Saturday Review

weight: 211.8

The evidence is in, ate a plate full of delicious appetizers on Saturday night last week at Tripps. This appetizer included 6 chicken wings, 6 chicken fingers, 6 fried cheezy beef enchilada wraps, a side of 3 sauces and 1/2 cup of blue cheese. FANTASTICO! I love this kind of food, in fact I WILL eat like this again just not for another several weeks or a month. The result of this..escapade, was a 6 pound increase on the scale between Saturday and Sunday. Granted, probably just the food sitting in there like a sunken battleship and allot of water retention, but it's demoralizing and one thing I don't need right now is to be demoralized. I assumed that within a day or two I'd be seeing the 211 again on my scale, NOT SO padawan! It took all week before I finally saw the number 211 on my scale again and I've been counting and going to the gym and working like a slave to be on target with my calorie count. So the moral? Don't eat crap unless you plan to work your ass off (literally) to recover from it.

This week will be a renewal to the calorie count of 1,551 plus exercise. I've found that during the week, my hardest times are still a result of staying up too late. This week I must plan to be asleep by 9:30 at least twice, this is the commitment. So to summarize this weeks commitments:

• Asleep by 9:30 at least twice this week
• 3 x in the gym doing cardio
• plan meals Saturday
• shop and cook on Sunday

End of Week

Gym today, cycle for 20 minutes, sweat like a pig, may have to reconsider lunchtime cardio sesssions.

Weigh in day is on Saturday. Feeling highly motivated to see success. Lots of salt in the diet on Sunday threw my numbers way up for the week and have been trying to get the weight down ever since. One thing to realize if you indulge one day, your body wants to hold onto it like some kind of life raft. I'm not going to commit to some type of monastic lifestyle, but, I respect that if I do the crime, gotta do the time (in the gym).

Today's menu

breakfast:

• waffle
• syrup
• strawberries

Lunch:

• Salad with feta cheese
• dried cranberries
• 1/4 avacado
• dressing
• all else = zero cal

 Snack:

• super juice

dinner?

• stir fry with vegetables 

 bedtime snack: whatevers on my shedule. 

Menu this week

Calorie goal taken from eatingwell.com

Calculate your calorie goal
YOUR CURRENT WEIGHT X 12 = calories needed to maintain your weight
To lose 1 pound/week: Cut 500 calories/day
To lose 2 pounds/week: Cut 1,000 calories/day

My goal 1532 per day


logistics: cooking on Sunday and Wednesday, shopping on Friday or Saturday.

Saturday

• mid day juice
• evening dinner out (meat and salad)

Sunday, Wednesday

bfast 333

• Waffles 188 calories
• Strawberries, sliced, ½ cup 41 calories
  Low-fat vanilla yogurt, ½ cup 104 calories

lunch 450

• Turkey and Squash Soup 230 cal
• bread and cheese 220 cal

snack: 250 cal. juice
Martha's Spinach Juice

dinner 400

• Five-Spice Turkey & Lettuce Wraps
• Served sauces
• wine or pudding

snack : 150 cal.

• Tofu dip and celery

Monday , Tuesday,

bfast 332
greek omlet and melon

lunch 450
Thai-Style Melon & Beef 150 calorie
bread & cheese 200 calorie, and large apple 90 calories

snack: 250 cal. juice
Turbo Juice

dinner 400

•  Shrimp and Pasta or cheesy pasta

snack : 150 cal.

• pickle, fruit and cheese plate OR
• Gorp

Thursday, Friday

bfast 332

• super juice

lunch 450

• Turkey Pastrami Sandwich 184 calorie
• apple + cheese stick
• Cambells microwave soup

snack: 250 cal. juice

• Martha's Spinach Juice ( 2 apples, spinach, Kale, ginger)

dinner 400
Stir fry (thursday)
take out (friday)

snack : 150 cal.  Hard-boiled egg, sliced, on 1 slice whole-wheat toast with 2 tsp. Dijon mustard = 141 calories
or ANY of the above snacks

7 days of exercise

Today's weight 211.6

I did it! there were two 10 minute intense cardio sessions this week, and the rest were 30 minute. Today I cut the hedge that covers the entire left side of the house, that was intensive for today. I'm going to commit to every other day doing 30 to 45 minute workouts this week, which means

• Sunday
• Tuesday (lunchtime)
• Thursday (after work) 
• Saturday bike ride

Moving towards food

So, I've been confused on the followup to the 7 day juice diet, the 7 pounds in 7 days turbo chapter doesn't seem to offer allot of specifics, so I've had to imagine my way through it. At this point I still need structure. I'm exercising every day, and I do want to get on the slow methodical path now after my clense. The weight watchers methodology has always been a good choice and this diet at one of the health sites seems to be a good choice. I am choose the 1200 to 1600 diet because I am going to insert juices at the mid-day around 2pm, that should get me to the requisite 1700.

Here's the plan for Saturday going onto next week. Work out every day. A juice in the afternoon, and this plan

http://www.livestrong.com/article/404767-1200-1600-calorie-meal-plans/

Lunch Time Cardio

There is a first time for everything, hopefully not the last time in this case. Really great 30 minute cardio and then back to work. There was a moment there that I really started feeling good about myself and my efforts. Only a week and a half from the life changing decision, a.k.a. "the decision" and I feel like this is starting to go for real. Now, since I'm not going to have to go to the gym after work and arrive home late, I can drink my afternoon juice, and eat my salad, have the snack I made for 5 at 2, and split out of here at a normal time. Still 400 calories short today, I'm going to make it up by having a larger piece of salmon tonight, but also will have a handful of peanuts during the day.

So far, on track with my daily workout.

Not counting, Not losing

It was easy when the juices were mapped out for me, to not think about how many calories I was ingesting. But now.. I need to be noting all the numbers, if I'm going to reach my goal of 195, I need to count. 195 is still 18 pounds away, so this is going to be a battle to the finish. It's not that I over ate yesterday, in fact, I think the real danger can be not eating enough. Today

• morning juice 340
• salad with dressing 100
• carrot juice 300 calories
• celery, cheese stick, tofu: 150
• Salmon plus pasta 400 calories

total for day: 1290
exercise 1/2 hour 150 calories burned
calories remaining: 400 calories

My biggest hurdle is late eating, and not being ready for a 5pm

Exercise Turbo: Day 4

Feeling tired from last nights efforts, also maybe a little run down from not taking in as much of the straight juice and having to now digest? Watched "Fat , Sick, Nearly Dead" again with Martha, she was instantly inspired and wanted to jump right in today! I convinced her that a bit more time and thought is required before taking on the serious task of a fast.

Day 4 of the Turbo, so far so good, started off a little slow on the exercising, but will complete my week long efforts after Saturdays workout. Mostly salads and a little rice pasta, trying to stay away from the cheeses and heavy meats, but also know that I don't want to lose that chemistry for digesting fats either, so I've decided my diet needs to include some fats. Tonight is shrimp night, so that should be fun. Salads can get old fast though, just drinking the vegetables required allot less thought.

Researching more interesting ways to get my vegetables and fruits, more on that later.

Food today so far

Pretty much following yesterdays template plus some rice noodles and tomato sauce for a little added flavor punch. The tomato sauce was from a can and was less than stellar, thinking a recipe is in order, or choosing a flavor that is more conducive with rice noodles

Salad

• brocoli
• peppers
• tomatoes
• red onion
• rice vinegar
• avocado : 150 calories
• kens lite cesar 150 calories

rice pasta and sauce 1/8 whole 125 calories

Total for lunch 425 calories

I feel GREAT!

Not going to weigh this morning as I am on more of a calorie counting path. Usually this path has much slower results. Working out tonight after work, will get a full 1/2 hour on the eliptical. Drinking my morning juice, and will repeat yesterdays model. I think also, because I no longer have a gall bladder, that I need to from time-to-time, eat a fat of some kind. This will keep that aspect of my engine functioning normally. I'm worried that something unused, is something that will atrophy.

A friend last night said that the body remembers how fat you are, and will make all good effort to get you back to that equilibrium weight. I agree with this, but then she said something stupid, 'that the body will naturally go back to it's old weight after you complete the diet, NO MATTER WHAT YOU ARE DOING' . This comment, I vehemently disagree with. A life of healthy 2000 calorie a day diet with mostly fruits, vegetables, no fast food, and plenty of exercise will stablize at whatever weight you are at. Going back to eating the way you used to , with Pizza and beer, and wings , and fast food, WILL put you right back where you came from, absolutely.

That delightful high

Just ate my lunch. It contained no meat, cheese, or bread products. Just vegetables, a little oil, and some fruit. Although, eating like this will get boring quick for me, I do love the high that comes from eating right. I feel easy right now, not heavy or slow, with a lightness in my mind. I'll definitely be wanting to get more creative in short order. Now don't get me wrong, I'm NOT a vegetarian, but I don't want to cloud my system with heavy meats right now, I'm sort of riding a beautiful wave created by my efforts last week. I will be eating chicken this evening, and last night I had a big slice of salmon.

Day 2 Turbo

Weight: 215.4

Gained two pounds from yesterday, but in actuality, just like with some of the losses from last week, this does NOT translate to real fat gain, more just material that I ate, still sitting there inside. So the challenge this week is what to eat and not go over. Also, I've committed to working out every day this week. I made 10 minutes of intense cardio this morning, but that's not good enough. Tomorrow must be at least 1/2 hour.

Today total cal. 1800

• 380 cal : morning juice
• 300 cal: lunch salad and fruit
• 360 cal: 2pm juice
• 300 cal: dinner salad with chicken and egg
• 300 cal: 8pm juice
• 160 cal: 9pm hot apple cider

Chewing again

Final weight after 7 days 213.4 pounds
total lost = 9.2 pounds

Week 2 .

Trying to eat right. Started the day with the morning juice. Had an apple and some pineapple after church and then made a salad for a mid day meal. Have prepared a small salad "bar" in the fridge to help assist with the process. Bought a bunch of vegetables, and some free range chicken. The plan is to eat as much green stuff as possible over the next week and work out every day. Feeling weak and tired right now, but that could be because I celebrated by staying up until 1:30 am last night. No I didn't succumb to the snack beast.

Tomorrows menu:

• Juice in the morning
• lunch Salad with Chicken + apple
• snack afternoon pineapple + apple + brocolli and vinegar
• 5pm another salad, portion of chicken
• 8pm juice 
• 9pm apple cider?

Last Juice

Time: 7:40  Next Juice: 9
How do you feel? fine
Hunger scale: 0

Was successful, for the most part, on my day trip to Winston. The breakfast place had fresh juices, and I had a carrot juice and a small serving of yogurt. Missed my 5pm because I was on the road, but when I got here at about 6:30, had a few pickles and juice to tide me over. Now, out of pineapples, thinking about what's going to happen tomorrow. I'm going to get a pen and paper, map out the calories from last week, then plan when I'll juice, and when I'll solid. I'm thinking alternating meals, juice / solid / juice / solid etc.. 
 

Exercise number 3

Time: 9:45  Next Juice: 11
How do you feel? winded
Hunger scale:0

body Fat: 43.5

Third workout during this seven days. Did the 15 minute Cardio bootcamp on fit Tv, re-weighed myself afterwards and showed .2 pounds less than an hour prior. I always find the weigh in is lighter after I've been up for a while. Odd.  This "Turbo week" coming up, I'm going to commit to at least 15 minutes of cardio every day, and I'll be measuring body fat content every day plus weight. I'm also going to commit to no more salt in my diet, or minimal. I did eat a handful of peanuts this week every day, to appease my salt tooth, but I don't think I really need that. I'm thinking that a bag full of vegetables and a bottle of vinegar close at hand is the way to go. I will be adding a small amount of free range chicken into my diet but only once per day. Otherwise, Juice in the morning. Salad at lunch with light dressing, Mid afternoon juice or vegetable snack, and then evening salad and a 4oz meat. Sounds like a plan.

Day 7 Morning

Weight: 214.2

Time: 7:54  Next Juice: 11
How do you feel? good
Hunger scale:0

Special Challenge today, I'm on the road to Winston to have breakfast with friend Sam and see Mom. So the 5pm today is merely Sherbert ice, and I need a plan for breakfast, so instead of the "Passion for Fruit" at 2pm , which is yogurt and emulsified fruit, I'm going to EAT these two items at 11am and have my 11am drink at 2pm. This means 8am at home 11 am at restaurant, 2pm at mom's house, and the 5pm? Duno.. confused on that. May have to skip the 5 and get home before 8. I think it should be ok because of the hefty nature of the 2pm drink. 
 

Perfect Storm of Stupid

A.) Lazed out and didn't have my 5pm juice with me B. ) The 2pm juice was bad  C.) I was alone for the evening which has always been a signal for food party D.) I was feeling hungry.

Got home last night after work and was a 6 on the hunger scale. The first time ever that I've felt that hungry. I was tempted to just stop, but encouragement from a collegue helped me stay the course. What was amazing was that , immediately upon making and drinking my 5pm juice I felt satiated. Usually satiation takes 10 minutes at least when eating solid food, but I guess the juice hits that button immediately. Then I did decide to treat myself to a jar of jalepeno pickles at an appointed time. This was my compromise. I also did something I've never done before, rather than sit and chill in front of the tube, I went out and enjoyed a bit of the pleasant evening. Durham has wonderful opportunities to get outside, so I went to the last half of the Womens NCAA Field Hockey game over at the University, then I went to Whole foods and bought various exotic vinegar flavors for next weeks diet.

"JUICE"

Time: 4:05  Next Juice: 5
How do you feel? anxious
Hunger scale: 2

Blah! The 2pm juice was bad. I probably made it wrong I was missing an ingredient that I substituted pineapple for, but it was still ugly. 2 sticks celery, cucumber, spinach, wheatgrass juice, and an orange slice (substitution). But UGH! Yucka. Anyways it was "healthy". :)

Struggle for tonight. Alone in the house, movies on the tube.. Usually this is the primo opportunity for eating a load of Pizza , Wings, and Beer. I ache (and maybe tear-up) for the opportunity to do so. I'm going to get a jar of pickles and maybe some garlic bulbs to substitute.. and I think I'm going to distract myself by going to the movies , or getting my head in some game..I gotta do something!

Lunch

Time: 11:30  Next Juice: 2
How do you feel? good and full
Hunger scale: 0

Just juiced and feel satisfied. The great thing about this program, is that you almost never feel hunger. I think the first three to four days are the hardest (not really hard (see previous entries)), after that, you feel completely normal. I actually right now feel over full, fat even. .. So.. I know that I must be losing weight. When I was doing weight watchers I would always get that fat feeling and it always came on when I was "spot on" the calorie count. This is a bit of irony; eat a ton, feel like your normal size, eat a little, and you notice how your stomach sticks out and you feel your flab. I'm optimistic that I'm not going to be feeling flabby much longer. 

Day 6

 Weight: 214.6 (lost 8lbs)
Body Fat: down 4%

Time: 9:15  Next Juice: 11
How do you feel? fine
Hunger scale:1

Started wondering about fat loss as that is what translate to belt size. Very little belt size changing, I guess that would be a total miracle. If I had lost 8 pounds during my weight watchers days, which would've taking about 4 weeks, I would most definitely see a difference in my girth. This draws then the assumption that this first 7 days is about detox more than real chub loss around the mid-section. The "juice master" stresses week 2 and exercise as being real important to continued realized losses. I believe that by the end of week three I will definitely see not only on the scale, but on belt size, the effects of my efforts. 

exercised, juiced, bed

Time: 9:15  Next Juice: 10
How do you feel? full
Hunger scale: 0

Drank my 8pm , cleaned the kitchen, exercised. I feel full like I ate a big meal. 

Bored

Time: 5:06  Next Juice: 8pm
How do you feel? Bored
Hunger scale: 0

Ok, yes, I feel just fine. I'm in the smooth sailing phase of juicing. I feel NORMAL, and as a result, I want to Eat NORMAL. But I cannot, not just yet, and even then, it's a slow wind down of this behavior , with exercise, and fruits, and salads. But I am starting to look into some fantastic salad dressings, and meal ideas. One thing that is great about restricting your diet for a week is that you realize how many different ways through out the day, it's possible, even desirable to be distracted by a nibble, or a nosh. Without this distraction of finding and eating something tasty, I'm left with my 5 to 10 minute liquid meal... BOOOORRRRINNNGGG!! 

Feeling Normal

Time: 12:09  Next Juice: 2pm
How do you feel? good
Hunger scale: 0

I had a number 4 hunger around 10 that quickly receded after drinking some water. I feel normal, no head flakiness, no floaty feelings, just like my old self, not dragging my body around like this morning. Interesting thought occurred to me. It was that my brain was alive and very active, but my body wasn't completely up to the task, and the dichotomy between the two made me feel disjointed. 

Energy profile

Time: 9:20  Next Juice: 11am
How do you feel? ok
Hunger scale: 0

Had my juice at 8, drinking water now. I feel relaxed and at ease over all. Since last nights beat down there is a lower level of energy this morning but not enough to push me off.  On scale of one to 10, with  10 being asleep,  0 being normal, I feel like it's probably a 2 and last night was an 8. But what's odd is the parallel level of ;  I'd say "enthusiasm" my system seems to be having, it's almost like one part of me is saying "come on lets dance" while the other is just getting by. Weird, I say it again.. weird.

Day 5 Morning

weight: 215.6

Time: 7:40  Next Juice: 8am
How do you feel? fine
Hunger scale: 0

Last night gave me pause to reconsider and maybe cut short my juice fast. The fatigue was a bit worrisome. But I came through it, I was kind to myself during this difficult stage and didn't over-exert too much. This morning I don't feel hunger at all, and I'm overall feeling fine.  My sense is that the weight loss now is going to slow down and be a steady (hopefully) 1 pound per day or less. If I exercise in here, probably more.

Beat Down

Earlier tonight 5 and 6, after my evening juice, I just felt beat, no energy. I think that high that the juices put you in, have a side of effect of being tired. This beat down of energy has lasted most of the evening. After I drank my 8pm I felt on the path to recovery, but have felt tired even so.

Ulcer

Time: 12:10 pm  Next Juice: 2pm
How do you feel? fine
Hunger scale:0

Have to drink some water and eat a small handful of peanuts. I know this isn't completely on the schedule, but my ulcer is giving me a bit of a warning. As my stomach is pretty much empty, acid right now is a bad thing. I guess stressed about dentist appointment this afternoon. breathe. . .

This seems to be consistent, perhaps even a pattern. So far, excessive stress has triggered unpleasant feelings either mild hunger, stomach ache from ulcer, or just a mild unpleasant sensations. Need to keep relaxing into this. 

Ease Z

Time: 11:30am Next Juice: 2pm
How do you feel? Good
Hunger scale: 1

Feeling good. Just drank my 11am about a half hour ago. The only issue now is mental, I feel a slight empty feeling. I'm not someone who always loved to stuff my face at meals, so this isn't a big concern, but I can imagine someone that is addicted to that feeling of having your stomach full, is not going to like this. Not missing normal eating yet. I can already predict an anxious desire to get back to some normal eating habits once I complete day 7. This is something that I'm going to wrestle with as I transition to week 2 of the program. I believe there is a third week component too, but I'm saving this excitement for mid way through week 2.  No going back now. . .

Almost Normal

Time: 9:30  Next Juice: 11 am
How do you feel? Normal, better concentration
Hunger scale: 2

A little peckish, but nothing overwhelming. The uneasy and light headed  feeling has completely passed , and my ability to concentrate is improved from the last couple of days, or maybe I'm just getting used to my brain being constantly high on oxygen? For some reason my body is in purge mode, 3 trips to the "can" so far this morning. Hey if it's all the toxins passing out, I'm all for it.

6 Pounds in 3 days

Weight: 216.4

Time: 7:22  Next Juice: 8 am
How do you feel? Normal, energized
Hunger scale: 0

I would think the scale is lying to me, except then I would have to conclude that the scale had been lying to me all those months that it didn't move at all! So, it's not, and I have lost SIX POUNDS in 3 days. I'm starting to prepare for what comes in week 2 and 3, so that I mentally and logistically am there. only 3 more days after today. This is only a week long diet, and yet in less than one week I've changed everything. Very excited.

Last Bump?

Time: 1:40pm  Next Juice: 5 pm
How do you feel? easy, settled
Hunger scale: 0

That last bump I'm hoping was my last in this detox. I do now feel easy. The surging uneasy feeling from the last post past on and now I'm on a slide towards easy..

Uneasy feeling

Time: 12:24pm  Next Juice: 1:30 pm
How do you feel? Odd, uneasy
Hunger scale: 0

Logging in to log a new feeling coming over me, an uneasy feeling. Not nausus or anything, but feel like toxins are leaning on me a bit. Feel a little bloated and weird. Nothing that is going to hold me back, just makes me a little nervous. Muscles feel a slight stiffness, gritting teeth a little. vague and slight mind haze. 

I must add, I think so far, this bump is the toughest one so far. The others have been short-lived and fairly mild. I don't wish to overstate this, I still feel fine, just need to stop for a moment and breath easy and relax. . This uneasy feeling is passing by the minutes and lasted only about 20 minutes, not to be too detailed but, a purge of the colon seems to have eased my suffering considerably. They don't call it detoxing for nothing. 

exertion = pang

Time: 9 am Next Juice: 11 am
How do you feel? high energy vibration
Hunger scale:3

Just for about 20 minutes have a bit of a hunger pang level 3, not overwhelming but it's there. Feeling my systems coming online and it's causing a higher internal vibration that I'm not used to, so like drinking too much caffeine, without the panicy feeling. I'm beginning to associate high activity and exertion with this followup of a little pang, not much, a little. 

Day 3 Begins

Weight: 218.2

Time: 7:40am Next Juice: 8am
How do you feel? fine
Hunger scale: 0

I was rewarded this morning for my two days of effort by a huge drop in weight. I'm so excited! In fact, I thought the scale was lying to me this morning. This drop was so significant that it still is hard to believe. I guess I've been carrying allot of water weight around, two days of no salt and the water is gone, plus whatever weight loss has occurred. 

Last night was a challenge for me, not because I was hungry, but because my habit before going to bed, is to have some favorite salty treat while watching a little television. I thought about having pickles again, and that would've been fine, but instead I had the juice diets recommended apple juice with cinnamon. The compulsion disappeared after the first sip and I was fine. This is a healthy substitution and I'm amazed how quickly my compulsion was unplugged.

Onward to hump day. We'll see what kind issues arise this day, so far this has been a fairly painless two days, with a few low level bumps, and high oxygen level brain haze, but other than that.. I FEEL AWESOME!!! :)

End of Day 2 5 Juicings 45 minutes

Time: 8:38pm Next Juice: 10pm nightcap
How do you feel? good
Hunger scale: 0

Loopy headedness is passing, I felt a bit of an energy boost as I quickly assembled my 8pm , 9pm, 8am, 11am, 2pm and 5pm juices. In 45 minutes I cut the materials, juiced, put away materials, and cleaned up everything, the kitchen looks like I'd never been there. This may have to be a new record!

I decided to scrape my tongue. Tad suggested earlier today that the toxins sometimes come out through the tongue and scraping is recommended. My tongue looked like a sheet of white paper, so.. scraped away. We'll see how tomorrow goes, but I'm optimistic as I near "hump" day. As I'm approaching the halfway point. I think I'd better start thinking about what my Sunday is going to look like. The plan calls for another week of eating special, but now its solid foods. 

Fine

Time: 2:12 pm Next Juice: 5pm
How do you feel? Fine, weird tongue
Hunger scale: 1

Just a little unfocused, but nothing mission critical. My tongue feels a little .. weird. Friend at work says this is the detox happening, and it's a good sign. The super chute juice is not the sweetest of juices, but tastes "healthy" with a little sweet twist. 

Mild Jittery

Time: 9:49am Next Juice: 11am
How do you feel? Jittery, clumsey
Hunger scale:2

Ok, I think that day 2 and three may be a bit tricky. This is something that was predicted by reading testimonies, so I'm not surprised. Not unmanageable and I'm not hungry per say, but I have the taste of metal in my mouth (refreshing!) and my body feels like it has a slight jittery quality to it, a little loopy, but nothing unmanageable or obvious. 

Day 2 Morning Euphoric

Weight: 221.2

Time: 8am Next Juice: 11am
How do you feel? Euphoria, at peace
Hunger scale:0

Last night was a bit of a shake up. Went to the movies and got back well outside of my scheduled time. Missed my 8pm and didn't drink thehot apple cider. But. I still wanted to snack before going to bed. Old habits do die hard. So I ate almost an entire jar of Jalepeno pickles, and drank some of the vinegar, love the taste of pickle vinegar. Anyway, eating something I guess is outside of the scope of a juice fast, but they were pickled vegetables, so how bad can that be? Got to go to work. 

Day 1 Evening

Time: 6pm Next Juice: 9
How do you feel? light headed
Hunger scale: 4

Definitely time for my 6pm juice, I just started to feel a bump in hunger, and on schedule at that. Perfect. My last bump was much shorter lived than I expected, so I'm pleased that so far today, I've only had the one real hunger pang bump. The loopyness I'm hoping will go away. We'll see if I get more frequent bumps as the days go by. I'll be hitting the last big juice event around 9 this evening, when I make the remaining juice of the day, and all my juices to 5pm for tomorrow. Feeling good overall.

Day 1 Afternoon

Time: 2:15 Next Juice: 3:30
How do you feel? light headed
Hunger scale: 4
Juicing Efforts so far*: 1 hour (morning 30, afternoon 30)

*Includes cleanup

Starting to feel that hunger pang, not ugly, but a 4 is not completely comfortable either. Amazing what a difference 1 hour makes. When my next drink hits at 3:30 I'm going to be grabbing for it. Need to remember to drink it slowly. I'll have one more juicing effort this evening as preparation for tomorrow. This afternoon I prepared the Super Chute Juice as it has a few more ingredients than the other recipes, and I'm not going to want to pull out all that stuff again this evening. My Jack Lelane juicer can only handle about three complete juicings before it needs to be cleaned.

Tonights efforts;

1. 2 servers of Super Juice for tomorow 8am 11am
2. 1 lemon Ginger Zinger for 8pm tonight
3. 1 hot n spicy for 9 pm tonight
4. 1 Turbo Express for tomorrow at 5pm 

Tomorrow nights efforts:

1. Turbo Express (8pm drink)
2. hot n spicy (9pm dring)
3. Lemon Ginger Zinger 8am tuesday
4. Super Juice 11 am tuesday
5. Passion 4 Juice master 2pm tuesday
6. Turbo Exprss 5pm tuesday

geez..now that it's on paper it seems like allot of effort. I'll long my daily effort in terms of hours as this component was a real blocker for me before I started. It's important to know effort, especially if you are a busy professional 

Hunger Scale Now: 2.5   Time: 2:35  (interesting.. hunger pang only lasted about 1/2 hour)

Welcome to Day 1

Weight: 222.4

Time: 1:30 Next Juice: 3:30
How do you feel? light headed
Hunger scale: 1

Sunday morning. made two juices before church to drink at 9:30 and 12:30 after service. Now I need to make my afternoon 3:30 and 6:30 juices. This evening the plan is to make all my juices for tomorrow leading up to the 8pm juice. At 8pm tomorrow night, I'll repeat the process for the following day and so on.

Watched "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" last night, and it really inspired me. Some of the results were phenomenal, but it really drove home the idea, that this is a complete lifestyle change, I cannot go back. What was interesting was, that in the movie, the documentarian asked many people why they eat the way they do, and if they could extend their lives through a juice fast, would they do it. Surprising, most people said no. The general attitude was, I live for today, and I'll die tomorrow, but at least I'll be happy. What was really great however, was watching the juicers in the movie as they struggled to move past the barriers and go into full detox. I really felt then for the first time excited about this journey.

Right now, I feel fine, not hungry (1 on the scale of 1 to 10), but feel my brain is tweaked up a notch, almost as if I am breathing more oxygen than normal. This tweaked feeling is not uncomfortable, just, I feel a little high, and I have to concentrate a bit harder when doing important things like, driving my car. Otherwise I feel pretty much the same as always. From my dry run on Friday, I'm not expecting my hunger quotient to stay this way. In the movie, it seem pretty consistent that folks were uncomfortable for the first three days, but then settled into and felt great.

Day Before

I've been looking at Jason Vale's 7lbs in 7 days app on my iPhone for the last 5 months now and I think it's time to finally commit. Ever since doing the "meat" diet in the early 2000s , I've had a certain fear of radical dieting. Don't get me wrong, during these diets I lost all the weight as promised but then I gained it all back again in short order, only to find that losing was now twice as hard. It was almost as if my body was exacting some kind of revenge for the trauma that I had put it through. So needless to say, I've been trying a "rational" diet of trying to count calories.. and I've failed.

I first became familiar with juicing as a result of watching the "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" movie. Like the chunker in the movie, I too have been getting the red flag from my physician. The wake up call was when he told me my blood count is showing signs of pre-diabetes. Still, some wake up calls take time to settle in. So I've been procrastinating, sitting on my hands, and just generally hoping this would all go away through care and portion control. After one particular week where I had eaten lots of greens and other.. I thought, NOW the scale is going to bless me.. Not only did the scale NOT bless me, the bastard added 4 pounds. That was pretty much the last straw. Having sat at an unhealthy weight now for the past 8 years, I need to lose this weight and get healthy as I enter into the last quarter of my life.

It Begins
 I have been slow to act on this diet because of a number of concerns. One of my concerns is the basic, how am I going to do this? I have been drinking juices for some of my breakfasts for the past 3 months. I love the flavor, and have learned how to work quickly and efficiently at juicing. My record juice time is around 17 minutes from cutting to drinking, with clean up in between. Of course, once the machine is running and masticating, I can churn out at least two to three full juices in that timeframe.

I'm not lazy by any measure, but at the same time I know myself and all the logistics that surround juicing seems a bit daunting.

Questions surrounding juicing.

When will I juice?
I've decided that around 7pm the night before is my best window for working.

What will I need?
I will need three metal juice flasks that I will take to work with me. The morning juice at 8 am and the two evening juices can just be 1 large cup.

How will this feel?
I did a dry run for the entire day leading up to dinner yesterday, and I can say that a mid day hunger set in that threatened to derail me.  I had a safety net of nuts nearby just-in-case. Bleary eye and shaky hands at work is NOT cool. At around 4pm I had to turn to the nuts once. I will say, that as I was driving home, the hunger passed and a sweet easy feeling settled upon me and I was more aware of everything, it felt good. So, I have a few reservations, but overall, I'm looking forward to this.

One think I learned here, DO NOT DEVIATE FROM THE SCHEDULE. There are milestones throughout the day meant to cut the hunger ache, stay on that schedule.

Will I be able to exercise?
With so little food in my stomach, will I be asking for trouble if I go to the gym? Only experience will tell, I'll be documenting that here.

How will avoid the post diet bounce?
With the "meat" diet, I only kept the weight off for a while. I'm committed to this effort, and I am already planning my meals post 7 days, RIGHT NOW. I don't want to come to the finish line and the get confused and reach for some errant slice of pizza. I MUST be prepared.

When will I begin?
Sunday. This will give me a day to aclimate before heading to work the next day

This blog will remind me how this feels in the future when I redo the 7 days, 3 months from now. It's important to have a reminder of why this important and the blog will do just that.