Jason Vale's SuperJuiceMe 7 Day Juice Challenge Starts Tomorrow!! Count Us In

I am inspired to write a short post this morning to solidify my commitment to Jason Vale's "SuperJuiceMe Challenge" which is starting tomorrow.  After a 2 hour juicing fest yesterday in preparation and a few more vegetables to run through the juicer today I'm excited about the possibilities that lie ahead for next week.  Dan's written in more detail about why we have participated and committed to previous juice challenges hosted by Jason Vale so I don't intended to re-visit why we love and believe there are so many benefits to juicing in this post.  We know that the upcoming 'spring-cleanout' 7 day juice reset is going to make us feel absolutely great by the middle of next week. We believe it's a great act of self-care and now we're doing it not just for ourselves but because we need to be in the best shape we can to look after our expanded family!!

We felt so good after taking part in Jason Vale's 5 day Juice Challenge (which we actually extended to more than 10 days - click here for a review of our experience) in October 2016 and we benefited so much from the motivation of Jason Vale's team and the support of doing it at the same time as 100,000s others across the world.  At the time we were 'just the two of us, care-free and hiking in Switzerland' and we're amazed by the results - astounded that on just juice we had so much extra energy and we're able to juice-power ourselves up 2500m+ alpine climbs on a daily basis.  After this experience we were very much looking forward to the next challenge scheduled for January 2017.  

    

However, as those that read these updates know, Dan and I have had several unexpected additions to our family since the start of 2017!!  We were disappointed not to take part in the January challenge.  But having had some more recent time for reflection, I see now that those feelings of disappointment weren't because we weren't actually able to take part but I'm disappointed because we let our own stories of how we thought "we were now too busy for this kind of thing" stop us.  Having family staying, raising puppies and having the time for juicing 4 times a day just didn't seem to fit.  Getting lost in these stories of "how unexpected the puppies and their many needs were and so naturally for now we'd need to make sacrifices and give up some of the things which we liked to do etc etc" - effectively this narrative only really gave us excuses to let our self-care slip. In one of Jason's books (14 Day Turbo Challenge) he actually lists many reasons - the "but"s as he calls them - that people can convenience and hold themselves back with.  As Jason quite bluntly says in this book, ultimately finding a "but" to stop you putting your health first only leads to a bigger butt!! I can testify to this being true for me :-)

Yes we were consumed by puppy things, feeling like throughout the whole experience we were running to catch up with ourselves and yes were were waking up several times in the night to feed puppies and more but this should have been exactly the reason we did commit to our self-care practices more than ever.  It didn't mean we should let our thoughts of "being so tired" allow us to turn to convenience foods, overeating and letting other self-care practices slip (regular exercise, time outdoors, meditation, journalling, writing etc).  A loving friend helped point out that our 'food binges' of too much black bean brownie, chickpea muffins, 100% raw chocolate bars, dried fruit, nuts or an extra bowl (or two) of banana oat porridge wasn't exactly a health crime but the point is the extra food didn't make us feel good, it didn't help with the tiredness and probably actually added to the problem as our digestion was more sluggish as a result.   

I'm very grateful for the many people who've recently supported, encouraged and helped me see things a little clearer - "Life threw us in the deep end and we had to very quickly learn to swim".  And we did and now we're swimming!  It might have been a few months of 2 steps forwards, 1 backwards but now more than 3 months on there are 7 wonderful loving dogs who might not otherwise have been here who are and who have the opportunity to bring so much love and joy to so many people.

And I know that those still with us in our current 'puppy pack' now need the very best version of me, especially as we now plan to travel with them to France sooner than originally expected.  Once more I need all that extra energy, which was released during the October juicy challenge and which powered me up some really tough alpine climbs in the snow, to pour into these pups' training and their well-being whilst they are in my care.  This is exactly the reset which I needed!  I was so very happy to receive the email into my inbox asking if I had my veggies ready for the Springtime "SuperJuiceMe Challenge"

So yesterday I spent more than 2 hours in the kitchen preparing juices (and I plan to do more later today) for Dan and I to be juice-ready for this week's Jason Vale challenge.  In the freezer there are now more than 4 days worth of organic juices which I plan to defrost the night before and then blend up in the Nutribullet with an avocado and ice cubes before serving.  In some ways it's much easier this time than in October because we are in a stable base, with a great organic food supply thanks to our regular orders from Ecocentro in Almeria, and we have our trusted friend, the Omega 8004 slow juicer with us!

Yes we love fresh juices and won't have done this in the past when it was just the two of us - even when we were both working full-time we always made time to make 2 portions of fresh-juices twice a day.  But I am also a realist and know that some sacrifices do actually need to be made when you've got an expanded family of young ones needing most of my attention right now.  It's just this time I don't want to sacrifice taking part in this gift to my health so instead I am choosing to sacrifice a little bit of freshness and prepare the juices at times when it's convenient (i.e. when the pups are sleeping - although they are very partial to helping me on those occasions I do juice as they love the vegetables particularly broccoli, courgette, cucumber and carrot and the starting up whirr of the juice to them now signifies time for extra green treats!!).   

I am not a mother and this experience with the puppies has immensely deepen my respect and appreciation for my own mother and father and for all parents.  The sacrifices that are made by countless parents from a place of pure love are so very inspiring as is the acceptance and magnificent patience they show.  

So now as I start my preparation to take part in this upcoming week's  "SuperJuiceMe Challenge"  I am even more grateful for the support and knowledge that there are 100,000s who will also be taking part, many or most who also are trying to look after their families at the same time as taking the time to give this gift to themselves, so that in turn they have more to give to their loved ones.  It's wonderful.   I therefore have even more gratitude and appreciation, than I had in October, to Jason Vale and his team for the encouragement and resources he's making available which makes it that much easier to boost the motivation for what I know will be a fantastic week with many benefits and joys to come.  

Thank you Jason Vale, thank you JV team, thank you everyone who is taking part, thank you to all those who have and continue to guide and encourage me and thank you Dan for once again agreeing to take part together!  I love you and we make a great team - TEAM PUPPY LET'S GO!!  

...... Oh and of-course thank you Leela for adopting us and for bringing us these puppies into my life, helping me to see areas where I need to step up and raise my game!!

        

  

If you are interested in taking part in the Juice Challenge I'd really really recommend it and there's still time. It's free to sign up and Jason makes inspirational movies, recipes and daily coaching videos available.... find out more at www.superjuicemechallenge.com