Breaking down

After ending my juice fast I managed eating rather well. I didn't overeat, even though I had some foods that are not on the anti-inflammatory list. Quite a few of those, actually (I had quite a bit of pain today, which might be attributed to these off-list foods). Yesterday, though, the cravings were back with a vengeance.

I went to New Frontiers, the local answer to Whole Foods, and bought not just the cat food and sweet potatoes I came in for, but also So Delicious coconut milk ice cream bars, coconut date rolls, a Thai noodle salad with peanut dressing, and a salad bar salad. I have eaten all of those things now. Good thing there were only four of those ice cream bars in the package, at 100 calories and 3.5 grams of fat each. Could have done a lot worse.  I suspect the peanut dressing was number one in fat and calories.

I'm gaining ground again. We slip, we get up. We do it again.

Back on real food

Early this morning I fixed a breakfast of scrambled tofu with spinach, broccoli, and potatoes. It was "clean"- cooked in a little water, with turmeric, cumin, and cajun spices. But the tofu really upped the fat content. It was quite filling but not that satisfying. Midmorning I cooked several carrots in water until soft, and ate them with a little salt. After drinking the juice of carrots for so many days I really wanted the whole carrot, and I wanted it cooked.

I lost a total of 6.5 pounds during the ten-day fast. I had hoped for more, and it makes me wonder how much I have to do to lose weight at this point. I think I accomplished my goal, though, to kickstart weight loss again, get a fresh start.

One way to continue the start is to have more raw foods. If I simply have a salad first for every lunch and dinner meal, that should make a difference. I also want to try more raw foods recipes, like the one I will be making for tonight's potluck. I plan to stick with the "safe foods", for the most part: brown rice and a variety of green red, orange, yellow vegetables and fruits. It may be time to try making kale chips, too.

I have many little ziploc bags of carrots in the freezer. A few have other ingredients in them. Perfect for soups or just vegetable broth. Time to start using them before I get juicing again. As for the juicer, I have been washing the parts in the dishwasher and I plan to set the juicer aside for a little bit. Take a break from it.

And it's morning

Forget what I said about sleeping better. I woke in the wee hours, one o'clock or so, and tried vainly to get back to sleep. Finally I just got up, decided to write a bit here. Then feed the cats when the hour is a little smarter.

I couldn't shut my mind down. My legs were feeling a little gimpy, achey, understandable. But mostly it was my mind. And part of that was getting off the juice fast. Thinking about actually eating. This is crazy. Never let it be said that I eat to live; to be sure, I live to eat.

But I won't eat yet. That way lies disappointment. I'll fix my scrambled tofu with broc and spinach and potatoes when the sun has peaked over the horizon. It's only a bit after four now. Perhaps a nice warm shower. Then try again.

The Last Night

I make it through this night and I've made it through my ten-day juice fast. I certainly can do it.

Today I went on a photography excursion. A bunch of us went to the Piedras Blancas Lighthouse, just above San Simeon. We were led around by docents for over two hours, and then left on our own to photograph the sunset from wherever we wanted. This means we walked around, stood, walked, stood, took pictures, walked again...I sat down a couple of times for very short times. Otherwise I was on my feet.

I got tired but my hip did not hurt. My legs felt pretty good overall. I felt like I did well. This, on top of three or four days without the sharp pains in my groin area that have become part of my life.

I suspect, therefore, that the foods I juiced do not cause inflammation in me. And now I want to follow Dr. Barnard's plan: go with anti-inflammatory foods for a while, then gradually add in foods that may be inflammatory, one by one. My first day, tomorrow, though, will be different. I want to have scrambled tofu with spinach and broccoli tomorrow morning. The tofu is not on that list. Tomorrow night I will be going to a potluck. The foods offered there will be healthy, for the most part, but I won't know what is in everything, so I won't be restricting myself to the "safe" foods tomorrow.

Day 10 at last.

This has been a LONG ten days.

Last night I went to Art After Dark, aka First Friday. Saw an exhibit that included a work by a friend, then took in several other places, including a beauty salon where the wine and beer were sitting in ice in the shampoo bowls. Very cool. I resisted all that free wine. Believe me, it wasn't easy.

Today I am doing a fake marathon. I have to get my tripod out to take some pictures of myself running. I will set the camera's shutter on ten seconds' wait, then do my best. Probably more than once. Nobody volunteered to help so there won't be a refreshment stand or people holding signs or anything like that. I hope this happens again next year but I doubt it. I think it's really a one-time deal.

After that I will carpool with three or four others to the San Simeon Motel, where we will meet the rest of our photo group and then carpool to the San Simeon lighthouse, where we will spend three hours photographing. The challenge for me will be the standing more than anything else, I think. As well as figuring out how to make the most of the venture. I'm not half the photographer I wish I were.

Because I will be gone all afternoon and into the evening I will be making a large jug or two of juice to bring with me. I need to figure out a good way to pack up lenses, tripod, shutter remote, and juices in a reasonably compact way. I have decided that the marathon and the walking around the lighthouse will be my exercise for today.

Day 9

I think it I did not have activities scheduled in these ten days it would be easier to do this. Tomorrow afternoon I will be spending with a bunch of other photographers. I will be gone from about 12:30 until after seven at night. I need to bring juice with me for this. Not quite as easy as packing a sandwich.

I am continuing to not have the sharp pains in my groin area that I was getting several times a day. Perhaps those were from inflammation.  I managed 15 minutes on the treadmill today, after 15 on the bike, without pain. I still have the tension in my legs that makes me not want to do more, but at least I was not bothered by actual pain. It may be well for me to look at that list of foods that are anti-inflammatory again. Then, when I get off the juice I can be a little smarter in what I eat.

Last night I made apple juice just before I went to bed. I saved most of it in a covered container in the fridge, so I had a glass of that first thing this morning. When I got back from the gym I made a big batch of carrot-orange-beet-beet greens-spinach juice. Filled a quart container. I had a glass over ice and it tasted so good that I went back and had another. And another. Until it was all gone. I think this will be a good choice in the future when I crave something smooth and sweet.

Energy? I don't know. It seems like I have more but I'm not bouncing around or anything like that. I always feel like I have more energy when I just plan stop overeating. If my system is not involved in digestion it can do other things! I am also still sleeping well these nights. I don't sleep all the way through but whenever I get up to go pee I go back to sleep easily. That is plenty good enough for me.

Day 8.

I woke without a headache again. I have been sleeping well. Waking to pee, then going back to sleep. Could it be good that I don't have much in my stomach? Could that be it? Or is it something else?

I also have not had the sharp pains in my hip that have been plaguing me. I am headed for a hip replacement in late March or early April. I am not free of pain, but lately free of those little sharp pains. I am thinking that the foods I have been drinking are anti-inflammatory, or at least not inflammatory. Might be good to look that up again. I have a whole book on foods that fight pain.

I expect that those who are starting from a SAD position might notice a whole lot of changes by Day 8. That would encourage them to continue. I can't say it does that for me because I still want to eat something right now. But I am continuing. Yesterday I laid in another $40 worth of fruits and vegetables. So far $160. If I eat all of that by Day 10, then it will have cost me $16 a day to do this. Not the cheapest way to eat.

Craving: the sequel

Tonight my partner, my daughter, dropped out. She sent me a text that read, "Let's eat!" and then called me to suggest that ten days is just too long; she felt weak. I think she just hasn't been eating - drinking- enough. She has not had the time to run the juicer, make a big batch of juice, bring enough with her to work. In any case, rather than try to get her to continue I accepted her situation. Yes, ten days is long. And no, there isn't anything really important that is going to come of this. For me at least there is an additional incentive: the opportunity to talk about it at the potluck this coming Sunday.

Craving. If I had any idea that doing this fast would reduce my cravings I was wrong. I am a person who binges, and sometimes those binges can last for months. In my case, I don't mean I eat everything in sight every day but I do give in to these cravings, especially in the evenings, for foods that are not good for me. While doing this juicing I only make more juice when I feel a craving come on. No problem during these ten days. But I will have to fight the crave when I'm off the juice.

Day 7.

Making it.  The end is in sight.

Dr. McDougall and others say that we need a lot less protein than "conventional wisdom" says. I am getting protein mainly from the veggies that I juice, and I toss back a LOT of some of them.  Even the carrots, not a big star in protein, will do the job in large quantities. One gram of protein per carrot, average. I drink perhaps two dozen carrots a day, or 24 grams of protein. That's not nothing. One sweet potato has about two grams of protein. Broccoli is the star - 4 grams per cup - but I haven't got any broccoli right now.

I still crave something to chew.

I have thought of one more thing I can use the veg pulp for: add to cat food. One of my cats has constipation issues so I have been adding a small amount of pumpkin or other winter squash to the food. Seems I could steam the pulp and add that instead.

I woke with another small headache. It went away without my taking any acetaminophen. Low blood sugar? High? More likely low. I am getting a lot of sugar in the fruits and vegs I juice but the total amount is pretty low, I suspect.

Craving

It is the end of a long day. I was away from home today and not near any juicers so I didn't have a lot of juice during the day. When I got home I fixed myself something quick - orange, grapefruit, pear - and drank it while watching a television show. On that show the characters were ordering Chinese food take-out. Now, normally I am not all that tempted by Chinese food because its American version is high in fat and not very high in flavor, as a rule. However, it is now all that I want. I want to call a Chinese restaurant and order take-out.

I took a CPR and First Aid class today. It was listed as three hours but actually turned out to be a six-hour class (miscommunication somewhere along the line). I was not prepared for that. For our lunch break, I went to the nearby gym, where they have a smoothie bar, and asked if they had any fresh-squeezed juices. No. I settled for a large glass of bottled orange juice, and not particularly good juice at that (not even talking about the pasteurization).  I brought it back with me to the class to drink while the instructor continued the class (this was our way of shortening the total length of the class).

Most of the others got food from a nearby fast-food joint: fried things. Brown and brown. What kinda made me laugh is that this just didn't seem like food at all to me. Don't get me wrong: I like a good french fry. But to call it lunch? Along with something that is dipped in batter and then fried?

I know. I am sounding holier than thou. I think this juicing thing has that effect.

Day 6

Passed the half-way point. I can definitely do this. As can my daughter Mary, who is doing this with me (in her own house)!

Yesterday I woke with another small headache. Today I did not. Perhaps there are changes going on. Or not.

I enjoyed some juices with sweet potato in them yesterday. I think substantial foods like that make me feel fuller, even if only the juice. I also cleaned out my refrigerator:

At this point I have juiced beets, carrots, oranges, apples, cabbage, beet greens, spinach, grapefruit, lemon, ginger, sweet potato, watermelon, grapes, kale. I think that's it. I have not done a lot with the leafy greens. It seems like not much comes out of them. But I am trying to add more in now.

I feel good. It feels like my energy level is still up, relatively speaking. And my output is down, as you'd expect. Mostly liquid. I suspect this is what makes a lot of people think they have "detoxed", gotten rid of poisons, and so on. It's easy to imagine that some things get stuck on the colon walls and that juicing washes them out. It's a familiar picture; that is, we have all washed dishes that had food stuck on them. I doubt this takes place in our colons, however. For many people, just having the food move through quickly must be a novelty. As I do eat a lot of whole fresh plant foods, it isn't new to me.

Today I am taking a CPR class, from 11 to 2. I will bring a thermos with some kind of juice in it as a snack. I am thinking about taking a walk. Maybe after the class. A hike, even.

Day 5!

Almost half-way there! My mind boggles to think of doing this for 30 days. If I felt it would really make a difference for me, though, then I could see it. If I were very much heavier than I am and sick, for example.

I consider myself an expert on my particular juicer now. Not that it wasn't easy out of the box, but I have made mistakes. A couple of times I started the juicer without putting the pulp container in place. The kitchen counter and I got splattered with bits of food. Another time I didn't line up the top piece properly so there were leaks and when I started it bits of food and juice were leaking all over. I stopped that one quickly and reconfigured. It is a simple machine, basically, so there are no closures that ensure you've done it right, except for the metal bar that clicks in place.

I have learned to process vegs first, then bag the pulp, then add the fruits. I freeze the veg pulp. I'm getting a little collection of freezer bags in there that I plan to use in beans and soups and even breads, and who knows what else. Oh yes, and vegetable broth. I look forward to making vegetable broth with my pressure cooker.

It may seem obvious but I figured out that it goes faster if I put in one piece (or however many fit), push it a little way, then add another piece, and so on. The booklet says slower is better so I try to push slowly.

Still feeling fine. My eyes, which had some sort of allergic reaction when I started this fast (I was a little sick, nothing major), are fine now. I washed them with salt water one morning and that's all I have done.

I do seem to have more energy. In my case, this translates to getting up and doing things around the house. Washing clothes, making the bed, cleaning the floor, taking trash out. I am at rock-bottom lazy and I have to fight it, and right now it seems pretty easy to do at least these small things without feeling tired or hurting.

Day 4

I woke with a slight headache. I took some acetaminophen and it went away. Sometimes I get headaches from not eating. I have certainly been eating. Drinking. It may have nothing to do with that.

This morning I decided to make a big batch of juice as a go-to for snacks during the day. I went with a tried-and-true: carrot and orange. Except I expanded the orange to include pink grapefruit and clementines as well:

I went through the carrots first, and bagged and froze the pulp from them. Then I added the citrus. The total slightly overran the pitcher that comes with the juicer. I wasn't quick enough to see that it was leaking from the hole where the juicer shoots it in. Not a lot of loss, anyway. I filled a lidded container with the juice and put it in the fridge:

The rest I drank. Nice. I will still experiment with different mixtures during the day but at least I have something I can grab when I just want a bit of something. 

I feel fine. I don't know if I feel better or worse than when I started. Let's just see how the day goes.

Getting creative

Tonight I had a carrot soup (carrots, celery, onion, ginger, a bit of kale - juiced and then heated with a bit of pulp added back in for thickening) and a cantaloupe, asian pear, apple juice and lemon spritzer. It was almost like a regular meal. It takes a lot of juice to get a lot of calories so I keep at it, juicing and cleaning up, juicing and cleaning up. And coming up with new combinations and ways to drink juice.

I'd love a glass of wine right now.

Or just a large bowl of steamed spinach or broccoli.

My stomach feels hungry but the feeling is also a bit like what it starts to feel like when it is being bothered. I am wondering: too much acid? After all, I am throwing a lot of citrus in there, and other fruits that are acid as well. Actually no. All fruit and vegetable juices are highly alkaline. Funny. Seems counterintuitive. But there's acid and there's acid. So I am not getting too much acid. Maybe it is just hunger. Considering the lack of grains and concentrated protein it makes sense.

Day 3!

Such waste! I don't have a composter and right now I don't want to spend extra time making the pulp into crackers or breads, and combination fruit-veg pulp isn't what I want for a soup thickener, so most of the pulp goes down the garbage disposal. I can be glad, at least, that sewage is used as part of fertilizer for non-food plants (too many difficulties in filtering out impurities, particularly heavy metals, to use for food growing).

Yesterday I made a "green soup". I juiced a whole bunch of spinach, carrots, garlic, celery, some other things, and heated the soup. I wanted something different, and having it hot felt good to me. However, I was in too much of a hurry with the pulp, washed it down the drain too quickly. It would have been great to use a part of it in the soup and I could have frozen the rest. Excellent for broth. I will remember next time.

I'm feeling fine. Not dying from lack of protein, for example. Fruits have little protein but veggies have more. I haven't been juicing enough of those veggies. Need to step it up.

I have been developing some habits. From the start, I have washed the juicer parts immediately after juicing. Leaving them would make cleanup much harder. Fortunately, this juicer (Breville's Juice Fountain) is easy to take apart, clean, and put back together. Harder than a blender but easier than the more complex juicers.

I use a cutting board and a waste bag, putting the peelings into the bag right away. I worry about flies and want to minimize any chance that they can feed on that waste. For the same reason, I clean up the counters right after juicing as well. I know. Most people do this sort of thing regularly. My habits aren't as good as they could be.

As I prepare the foods for juicing, I put them in a largish salad bowl. I saw this on a blog recently and it makes a lot of sense. These habits make me feel good, like I am making some sort of progress.

I am also getting a bit more adventurous. Yesterday I saw some recipes using sweet potatoes and I made a variation of them. The recipes called for sprinkling cinnamon on top afterwards, an idea whose time has come. This morning I charged into the kitchen and just grabbed things I thought would go together - cantaloupe, peaches, lemon, orange - prepared them and rammed them on through. I piled the fruits on top of each other, and when I had pushed some through I added more to fill it up again. A bit more efficient, I think.

Bathroom trips are frequent, as expected. I don't know that they are actually more frequent than usual for me, but they are a bit looser and often carrot-colored. It's a good thing I'm the only one who reads this blog.

Day 2

Second day of juice fast. I crave steamed spinach. Broccoli, steamed. Stuff to chew. It is not fun to go out and see all the food out there!

I started out sick, yesterday. I got sick Tuesday night, spent Wednesday mostly in bed. Yesterday I was still sick but a little better. I am much better now, just have a few histamine issues. My hands were very itchy Tuesday night and I scratched the hell out of them, making them super-sensitive to heat. They felt burned. I have taken a generic Allegra to reduce the histamines and it has helped a lot. My eyes, though, are scratchy. I rinsed them in warm salt water this morning and I will do so again soon.

After physical therapy (I am trying to get both knees straight - I had knee surgery in 2011 - yeah, over a year ago) this morning, I went to Jamba Juice and had a 16-oz. Orange Carrot juice. Yummy. Of course I could make that at home but I was out of carrots and very hungry. Sixteen ounces is a lot, but it wasn't a lot of calories - 180.  I then bought some vegetables that I forgot to get yesterday, including two large bags of carrots. Where all this is going to fit in my fridge is still a mystery. I suppose if I actually cleaned the thing out there would be no problem.

Still hungry. I am poring over some recipes now. There is one that calls for a sweet potato that seems promising.

Juice Fast! Me??

Yes, I'm doing a juice fast. I'm no believer in juice fasts. I do not believe in "detoxing", nor do I think that squeezing the pulp from veggies and fruit is a good thing. Nevertheless, I am doing this fast as a way to kickstart some more weight loss. I ballooned up to over 250 and have managed to bring it down to 243 (actually 242.5, according to my scale this morning), and now I want to make another push.

So this is day one of a ten-day juice fast. I am starting it not entirely in the dark but not all that well-prepared either. I know I need to get more veggies into these drinks (something I normally don't feel a need to do, because I eat tons of veggies just plain, on their own, raw or lightly steamed). Today was mostly fruits: apples, oranges, grapes, watermelon, strawberries, grapefruit, some carrots and ginger and a little spinach. When I went shopping this morning I neglected to lay in more carrots and some beets, celery, pineapple, and tomatoes. I think those will carry me along nicely. I have plenty of green for now, kale and cabbage and spinach.

I feel hungry. Naturally. I am not eating any grains, which help with hunger more than fruits and vegs on their own do. This, of course, is why I expect to lose weight. But I have nothing against grains. I just want to get that kickstart, then add in the healthy whole-foods veggies and grains, which I expect I will love even more than usual.

I watched Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead at the beginning of this month. That guy went 30 days on his fast, and so did another person he met on his journey. I applaud them. I feel, though, that I am not as desperate as they were. I am not trying to get rid of a disease and I have been eating healthily enough for a while, so I don't expect results quite as dramatic. Just a jump below 240, say...

Time to fix me another drink.