Almost there - Day 20!

I know, total slacker in not keeping up with this. I had been tracking at home in a little journal that comes with the program...for about 7 days and I quit that too. This has been a very difficult program for me. Day 13 was almost my last. My stomach hurt and I was sick of feeling edgy, hungry and unsatisfied. I didn't take my afternoon or evening supplements that day. But, I also didn't eat anything I shouldn't and waited for ML to get home. I don't remember now why, but for some reason it seems I waited a long time for her to get home. And she convinced me to stick with it just a little longer. And I didn't want to some day regret not finishing...so I stuck with it. And Day 14 was so much easier.

The last week has been easy compared to the first two weeks. The real difficulty is the constant thinking about, shopping for, and preparation of food. Not ever being able to rely on convenience is SO HARD. Every other night, I cook dinner, then a couple of hours later I cook the next few days lunches. Something is being steamed every night for dinner, then a little while later something else is being steamed for the next day's lunch. I learned it was too gross to cook too much in advance. Two days worth seems about right. When you are eating basically the same or similar stuff everyday, sans seasoning for the most part, you want it fairly freshly cooked. Trust me on this.

Juicing has been a good part of this. I bought a juicer a couple of years ago thinking I would juice all kinds of stuff, esp. veggies (since I have a hard time eating many of them). But, like many things, it was hard to do, it takes a lot of veggies (or fruit) to get very much juice, and the veggie juice didn't taste too good. So, the juicer got put away and didn't see the light of day until 20 days ago. Now, something is being juiced every other day or so. Mostly carrots. ML loves putting carrot juice in her supplement shakes. There are currently 15 pounds of organic carrots in our refrigerator. Does that tell you anything about how much carrot juice is being consumed? I like apple juice in my afternoon supplement shake. It is soooo much more delicious freshly juiced than buying the bottles.

I'll do a final post wrapping up the program, how I felt/feel etc in a day or two! The worst part of getting to the end...being excited to be able to eat a wider range of food while simultaneously being afraid to eat a wider range of food.

Day 10

Oops, it's been a little while since I've updated. Thinking about the last few days, though, if I had updated every day it would have likely said, "repeat of yesterday". I seem to be in a flow, or routine right now. I feel pretty good throughout the day until dinner time hits. I get suddenly VERY hungry and irritable. The thought of only eating vegetables (ok, with a measly 1/2 c. brown rice) PISSES ME OFF! Which feeds the irritability...

I finally decided I wasn't likely getting enough protein, so I added some of the extra whey packets we had for this to one shake per day and started adding another scoop to my shakes. ML is eating lentils, but after two days of lentils I couldn't eat another one and switched to the rice. I think the extra protein has helped. Tomorrow we get to add chicken and fish, if we want. IF WE WANT?? I've been targeting this day since day one..."If I can just get to day 11 and add meat" It better help a lot or I'm not sure about getting through the last 10 days.

My eating routine has been basically the same the whole time, so I don't feel like duplicating those entries. I've done fruit variations for the shakes, but honestly, they all taste about the same anyway. The only thing I haven't followed for this is we are supposed to eat twice as many vegetables as fruit, and I am probably eating more like 50 - 50. I just can't seem to eat any more veggies than I do. But, maybe alongside chicken and fish, those veggies will go down better and not sit so hard in my stomach. Please?

Feeling Better - Day 5

Day 5 was a much better day. I worked from home (luckily that is an option for me at times) so that I would have anything I needed and in case I didn't feel well again. But throughout the day I felt pretty good. I kept everything the same - shake in a.m., cucumbers and carrots for snacks, shake for lunch, asparagus for snack, and portobello cap, asparagus, brown rice for dinner. By dinner time my stomach was starting to hurt a little and I was getting a little light headed, but this was minor compared to Days 3 and 4. Then went to water aerobics and 10 mins in the sauna. The exercise didn't feel as good as it did Monday, but it did feel good.

The stomach pain throughout this is hard to describe. It is not hunger pain, not nauseous, not real pain. Maybe just a pit in the stomach, maybe part craving. I don't know, but I'm glad it's mostly gone. Now, if I can just lose the lightheaded-ness and bloating. Have lost 7 pounds!

Day 4

Waiting for a breakthrough in how I feel before coming up with a more exciting title for these posts. Day 4 was more of the same, with an added twist. It was the first day back to work since starting this program. I felt generally ok getting up. I was hungry and a little lightheaded. Had my shake - been mixing up the fruit combinations each time. They've all been pretty good, but it makes me so cold drinking them.

Decided to change the routine because of work and have more substantial food at lunch and shake again at dinner, nibbling on veggies in between. So I had asparagus, mushrooms, a beet and my half cup brown rice at lunch. It was pretty decent actually. But my head was still feeling a little out there with an off and on headache. Focusing was difficult as was decision making. I drank through all the water I took (filtered, of course) and was feeling frustrated. My work could be done at home on the computer, so I left for the day in the middle of the afternoon.

My emotions were really going after me. I was frustrated and losing my resolve. I turned down an invitation from a friend that I wanted to do but was afraid to say yes because of how I was feeling...and that just about ended it for me. I felt like crap physically and worse mentally. I wanted to quit. But I forced myself to go through my routine until ML got home, who I knew would boost me up.

So, I kept working, went to a meeting, came home and steamed more brown rice, steamed asparagus, made more "magic" broth, cut carrot sticks, ate some carrots, ate some asparagus and watched the men's bball team get walloped. And when ML got home @ 9:30 she boosted me up. So I'm still doing it. This is early day 5. I feel better now. We'll see at the end of the day.

Day 3

Yesterday was day 3 and it was horrible. I normally write this at the end of the day but was too moody to do it yesterday. Edgy, sad, desperate for food. But not really hungry. Headache and light headed. I didn't want to go to water aerobics because I felt like crap and was getting a little dizzy, but glad I did. Class went well and I felt great afterwards. And hungry, not just cravings. Also, got a lot done. Steamed some beets, helped ML juice some carrots and a few other things. I'll try to update about Day 4 later, but a warning...it hasn't been much better than day 3.

Day 2

Well, the second day has not been as bad as I thought it would be. I slept in a little while because I had quite a headache. I don't know if it is from this program or a sinus headache I would have anyway. It hurt bad enough that I took some ibuprofen even though I didn't want to - but I'm glad I did. It helped the day be productive.

I had a shake this morning and it filled me up. We went to the Y in the early afternoon. I worked up a sweat, but didn't push it too hard since I wasn't sure how I was going to feel throughout the day. We did a little shoveling the snow off the driveway when we go home, then cleaned up. I still wasn't really hungry, but had another shake. Filled me up again.

I spent some time prepping more food and nibbled on some steamed asparagus and carrot sticks just to start getting some veggies in. Dinner was a portobello cap, lentils, salad and a couple of beets. It didn't go down so well. My stomach got a little upset. I ate a half a banana a little later and my stomach feels better.

ML kept herself very busy today and felt pretty good. She was a little more hungry than me throughout the day, but nothing too extreme. She goes to work for part of the day tomorrow and is trying to strategize that. I have one more day at home. I am glad to have started this over a three day weekend - it would be too hard to start this and work too.

Many trips to the bathroom yesterday to pee resulted in losing 2 pounds in one day. I'm not doing this for the weight loss, but I'm hopeful it will be a nice benefit. Not so many trips today - body must already be getting used to something. On to day three.

Time to Purify

ML and I are starting a purification program. It is a 21 day process to eliminate toxins from our bodies. The benefits are supposed to be numerous - feel better, more energy, improved health, etc. Here is the program we are doing, take a look.
I have decided, under some pressure (you know who you are) to blog the experience. First, to help us record this journey so we can look back at the end to see the ups and downs and how we got to the wonderful (hopefully) end. Second, maybe this will help someone else decide whether they would like to try a similar experience.

DAY 1
Today was our first day. We wanted to be more organized, but we couldn't wrap our heads around what this was going to entail. We got up in the morning and had our first shake - fruit, water and protein powder. It was good, but cold. Not a great time to be drinking a very cold beverage (it was like 3 degrees outside, and pretty cold inside) I wanted coffee, tea, anything hot, just to warm up. Couldn't have it. Ugh. So we made a list of food to buy - those foods we knew we REALLY wanted to have in the house. And we took the list from the program booklet to see what else we could buy. What could we eat before shopping? A carrot. And I took an apple in case we had to drive around.

We went to Raisin Rack. I don't know why we tried a new (to us) store on the first day of doing this. They did have tons of organic produce, so we bought most of what we needed there. But we got hungry and overwhelmed. We ate our apples in the car and headed to Giant Eagle for the last couple of things. We were feeling a little out of sorts.

Finally, we got home, put food away and had another shake. Did we have something else? I don't remember. I put a pot on to make some vegetable broth - the hot beverage we would be able to drink for the next 21 days. We call it "magic" because a former health care provider said it helped with so many things it is like magic. Onions, beets, celery, carrots, cabbage...it simmered for 90 mins and tasted great! We have enough for the next few days.

Dinner was a salad, lentils, steamed asparagus. It was filling. Supplements throughout the day. We both feel lethargic. I have a headache that has been getting worse through the day. My stomach is a little upset but I don't feel sick. And we both feel bloated. Not a fun first day, but doable. See you tomorrow.