#juicereboot

February 15th, 2016

Weight - 165.3

Juice - Cucumber, 1/2 Lemon, 1 Pear, 2 Granny Smith Apples, 5 Kale leaves, 1/2 large broccoli tree, Parsley.

Half way there in not just one way, but TWO. As if the lord himself planned this AWESOME ‘coincidence’, I also hit 165 this morning, which puts my TOTAL weight loss since September at a 30 pound loss! Now I only have 30 more to go to hit my ultimate goal of 130, HURRAY!

Let me start by saying, this has been the best and worst 15 days of my life. Breaking my ties with food was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and I’ve been through a LOT in my short life span. Building my resolve to refuse food and drink nothing but fruit and veggie juice has been a battle in and of itself, but I’ve succeeded tenfold with NO cheats what so ever to the diet. But on the flip side, I’ve discovered discipline in myself I never, EVER knew I had, and I’ve earned a lot of respect from family and friends for having the strength to do this. While earning their respect, I’ve also inspired them, and they come to me for advice and help with their goals. It’s a feeling like I’ve never felt before, that feeling of being looked up to and inspirational. Its an amazing change.

I’ve lost a total of 10 pounds on the juice fast with no exercise in 15 days. It’s the fastest drop in weight I’ve ever had since making the decision to change my life, and the differences I’m seeing are absolutely remarkable.

This picture was taken at the Virginia Aquarium in September 2015, when I weighed 195 lbs. This is the biggest I had ever been, and I ALMOST didn’t buy these pictures because of how big I looked on camera. I’m so glad I did though, because this is one of the only pictures I have at my top weight.

This is my 190 side picture. Pretty exposed, but you see people in bikinis every year, so sorry not sorry. As you can tell, I didn’t want to take this photo. The look on my face is pure disgust with myself, and I kept these hidden on a folder far away from my own eyes so I didn’t have to face the reality of how big I really was. 

And here’s a side by side! The picture on the right is when I hit 170 pounds on Feb 5th, 2017 while the other picture is from September of 2015, and the differences still amaze me. The first thing I noticed was my face. Suddenly, I had facial definition that hadn’t been there in a very long time. My chinline showed, I no longer had a waddle feeding into my neck, and the surface of my cheeks were flat, instead of lumpy from all the pudge. I was floored! The second thing I noticed was my stomach, and how much it had begun to recede. My hips are also smaller, though its harder to see with my hand blocking the view, but you can see differences in my thighs too. 

Here’s a close up of the changes in my face. I tried my best to do the same exact face/smile to get the best possible results, and I’m SO happy with what I captured. I couldn’t believe the differences, I wanted to cry with joy. My double chin is receding and my jawline has so much more definition.

SO, as far as changes I’ve seen outside the physical, I can start to tell you some things I’ve noticed in my life that changed. First, I stopped snoring. When I hit 190, I was snoring SO bad at night because of the weight against my neck and chest. Once I dropped down past 175, I stopped completely. Also, getting in and out of the car is easier. Before, I would struggle, because I have such short legs, so I had to be really close to the steering wheel. When I’d try to get out, I’d get pinned against the wheel, and it was embarrassing. That’s not a problem anymore. :D Also, doing things like getting off the  couch is easier too. My huge gut before made it difficult and got in the way whenever i’d lurch forward to get up, but now I can just jump up and go about my business without a struggle, it’s amazing! My jeans have all loosened, and all of my bras are getting really lose too! Once I hit 150, I plan to do a wardrobe dump and replace everything with NEW clothes. WOOHOO.

Now, i’m going to paste all of my old symptoms from my previous blog and address them!

Hairloss  I no longer have major hair loss issues.

Brittle Fingernails I can’t begin to explain how my nails look now. They’re amazingly healthy and no longer paper thin!

Rough Sandpaper Skin/Large Pores/Acne - I still have issues with my skin, but it’s not nearly as severe.

Itchy Legs (eczema) I no longer have any issues with itchy legs!

Very Little to No Sex Drive Starting to regain a drive, but not enough that I’ll mark this one out. We’ll see on day 30!

Random Moodiness outside of PMS My moods have been SO much better! My husband can attest to that, hah! I’ve been much more chipper, cheerful and happy to be around.

Head Fog/Trouble Remembering I don’t feel i’ve been on the diet long enough to really evaluate this one to it’s fullest, but I have noticed i’ve been sharper and wittier against my husband’s jokes. 

Fatigue This is the biggest difference I’ve seen. I’m no longer tired all the time, and I don’t feel the need to sleep every chance I get. I also no longer have the 2′o clock crash everyone seems to suffer from in the afternoons.

Insomnia Since starting the diet, I've only had one instance of not being able to sleep, and that was because I took a midol late at night, and they’re full of caffeine SO it was my fault.

Irritability Absolutely no irritability EXCEPT the first 4 days I was on the diet, which is to be completely expected. Outside of that, I’ve been happy and chipper.

Heart Palpitations I had one night I had a bout of palps, but that was because I hadn’t had a juice for the day and my body was reacting on that. 

IBS-C No problems with my IBS since being on the diet!

Lethargy No lethargy at all!

Sensitive to Cold Still sensitive to cold, it might just be how I am.

Heavy, Irregular Menstrual Periods My period this month wasn’t very heavy, but I did cramp a LOT. BUT, it was actually on time, so maybe there’s hope afterall!

Deteriorating Vision with no apparent cause As far as I could tell, I didn’t lose vision, but I’d need to be on the diet a LOT longer to notice a difference. 

Rapid Weight Gain No weight gain what so ever, not even when my period came through. I did plateau during that time, but didn’t gain at all.

So there you have it. That’s everything on my journey so far, and I can’t wait to report when I hit my 30 day mark with brand new side by sides and scales numbers! :D

February 10th, 2016

Weight - No Change

Juice - 1 whole Beet, 5 Carrots, 1/2 Pineapple, 1 handful of Spinach, 4 sprigs of Kale, 1 Zucchini Squash

I’m starting to branch out and try new things! Zucchini is where I started, and I have to say I’m pleasantly surprised at the outcome. I absolutely love fried and baked zucchini, so I figured why not give it a go? Zucchini is a VERY mild veggie, and it has a very buttery flavor to it rather than that earthy, plant like flavor some other green vegetables tend to have, so if you’re looking for a good juice filler veggie (kinda like cucumber and celery) this is definitely one you could look at. It does make the juice kinda thick though, which I personally don’t mind. ^_^

No weight change today, and I think that’s because I’m about to start my period (Tmi, sorry not sorry) and I tend to bloat a couple days before and onto the second to last day. Women typically gain an average of 2 to 7 pounds of water weight during their periods, so it’s pretty normal, and I’m hoping this weight plateau is due to that. Definitely don’t wanna see myself dangle above my goal, especially when I start to get near the end of this 30 days.

In other news, I learned that you can peel an orange with a potato peeler to keep most of the pith (the white skin under the thin layer of outer fruit skin) on there for the absolute best yield of nutrients from the fruit. This also goes for grapefruits, limes, lemons, and other citrus fruits. Figured I’d pass that little bit on in hopes someone could use the information. :)

Another hack I learned from my mom is when you buy all your produce from the grocery store, clean out your sink, fill it with about 2 to 3 gallons of water and add 1/2 cup of vinegar per 1 gallon of water and soak all of your tough skinned fruits and veggies (Apples, Oranges, Cucumbers, ect.) in there and soak for 30 minutes for optimum cleaning so you don’t have to spend your time cleaning all your fruits before you juice. Don’t soak leafy veggies, or they might wilt. Dry on a towel until they’re completely dry and just put them away in your fruit bowl. You’ll notice a bright shine in your apples right away. :)

Not much else to report. On day 15 I plan to do a side by side comparison of my health ailments I was suffering from before I started this fast and see if anything has improved. I know a lot has already, so I’m excited to see what exactly has all but disappeared and how I feel.