Mono-Juice Feasting (Nectar)- Healing Journey Day 12

Journal:
You know, everyday I write this blog post to keep you up-to-date on my journey, I can’t believe how much time has gone by since I’ve actually taken a bite of something. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that I would do something like this. It’s totally out of my comfort zone, but I am truly benefitting from amazing self-discipline along the way. This is truly an incredible journey.

Today was a rough day. Today was the kind of day where it would have been better to just stay in bed. But with a lot of prayer and God’s ever-loving kindness to me, He gave me enough strength to get through the day. The only problem was, my dream of getting home at the end of the day and just relaxing was short-lived as I was late getting home and my dog gave me grief for the rest of the evening. I did not get any reprieve today. But even so, I do have one big thing to celebrate, and that was what I drank today.

I will soon be actually taking a bite of fruit!!!! It’s coming!! So in transition, I made today a little different than the regular juice. I, instead, had a nectar; apricot nectar to be specific. Now, remember how I had been dreading drinking more juice because it just seemed to get sweeter and sweeter? Well, this stuff was like a little piece of heaven, and it wasn’t even organic. Oh, if only I could describe what it was like to you. The thing is, I’m pretty sure I’ve had this apricot nectar before but it didn’t taste as good to me then. Now, it was perfection. Such a reprieve from anything that was too sweet before, yet still sweet enough to be satisfying. The liquid being thicker than the normal juice was also something I loved. I can tell the food is coming!!

Now, what would be interesting to find out is whether the ingredients made this more to my satisfaction. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until the end of the day that I noticed they added sugar. It amazes me that the regular juices with no added sugar would taste sweeter than this with added sugar. It’s definitely something to think about. I’ve always found it interesting to see how our body reacts to unnatural things.

I didn’t go to the gym today, but I did do a workout at home. I had a pair of 10 lb dumbbells that I used to do squats, pushups, tricep kickbacks, bicep curls, hamstring curls, lunges, shoulder press, upright rows, and wall sits. I got in a very decent workout and it helped me feel a bit better after the day I had been having.

I finished the day with a candy assembly line as we made variety bags for an upcoming softball tournament. They smelled great and for someone who hasn’t had candy in a long time, looked appetizing as well. But not once did I slip. It was a success.

How much did I drink today? 3L with no issues. In fact, I probably could have drank more… There’s got to be something to this added sugar. It’s got me thinking…

Review of Symptoms:
-Acne is pretty much the same. Perhaps a little duller, but still patiently waiting for a noticeable improvement.
-Tongue did not need scraped this morning. So happy!
-Felt good except one little stomach upset feeling that lasted about 5-10 minutes at the very end of the night. Still unsure as to what causes this.
-Energy kept up through my incredibly NOT GOOD day and even into everything I did in the evening.
-Strength was better than expected during workout.
-Elimination was good today. Perhaps my transition to nectar is also kickstarting digestion again.

Weight at the end of the day = 178.2 lbs (up 1.2 lbs from yesterday)

Total Calories = 1,536 (99% carbs, 0% fat, 1% protein)

Multi-Day Mono-Juice Feasting – Healing Journey Day 6

Journal:
Guys/Gals, I made it! I honestly can’t believe I made it through 5 days without any type of food. Oh my goodness. I was so scared of doing this journey, not sure how I would be able to bypass situations where food would be all around me, or with my students even opening their food for them. But I did it and never even once even picked up a piece of food. I am so proud of how far I’ve made it on this journey.

Now last night, I did manage to sleep pretty much through the night, only waking up once instead of multiple times like the night before. And once again, I woke up feeling like a normal human being. The stomach pain was gone and I was able to get out of bed with no problems this morning! I went straight upstairs and got my first apple juice. 🙂 Yes, for 3 days I will be drinking apple juice. I have always found apple juice easy on my stomach so I figured this would be a great beginning juice for my body.

I, of course, was still a little worried about how my body would react to the apple juice. Though after the first few sips and only a very minor uncomfortable feeling from my stomach, I knew it was going to do down well. Oh how happy I was! The taste of apple juice was so amazing, although I noticed there was a slight off-taste. Come to find out, my tongue was covered in white. I had heard about this happening from dry and water fasters but had not noticed it until today. Yuck. Thankfully, it does come off with either scraping or rigorous tongue brushing. I have a cleaning at the dentist tomorrow and I can only imagine what they would have said to me with a tongue like that!

A question I have been asked is what is the difference between juice “fasting” and “juice feasting.” Juice fasting is where you are on a specified amount of juices (specific calories). Juice feasting is where you are still limited to only juice, but you do not have to stick with a certain caloric guideline. Now of course, you do not want to turn it into juice binging where you are over consuming more than your body wants, but if you know your body well, you should be able to tell when you are really hungry or not. I am choosing to juice feast because I do not believe in limiting calories. Yes, I just spent 5 days eliminating calories from my diet, but that was to fast. If you make a decision to fast, then you are usually doing it for a specific reason outside of weight loss such as for religious reasons or body healing. Since I am spanning the healing spectrum, mine was to experience the healing aspects though I was also intrigued through my walk in Christianity to partake in such a journey because God calls us to take care of our bodies and this journey is hopefully going to help me see how to get my body to be the best that it can be. Plus, as I mentioned in my introduction to this journey, it was also an experiment to see if we can erase the hold that food has on us. Yes, in the long run we depend on food to live; we have to. But instead of not being able to pass by food that is not good for us and simply having intense cravings or even those that can’t help but binge on food because they can’t seem to stop, that is another part of my journey. And so far, I am beating all of those typical situations and for that reason, this journey has been good.

So I managed to actually have a pretty good day at school. Though I seemed to have to talk to my class a little more than normal, one of my toughest students actually had one of his best days today so that alone was phenomenal. And how did the juice treat me? So good. I didn’t feel like falling asleep all the time; I actually did not plan my walks. I didn’t feel like sitting down all the time; I felt confident when I walked. I just felt so much better.

Do I still feel like eating food? You know, my thoughts towards food have decreased a lot. Sure, the nice croissant (I have a student that has been bringing croissants to school everyday) does sound nice, but just having some sweet, delicious, pure apple juice to sip on all day is absolutely amazing. My body can definitely tell that the energy is coming back.

Is my apple juice fresh pressed? Unfortunately no. In fact, the apple juice I have for today and tomorrow are not even organic. I did my best to find juices that were organic, but the price difference is astronomical. So you will see that most of my juices are organic, but today’s and tomorrow’s are not. The one qualification for my juices were that they had to only include one ingredient: the ingredient being whichever fruit whose juice I was drinking that day.

So, I’m going to hand out a TMI WARNING again because this next part is not so pretty. I will keep it to one paragraph. I don’t really enjoy sharing these parts because they can be considered “gross”, but incase someone does decide to embark on this journey or one similar, I want you to be prepared for things that can happen. If you read my day 5 entry, you will notice that I couldn’t “eliminate”. Well, to my horror/surprise, I don’t even have to try today. Lo’ and behold, it’s essentially a watery liquid. Yes, I know it’s graphic. It did go back to normal by the end of the day, but the first half of the day was the adjustment period. My stomach “gurgled” more than I think it has ever gurgled before with the adjustment of an “energy source” coming back into its system. It made today a little trickier since I’m obviously working but I managed to take a tiny break away from the classroom whenever I needed it so it worked out alright.

So after I came home, I actually did not feel tired at all! However, I did lay down to watch some YouTube again, and noticed the beginning of that awful acid reflux/heartburn feeling again. Thankfully, it didn’t really turn into anything.

I did get up and go to the gym, although I kind of wondered afterwards if I should have done the cardio or not. I did 30 minutes of easy stationary cycling. The reason being, remember that clenching of muscles feeling I described previously? I had that feeling bad tonight. The best way I can think to describe it is to imagine doing a crunch with all of your ab muscles straining, then someone punching you. But instead of being repetitious, it was a continuous state. Now that is a feeling for the books but one that I hope goes away soon. Yes, I did try bending backwards to stretch my abs and to see if my stomach muscles would pull, but they didn’t meaning they weren’t actually always engaged. For some reason that was just the feeling I was having.

For the first time all week, I actually felt tired. I tried to stay up past 11, but my eyes were fighting me. As much as I still wanted to do things, this actually made me happy because instead of me having to decide when I go to bed because I’m not “that tired”, my body actually was acting normal and demanded sleep. This I can appreciate.

Review of Symptoms:
Acne is worse and yet the same. The pimples are still more pale than before, but I have tiny bumps all over my face. I’m not appreciating it. But I have also heard of this happening as a detox byproduct. There is a reason why the saying goes: It will get worse before it gets better. My tongue was COVERED in a white substance. Again, this is something I’ve heard is associated with detox so tongue scraping is now something I have to do. I haven’t reported this in awhile, but my skin still stays red more easily than before. My hair is still less greasy than it normally would be by this point. Had more energy, feeling stronger. Internal “movement” was much easier today. Heartburn/acid reflux was only the most minimal while laying down this evening. I had a constant feeling of ab muscle clenching while a dull ache of a punch to the stomach at the same time that lasted throughout the evening. My body actually demanded sleep around 11:00 pm which is awesome!

Weight at the end of the day = 180.8 lbs (0 lbs down in 24 hours, total of 8 lbs down in 5 days)

Total Calories = 1811.2 (99% carbs, 1% protein, 0% fat)

Detective Teacher

Have you ever had to do anything crazy? Have you ever had a mystery as a teacher that you’ve had to figure out? Sometimes I wonder if I watch too many detective shows (CSI, Murdoch Mysteries, Bones, etc…). I’m always fascinated by the way detectives are able to figure things out. What is even more interesting is that Evidence and Investigation is also a unit in Grade 6 Science. So I’m able to share my fascination with my students.

While camping this week, I had a series of unfortunate events that caused me to practice some detective skills. And without sharing any specific names or details as to the people that were involved, here is the story:

Tuesday afternoon, we come back from afternoon field studies, and one of my students had lotion all over her sleeping bag. So I cleaned it off, and figured it was just a prank (doors to the cabins don’t lock the best).

Tuesday evening, when we returned from the evening activity, there was lotion on another student’s bed and blue handprints on our door. Then the 6 girls in my cabin started plotting ways to catch who it was. They were checking fingerprints, thinking of places to hide and catch them, etc… It was a JOB to get them to sleep that night.

Wednesday morning, I assumed nothing would happen during breakfast, but low and behold, there was toothpaste on a girl’s bed AND MY BED/PILLOW. I didn’t react though, because I had it dropped in my ear by that point that somebody thought one of my cabin girls was doing it, and I figured if it was, then reacting by anger would not get me the results I wanted. So I played it off like it was no big deal, and listened to the plans the girls told me I should do to figure it out (hiding on the top bunk, pretending to sleep during afternoon field studies, etc…).

We went to lunch, and of course came back to water on two of the girls’ beds. One soaking the sleeping bag, one just on the mattress. So I began thinking without telling the girls.

Once they left for afternoon field studies, I knew I had to hide somewhere that nobody had talked about, especially if it was one of my own girls. So I swept out the concrete floor the best I could (it’s so dirty), packed my large and small suitcase (it was packing day anyways so I figured it wouldn’t be suspicious), strategically placed them where I thought I would be most easily seen, and hid as close to the wall under the bed as I could. Throughout the hour and 15 minutes, my arm went numb, the floor was cold/dirty, but I knew I had to do what I could to catch whoever was doing this.

At one point, one of my girls ran in and was asking if I was in the room. So I whispered to her that I was under the bed (I knew it wasn’t this girl) and she told me she figured out that whoever did the blue handprints had to have gone to a certain field study that day because it’s the only place that had the blue chalk (the kids are divided up into study groups for the week and get through 2 stations a day). I told her thanks for figuring that out, and reminded her not to tell anyone where I was.

About 5 minutes after she left, the door opened again, and another one of the girls came in asking if anyone was there. She then jumped up on all of the bunk beds to check to see if I was hiding there (as they told me I should do). Thankfully, she didn’t think to check under the beds! I was basically holding my breath, I was so nervous she would see me. She then went over to her bag, took out one of her permanent markers, and wrote the word “STUPID” on her own mattress, and quickly ran out the door. I didn’t stop her in the act and instead waited to see what she did after she had left.

As I was getting out and saw what she had done, the girl that had originally come in to show me the chalk said that she had just seen the other girl leave, and wanted to know if anything happened. I quickly told her yes and showed it to her, and she came up with the brilliant idea of pretending that nobody had seen anything and going to tell her that something else had happened. And wouldn’t ya know, the girl who did it was like, “Something else happened? What happened?” And I just calmly smiled at her and told her she could go look if she wanted, and continued to walk over to where the other teacher from my school was to discuss how I should approach the whole situation.

I’m telling you, the things we, as teachers, have to do sometimes!

Do you have any interesting stories, any ways you’ve had to discover something going on in your classroom or on a trip? I would love to hear them! Leave your story in the comments below!

Vegan on a Trip

Hello everyone, I’m back! Unfortunately I’m back with a bit of a head cold, but regardless, I’m back!

So as I wrote before I left, I would give you a quick summary of what it was like for food on this trip. As I said, everything was vegetarian to begin with, so meat would never be an issue. But vegetarians also consume dairy and often eggs. So this is what I encountered:

For many of the meals, there were vegan options. At times, they would make salads or pasta salads both with dairy and some specifically set out as vegan. Most of the time this was ok, except a few times when the vegan options tasted horrible. I guess there must be an art to figuring out vegan alternatives.

Many of the meals, such as breakfast, would be items such as pancakes, french toast, or egg breakfast sandwiches. However, they did offer oatmeal and cereal options with soy milk. So if you picked what you ate carefully, the weekend probably could have been done vegan. That would sometimes mean eating a lot of vegetables (especially on the macaroni and cheese night), but if you could stomach large amounts of simple things, you could do it.

Now, many of you know that I try to eat raw until four, particularly with lots of fruit. I believe this could have been made possible IF I had made arrangements ahead of time. However, without contacting the head cook and giving them a specific shopping list for me, it was impossible. I think we had fresh fruit two or three times out of the 10 meals we had. So that was a bummer.

I also packed a few vegan snacks, just incase. I took some fruit and nut bars, trail mix, chocolate almond milk, some seaweed, some kale chips, and some vegan jerky to try. So I didn’t go hungry, that’s for sure.

So I guess my biggest lesson is to plan ahead. If I do this trip again in the future, I will try to contact the head cook and ask for the large fruit breakfast. I think if the chef is assured that she doesn’t have to cut it up or do any extra work for it, I can’t see it being a problem. The vegan snacks were an awesome idea to bring, just to ensure that you have some of your own vegan foods, just incase.

Week 13: Day 4 Extended

I REALLY did not want to get out of bed this morning. I was tired, my body was tired, my body ached all over, and I was just in bad shape. The warm shower really helped with all of those symptoms, except for the fact I was running late, again.

School went well. We had tutoring after school and that was a little bit crazy, but overall it went good again. We’ve finally made plans that after Christmas break, the three of us supervisors don’t need to be there every week, and one of us can do it at a time. That saves me about 3 days of work per month! I can handle that!

I stayed after school to get some grading done. I think I will appreciate later the fact that I’m getting work out of the way so that when deadlines approach, I won’t have quite as much to do. No more procrastinating!

After I went home, I had my celery and protein peanut butter again. Oh my goodness, how I look forward to that treat! As low as my calories are, that specific combination is a taste of paradise. Yum!

My husband was hungry and so we went out to eat. I had just enough macros to save for my protein shake after my workout and a salad with a chicken breast on it while eating with my husband. That way, I didn’t have to watch him eat. Though his burgers did look really good…

Tonight’s workout was hard at the beginning but in a way kind of got easier. I started off with a massive lack-of-food headache and had to have a coffee to get my body and mind in the game. Squats killed me. But I successfully completed the leg workout with 20 minutes of HIIT afterwards. Oh how was I ready to drink that shake and go to bed!

Week 5 Day 1

After all the excitement of last night, I thought I would wake up and be so full of energy for the day. How wrong I was. I felt lethargic and spent most of the day battling the urge to take a nap, attempting to get some housework done.

Somehow, I managed to drag myself to the gym that afternoon, but I am so thankful that I did! The gym woke me up, my motivation reached an all-time high, and I pushed as hard as I could. Aside from my minor setback that my one troublesome rib muscle had to be pushed back into place at one point (weirdest thing I’ve ever dealt with), my workout went extremely well!

This week’s training is still in a circuit style, but the days are more body specific. Last night was a focus on shoulders, biceps, triceps and abs. And to finish it all off, I spent 25 minutes on the stationary bike. I used to hate biking, and look at me go! I think I’ve fallen in love… 🙂

Tonight, I’m so excited to go to sleep. Tomorrow I get to pick up my first two days of my Fresh Fit Foods meals! Yay! It’s like a huge treat! So for now, off to bed, and I will be waking up excited to go pick up my meals! Wahoo!