So my partner and I are beginning our liquid feast today, and ending on 4/20 (heh heh heeeeh). What the HECK is a liquid feast, one might inquire? We're only gonna consume liquids for the next seven days; in the form of juices, smoothies, puddings, nut mylks, teas and water. Okay, but WHY the heck would you do this, another person might ask? Because it's fun and makes us feel great! Well... he's never done this before so I shouldn't assume... but I can confidently say it makes ME feel great. My diet is mostly smoothies and juice anyways, supplemented with steamed veggies, grains, beans and raw desserts; so this isn't a crazy change for me. Instead of having steamed potatoes and brown rice for dinner, we will be enjoying savoury smoothies or banana mylkshakes! Or both! Yep. Both. 

Now, I am choosing to call this a liquid FEAST, because I am not going to be restricting calories. I'm not into that. 

I do not believe in restricting calories temporarily as a way to lose weight. Long-term health is only achieved through permanent lifestyle changes, not a week of juice fasting or starving yourself. In fact, when you restrict your caloric intake for a short time then go back to your regular diet (that apparently made you "overweight" in the first place) - you will probably gain back more than you lost. This is because the body goes into starvation mode and quickly packs on the weight it can, as soon as it gets some extra calories. When you transition to a whole foods, plant-based diet, your body will naturally find it's ideal weight - maybe you're already there! Maybe you were actually underweight before! Don't worry about social norms dictating what an attractive weight is. To me, a healthy body is a beautiful body. Let's take a second to remember that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and changes with the ever-pulsing culture of the time, so no matter how we look we are all deserving of love. Back in the day, cellulite was the epitome of sexy. 

My point is: if you want to find your ideal weight, make lifestyle changes and switch to a whole foods, plant-based diet. Your body will do the rest... it's smart like that. Do not think that just because you are above the average number for what is considered "normal", that you are overweight. I say: screw the system! Calculating the mean of a populations weight gives you a number that reflects none of the diversity you had in the original data. The fact is we are all unique and beautiful and pushing our identities through an equation then telling us that that resulting number is what we should all strive for just makes everybody get bummed and feel inadequate. Don't try to be the norm! Be YOU. But of course, like I was saying a second ago, I personally think you can be the BEST you, when you feed yourself right. That means lots of fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, beans and grains. Mmm... healthy is sexy. 

Okay! Enough of that. I'm gonna talk a little bit about our day. We woke up and went to the farmers market. Great start. We bought a HUGE bag of carrots, a couple bags of beets, bell peppers, garlic, apples, spinach, parsley, tomatoes, and I think that's it. To be frank, I was feeling super sore and tired because I got my period today, but we got back to my house and made a smoothie and almost immediately I did a 180 in my mood. Honestly, the previous night and during our grocery shopping I had been moaning and groaning about my feminine-induced discomfort for hours, but the second we sat down in the sun and sipped this drink I said "I feel so good right now!" and meant it 100%. Amazing what a little cucumber and pineapple can do, huh? I also made some cashew milk with dates and cinnamon, and some tomato garlic soup with cilantro for dinner. I can't share the smoothie recipe with you because it's going to be exclusive for my next book, but I will share our soup recipe and the cashew mylk! I'm not totally evil, right? (Please someone say "right"...)