Raw Detox Update - Day 2

Day 2 and I'm doing well! I have gone from 208 to 205.

Check out the watermelon meal I had last night:


Today for breakfast I had sliced strawberries and bananas. For lunch I had a green smoothie with strawberries, a banana, blueberries, spinach and celery. And for dinner, I made a huge raw salad with butter lettuce, radishes, mushrooms, cucumbers, gourmet sprouts, shredded carrots, and cherry tomatoes. I can't hang with dressingless salad yet, so I made a dressing with avocado, water, olive oil and fresh basil.



~J

Raw Detox Update

So... I made it through 24 hours of fasting. I did Zumba this morning at 11am and it was great.

My first meal was supposed to be a "mono fruit" meal, meaning as much as I wanted of only one type of fruit. I decided on watermelon. I bought one of those 1/3 watermelons (cut, saran wrapped) at the grocery store. I ate the whole thing, minus a few chunks Dan swiped from me. I ate that at 5pm. Then I was really hungry still at 7pm and I had a few bunches of grapes. Around 11pm I had two bananas.

So, I didn't stick to "mono meal" but I made it through okay, no real "cheating" and I still feel good about it.

Tomorrow I will make a big green smoothie for breakfast. A green smoothie is a fruit smoothie with greens included (spinach, kale, celery, zucchini, whatever.) I think I'm going to do: water, blueberries, a banana, strawberries and spinach. I'll post photos and let you know how that one goes! Then fruit for lunch and then a huge salad for dinner. :)

~J

I bought the whole produce department.

Yeah, it was hilarious. But I'll back up.

I woke up today at 10:30am, and felt FINE. My tummy wasn't grumbling, I didn't feel weak and bleary eyed. I felt fine. So fine in fact, that I went to Zumba and worked out. It was nice.

Then, after working out, I began to feel hungry again. Every time I work out, the very first thing I do is come home and eat. So it was weird to come home, shower, and then go out and run errands.

I got over it pretty quickly, and things are fine. It's now 3:35pm and I'm counting down the next hour and a half until I can eat again! I've never wanted watermelon so much in my life. I don't feel miserable though, and I'm really quite surprised at how easy it was, all things considered.

So, I went to the grocery store and bought four types of pears, three melons, a bag of apples, a bag of oranges, and a bunch of other weird fruits, plus a ton of other fresh goodies. I'll be sharing them with you as I go along. :)

So! Only 1 hour, 20 minutes until I can shove my face into a giant watermelon. :)

I also wanted to address a few questions you guys had. I LOVE your comments by the way, so THANK you for those, and keep them coming!!! :)

Shelley:
I hope you are doing ok on your fast. I tend to get VERY skeptical of cleanses that start with extreme fasts like that since I think it feeds into the "quick fix" mentality that is in diets.

I just hope you are being safe. Just curious, the literature says that the fast is important because it gets you to focus on things besides food. Did you find that true or did you think about food EVEN more since you were being denied it?

Thanks for the comment, Shelley! I first want to clarify that this is NOT a diet or a quick fix thing. This is a detox. And I know you mentioned the word "detox" above there, but I also don't think a 24-hour water fast is extreme. I just read a book called "The Miracle of Fasting" recommended to me by Dan's Grandfather (who does a 24-hour fast each week) and there are people who regularly do 24 hour and 36 hour fasts, as well as several 7 to 10 day fasts per year. That made me realize my 24-hours was nothing.

Now, I have been thinking that writing about fasting and all that might feed into the eating disorder epidemic... could an Anorexic girl just say "Well, I'm fasting, so it's okay?" -- I want to be clear that I don't advocate that and I'm not encouraging NOT EATING to LOSE WEIGHT. This is a one day thing to empty my stomach and start the process of cleansing my system. Just so everyone knows. :)

I just went on a 10-day vacation and found myself going more and more toward bad eating. I came across this and really wanted to feel like I gave my body a good "cleaning out." I also am hoping it'll re-awaken some love for fresh foods, as I do get salads and fruits in, but I stick to the same old boring stuff (bananas, same salads with tomatoes, lettuce, spinach sometimes, cucumbers and some red peppers or sprouts on occasion.) I can't remember the last time I ate an orange. So. Yeah!

I did think about food even more for the first night, and then this morning I wasn't because I kept myself really busy doing stuff. I think it's amazing how much more time I had when I wasn't preparing meals. I cook a lot so it was definitely different to not have to worry about "what am I eating?" :)

4oz:
Hey! I like the makeover you gave your blog! Very nice! So what are the benefits of this cleanse?

Thank you! I like the lil makeover too. :)

So, the benefits are pretty huge. Let me share a bit of that with you:
1. Increases Energy
2. Brightens up skin, eyes, complexion
3. Flushes toxins out of your body
4. Helps to overcome cravings for breads, pastas and processed foods
5. Can lower blood pressure and cholesterol
6. Drops weight
7. Clears your mind
8. Improves memory

There is a lot of information on the website, so I encourage you to check it out. Also, remember, it's totally free, so there's no obligation for anything. :)


~J

6 Hours in...

And I'm freaking out already.

I'm doing a 5 day Raw Cleanse, and I'm 6 hours into Day 1, which involves fasting. Nothing but water for 24 hours.

The idea that I am not allowed to eat is just messing with me. I actually feel like I'm sick. I don't feel SICK, but I feel like I'm acting like I'm sick. I keep chugging water and Dan's sitting there eating leftover pasta. I'm pouting and cuddling up with blankets and drinking water, and pouting some more. I want food so bad.

*By the way, Dan offered to not eat around me but I told him no, that it's my choice and I should be able to do it without changing his routine.

It's like going shopping when you don't have any money. Everything looks so awesome, and you wish you could buy everything. But when you go to the same store when you have money, it's like, "Nah..."

I'm looking at the yogurt, soy milk, fruit, asparagus and wheat english muffins in my kitchen with lust I've never felt before. And I'm not even 1/2 way through my fasting day.

Here's hoping I can hold on to some kind of self control and not just say, "Well I'll just do Raw food for the full five days, that's good too, right?"

I'm sure there's a good reason for the 24 hour fast.

From the e-mail they sent me:

There are several reasons why the program starts with a
water fast.

The 24-hour fast will restore your natural hunger.

It will get your mind off food, and help you focus on why
you're doing this process.

This 24-hour fast will also make you feel light, more
optimistic and ready to take on this adventure!

I promise you,
after you go through this it will be so worth the effort.
Your body will feel AMAZING. Use the time to get things
done. Handle your photo albums, your bills or unwritten
letters. Get productive and distracted from food. The day
will go quickly and you'll feel terrific for it.


Well, I can say I just got through five solid hours of work on my photography business and I did feel EXTREMELY productive.

I'm off to watch TV with Dan and drink about a gallon more of water.

OI!

~J

I've Lost My Damn Mind.

So, I mentioned earlier that I had a big announcement for the day. I have decided to do something I've never done before, and I'm a little nervous. If any of you guys have succeeded, tried, failed or otherwise done what I'm about to do, I would love to hear your experiences.

I'm doing a five-day Raw Food Cleanse.

Now, it's supposed to be seven days but I'm going with five the first go-round. I figure if I make the goal a teenie bit smaller, I'll be less disappointed in myself if I don't go for 7 days and only make it for 5. :)



So let me tell you a bit about it:

I got the information from perusing Fertile Healthy's blog and clicking on her mention of the Green Smoothie Blog. There, I read about the Raw Divas and went to their website.

Now, I know when you go to the Raw Divas website it LOOKS like a typical "diet sale" website and that they might be trying to hook you into paying a crapload of money for diet tips you don't need. But, this detox program information is TOTALLY FREE. I signed up for it, and started getting some e-mails right away. They send you preparation e-mails, and are with you every step of the way.

Being that it's a free program, I'm going to share some (not all) of the information here and encourage you to sign up if you think it's something you'd enjoy doing. I'm also going to document my progress with it through the next week here on my trusty ole blog.

All the tools they give you are so awesome. There's a forum where you can share your experience, ask questions and get tips. There's a comprehensive e-book with all the info on the detox. There is a food and fitness journal for the detox as well as a detox tracker you can put on your fridge.

Now, I guess I should back up for any of you who don't know what a "Raw" lifestyle is. Raw Eating is exactly that. Eating foods that are raw and straight from nature's garden. That includes fruits and veggies. No store bought juices, no bread, eggs, cheese, milk, meat, or processed foods of any kind. For me that also means no coffee or soda, which will be REALLY difficult. It should also mean no cigarettes but I don't have the strength to give up everything. I'd actually probably have a heart attack if I tried. :)

So! It begins with a 24-hour fast on Monday night at 6pm until 6pm Tuesday evening. Then, Tuesday evening I will break into my eating with a mono-fruit meal (one type of fruit, as much as I feel I need.) Then, will continue the next 4 days with just raw, delicious, crunchy fruits and veggies. It'll include fruit, veggies, salads, smoothies and raw soups. The salads can't have oil, vinegar, dressing or any of that. I can make dressings with fruits and veggies blended up, or do fresh fruit sliced on top of the lettuce and veggies.

SO. I'm nervous and really hoping I can do it. I think it would be awesome to really feel "clean" inside my body and refresh myself with a nice, crisp, crunchy, juicy, healthy few days of eating.

Oh, and lotsa water.

So! That's the big, (long winded) announcement. I'll keep you guys posted on what I'm eating. I also wanted to try out some fun "Rawcipies" to make it a little more fun and interesting.

Also... I'm not really thinking of doing a Raw Lifestyle after this (I'd probably get really bored) but THIS gives me reason to give it a second thought. (Click the link there for a bunch of before and afters of people who "Go Raw."

This is a before and after with Jo Thomas. Her story is on the link above, and you can visit her blog here.



Or this girl, Angela Stokes, who is my favorite raw foodist, who is beautiful and I think from New Zealand ('cause she's got my favorite accent, EVER, just like Missy Higgins...) She lost 105 lbs in her first year of being RAW.




Visit her blog/website here.


It's not the first time I've considered the Raw Lifestyle... I just don't know that I could do it full time.

The Sunny Raw Kitchen talked in a recent blog post about how much she and her husband typically go through in fresh produce a WEEK:


* 35 lbs apples
* 25 lbs oranges
* 15 lbs bananas
* 8 lbs lemons and limes
* 5 lbs of fruits (depending on what's available)
* 20 lbs carrots
* 4 lbs celery
* 2 or 3 lbs lettuce
* 3 lbs greens (spinach, kale, swiss chard, etc.)
* 3 lbs tomatoes
* 3 lbs avocados
* 2 lbs beets

Plus all the other odds and ends, such as peppers, cucumbers, zucchinis, cauliflower, broccoli, green onions, fresh herbs, sprouts, etc...

WOW.

~Jenn