First thing's first....I've never blogged before. This is my first time, so don't expect it to be good, witty, or very interesting. If you're here, then you're here for one thing...you are curious about juicing. Today, I'm curious about juicing too. I've never juiced before.
What is juicing you ask? And what exactly is my plan?
Here is everything you need to know about the journey I'm about to embark on:
How did my curiosity about juicing come to be? I'll explain...
About a week or so ago I was browsing Netflix trying to find something interesting to watch. I came across the title "Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead". It sounded kind of interesting so I watched it. The documentary is about Joe Cross and what he did to take control over his weight and his health. He was overweight and had a skin condition that he took medication for to keep it at bay. He decided he no longer wanted to be a slave to gluttony or to medication...so he traveled across America with a juicer and juiced his way to health and shared the experience with anyone he met that seemed interested. Needless to say, this documentary profoundly affected me.
I'm not going to lie...first and foremost the idea of losing weight was what really grabbed me. My health is secondary....it's a vain world we live in.
I've been overweight for most of my adult life. I've been on every diet I could find and took every pill offered in hopes of a quick fix. I basically refused to eat right or exercise because surely at least ONE of these weight loss gimmicks HAD to work. Boy, was I wrong. Not only did all the dieting and pill-popping mess with my head, it also had a detrimental impact on my health. The only success I had ever had with my weight loss was in taking ephedra. If you don't live under a rock you know that ephedra is very bad for your heart and is now banned in the USA. Luckily, as far as I know, my heart is fine. I did manage to lose 50 pounds in about 5 months, but it did not change my psyche and after about 6 months of thinking I looked fabulous I again began to pack on the weight. When I took ephedra, my weight changed, but my habits did not.
At my highest weight I was 195ish....that's a lot for a 5'1" frame to carry.
Secondly, in the documentary Joe was suffering with a skin condition that caused severe hives, burning and discomfort. I too suffer with a skin condition. I've had acne since puberty. I'm now 41 years old and STILL have acne. I have tried everything to cure it from Accutane to Zinc. NOTHING has worked. My acne isn't as bad as it used to be because I finally got wise and decided to quit putting chemicals on my skin. Now I only use natural skin products...namely a line called 100% Pure. I still have about a dozen "spots" on my face at any given time, but it's not as bad as it used to be. However, it still is the bane of my existence....along with this extra weight. Since I'm putting natural products ON my body, it's time to put natural products IN my body!
After watching "Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead" I decided THIS WAS GOING TO GET MY HEALTH AND MY LIFE BACK ON TRACK. I did research, read blogs, watched YouTube videos, and even joined a Facebook support group that is derived off of juicing. The juicing program I'm doing is called a Reboot. I will drink nothing but juice. NOT the juice you're thinking of. The juice you buy in stores is mainly fruit juice and loaded with sugar and other additives. I'M talking about REAL juice...plant juice! I bought a Breville Juicer, just like the one Joe Cross uses in the documentary.
Here she is:
Isn't she pretty?! She is going to be my best friend.
Starting tomorrow (January 5, 2015) I will be drinking nothing but 80% vegetable juice and 20% fruit juice for 3-5 days. This will be somewhat of a trial run...and there is an event I'm attending that weekend and I don't think I will have the willpower to continue juicing. I'm human dammit.
On Monday, January 12, 2015 I will do another 3-5 day juice feast (it's normally called a juice fast, but I'm going with feast since it has more positive connotations). And again, the weekend off to partake in another previously planned event.
Then, the biggie...On Monday, January 19th I'm going to attempt a 30 day juice feast. My husband has agreed to do the first ten days with me! Amazing!!!! That will be a HUGE help!
Now, you are probably thinking this is insane and convoluted....but please....follow along with me and lets see if this pans out. And before you say it's unhealthy, etc...do your homework, watch the documentary yourself, read some articles. Just don't criticize me for doing this. I have spent the last 41 years putting total crap in my body and you never said a peep, so now that I'm mainlining micronutrients you have NO right to fault me!
Onto the hardest part of this blog...
I've searched for weight loss blogs before for inspiration, and ironically I've found very few that have progression photos. If you don't have photos, then I don't read. We are a very visual society and if I can't see a before and after with statistics, then I move on. If you say you lost 100 pounds but you have no photos, then I don't believe you. For all I know you could be 300 pounds and 8 feet tall...that might be very proportionate, but just saying you're 300 pounds means nothing. I want to know how that looks on you. And then I want to know what 200 pounds looks like on you. So, as I said, this is the hard part. Here are some photos my husband took of me TODAY...one day before I'm starting my feast. I'm embarrassed to post these, but it must be done. I'm going to stall as long as I can...so what else can I talk about first?
La-di-dumb.....
La-di-dah.....
{Crickets}
Oh, hell....here you go:
That's 180 lbs (pounds)...the font I used makes it look like it says 1801 bs. I don't weigh 1801, but this is indeed BS! The clothes I'm wearing will be my results outfit each time I take a photo for comparison purposes. The shirt is a Third Man Records/Jack White t-shirt I got when we visited Nashville this past summer. The tag says XL... Holy balls. In my opinion it should be also marked "juniors" but they claim this is a woman's cut t-shirt in XL...whatever. Either way I want to be able to wear this shirt out in public some day.
And here is me after I got into some "street clothes":
The jeans are tight, but I can still breath at least. They are "Miss Me" jeans from The Buckle and the waist size says 32, but in reality, when I measure my waist the tape measure reads 41 inches...so I don't know who they are trying to kid with these jeans.
And now for my face....my pimple-nosed-pig face. I hate my skin. I loathe my skin. But here it is:
I seem to get most of my breakouts on the right side of my face (the side I mainly sleep on, and yes, I DO change my pillowcase), and also on and under my chin...which I why I took a close-up of the chin area.
So, enough about me. Let's commence this journey, shall we?
Today is the eve of my very first juice feast. According to Joe Cross and his Reboot program you should ease into the feast by cutting out caffeine, alcohol, fried foods (any bad foods really), etc. at least a week before your feast. Well....I did not. Today for breakfast I had two fried eggs and ham.
For lunch I had my favorite, MEXICAN FOOD! I had a "Fajita Quesedilla" smothered in melted cheese, refried beans, rice, chips, salsa, and guacamole. I had water to drink....hey, I try.
For dinner I might have my first juice, since we will be going to the store tonight to get all my juicing supplies. Actually, I'm typing this first blog entry when I should be making my grocery list.
So, there ya have it! This is me, this is what I'm doing. Nanna-Nanny-Boo-Boo.
Stay tuned....
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