Juicing Book

The article on yin and yang was very insightful and informative. I have hemorrhoids, fissures and inflammation. I'm juicing in hopes of helping these problems heal. I guess more yin juices would benefit my condition. What fruits and vegetables would be more useful to drink on a daily basis?

Indeed, more yin would be good for you and to help reverse these conditions. Life is all about balance and these symptoms (hemorrhoids, fissures and inflammation) clearly indicate that your body has too much yang energy.

The ultimate juice you need is pure water. This shocks many people when I say this because they are expecting me to immediately prescribe a juice. But water is the life force of the body. Without sufficient water, your body cannot even begin to heal or be healthy. Too much yang energy is a clear sign to me that you need more water or you need to remove those parts of your lifestyle that are causing your body to get dehydrated.

So, when you wake up in the morning, the first thing you should do is drink water. After sleeping for hours, your body is naturally dehydrated to some degree. Thus drinking water immediately in the morning is one of the best things you can do for your body regardless of your state of health but especially when you have too much yang energy.

But the thing is, we can't look at these health problems and simply say juice this and juice that and all will be fine? Instead, we have to look at this underlying issue and ask what changes do I have to make to my lifestyle to help prevent these problems from happening?

Juicing may be part of the solution, but juicing alone is not the cure.

Thus, we must all realize the extreme importance of water in our daily life. Water does not include tea, coffee, juice, soda or any flavored water drinks. Water is and must be just pure water. This simple drink, water, is the most important aspect of health and healing.

Next we need to ask ourselves:

• Do I stay up too late? The later we stay awake, the more stress we put on our hormones creating excess fire or yang energy in the body.
• Do I eat too much deep fried food, BBQ foods, grilled foods, spicy foods, foods high in garlic, etc? All of these foods add more yang energy to our diet and lifestyle as well.
• Do I do things like sun tanning in excess?
• Do I eat a lot of cold foods and drinks. Cold foods and drinks actually make your body hotter, not colder since the body is forced to push a lot of blood to the stomach to warn these cold foods and drinks.

All of the problems are happening for a reason. Thus, if we understand why or what the possible causes are, we can then make adjustments to our lifestyle to help reverse these problems. It's been said many times that 90% of disease and health problems are diet and lifestyle related.

If all we did was juiced but didn't make changes to our lifestyle then it is the same as putting a band-aid on a wound without cleaning it, taking care of the wound, etc.

So awareness as to why the body has too much yang energy is the key to healing. Once we realize this, then you can begin to balance your body.

One juice I would use, which you can't easily make yourself, is aloe vera juice. This has a wonderful cooling effect on the body along with its natural healing and soothing properties.

After this, you can really use any of the cooling vegetables that tickle your fancy. But some beets will help to cleanse your bowels more easily. Start slowly with the beets though and never juice too many or too much beets. Vegetables like cucumber and carrots also have a nice cooling effect.

Ultimately, hemorrhoids, fissures and inflammation all indicate the body is too hot. When the body is hot, it robs moisture from the bowels. When there is not enough moisture in the bowels then problems like constipation begin to happen. When constipation starts then th hemorrhoids, fissures and inflammation can also begin to happen. But this can also lead to other potential health problems like mouth ulcers (canker sores), sore throats, tonsilitis, pink eye, fevers, acne and so on.

There are other little tricks we can do too such as eating mushrooms whenever meat is eaten. Mushrooms have a nice cooling effect on the body and can help to offset the heat of any meat eaten. The mushrooms don't need to be eaten with every meal, but it's something to think about. Another favorite of mine is bamboo shoots. Not everyone like bamboo shoots, but they have a nice cooling effect. Bamboo shoots can often be found in the Asian section of grocery stores in a can. They don't really have much taste but absorb any flavors you add to it like soy sauce. However, bamboo shoots really have a nice cooling effect on the body plus lots of fiber.

I personally wouldn't juice fruits to solve this problem. For me, juicing fruits is a treat rather than something I would suggest doing on a regular basis because fruits are a lot higher in sugar. Additionally, you loose so many of the benefits of fruits when you juice them. Fruits are best eaten whole. For a problem hemorrhoids, fissures and inflammation, I would be eating papaya (a really good choice), watermelon or any melon, and apples.

It's important to note that once your body is back in balance with nice bowel movements, you then need to reduce your intake of the yin energy foods. If you don't, then you go from having too much yang energy to having excess yin energy which leads to the opposite problems such as loose stools, diarrhea, colds and so on!

Always remember that juicing is part of a healthy lifestyle and not the lifestyle itself.

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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