Drew Allen did a Juice Fast.

It’s true.

I, Drew Allen, did not have a bit of solid food in my system from the evening of Jan. 2 (Thank you, Texas Roadhouse), until the evening of February 1st (Thank you, banana).

First of all, it was amazing, and rewarding. I can’t recommend it enough.

I lost 39 lbs. in 30 days, without any drugs, or starving myself, and getting more nutrients than my body has ever regularly had.

People often have a lot of questions about the juice fast and how it went, and what I did, etc.

I’ll address some of those here and now, but for those really interested, I recommend checking out the video blog I made throughout my fast here: youtube.com/drewplaysdrums.

OK, Are there any questions? Yes, you there.

What type of Juicer did you use and/or recommend?

Great Question. I initially purchased a Juiceman Juicer from Target. I DO NOT RECOMMEND IT. The Juicer doesn’t seem to be built for daily use. It broke after a couple of weeks, and Target wouldn’t refund, exchange or help in any way at all. I love(d) Target, so I was pretty shocked by their complete lack of customer service. I still shop there sometimes, but I’ve lost that lovin’ feelin.

Then I purchased this juicer from Best Buy, and it worked like a charm the rest of the time. Seems much sturdier. $100 from Best Buy. Of course, if you have the means to get an even nicer one, feel free, but I’d still steer clear of Juiceman as a brand.

What recipes should I use?

I wish I had a better answer here. I don’t think I ever did the exact same thing twice in a row.

The important thing is that it’s more vegetables than fruit. I always went for around a 65/35 split.

Good vegetables that I recommend using are:

  • Kale
  • Spinach
  • Cucumber
  • Celery
  • Carrots
  • Beets (if you can stomach them)
  • Mint leaves
  • Watercress
You may try plum tomatoes too if you like tomatoes. I can’t handle tomato juice without heartburn so I avoided them.
Good fruits that I recommend using are:
  • Apples
  • Oranges
  • Grapes
  • Kiwi
  • Strawberries

I tried blueberries for a while, but it took so much volume and in the end, the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze. Never gets old.

Hopefully that helps some. I’ll try to post some more FAQ here soon. And maybe a video highlight or too from the fast.

Also, check out www.jointhereboot.com. Looks to be amazing resource from the guys that brought you the documentary, Fat Sick and Nearly Dead.

Ok, I leave you with this hilarious bit that I guess you’ll have to check with my roommate as to how accurately it describes my juice fast experience:

A note about the 99%, from one of them.

I agree with Wall Street Reform I really do.

But please stop posting pictures with your “story.”
They are all normal lives. 99% is almost everyone. You’re normal.

We get it. You work a lot but don’t make much, and might have a big student loan. That’s perfectly normal. It doesn’t provoke empathy at all. Sure, maybe if wall street reform happened a little differently way back when, then maybe you might make a little more money, or maybe your student loan interest would be less. But that’s not the only blame possibility.

Maybe you could have studied harder in high school for the SATs when you didn’t want to. Maybe you would have gotten an awesome scholarship to a school and wouldn’t have spent a dime on your education. Or maybe you could have picked a state school that evil government funding would cover instead of a super expensive private school somewhere. Then life would look very differently too.

I’m not saying Wall Street is innocent, don’t misread me. Just know, the “what if” game goes both ways for blame-placing.

It actually makes me not want to support you when you post a sad face holding a paper describing a perfectly average american life and then expect me to sympathize. I’m sorry. I can’t. Every once in a while I see one that seems worse off than most. But again, the blame is not not always by default Wall Street (especially stories I read that involve tragedy striking — definitely sad, but Wall Street had little or nothing to do with that exact situation).

I definitely want major penalties for big corporations and shady wall street people too. But I’m not begging for sympathy from my peers with emo pics.

Did you know that if you make $17,000 a year, you’re in the top 12% of the world’s wealthiest people?

I’m not making that up. It’s true. Not 99%. Top 12% of the world’s wealthiest people. $17,000. Look it up.

Then stop complaining.

Ok, rant over.

SEO and the Modern Church.

This morning, I was thinking about how SEO has affected my views of church. Don’t laugh at me.

In a certain way, the church is the king of content marketing.

Image Credit: Jive Turkey

Image Credit: Jive Turkey

The meat of its products and services (pun) has not changed much in decades, or even centuries. But that hasn’t stopped or even slowed down the machine of christian media from rewriting, re-spinning, redesigning, retargeting, researching, and redeveloping the same content for a constantly shifting set of different audiences.

How drastically different is the best way to live the christian life for the different walks of life?

Seriously. We boil it down to its simplest truth (which we love to do) and it’s what?

“Love God. Love People.”

And that’s fantastic, really. I get it. Simple, Succinct, Strong. It is the “Consistently Develop Amazing Content” of Christianity. Of course that’s the key to all SEO, but if you leave it there, what’s left to discuss? What content about SEO is left to even develop?

How odd would church services be this weekend if every pastor in America walked to the pulpit (or stool and high table— for the truly relevant), and uttered a four word sermon. “Love God, Love People.”

As a personal aside, I’d say that it would reduce the amount of “thin content” being produced at churches every week that a Parochial Panda would probably pummel. Joel Osteen, I’m looking at you.

So, what are churches to do? Well, I’m not sure. A lot of SEO advice simply eliminates a lot of what you’re doing. Remove duplicate content. That’s one of the ten commandments of SEO. Here’s how you might recognize it better:

“Avoid vain repetitions.” – Jesus

Why take the same great content, say a fantastic, biblical teaching on good morality, and muddy it up with countless, slightly different versions of itself? A great piece of content will work for almost any age. It’s not necessary to repackage (and in many cases re-sell) the same exact material. But the church loves to make a version ever so slightly altered to “best connect” with a 5/8/10/12/14/16/18/21 yr. old. Oh, and a slightly different version for 20 something, 30 something, 40 something, and 50 plus, then another set for each of those with children. I know a content farm when I see one.

On to User Experience. Don’t bait and switch. No gateway pages, that’s a SERP penalty waiting to happen. If I invite my friend to a singles event, he is going to be expecting to be able to chat and hopefully meet a nice girl. He is not expecting to be faced with the question of where he will spend eternity.

It’s getting late, so I’ll end with this kicker.

The future of search is social.

The future of church is social.

Relationships drive us. To the best content on the web, and to the best our faith has to offer.

We share the videos, blogs, images we like to those around us, so they can enjoy them. Do we not owe the believers around us the same with how to walk out this faith we claim to follow?

I absolutely refuse to use a keyword that doesn’t work. So, “small groups” (which DOES work) is what I guess I’m putting a plug in for.

And I don’t mean just one at your church. I mean the concept. Faith in community. The greatest story ever told, has yet to be told best through advertising or even keyword targeting or anything other then it going viral. People encouraging other people in their faith.

And that’s how christianity should be doing SEO.

Next week, Altar Call Analytics: Redefining “Conversions” and Reducing “CPA”

A pretty quick note about #MozCon and becoming Marketing Director.

Where do I even start?

So much has happened.
So much has changed.
Some changes good.
Others not as good.

But wow, change all around.
It really is the only constant.

New job, or new position I should say, is going well so far. It’s my first week, and all the websites are still up, so I consider that a personal win, haha.

I really want to do this well. To own it. To progress the company well and forward.

Oh, yeah, so #MozCon was amaze-balls. Scrumtrellescent. As they say.

First and foremost, I got to connect well with the owner, my new boss, and develop a good rapport with him. That was great. Secondly, I just learned a crapton of stuff.

The conference was a wonderful range of inspiring higher thought level content, general principles and rules, and specific nerdy tools and tips. My aspirations now range from lofty brand identity and purpose-driven goals all the way to wanting to be a Distilled Excel Ninja and also be Google Analytics Certified.

Also, I totally helped start a mini-flashmob cantab toast to Rand Fishkin at the beginning of his head-to-head with Will Critchlow. Kudos to Greg Gifford for helping it actually happen!

And now, I have a cool title. Marketing Director. Pretty Schnazzy I must say.

It’s not really the exact position I’ve imagined myself being in, but then again, not so far off either. I feel like I can thrive here.

In some ways it’s been tough to not try to pursue and date girls more often or, more heartily. But then I look and realize that I haven’t had the time to prioritize that, and that’s ok. I’m glad I called myself out early in the year.

Sadly, I’m not as close to meeting my yearly goals as I would like to be. I’ll get there though.
Like Ali in the Jungle.

“There’s no cool song about being 29″ or “Harry Potter and the Hot Tub Time Machine Transformer”

Well, I turned 29, and in a strange turn of events, I was way too busy celebrating my birthday to document much of it.

A quick recap of the whirlwind month leading up to my birthday and the present:

I spent a great weekend at the beach with some awesome friends.
I relaxed in a hot tub.
I played three shows in two days.
I went to a good friends wedding, one of the most truly joyful ones I have been to.
I went to St. Augustine to watch the fireworks on the Fourth at the Fort. Tradition maintained.
I saw Transformers in 2D.
I saw Transformers in 3D.
I saw the final space shuttle launch, which really deserves a whole blog post of its own.
I watched Harry Potter Seven part One.
I went to the Atlantic and the Bull (a few times, actually) to see Ricky Kendall, and other awesome people.
I had Hibachi with my parents.
I went to see the midnight premiere of Harry Potter Seven part Two.
I went to a Movie night at Anthem and got to celebrate with those cool people and watch Back to the Future.
I relaxed in a different hot tub.
I played drums for First Assembly, a rare pleasure, rarer still to come.
Finally life has slowed some. Although it is not without plenty of changes all around.

I’m a year older.
I feel like I’ve improved in several ways, but the busyness of summer has plateaued me in a way I am not happy with. Gotta fix that.

Two of my good friends are moving away.

J Tony, you’re the man, man; don’t give up hope man. Hold fast to integrity and character. They really make you who you are. You’re gonna make it. I can’t wait ’til we attend each other’s weddings.

Stauffer. All heroes eventually find their own Gotham, and I’m sad but excited to see you find yours. I’m gonna miss you so freaking much. Damn. Remember when you helped me load my drums on the side of a Georgia mountain? Or when you visited Southeastern? Man. Love you man.

What else? Oh, I’m getting a different roommate– Britt Daniel. Play your cards right, Britt, and one day you too could me mentioned all too mushily in a blog post much like my friends above.

And my old roommate Shane Welker is moving out. We had some pretty good talks, man. But for real, I’m sweating, I’m gonna turn the AC on. Shane’s moving up too. By a floor and in roommate models. Punny. Noah Marks is as sexy as a model… of a life that is dedicated to pursuing holiness. We’ll catch it, man.

Hope Springs Eternal from Everywhere.

I got an unofficial promotion at work that comes with an official raise, and starts with a trip to MozCon in Seattle, a conference run by my absolute favorite SEO guys, SEOmoz.

You didn’t think I was gonna NOT mention drumming, did you?
I’m growing. I need to grow more. And I will. Working on equipment, tuning, and the rudiments. I actually might have a chance to soon to get lessons from my favorite jazz drummer in Gainesville, Jon Jackson. As for a band… well, I’m a little too busy getting my crap together to worry much about that.

But when I do, it will rock with soul.

Somehow Limp Bizkit knows how I feel tonight.

Although, really, I’ve been crobbing Joywave’s ridiculously awesome cover of this song.
Download the whole Joywave mixtape album here:
http://joywavemusic.com/mixtape.html

Lately I’ve been skeptical
Silent when I would used to speak
Life is overwhelming
Heavy is the head that wears the crown
I’d love to be the one to disappoint you when I don’t fall down

But you don’t understand when I’m attempting to explain
because you know it all and I guess things will never change
but you might need my hand when falling in your hole
Your disposition I’ll remember when I’m letting go…

Life is dark and bright and double-edged. The joy of freedom and progress so often joined by the pain of severance and departure. Selah.