day 18

Good evening!

so, I have to keep this short and sweet   but I felt I owed you guys a post!!!  I have missed you all so much!!!

The last several days have been just one thing after another, and I have been exhausted.  I had conferences, sickness, depression, a friend in a horrible accident, bad days at work, bla bla bla bla bla…

anyways.  For the most part, everything has been going really well with the juice fast.  I have lost 14 pounds so far.  Not as much as I would have liked, but I have also been having a lot of fruit juice, and not a lot of exercise lately  

I promise all of you that I will make more of an effort to post daily, but please bare with me!  Tomorrow night, I am going to spend some time catching up with my two favorite fellow bloggers and their written words!!!  I think that they two of you probably know who you are!!! 

My currently favorite juice is: Pineapple/strawberry/blueberry/blackberry juice!  I nicknamed it DELICIOUS

and on the seventh day….

Andrew rested!  Let the “God Complex” jokes begin..haha.  jkjk.  So, basically, I feel like what the left over pulp in the waste bin of my juicer looks like.  was that an effective description?  But im not going to let that get me down.  I have other things for that  

So, I got out of bed a total of three times today.  Once for juice, once for juice AND to watch an episode of “Revenge”, and once because my neighbor wanted to see if I was okay “since I didnt go to work today”.  How perceptive of my neighbor to notice I didnt go to work.  They have been my neighbor for six months…I wonder why they havent noticed that my schedule is monday-friday from 8ish-or-so-til-5ish-or-so-but-more-realistically-4:10   and that I dont EVER work on saturdays UNLESS there is a super duper huge deal that I have to get things done on and the world will end if I dont have their accounts set up before open of business on monday….and that has only happened ONCE!!!  I think that they were more interested in finding out what the lawnmower sound coming from my kitchen at 5:45 every morning this week has been   So, I obviously had to have a little bit of fun with this once that question came up…right?  So, I told them that it was super secret and that they couldnt tell anybody, but that I had been kidnapping all of the other neighbors cats one at a time because I dont like cats and that I was “hiding” them in the garbage disposal.  I kept a straight face for about 3.2 seconds, and then I bust out laughing and told them all about the juice fast.  and believe me, it was a painful laugh…so painful, I almost lost the delicious potato/carrot juice that I had just consumed.  needless to say, my neighbor did not find it as funny as I did   but oh well.  apartments are full of people who are convinced that their neighbors are psycho animal murderers…right?  I mean, the guy in 12E is either stealing peoples puppies and killing them for food, or he is running some sort of temporary animal shelter at his place.  And I dont care that he happens to work for the humane society, the first one seems more logical!   I may or may not have taken some pain killers a little bit ago….please disregard anything that I could have possibly said….I dont really remember all of what I have typed, and I dont feel like reading through it again.  there are probably 9000 spelling errors and I dont want to think about it. 

On a side note, I also spent some time looking at potential alternate jobs today.  my company, still remaining nameless, is changing my departments compensation plans, and unfortunately, not for the better.  So, it is time to dust off the old resume…which I was recently told looks more like an application for M.I.T. than a resume

anyways, one cool thing I did find today is that if any of your are looking for a new high quality juicer, there is one on the online deals section of GROUPON.COM that gets you 51% off of a pretty decent juicer!  have a looksey loo if you need a new one.  I just want one with a bigger chute so I dont have to cut everything so small   I should have thought about then when I bought this one.

day 6 (post for prior day)

Good morning world.  As you probably noticed, I did not make a post last night…which killed me.  I was very unhappy about that little aspect.  The next paragraph is going to be explaining why I was unable to post last night.  It has to do with the detox process from the juicing, but it is kind of gross, so if you have a weak stomach, or dont want to know, skip to the third paragraph.

As one of my fellow juicers has so delicately put it, doing a juice fast “cleans you out like Mt. St. Hellen”.  And that was very true the first couple of days.  the increase in gasses caused by the higher intake of raw veggies and fruits effectively loosens and causes the body to discharge old hard and drying food from the intestinal track.  This is usually a very good thing!  I apparently have a section of my intestinal track that is much easier for digested particles to get stuck in, causing a larger buildup of hard old food than is normal for a person.  This loosend and discharged last night…which is a good thing, I suppose.  But, because this was a larger buildup that is normal, it was very difficult to discharge, causing a rip in the rectum, which led to a somewhat significant blood loss for such an injury.  I am going to be fine, and my doctor said that continuing the juice fast is perfectly fine for me to do. 

On a much less gross note, yesterday went fantastic!  It was a rather long day at work, which I am finding makes it so much easier because my mind is not on food anyways.  I am sure that the weekends are going to be more difficult for me.  next week though, our entire company is gathering in Nebraska for a three day conference.  During this, they are feeding everyone breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Juice is not on their menu   so, I have to make enough juice each morning to last me 12 hours. 

It is 11:00 am here right now.  I havent actually had any juice yet today.  and right now, I am just really tired, and am going to lay down.  I will post again tonight.

May there be luck, hard work, and success for each of us!

Juicer Users Manual

okay, so I forgot that I was going to make a little bit of a rant about………..wait for it…………….the instruction manual for my juicer.  A juicer should be something that is fairly simple.  for tho most part, it comes pre-assembled in the box, or is fairly simple to figure out.  for those that may need a little bit of direction, there can be a half page assembly guide.  good.  grand.  GREAT.  so, last night I cant sleep, so I decide to whip out the handy dandy user guide for my juicer.  142 pages!  WTH???!!!  so, I flip through it.  there are no recipes in it, there are no fancy words, definitions, assembly diagrams…just 142 pages of “BLA BLA BLA BLA BLA BLA BLA BLA BLA BLA”  in 11 LANGUAGES.  English and Spanish are a must, in America Chinese is probably another must.  French and Italian are probablies.  Well, let me tell you.  this guide had English, and then it had British.  BRITISH!  That is not even a language!!!!!!!  Its freaking English with fancier words!!!!  ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?  And then it had Spanish (Southern and Central American), Spanish (Spain).  Then it had two dialects of Chinese.  and mind you, I am only counting these doubles as 1.  so, really there were 14 sections to this freaking book.

What kind of directions do you really need on a juicer.  “insert slot A into tab B.  Plug in.  Wash fruit and veggies.  Peel if need be.  Cut into pieces that fit in the hole.  Turn on Juicer.  put items in juicer.  empty recepticle A into recepticle B.  Clean Juicer.”

I barely needed a paragraph.  I am going to send them my resume and offer my services and experience as a previous Director of Marketing just to save them a billion dollars a year in paper costs for printing a bible with every juicer when all they need, even if they want to keep all the languages is an 11×17 sheet of newsprint split into quadrants with simple, easy to follow directions on them.  My DYSON was more difficult to assemble, and its directions?  well, they came on a 5×7 index card…which still had four languages on it.

Now I feel better

CINCO DE ENERO? MI GUSTA!

Okay, so I dont speak spanish.  Well, barely any…lol.  And I am dealing with it   Cinco de Enero doesnt have quite the same ring to it.  I have wanted to learn spanish for a very long time.  I mean, a really long time.  Somehow, though, I managed to pass both spanish 1 and 2 in highschool, and not learn a full paragraph…lol.  So,  when I went and spent a substantial amount of time in Cuzco, Peru, South America and I got by with only knowing simple phrases like “how much is this”, “How about this much”, “where is the bathroom”, “Dont F*** with me”, “F*** your mother”, and “How do I get to blablabla Hotel”….well, I was just shocked as hell.

Anyways.  This is the end of day five.  Today hurt my stomach a bit.  I ran out of things in the fridge to make delicous well balanced juices, so I ended up making a juice very high in acid this morning, and that is what carried me through the majority of my day.  I did get to the store this evening, and came straight home to make a juice and go spend some time with JIM.  In this journey of mine today, I found my absolute FAVORITE JUICE EEVVVAAAHHHH!!!!!!!  It was really good. 

So, I get to the place JIM and I are going to hang out, and it is one kicking place tonight.  I went to the one at my apartments.  Its not tiny, or horrible by any means, but there was enough people to take up all the equipment   So, I bid my time until I could get on the elipticle, put in my 2 miles with JIM, and then I GTF outta there!  but, I decided that wasnt good enough.  the back entrance to our JIM is a super super steep hill.  like, really really bad.  so I decided to go up and down that hill a few times, adding a little incline into my workout   It wasnt so bad.  My calves hurt a little bit though. 

Today was a super long day at work.  I made a couple of proposals to a few different companies.  Just to indicate how stressful my job can be, one company I made a proposal to today generates about 13,000,000.00 per year.  Another company I made a proposal for today generates about 90,000,000.00 per year.  And a company I am making a proposal to next week gerates about 15,000,000,000.00 per year….so work is already very stressful.  So, ontop of all of this, my new computer system at work BLOWS.  The computer is lightyears faster than my old one, but nothing works.  It takes me three times as long to put together a proposal, I barely get half of my emails, and even at that, some of them are taking over a day to come in.  It is horrible.  But, I wont let that affect my performance, so I just have to work harder and smarter. 

Our office building is 40 stories.  It is the tallest building in the state of Nebraska.  We have three banks of elevators, each with five in it…so 15 elevators, and a set of stairs that goes all the way to the top  0.o  Every year, there is a stair race to the top!!!  40 floors of stairs!!!!!  OMG!!!!!!!!  I am so not in any shape to perform that feat this year, but It is my goal to WIN that race next year!  BAM!  There it is.  Suck on that people of Nebraska…lolz.  But no, seriously.

My legs hurt a little bit right now.  not to bad, and  certainly not enough to stop me, but enough to not be able to sit cross legged on the couch right now while im typing this.  My back is starting to feel better though.  I have been focusing a lot on my posture at work, and it has really been making a difference.  And, even with the leg pain, today is my LOWEST PAIN DAY in about three months!!!!!!!!!  So excited!  For those who dont know me well, I have Achilles tendonitis, Plantar Fascaitis, shin splints, Wolfe Parkinsons White syndrome, an enlarged heart, synesthesia, high blood pressure, severe nerve damage in my left arm, left thigh, and back, and a brain tumor.  So, this juice fast is more than just a diet for me, it truly is a fight for my life.  A fight that I intend to win!

In addition to all of the goals that I have made of recent, I have added one other.  It isnt a goal that I am going to share with anybody right now, just because I know a lot of people in my life that will ridicule me, and probably never speak to me again after I accomplish it.  Dont worry, its nothing like a sex change or anything like that, it is entirely to do with my career choices and ambitions.  And getting healthy and dropping weight has a lot to do with being able to acomplish this goal. 

Anyways.  dont you love how I just kept rambling on, and never did tell you what my FAVORITE new juice is?  hahaha.  are you ready for this?  are you sure?  it is HONEYDEW MELON/CUCUMBER JUICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Just a quarter of a honeydew melon and a medium cucumber make around 25 ounces of juice, and it is all delicious.  It is sweat without being without being real sugary, cool and soothing without being heavy.  Nice amounts of protein.  side note, leave the rind on the the honeydew.  It is not bitter at all when juiced, and it really ensures you get the most out of the melon.  A high percentage of the nutrients of a melon are in the rind.

Anyways (gawd, I have used that word a lot to night) that is my rant for the evening, and I am now done.  it is bed time.  well, I am going to finish writing my current chapter in the novel I have been working on, and then its bedtime!!!  Six in the morning comes rather quickly

May there be luck, hard work, and success for all of us!

p.s.  I dont listen to the radio very often, but I turned it on today on the way home, and I heard a song that has been around for a while, but I have never heard it before.  It is not normally what I would listen to, and it seems kind of odd, but I found it rather inspiring, and I downloaded it and jammed out to it while hanging out with JIM today.  Its called Price Tag by Jessie J.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMxX-QOV9tI

day FOUR

Konichiwa! Bokchoy?  just kidding.  I havent juiced any bok choy yet   today, I did have some delicious tomato/bell pepper/carrot/celery juice, a horribly un-delicious plain kale juice, and a super SUPER delicious apple/pear/orange juice.  I made tons and tons of the first juice, so I split it up into three 16 ounce servings. 

So, yesterday was my first bout in the gym.  Im not sure if you know this or not, but im fat…it didnt go so well.  last night, in a 20 minute session on the eliptical, I managed a whopping half a mile and half a heart attack…lol.  not really, it wasnt all that bad, but I am really out of shape.

Today, I went to the gym again, and had tons more energy than I did yesterday.  I managed a mile and a half in 22 minutes, so way better than yesterday. 

I also decided that I dont like the gym.  But I think that if I refer to the gym like a person, it may help   So from now one, Im going to say that I am going to hang out with JIM.  we will see if I can trick myself that way. 

My one thing today that I want to tell and tell again is DRINK LOTS OF WATER

Other than this, I dont have any big words of wisdom

May there the luck, hard work, and success for all of us!  and PopTarts arent a fruit!

JUICE FAST/FEAST SUPPORT GROUP on facebook!

Hey, just as a side note, I created a group on facebook called “juice fast/feast support group”, which can be found at this link.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Juice-FastFeast-Support-Group/244609132278568?skip_nax_wizard=true#!/pages/Juice-FastFeast-Support-Group/244609132278568

Feel free to join, comment, and even put links to your blogs on here.  Invite anyone you would like.

3rd days a charm?

Buenos Noches.  so, day three is drawing to an end.  I am wanting to have a grapefruit and blueberry juice right now, but juice intake for the day has come to a close.  Today went great!!!!!!

Today was my first day juice fasting at work.  I got some strange looks when I went to the kitchen area to add water to my juice.  It might be the odd colored juice I was about to drink.  It might be that the juice I had for lunch looked like the jolly green giants ass.  Not sure.  I do know though, that I HATE leeks.  I am not buying them again, and I hate them.  did I mention that I hate leeks?  Breakfast was my favorite today.  I had a delicious orange strawberry juice.  I was happy till the last drop, when I felt like crying because it was gone  

Did you know that there is this mysterious hour in the middle of the day where everyone on your floor goes to lunch, and you are basically the only person left there?  I got so much work done in that hour.  I hope i find it again tomorrow.  I wonder if I could get away with putting a juicer in my office?  they might stare when I bring up the mini fridge though.  Today, I also found out that my corporate gym offers 30 different classes a week!!!  what the hell was I missing there?  I am going to start with their rookie boot camp next week.  It is only offered on Mondays and Wednesdays.  I want to start it tomorrow, but I have a conference scheduled for the same time as the class   Its on my calander for next week though!!!  If you cant tell, my thoughts are a little bit scattered today.  all in all it was a really good day, but today was also a really high pain day, and I very much can not afford the $700-800.00 perscription for my pain medication.  I am hoping that this is one of the things that will go away during my juice fast.  but as I mentioned yesterday, I have spoken to a few people who have given me hope. 

I also met yet another person today that wants to start a juice fast.  I think that they are going to commit to a ten day juice fast, to see if they can handle it before doing a longer one. 

  I am looking forward to my 61st day.  Not to eat something real, but so I can look back and say “Konichiwa Bitches, I Effing did it!”.  plus, if my first 60 days goes okay, I think that I may go for 100 days to show support for another blogger (adilene8806) who is on a 100 day juice fast trek!!!

Now, does anybody feel like coming and kicking my ass to get me over to the gym? 

To all my fellow juicers:  May there be luck, hard work, and success for all of us!  And wash that damn fruit before you put it in your mouth

DAY DOS :)

So, this is the end of my second day of the 60 day juice fast.  My brain is telling me that I am starving.  I know that I really am not, I have taken in sufficient nutrients.  But, since there was no mastication, my brain is wanting food.  TOUGH.  you cant have any

I really wasnt feeling all that well today, but for those of you who know me, this is really not a surprise.  I have spoken with a few individuals who have nerve damage to a similiar extent as I do.  I was connected to them through another blog that I found about doing these juice fast diets.  One man that I spoke to told me about how after his 120 day juice fast, that he was almost pain free, and was able to get by without needing any lidocain at all!  Another man I spoke to had a very similiar story, and said that he is down to using his pain perscription only about once or twice a month!  I would be very greatful for either one of those scenarios. 

Yesterday, my stomach felt a bit unsettled by the end of the day, and after some research, i think that it has to do with a wonderful tip that Jessica posted in the comments on here.  My intake of highly acidic fruits was too high.  I have readjusted, and feel much better in that respect today. 

I wanted to go and do my weight in this last night, however the keycard I use to get into the gym at my apartment complex wasnt working.  I return to work in the morning after a long holiday though, and will be able to go to our corporate gym and do my weight in then.  I am also getting the schedule for workout classes in the morning.  I know that they have a 6:00 am bootcamp…but lets face it.  if you know me, you know that there is no way in hell that I will be there that early.  Its a 45 minute drive to the office, and I am not getting up at 4:30am every morning.  stop.  dont think that!  NOT GONNA HAPPEN..lol.  a bunch of people at the office are starting to go over the lunch hour though, so that is a thought.  otherwise, I could start going into the office earlier, say 7:00, and leaving around 3:00 and working out at the corporate gym directly after that. 

The thing that is a little bit dawnting about our corporate gym, is I dont like working out around a bunch of people who are in way better shape that I am.  It makes me feel weird, and like they are judging me (which I totally would if I were them).  And our gym is huge.  Maybe not huge in comparison to some others, but the biggest I have ever seen, by far.  There are 80 or so pieces of equipment just as you walk in.  Once you walk in far enough, you see another wing of the gym, which is a large (REALLY LARGE) classroom with dance bars and mirrors, and yoga mats and loud speakers, and an instructors platform, and line of public stockades with horse whips, and once you walk in, big metal bars come out of nowhere and lock you in and you can never escape…wait…I got a little carried away….go back to “instructors platform” and then skip the rest of the paragraph. 

And then, I work next to this guy that I wont name (GREG) who just kills me.  he eats whatever he wants, and it makes no difference.  he freaking eats spaghetti os, pringles, and coke every day for lunch, and never goes to the gym, and looks fine.  do you know people like that?  do you ever envision their face meeting your fist?  but, I would never do that, because he is actually a pretty cool guy.  DAMNIT. 

I almost took a bite of my celery today before I put it in the juicer.  in fact, I left teeth marks.  But I stopped myself.  I think tomorrow morning is going to be a delicious orange strawberry blueberry juice.  Early afternoon will be kale celery carrot juice.  Late afternoon will be leek apple pear juice.  and later in the eveving, a fantastic bell pepper lemongrass juice.  Lots and lots and lots of water (and maybe some green tea.  Not sure I can stop that…but no sweatner at all).  This will be my first day doing this through a work day.  wish me luck!!!

And to all of the others that I am encountering doing the same thing along the way, I wish you all the best of luck as well!!!

p.s. The goal is to lose 65 lbs by my 24th birthday, middle of June!

DAY 1: restraint

Good Morning, and happy 2012 (even those of you who believe this is the last year ever…lets make it count)

Restraint:

Today, I learned that I have it!  Even if it is in small doses, I have restraint   A good friend of mine and I are doing a “Juice Fast” detoxing diet.  And, its exactly how it sounds.  We drink juice.  Only juice.  Every day.  No food.  For 60 days…It is a very simple diet, incredibly healthy, documented by people all over the world, and endorsed by doctors that are local, and that I trust.  The whole thing is that you buy a juicer, and all you consume for whatever period of time you decide to do this is juiced fruits and veggies.  But not from a bottle at the store.  You get fresh produce, juice it, and drink it.  SIMPLE!!!! 

So, there I am, standing infront of my juicer, slicing all of the fruit for my morning Juice.  You have no idea how dificult it is to be slicing it all and getting ready to throw it in the juicer, and not just take a few pieces and eat them whole   This mornings juice consists of Grapefruit, Fuji Apple, Pear, Red Grapes, Strawberries, and Blueberries.  DELICIOUS.  But, I managed to fight with myself enough to get it all into the juicer without taking even a bite of that delicious pear!!!

Anyways, as the title indicates, this is the first full day of this adventure.  Later tonight comes the official weight in and the snapping of before pictures.  I have yet to decide if I am posting either of these things though.    Cheers!