I’ve just got back from a very interesting week.  For business and personal reasons I visited one of my closest friends – Dawn Campbell – for a week and experienced my very first week of juice feasting.  Originally three of us (all coaches) were to meet at Dawn’s to talk about our forthcoming ‘Breaking Free‘ event and book-signing; but Mala Shah had to pull out for personal reasons, so Dawn suggested that we make this a week of juice feasting.

Isn’t it interesting how, when you ask the Universe for something, it comes.  I had been thinking that the only way to start loosing weight again was to go on a retreat; and here one is offered to me.

Dawn, who has no reason to diet in any format, does juice feasting to keep her fabulous figure in shape; whereas for someone like me who is overweight it was a great way to get back into healthy eating.

In the few days before I left home my car (which really needs a long run) decided it didn’t want to come.  On the Saturday morning when I left here I couldn’t get it into third gear – so a quick change and off I drove in my partners car.  Not too worry, he does have a classic sports car – so wouldn’t be left without transport. 🙂

I drove away without seeing any of the cats having said ‘goodbye’ to Smudge the evening before.  I wasn’t sure how he was going to take being separated from me.  We had, had an interesting few weeks with visitors arriving – sometimes overnight and sometimes for a few days.  Smudge had taken well to everyone who had come to visit – often  hoping onto their laps for a cuddle and a love.  Now was the time to find out how he would take to one of us not being there.

Set SatNav to shortest distance and drove north west through the country lanes, cities, towns, and villages to just west of the Le Mans area.  I arrived early afternoon and went straight into the juice feasting.

The week was a combination of work, resting, some out and about time, juice feasting, and watching movies!  It was a great combination of not too much to do when your body is making an adjustment; while drinking 4 – 5 freshly squeezed juice each day.  Each juicing made about 2 glasses, which meant that we were drinking about 8 glasses of freshly squeezed juice each day, starting the day with the classic lemon juice in water.  Interesting how things from my childhood were coming back to me.

Dawn, being a qualified nutritionist, was blending the juices to ensure that mother nature was providing the right balance of the right balance of nutrients, minerals, vitamins, antioxidants and phytonutrients.

Having not seen Dawn and her husband for nearly 20-months, we had a huge amount of catching up to do.  It was interesting, because even though we talk regularly and text chat through skype; there was still a lot to chat about.  With this we missed doing the standard – measurements, now weight (although I knew mine), blood pressure, etc.  It wasn’t a problem as we caught up with some of these a couple of days later and I’m delighted to say that my blood pressure was normal. 🙂  You wonder don’t you, when you are going through a stressful period whether the your blood pressure is going up; but with healthy eating it is one of the things that you can keep under control.

My concern about being hungry was unfounded.  The quantity of liquid and the goodness of the fruit meant that it was not until day 6 that I heard my stomach rumble for the very first time.  Another juice and all was ok!

After a couple of days I told Dawn that I was down another notch on my belt … then another … then another.  As I had weighed myself at home I didn’t weigh myself at Dawn’s – so the only way I could tell that I was loosing weight was by my clothes.  Towards the end of the week I thought I had lost about 3 – 4 inches around my waist!  Wow!

The following Saturday I got into the car and drove home!  I had 1 1/2 litres of fruit juice in the car for my six hour journey.  Over that period I drank about 1 litre of juice and 1/2 litre of water.  I got home not feeling hungry.  As I had come home a day early I did tell my partner that I did not want to eat that evening but to continue my juice feasting for today.  

Smudge and one of the other cats were there to greet me when I arrived home; my partner not expecting me until the next day, was sitting watching afternoon sport and hadn’t heard me drive down the driveway – so it was great to be able to walk in and completely surprise him.

Smudge wasn’t sure and although he let me cuddle him, his preference was to go to my partner.  Sunday he suddenly realised that I was back and came to me for cuddles during the day and decided that his place for the evening was on my lap.  Monday evening he sat on my lap again and put his paws around my neck, head under my chin, and purred.  It made me realise that some of the fears he had within him about being lost, left on his own, etc. had resurfaced.  His behaviour at the moment is reminiscent of that in the weeks following when we first found him on our front lawn.  So this week I guess he will be on my lap during working hours 🙂 and its back to training him that he is part of the family and he will never be lost or left alone again.

On Sunday I got onto the scale … trepidation … had I actually lost any weight?

5kgs

I stood there a for a few moments … got off the scale and back on again … yes, it said the same – 5kgs (11.02lbs).  Now the challenge is to continue the momentum.

It’s easy to go on a retreat and then come back home and just carry on ‘as normal’ but Dawn has given me some really great tips especially for the next two weeks.  One of the things I have learnt already is that my appetite has reduced and I am not eating the same quantity that I was eating before.  It will be interesting over the next few days and weeks to see if I need to increase the quantity that I eat to maintain my energy levels, or whether eating differently and more healthily will allow me to keep the reduced quantity levels and increase my energies.

Dawn and I are planning a Holistic Health Retreat in the future taking my experiences and her expertise and allowing you to have the same experience I had.  Click here to let me know if you are interested in joining us.