About the Juice Fast

I wanted to post about this journey on a private blog. Kristi convinced me to "own it" and put it out there. So here it is....

So it's rather late but tomorrow I'm about start something that is a little extreme, a little crazy, a little exciting, and hopefully VERY beneficial. I am starting a juice fast... For 60 days. SIXTY days!!! So before I get into how I feel about it I just want to talk about why I'm doing it and why I'm blogging about it.

I'm blogging because I want to be able to go back to this post and posts to come and remember why I'm doing this, as well as progress I've made for when this challenge starts to feel a little over whelming.

I'm choosing this fast for a means to healthiness for a list of reasons which include (but may not be limited to) the following:

• I am a sugar addict.

A while back I was reading a blog I found on pinterest called "I Quit Sugar". I thought it was great for Sarah that she quit sugar, but it wasn't my cup of tea. I wasn't addicted, I just chose to eat it because it's such a normal part of life and I like it. I don't know if something changed between then and now and I became addicted, or if it's just that I can now admit my addiction... But I'm a sugar addict... and that's a problem. I'm not trying to be dramatic, and I wouldn't call myself a food addict, but I seriously think about sweets and sugary things CONSTANTLY.

• I don't eat enough vegetables.

In fact I hardly ever eat them. I'm not the most organized cook and when I do prepare meals I wouldn't say I am in the habit of making well balanced meal. That's a problem. Not enough vegetables = not enough healthy nutrients. I've been married for 5 years, and besides my husband who actually lost weight after we got married because I don't cook, I have a 3 year old and a baby about ready to really get into the solid foods. If I'm not cooking balanced meals, they are not eating balanced meals and that's my responsibility as wife and mother.

• I want to lose weight.

Yep, this has more to do with just having healthy innards. I don't like what I see when I look in the mirror. I feel uncomfortable with myself, in my clothes and with the fact that my husband still says he's attracted to me. I feel discouraged, and I know this is probably bad thinking on my part, but I feel if I'm ever going to lose the weight I have to do it all at once because I'm not disciplined enough to take the "slow and steady wins the race" route. And I know I could be exercising to lose weight, and I do dabble in that, but this is my problem with exercise... It's not a daily necessity to function. I know I'm better off exercising, but I don't HAVE to do it every day and I just don't have that kind of discipline yet for it to make a difference. I HAVE to eat. It's a daily part of life that I really can't avoid AND the biggest factor in the 30+ lbs I've gained since first meeting my husband. So if I caused these self esteem issues with food, why not fix it with food?

Skinny me:

Fat me:

• To help maintain my medical issue.

Yep. Just like everyone in the documentary listed below and the blogger who inspired me I have a medical issue. Laryngopharyngeal Reflux, best known as Silent Reflux. I discovered this after going to an ENT because I had a sore throat for 2 months strait. Seriously 2 months, every day, painful swallowing and eating. Most of the time it doesn't bother me, but as per Dr.'s orders I need to "get skinny" (really, those were his exact words) if I don't want it to be an issue.

Skinny me:

Fat Me:

(my tummy is not as big as it looks, that was a blousey shirt and the wind was blowing it forward)

I think I like skinny me better.

So those are the reasons I'm really wanting to do this, listed in order of most driving factors first.

What I want to get out of this: not CRAVING sweets and really having no appetite for those foods which aren't good fore me. I want to have an appetite for healthy foods and I think to do that I need a dramatic change. Also I really want this to help me be better at fasting religiously. I don't know if that's too much to ask but I have never put a lot of effort into it on a consistent basis because it's always been hard for me physically. It really is a pathetic excuse, and I know it's not easy for a lot of people, but I am hoping learning this discipline will help me in my monthly fast and I can learn to focus on the spiritual side of why I fast each month.

Now that you know the why and what~ This is how I feel about this little venture I'm about to embark on.

• SO EXCITED! I'm so ready for a challenge
• Nervous. This is going to be hard!!!
• Ready to see what I'm made of. No one is making me do this, it's all on me.
• Scared. Do I have a strong enough will to make it through detox and get past feeling deprived of things I want to eat? Can I say no to food when everyone around me is eating it?
• Hopeful. This choice and experience may change my life and the life of my family for so much good!

I had a lot more feelings running through my head earlier tonight, which is what made me to decide to start posting before I started this, but I've forgotten them. It's late.

So I will end this post by referring you to the "Mommy Melt Down" blog. This was my first inspiration. I read it sometime at the beginning of January and have continued to go back to it, intrigued by the possibilities of what it could do for me. Read her story and about her journey.

In it she talks about a documentary she saw that inspired her called "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead". I actually didn't see this until today because she only mentioned it being on netflix, which I don't have. I read in her comments section today that it is on hulu. Who knew?! Anyway, it was a great documentary, very inspiring and I felt very good about doing this for myself while watching it.

A lot of the recipes I'll be using will be found here on the reboot site... for free! (or find the pdf for the recipes here for the just juice plan and here for the juice + food plan)

So for now I'm off to bed. Here is what my fridge looks like in preparation for the next week!

Oh and I made my first juice tonight. It wasn't the most amazing thing ever but it wasn't bad. It was even kinda good... good enough that my 3 year old liked it and drank his whole cup! See... it's already benefiting my family:)

My first self made formula:

15 plum tomatoes

5 big carrots

1 orange bell pepper

2 - 3 handfuls of spinach

2 apples

1 kiwi

Makes just over 16 oz.