Juicing Book

What is your take on juice fasting?

When it comes to juice fasting my personal thoughts are perhaps more cautious than what some might like to hear about juice fasting. This is only because I always look at things not as a cure, but as part of the cure.

So I won't tell you that a juice fast will miraculously cure you of all that ails you. But I also think a juice fast can be beneficial.

For individuals with a health problem, especially a more complicated health problem then before doing a juice fast, the person should consult a qualified health care professional such as a naturopath.

For general health and well–being, juice fasting can have a beneficial effect (depending on who you talk to).

In Chinese herbal medicine, fasting is either never done or only done in rare cases. In western (European) herbal medicine, it is not uncommon to fast and have a cleanse.

Who's right and who's wrong? Well, I personally think both are.

The Chinese never fast because they understand the importance of having nutrition every day. Taking this into account, you should never fast and have no nutrition entering your body. When you do a juice fast, then you are still getting nutrition in the body, just no solid foods.

I've personally done a 14 day fast before. During that time, I ensured I was getting lots of nutrition. In hindsight, the 14 day fast was probably too long and more realistically, a 3 to 7 day fast would have been better. But I was young and wanted to experience not eating for 14 days!

Some will say that you should do a 3 to 7 day juice fast twice per year, others once per year. Myself, I say do a juice fast when you mentally, emotionally and physically feel the need.

But when doing a juice fast, you need to realize that you should get a variety of juices into your body rather than just juicing the same vegetables throughout the whole fast.

When doing a fast, it's also important to take a whole food nutritional supplement. My personal choice for whole food supplements is The Feast. I like The Feast because of the variety and quality of ingredients used, the manufacturing method, the high amount of friendly bacteria, etc.

It's important, during a juice fast to replenish the body with such things as friendly bacteria.

After ending the fast, always start off by eating easily digested foods, this usually means cooked vegetables, fruits, etc.

Have you been wanting to do hatha yoga (stretching) but have found it either too difficult or you are not that flexible? If yes, and even if no, watch Jesse do some pure hatha yoga routines.

Unlike flow yoga, each pose in pure or traditional hatha yoga is held for a few minutes. While holding the pose, you focus the mind on the stretch. When you focus the mind, that's when you find silence.

Jesse is not flexible — never has been and probably never will be flexible like others. But it doesn't matter. In pure hatha yoga, how flexible you are makes no difference. It's all about loving the pose and focussing the mind on the stretch.

If you want to learn pure hatha yoga, now you can by following Jesse on a series of hatha yoga routines.

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