Just Juice.

When I arrived at the Just Juice Retreat Centre, I was feeling a bit nervous. I was going to do a seven-day fast, drinking only fresh organic fruit and vegetables juices. I’m the type of person that eats three meals a day and can’t wake up without a cappuccino, so the idea of living on juice for a week was rather terrifying.

After checking in, I was taken to the guest house where everyone was staying. Louise, the person who I was sharing with, had done the retreat four times and she looked healthier than anyone I’d ever met. According to Rachel Carr-Hill, the woman whose fasting programme we were following, going without food is one of the best things we can do for our health. The food that we usually eat contains toxins which stay in our bodies and stop our digestive system working properly. When we fast, our body doesn’t have to digest food, so it has time to get rid of these toxins.

The first day started with yoga at seven o’clock and then we had “breakfast” – a big glass of carrot juice. We spent the day listening to talks about health, having massages and relaxing, with a different juice meal every three hours. On the second day I had an awful headache and felt as if I was getting a cold. Apparently this was a normal reaction because my body was starting to get rid of the toxins. On day three my headache was much worse and this is also when I started getting really hungry. I began day-dreaming about cheeseburgers, pasta, chocolate – anything but more juice. However, by day five the hunger had gone and I felt more relaxed than I’d been for years. At the end of the retreat I’d lost 3 kilos and felt like a new woman. Now I’m much more careful about what I eat – but I still need my morning cappuccinos!

Catch Me If You Can.

Frank Abagnale Jr is one of the most famous con artists in history. During the 1960s he made $2.5 million and was wanted for fraud in countries all over the world – and was still only a teenager!

Frank left home at 16 and went to live in New York. He started writing bad cheques and soon his bank account was thousands of dollars overdrawn. He managed to get a pilot’s uniform and fake ID for Pan Am Airlines, then he started opening bank accounts under his new name, Frank Williams. In spite of his age, people believed he was a pilot because his hair was already going grey. Then Frank found out that pilots could fly for free as guests on other airlines. Every time he arrived in a new city he cashed more bad cheques. He was arrested once in Miami, but was released soon afterwards. However, this lucky escape made him realize he needed a change.

He moved to Atlanta and got a job as a doctor, even though he didn’t have any medical training. Then he went to live in Louisiana, where he pretended to be a lawyer. Although he’d never studied law, he passed his law exams the third time he took them and then worked for a government law office. Next he became a sociology lecturer, despite having no teaching qualifications at all. Finally, he moved to California and returned to the lifestyle he knew best – pretending to be a pilot and writing bad cheques.

Although Frank was rich, he was lonely and unhappy. At the age of 20 he moved to France and tried to live a normal life. However, four months later the FBI arrested him there and he spent the next five years in prison in various different countries.

Since then Frank has changed his life completely. He now runs a successful business that gives advice to big companies on how to stop fraud, and he also gives lectures to the FBI for free. In 2002 Frank’s life was made into a film called Catch Me If You Can, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Frnak Abagnale Jr is a millionaire again – but now he’s helping the law, not breaking it.