Day 9 of Juice fast

Day 9, in just a few hours I will have made it 10 days HOORAY!!!

It definatly has been rough I am still wanting to eat my veggies instead of juice them but I know this will all be worth it. If anything is bothering me it is the muscles in my back between my shoulders because of all the pressure I am having to put down on the plunger into my juicer. That is a pain in my..well.. shoulders. Hubby tried to convince me I need to stop juiceing because juiceing was causing me pain. I had to throw him the look. :) He has made it to day 10 and now is going to start weaning on to actual food, but he will be still juicing for his dinner. He is having a hard time continuing this at work especaily since he has 11-12hour days. So in order to make this something he can accomplish we are having to modify. He is having a smoothie for breakfast, big salads or other veggie mix for lunch and juice for dinner. This way he is still detoxing, he will just be doing it at a slower pace.

I am waking up unfortunately so flipping early in the morning now. I am now up around 6ish on my own which never in my life have i ever done consistantly. I am NOT a morning person. AT ALL! But now I find once I wake up I cant go back to sleep so I just get up, which in turn has lead me to have a slightly cleaner house. So I guess that is good. I always haveintentions of going back to bed, but the kids wont let me, I cant anyway, and when they go down for a nap I say I am too but instead I have been cleaning. BLAHH, whatg is going on here?!? Lol I am happy that I am doing something with this energy. Since I have gotten huge projects cleaned and taken care of this has allowed me to do more things with my kids though, and know that my kitchen doesnt look like a war zone my son has been able to come into the kitchen to help me cook. He just turned 21 months yesterday and he has just made his first egg scramble, with spinach, fontina and smoked gouda, minced onion and sliced he own bananas and strawberries to put on top of his homemade greek yogurt, nut butter and honey :) He was soo proud of himself and ate everything.

Oh I will have to remember tommorow to post a recipe I made with my leftover carrot pulp for Dax. It was reduced milk, like cooked it down to have with some swerve (erythritol) and some cardamom, baking spices (cinnamon, nutmeg anise, ect...) and vanilla powder. Cooked it till it got thick and chilled it to cut into shapes. He is eating it almost faster than I can make pulp which makes me happy!!!

Anyway, I am going to be jumping off here but I was planning on posting my thoughts on how long I saw this journey lasting. If I planned on doing the entire 40 days as a juice fast, or planned to alter it in anyway like I am doing for hubby. I think my big concern is going to be when it comes to cooking for him while on the fast. it is much easier when I am only making food for my son. But to have to cook a meal for hubby as well I am worried will put me over the edge if he gets there before I finish. So look forward to updating tommorow. NITE ALL!

Hooray! 1 week down!

Hooray! I made it to day 7!!! Today was much much easier actually. Not nearly all of the issues that I have had the past few days. I cant lie, when I see someone elses food or smell it I want it. When I am cutting veggies for our juice or for my son. You bet your ass I want to take a bite. All I wanted today was to eat broccoli and cucumbers. I held fast and had a successfull day. I also realized if I make my juice either at night or 1st thing in the morning for the day, I can store them in my 16oz peanut butter jars, and if they are already waiting for me instead of me making them fresh (more desirable for fresh) I am less likely to cave on wanting other foods. It is much easier for me to just grab some juice and feel fine and no longer have the cravings. So YAY!

Another thing I have noticed. If anyone out there has ever done a juice fast maybe they can shed some light on this. I have notices as has my husband that it feels like we have a film on our teeth. It is driving me nutso. I feel like I am constantly brushing and I dont see anything on them but I can feel it. Is this normal?

Another observation, for the 1st time in almost 10 months When I washed my hair, I didnt have gobs and gobs of hair falling out like I normally do. I had maybe 3 or 5 hairs come out. For me that is huge. I was dancing around in the shower and kept running my fingers through it waiting to see if any was going to come out. This was indeed a wonderful wonderful thing for me. EXCITED doesnt even cover it.

So today was not really eventful. Made a trip to farmers market 2 days early as we were getting close to the bottom of our supply. Since hubby works on Saturday this week and not today we decided to go early. I must remember to call them tommorow as we forgot our watermelon. :( But other than that, we managed to get everything for just under 100 for this next week. so hopefully we wont run out until then. With that I am off to slumber, NITE ALL!

Day 6 of Juice Fast

OK, so today was hard. Not just alittle hard, but almost cheating hard. I woke up in the morning full of energy and I felt great. Not sluggish or anything. It was a wonderful morning, I went to bed at 1am after I finished my 1st lopsided crochet blanket, and then I woke up at 6am on my own. I went and got my blood work checked on and I came home and had a juice. Took Inara to her OT appointment and then went out and drank another juice. I came home and realized I hadnt had any water and I was starting to feel tired. I didnt get a chance to nap but I laid down. All I could think about was food. I was talkin with Kev about all the food cravings I had. I wanted a salad and to stop at Sam's and buy a huge bag of the fresh broccoli and steam and eat the whole bag. By myself and not sharing because it was not a sharing day.

Honestly I dont remember whose idea it was to go to golden coral. But it was bad enough on the cravings that we were both up for the idea. I was waiting for Kevin to get ready adn he was on the computer, I was thinking and thinking and how far we have come and told him, I was glad he was taking so long because I changed my mind. He was dissapointed and asked me if i was sure, then told me he was already ready. We discussed and then talked about what we were going to get. I have no idea what he wanted, but i planned on getting a ton of steamed veggies and a HUGE salad. Possibly a steak. Then we talked about how we probably wouldnt get our moneys worth since we havent eaten in a week we would likely be full before we got much down at all. We talked about maybe going to cheddars so we wouldnt over do it, but then if we went to golden coral Dax could eat too. We settled on golden corral. Got up, went and woke the kids, got them dressed. in my head I kept thinking, how bad is this going to effect us. How much damage? is it going to make us spend the evening in the bathroom. Everything we have sacrificed to get where we were was about to be undone with one meal. Kevin said what I was thinking. "Lets think about this...." we ended up not going. I have never been so thankful that he was the one with the willpower to say no. Everything in me was saying don't do it except for my mouth. He was the one that said Don't do it. I love him for being there for me and for his support. Today would have been completely undone if we had gone.

That said, tommorow makes 7 days, one full week o n our juice fast. We are going to reevaluate everything but I am determined to make it at least 10 days. If I can make it to 10, what is 4 more? If I can make it 2 weeks and dont think we can go any further we may alter things a bit so we are still detoxing, like maybe do the 3rd week as incorporating smoothies and or some healthy fats, 4th week raw food only, We dont want to make plans to end just yet. We are doing our best to stay on the path we have set for ourselves. But make no mistake about this. Today was HARD. I would have failed today if it wasnt for my husband. Yesterday was a breeze compared to today and I am hopping tommorow will be like it was the day before, where I didnt want to cave so soon. With that it is off to slumber land. NITE ALL!

Day 4 of Juice Fast

So today was day 4 and I am still alive. I dont really find that I am hungry except when i am making my son his meals, or, when I am running food through the juicer, all I can think about is how bad I want to just mak a huge salad and eat it. I will be strong and prevail. I am not even craving junk. I want to eat thefoods that i am either juicing, or the meals I make for Dax and he has been eating nothing but healthy since he 1st started eating solids. nowing that when I wake in the morning I will have made it to day 5 is a big deal for me though. I have become hyper aware that if i have food on my finger I cannot eat or lick it off when cleaning said messy boy. I could murder someone for a few cheese cubes and a handful of nuts though.

Other than that things seem to be going ok. I plan on waking at the crack of dawn and making close to a gallon of juice for Kev to take to work for the hectic 12 hour day tomorrow. Hopefully he will do ok. We are just going one day at a time with him. I have a feeling if we can manage to get to day 10, after incorporating smoothies for him, we will have him just eating raw for the remainder of the 40 days. I cant wait till we get to the juice high that everyone talks about. I am looking forward to the jolt of energy, seriously, I need it.

I dont feel the need to list all the juices I made today and unless I find some that are truely special I wont list again. Here is a list of the veggies we bought and our juices are just random combos made with said list

pear
green apple
strawberries
blueberries
watermelon
pink grapefruit
lemon
lime

swiss chard
spinach
romaine lettuce
kale
bok choy
broccoli
cauliflower
celery
green peppers
cucumbers
parsley
cilantro
ginger
garlic
parsnips
carrots

and there we have it. $175 worth of veggies for the week for 2 people. now because I have to be up at 5 am to help hubby I am off to sleep.

Nite All!

Day 3 of Juice Fast

Breakfast

carrot
cucumber
beet
lemon
ginger
kale
spinach
asparagus

lunch

fennel
carrot
celery
pear
green apple
ginger
parsley
lemon

I didnt really care for this one too much, I thought it tasted way too sweet and ended up adding lemon juice to try and tone it down. If i want a sweet drink that is fine. I just think that it was not what I was wanting. I think at the moment I favor the green juices anyway.

Dinner was yummy

broccoli
cauliflower
romaine lettuce
Parsley
garlic
celery
green pepper
carrots
cucumber
spinach
kale
lemon
asparagus

I missed the tomato, but this was still really really tasty

Kevin was completely full. I still felt like I wanted something so I juiced 2 red grapefruits (8 oz) of grapefruit juice before coming to bed and catch up on my blog.

Today was day 3 and it wasnt too bad at all.I admit I was tired by midday and took about an hour nap but i actually felt very productive today. My eyes were sleepy but I dont think I really way. I had a mild headache for about an hour or so but that went away after lunch. today was the first day I actually COOKED food for my son. As I was making it I told my husband this was going to be our first big test. The house smelled sooo good as I made food. But It wasnt as bad as I expected. I thought I was starving as I could smell it and cooking it. My stomach was even growling, but, as I was making our juice and my son was eating, I no longer felt like I was starving, we each had 26 oz, by the time we had hit 20 oz we were not really hungry at all anymore. YAY.

We also sat and talked about all the reasons why we are doing this. My husband DOES NOT need to lose any more weight. He is now about to break out of the 200s any moment now. I have no doubt at all it will be in the next day or so. But he is also 6'6. My concern for him is his health. I know he has issues with depression as well as a slew of medical issues which of course is why we consulted with his dr first. We have had many people talk to us thier concern of us losing a ton of weight and then gaining it all back. The fact is however the weightloss is a nice side effect of what we are truly trying to accomplish. We want to be HEALTHY! I dont have a weight goal, nor do I have a dress size I would like to get down to. Yes I am very overweight. Yes I would like to lose weight. But as of right now I would like to have enough energy to keep up with with the 2 kids I have under the age of 2. I dont want to feel tired all the time. I want to have the energy to do things as well as keep up in the house. I dont need to be superwoman, but I do want to be a super mom to my kids. I want to be there for them and not make a ton of excuses.

I have a litinany of medical issues as well and I know that in the decades that I abused my body I am paying for it now. I have detoxed many a time and done very well in the process. The last time was extremely successful. However upon finding out I was pregnant with my 1st I gained alot of weight back very quickly. I cannot say it wasnt all my fault, but The information I wanted to believe and the information being fed to me about things I did and did not eat were very different and confusing. Then when my son was born 3 months early and we spent that time in the hospital with him, I made very very poor choices. I actually gained more weight in those 3 months than I did in my entire pregnancy. When we finally came home i found out I was expecting my 2nd who came 2 months early. While I didnt do bad AFTER the pregnancy with her. During the pregnancy I made waaay to many bad choices. I craved food I normally dont even like and it was detrimental. Since having them I have had a chance to drop all my baby number 2 weight with proper eating habits it has taken me 6 months to drop alittle over 30lbs. With this fast I figure if we can try to get all of the toxins we can out of our body, allow it the chance to repair as much damage as possible. Who knows what can happen, We take it one day at a time and see how we feel. This is the sacrifice we make to God for Lent, and for ourselves. If we take this time to feel closer to HIM, to meditate on this and allow him to heal us. Is this really that big of a price to pay? We are suppose to be treating our bodys like temples but in reality how many of us really just poison it. I know I have for a very long time. I want a change.

With that I think I will say goodnight to avoid sounding preachy. It was a trying day to be sure and we talked about our exit strategy in case we felt like we were failing and when and how long we actually wanted to do this. I have given my husband the option to stop the fast early if he feels it is necessary, but I asked if he could try to make it at least 10 days. I dont want him to lose any more weight, but I want his body to take a break and try to heal itself and I believe in my heart that the longer he stays on this the more his body can try to repair damage. I just want him to enjoy life and I want to be able to enjoy it with him. Ok bedtime for me. Lol NITE ALL!

Day 2 of Juice Fast

Day two

Today wasnt that bad at all actually. Made our Breakfast juice

carrots
cucumber
beet
lemon
ginger
kale

Lunch was

carrot
pear
ginger

Dinner we were starving so we had a huge juice with the works, Plus it allowed me to use up some veggies that were leftover in the fridge to make room for all the new stuff from the farmers market.

2 tomato
4 carrots
5 large handfulls of spinach
2 romaine lettuce heads
1/4 of purple cabbage
2 cucumbers
1/2 large bell pepper
3 cloves garlic
6 florets broccoli AND cauliflower
8 spears asparagus
1/2 jalapeno
parsley
cilantro
lemon

This made aprox 64 oz or (2) 32 oz servings. IT WAS YUMMY!

Kevin was having a really hard time before the end of the night and felt very hungry so I made us a nightcap juice.

20 oz watermelon including rind
1 green apple
handful of mint

Lets just say that not only was it tasty, but it is true what they say about the rind :) Yay Me! Overall it wasnt a bad day, there were times where I felt hungry but also knew I didnt have enough water. So that made a huge difference because after I would finish my 32oz glass of water I was too full to think about anything. Then by the time that subsided I didnt really want anything. Right now I am feeling glad that I detoxed for the 28 days prior to this, and then the detox bath, and the hydrotherapy colonic, and sauna. I have a feeling I should be feeling alot worse. We shall see how tommorow comes as far as the withdrawls and how bad they would be. I always dread day 3 of a detox. Hoping for a good day tommorow. NITE ALL!

Day 1 of Juice Fast for Lent

   Well, It has been since October since I have updated. SO much has gone on and truthfully, I had forgotten which blog I wrote on. I am still on my journey and haven't wavered however I havent lost very much. I have lost 7lbs since October which puts me at 257.2, Not alot, but it is still a loss and not a gain. I cant complain at all since if I look at when I started in August I was 292.6, I have lost an average of 6lbs a month. Just slightly over 35lbs since starting. If only I could take it off faster that I feel like I put it on. :(

 Kevin and I have decided this year for Lent we wanted to do a complete detox and while it didnt start on Ash Wednesday due to having a stomach flu in the household, We ended up starting today which is Friday since we are now well enough to stick to it and we have gone through a cleanse. Thats right I said it! We didn't wait for a monday, or the first of the month. We started at the end of a week, right before the weekend where everyone normally "treats" themselves to something specail. Well, we are treating ourselves to something special. We are treating ourselves to good health and energy! For our valentine's day gifts to each other we got a series of colonics and infared sauna visits. How romantic right? We have done our detox baths which only made me feel like I had the kill me now flu for about 12 hours complete with shivering while bundled up like eskimos cuz i was frickin ookie-ook in my body. I woke up to have my clothes, blankets and mattress completely soaked with sweat. BUT I am glad I went through that because I had to have been storing a ton of toxins especially since we had just had a stomach bug. Never before had I had a reaction so strong as I have with a detox bath. Here is what I used:

2 cups of fresh ginger juice
1 cup of fresh grapefruit juice
2 cups of epsom salts
1 cup baking soda
1 cup dead sea salts

add and dissolve in HOT as you can stand it water and sit in it for at the very least 20 minutes, when you get out dry off and wrap your self as warm as possible and be prepared to sweat out all the toxins.

No lie, I thought I wasnt going to sweat at all and maybe it didn't work since I wasnt sweating right away, I got out of the tub at 730, was in bed by 830, by 10pm I was chattering my teeth I was so cold and pretty sure I had fever, I was wearing thick fleece pants, sweater, a pullover, my chenille robe, a feather blanket, a heavy mink blanket and wool socks and I could not get warm for anything, my joints hurt, my bones ached, I joggled something loose in my uterus because from not supposed to start aunt flo for another 3 days decided that it was too much to wait and came early and extremely heavy. at 130 I woke up to pee and realized I wasnt shivering anymore although I was still cold. I kept wrapped up and went to bed. I 5am I woke back up to potty again and realized that everything was cold and sopping wet. I ripped off all the bedding, laid down towels and grabbed a new blanket and went back to bed. Woke up at 8am and I felt like a new woman. SOOOO much better :) and even better, I didnt die even though I swore in my head I was going to.

So I am not really going to go into all the colonic details. If you are reading this, you much have a computer, and therefore you have access to google. There you go. Would I do it again. ABSOFREAKINLOUTLY! Feel amazing and have 2 more visits schedualed one for tommorow :)

I dont have my list on me as far as which juices I made today, but to be honest, I only had two even though one was very very large. I will put what I remember and I will go through and edit it tommorow if I missed anything. My first juice of the day came around 10am, we got a late start due to the whole potty training which includes sitting for what feels like endlessly next to boy and his potty.

Morning energy juice

6 Lactino Kale leaves
4 carrots
4 asparagus
2 green apples
2 stalks celery
1 inch nob of ginger
1 lemon
1 baby bok choy

this made about 28-32 inches of juice, Kevin had the same thing and Dax had about 4 ox of this juice mixed with about 4 oz of almond milk and loved it YAY!

The rest of the day was drinking water, then I went to get my colonic and infared sauna treatment. Again, it was indeed awesome. Then went home to pick up hubby and the kids and make a trek to Earth Fare. Picked up some nessesities for our juicing such as 50 flipin pounds of carrots and 10 of pears. Some beets and the rest is gonna have to come from the farmers market. But since we realized we hadnt juiced since Breakfast and all we have had otherwise was water, we wenet ahead and stopped at the juice bar. Kevin had a Zeus Juice, and I had a Zesty Carrot with a shot of ginsing. YUMMY! I think I liked mine more than I liked the Zeus juice. I think Kev would agree.

Zesty carrot

Carrots
green apple
beet
ginger
wheatgrass
(dont remember if it had celery)
then i added ginsing

came home and I am finishing my last 20 oz to have all my gallon of water for the day and I am actually doing much better than expected. There were a few times when I was giving Dax his dinner of turkey and cheese from the deli there where I really wanted a bite. It smelled sooo good. But I just WANTED it, I didn't really have to have it. It is now midnight and we have to be up super early to hit farmers market up in the a.m. before our return colonics, so On that note I bid you all good night and look forward to keeping up with this adventure. I would have written a ton more actually, but it really is super late. Hopefully tommorow I can catch up on everything :) Nite all!