Day 9 9/27/13

Day 9

Still going strong on my juice fast! I know I haven't posted in a few days but everything is going great. Just really busy with the kids and work. Last night was a little rough. I worked late so the kids asked me to grab pizza on the way home. Have I mentioned I love pizza! I worked at a pizza place for many years, and if I didn't have my current business I would have a pizza restaurant.  The smell in the car was so strong from the pizza that it was driving me crazy. 
My juice has been really good the last couple days. I added a bit of watermelon or grapes to the greens. The basic recipe I'm using is:

     1 whole cucumber 
     1 bundle of romaine lettuce
     2-3 pieces of Kale
     1-2 whole carrots
     1/2 lemon
     1/2-1 inch of ginger root
     1 apple

This makes around 40oz of juice. I play around with it a bit and have used Swiss chard or spinach in place of the Kale. Sometimes I skip the lemon because I really don't like it. And like I said I've added about 5oz of watermelon or grapes and that really helps the flavor. 

So I guess I should tell how I'm doing. I was a little reluctant to post my weight loss. In part because it's not all about weight loss but getting healthy. Also I suppose I was nervous if I could do it or not.
I started juicing on Sept 9th and started my fast on Sept 19th.  So in the 10 days of juicing and still eating I last around 7 lb. I actually forgot to weigh myself on the 19th. Since I started  the fast I've lost another 11.8 lbs. So I've lost 18.8lbs so far. I feel a huge difference already although it's tough to tell if I could see a difference. Most important is I feel great! 
I did take some photos on day 3 or 4 that I will post later. 

Day 4 9/22/13

Day 4

Not a good day! Woke up with a splitting headache! Thought I would feel better after I had some juice. No such luck! I showed incredible willpower when I made breakfast for my daughter. Bacon and egg breakfast burritos, a Sunday tradition for me and the girls. I plan on making healthy changes to Sunday breakfast, but I don't have anything in the house just yet. 
My head continued to throb all day and I felt pretty crappy. Even though I it was warm outside and in my house I was freezing. I sat for most of the day huddled on the couch with a thick blanket wrapped around me! 
Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day! 

Day 3 9/21/13

Day 3

Ah day 3, what a day. Woke up feeling pretty good, I actually slept 7 hrs. And juicing all day went well. Occasionally I found myself hungry and I would just have more juice or water. Later in the evening I played in a charity poker tournament. As the night went on I started getting pretty hungry which was not helped by the pizza and chili dogs everyone was eating.  I stayed strong though, came home and had some juice before bed.

Day 2 9/20/13

Day 2

Day 2 started out rough, I was running late getting the kids ready for school. In the process I forgot my extra juice for the rest of the day. I was pretty sure I would be starving around lunch time. It wasn't as bad as I thought but I was hungry.

Made it through the day though and went home and made more juice. Yesterday's juice was pretty bitter and even though I only used 1/2 a lemon, the lemon taste was strong. Did I mention I don't like lemons. Today the juice tasted awesome and the only thing different was the apples. I was out of the green colored apples I got from a lady by my kids school. Today I used one gala apple. 

Of couse my mother calls and invites me out for Mexican food, my favorite food at my favorite place Mexico Lindo. I was strong and declined!  The rest of the night went fine, still no headaches or other problems. 

Day 1 9/19/13

Day 1
Woke up a little early to make juice. I need to make enough to last till I get home from work. I have had juice everyday for about 10 days so I'm feeling pretty good about the fast. 

The day went pretty good for the most part. After picking up the kids, my daughter went through the McDonalds drive through. It smelled so good....at first. Once they all started eating their food, it just smelled like grease! 

Made it until bedtime with no problems. I was hungry a few time but just had more juice. No headaches and plenty of energy all day. 

Pre Week Part 2

Something I forgot to mention in the last entry is I decided to get checked out by a doctor before I started my juice fast. I explained what I was doing and my plan. Although he really didn't seem all that interested, he did say that he thought it would be a good thing for me to do. He told me what I already knew. I was really over weight and it wasn't going to be long before it really affected my health and activity. He reviewed my labs from a year and half before and ordered new ones. 

A couple days later I was able to look up my results:

They were pretty much as expected, overall cholesterol was up but still under 200, LDL was down and Triglycerides were really high. Almost double what they should be.

 *What are triglycerides? Simply put, triglycerides are fat in the blood and are used to provide energy to the body. If you have extra triglycerides, they are stored in different places in case they are needed later. 

High triglyceride levels have been linked to a greater chance for heart disease. Just what your triglyceride levels mean and how much lowering triglycerides reduces heart disease risk is sometimes less clear. Triglycerides are important to human life and are the main form of fat in the body. When you think of fat developing and being stored in your hips or belly, you're thinking of triglycerides. Consider these things. Triglycerides are the end product of digesting and breaking down fats in meals. Some triglycerides are made in the body from other energy sources such as carbohydrates.

So obviously I would like to see that number go down. 

Well today is going to be the start of my Green Juice Fast. I'm pretty excited and looking forward to it. I don't want to called it a diet but more of a "Reboot" is I could steal a term from Joe of FSAND. With the intention of changing my eating habits for good. 

*source- WebMD

Pre Week

I have now had my juicer and been experimenting for about a week. I have tried a few different recipes and had at least 24oz of fresh juice a day. A couple funny things, my daughter #2 keeps asking for some of my juice. And even #4 who is turning 4 is also asking to try it. Although she refused to actually taste it when I gave it to her. 

I've noticed a couple things as well. I am actually craving juice, and I lost 6lbs in the last week. I was impressed with that because I haven't really been watching what I eat. More the opposite as I say goodbye to some of my favorite fast food. I've also noticed that I have increased energy and focus. And even though I still only get 5 hours or less of sleep, I'm finding it easier to get up in the morning. I can only imagine how I will feel when I cut out the junk food, move to a more plant based diet and juice even more. Getting kind of excited. 

One quick note I picked up a new wifi bathroom scale that tracks my weight and sends it to my iPhone. It also tracks heart rate, and BMI. Of couse I got it from Amazon, it is the Withings WS-50 Smart Body Analyzer. It is pretty cool. I won't go into all the features but encourage you to check it out.

A strange new land!

      Ok so I received my shiny new Breville Juicer arrived from Amazon. So now what am I supposed to do? I have a general idea what most common fruits and vegetables are, but I have never shopped in a produce isle in a grocery store before. At least not like this. I don't think looking for lemons for Corona's counts. So I made a list of things to look for.

First thing kale! I honestly didn't know kale was edible until recently. We used to use it to decorate around the salad bar when I worked at the Pizza Factory. Also discovered that kale is expensive! As a matter of fact all of the vegetables and fruits are expensive. I decide to make a spread sheet on my iPhone to compare prices. The closest grocery store to my house is 6 miles. The next one is another 15 miles, so I'm really going to have really plan ahead. 

So I got my fruits and veggies and my girls and I make our first juice. Kale, cucumber, celery, ginger root, apple, and lemon. 

Well suprisingly not to bad! I do not like the taste or smell of lemon (long story) so the next batch I will use less lemon. Other than that, I actually kind of liked it. 

The next day I decided to go check out a Farmers Market. To me this was a little confusing. Most of the fruits and veggies were not labeled or priced. It was bad enough to keep asking how much something was, but also what it was. There were fruits and veggies there that I had no idea what they were. I had always thought the farmers market was a place to get a good deal on stuff. That was not the case here. Even things like kale and apples were considerably high than my local grocery store.  (Stater Bros)  So much so that I could go buy the stuff at the store and resell it at the farmers market and do pretty well. I did managed to pick up some hummus that I sampled. I tried some hummus a few days before that was pretty good. 

The Plan

     So....as I said in previous entries. I know that I need to make a change. Not a diet, but a life style change. There have been a couple life changing events in my life the last couple years. I got divorced after 17 years of marriage, and raising 4 daughters on my own. Now I need to make a change for my health!

I think Fat Sick and Nearly Dead was just the motivation I needed to get started. So obviously Green Juicing is going to be my first step. The day after I finished watching FSAND I ordered a juicer from Amazon. I'm going to experiment with juicing for a couple weeks and find combinations that I like. Starting on Sept 19, 2013 I'm going to start a Green Juice fast for 30 days (I would like to go 60 days). 

The big change will be after the juice fast.  I don't know if I will go full vegan, but the plan is to change to a plant based diet.  Of couse this will mean no fast food at all. I'm going to remove fast food as an option! To prepare for this I have visited my favorite places Del Taco, Jack in the Box, and of course In N Out. To be honest I didn't really enjoy them. I felt stuffed, tired and lethargic afterwards. Of course cutting out soda is a no brainier. That won't be a problem, I really already did that a while ago. I mainly drink water and green ice tea.  Those meat lovers pizza's are a goner. So is the Mac & Cheese, and Tater tots, cheese it crackers, Doritos, mint moose tracks ice cream....and many more. 

Is it going to be easy...nope! But I'm looking forward to it, and I won't have to do it alone. Aside from this blog and a couple website forums, my friend Kim makes amazing Vegan meals. (also amazing cupcakes and deserts, on second thought stay away from Kim lol) Kailey, Kim's daughter who is also a vegan and super supportive.  My cousin Amanda and her wealth of knowledge. My sister Felicia who switched to a almost complete plant based diet after our trip to Texas. 

Next up my adventure into a foreign land to me. The produce section of the grocery store and the farmers market. And my first green juice....stay tuned!

Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead!

     Well title of the movie Fat Sick and Nearly Dead says it all! Granted I'm not sick now, but it won't be long if I continue on the same path that I have been. This was another movie that I had started watching while doing something else. I wasn't really paying attention to it and never finished. Timing is everything! Once I really decided that I need to make a change in my life I decided to give the movie another go. 

For those of you that have not seen it yet, stop reading now click on the link above and go watch it. I'll wait. 

Ok as you may or may not have seen by now Fat Sick and Nearly Dead is a documentary film that starts out by telling the story of Joe Cross. Joe was 100+ lbs over weight but worse then that he suffered from a debilitating autoimmune disease (chronic idiopathic urticaria)   that had him taking steroids and other meds. His health was at the point that he decided that he had to change. He decided to give up the junk food and start green juicing. He embarks on a cross country journey with his juicer in tow, vowing to drink only green juice for 60 days. 

Now Joe's story is amazing all by itself. By the end of the 60 days he looses a ton of weight, starts on a path of healthy eating along with his juicing. And....was able to stop taking all the prescription medication for his autoimmune disease. Last I seen it has been over 5 years since his 60 day juice fast and has not had a single flair up. 

The real story though is that during Joe's cross country journey he talked to hundreds of people about the benefits of juicing. In Winslow Arizona he came across a truck driver by the name of Phil Staples. Phil weighed a whopping 429 lbs and was obviously in horrible shape both physically and mentally. While talking to him about his story and the benefit of juicing , Joe discovered that Phil suffers from the same autoimmune disease. Joe seems to take more interest in Phil after this and after having him sample some juice tells him that he ever needs help to give him a call.

Fast forward a couple months and Joe is doing great back home in Australia. He receives a disturbing call from Phil saying that he is at the end of his rope and needs help. This is when the real story begins. After visiting a doctor with Joe's help Phil starts on a 3 day Juice fast. 3 days turns into 30 and Phil is doing so good he decides to continue on his juice fast. 10 months after he started his juice fast Phil lost over 200 lbs and changed to a mostly plant based diet along with daily juicing. His health is restored and also off all medication for his Urticaria. 

I don't know if Joe really just came across Phil at a truck stop. But it doesn't really matter, its an amazing story. The kind of story that motivates others to make a change. The kind of story that has motivated me to make a change!

Changes....

So a few years ago I found out that my cousin Amanda was a vegan. In fact she has her own vegan website www.theveganvoice.org. And while I have been aware that I need to eat better for years...never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would consider becoming a vegetarian or a vegan. As a matter of fact when my friend Kim was being treated for Thyroid Cancer, she started on a vegan diet. I thought she was crazy, after all you need good lean protein from meat and fish right?  

I read through the info Amanda's website, more because I wanted to know what she was up to. And a strange thing happened; the more I read, the more I wanted to know. Even though I realized that I had been completely wrong about what veganism is. I was still thinking "that's great for Amanda and others but not for me". After all I do not like vegetables. 

Last year in November 2012 I made a trip to Texas for my cousin Carley's wedding. Turns out several of my relatives in Texas were also either vegan or vegetarian. I made an observation that they all looked amazing and healthy. My sister Felicia and I (She traveled with me to the wedding) had some great discussions with Amanda and her husband Ed. I was amazed to find out that Ed had also become a vegan. Why was I amazed? Ed has a ranch in Marshall Texas and definitely had been a meet eater!  Before we left Texas Amanda gave me a copy of the book The China Study. This was the beginning of changes to come. 

When I returned home I had decided to try and eat healthier. But since I had just lost 60lbs eating the way I wanted, I wasn't really that motivated to change anything.  I had heard of The China Study, a while back I had started watching the movie Forks Over Knives but never finished. It seems strange now, but over the next several months I was reading and learning more about how to get healthy. Yet I was eating all the wrong foods, exercising less and gaining weight.

My Health and fitness has been on my mind a lot the last couple months. Really I was becoming a little depressed with myself. One particularly bad weekend when my daughters were away at their moms I downloaded a book called Buddhist Boot Camp. This is not a book to teach you how to be a Buddhist, but more to inspire you to be a better you. I read it twice before the weekend was over and even ordered a couple hard copies to give as gifts to friends.  I'm not going to say this book changed my life, but it sure inspired me to make some changes.  

So I set out to do more research. I started reading the China Study book again, and finished watching Forks Over Knives. I did research on the Internet, read blogs, watched movies like Vegucated, Super Size Me, Food Inc, and the one that really inspired me Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. This movie really had an impact on me.

The Beginning

Let me start by saying that I do not eat fruits or vegetables! An occasional apple or banana, although I will eat salads. By salad I mean just lettuce smothered with blue cheese dressing. Sometime I make it a little "healthier" by adding chicken breast with buffalo wing sauce.

My diet for pretty much my entire life has been fast food and food loaded with fat and carbs. I guess the only good thing about my diet is I don't really care for sugar and sweets. French fries, tater tots, hash browns, potato chips....along with pizza, mexican food, hamburgers.  (In n Out Burger for those of you on California ) You get the idea, nothing healthy.

So at 42 years old where had this kind of eating gotten me? At my peak I tipped the scales at just under 300 lbs, 298 to be exact! That wouldn't be so bad if I was say 6'3", but at 5'7" it's pretty sad. I have been fortunate to not have many health problems. I have occasional back pain, headaches, and numbness on my right thigh. Slightly elevated blood pressure. Last physical was 18 months ago and my total cholesterol was 198, LDL, HDL at the higher end of the scale,  Triglycerides...a whopping 277 (150 is desirable).

 I have always exercised and worked out, sort of. Meaning I would go through periods where I worked out and exercised for months at a time and was in pretty good shape, although still over weight. I haven't been under 200 lbs since I was 22 or so while in the Navy. These periods were always followed periods on no activity and weight gain.  I have tried many fad diets over the years; The Zone, which I did really good on. Made it to 205 once in 1999, it took about a year before I was up to 250 again. The Master Cleanse, which I lost 25 lbs in 10 days. In the process destroyed my taste buds and to this day I can't eat lemons without gagging. And many others...

Around three years ago as I was looking at age 40 I hit 298 lbs. I was in the process of getting divorced after 17 years of marriage, depressed, angry, and really disgusted with myself. Needed to make a change.

I started working out aggressively, mostly cardio and trying to eat less. There was some ups and downs but by October 2012 I was able to get down to 235 lbs, the lowest I had been in years. I was feeling pretty good about my progress and was looking forward to getting below 200.  Well...Sept 1st  , 2013 11 months later and I'm back up to 265. Many things have happened the last 11 month. A new relationship that I thought was going somewhere, turns out it wasn't. The economy started to hit my business and my caused my stress to go through the roof. One of my best friends since childhood died of a massive heart attack. All of these are just excuses...truth is I stopped working out as much, but more importantly I never changed my eating habits. I was still eating all the wrong foods. 

I have known for a long time what I should be eating but just have chosen not to do it. Hopefully that is all about to change....