Day 8

Yet again another bust. I had dinner with my family. Nothing spectacular, didn't go out to eat or anything, just dinner at home. I didn't eat much which was good. I think if anything doing this has really curtailed how much I eat because when I have eaten, it hasn't been a lot. I think that is where I am beginning. I think for right now I am going to continue juicing just not exclusively. I have used up a lot of what I bought for the process but I am going to continue juicing until it's gone and then we'll see what happens after that. I think I could have definitely done the entire time juicing alone, I just kept feeling tired and like I wasn't getting enough calories. I think I expected that one 16 oz juice would have enough calories in it for a meal. It didn't and I didn't juice enough, I am going to continue doing this but first I am going to work out some new recipes and different veggies so it's not always the same thing. I will definitely try the 5-5-5 thing. And I'll likely start over again here in a few days. All in all if it maintains, I lost 7.5 lbs in about 6-7 days. My ankles don't look swollen and I have greatly increased my water consumption. That in itself is a huge feat for me. I will continue my sojourn again here in a few days when I start back up.

Day 7

Day 7 was kind of a bust for me. I am definitely not getting in enough calories so I made the decision to kind of cheat on my "diet" if you will. Really all I've been doing is juicing in addition to eating raw. I have been feeling really tired and I don't think it was due to detoxing. So with that in mind, I opted for a tuna fish sandwich and a pickle. After I ate it I felt a little sick. And then while feeding my little one, I couldn't resist finishing his teriyaki chicken which all in all only turned out to be out 5 bites. But I cheated none the less. I did, however, find the energy I needed to clean my house and finish my laundry. Things, I have been putting off because I was too tired so I guess it was a good thing. The only thing is, I weighed myself at night and I was retaining water. Not such a great night. I didn't get in enough water to compensate for my workout.

Day 6

Another day of salads and juice. I am feeling a bit fatigued and I think that I need to up my calorie intake again. I thought I was getting enough in but in retrospect, I don't think I am. I added a slight amount of olive oil into my diet so that should help. I may be wrong altogether because I'm not really sure how many calories are in my salad or in my juices. I didn't get enough water today so far so I will be off to hydrate after this. It probably didn't help that my dressing consisted mostly of balsamic vinegar. Needles to say my mouth is a bit dry. I have a headache tonight but I'm sure that is because of hydration issues. I am still waiting for the energy to kick it but it's probably because I'm not eating enough. And tomorrow I had considered doing the juicing alone again. We'll see. I am down 7.5 pounds from when I started this journey. That is about a pound a day. Let's hope this continues. I researched my BMI and I have to get down to "high school weight" in order to be comfortable on the scale. I hope it doesn't come down to that. It might take me awhile for that feat. Here's hoping.

Day 5

Just a quick one tonight. I walked almost 7 miles today and it started out great but by the end we had slowed a bit. I am exhausted and tried to find time to take a nap today but it didn't work out. I've noticed that the more food I eat the less I drink so I'll have to change that. In fact I didn't juice once today. I ate an apple for breakfast and had two salads today so I'm thinking that I still need to juice so that i can up my caloric intake. On the bright side, I lost another pound today. I weighed in after my walk and after lunch. I hope I can level this out to where I have the right amount of calories and exercise along with losing weight. I don't want to screw up my insides.

Day 4

At the end of day four I feel like an idiot. I guess if you are going to try and follow a plan you should know what the plan is. I read too much into something and thought that this juice fast was entirely juicing. It's not. Just found out today that the first 5 days of the "fast" are pretty much a vegan/raw foodist diet with juice to supplement and then there are 5 days of just juice then 5 days of vegan/raw foodist diet juice supplement again. I am an idiot. I could have been eating solid food for the past 3 days and didn't know it! Stupid me! Anyway, to make up for it I had a salad for dinner with an oil and balsamic vinegar dressing that I made and just lettuce, spinach, and red bell peppers. It's a good thing I found this out now because I just signed up for a half-marathon and was wondering where I was going to get the energy to do it. Lesson learned. Don't be an idiot! Other than that I am feeling fine. Still have the occasional headache and still have a dry mouth but I had the dry mouth before I started. I still haven't gotten hungry really. I have been eating...or rather, drinking but not enough. Hopefully with the addition of solid food I can get some fiber and some more calories in. Who would have ever thought a fat person would try to get more calories in their diet?

Day 3

I spent most of the day home today so no headaches. I guess that is good. I had watermelon again and another Jamba smoothie. This time I got the peach perfection. This included a peach juice blend, mangoes, peaches, apple strawberry juice blend, and strawberries. I'm thinking this fast food kick of mine hasn't really been kicked if I'm still going out to eat, but I can safely say that I haven't had a real craving for french fries or that type of fast food even though my family has eaten it twice this weekend. We don't normally eat out a lot but The Man has been off work so we took the kiddos out to do some fun stuff before the summer's end. Doing this juice fast has made me realize how much food I consume on a daily basis. Being a "bored eater" means that instead of doing laundry or cleaning my house, I am eating something so I don't have to do those things. Now, I drink water while I do things. Usually if I were thirsty I would have a tendency to get a piece of fruit instead of a glass of water. I hope that is something I can change from now on. Though fruit is healthy, I didn't need food, I needed water. I can understand why the people on the website fat, sick, and nearly dead call it a reboot. Now after reading through some of the info on that website, I am realizing that I'm not taking in enough juice. I need to step it up a notch and juice more. I guess I'll be juicing more now. I had been doing about 32 oz per day of juice and then water the rest of the day. I'm pretty sure I'm not getting enough calories. I'll have to fix that and then we'll see what happens next. I have lost a total of about 5 lbs since the beginning of the fast but part of that could be due to my "last meal" being so heavy.

**Warning**
Gross information ahead. If you do not wish to hear it, finish reading here. I warned you.





On a more disgusting note, I haven't had a bowel movement since I expelled my "last meal" so I hope upping my juice intake will help. I've tried to have one but nothing seems to be there. No gas or anything. I'm sure you all wanted to know that.

Day 2

So this juice fasting thing isn't as hard as I thought it would be so far. But that is probably because I've been keeping busy these last two days. As I am a "bored eater" that probably helps. Today, like yesterday, I feel like I cheated again. Today worse than yesterday. I think I have resigned myself to the fact that I'm going to eat watermelon during this "fast" so it won't be a true juice fast as they say. But today I went to Jamba Juice and had a fruit and veggie smoothie which is probably not allowed on this fast. I ordered a "Berry UpBeet" smoothie and according to their site it is made of strawberries, blueberries, mixed berry juice, red vegetable juice which is made of carrots, beets, broccoli, spinach, kale, and lettuce, and then topped off with some mango and ice. I asked the girl at the counter and she said there were no additives or sugar added to the smoothie. It wasn't bad though I could taste something...different in the smoothie, probably because I don't normally eat beets. Anyway, I made a large batch of juice this morning but with school coming up I took one of my kids out for school clothes. When I left I felt fine, energetic even, and I'd only had 16 oz of juice and a small amount of water. But after about 2 or so hours I started to get a headache. I toughed it out for a couple more hours and then couldn't take it anymore. I went home and then tried to drink water. I ate some watermelon, drank some water and it seemed to get better but not enough to take away the desire for an excedrin. Here it is 10:00 at night and my head is aching, my stomach is a little upset and I am thinking I should just go to bed. I don't know if this is what is considered detoxing or what but I could do without the headache. It has me questioning how long I am going to stick with this. I had planned on going for 10 days to 2 weeks but I may only last as long as I have food. I haven't really had any cravings until my dear husband decided to be so kind as to eat a pickle in front of me and rub it in my face. I weighed myself this morning and I don't know what to make of it because my previous weigh time was in the evening so we'll see what we get in the morning just to be safe. I know you shouldn't weigh in every day but I'm trying to see what this does and if I have too much weight loss in a day or even weight gain I don't want to try my luck. So at the end of my day, I have a dull headache, a slightly upset stomach, and very slight swelling to my ankles.

Today's juice consisted of
4 bunches of spinach
2 cups of watermelon
half a large peach
half an orange bell pepper
9 baby carrots
2 celery stalks
1 lime

It made about 32 oz

I'm back.

It has been awhile since I last blogged here. Between writing other blogs and trying to stay sane during this summer I have dragged my feet on exercising. So here I am again. Trying to start up again. I have this thought in my mind that one day I will be skinny. I'm sure we all have that same thought. I have done well maintaining so far but I think my days of riding that train have passed. I am not usually one for fads and I've probably said that before but really, I'm not. However, I lately I have been feeling a bit depressed with myself. Not seeing any changes in my body and not feeling it either. Then I saw a video of myself and the one part of my that I always thought was thin...was not. When did I get so pudgy? I don't know. I know the camera adds weight or so they say, but I think that is just an excuse fat people tell themselves to make them feel better. I know I do.
I watched a documentary on juicing and was intrigued so here I am at the end of my first juice fast and I want to take the time to say how I am feeling.

I started my fast out terribly by making sure I had my "last supper" the night before. Wings. Lately they have been making my feel kind of sick so I haven't eaten them in awhile. So, in their regular fashion, I got sick last night. We had a hot night last night so I didn't get much sleep. It seemed no matter where I went in my house I couldn't cool off. So I woke late this morning. Probably about 9 am. I had a busy day planned so I hurriedly juiced two wads of spinach, half a large green apple, two sticks of celery, and a handful of baby carrots. It wasn't bad I suppose. My Breville juice fountain is great. It is quick and painless and there isn't a lot of prep work to be done. I bought mine used. For the most part it is easy to clean. I rinse all the debris off mine right after I juice so nothing sticks but I still have gunk in places I can't reach. I may have to buy a cheap bottle brush or something to clean the spout.
It is almost eleven as I write this and I am not hungry at all. I probably cheated a bit because we had such a busy day today and I didn't have water or anything available so I was pretty dehydrated when I got home since I only had about 10 oz of juice and a little bit of water this morning before we left so instead of juicing I just ate some watermelon. Overall I have not been hungry. I am a bored eater so I am feeling that a little bit right now. I am trying to up my intake of water and have made a conscious attempt to bring it up but I'm sure I'm still not drinking enough. So at the end of day one I am drinking to make up for not drinking while I was gone. I'm not hungry, not tired, not ornery, um....what else do they say you feel? I'm good. That's all I can say. I even passed up fast food today without a problem. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

It's March already??

Where has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday that it was New Year's and now it's St. Patty's day. Well, within that time I have nursed a sick child, gotten lazy, and fallen behind on my running. My best bud challenged me to a goal for this year which is double what I had initially intended upon doing so I am somewhat stressed trying to fit it all in. I thought 180 miles last fall was bad, I am going to be running ragged just to get in as much as I can because 1000 miles? 1000? Really? I don't know. I calculated it out and found that since I started up so late I have to log at least 25 miles each week throughout the rest of this year. No breaks, no vacations, no excuses. I know some of you think that isn't that hard but when I go with my walking partners, they go at a pace which only allows me to do about 4-5 miles in my allotted time frame. And then on the rare occasion that I am able to go myself, I go faster but I often do less than I would have with a buddy. So today I am at 19 miles for the week and it's Thursday. I have to make up an extra mile or two tomorrow and/or run on Saturday also. Working around The Man's schedule can be difficult but having to take the three Things with me is even more challenging. Wish me luck!

Trying to pick up the pieces

It feels like forever since I have blogged or really ran. It probably has been too. I have found the longer it is between workouts, the harder it is to get back into the groove of things. My pace has severely suffered or maybe it is my buddy's pace but I have slowed significantly and it upsets me. I am not far off my weight so I don't think it will take much to get back into the swing of things pretty quickly. As for the pace, it hasn't really helped that The Man hasn't been home much to babysit Thing Three or occasionally Things Two and Three which leaves me with a stroller or not going at all. I need to do something soon. My friend challenged me to do 1000 miles in 2011. I had only planned on doing 500! I thought that was ambitious! Apparently not. I have to get going on things today! I am going to try something new. If I can start losing more weight I think that it might encourage me to do better. Here's hoping! I am going to incorporate more protein into my diet. We'll see how it goes and I'll let you know.

And then there was none...

I ended 2010 with such motivation and dedication to keep running. Here it is, a new year with all the resolutions that come with it (I have made none so far weight-wise), and I find myself at a loss. It has been cold and my buddies have more often than not punked out on me so I find myself going at it alone. This has been to my detriment. I bought Zumba and have done it twice and am feeling it but I miss the feeling of accomplishment after a run. I only go now on occasion with my brother and my best bud has challenged me to run 1000 miles this year. My original goal was only 500 but she said I was being a wuss. So I find myself again wondering, "What do I do?" I don't want to punk out on myself and not complete the 1000 miles but I wonder if I can make up for time lost when the weather warms up. I am content to do Zumba right now as I feel like it is making a difference because about an hour later I am sore, not bad sore but sore-I just found some new muscles-sore. Summer maybe very busy for me if this keeps up because I don't know how I'm going to squeeze in 1000 miles with Things 1, 2, and 3 in tow. I will do it though! I just wish there was someone out there to push me a little harder. The rec center near my house is supposed to open soon so I am hoping that I can catch a lot of miles there. X Fingers crossed! X

A new year, a new me! Sort of...

So I made it through the holidays eating lots of chocolate and drinking carbonated beverages; both of which, I normally don't do and I am okay. Hooray for small favors. Christmas day brought me something that I wasn't expecting and it was good and bad. I won't address the bad because it falls under the TMI category so I'll move on to the good. I lost another pound. The scale actually said two but it only said it once so I'm only counting one. Considering the fact that I haven't exercised since before Christmas I am quite pleased with myself. I had envisioned myself rolling out of bed (literally) because I had gorged myself over the holidays. Luckily that is not the case. I am happy.