Days 42 to 47.... And so it ends...

Well... I gave it my best shot.  I really wanted to make it to 60 days, but my body just rejected the juices.

Anything that I drank (juice or water) would not stay in my system for more than a few minutes.

As a result, over the course of about a week, I only consumed about 400 calories.  Surprisingly, I was just as energetic without calories as I was with! 

I believe in "listening to your body"... and mine was telling me to stop.   So I did.

I have to say, I really enjoyed the fast.  I lost 37 pounds and felt very good.  I'll definitely do it again -- but for 10 days at a time instead of 60.

I've been back to "normal" eating for not quite a week -- and I have no interest at all in junk food or processed food.

We went to a birthday party last weekend and we brought a full sized sheet cake that we made.  It was half chocolate with bavarian filling and the other half vanilla with lemon.  I touched none of it. 

In fact, I didn't touch the chips, pretzels, deli meats or any other "unhealthy" items.  I did, however, enjoy the carrots, broccoli and cerely sticks dipped in sour cream.

As for this blog, I think I'll continue it.  Instead of focusing on juicing, I'll continue the "clean / healthy eating" journey that I'm now on. 

Good luck everyone!

Days 34 to 41: Sooo ready to "eat"!

Today is one of those good days and bad days.  I'm still very glad that I'm able to "stick with it", but at the same time, I can't wait to start eating again.

I'm becoming food obsessed.  Tivo is my best friend, as I record tons of food shows on both Food Network and the Cooking Channel.  However, I do see things a lot differently.

I have no interest in anything fried or anything sweet.  I simply want fresh and healthy.  I may have even found a local vendor for home raised and grass fed chickens!  (Can't wait to try it!)

Frank is eating much better, too.  His dinner last night was cukes, tomatoes and onions mixed with a home made vinagairette and fresh mozzarella.  It was his first time eathing fresh mozz and he loved it!   Truth be told, it doesn't appear hard to make, so I ordered a kit.  http://www.cheesemaking.com/

                               ------------ Cleaning the Juicer ----------------
After I finish using the juicer, I pour my drink over ice to chill then immediately clean the juicer.  Here's the cleaning process:

All the pieces that have to be washed.

The filter thing is the hardest to wash.

 Spray well to loose food particles...

....and scrub with included brush.

Hope you all are going well!

Days 24 to 33: Thanks for the inspiration Kristin and David!

I haven't posted anything in a while-- mostly because I thought it was just my mom reading the blog.

However, tonight I was surprised to see that I had two comments on my posts.  (I'm totally new to this blogging thing!)

Thank you Kristin and David for your encouragement! 

I had been substituting Bolthouse drinks and V8 juice for part of my "juicing".  But you're right, Kristin.  They just aren't the same as running fresh fruits and veggies through the machine.  And to be honest -- I got easily bored with them.

Yesterday I re-watched the movie with my 26 years old daughter (Kristas).  She is inspired and is going to "Join The Reboot".  Instead of a 60 day fast like me, she is planning to go with the 5-5-5 plan.

Here's part of an email that she recently sent to me:

 " I don't mean for this to come out wrong....its almost a compliment wrapped in an insult........but hearing my MOM was 9LBs away from MY weight was a HUGE wakeup call :(
I mean, you were on prednisone etc...plus age (no offense) and had problems losing............to see it finally work n MELT off? That was the exact point it clicked and I  was like I HAVE to do this..."

I love that kid!  (Obviously she doesn't read my blog. She hates it when I call her "kid"!

I prefer not to list my weight, but I will tell you that since I started 33 days ago, I have lost 28 pounds.  I could never imagined it would come off so fast.

I'll be honest, though--- I think a good part of it is my total disinterest in "food".  I have no appetite -- which is a first for me!  And I am back to juicing all of my meals again.

I've heard of people that "forgot to eat".  I never understood that before, but now I do.

Over the last 33 days, I've had some revelations about food (past and future).  I'll share them on my next blog.

For those of you on the same journey as I am -- BEST of LUCK and stick with it.  Every time I thought about stopping it was because a food looked or sounded good.  I would tell myself that if I still wanted it as strongly in 24 hours, then I could stop. 

So far, I'm finding that sticking with the plan far out weighs any food.  Besides, I can always have the desired food after I reach my goal -- if I still want it, that is!

Lastly-- here's the blog that inspired ME!   She kept much better records than I ever could!

http://www.challenge-myself.com/2010/03/thinking-juice-fast.html


Good luck!

Days 14 - 23 Still going -- but maybe not as strong!

 I started this blog and thought I'd document everything I ate.  Unfortunately, I'm not the disciplined!  I didn't keep logs like I had planned.

So... instead.... I just figured I'd write about the jouney of the 60 day juice fast.

Considering,  I've eaten food my entire life, it's not that the fast is hard to do, but it is a MENTAL challenge.  It  just doesn't feel normal.

Now that I'm at day 23, I just feel "bored" with it.  The one thing that keeps me moving forward is the weight loss. 

So far, I'm down 21 pounds.  I don't see/feel it in all of my clothes, but I see it in some of them. 

Whenever I feel like giving in, I think of the 21 pounds lost AND the many, many more pounds that I have to go. 

I really want to win this "mental war" within myself and be able to say that I stuck --100% -- to the 60 day juice fast.

P.S. -- Thanks for following me, Mom!  I appreciate the support!

Days 10-13 Going strong!

Well, I haven't tracked the food as well as I should have, so I don't have specifics. 

In general, I mostly have hot V8 for lunch and dinner.  In the morning and for snacks, I have a Bolthouse juice --mostly because I bought a bunch I wanted to try.

The weight loss has slowed down to a crawl.  If I had to guess, I'd say I need to get my butt back to juicing like I originally planned!

Days 8 and 9

Day 8:  Having completed my first 7 days, I treated myself to my first "reward" -- a haircut! 

             Daytime: Bolthouse drink,  and I forgot what I juiced together!
             Evening:  Bowl of V8 soup.

Day 9:  Tonight I juiced a mixture of 1/4 of a melon, strawberries, raspberries, blackberies and blue berries.  I poured it in a shallow "blate"  (bowl/plate), then put it in the freezer for a while.  After it was softly-frozen, I scooped it into a bowl and ate it like a sorbet.  Yummy!

              Daytime: Bowls of V8, peach, pear and apples
              Evening:  Fruit medley "sorbet".
             

Days 5, 6 and 7 V8 to the rescue!

Tally for week one:   11 pounds lost!!!

The last few days have been easy.  I haven't really been hungry, which turned into me not consuming many calories.  Of the drinks I was making, it was mostly juices and very few veggies.

I definitely don't want to be on a extremely low cal diet, as that was never my intent.  So I went to the grocery store and checked some labels.

I found some Bolthouse drinks and V8 juices that have the same ingredients that I would use for juicing.

I bought a few bottles and will use them for when I'm on the road. 

In the evening, I poured some of the V8 into a saucepan and heated it up on the stove.  Thinking of it as soup, I had a bowlful and ate it with a spoon.  It was delicious!   That has been my primary dinner staple for the last few nights.

On day 7, I mixed V8 original with V8 spicy and it was AWESOME!





Saturday:  Daytime:  Pineapple and apples
                  Dinner:    V8 "soup"
Sunday:  Dayttime:  1/2 apple, 2 stalks kale, 1 cup watermelon and 10 grapes

                Dinner:   V8 "soup"

Monday:  Daytime:  1/2 melon and 1 apple
                                   Bolthouse Farms 50/50 berry drink

                 Evening:  V8 "soup"  (spicy mixed with original)

Days 2, 3, and 4: Much easier...

Day 2:  I mixed up carrots, apples and watermelon.  They were VERY good. 

Today I also discovered that V8 juices are just veggies -- with no additivies.  This might not follow the FSND plan exactly, but they do say to adapt the program to yourself. 

Day 3:  Pineapple mixes with blueberries.  This is the BEST YET!   I also tried melon, peach and celery but is was disgusting (too much celery), so I dumped it.

My saving grace is the V8.  I heat it up in a saucepan on the stovetop and eat it like soup.  At this point, this will be my "dinner plan" for a while, after the first week of July, things should be slowing down at the store a little bit so it won't be as many late nights.   My plan is to make my own version of V8 to have every day.

Day 1: This is going to be harder than I thought!

I started the day out with my glass of water with lemon squeezed in it...

...then I washed my fruit and veggies in a mixture of Organic Vinegar and Arm & Hammer baking soda. 



Here's what I made today:  1 large red apple, 2 granny smith apples,. 4 stalks of celery, 1 large cuke, 1 pear, 3 stalks of kale.  Once juiced, it made up about 40 ounces of liquid.

  Here's what it looks like freshly juiced.

I poured the mixture into a large pitcher, then poured a good amount in my glass that had ice added.  The remainder I saved to drink later.   On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best-- I'd give it a 4.  It's nothing that you "look forward to", but at the same time the taste is actually good and I didn't mind drinking it.

As the day went on, however, I had less and less desire to drink it.  I kept it very, very cold, but I think drinking it with a straw just made it harder to 'get down'.

In the end, I only ended up drink about 3/4 of it for the entire day.  My plan is a fruit drink in the morning and fruit/veggie drinks during the day.  Next time, I'll make a LOT less.

Bought groceries! Here's what it cost...

I bought fresh fruits and vegetables to start my juice fast.  It looks like this Tuesday (June 14th) will be my "start" day. 

Organic foods were tops on my list, but the prices were "out-of-this-world".  Instead, I've decided to start with the lowest cost items that are as locally grown as possible.  For example, I picked Granny Smith apples (grown in America) instead of the apples grown in Argentina! 

Later, I'll focus on "locally grown" (preferrably within 100 miles of home) and then transition into organic only.  Honestly, I also want to make sure I'm not wasting a lot of food, too!

Here's a breakdown of what I bought:  Starting at the top center:  Red swiss chard, cukes, pineapple (freshly cut), lemons, limes, beets, carrots, red leaf lettuce, ginger,  pears, peaches, apples, melon, coconut, young coconut, green coconut, kale and celery.

The total cost was $45.52.

There are the fruits and veggies that I already had and will be using.  I don't have the exact cost, but I'll guess that this cost about $15.00              Can't wait to see how much the 60 days of juice fast will cost me!

Two day delay...

We've been very, very busy at the store lately and it just seems like we're always playing "catch up".

Since I haven't had time to plan and shop, I'm putting off starting for two more days.  Instead of today (June 12, 2011) being the start date, I'm pretty sure it will be June 14th.

Of course, during these last couple of odays I am enjoying eating some "treats"!

Our first batch of "Mean Green"

On his way home from work, Frank called to say that he wasn't really hungry for dinner.  Instead, he just wanted to shower and go to bed.  (He gets up at 4am and works a 12 hour shift of loading and unloading boxes all day.)

Earlier today, I made a trip to the local grocery store and picked up a few fruits and veggies to try in the Breville.  I had "organics" in my basket at first, but found that twice the size of non-organics was also half the price!  Unfortuntely, I opted for the lower priced items.

Before juicing, I scrubbed the kitchen sink and made a bath of organic vinegar and baking soda.  I also lightly "washed" the produce with baking soda.

After a wash and a rinse, we followed the recipe for "Mean Green Juice". 

In capturing the moment on my cell phone, I thought I was in "video" mode and we created a nice little piece for our first juicing experience.  Alas, it didn't record.  Instead, it took a couple of pictures, which I've attached.

Taste wise, it's kind of "neutral".  I wouldn't say it tastes "good" or "bad".  It's definitely "palatable", but will take some getting used to!   I don't start for another week, but it's nice to know what I'm getting myself into!

Frank Watched!

After dinner tonight (mom's recipe of Suasage Bread!!)  Frank and I were channel surfing on the TiVo and found the partial taping of "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead".

We watched it and he really like it!  He related to Phil and his brother "Bear" and laughed at a lot of their "one liners".  By the time we got to the end, he total understood what I am planning to do and WHY -- which is not just for the weight loss.

In fact, he now wants to do a partial juicing to enjoy the health benefits.  He wants to start earlier than June 12th (my planned start date), but I won't move my start date because I need time to wean off of caffeine from my Diet Mountain Dew.    

Time will tell how seriously HE takes it!

My 60 day juice fast! Rebooting MY life!

After reading "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead", I decided to "Join the Reboot". My undertstanding is that there are no strict rules to their plan, so I'm going to follow their suggestions and modify only slightly to accomodate my crazy/hectic schedule and busy jobs on the road. I decided on a blog due to my poor memory! If someone asks me how I did it and what I ate, I'll at least have some inkling of what to tell them! I'll try to log food and thoughts for each day. Wish me luck! 

Step One of Prep: 

I placed the order for the Breville Juicer.  I decided on the juice fountain that is also sold on the "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" website.  Luckily, Overstock.com had it for just over $80 with free shipping.

I also ordered two different juicing books.  At first I thought I'd save the money and pick up a book or two at the library.  Then I pictured me juicing with the recipe book nearby and could picture the splatters and mess getting on the book.  Also, I like to write notes in my books for future reference.  This is especially helpful due to my very, very bad memory.  (Hey- maybe this juicefast will help that, too!)

What led me to order?  
The fact that I, too am fat, sick and heading for an early grave if I don't do something about it. 

I didn't always have a weight problem.  In fact -- I never had a "weight problem" until I went on steroids due to my Ulcerative Colitis.  The colitis is an issue within itself.  I won't go into detail here, but let's just say I have good days and bad days.  I don't always know what kind of a day it's going to be until it gets here.  Luckily, my colitis has been "less active" over the last few months.  To measure it on a scale of 0 to 100 (with 100 being no issues and 0 with the worst issues), I'd say I'm at a solid 80% right now.  I've been as bad as 25% -- which means it could have been worse --but it was really pretty bad.  So, I can live with 80% -- but strive for 100% -- meaning symptom free with NO issues.

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if this 60 day juice fast gets me up to that 100%.  In fact, I'm kind of counting on it!

I've learned a lot about food recently.  Through watching what I eat and see the "results" of the intake, I've been able to find a lot of "trigger foods" that cause issues with the colitis.  I can't touch colby cheese, but I'm fine with cheddar, mozz. and most other cheeses.  I also have to steer clear of high fiber foods.  If I eat a whole apple, it will bother me.  Same with a pear.  That's why I think the juicing will benefit me, as it removes the fiber and only leaves the liquid.

The Reboot:

The website for the reboot helps you through a 15 day cycle of plant based foods (5 days), juicing (5 days) and foods again (5 days).  I'm forgoing that plan due to the fiber issue.

Here's my plan for the 60 day juice fast: 

1.  Pick a start date for the 60 day juice fast.  Since I'm waiting for the juicer and books to arrive, I think a target date of June 12th.  That's a Sunday, so I have time to prep everything that day with no excuses.

2.  Before I start, I'll wean off of caffeine -- considering that once again I have succummed to the lure of Diet Mountain Dew!  I really need to break that habit, as no good comes from it.

3.  I'll juice for breakfast or lunch every day as soon as the juicer arrives.  This will help me transition off of "regular food".