Day 9: Pondering assignment....Fun

I had an interesting phone call this morning.  I was discussing my new way of eating with a family member and all the good and bad things about it...
She then asked me, "so what do you do for fun?"

I paused... and didn't really know what I do for fun... I've been walking?  Hang out with the kids?  But what do I really find super fun?

Food has always my go to for fun.  I love cooking, I love cooking for others, I love trying out new restaurants, I love having dinner with friends.... 

Uh oh...  so everything I love to do is surrounded by food.  No wonder I was so miserable the first couple days...

So today I am going to spend time pondering that very question...  What do I find fun....

A few ideas already... I have fun watching a movie cuddled up with my kids or husband.  I enjoy playing tennis.  I enjoy rollerblading.  I enjoy looking up recipes on youtube for raw foods.  I enjoy going to the health food store to find ingredients for recipes.  I love tanning. 

I love knowing that I am not controlled by food.  I get to control what I eat and what I put into my body.

I may not always be perfect but it is certainly leaps and bounds better than what I was just 10 days ago....

I choose to have fun regardless of if food is going to be involved or not... 

Oh, one more thing...  I am going to have loads of fun shopping for a new wardrobe... :)

Day 8: or should I say, Week 2, day 1...?

It's been a few days since I last blogged...

I was getting pretty mad at the world, and by the end of day six I told my husband I intended to quit in the morning of day 7. 

Well, I woke up on day seven, and I was craving one of my juices really bad...  So much for the quitting idea.

Needless to say, juicing has been going pretty well and for dinners I usually have a veggie and a slice of my "special" bread.

Tonight I did have a little cooked chicken (1 oz) for dinner.  I have been craving chocolate (as I normally do this time of the month...) and I decided to make some brownies...  I know I know... I'm horrible - but guess what, plan backfired and they didn't turn out.  So needless to say, I did not have a brownie and I am happy about that.

I'm thinking that I might only post once a week unless I feel motivated to write more frequently.  I have been so bogged down with homework - since I am trying to work ahead to get done with my class sooner.  If I do that I will have more time to juice - exercise - paint the walls of my house... 

Oh yea, that's right... exercise!  Me and my Dad went on a 3 1/2 mile walk today... it felt so good.  I want to go on another walk tonight, but I am waiting for it to cool the heck down...  it's about 82 degrees outside!  It should be in the 70's tomorrow.

Well - off to go clean my van with my husband!  I love the new energy I have... :)

Day 5: Minor setback..in my own mind

My highlight of my day was when I juiced for lunch which was a combo of apples beets and carrots.  It looked just like fruit punch!  I let my 4 year old try a sip and his exact words were, "Wow Mom, This is wonderful!"  I'm not sure I have ever heard him use that expression.  It was so cute.

Earlier today I was invited to a get together this weekend and I made an excuse to not attend.  This weekend is pretty busy, but I could have fit it in...  I seem to find myself getting uncomfortable being too far away from my juicer and being tempted by anything that might be offered for food at a party.  I'd like to think I would have enough will power, but who knows at this point. 

I made the rest of the family "Italian dunkers" which consist of a sloppy joe like meat and garlic cheese bread.  Even though I agreed to eat dinner with the family; when I ate half a slice of the bread and some meat, it made me feel extremely guilty.  I just feel like it is a let down that I am not able to just go raw over night... 

There is a part of me that wants to still have some my old regular food ( at dinner) because I don't want to gain weight right back when I am at an ideal weight.

Oh well... I need to be happy with the progress I am making.  Even if I do have a regular dinner every night, it sure beats the way I was eating before.... right?  There was a part of me that wanted to eat more junk because of how bad I felt about what I already ate, but I recognized that as a old bad habit and did not act on it.

Really wanting to go watch the movie "Forks Over Knives..."

Hoping the hubby takes me out on a date to watch it soon..don't worry.... I don't like popcorn, so that wouldn't be a temptation... :)

Day 4: ....and I'm feelin' fine :)

Wow... 

I feel so much different about this way of eating compared to yesterday.  I have lost all food cravings, and as far as the new rule for eating dinner, I can decide to take it or leave it.  Tonight for dinner I plan to make the "mean green" juice and maybe a slice of sprouted bread with hummus..  It's so yummy.. :)

Not only that, but I jumped on the scale a little early and it said...  I lost 8 lbs already.  This is impressive to me for a couple of reasons.  The first reason is this is the time of the month where I normally retain water (if ya know what I mean).  Two, I have done NOTHING for exercise, except for today.  I didn't have any energy the last few days to do that, but now... I do :)  When the weight loss number nears closer to 20 lbs that will be exciting.

I wouldn't say I have a TON of energy yet, but I would say that I feel much better than I have in the last three days.  I am waiting for my daughter to wake up for her nap and then plan to take the kids on a walk to the park.

I am happy to say that I finished reading 3 chapters of my textbook last night and should be able to finish 3 more chapters tonight... (hopefully!) so I can take my first exam this semester on Saturday.

I know this might sounds gross....  But on the movie "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead," the woman who goes on the juice fast for 10 days said she spent so much time the first couple of days on the toilet.  I must admit that I was a little bit worried about that sort of mess... lol... but without going into too many details - that part of my life hasn't changed any....  Well it's changed, but the frequency part hasn't.....  I know, I know... super gross, I'm sorry, but if anyone else does this, I'd like to think they would want to know if they need to know if its a for sure thing...

I am going to try hard to start exercising regularly now that my energy has begun to pick up some.  Can't wait to keep seeing progress!!

Hey Day 2....  the motivations over here!!!

Day 3: Minor change.... For now

Well day three is coming to an end and I can say that I will have some energy remaining to catch up on some of the homework I am falling behind on.  But.... That doesn't come without some changes in the "challenge." 

Today was pretty rough at first and after my first juice I nearly threw up at the thought of having to drink more juice for lunch.  I find this "juicing" challenge extremely difficult since I am not a real "sweets" sort of person.  Granted I don't have to make all of my juices sweet but leafy greens alone might not stay down for too long. 

I find myself feeling like something is missing.  (of course all the junk food, but besides that...)  I really enjoy cooking for my family and eating with them.  I find pleasure in making sure the food is cooked just right for my husband, kids or Dad.  With as much prep that I have to do for my own juice or avocado wraps I can't make something special for the family. 

At around 4pm I asked my Dad what he was thinking about for dinner jokingly of course.  I did say to him though that I had only had one juice the whole day, and I was avoiding drinking anything else because I was just too sick.  I threw out a suggestion out making a veggie salad and using a preservative free dressing with 2 slices of Ezekiell (sprouted) bread & hummus .  Eventually, my Dad agreed as long as he could have a little chicken in his salad.  

So we ate dinner (with some guilt) but decided to amend the rules a little bit.  We still have to juice for breakfast and lunch...  We can eat a regular dinner if we'd like but I'd really like to try to stay as "raw" as possible. 

I should have only ate one slice of bread.... lesson learned...

I'm not sure I feel good about the bending of the rules, but in all honesty - there is no way I could make it to day 10 while taking care of my lil ones and college homework/reading without the potential of my husband divorcing me.  I may attempt the 100% juicing thing again in the future (early July) since my summer classes will be done by then.

I still love my juicer. 
I still intend to blog
- but really need to learn how to add pictures on to this thing...

Day 2: Where'd my motivation go? (Post for yesterday...)

Day two was tough....

The cravings were coming in full force, and fruits and veggies were the last thing I wanted to eat (drink).  I decided at the end of day one that I am allowed to eat raw fruits and veggies.  That really helped with dinner on day 1.  I really need to post a picture of what I made.  (It was a avocado, tomato, onion, and cilantro wrapped in lettuce)

So back to day 2.  At one point I had convinced myself that I needed to quit because this was not something I was going to be able to stick to.  Perhaps you remember from my earlier post that my Dad agreed to do this with me for 10 days.  At about 1pm yesterday while he was out on a walk, I sent him a text message saying, "This sucks!"

He quickly came back and was motivating me that we needed to stick to our deal to stay on it for 10 days.  Without him being on this, there is no way I was getting past day 2.  I started to get a headache halfway through the day and was about to take something for it but tried to drink a few more glasses of water to see if it would go away.  Well it didn't. 

As I was making dinner for the family (they had a nitrate free pizza from Trader Joe's) and chopping up veggies (more avocado...) my youngest child ended trying to race down the stairs and ended up rolling down and bonking her head!  Talk about having your heart stop!  We rushed up to the ER and two hours later they said she was perfectly fine and just put a little glue on her cut.  Of three children, this is the first time anyone has been hurt on the stairs - mostly because we usually have the bolted gate closed at all times.  Needless to say, I am going to be a stickler about that even more now.  That will not happen again!

Oh yea, since all of this was going on, I forgot to take anything for my headache.  My headache started to become a migraine and I was very close to throwing up.  I honestly believe that was the worst migraine I have ever had.  I don't know if it had anything to do with the new way of eating (detoxing) or what, but too many more of those would really make me want to do this process a little more gradual.

I'm falling behind in my homework because I don't have enough energy to stay awake long enough to read.  I am becoming frustrated.

I can say though, that I am extremely proud to have made it to day 3....  I didn't think I'd make it.

Thanks to my supporters out there....  I really wouldn't have been able to get through this with out your encouraging words.... 

I will post day 3's comments by this evening to given no migraines make an appearance.

Day 1....My juicer is here!!!

I knew from watching the tracking information that my juicer would be here today.  I have been extremely anxious to start my reboot, so I did not eat/drink anything until the mail got here so today could officially be my day 1...

You have no idea how excited I was to see the mailman bring up my package.  Of course with it being Monday the mail shows up much later than it does on any other day...  so it was a little after noon. 

Before the mail was here I prepared my fruits and veggies.  I was planning on making the "Green Lemonade."  I quickly unwrapped the packaging, rinsed it off, and set it up and I was up and running! 

I have NEVER juiced anything in my life so I wanted to taste what a apple juice really tasted like.  Seriously...  I couldn't believe how flavorful it was.  I could never drink a bottled apple juice again, NO LIE.  I gave a little to the kids, and they were just as excited as I was to try it...

So I did eventually make the "Green Lemonade" which is made up of:

1 apple
3 handfuls of spinach
6-8 Kale leaves
1/2 a cucumber
4 celery stalks
1/2 lemon

As I was drinking it I thought it might have even tasted great blended with ice....  maybe next time.... :)

Needless to say, so far - things are good. 

The evening is always the toughest for me, so we will have to see how pleasant my husband thinks I am after making dinner for the family, and juicing for myself...  I must admit though, I really feel like this is something I want to stick to.... 

Oh, and one other thing...  Someone suggested to me that I should take before and after pictures.... so I do have some before pictures from today..... (the official side view, front, and back...)

Later!

So why am I doing this?

It's time to get real.  I enjoy a wonderful life with my husband, kids, college, but I have had a very unhealthy relationship with food. 

I feel very fortunate that even through all of the years of abusing my body by not eating healthy that I do not have any serious medical conditions.  I will, I'm sure, run into many problems if I do not get my act together...quickly.

I'm tired of feeling like an addict.  I have always said to people that I could quit my junk food habits whenever I want, but I knew deep down it wouldn't just be that simple.  I needed to have a plan.  The light bulb went on when I was in class learning about mental health and addictions.  I think about food way more than I should, I eat when I'm not hungry, and I have avoided social situations because I felt nasty or embarrassed about my weight.

It is not my intention to discuss the topic of food addictions in this blog even though it may come up every now and again.  I know there are several people out there who do not believe that food can be an addiction and I understand the logic behind that.  Whether or not food is or is not an addiction in your opinion, hopefully my use of the word addiction is not offensive to anyone.  (If it is, pretend I am saying bad habit instead...)

I'm tired of being a poor example of eating to my children.  I need to get my act together now so that they do not have these problems in their adult years.  I want to have more energy to play!

I recently became an RN and I have been having a conflict of interest burning in my heart (no its not heart burn...).  How can I, an educated health professional go out and get a job and teach people about their own health when I am not being very healthy myself?  I know what I have to do to be healthy and even took an elective nutrition course (since knowing about nutrition isn't a requirement to be a nurse).  That course taught mostly of the food pyramid and I am not sold on as a whole either, but is a good basis for a person to start at if they need to avoid the obvious junk like fast food and other treats.

Last and certainly not least, I have the desire to look healthy.  I don't want to be a super model, but I do want to feel attractive for myself.  My husband bless his heart, responds to my comment of wanting to be a trophy wife by saying, "You already are..."  I believe I am attractive to him already, but I can imagine he won't complain to much when I am wearing the size of clothes I was when I met him - while knowing my body is much stronger and healthier on the inside.

I have the motivation I need to do this.... now... If my juicer could just get here to start the reboot... :)  MUUAHHH!

While I'm waiting....

Hello!  This is the first blog of many, hopefully!  I am a Wife, Student and Mother of three children ages 6, 4, and 2. 

So a couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon a youtube video where someone talked about how much energy they had from eating raw.  I flipped through a few more videos and saw that some guy said he lost 100 lbs in a couple months.  This so called "Raw" movement had my attention...

That same day I checked out every book in 2 different libraries about raw foods and decided that it was going to be my goal to eat 100% raw for at least 60 days.

Then I watched a few documentaries....

One in particular that I watched was called, "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead."  It mostly talked about a guy who was overweight and became healthy by rebooting his system (juicing for 60 days - fruits and veggies). 

So I decided... I want to reboot my system first.  The next day I spent my time finding the best juicer I could find within a decent price range and found the Breville 800JEXL Juice Fountain Elite Juicer Extractor.  I am now waiting for it to arrive in the mail, and intend to reboot my system for at minimum of 60 days.  I imagine this may be a little difficult, but I am up for the challenge.  My Dad, will be doing the challenge for me for the first 10 days to help me stick to it!



If you would like to join me on my juicing mission, I would be absolutely thrilled!  If you just want to know how I am doing and do not want to reboot your system, I would still appreciate any comments you have, or even any recipes you have tried or want to try for juicing or raw dishes!

Til next time!  MUUAAAH! (I learned this from my 2 year old daughter...  She blows kisses at bedtime.)