Juicing Day1

Today was the day...the full blown juicing began. It was interesting and not too bad of a day. Here are some things I learned:

1. When juicing mangos, the juicer will smoke a bit if you don't take out that big seed (pit) in the middle. Since I always cut up the mango I never really got to that part so I never knew it was there. Juices much better when you pull it out. Hahaha!

2. I own a very powerful juicer because it shaved off quite a bit of that seed before I realized something was wrong.

3. Cucumbers can be violent. Do not just drop it in. Turn the machine off, load, and then turn on with the top covered.

4. Shockingly, a yellow hot pepper and some ginger make for an excellent addition when added to your morning juice.

5. Everything is a bit thicker than I expected. Not quite a smoothie but not quite juice. It is definitely not what I expected but still good.

6. When I think everything tastes like grass, my husband finds the juice kind of tastey.

7. It takes quite a bit of fruit to get a small amount of juice.

8. Cleaning a juicer post juicing is MANDATORY!

9. Pulp is gross. Especially when you have to stick your hand in it to pull it off of the top of the waste top.

10. If you line your waste container where the pulp goes with one of those baggies that your fruits and veggies come in from the store, your cleanup time is much easier.

So day 1 hasn't been bad. As I mentioned in last night's post, I used the slim fast method of juicing and miserably failed at it. I still decided to do that today since I was starting to go into exhaustion mode as I did when I was sick with fibro so I decided to give myself some REAL food. It was healthy though. Instead of the Doritoes that I bought yesterday, that smelled awesome, for a snack, I enjoyed some Vampire Killer Kale Chips that I had bought in the past from Brad's Raw Foods. They are just dehydrated kale with some vegan cheddar cheese and some garlic. I only ate around 8 of those and they aren't very big, so it was a small snack. For dinner we went to Chen's per Zac's request. He had juiced with me all day and was a bit on the starved side. So while he hit the buffet and had the awesome fried rice and crab rangoon, I hit the hibachi grill and had veggies. The only non-veggie thing I had today were some noodles that I picked up for the grill and some of those crunchy things that went in my Hot and Sour soup. Overall a good first day. I actually feel pretty good right now. Normally when I am exhausted at the end of the day, I am finding that I actually have some energy.

If you are considering juicing, I say go for it. It isn't all sweet and thin as it in the store so that will give you a different taste for sure. Anytime you juice kale, your juice will have a slight grassy aftertaste. It's not as bad with spinach, but definitely lets you know it's there by the green color you get. With day one over, I am excited to start Day 2 and see what it brings. I look forward to the weight loss and the mental clarity and all the other things that people rave about on this diet.

For those that want to know the recipes that I used today, they are posted below:

Breakfast:

Sunny G Juice

Ingredients:
2 mangoes
1 orange
1 yellow pepper (capsicum) ...I used an actual yellow hot pepper.
2 inch piece of ginger

Directions:

1.) Peel mangoes and orange and wash pepper.

2.) Slice off top of pepper and remove seeds.

3.) Cut pepper in half to fit into juicer chute.

(Overall had an orange juice taste but a slight spice to it that I liked. Where I usually have a somewhat queasy stomach, that was eased with the ginger.)

Lunch:

Spinach Lemonade

Ingredients:
8 cups spinach
2 lemons
1⁄2 cucumber
1 pear
2 granny smith apples

Directions:
1.) Peel lemons and core apples.

2.) Juice everything.

3.) Add a splash of all natural sweetener like stevia if you want to tame the sour/lemon flavor a bit. (optional).

(This has an overwhelming "greens" taste. Yes it taste like lemonade but it also tastes like grass. The only thing that I can compare it to is when you were a kid and would eat clover-if y'all did that-. I remember my next door neighbor telling me that it was ok to eat clover and some kind of flower and that is the exact thing that this tastes like.)

Dinner:

Fruit blast

Ingredients:
Handful of cherries
2 Handfuls of black seedless grapes
1/2 handful of green grapes
4 skinny organic carrots
1/2 pint of strawberries

Directions:
1) Thow everything in juicer (stems on cherries as well)

2) Pour over ice

3) For an added lighter flavor, after you have drank your first batch, add water over your ice and get a flavored water.
(This was a concoction that I threw together in order to stop burping up grass flavor. So I went for no greens but threw in some carrots to get my veggie fix. It was quite tastey.)

The trouble with juicing is...

Ya know, its hard to juice when you don't have a juicer. If you haven't read the last blog entry, it was all about the documentary "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" and how I have watched my realtor, Wade, shrink from a size 40 to a size 32 in the past few weeks. It got me intrigued with the juicing diet so I started the smoothie aspect of the juicing diet.

Fibromyalgia is no fun because you never know what shock is going to send you back into a flare. Shockingly, suddenly becoming healthy has sent me over the edge and my body will fight back...hard. Since I was just starting to heal from my last flare that took out the left side of my body, I didn't want to go too extreme and just jump on the juicing thing. So I kind of did a slim fast type approach. Do you remember that commercial? "Just replace 2 meals with our delicious shakes and then have a sensible healthy dinner for weight loss." Yeah, so basically I have gaved 3lbs back since my sensible meals consisted of eating out or having Little Ceasars for dinner. This is unacceptable.

So Monday evening, I bought a juicer. My sister-in-law advised me not to get a juicer until I was ready to take things serious and not buy the cheapest one out there. So I did some research and found a fairly inexpensive one for $60 that was rated #2 by Consumer Reports. With free 2 day shipping from Amazon, I am now the proud owner of a Hamilton Beach, Big Mouth 800 Watt Juicer. I just pulled it out of the box and set it up. Tomorrow I start my journey. Fruits and Veggies have been purchased. Recipes for various juices have been selected for tomorrows diet. My goal is to blog my entire journey so that I can see what works and what doesn't. Just like it is with Fibromyalgia, since nobody knows what causes it, you gotta try something out, test it out on you, and see what works for YOU!

Better get to bed so I can start this thing! Us fibromyalgia people need our beauty rest!

The trouble with a documentary is...

I am always willing to try a fad diet if I truly believe that it is healthy. If it is endorsed by a physician that I do not think is a quack, I really take notice. A person's testimony will also make me want to try a diet as well, if I look at them and see that they are healthy as well and seeing results. Thus, my new adventure begins...a juice fast.

During my healing process, the physical therapist that I love working with the most told me about doing a cleanse that she had recently done. She said for 3 weeks she did nothing but eat fruits and vegetables. After doing this for three weeks she said she began to reintroduce foods into her diet in order to find the culprit foods that she found to be causing her pain that she would have. Long story short, gluten was the trigger food for her ailments. I had considered doing this diet after she told me, but I was in no condition to do so at the time. Another stress on my already fatigued body was not the best thing for it. The thought was planted though.

That was about a month ago when she talked about her vegetarian cleanse. I have toyed with the idea of going meatless but have never truly thought that I could do such a thing. My sister-in-law told me about juicing (not the steroid type, but the actual making of juice) just in passing. It was more of a conversation overhead when she was talking about ways to get healthy. She said she was excited because she just bought a bunch of fruits and veggies to start her juicing. My friend, Amanda, chimed in and said, "Oh, you must have watched Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, then." They talked about it for a bit and then my attention was caught by another conversation going on. I later asked my SIL about the movie that Amanda had mentioned. She said that it is a documentary on Netflix that if I wanted to understand juicing that I should watch it. She said it is the diet that Wade did.

Wade is my realtor. In the few times that we have tried to sell our home, Wade has been through the process with us twice now. Wade is also SIL's husband's cousin (did you follow that okay? Hahaha!)He posted a picture on Facebook last week that had me in awe of a transformation. On the left it was a picture of him a year ago. He didn't look bad, but you could tell he wasn't the most healthy individual.  The picture on the right was him with a glow to his face, lack of a double chin, and just looking so healthy. He had documented a few times his juice fast on facebook and would take pictures of the juice he was drinking. I would read the comments and see where others that had done the diet before and most of the comments were something of, wait until day blah blah blah gets here and you get to experience this phenomenal event. Things mentioned were weight loss, of course, mental clarity, TONS of energy, etc. All were things that, as a fibromyalgia patient, I deal with. Its hard to lose weight, I want mental clarity, I WANT TONS OF ENERGY! This brought me to the conclusion...I had to watch that movie!

Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead is a documentary. It chonicals the life of Joe Cross who is in his early 40's and suffers from a rare disease called urticaria that causes him to break out in rashes (hives) all over his body and that there is no cure for. He has to take loads of medicine to mask the symptoms and is at his wits end with the disease. Now, I don't have hives, but I do have an incurable disease and am (was) at my wits end so I instantly took notice of everything he was doing. He is Austrailian and decides to visit the states as a sebatical to take on a juice fast. He documents his journey in this film and it is nothing short of remarkable. His goal is to get off of all of his medicines and get healthier.  He does his first 30 days in New York City where there is every food temptation imaginable. He does his second 30 days on the road on a trip across the US meeting people and telling them about his journey. His progress is managed by a physician who adjusts his meds along the way and he exercises and makes an active lifestyle change. He started out over 300lbs and dropped significant weight and achieved his dreams of living a healthier lifestyle. The best part is that he shared his knowledge along the way. He talked to a ton of people and found 2 others that the film documents as wanting to try the juice fast. The first is a lady who would probably be me. She said the shakes taste like grass, but later said that the taste grew on her and she uses juicing as a healthy alternative for meals on the go, but still eats a healthy meal in the evening. The most amazing transformation that you get to see start to finish is the story of Phil. He is a truckdriver and weights a whopping 429lbs. You see him hit rock bottom and you see him transform into this man who weights 220 now and is helping others along the way. The best part is that they are all monitored by a physician who gives the all clear and the weight loss is done safely and is approved. Another part that I love is that the weight melts off of these larger people. In just 30 days, Phil dropped 100lbs! It was so awesome to see the health shine out of him.

After watching this, and seeing other's struggles, I went to the internet. There is a plethora of juicers (people who juice, not the machine) out there and they love to share their receipes. I found one website where you type in what you are craving and they give you a recipe for a juice that will satisfy the hunger pains and fulfill the craving.I like knowing that there is a community out there that supports you as well as is rooting for you. I also like the education that goes with it. You learn about micro-nutrients vs. macro-nutrients and why your body does so well with the micro-nutrients.

The best part, as well, about this diet is that my husband is on board. I made a shake yesterday just to "try it out" and used my blender per my SIL's recommendation. I made a bunch and gave him a glass. He downed it. I thought it tasted like grass and all he could talk about was the banana that I put in it. I drank just a third of it and put my glass in the fridge and he drank the rest of it this morning. I think that with his support that I could do this. I had my first smoothie this morning and so far so good. I'm going to get online and check out some juice recipes and see what I can come up with for lunch. I look forward to updating you on the progress as I go through this healing process of my fibromyalgia.

Also, I want to leave you with this...DO NOT start this diet without the approval of your doctor. I have the all clear since I am healthy and not taking any medications right now. (Yeah, I weened off of them all as I started to feel better.) If you are taking medications, you HAVE to have an all clear from a doc or at least be monitored by a physician in order to do any kind of fast. I think that this diet is great and have hopes for it to do great things, but I don't want to endorse anything for YOU without you checking with your doctor first. I still plan to have a full checkup with Doc as I progress through this diet just to make sure that I am still doing well and that I don't need to tweak anything. (Have to take my own advice...right?) So, with that all being thrown at you, I hope that you reading about my progress and hope that you will check out the documentary, Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead.

The trouble with Paige is...

I have a friend named Paige. I had the pleasure of getting to see her when I checked into physical therapy yesterday. I have known her for just under a year, yet I feel like I have known her longer. Ya see, Paige is one of these people that is what I like to call the "insta-friend". You meet her and she is your friend. It's a lost art really, one that you usually only see in children, yet in a more mature fashion. I think that if I believed in reincarnation that she would have been one of those kindred spirits that I knew quite well in a past life. It's one of the many things that I like about Paige.

As I walked into physical therapy I was greeted by a small line at the check-in desk. There was an elderly lady who was there for her first day and was asking all kinds of questions thus causing the line. It caused me to not do my usual "let's check this joint out" look around like I normally do. So I was pleasantly suprised as I wrote in my "in" time to hear, "Why hello friend!", from across the room and see Paige sitting in the corner with her fiance'. I quickly went to sit by her to catch up on how she was doing.

Paige also has fibromyalgia and is also searching for answers. She started physical therapy after she heard how well it was helping me so I was interested to hear how she was doing. She was having a rough day. It was cold and rainy out so it wasn't helping her situation. Paige also was born with a muscular issue that affects her right side. She has had to undergo several surgeries to fix various issues related to this, with the latest being a reconstructive surgery to help fix her right hand so that it functions more normal. Anyone who has fibro knows that surgery elevates the symptoms of fibromyalgia and makes recovery even that much harder. You would never know this with Paige. She focuses on how well her past surgery went. She had a beautiful butterfly splint on and she showed me the ways that she could adjust it so that it would not rub her skin raw. She told me about her physical therapy and how she had forgone the water therapy for a preference to stay on land based exercises and said that she was doing well with those. Paige, due to her rough day, was going to ask for the "warm burrito special" as she called it. It is where they place a tens unit on your sore muscles, wrap you up in moist heat and blankets, and you lay there for 20 minutes and just bask in the "feel goods". That is followed up with massage and stretching. I was jealous to be honest. I am well on my road to recovery so I pretty much can kiss the burrito good-bye for now.

What I love about Paige is that, even in all that she has to deal with, she is still in a good mood. She smiles and laughs. She shows you her progress rather than what is still wrong. She giggles and makes you feel like you are her best friend for the time that you are with her. She loves to find the things that you have in common and share details to make you know her better. Hence the reason that in under a year I feel like I know this girl really well and I have only hung out with her a handful of times and followed her on Facebook. She is also a wealth of knowledge when it comes to medical problems. She has been put through the ringer for so long that she pretty much should be a doctor herself and is going to be an awesome nurse someday because of it. Paige is always willing to share her knowledge with anyone and does so to help them overcome, just as she has. It's just awesome having a friend like this.

So Paige, if you read this, which I figure you will, thank you for being you. You inspire me. You make me want to keep fighting this battle with fibromyalgia. Thank you for being an insta-friend and for making the world a better place. Don't let the rude and mean people of this world bring you down, even though I don't really think that is possible for them to do to you. I think if there were more "Paige"s in the world, it would be a much nicer and happier place. And I also hope that all of you who read this have a "Paige" in your life to make your life a happier place and make you want to keep fighting this disease. So keep fighting Paige and to the readers of this blog, keep fighting too!