Summer Days of Fruitrition Day 1/7 – Healing Journey Day 60

Journal:
I was actually a little excited about today. I absolutely loved my last PD session, and instead of going on my own, I got to be with colleagues for this one. That made it that much better!

The first thing I did was made some breakfast. Since I ate my Day 1 breakfast yesterday, I swapped it for that one banana and spinach smoothie that I did not finish during the Rawsome Healthy guide. So, I used the snack of today and the smoothie together to make a huge breakfast. Because I didn’t blend it the proper way (spinach and water first before adding in the bananas and strawberries), it came out looking like a Christmas smoothie. It was actually quite pretty!

That smoothie definitely filled me up this morning (I had a mug and a half as shown above PLUS my large smoothie cup that I took with me).

Now, I swapped Monday’s lunch with Tuesday’s lunch as it would have been much harder for me to prepare mangoes at a workshop than it would have been to eat figs. I also could not find ripe figs anywhere, so I brought a lot of water to go with dried figs. I did quickly find out that dried figs were not my favourite, though I did manage to eat 12 of them. However, I was still hungry. I didn’t expect to find anything more than a raw veggie tray for me to eat from in the hallway where they served lunch. However, they surprised me by having rice paper rolls! I know the rice paper wasn’t raw, but they were completely vegan and and because rice paper is so thin, it was so minimal compared to the heavily-breaded sandwiches they had for everyone else. I was so delighted! Veganism is making its way in the world! I loaded up!

When I got home, I did something bad and started “snacking.” I have been IN LOVE with arugula, but was eating it on toast, only making one at a time until before I knew it, I had eaten 3. Seriously, food addiction is no joke. I’m figuring out the power it holds even though I may have thought I was invincible. I share these things with you to be honest about the demise there is with food and how the unhealthy things are the things that grab us. So having bread in the house is a bad idea. If I didn’t have it, I wouldn’t eat it.

I finally got around to making my supper which was a soup made from mangoes, tomatoes, and celery. It was ok, though my mangoes are not as ripe as they should have been. I paid almost $2 a mango (not in season) and though they looked decent, they were not truly ripe. I have them sitting in front of a heater to try and help them ripen, but it’s not working a miracle. Either way, the soup was ok but I could not finish it. I ate about half and packaged the rest for tomorrow.

I went to bed stuffed and I could tell right away that was the wrong thing to do. Whenever I go to bed stuffed, I wake up the next morning with an uncomfortable stomach. But, I completed my first day, and that was a success. I just ended up adding “extra” which needs to be whittled out.

I did not go to the gym, but I did 5 ab exercises at home that was also helping to strengthen my lower abs which feed into my hip flexor issue. It did get sore after awhile, but I think it was good. Here goes the start of rehabilitating that “kicking” pain.

Review of Symptoms:
-Tired. Can’t sit for forever without moving.
-Ate A LOT today.
-Hair is not feeling great. Too much cooked food and junk is showing in my hair.
-Feeling bloated after eating everything today.
-Acne still bad.

Weight at the end of the day = 169 lbs (up 0.3 lbs from yesterday)

Total Calories = 2869 (84% carbs, 9% fat, 7% protein… good macros!)

National Sandwich Day – Healing Journey Day 55

Journal:
Today is National Sandwich Day and I had planned this day to be a sandwich day to see how my body would react to introducing bread. I woke up still not feeling 100% and needing to run to the washroom again. However,it was my hope that the bread would also help with this issue while I was at work. It would either be a success, or a completely bad judgment call. Only time would tell.

Early in the morning, I showered, got ready, and left early. I went and got gas so I wouldn’t have to do it in the evening, and then I hit Subway for their BOGO deal. I got two simple veggie subs on Italian bread (the only vegan bread). For sauces I got mustard and sweet onion sauce. And as for veggies? I got all the fresh veggies with the exception of jalapeño peppers as I didn’t need to put my body through that today.

What was my instant reaction after eating one for breakfast? Blah… not energizing, not “fulfilling”, just blah… I really was hoping this wouldn’t spell doom for the rest of the day.

By snack time, I was hungry again. So I pulled out the other sub and ate half. At lunch, I finished the sub. It amazed me how “empty” my stomach could feel while also feeling so not great. The caloric density of bread is not making up for the normal volume of fruit and veggies I normally eat. I also began to notice how dehydrated my body was beginning to feel.

When the afternoon hit, I was hungry again. I didn’t have any more “sandwiches” with me, but I did have a packet of savoury oatmeal, so I quickly whipped that up and ate it. I actually had never had savoury oatmeal before. Growing up, my favourite oatmeal included lots of brown sugar and dates. I always found that the dates tasted exactly like candy when cooked in oatmeal, so the thought of a savoury oatmeal did not really entice me. However, trying this Masala-flavoured oatmeal allowed me to quickly fall in love; it was so good!

Now, by the end of the afternoon, my stomach was in an all-right outcry. It already had not been feeling good throughout the day, but I knew it was not good. I had not been successful in my plan of trying to use bread to stop the bathroom issues and that did not work at all. In fact, I think the bread made it worse and my stomach more painful. So this plan was as good as failed.

After work, I drove to a place called Press’d to get another BOGO deal for sandwich day. I ordered two sandwiches called the Beatnik. The original recipe includes ranch dressing and swiss cheese, so I just took those off the sandwich and replaced them with avocado. I then brought them home and put my own sauces on them that I had in the fridge. It was much easier to control what they were putting on my sandwiches this way.

By the time I had eaten both sandwiches, I felt like I was so over-salted in my body, so dehydrated, stomach cramping badly, and just tired and terrible. Oh man… this sandwich day has been awful. I honestly am looking forward to going back to eating raw tomorrow. My body is so unhappy. I’m actually beginning to wonder if I’m truly digesting the food properly or not. I didn’t even go to the gym again tonight because I’m still scared of being away from the bathroom for too long. I want my health back!

Review of Symptoms:
-Stomach is bloated.
-Acne is terrible.
-Tired.
-I can feel the excess salt in my system.
-Still running to the washroom throughout the day.
-Not digesting food properly.
-Craving raw food and water.
-Pulled a groin-area muscle while playing soccer on the frosted grass with students today. Ugh…

Weight at the end of the day = 168.6 lbs (up 3 days from yesterday thanks to bread… ugh…)

Total Calories = 2691 (75% carbs, 12% fat, 13% protein)

I Threw in the Towel and Regretted It – Healing Journey Day 46

Journal:
This morning was rough. It actually started out good: I woke up early, finished one of the 3 papers that were due today, showered early, got ready on time, and even had enough spare time to make a smoothie for breakfast to take with me! I was so happy.

Then it began. My dog started scratching at the door which is not allowed. So I reprimanded him and went back downstairs to finish making my smoothie. I thought I was all done when no sooner had I finished dumping it from my Magic Bullet blender into my cup had I realized that half of the rubber seal was missing. I hoped that it had just broken from being old and was still intact in my smoothie somewhere, but to no avail. It was gone: disintegrated throughout my smoothie. Ugh. These were my only 3 truly ripe bananas and I don’t even have any spare frozen ones. There went the best smoothie of the day. I had to dump it out. This upset me the most. But then, I went to let my dog in only to find that somehow he unattached his lead again (it’s a chain link so I’m not even sure how he does this) which meant he had run through the muddy, dug-up garden. So I tried to contain him on the mat inside the door. However, the second I turned to grab the towel to wipe him down, he bolted and ran muddy footprints all through the kitchen, down the beige carpet on the stairs, through the hallway, and into my carpeted room. Ugh. What a morning.

You can see the half of the silicone ring that was left… There was no finding it with my knife. It was completely obliterated throughout the whole smoothie.

So after worship at work, I took a few minutes to go to the kitchen and quickly threw another smoothie together. It was simple, spinach and bananas. But I could easily taste the difference of bananas that are not as ripe as the last ones I sampled. And to top it all off, I threw out the equivalent of a banana and a half because they so badly bruised that they were literal mush. But, I had a green smoothie and that’s what day it is today. Three days of green smoothies will hopefully only improve from here.

I didn’t get another chance to make another smoothie until late in the afternoon. I was hungry and couldn’t wait to make a smoothie. I quickly went through my container of spinach, only to find out that an odd amount of moisture had somehow gotten in the container and started to make some of the spinach go bad. So I picked out all the good spinach that I could. Then I peeled the rest of my bananas, only having to throw one out. I also had a bag of peaches that I had been looking forward to. Come to find out, I had to throw out two of the peaches and the others were going bad quickly. However, I saved what I could, threw it in the blender, and blended it up. Words cannot express how terrible this smoothie tasted. Whether it was because of the deteriorating peaches, spinach I saved from the wilting ones, or the definitely unripe bananas, I can only guess they all were a factor. I honestly tried to choke it down. I mean, I discovered I hated rosemary a few days ago and still managed to choke it down. But this… this was awful. Words cannot describe. And as hard as I tried, I couldn’t do it. So there went some more money down the drain. Needless to say, I was frustrated.

So, out of frustration, I left school starving, came home, grabbed an English cucumber and the Daiya ranch dressing that I had left, and ate it down quickly. I then went to get a vegan burrito. Sure, it tasted ok. But to be honest, I would have preferred just a side of rice and beans. My taste has definitely gone more simplistic. But the way I felt while eating this burrito was not worth it. My stomach immediately felt bloated and full. I could not finish the burrito. I may eat that volume of raw foods, but definitely not of cooked foods. My body is not used to it. Ugh. This was a big mistake. If I’m going to rebel in frustration, it NEEDS to be with unplanned raw foods. Though I must confess, a burrito with beans, rice, pico de gallo and salsa is not a huge splurge. In my old days, it would have been all the junk food I could have gotten my hands on. But even so, this is not what I like my body to feel like; I’m missing the raw foods.

I came back home and began working on my sub plans for tomorrow. I’m going to a convention tomorrow and there was a lot of work that needed to be done ahead of time. I was able to get my work done, but my mind was continuing to think about how much better I felt eating raw foods. I made up my mind to be back on track tomorrow, and so that meant a very late drive to two grocery stores to try and find the most ripe bananas I could. Here’s to attempting my 3 days of green smoothies again tomorrow!

Since I didn’t go to sleep until the wee hours of the morning, I ended up grabbing what food I had around me. This included an apple cinnamon fig bar and another English cucumber with Daiya ranch and green Sriracha. What a messed up day of eating.

Tomorrow we are back on track with some mostly ripened bananas, kale and spinach. Let’s do it!

Review of Symptoms:
-Acne is better along my neck line, but worse on my cheeks.
-Digestion is so-so.
-Hair is actually doing alright. Washed with only water today.
-Energy is good.

Weight at the end of the day = 171.2 lbs (up 3.2 lbs from yesterday)

Total Calories = 2350 (68% carbs, 25% fat, 7% protein… totally blew my macros today…)

Multi-Day Mono-Juice Feasting – Healing Journey Day 7

Journal:
Wow! Today marks a week. After suffering with that awful – weird – stomach pain/aching last night, I am happy to wake up feeling good again. I slept solidly through the night, only quickly waking up once and not remember falling asleep… haha. My body was tired. What more can I say.

I woke up happy and ready to take on the day. I had a dentist appointment at 9:00 am so my morning was dedicated to getting ready. And what did I find this morning that had to go away before I went to the dentist? My tongue covered in white again. Yuck. If this really is toxins leaving my body, then my body was very toxic. Of course I’m just saying this because I’m not a professional on the subject, but the stuff looks and tastes disgusting. I don’t even have to look in the mirror to see if it’s there. I can taste it. It’s not good. So before the dentist started getting too inquisitive, the tongue had to be scraped off and brushed. I haven’t really told anybody around me about my healing journey. I’d rather them see the results and ask themselves, just not the yucky results like a white-covered tongue.

After I got dressed, I did my usual check in the mirror. Believe it or not, I had to stop myself. I’m wearing yoga pants with a tank top and a light cardigan-type thing over top, and for once in absolute months, I did not have to adjust my pants to hide my stomach just the right way. Yes, clearly I’m still overweight, but my stomach fat is not as bloated as it used to be. It almost looked flat from a head-on view. I have the worst self-image so this is a huge thing for me. When I weighed my lightest a few years ago – coming in at 129 lbs – I still looked in the mirror and saw fat. I liked my face at the time and the leanness around my neck/collarbone, but I carry my fat in my stomach (it’s the last to go) and so I couldn’t help but still see how fat I was in the mirror. Having bad self-image is a plague, it really is. But becoming vegan has helped me realize I need to focus on my health first and then everything else will fall into place. And this journey has only helped solidify that way of thinking. So today, I celebrated… with apple juice.

Yes. Today is day 2 of 3 that I am having only pure apple juice.By doing this, I am being easy on my body as it adjusts to having an energy source available again. My body doesn’t have to work on figuring out how to digest many different kinds of sources, it only has to figure out the one making it a much easier process. There’s no confusion, my stomach acids can settle in one place to digest the one ingredient. It’s the absolute easiest way you can come back from fasting.

My dentist appointment went well. I hate getting cleanings done. I really do. Every single time they always ask me if I floss, but it honestly is a part of my nightly hygiene routine to floss. I know that teeth can also have hereditary issues, so perhaps I’ve inherited my father’s awful teeth. But either way, aside from getting more regular cleanings, I’m not sure what to do. If you have any tips, definitely leave them below.

Aside from the regular cleaning, they reviewed a tooth that was supposed to be on watch from two years ago. I had completely forgotten about this. Underneath a filling from 10+ years ago, I had a spot forming that they couldn’t confirm two years ago as it would have required them to take out the filling to inspect. It was very small. Today, according to my x-rays, the spot has gotten a little bigger. Not hugely, but it is bigger. It now can be confirmed as a cavity. Again, since it’s under my filling, it’s going to require taking out my old filling, fixing it, then refilling again. Now, I’ve been looking into healing cavities naturally, and I believe it can be done. But when the dentist told me that if it grows more that it will get to my root (and showed me on the x-ray) that it will require a root canal and not just a filling. I have to admit, a root canal scares me. So against my better wishes, I have an appointment again for next week to have the cavity fixed. I had really bad teeth when I was younger (no doubt related to the way we were allowed to eat) and had many cavities all the time, so having one cavity in two years that honestly already existed before isn’t so bad. It’s progress. I’ve only been vegan for 1 year and even so did not eat healthy all the time. So now I know better what to do and I honestly can’t be eating any healthier than I have been this past week and it’s going to continue for quite some time.

I didn’t do a whole lot after the dentist appointment. I did go grocery shopping with my housemate/friend. The possibility of buying so much food was there, but yet again, I made it through with no mishaps. I was also invited to another free corn boil to which – this time – I declined. Not because I didn’t want to be tempted, but because I knew it was going to get cold again at night and I just didn’t want to be outside for a few hours in the cold. Really it was just personal choice. Plus, the main purpose to be there is to eat and if I’m not going to be eating, then there is less of a reason to go. This really was an event for the students of our school (the older ones that I don’t teach) so it wasn’t like I was denying a true social event with friends.

What did I drink today? As I mentioned above, apple juice again; the same kind I drank yesterday. However, I only consumed about 3-3.25 L compared to the ~3.75L I drank the previous day. I do have a sneaking suspicion that the quality of this Simply Apple juice is not quite the same as the organic ones I bought and may actually be the reason for some extra not-good feelings in my stomach. Time will tell.

Review of Symptoms:
Stomach still acted up throughout the day, always getting worse in the evening. Acne seemed to have a little less “tiny bumps” than yesterday. Otherwise, it seemed to be around the same. Stomach was looking a little less bloated. Tongue was covered in white “gunk” again that needed to be scraped.

Weight at the end of the day = 179.8 lbs (down a total of 9 lbs in 6 days)

Total Calories = 1326 (99% carbs, 0% fat, 1% protein)

Water Fasting – Healing Journey Day 4

Journal:
My stomach officially hurts. I did sleep better last night, waking up at 6:00 instead of 4:00 for which I’m grateful for. But I can’t deny that I feel my stomach so much today. Today marks 4 days without food, and only 2 days of drinking water. I have not had any issues drinking water right away this morning so my adjustment period was definitely yesterday.

**TMI Warning: I think my stomach pain may also be related to the need to use the washroom but the inability to do so for the past two days. I’m assuming that because my digestion has been shut down – essentially – for the past 4 days that it is causing the lack of movement. However, later in the day (towards the end of the day), I was finally able to have some elimination with the assistance of proper washroom posture. In case you are not aware, proper posture involves propping your feet on a stool or bench that allows your body to enter a 35 degree angle. Here is a great video to watch by a company that creates a stool specifically for this purpose:

https://youtu.be/pYcv6odWfTM

Some people have complained about headaches when doing any kind of fasting. Thankfully, I’m not a person who regularly gets headaches  and so I have not experienced any kind of headache.

I also think I have figured out what is going on with the temperature reactions in my body. My stomach is ON FIRE!! I can only assume this is from my body metabolizing my fat stores for food/energy. But the burning in my stomach is causing my limbs to become cold much more quickly. And when I turn the heat on, it amplifies the heat coming from my stomach making me way too warm. I’m not going to say the experience is miserable, but it’s definitely not my favourite. Either way, I managed to go to work this morning and somehow make it through the day.

How am I feeling about food right now? Oh my goodness… would I love to have anything; bread, vegan pizza (though not craving cheese of any kind), vegan croissants, baguettes, etc. Oddly enough, it’s mostly bread products but I’m almost thinking more than the taste, it is the texture of sinking my teeth into something soft and cushy. Texture often plays a big part in our food desires, and the thought of something so nice and cushy that almost melts in your mouth sounds absolutely amazing. But in reality, almost anything vegan would do. I’m starting to think about food more often, though it’s still fairly easy to bypass food, especially when the students are eating and microwaving their food, and the stash that is ever beside me on the floor. My NewsFeed on Facebook is also still full of people making different delicious vegan foods that look so appetizing, and yet somehow I’m still going strong. That being said, I am so looking forward to having lemon in my water tomorrow and especially to starting my juice feast on Thursday. I am currently just counting down the days to having some type of calories in my body. The time is actually going by fairly quickly though I look forward to feeling stronger again.

I did not go to the gym tonight. I didn’t make this decision based on energy stores, but simply because I don’t want to kill myself when I’m only in the middle of the work week. Work has been particularly stressful and unfortunately, the lack of calories in my body has caused my brain not to function at 100% capacity causing things to wear me out more than normal. Instead of being on my feet all day, I take more opportunities to sit down and I choose my walking trips a little more carefully. I also noticed that while I’m walking, I also feel almost like my legs are a little more jelly-like than normal. This is something I more than look forward to going away.

I drank approximately 3L today which is an improvement from yesterday’s 1.25-1.5L.

Review of Symptoms:
Face has no changes. Not really any new acne, but still a lot of room for improvement. Stomach pain is more prevalent. Body feels weak though somehow continues to do everything I need it to do. Mentality is not as strong as it could be, though it does seem to be stronger when I’m not physically active and draining my body that way. Stomach almost felt a little bloated today which is an interesting thing to consider. Thoughts are going towards food more often and counting down the days to lemon water tomorrow and my juice feast starting Thursday. Still experiencing temperature extremes though for the most part, I have been very warm in my midsection (stomach on fire) and very cold in my limbs. Very minimal shaking in the morning today though very weak. I also experienced some – at least what feels like – heartburn or acid reflux in the later part of the evening. I am not sure why this is occurring, but this is also not a pleasant experience.

Weight at the end of the day = 182.6 lbs (down 2.8 lbs in 24 hours, down 6.2 lbs in 72 hours).

Total Calories = 0

Cooked Vs. Raw Experiment

So I’ve been watching a lot of videos, and I’ve heard from Freelee herself that RawTill4 is the most recommended, completely raw vegan is the most ideal, but eating cooked starches is a good third. I also watched a few videos of people who have stopped following Freelee as I was curious as to what they had to say.

For one, I found that the things they were complaining about were either things that were taken the wrong way from her videos, or they clearly didn’t watch all of her videos to understand as much as they should have. The other thing I noticed is they would break away into their own ideals which is fine. I’m not saying Freelee is a god, but I think her nutrition information is great. There is scientific back-up, real life testimonies, and basically everything that makes common sense. I don’t always agree with her views on everything, but there is no denying she is passionate about what she does, and that’s awesome.

So for a bit of an experiment, I decided to try having one meal of fruit in the morning, and then turning to cooked foods starting from my morning snack. I did it for two days, stuck with my normal vegan foods, just the cooked versions. Well, I can assure you I’m returning to RawTill4 tomorrow.

Here’s why:

Basically, I feel fatter, and I feel bloated, and it doesn’t go down as quick like it does with fruit. Cooked food requires more energy to digest and is less hydrating. I feel that. I go to the washroom much less frequently, and the hydration levels are lower. I feel the difference. I’m not hungry, I’m not starving, but I don’t feel as “fresh” either. I miss feeling lighter. I miss feeling “fresh”. So tomorrow, I’m going back.

If you ever experiment with this, let me know how it worked for you! Leave your story in the comments below.

Day 13

This morning was a bit of a better morning, at least as far as food choices. I don’t even want to get into my lack of sleep.

I woke up and had water first thing (I’m getting better at water at least!). I then waited 20-30 minutes, and had a banana, 4 medjool dates, and some veggies chips. A bit later, I had some organic limeade and my vitamins.

We had to leave the house to get my husband another dress shirt for work. So naturally, we got hungry while we were out, and ate. I had a veggie burrito and tater tots (not the best, but one of the better alternatives). We kept shopping a little more, then grabbed stuff for the way home. My husband got a Pineapple Whey smoothie, and I got a fresh juice made form kale, apples, carrots, and pineapple. The girl went heavy on the kale, but that is a good thing. I could use the extra greens.

Both my husband and I have felt awfully tired today. So we took a bit of a nap before we had to make arrangements to meet with my dad. On the way to meet with him, we did a quick gas station stop. I don’t know what was wrong with me, but my stomach feels bloated and full! Almost like my digestion is at a stall. At the gas station, I picked up a candy bar (sometimes the excess sugar helps my digestion keep going), and an aloe drink. The bar actually did help soothe my stomach a little. I’m not really sure how this works. And the aloe was soothing and hydrating of course.

I didn’t eat much else today, but before bed, I had 3 pieces of Silver Hills Squirrely bread. Two with an avocado, cucumber, lemon juice and a dash of salt and pepper, the third piece with peach jam made with xylitol. I am thinking this was a little too heavy to eat before bed.