Smoothie Day – Healing Journey Day 31

Journal:
I slept really good last night. However, morning still came too soon. I wasn’t really looking forward to today anyway because it meant I was flying back home in the evening. Oh well.

Because I had a blender in my hotel room, I was able to make datorade for breakfast (blended dates with water). Seriously, I love datorade but this was just not as good. I really think these deglet dates are not the sweet quality that I usually get in Canada. I’m looking forward to getting back to those dates.

Immediately after breakfast, we got ready and checked out of our hotel. We were on the hunt for a new winter jacket. However, most stores had hardly anything out as the weather was still t-shirt weather in Colorado, unlike the snow that had already fallen in Canada. So, I ended up jacket-less. However, my husband did buy me an electric orange juicer that I’m so excited about and some books Barnes & Noble. Educators get a discount and even though I’m a Canadian teacher, they still allowed me to sign up for their education program. So if you’re in education and you haven’t signed up for their education program, do it!

Now, lunch time came and I made the decision to eat one last time with my husband before I left. He even continuously offered to take me to the smoothie place, but I told him it will be awhile before I see him again, so I just wanted to sit down with him and eat one last time. So we went to the healthy, stir-fry place again: Genghis Grill.

You know, the difference of how I feel eating raw foods versus cooked foods is amazing. After eating the cooked foods, I felt like sleeping, with a heavy stomach again, and even a bit of that pre-headache feeling. It bizarres me. This is something I would expect from eating junk foods, but not cooked foods. My body is definitely ready to go back to all raw foods, particularly fruit for awhile.

For the last little bit of my time before my flight, my husband and I just sat and talked. I was flying from a smaller airport so it was easy to monitor the security lines and how long it would take.

Part of the reason I agreed to eat stir-fry was that I was only supposed to have 20 minutes between landing and flying again in Denver. It’s not a massive airport, but it is quite large and is often busy. So that meant that there would most likely not be any time at all to go to that smoothie place I had seen coming through last time. However, my flight arrived almost 20 minutes early and thankfully, that had given me enough time to go to the smoothie place.

The smoothie place was called Heidi’s Brooklyn Deli (I know… strange sounding place to find all-fruit smoothies). They had four smoothie options, but I chose the Summer Splash smoothie. In it, there was apple juice, strawberries, bananas and peaches. Oh my goodness. It was so good! I highly recommend it!

And that concluded my food for the day. I left a very hot, nice, t-shirt weather state and landed in a snow-covered, freezing province. By the time I landed, went through immigration and customs, retrieved my bag, waited for my ride and drove home, it was 11:00. I didn’t have my planning done for the next day (our flight had a tailwind again and we arrived 30 minutes early… not even long enough in the air to finish a movie! But, it was late and I needed sleep because as always, work comes early. So to bed I went, leaving tomorrow as an unpacking, cleaning, getting situated day.

Review of Symptoms:
-Tongue lightly coated.
-Digestion not as great (too much cooked food).
-Cooked food left me feeling heavy and tired with a touch of pre-headache.

Weight at the end of the day = 176.6 lbs (down 1.4 lbs from two days ago)

Total Calories = approx. 1784 (84% carbs, 8% fat, 8% protein… awesome macro ratio!)

Orange Island – Healing Journey Day 14

Journal:
Today is the day. I can hardly  believe it. Today is the day that I actually get to take a bite of fruit. Today is the day that I begin a 4-day orange island journey. What is “orange island?” It is where I will eat nothing but oranges for the next 4 days, as many oranges as I want. Now, I haven’t chosen to get so picky as to only select one variety of orange, but instead will be eating a mix of Valencia, Navel and Clementine. I’ve never done a fruit island before, so I’m excited to see what it will be like.

I didn’t get to sleep in this morning as I had a dentist appointment first thing. I was not looking forward to this dentist appointment as – if you remember from last week – there was a spot that grew into a cavity that needs to be fixed underneath an old filling. I could not be seen by the naked eye, but instead would require removing the old filling and replacing it with a new one. This would require a freezing needle, drills, and all of that jazz. However, they scared me enough with the possibility of a future root canal that I had agreed to get this done.

I did not want to go to this appointment with an empty stomach, so I quickly chopped up and ate three valencia oranges. Honestly… it wasn’t all the “fireworks” that I thought it would be. Sure, it was nice to actually have food to eat again, but I think I was just so used to juices at this point that the act of chewing actually took away from my satiation. It’s weird to describe but perhaps it is because you have to eat more to get the same calorie amount as simply opening your mouth and swallowing juice. I’m not sure but I have 4 days of eating oranges to figure it out. Either way, I got some food in my stomach and went to my appointment.

The appointment went well. I didn’t have any pain, but hated the swollen face from the freezing. It actually tired me out to be honest. I did manage to go get groceries after my appointment, but finally had to succumb to a nap when I got home. I was exhausted. Whether it was from stressing about the dentist appointment, or whether it was what my body went through at the dentist, I’m unsure. But I was completely exhausted and slept for a good couple hours.

I spent the rest of the afternoon shopping for the upcoming softball tournament with my housemate. We are in charge of the canteen that will be there so there was quite a bit we had to get. Because I work at a SDA school and this is a fundraiser for our school, everything is either vegan or vegetarian. No meat is sold which fits in so nicely with my own beliefs and morals. I’m just hoping the day is going to be a sunny, nice day.

After shopping again, I spent the evening laying around. I was still tired and looked forward to sleep. I didn’t eat near as much as I should have, but with the dentist trip and so much shopping, it was hard to have the time to eat enough oranges. I’m hoping to do better tomorrow.

Review of Symptoms:
-Underate. Went to bed hungry.
-Super tired today.
-Dry air is making me more dehydrated. Need to drink more water.
-No stomach upsets.

Weight at the end of the day = 176.6 (down a total of 12.2 lbs)

Total Calories = 708 (87% carbs, 5% fat, 8% protein)

Water Fasting – Healing Journey Day 3

Journal:
Well, after being so tired yesterday, I expected to be as tired today. I didn’t go to sleep until after midnight, so I set four alarms to  make sure I got up this morning. Sadly to say, for whatever reason, I woke up wide awake at 4:00 a.m. Of all the things that could happen, I wake up at 4:00. I didn’t wake up starving nor dying of thirst, but completely was wide awake. It makes no sense to me.

So what did I do at 4:00 in the morning? I decided it was time to consume some water. Sadly, it didn’t come with the fireworks I was expecting. It was good, but I honestly think of could have done dry fasting for another day. However, since I work with students, I don’t want to take the risk of being completely active all day long and not have my body running on anything. So breaking into my water fast is the process I’ve begun.

So what did it actually feel like to drink water again? It puts me in a hesitant state. I’m not sure my body is fully accepting it to be honest. I feel like there is a possibility of running to the washroom at some point and also a possibility of vomiting the water back up. It’s unsettling for sure. My energy is not where I want it to be; it’s not as good as last night, but not as bad as yesterday morning so I began praying early to survive the day.

Thankfully, I did survive the day with only one person commenting on how tired I looked. I also was yawning a lot when she said it, so that was a clue.

I couldn’t drink very much in the morning. In fact, though I had imagined I would be guzzling water throughout the day, I really don’t think my body was ready for too much water. It almost “hurt” my stomach without actually being painful. But around midday, water began to go down easier (6 hours past the initial sip). The feeling in my stomach is gone for the most part though food does sound good. It was a test to go through two snack times and a lunch period sitting with my students while all of them are eating. The smells are what got to me the most. But somehow, I still found it fairly easy to bypass the food they were eating and the emergency stash I have by my desk.

Following school, I had a meeting with a parent. It was a positive meeting and the mother was so wonderful, she even brought me a bag of tomatoes from her garden. Oh, how I would LOVE to eat those tomatoes. But since it will be quite awhile until I will be eating tomatoes, I am looking at options of either buying a dehydrator to dehydrate them or perhaps finding a method of canning. I am sticking with this journey 100% and not willing to skip stages. I’m holding out well.

Once the meeting was over, I came home and took a nap. It felt so good to take a nap though I freaked out when I woke up thinking it was 7:30 in the morning and I was going to be late for work. It took a few minutes to sink in that it was only 7:30 at night and that everything was going to be ok.

It took awhile for me to get up because I was very cold. I am finding that my body is reacting more extremely to temperatures. For example, when my heater is on, even on the lowest setting, I am pretty warm, almost too warm for blankets. But when the heater is off and the basement gets the cool feeling again, I start freezing so much I cannot even fathom getting out from the blankets. I’m having a hard time finding a happy medium at the moment and I’m hoping this will sort itself out.

I did go to the gym today though I was heavily debating whether I should or not, especially after feeling so tired all day. However, I’ve been working out for years, so I figured that I cannot completely stop now. Aside from cardiovascular benefits, I considered the fact that exercise might actually help me feel warm again after feeling cold for awhile. It worked, and I actually was stronger than I though I would by cycling on a stationary bike. My pace was much slower than normal, but I wasn’t about to make this an all-out sweating session, but rather just a health activity.

So now it is the end of the day and I’m in bed, about to go to sleep. I am so looking forward to only two more days of water fasting and finally getting to drink fruit juice on Thursday. I’m hoping that the lemon slices I’ll be adding to my water on Wednesday will give my body a little energy kick with the most minimal of calories but still something compared to nothing.

Review of symptoms:
This morning, my face actually had a sign of improvement: there were no new pimples! Almost every morning I’ve had at least one new one if not several. Perhaps my body has had enough time cycling everything on the inside without having outside substances to deal with that it is able to concentrate on healing my acne. This is good news for me! My energy is lacking; not horribly like yesterday morning, but not as awesome as last night. I was also shaky again this morning and though it is certainly not as bad as yesterday, it is definitely noticeable. Though I wasn’t able to drink much in the morning, it picked up throughout the day. In total, I think I drank about 1.25-1.5L of water today. Much less than expected, but not bad for my body to adjust to. My body is reacting to temperatures in extreme ways and I’m really hoping this will sort itself out. Something I didn’t expect but totally noticed today was that my teeth are whiter! I haven’t done anything special. In fact, I’ve just been using my clay toothpaste. But the yellow tinge they had before starting my fasting is almost completely gone and they are looking pretty white. This is an exciting side effect!

Weight at the end of the day: 185.4 (down .2 lbs from yesterday, a total of 3.6 pounds lost in 48 hours)

Total Calories = 0

Week 11 Day 7

What a cold, cold day: -41 C with a low of -43. My husband and I both decided we weren’t going anywhere today, and were instead going to stay home and try to stay warm. The only times we went outside all day were to walk the dogs. And the poor things could barely stand the temperature to even use the washroom. It’s just too cold.

The doors in my house are actually somehow letting some snow in. I knew they didn’t fit the doorways quite right, but hey. The place is old. I understand. Are there things the landlady could do? Probably. But I think we’re going to go get some plastic and maybe those things that block under the door. It’s not freezing in the house, but stand by the doors or windows and you’ll get cold. Pleasures of being in a old and cold place.

A lot of household chores and napping got done. I was actually happy because I was way behind on laundry. So it was nice to have a chance to get caught up again!

We both decided that we had to go to the gym this evening, regardless how cold it was. So we eventually got ready and went on our way. I had a killer back workout, felt solid the whole time, pushing all my limits, and killing my abs and biceps. I even had time for a 12 minutes HIIT cardio session! I can’t remember the last time I was excited about cardio. Absolutely loved it!

We had a quiet night at home, watching a movie together and continuing to upkeep on laundry. It was a more quiet day, but a lovely one.

Week 11 Day 6

I didn’t want to let my husband go to work this morning. The storm continued over night and the snow is well over a foot and a half deep. It’s almost -40 C and I know the road conditions are going to be terrible. But my husband still got up and went off to work.

On the way to work, he took me over to get my car from the school. He shovelled (for as long as the cold would allow him before freezing) to get my car out of the snow, and let it run for a few minutes. I told him to go on ahead to work, but he refused until he saw me drive the car out. Well, let’s just say, my husband is smart. For the first time ever, my car would run for a second and shut off. I would start it again, and it would shut off. My car was absolutely refusing to run in the cold. The poor thing. So, my husband took me back home before going to work, and I rescheduled all of my appointments again. Taxis are not required to have winter tires, and I refuse to either get in an accident or be stuck on the road in a taxi. Everything will have to wait for another day.

My husband ended up coming home early. If they dared to stop, the work van would have been stuck. So they basically did a loop from home to the shop to the site, kept on driving back home. It was so nice to know he wasn’t on the road and he could be home safe and sound.

We only went two places: GNC for some things I needed. Black Friday sales were on and we got an awesome deal on lots of goodies!

We also went to the gym. I did an excellent shoulder workout. My shoulders burned so badly. I didn’t take the time to do cardio though, because even though I had the day off tomorrow, my husband didn’t, at least not yet that we knew of. So I left with a satisfied shoulder burn!

I’m ready to go home and sleep well in a warm house tonight!

Week 7 Day 1

Today was a miserable day. We had to wake all too early, my girls didn’t even want to get up. The kids were tired from playing the night before, and yet games started at 9:00 a.m. with breakfast at 7:30 a.m. The poor kids. And to make it completely make it terrible the temperature was completely freezing, and it snowed, wet snow. The kids were tired, soaked, freezing, and the wind made it the worst it could get.

Our students actually made it to semi-finals. But we assured them that if they decided to quit, they would not be letting us down. I mean the weather condition was about the worst it could get. But our kids were troopers, playing through injuries, sliding on the ground, and shivering all the while. Until it got to a point that two of our good players couldn’t run anymore, and they finally understood they would not be letting us down if they quit. So they forfeited, and came inside. Some of the kids even had skin that was turning purple. I sent them immediately to warm up in sauna that was in the locker rooms. The kids were completely done and it wasn’t worth it anymore.

After the kids finished packing up and left, I actually ended up staying at a friend’s house because our staff had meetings in the same location the next day, so it wasn’t worth driving home for the night then driving back. Of course, this was just another day I didn’t see my husband, but we both rather I be safe, especially with the snow on the road.

I had an excellent night with my friend. Of course, those handy meals were still super helpful. But I did splurge and went out for supper with my friend to a restaurant I had never been to before. I had a salad and some Greek appetizers that I split with her. It was very, very good. But I did notice how full I felt afterwards. A little too full.

My friend had not been at the gym in quite awhile, and so I volunteered to go and train her. I didn’t get much of my own workout done, unfortunately, but I was able to show her many exercises for the different body parts so that she could know of some things to do while I was gone. I had so much fun training her!

I thought I had gone to bed at a fairly decent time, until her husband came home. I’ve known them both since high school, so of course I had to say hello to him. I didn’t quite expect it to turn into a few hours of talking about football, but it did. And so it was another very late night.

Week 6 Day 7

So my mother started texting me at 4:00 a.m. My students woke up at 5:00 a.m. And despite any effort to make them go back to sleep, they were wide awake. And so, my girls were showered, dressed, hair and everything done and ready for church by 6:30 a.m. And yet breakfast wasn’t until 8:00 a.m. and church service not until 10:30 a.m. They spent a lot of time singing praises to God and even got compliments on sounding like a heavenly choir. I was so impressed.

Now the boys were a different story. They did not get up until much later. And although I turned on the lights at 7:15 a.m. so that they wouldn’t miss breakfast, I got yelled at to turn them back off. Oops. All in good fun though!

Following the church service that was held for us, we ate lunch (again, so thankful I had my meals prepared so that I could say no to the meal they had). However, what I didn’t expect was that I’d miss the activities for the next few hours.

We discovered a problem that had occurred between two students and it was immediately deemed that one student had to leave. Of course, upon hearing he would have to leave, he decided to make a run for it. I HATE running, more than I could ever explain to you. Not to mention running through brush and over hills. No need for a workout today. I got my cardio in for sure!

After everything was taken care of and settled back down, we were getting ready to play football in the town on their professional field. The kids played so well, even despite some unfair calls that were made, but that’s a different story. The problem was how cold it got. I had stopped and gotten snacks and hot chocolate for the students for later as even I was literally freezing watching the games.

We left the field at 11:30 p.m. (can you tell how long of a day this was for me?). The students were debriefed when we got back to the gym, they were thankful I had gotten snacks, and spent the rest of the night celebrating and having fun. After we sent them to bed and made sure they were all in bed, we went over to the weightroom and had a little fun workout session of our own. We kept checking in on the students who were of course tired and went to sleep very quickly. Following our workout, we sat around eating before bed. Again, couldn’t have done this without my pre-made meals. Thank you so much Fresh Fit Foods!

It was a late night of going to bed around 2:00 a.m., especially exhausted from already running so much today. But I was never more happy to see my sleeping bag on the floor, no matter how uncomfortable it was.