Responsibility is sometimes considered to be a boring word. We endow responsibility with this negative connotation, only because we know that we didn't do as well as we wanted in this department, according to whatever standards we might have. In reality, it is fun to know that you create your life, every moment of it.

Day 4: 365-Day Transformation through Love Project

Miracles are happening in my life today. I'm so excited about all the synchronicities. But let me start with my juices first.

My Juices for Today

First, I realized how important it is to get enough rest and drink plenty of water when on the cleanse. I feel great when I sleep enough. This was one of my mistakes in the past. I need to really work on my schedule. Yesterday, I stayed up late listening to David and Katrina Rainosheks' videos on juicefeasting.com. I have learned a lot of interesting information. But I had to get up at 6.00 am in the morning and didn't have time to make my juice. So I drank leftovers from yesterday and made a master cleanse lemonade.  

In the second part of the day, I made a green juice from celery, cucumber (our favorite ingredients), a few tomatoes, apples, lettuce, and ginger. Turned out to be great. 

 

Something very interesting is happening in my spiritual life. I can't fully express what it is, but it feels like a the beginning of a new life with more freedom and clarity. I can sense my intuition better and follow it with more confidence.

Growing My Own Urban Garden

A few days ago, I thought it would be nice to start growing my own plants. I don't have a backyard, but I have a deck where I could easily set up an urban herb garden. I started reading about urban gardening yesterday and have registered with a local community garden for a class on "The Basics of Growing Your Own Spring Seedlings" this Wednesday. Members of the garden have an option to become a vegetable plot holder. I'm going to ask them how I could do that. It would be fun to grow something by myself and connect with the Earth. Another class that I have registered for is "Aromatheraphy". I have always wanted to learn more about it. This class is going to be this Saturday. 

Bees' Calling

Yesterday, I had a strange idea to do a painting with bee pollen. I don't know why I even thought about it,  have never heard anyone painting with bee pollen. This idea came to me while eating bee pollen yesterday. I just thought it would be fun to try. Although I think Joseph Campbell was talking about Native Americans making elaborate art works using corn and maybe also bee pollen. Anyway, I forgot about this idea. Then, today I saw the book "The Shamanic Way of the Bee". I immediately felt that I need to learn more about it. This happens very rarely that I feel it so strongly. I decided to buy the book. By following our intuition, we can make it stronger over time.

Conscious Child Birth Course

Finally, I found out about an amazing woman, KaRa Maria Ananda, who is teaching an online course on Conscious Birth. I would like to take this course. I think it's very important knowledge in these times. Again, I felt that I could be one of the conscious birth emissaries and help other women and their children to be happy and aligned with who they are. 

Miraculous Products

Oh, I almost forgot. I have also learned today about two natural products that have miraculous properties and almost too good to be true. The first one is the Ormus. It can have positive spiritual and physical effects on our body. It sounds intriguing and seems to do something similar to holosync/hemisync technology that  synchronizes your left and right hemispheres. This video gives a good introduction to it.

Another product is literally called Miracle II and was created by Clayton Tedeton. The reviews of both products are stunning. I have decided to try Miracle II soap and neutralizer. You can listen to the interview with Clayton Tedeton on Youtube if you search for "Miracle II Interview with Clayton Tedeton". He says that the recipe for Miracle II products was given to him by God. He sounds like a genuine man. Maybe it will help with my hair loss. It also has a detoxifying effect on the body when used as a bath wash or soak, can be used  for doing laundry, and has many other uses.  

So many beautiful things are entering my life suddenly. Am I ready for it? If I'm manifesting it, it means I am ready. So I choose to believe in myself and intuition. Isn't it the whole purpose of my purification experiment?

P.S. If you want to receive Terry Walters’ new book Clean Start, go to One Green Generation and leave your name in the comments before Sunday February 27 at 5pm, PST. Good luck! 

Day 3: 365-Day Transformation through Love Project

Today I drank a lot of green juice and finished the day with delicious orange-grapefruit-tangerines juice. I enjoyed my morning green juice from cabbage, tomatoes, carrots and a cucumber with some dill and leeks. 

Also I have read a new book by Tracy Lydiatt "Your Green Family Blueprint" that you can see on the picture above. I like Tracy's fresh perspective on "going green". She stresses that every family is unique, and we should decide ourselves what works best for us. She provides many worksheet that guide your household through a decision making process of what to "avoid, dematerialize, substitute, phase out, or exercise precaution about or investigate".Tracy got her Masters in Sustainability from Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlskrona in Sweden and studied there with my good friend Lora. If you would like to take advantage of the book launch promotions, go to http://howgreenismyfamilynow.com/. Prizes and free gifts are available to you when you purchase the book until FEBRUARY 21st.

Reading Tracy's book reminded me of "No Impact Man" movie that I have seen a few weeks ago. I attended the movie screening and conversation with Colin Beavan at Emory University and even could ask him a question. Here is a picture of him speaking. I asked him about what he decided to keep in his life after the year of no impact was over. He answer made sense to me. He said he still feels inspired to talk about it to other people, and this is the most valuable change that he kept after the project was over. Also, he said that switching to a different diet or life style was not a problem for him, but talking about the project to press made him much more uncomfortable, because he had to think about what it meant for him.

My second juice pictures. Yum!

Day 2: 365-Day Transformation through Love Project

It's day 2 and I'm continue on my juice feast. Although today I didn't have time in the morning to make juice, I made a few liters of master cleanse drink from fresh lemon juice, raw organic honey, and organic cayenne pepper. I put very little cayenne pepper, because I can't drink it when it's too hot. The master cleanse drink lasted until 9.00 pm at night. I took it with me to the National Geographic workshop. 

The workshop was great. Tons of information that will take time for me to process. I'm glad I could attend. There was a lunch served at the workshop, but I didn't give in. I took my lemon-honey-cayenne drink, went outside and enjoyed the sun for about 45 minutes. I missed the sun light and spending time outside is very good for connecting with the Earth and the Sun. So I enjoyed it!

I went to Whole Foods after the workshop and bought some more greens and veggies. Now I have a variety of greens. I also bought some wheat grass and sunflower sprouts to add in my juices. Another new vegetable I'm going to try is fennel. 

Today, I could realize more clearly where the uncontrollable desire to eat comes from. The main cause of this obsessive urge comes from our feelings of unhappiness with who we are and of being inadequate. in some  way.  It's not a true hunger for food, but an addictive need to cure this state of dis-ease.  We medicate our unhappiness with food. We think that food will make us happy, even for a moment. It's better to focus on feeling good, safe, and loved, than giving up to unconscious eating habits.

I would like to thank Lyn Hicks for her words of encouragement and support. Her wise advice is to "Enjoy the journey and remember to stay as present as you can!" I will try to do it as much as I can. 

Another inspiring message that is related to Lyn's kind advice comes from Flying Yogini's blog in the form of Thich Nhat Hanh’s words:

"Breathing in, I calm my body.

Breathing out, I smile.

Dwelling in the present moment

I know this is a wonderful moment.”

I needed to hear these words today. I will start my meditation tomorrow with these beautiful mantra.

Day 1: 365-Day Transformation through Love Project

Today is the first day of my 365-Day Transformation Project. I'm starting with a juice feast that I plan to continue for 92 days. 

Beautiful and Relaxing Day in Charlotte

Yesterday, I came back form Charlotte, NC. We have stayed in a beautiful hotel in downtown. Onur, my boyfriend, was interviewing there and I came to support him from Atlanta. I hope he’ll get this job, we had a good feeling about how it went. and liked the city. While Onur was busy interviewing on Wednesday, I stayed at the hotel room , drank my master cleanse drink, did some yoga, and relaxed. It was a very nice day. 

Then we went out at night and I ate some cooked food at the bar, but it felt good. On Thursday, I started my day with a master cleanse drink, ate a salad at the airport and a banana-mango-walnuts smoothie when I got home. So I think my body was ready to start juicing again.

 

Day # 1: Enjoying my Juices 

I actually enjoyed my day today. I had a very productive day at work. Luckily, the weather in Atlanta is amazing right now. It’s sunny and warm during the day. I even wanted to go running when I got home, but was too tired and decided to take a nap. I should definitely watch my schedule and try to go to bed before midnight, because having a good rest is very important not only for the body but also for spiritual growth.

I enjoyed my juices so much today. I think I have finally learned to make good juices. The secret is to keep it simple and use only a few ingredients in each juice, so that the tastes are distinguishable. I think I drank about 3 liters of juice with 1/3 of this amount being fruit juice.

My Juices for Today

I started the days with a green juice that had a cucumber, 4 carrots, 2 apples, a bunch of dill, and celery. I drank this juice before going to work and took another citrus juice for lunch. It had a grapefruit, 4 tangerines, 2 oranges and 2 pears. It was good too. 

 

 

Right now I’m drinking a juice that I made for the first time, but it turned out to be great. I like to add garlic in my juices when I’m not going to go out. This juice was based on red cabbage, 4 tomatoes, kale and dandelion, plus 3 cloves of garlic and leeks. 

Supplements

I wanted to say a few words about the supplements that I’m using now. All of them are recommended on juicefeasting.com, and you can get more detailed information about each of them on this website.

 

I usually start my day with two glasses of warm water with lemon juice and 1 tbsp of MSM and take 3 caps of Vitalzym. I add 4 drops of Zeolite, 1 tbsp of Vitamineral green, some kelp and 1 tbsp of either spirulina or chlorella, or both in my morning juice and the same ingridients in my evening juice. Sometimes I add a pinch of sea salt in my green juices to make them taste better. During the days I drink plenty of water and hot tea (peppermint or other herbal tea). I take a tbsp of bee pollen with my night tea. Last time I also use coconut oil, but I like it so much that I think it made me crave other food too at the end. I decided to take hemp oil and avoid coconut oil so far. I’m also not a fan of spirulina. I’m really sensitive to its smell. Today, I have added half a table spoon of spirulina and chlorella in my green juice and haven’t noticed it, which is good.

I’m going to meditate and go to bed now. Tomorrow, I will get up early, around 5.00 am to do yoga, morning meditation and prepare juices for the day. Then I will go to the National Geographic Traveler seminar "The Versatile Travel Photographer".  I’m very excited about this event and hope to learn some tips from world renowned photographers.

After the seminar, I will go shopping for my greens and veggies. I still have some oranges, grapefruits, tangerines, and lemons left, but need to buy some more green juiciness. I love shopping when I’m juicing, it’s such a delight to be able to immerse into the world of fresh produce and choose the plants that smell and look good to me.  

365-Day Transformation through Love Project

I have been thinking about my vision and what I would like my life to look like in the next 5 years. I can see that without taking consistent steps towards achieving this vision, I will not go as far as I could. I have carefully outlined my main goals in personal, professional, and spiritual life and listed what I can do to achieve these goals. There is a debate about whether it helps or not to set goals. I think everyone should answer this question for himself. It helps me to focus my attention on what I value the most, as I tend to think about too many things at once. Thinking about what can be done to get closer to each objective is very helpful for me as  well, because it makes me believe that the goal is realistic. I will post the vision of my ideal life for the next 5 years soon. Still need to finish a few details.

As a result of working on my vision, I came up with an exciting idea. Why not try living a life that can lead to my vision for the whole year? That makes perfect sense to me and I can't wait to start my 365-Day Transformation through Love Project. This will be my personal multi-level transformational journey. The 365 days idea comes from a Youtube user, Healing Lyme Naturally, who is on the 110th day of her 365-day juice feast today. I wanted to start on a new juice feast too, but then I thought that it is not just cleansing and detoxing my body that I want to achieve. My goal is to develop a connection with my Higher self, get to know my true self, and learn to love unconditionally myself and others. 365 days is a long enough period to introduce serious behavioral changes and embark on a journey towards a completely new life style.

I'm starting the 365-Day Transformation through Love Project tomorrow. February 18th is the full moon, and I feel that this personal quest is a culmination of all my previous efforts and a logical next step on my spiritual path. It will be instructive for all of us to see what difference a year of our life can make. I would love to share this journey with as many people as possible. Please join me on this journey at the level that you want. You can feel what you would like to introduce in your life that is consistent with your vision of yourself in the nearest future. Let's take responsibility for our life and finally start to live it fully and enjoy every moment of it!

So what kind of changes am I going to introduce in my life? My main goal is to increase the flow of Love in my life. Love is the answer to all of our questions. If we fully love ourselves, we can share this love with others and our beautiful Planet. Although juice feasting and eating raw food diet would make my body healthier, other emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of myself need to be purified as well. My new life style, which I am going to create with you during the next 365 days, will include a transition to a natural  raw food  diet with juice feasting at the initial stages (I'll keep 92 days as a reference point, but will focus on listening to my intuition instead of counting days), introducing daily yoga practice, meditation, exercise, and creativity.

The project will have 5 main interconnected goals:

1.     Transform your body through juice feast and raw food, yoga, and exercise;

2.    Transform your emotions by developing love and compassion towards myself, others, and our  Planet;

3.    Transform your mind by reading insightful books, watching inspirational movies, and reflecting upon them;

4.    Transform your spirit by engaging in daily meditation and creative expression through photography, writing, and other forms of art;

5.     Transform your planet through appreciating it, spending time outdoors to connect with the Earth, leading a sustainable lifestyle, volunteering, and community service.

If I want to see a consistent change in all these directions, I have to spend some time every day to work on achieving each of these goals. This is an important requirement for me, because I want to work on having more balance in my life. Instead of focusing only on my body, or only on my spiritual needs, every components of myself is crucial, because they work together in unison and depend on each other. 

I should remember to have fun and enjoy the process. It is not supposed to be a torture or a sacrifice, I'm spending time to get to know myself and to connect with every part of my being. What can be more exciting and more rewarding? So I'm going to celebrate the fact that I could hear the guidance to start this project. I'm going to enjoy every moment of it. And I'm going to keep a journal of my transformational journey. 

Feel free to join me only for the juice feast, or only for meditation, or only for yoga, or daily exercise (which can be any physical activity), or join a book club and read inspirational books every day, or help your local community in any way by volunteering, or express your creative abilities using your favorite form of art. I think that combining all these activities is important for me at this stage of my personal development to become a more balanced person. You may feel that you need to focus on only one aspect for now, or forever. Let's support and respect each other's personal goals and help each other grow!