The Cleanse - Midway Point

Lori left the James Ray event last month with the desire to do a cleanse/detox before we headed to Africa. This is a program she learned of while taking a nutrition class about four years ago. Back then, I lasted three days on an all organic juice diet, and she made it five days. This time we are doing the full twelve day program.
It started on Monday, with eating only organic fruits, vegetables, rice and lentils. The first time we did this, we went straight to juice. Easing into it is much easier, neither of us have really been hungry. And I tell you, after a day of just fruit and veggies - a bowl of lentils tastes like the best thing in the world, and is shockingly filling.
We also drink a Master Cleanse each day. A nasty sounding concoction that is actually tasty. Water, lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper. Mmmm.. . that's good eatin'.
After three days of fruits and veggies we enter the challenging portion of the regime; six days of organic juices - NOTHING else.
Today is my third day of juice and sixth day of the overall cleanse (half-way, SWEET!). I'm down 8 pounds and find myself enjoying such formerly torturous drinks as tomato juice and carrot juice. My stomach rumbles a lot, but actual hunger pains have only risen once. I expected to wake up each morning ravenous, but it just doesn't happen.
The biggest lessons so far are how much eating is automatic, and just because it is "time" to eat. This has been the easiest diet I've ever been on. Probably because I didn't approach it as a diet, but rather a healthy cleaning out of my system. My nose has been running since yesterday. I'm not sure if that is another toxin release or I've got a cold. The grossest thing I recalled from four years ago was my tongue. Most toxins get released there and it felt and looked disgusting. This time around we're prepared with tongue scrapers and I scrape my tongue about 4 or 5 times a day.
I've also been all over the place emotionally, which has been true since the Creating Absolute Wealth event, but can also be a side effect of a cleanse. I feel like living proof of male PMS. All sorts of shit can rise up from the body. Speaking of that - I find it amazing that after days of zero food, it is still true; "Everyone Poops."
There is still one effect of the detox I'm waiting to experience - mental clarity. Last two days I've felt rather dulled in the head, like I'm on antihistamines.
We survived our gym workout Thursday night and I'm totally confident I'll see this through to the end. The next interesting thing will be to see what happens when I can eat again. Will I not even care about food, or will I pig out? I'll let you know.

Creating Absolute Wealth with James Ray

We've been home for a week from Creating Absolute Wealth with James Ray. It was a week of learning and a lifetime of lessons crammed into three days in San Diego at the end of July. I'm still trying to comprehend and integrate everything I learned. It's been tough, because I didn't like everything I discovered about myself. I found lots of limiting beliefs that keep me playing life small and I'm struggling to rid myself of them.

I won't go into details about the event, because hopefully you'll end up there yourself. I thought it was going to be about how to attract more money into my life - but it was so much more, because true wealth is so much more than money. CAW is very immersive and experiential. What each person gets from it is just what they need, but the surprise of each game and road trip (this is not about sitting in a hotel ball room for lectures) is of tremendous value. How you are in any game, is how you show up in life. I really love going into these sort of things blind - having no clue what might happen but knowing it will all be good. That was seriously put to the test over the entire weekend. There were multiple times I just wanted to run away. Lori said she saw the panic in my face numerous times - but I stayed and played as full-on as I could, with the help of James' fantastic staff. There was also plenty of fun and good times along the way. Our table even won the "jingle" contest one night. We had to write and perform a song about the weekend. The event ended with a great black tie affair and everyone dancing late into the night.

One detail I can share is something I witnessed which certainly proved to be the lowlight/highlight. I was wandering around San Diego alone, wondering what I was going get from the weekend; what did I need to learn most? I spotted a woman standing outside the railing of a balcony on the third level at a mall. I thought it was some sort of stunt because ComicCon was going on. She jumped. It wasn't a stunt. I was the only witness who had the vantage point to know it was intentional. I gave statements to the police and mall security. If you know anything about me, you know suicide is about the biggest button I have to push. Later, I found myself standing where she jumped from, it had only been about a half-hour but the blood stained concrete was cleaned up and the t-shirt kiosk the woman landed on was once again selling "I Love San Diego" shirts to tourists. It was so surreal to see how quickly life moves on.

I couldn't understand why she would do it. Why anyone would do. And I cried. Tears of joy - joy for being alive. That was HUGE for me. And while standing there, I noticed Lori walk into the scene below - first time I've seen her all day. Very wild. In fact all weekend, starting at the airport in Boston, people were commenting about what a great couple we were, how cute we were together, how much in love we were.... it was like I was trapped in some bad romantic comedy.

The whole weekend was horrible and fantastic at the same time. A real roller coaster of tears and laughs. But I'm so glad I went and wish you the same opportunity. If you aren't growing, you're dying.

One of my favorite lines from the weekend is: "It is more noble to imperfectly pursue your own dreams and passions than to perfectly pursue someone else's."

One thing I decided on at CAW was my first tattoo, and I acted on that this past weekend. "Grateful" - so I never forget.

We flew home last Monday and had AC/DC tickets for Gillette Stadium on Tuesday. My head was spinning so much, and the nights of 3-4 hours of sleep was wearing on me. I thought of blowing it off. But we went ,and it was fantastic! Just what we needed. Feeling very jet-set and wealthy indeed.

We have another event with James, "Quantum Leap", in November. And once again, I have no idea what's in store for us.