Going Juicy - Day #28 Juice Fasting

I've been struggling off and on for a long time with my weight/body image, etc...I was thin throughout my childhood and into college. I was into gymnastics and very active, walked and biked long distances and swam a lot. It wasn't until I was pregnant with my first child that I moved from a normal weight into obesity and after three pregnancies within five years my weight kept going up and up and up. Over the years I've tried just about everything to drop the excess weight, including Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, The Cabbage Soup Diet, Atkins, Medi-Fast, South Beach and Protein Power. You name it, I've tried it but never found anything I could stick with for any great length of time and inevitably the lost weight would come back and more. I'm sure you've heard that story before.

After re-marrying and seeing my wedding pics I was horrified by how big I had gotten...mortified in truth. It's so weird that there's such a discrepancy between where we really are physically and what we see in the mirror.  I started the cabbage soup diet and lost 55 lbs in a few months and went on to do Atkins for over a year, dropping from my highest weight of 340 lbs down to 200. I felt great at that point, was walking 20-25 miles a week and going to Curves. I fell and hurt my back and have been struggling ever since with chronic and disabling back pain that's made walking more than a little bit excruciating and impossible to do. In the course of a few years I've put back on 80 lbs. Even though I lost a lot doing Atkins I just couldn't go back to it. I read The China Study, moved into whole foods and discovered the raw food way of eating. I had been trying to eat exclusively raw for the last five years and although I knew in my deepest self it's a great and very healing way to live I just haven't been able to stick with it for any longer than a couple of months, even though I feel awesome when I do. Cooking for kids all day and for husband at night presents so many challenges and exposure to foods not on the "list' of what I've been trying to eat. And lets face it...food is good! I like to eat, I like to cook and I've probably done way too much of both!!

A little over a month ago I saw the film Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, a documentary by Joe Cross about his journey toward health and well being, a trip on which he lost 100 lbs. and inspired a new juice fasting movement. On his 60 day juice fast, while traveling across the country he meets Phil Staples, a truck driver weighing in at almost 430 lbs. The movie follows Joe and Phil as they juice for 60 days. Watching their transformation is just amazing and I was left feeling that if they could do it and see such profound changes so could I...and so I am.

I should have been blogging all along and wish I would have. But today is day #28 of all juice, no solid food or anything but juice since July 18th. There have been days I felt like crap and days I've been flying, some that had to keep pushing the thought of food away at every turn and others where I just had no hunger at all.

Benefits so far:

1.Less back and leg pain...a lot less...due to reduced overall inflammation
2. Sleeping through the night for the first time in many years.
3. Not waking up wringing wet...getting older is interesting...oh I mean wise...growing wise...yup..that's it!
4.Less redness in my very fair skin.
5. Overall better attitude....positive...hopeful.
6...Oh...and I am down 28 lbs...over a 1/4 of the way to my goal.

I haven't decided if I am going for 30 days or for 40...still up in the air about it. But when I do decide it will be to follow a transition, re-eating plan...probably Fit For Life, an eating style of lots and lots of veggies, both raw & cooked, lots of fruit, limited grains, some nuts, seeds and beans daily. After fasting that seems a wealth of food to choose from...maybe that was the point after all....to rest my inner beasties, my desires, tastes and needs. That's the plan...not perfection but as close to it as I can comfortably get....

...will keep you posted~