Rawsome Healthy 5/5 – Healing Journey Day 58

Journal:
Today was a very busy and fully planned day. Today I planned on finishing the meal plans from the Rawsome Healthy guide and needed to go shopping for my next venture: The Go Fruit Yourself 2-week guide by Freelee the Banana Girl. Though I still wasn’t feeling 100% because of the little bit of extra, cooked food I had yesterday. I honestly don’t feel anywhere near as good eating cooked food as I do with a fully raw diet. I just somehow have to find a cheaper way to do this since everything is imported in the winter here and prices go up. Either way, I’m determined.

This morning, I had a different smoothie: apples, dates, and celery. It was incredibly sweet and a little refreshing because of the celery. I would mess around with it a little bit (perhaps more water), but I would definitely drink it again!

After I ate breakfast, I went out to go grocery shopping. I didn’t expect what I would encounter, and I made a mistake: I ended up going to 7 grocery stores in order to get everything I needed, and I didn’t prepare anything to take with me. At one grocery store, I ended up purchasing a small, not raw treat. However, I found an absolute gem at an Asian market! I found raw sugar cane juice! Oh my goodness… I finally understand why people like it so much! It was by far my favourite thing, and I would totally live off this stuff!

After I got home, I got ready to make my last salad right away. I had another soccer game to get ready for and I didn’t want to have a full stomach before the game. The salad was ok, though again not my favourite. Truly the only dinner I would probably make from this guide again was the dinner from Day 3. But for tonight, I was at least able to finish this salad and it definitely fuelled me for my salad.

The soccer game was good, though my hip flexor pain was coming back. I’m quickly realizing that this is a common injury amongst “kickers” which is when it hurts the most during the soccer game. I’m going to have to start personal therapy after researching what to do. If necessary, I will go to therapy of sorts.

After the game, I ate 2 persimmons on the way home and another 5 after getting home. And that concluded my night. I did really well today, though I have to somehow find a way to stop eating earlier in the day. I don’t think my body is appreciating eating so late at night, but that will be progress somehow.

Review of Symptoms:
-Acne is bad.
-Energy is good.
-“Kicking” Hip Flexor issue is bad after the soccer game.
-Body does much better on all raw.
-Hair is great.

Weight at the end of the day = 166.8 lbs (down 1 lb from yesterday)

Total Calories = 1735 (85% carbs, 6% fat, 9% 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

It’s So Dry, We’re Cracking Up!

Ok, I know the title sounds funny, but it’s true. We are literally cracking up! And no, it’s not because we think the dry climate is funny, it’s actually quite the opposite. Our bodies think it’s awful.

Last week, I woke up one morning feeling awful. I think I wrote about it in another post… but the most awful part was that both sides of my mouth, where the lips bend, were cracked. Let me tell you, that is a terrible place to have cracked! When you open your mouth too far, it hurts! I lathered it with lip moisturizer day and night, and it eventually healed and went away.

Mine are very much like this. Very subtle and small, but very much there. A tiny crack on the side of the mouth.

Well, my husband woke up last week with painful heels. My mother used to get this, I thankfully never did, but my husbands heels had the biggest cracks in them I have ever seen. I’m not just talking long, surface cracks, I’m talking deep heel cracks! I don’t even know how they aren’t bleeding with cracks that deep! So we’ve been lathering them with coconut oil and it has been helping.

These are very much like his. Awful.

Yesterday morning, I woke up with those stupid cracked mouth sides again. I’m telling you, it’s the most annoying thing ever! Unless you drink smoothies out of a straw all day, I really don’t see how you can avoid opening your mouth and causing those little cracks to cause you pain. Looks like we’re in for a very dry winter, and we will have lots of coconut oil and lip moisturizer on hand!

Do you live in a dry climate? How do you handle it?

My Rib is Injured… Again!

Several summers ago, I got sick. The worst part of getting sick for me is always this nasty cough that I get. This particular summer, the cough was so bad that I heard a “snap” following a hard cough. I didn’t notice anything at first though I had a huge feeling that something was terribly wrong. It wasn’t until later that I figured it out.

I jumped in my father’s truck that he had let me borrow while working away. And as soon as I had jumped up into the seat, I felt it. It was a tight feeling at first, but then quickly developed into a bad pain. I could barely turn the steering wheel. In the short 5 minute drive to the trailer I was renting, I knew I had to call my mother to come drive me to the hospital. I had to wait a fair time for her as I was about 45 minutes away, but she quickly came and took me to the hospital.

The hospital was about another 30 minutes from where I was, and the wait at the hospital was about 2 hours. The problem was, by the time I was registered and sitting in the waiting room, I was having a hard time breathing. All I can remember is intense pain and focussing on low and shallow breaths.

We waited for awhile until my mother decided to check where we were on the list, only to find out that we had been bumped down rather than up and the wait from that point was longer than 2 hours. It hurts to breathe but I’m not a serious case? My mother was mad to say the least.

We hopped in the car, and headed to the next hospital an hour away. It was a shorter time than I would have had to wait at the first hospital, and this hospital took me in right away. The only problem was, I had popped a rib muscle, which the doctor promptly told me hurts as much as breaking a rib (crazy pain), and there was nothing they could do except give me Tylenol 3.

Now some people I knew would have gone crazy over Tylenol 3. My mother had a mini freak-out session about how I might become addicted to it, but after telling her everything would be fine, I got my prescription and was on my way.

It was a painful summer. The T3s didn’t touch the pain hardly at all. I always walked around with one hand putting pressure on that rib area. It was awful. Nothing but time was able to heal that wound.

Once again, I was sick a few weeks ago and the cough has mostly gone but not completely. I know my body has suffered a little more than normal (didn’t help when my chiropractor asked what happened except I had been doing nothing but sleeping and sitting on the couch, trying to get better), but my body still seemed in decent shape. I worked out this week and everything seemed good.

Last night was a chest workout, and even though I warmed up and stretched, in the very first exercise (bench press), my rib started to hurt. I can’t remember if it is the same side or not, but I’m pretty sure I popped a stupid rib muscle again. It hurts so bad and I have to put pressure on the area to even try to take a deep breath. My abs are also starting to hurt because of the way I have to modify my body when I need to cough. It’s miserable.

I had just gotten well enough to start back in the gym and this is what happens! Ah!

To be honest, I wasn’t going to complete my workout last night because of the pain. But as I sat in the locker room, looking at my open locker as I was going to change, I got mad, closed and locked my locker, and went out and did the incline dumbbell press. I’m pretty sure it was a very dumb idea. I’m pretty sure I made it worse. I had written down to do 4 sets of 12, but after 3 sets, I knew I was being ridiculous. I shouldn’t be mad, although it was hard to not at least be disappointed.

So here I am with heat packs and taking it easy. I would much rather be in the gym but I’ve done my damage and I should know better. Injuries are something to take serious and it’s very important to know when to quit. So learn from my mistake and save yourself some pain. I’m all about lifting heavy and “sucking-it-up” in most situations, but I felt the pain and knew I should have quit. Next time, I will.