Day One Smoothie Fast

I have just completed day one of my smoothie fast. I started the day with a veggie and fruit packed smoothie and drank until I could drink no more. I was surprised at how I didn't feel hungry and tired. I felt quite normal, actually. However, when I decided to start my smoothie/juice fast, I forgot that I had also planned a neighborhood dessert night in our front yard for the night of day one. I am happy to say that I suffered no temptation. Not one bit of food passed my lips yesterday. I still cooked dinner for my family as Sunday dinner is really the only sit-down, home-cooked meal we do any more. The plan is to cook a nice, big meal, then have enough left over for lunches the rest of the week.  So naturally, it's not the best time to try out new recipes.I made potato salad for the first time yesterday and I couldn't taste it to see if it was OK or if it needed anything. I judged by smell, and then when the family came over I had Jessica taste test for me. And wow, I guess there was too much vinegar in it! I started making a German potato salad and when it all got put together, it didn't look so great, so I found a traditional recipe and tried to blend the two together. Apparently, DON'T EVER DO THAT. The results were not favorable. My family though, as nice as they are, ate some anyway, but we have a bunch left over! Maybe I can figure out a way to put it in a smoothie.

While I suffered no hunger pangs yesterday, by the time we went to bed I had the beginnings of a pretty good headache. Since I am trying to do this journey naturally, I decided not to indulge in any chemical interference. I did deep breaths and held them and then let the air out slowly. 

Here is my new juicer. I am so excited to use it, and I couldn't wait to show you!

I kid.But this is new, and it is technically a juicer. I got it to squeeze my lemons. Every morning I squeeze a whole lemon and put it into a giant glass of water and drink it. I have come to crave it. It's an excellent way to detox your body. So during my smoothie/juice fast, the only other beverage I will be drinking is lemon water. Lots of it. Very tasty.

I have a feeling the next few days are going to be rough but I am trying to be optimistic! I am doing a great thing for my digestive system and my mind. Eventually. Once I get over the hurdle. Those Frito Lay Scoops on the top of the fridge are looking pretty good.

Juice Feasting and other nonsense

I have done a lot of weird dietary changes in the last couple of years in the name of good health. So far, there has only been one that Jon was happy about; my over-indulging on protein phase. Grocery bill shot up, but that was because we were buying all sorts of mouth-watering meats! He was in heaven, albeit short lived. I can do meat on short term, and then I just stop. Can't do it anymore. I haven't eaten a hamburger in 30+ years, and I have problems with chicken and turkey. It's all emotional, I know, but sometimes the mental blocks are the hardest to overcome.


These last two years have been in inner struggle between me and the numbers on my lab reports. I've tried cutting out sugar, dropping all simple carbs, increasing my protein intake, training sessions, and maximum cardio blasts. 


Then one day, I looked down, and my right foot was all swollen. Since I have neuropathy in my feet, I take the health of my feet very seriously. That same day I called my endo doc and he told me to get to Urgent Care immediately to make sure my kidneys were not malfunctioning. I went. They xrayed me, took my blood, and since they couldn't find anything, they do what they do best; they wrote me a script for an antibiotic. This was on a Wednesday.  Now, mind you, there was no redness or hotness on my foot to indicate an infection, but I continued with the antibiotic. The following Monday, my foot was swollen and I couldn't fit into any of my shoes, so I called my foot doc. He took another xray of my foot, only he had me stand on my foot, where Urgent Care had me lying down. A few moments later he came in with the xray and asks me, do you feel any pain? And I said no, not really. I had felt what I thought was muscle pain on the top of my foot after a run one morning, but it went away until the next time I ran outside (which was a few weeks later). I had experienced some harsh shooting pain in my big toe on occasion, but that comes with living with neuropathy, so I didn't think twice about it.


He puts up the xray and asks, do you see anything here? And I said, yes, my big toe looks funny. He says, you have a broken toe and two fractures in the top of your foot, which are causing your foot to swell. No amount of antibiotic will fix this. In the next few moments, we made the decision to surgically fix my toe (as there were multiple bone spurs) and to repair/remove the bunion that has been causing me years of pain and blisters every year that took eons to heal because of the neuropathy. Easy, simple recovery. Back to work after 4 days, back to normal in 2 weeks or so. WRONG. In the surgery process, they inserted a very long absorbing screw to keep my bones together until they healed and my body decided to reject it. What should have been a two week recovery is now going on 3 months. 4 days before my stitches were to be removed, my skin decided to give out and ripped through the stitches. Because of the lack of integrity in my skin, they couldn't restitch, so we steri-stripped and butterflied the part of the incision that tore open. Within about 4 days, the good part of my foot started to blister and bubble and the incision was looking worse than ever. My foot doc sent me to a wound specialist and we determined that my skin was having an allergic reaction to the adhesive on the strips. We decided to let the wound heal from the bottom up. Couldn't even put a band-aid on without a blister making an appearance.


Where am I going with this? Over the last two years I have worked very hard to get healthy, to have perfect lab work, and good energy and muscle tone. 
I was there. I had lost 32 pounds and was looking pretttttty pretttttty good, if I may say so. Still had about 25 pounds to go, but I was excited about the journey. After this setback with my foot, and having to keep it up and icing it every day to keep the swelling down (from the rejection) I find that I have put back on 12 pounds that I worked so hard to lose. Frustration and desperation have been hanging over me as of late because I don't want to go back there. Ever. 


In the time I've spent off my feet I have been doing a lot of research and reading. (never a good thing!) And I've come to the conclusion that it's time to make another change to the diet. For the last 5 weeks I have been eating 95% vegan (I have lost it a few times on cheese). No ethical statement here, just strictly for health reasons. About 70% of my diet has been raw. My goal is to go 100% raw vegan, and I plan to make that switch next week. 


I've been a supporter of green smoothies for a while now and starting Sunday, I will be doing a green smoothie fast for 3 days followed up by a 10 day juice fast. I have ordered my juicer; I have my doc appt on Tuesday to get the go-ahead to do this under supervision, and then the ultimate goal coming out of this is to go 100% raw. This is a numbers game to me. It doesn't matter how I look on the outside, if my blood results tell a different story, that's what I have to listen to. I will do what it takes to get the "A" on my test, and this is the last road yet traveled for me. If going raw-vegan doesn't do it, then the only thing left is, I don't know what. 


All I ask for is support and encouragement. I want to get this foot 100% healed so I can finally don my workout shoes once again and hit the road. 


Sorry Jon, for all the vegetables in the house and obvious lack of meat, but you really need to stop offering me ice cream sandwiches.