Day 30 - Final Day

The end....the end...the end....! I decided that day 30 would be my last day. And in truth, I am barely hanging on to a thread and basically botched it today anyway. I had only green smoothies until 2pm (well, I guess that's not so bad!) and then ate pretty much junk the rest of the day. It's now 7:30pm and my body is begging me to stop eating, period, so I'm going to fast for the rest of the night with lots of water.

End of the green smoothie experiment results!

Weight: 137 yesterday morning. So, a loss of 9 pounds altogether. Which is about 2.25 pounds per week. A little slower than I expected, BUT it is progress so I won't complain.

Start Weight: 146
End Weight: 137

Measurements:
Biceps: Same
Chest: - .25"
Waist: - 1.25"
Under Tummy Pooch: - 1.25"
Butt: - 1.25"
Thighs: - - .25"
Calves: Same
Total Inches Lost: 4.25"

Worth It? Oh yes, definitely YES. The progress was super slow when I looked at it day by day, but over all I am happy. My clothes are definitely fitting me MUCH better so it made a big difference that way!

Week 1: 4-lbs Lost
Week 2: 3-lbs Lost
Week 3: 1-lb Lost
Week 4: 1-lb Lost

What did I learn? That 30 days is TOO LONG for me to do only green smoothies. I basically had a very hard time sticking to it for the last 8 days especially. Reading back, I loved it SO MUCH for the first 22 days! Apparently, even though I wish it was different and I did try very hard to make it not happen, as soon as I introduced SAD food into my diet, I could not maintain the same level of control.

So as soon as I went on a date with DH and had some cooked (although pretty good choices, no dairy/meat/sugar) - I could not stay away from little bits here & there. It snowballed from there.

I don't plan on giving up until I reach my goal weight of 125 - but I wnt to make more realistic goals for myself. If I ever do green smoothies only again, it will most likely be just 10 days at a time.

I estimate that I exercised about 2x per week. Mostly it was interval running for 20 minutes at a time - other times it was an exercise DVD I have, T-Tapp for 20 minutes. I wasn't very consistent with this. I tended to go ALL OUT and do it for like 5 times one week, and then nothing for 10 days in a row. NEXT TIME I will be sure to stick with something more routine and consistent so that I can get consistent results.

Day 29 - 137 + more inch loss than ever!

No, this is not a picture of me. =) I just thought it looked kind of cool, and is what I'm going to be doing in a few minutes.

I'm going to write more later, but wanted to jump on here really quick to say that I am going to do my 28-minute T-Tapp workout in a few minutes (Primary Back Stretch and Step Away the Inches). Mostly because I reallllly don't want to. All three of the little ones (3m, 1, 3) are napping (finally!) and all the bigger kids (5, 7, 8, 10) are outside playing. It is a nice, quiet Saturday afternoon (um...okay, afternoon MINUTE - we'll see how long it lasts!) and I don't really want to exercise...much rather be blogging.

Which means, ahem, that I need to stop blogging and GO exercise. But just real quick - measurements were EXCITING today!!! I am down 2 1/4" which is the MOST I've lost this entire challenge. I lost a whole inch around my waist, and over an inch around my "under tummy pooch" line. Some jeans that I wore on Friday to my sister's house and had a borderline-too-much-to-wear-in-public muffin top, had a noticeably less muffin top this morning. So weird because......I did eat some cheat things yesterday: some chocolate, some peanut butter, and some popcorn and chips. Not a ton, but enough that I was holding my breath and afraid I'd be UP today. Instead, I was at 137 which is so so cool!

Off to exercise! =)

9PM
My workout went awesome!! It felt really good once I was done, to hit that "open" button on the DVD remote and know that for today, it's finished. I'm challenging myself to do just 3 workouts each week, and so far I have done 2 in 3 days. I feel proud of myself for getting that done! Now if I can just stick to eating clean.

Today I had every intention on running to my sister's house and then coming back within 2 hours, so I piled all the kids in the car and took my one bottle of green smoothie. Uh, yeah, need to plan better. We ended up staying there for 4 hours! Oops!

But I was anal about it and did not put one bite of food in my mouth (kids had pizza and cookies, super healthy, lol!) except for 2 raw crispy yummy apples. I came home to my green smoothies all cold and freshly made in the fridge and it felt good to know that at least for today, I made those good choices.

Day 28 - 138

138.ZERO again today. What is up with that? Not too exciting seeing the scale just SIT there, but just writing "Day 28" is pretty exciting for me! I can't believe I've made it this far - yes, with some ups & downs, but every single day without exception I've had at least one pound of greens. That, my friends, is a first for me!

My hands (the palms) are still so so dry. It really bugs me because I don't know what to do about it. It is not stretchy and supple like normal skin - it feels like sandpaper and when I stretch my fingers out like I'm going to catch a ball, it is uncomfortable, almost painful. Enough that I notice it, and it is not pleasant.

There are so many different ideas and things to do for this type of thing online that it kind of gets all confusing and mumbo-jumbo when you try to sort it out. I bought some baby Thai coconuts and for a few days, was having one every day in hopes that the fat would somehow help my dry skin. I haven't been as consistent with that as I'd like, but I'm going to keep trying. I also started (today) rubbing my hands in coconut oil...like a lotion. It gives relief for about half a minute, and then feels dry (like sunburned skin, kind of) once again.

I did a new workout yesterday! Not the dance DVD I want to get at the library; it's not in yet. But another one called "Step Away the Inches" with T-Tapp, about a 25 minute workout. I'm optimistic about it...I plan to do it every day that I possibly can. The main thing is patience and consistency...I still am hoping to see 135 on Tuesday morning!

Oh! I woke up this morning and felt like my stomach was just, well, flatter. So I measured and it looks like I have lost about 1/2 an inch around my waist! Tomorrow is the official weigh-in day so we'll see...it'd be nice to have some inch loss to show for my efforts this week, since the scale is being stubborn. It looks like I'm down to losing about a pound a week. Hmmmmm....that's actually really lame, but I haven't been faithful to work out (last time I did was about 10 days ago when I went running) so maybe that will make the difference.

In the meantime, I am happy with how all my clothes are fitting so maybe I need to just forget about the dumb scale, lol.

Day 27 - 138

I weighed in at 138 today. Mind you, it was 138.ZERO and last night before bed, I weighed 139.7! That is a record for me as far as weighing in at night goes. I remember not so long ago when it was pretty routine to weigh 148-150 before I went to bed. I remember vowing to myself that I will never see the 150's again!

So, I don't know why the scale didn't go down much, and it is frustrating for me, yes - but I'm going to give my ALL to the rest of this challenge and hang. in. there.

Ha ha I just have to share - today I am having a rough go of it again. I have to deal with a stressful situation for the next week and I feel like I NEED food to look forward to, in order to get through it. But I'm not going to give in, I'm just NOT, NOT, NOT!! So I was looking for some type of moody emoticon or face to put on here for the picture. ALL the faces I found were downright angry looking, or they were sad! And it got me to thinking - that is SO lame to be angry or sad about food. Really, really dumb when I have so much going for me! I don't want to be that person who feels sorry for myself, especially when I have so much going for me!

So today whenever I feel that urge to just EAT SOMETHING BAD FOR ME I'm going to focus on thinking about all the positives in my life. Like yesterday as I was loading up the washer with clothes - I am so so thankful for my washer!! With seven children we go through a LOT of clothes and if I don't keep that thing humming a good part of the day - every day - I'm in the land of laundry mountain trouble. Where would I be without it?

So I am thankful today.

And stuffing my face full of green smoothies whenever I want to grab some other food. Funny thing - I seem to be throwing myself into cooking YUMMY things so that I can smell the good smells. I feel like baking (but not eating, like I'm not craving it necessarily) chocolate chip cookies, and homemade white bread. And maybe some type of chicken noodle dinner since I have a bunch in the crockpot to debone and freeze later. Weird, huh.

Day 26 - 137

I stood there asking the scale nicely to please be at 137 again this morning. I was so good yesterday...and I was very happy to see that it obeyed! So, Jen...you're on....let's see who can break through this 137/171 thing! Tomorrow, we hope!

The days seem to be flying by! I can't believe I've been doing green smoothies for 26 days! My DH has taken to drinking one of my sports bottles full of GS in the morning for breakfast. With my permission and blessing. =) I love seeing him eating healthier - so it's not a problem, but it does throw me off a little. We only own five sports bottles and they get filled to the brim with green smoothie. Usually five is able to fill me up for exactly 24 hours, then it's time to make another one at the same time every day. But with him taking one, I find that I don't want to make them *again* because I just did like, 20 hours before (earlier each day since I get hungry sooner). So I put it off and then get so hungry that my rationalization goes out the window.

Aw well, it's nice to look at how close I am to my 31-day goal! I'm excited to have made it this far and look forward to seeing ONE HUNDRED THIRTY FIVE on Tuesday morning for an 11 pound weight loss overall, in 31 days. I hope!

Day 25 - 139

Day 25 is here! And, my weight is up. By TWO pounds - 139 again! Yikes. But I am really struggling with eating these dumb sweet potato chocolate chunk "healthy" muffins made with whole wheat, honey, raisins, etc. So......they're pretty heavy and I ate like 6 of them yesterday and 3 early this morning.

But. I am determined that this is not going to change my course for the rest of the green smoothie challenge. I only have 6 days left, for goodness' sake! I really REALLY want to see that 135 number by the time I'm done. After that 31st day, I plan to take a day off. Not to eat a ton of junk and binge or anything, but to eat some of what I am missing --- and then after that, once again hop on board and continue on with green smoothies.

I have been faithful to my green smoothies all day today, besides those muffins this morning (before I texted you, Jen). I feel like it's all right side up again and I'm in control. Whew! Sometimes life can be such a rollercoaster.

Oh yeah - I am excited about this (and when I'm excited, WATCH OUT! I am seriously dedicated and do not waver, lol) -- I am going to start a new exercise DVD soon. I've put it on hold at my library so as soon as they email to say it's ready, I'm so there.

It looks like so fun! I've always wanted to learn how to dance hip-hop and I love to dance with the kids. But of course I always feel dumb because I have no clue what I'm doing. It's not that I want to go dance in the clubs, ha ha at that thought, but I love the feeling (or would love to) of knowing how to make my body move however I want it to. I've always thought belly dancing would be fun too. Like you're in tune with every part of your body and KNOW how to make it mooooooove.

I think dancing is fun and it'd be cool to have fun AND get firmed up instead of boring weights. Yes, I know......weights are probably better but doing something is better than doing nothing! For some reason I am really dragging my feet about running lately - I'm just bored with it. And, it's dark when I am able to go (when DH gets home from work) so that's not all that motivating.

I hope I like it. I'll let you know.

Excited for a NEW day!

There's no particular reason for this post, really, except to say that I am so excited for tomorrow and for the future! I think it might be the significance of having made it to 25 days on just green smoothies with a few blips along the way. But over all I am getting about 1 pound of greens per day and I am loving the way I feel!

I'm excited for the possibilities of more energy than every, more weight loss, and more clarity of mind. Being a better Mom to my children because my blood sugar isn't constantly dipping low and then high again like it does on SAD food. I am excited about the fact that I could very well eat like this for the rest of my life - green smoothies are 'da bomb and even with just going running 2x per week, I have dropped 9 lbs in a little over 3 weeks.

I just made up another 120oz. green smoothie and have five sports cups all lined up in the fridge read for day 25. It consisted of (since some have asked for the recipe I use - this is generally what I eat every day):

3 cups of water
2 cups of zucchini
12 bananas
1 medium cucumber
1 pound of greens (mostly spinach + 1 bunch of parsley)
1.5 T. ground flax
20 medium strawberries
1.5 cups blueberries
1 T. cocoa powder
2 t. cinnamon

I have also been having 1 thai coconut every day, for about the past 4 days. I have a very dry skin issue I'm trying to figure out how to cure. I eat both the meat and also drink the milk. They're super yummy anyway, and I consider them to by my treat...but am also hoping that the fat will help my skin, especially the palms and soles of my feet.

Here's something interesting. I logged what I ate on Fitday.com, to see what kind of calories I'm getting each day and also what kind of fat. According the green smoothie I just outlined (but not the coconut), I am getting:

1,583 calories
Carbs: 83%
Fat: 10%
Protein 7%

Here's to a GREAT day tomorrow!!!

Day 24 - 137

It feels strange to be writing "Day 24". It feels so endless....like I'm in a dream and just keep on having green smoothies day in & day out. Normally with any type of diet I am counting the days and gritting my teeth through it. But honestly, not with this. Yes, yesterday I had an emotional eating blip, but I was able to get a handle on it and for the most part, was back to green smoothies for the rest of today (I had a handful of homemade garlic croutons, then forced myself not to eat any more). Today the green smoothies are especially fulfilling and deliciously icy cold straight out of the fridge. I feel very "up" today and every time I drink one, it's like I'm drinking "life"!! It feels so so good.

I weighed 137 AGAIN today, despite eating the heavy and sugary cinnamon roll and gingerbread cake. Plus, all the salt in the chips - it honestly got salty for me VERY fast and I wasn't able to eat very many of them. Yuck. Same with the garlic butter croutons - they were just too fatty/buttery tasting and bleh, even though the crunchy part was yummy.

It's fun to think that tomorrow might be another pound! But also, not to get my hopes up because it did take me an entire week to lose 1 pound this past 7 days.

Today I'm whipping up a delicious smelling pot of taco soup and am going to bake some homemade bread (in the bread machine) and then possibly make a dessert for tonight's meal. All this is not meant to make you hungry, lol, but to point out that I am seriously enjoying baking while not craving it. I love that!! I hated it when I would bake something yummy with 100% intentions to serve it to my family and not eat any of it, and then proceed to eat like half of the entire thing because it tasted good and because "I can". It feels sooooooo good to be freeeeeee!!! =)

I really doubt that I'm going to stop at day 31. I have a feeling I'm going to keep going with this until I reach my goal weight. I just can't imagine stopping, and having to make food decisions again and then dealing with my weight going back up. Ugh. Not a fun thought......I gotta' keep green smoothies as my MAIN course and then maybe, maybe add in some other things like a big salad for dinner, or a baked potato, or brown rice & veggies. But very carefully and non-bingefully. (like my new word? lol)

I wanted to comment that the picture on the right of my blog is starting to look a little bit funny to me. Like a little bit overweight compared to how I see my face in the mirror. I might just be imagining it (I probably am, lol) but I am definitely going to take an after picture (including a closer face picture) when I'm done with green smoothies and compare!

Day 23 - 137, 9 lbs lost! (and little blip)

This morning the scale read 137.4! I am very excited to see a new number, finally. And actually quite surprised, since it was only 36 hours ago that I ate definite SAD (standard american diet) foot that had salt in it, white rice, etc. I think the guidelines of no sugar/meat/dairy really helped my body to digest it well and continue on losing weight. Now I just have to be careful because in the past that would have given me the "okay" to do it again. And again. And again - quite frequently. I don't want to give in to that kind of behaviour again.

Okay, confession time. This afternoon I had a little blip in my streak of success, and ate some tortilla chips, ginger-lemon cake, and cinnamon rolls. Reason: DH is gone all day (he stayed at church and we went home) cleaning at church + going to a fundraiser which lasts til late at night. It was really hard for me to come home to a messy house from this morning's getting ready for church chaos, and nothing to look forward to. Waaaaah, poor me, huh. =) So yeah, I turned to food.

But do you want to know the real reason? Something happened that hasn't yet, in my green smoothie feast, I mean.

Basically......I let myself get too, too hungry. DH has been getting on more of an exercise/health kick lately (this is SUCH a good thing, I'm so happy he is!!!) and has told me that if I have green smoothies in the fridge ready for him, he'll take that with him to work with him for breakfast. So I made a huge smoothie last night, and then this morning with him taking one and my drinking two, I didn't get home until 3:30. I was SO starving!!! I didn't realize how hungry I was until I inhaled my last smoothie and was still hungry. The tortilla chips looked soooo good! I didn't have much willpower at that point, also feeling like I needed some "pick me up" because I was feeling sorry for myself that DH was gone. Which, I LOVE that he volunteers, etc - I just need to get my feelings on board with my heart, lol.

So anyway.......I know this may have jeopardized my weigh-in tomorrow and I'm bummed about that. BUT I am going right now to make another big giant smoothie and will never do this again, I'll be more on guard for those weaker moments and force myself to do something else. I can tell that doing this for 23 days has REALLY changed my habits - and I desperately want them to stay changed!!

So Jen, I am sorry (cuz we're on a challenge together) and am bouncing right back up to 1) deal with the consequences on the scale tomorrow and 2) never give in again. Don't do it, don't do it, don't do it.....gotta preach that to myself.

Lastly, though? I refuse to let guilt rule my life for giving in, also. I'm going to turn on some encouraging myself and start cleaning my messy house, and get everything in order for tomorrow so I can look forward to and enjoy a nice movie tonight. I promised my 10 year old that I'd braid her hair in tons of little braids for school tomorrow while we watch Smallville together. =) 'Bye!

Day 22 - 138, 3 Week Results + Date Night Success!

Weighed in at 138 again this morning which means only 1 lb weight loss in a week. Ouch. But! I'm actually quite happy about this, and here's why:

Yesterday my husband came home from work early, at about 4:50. He said we should go on a date...that we're "about due" as he put it. =) Things have been pretty crazy since the baby was born - we tried a date night when she was 2 weeks old, and...yeah, 3 different restaurants later, she finally stopped crying and I was about to cry myself. =)

So everything lined up - we were able to get a sitter on the spot (my sister), and decided to have someone else watch just the baby so that my sister wouldn't have seven kids including a newborn on her hands.

Now, I love going on dates. Have you ever tasted food that someone else prepares? It is just SO good! So I love going out to eat when we go on dates, and this is something that I look forward to.

Hmmm. Dilemma time.

On one hand, I'd been doing so well! 21 days of green smoothies going strong with NO cheating whatsoever, unless you call the occasional banana or tomato "cheating" LOL. I don't. In the end, logic won out - and I am very happy with how it went.

At first I was thinking to get just a large salad and make good choices about what kind, and the kind of dressing. As in, spurge a little bit by eating maybe a few things that aren't raw but in moderation and with wisdom. I made sure to drink a large smoothie with just greens, celery, and bananas before we went so I would not be ravishingly hungry and make poor choices.

We ended up going to Mexican - and I enjoyed with much relish the corn chips with salsa and pinto beans as an appetizer. My dinner was delicious - 3 homemade tortillas with beans, rice, guacamole, salsa, and stir-fried onions/peppers. Water to drink. I was pleased with my choices (no dairy! No meat! No sugar! Fresh ingredients!) and obeyed the cues from my stomach telling me I was getting full, leaving an extra tortilla on my plate.

I also paid careful attention to how I felt later on (I was curious how this was going to go, having had only green smoothies for so long!). I felt okay, actually. It was weird to eat the chips, it felt a bit alien to bite into something hard and crunchy again. We ate at 7:30 and when I went to sleep at 2am (yes, this is my newborn's schedule - aaaack!!!) there were no stomach issues at all. I was surprised! My stools have remained green and soft, with no constipation (sorry if TMI!) problems.

So all in all it went really well and I was happy. Then, fast forward to this morning. It's always been hard for me to get back in the groove once I've gotten off the wagon even temporarily. But I think the difference is that it was a planned out meal, I was determined to make good choices, and ate in moderation. I didn't binge, I didn't gorge myself, I didn't say, "Who cares" and chow down in excess on really bad junk. I felt in control and I loved it!

Today I was right back into it. I was actually missing my cold green smoothies - it was a super busy day and when I ran out, I didn't have time to replenish. So I had some bananas as we were running errands and getting more greens. As soon as I got home at 4pm I made my giant green smoothie and ahhhh it felt so good. I had NO cravings for SAD food like I would normally after eating some the night before. None! This is so awesome, I love it!

Today was my day to measure. It's so weird, though - I feel like my body IS changing, I mean those jeans I fit into are now kind of loose! But that's probably just cuz I've worn them for a couple of days. My stomach also felt quite a bit flatter today, I felt really good! But the measurements themselves, weren't so hot. I basically lost .50 and gained .75?? So strange. Oh well, it's the clothes & the mirror that tell the real story, right?

Day 21 - 138, 8 lbs holding steady

Today I took a turn for the worse, so to speak. I haven't had good sleep since my daughter was born, obviously, and the past week she's routinely been going to sleep around 12-1am, then gets up at 3:30am and I wake her up at 7am to nurse and start my day getting the 4 kids off to school.

I am just dragging today. I did everything in slow motion it seemed like, and got the kids to school a good 15 minutes late. I didn't care, I am so so so tired from nights upon nights of no/little sleep.

Since this is my green smoothie blog and not my regular blog, I won't get into it anymore, lol. But my point on here is that I want to just pop in a movie and chow down on something really bad for me to counteract the "bad day" that I am having. I want to just stuff myself with hot salty buttered parmesan popcorn, and after that, eat something WARM because I'm freezing. (icy cold green smoothies from the fridge will do that to you!)

But you know what? I'm not going to. I knew when I started this, that there would be hard times. That it would not always be easy, smooth sailing, with no thought or desire for regular food.

Yes, I'm at 21 days - yippee, by the way! =) I really am happy about that! So technically tomorrow I could say, would be the first day off of green smoothies. I really have accomplished quite a bit. But it's not enough in my eyes (is it ever?)! I really want to lose the last 13 pounds hanging on my small 5'2" frame because it really doesn't look so nice on there. Plus, I've promised Jen that we'd do the 2-week challenge together. So - as much as I feel reluctant to do so, I'm going to change my blog title once again from 21-days to 31 days. (That's the end of the 2 weeks).

I read on another person's blog who was doing a juice fast, that they didn't know how long they were going to go, but they made a rule that they would NOT quit on a bad day. They could decide at any point that "tomorrow" they would quit, but it was not allowed for them to just decide to take the rest of that day off, or to just up & eat regular food.

I decided on the spot that love that rule.

And I think I might incorporate that into my general eating style once I do go off green smoothies - telling myself that tomorrow will be this or that, but that TODAY I must finish off the day 100% on my diet.

A couple of days ago I dug into my box of clothes from early fall '08 when I was at my goal weight. They all fit! They're a little snug, but still wearable and the jeans especially I have been wearing - oh it does feel so nice to fit into them again! Amazing what a difference 8 lbs can do.

Tomorrow is measuring day!

Here's a question from TL"
"I was wondering how you do for your evening diners. Do you take your smoothie to the table and sit with everyone? I think my husband would be upset if I had only some green juice for dinner..."

Answer:
"Well...my husband is kind of used to my crazy diet stuff by now. Specifically, the raw food diet. So he doesn't actually pay attention or notice anything I eat or lack thereof. Plus, we have many small children which makes for quite the busy and noisy dinner time.

Personally, what I do is either drink my green smoothie during dinner, or do it beforehand. I don't keep a schedule anymore of breakfast/lunch/dinner - I just eat when I'm hungry, and then tend to the needs of my family's meals. Often times it helps to drink a large smoothie before dinner so that I'm not tempted by the rolls or other enticing looking things.

If you really want something to "eat" for appearances sake and so that you can sit with your husband/family and all share a meal, you could always make your green smoothie thicker than normal and eat it as a soup. You could even chop up some strawberries and put them in there after you blend it, and some blueberries, sprinkle on some flax, etc to make it sort of a bowl of green smoothie but also with some chunks and "chewable" stuff in there. That way you're eating with him - it'd also look really pretty! =)"

Day 20 - 139, Still Trucking On...

I'm not giving up, but today I was at 139.0. Slow and steady wins the race, right? That number 139 seems to be a stubborn one for me, but I'm hoping I'm just in a time where my body is getting ready to release some fat, a bunch of it at once! I was tempted this morning to get discouraged, since I haven't lost since day 16. But you have to take a step back and look at the overall progress. I am SO HAPPY to be in the 130's, I am still basking in the fun of THAT!

The other thing is, my clothes fit differently now. I'm able to wear some pants that I couldn't touch 3 weeks ago, that's for sure! I am resisting the temptation to measure until Saturday morning - but I think I'll show more inch loss in addition to last week's.

Yesterday was a weird day, I noticed some mood swings that haven't been present since I started doing green smoothies. I realized that I wasn't drinking much, life was just busy so I wasn't even taking the time to open the fridge and drink it down. Thus, I got pretty hungry and started craving things and getting irritable with the children. I am still working on letting go of the whole mentality of eat less = weigh less. I know that eating less, for me, seems to make my body think I'm starving so it hangs on to every last pound of fat it can. So I'm working today on drinking lots of water and green smoothies to my heart's content, not worrying about the scale.

Day 19 - 139

This morning I was up a pound again, back to 139. But no worries, I know I'll probably be down again tomorrow - hopefully to see a glimpse of that elusive 137 number. Today is a busy, busy day so I probably won't be posting much.

But I wanted to share that I am now wearing a shirt that I haven't been able to fit into since right before I got pregnant last fall. I definitely feel more thin all over my body - it's such a nice feeling!! I've missed feeling this way, and here it is again. Love it!

Day 18 - 138, Craving Revelations

Today I weighed in once again at 138.6. I was hoping that would happen, and I am happy.

Yesterday I had a conversation with a friend of mine, and she is going to do green smoothies for 2 weeks. So we decided to do a challenge together. I feel like I could do green smoothies forever, it's been a very smooth ride for me so far, so I readily agreed! I'm now thinking this may end up being a 30-day feast blog. =) I am leaning more & more towards doing green smoothies until I reach my goal weight of 125. That is just 13 more pounds, which would be approx. another 30 days from now of doing green smoothies. But it's just a thought at this point, I'm not committing to that or I may set myself up for failure (in my own eyes).

Yesterday I had sort of a revelation about my cravings. I have noticed that they have disappeared about 95%. I get the occasional urge or longing to eat something, but it is almost 100% exclusively when I am getting hungry. When I drink the green smoothie, it all goes away and I am happy and satisfied. But the revelation I received was noticing that I am now at peace with that "other side" of me that desired the junk food.

Maybe desired isn't a strong enough word.

I wanted it and it consumed me. "It" being whatever struck my fancy at the moment, whether it was buttery parmesan garlic popcorn, or ice cream slathered in peanut butter, or anything else. I felt like I was constantly at war with myself, like the other half of me and there was so much unrest. But now, there is peace and quiet in my spirit. That "other self" has been stilled, like it's sleeping.

This is soooo wonderful, I can't even tell you! I feel like those old foods I used to love, are like an old friend or a good memory - I think of them fondly and with nostalgia, but they are no longer present, or available. It's weird.

I've heard that greens do wonders for cravings. I never really was able to consistently get enough greens in my system for that to really take effect. But now I know, it's true.

And I am loving life!

Another thing - I am baking and cooking so much these days! For my family of 9, who eats normal but we make healthy choices when we can. I currently have a loaf of whole wheat honey bread cooking in the oven and I am just inhaling the delicious smell. I have no desire to eat it. It is like a candle to me, reminds me of something yummy and I will get pleasure from seeing my family enjoy it.

It's all about the smell these days - I love my home being filled with smells that entice the children into the kitchen to see what is cooking. Perhaps my senses have been made more acute while being on green smoothies, but all I know is I'm actually excited and look forward to cooking. I wanted to make cinnamon rolls today for them, but I don't think I'll have time. The laundry calls, as do the dishes and computer work. I'm off to make chicken chili in the crockpot for dinner - another delicious aroma for my home!

Oooooh I forgot to mention that DH's work is having their Christmas party on November 7th! Jen, remember when we went together? Well it's here again already. Last year at this time was just before I got pregnant and I was at the thinnest I'd ever been. I weighed about 125 and bought this pretty, sleek and long black dress that I felt fabulous in. That dress is still hanging in my closet for motivation's sake. Now I have a definite goal to lose my last 13 lbs of weight by, and 25 days to do it in - perfect!

Day 17 - 140, 2lbs gained again...

Funny how when you're hungry, really random things sound sooo good. This morning I asked my 5 year old daughter what she wanted for snack during Kindergarten. She picked half of a large whole wheat tortilla, lol. So when I got back from taking her to school, I was putting them away (and was hungry) and all of a sudden a cheese quesadilla sounded sooooo good!! I could literally almost taste it, and it was like this sudden craving, along with a picture in my mind of me literally stuffing the entire thing in my mouth, like I was starving. Silly mind games. Sorry, not this time.

So...yeah, the scale. We've played this game before, the scale & I. And turns out, scales like to play mind tricks. Did you know that? So this morning I stepped on the scale and was welcomed by once again, the big 140.0. Lovely, huh? So that's another 2 lbs up - but since we've been through this, I'm not even giving it another thought. Just a little blip in the weight loss. In a few days I'm sure I'll be seeing 138 again or maybe even less, who knows?

My fridge is stocked with enough green smoothie goods to last quite a while so that feels nice. I don't like that slightly panicky feeling of knowing there is not any green smoothie makings in the house and I'm going to have to tough out the hunger until I go to the store. Not a fun feeling.

10PM
LOL @ me - I took a shower after running tonight, and before I stepped in I stood on the scale. I just like to - it's fun when you're losing weight to keep seeing it go down, down, down! So this morning I was at 140.0, right? First thing in the morning, no clothes on, my low weight for the day. And it was UP 2 pounds from yesterday morning.

Grrrr, I thought, the scale still says 140, it hasn't moved! Then I was like - DUH! Awesome! I can't believe it actually says 140 at night! It's never been that low at night before. I think the lowest it has been was 141, and I usually lose about 3 lbs throughout the night. I know, it's dumb, but it's fun to play with the numbers and watch them move.

So - who knows, maybe I'll reach 137 tomorrow. I doubt it, but the guessing and not knowing is fun!

Day 16 - 138, 8 lbs lost!

Stepped on the scale this morning and...138.6! Yesterday I changed up my smoothie a bit and had some different things - one whole avocado and cinnamon being among them. I was curious to see if I would lose more, having the added fat of the avocado. Evidently - no problem! I have to say it is very strange to step on the scale at night, when I always weigh the most, and see 142 on there. Gone are the days of seeing 148-150 like I was seeing for so many weeks. Me thinks my body luuuuvs green smoothies!

Another thing I wanted to add is...I'm nursing my 2 1/2 month old, but she has always had trouble nursing and I started supplementing heavily. Normally when I do this (with my previous 6 children) my milk dries up quite quickly. But I decided I really want to nurse her as much as possible and NOT give up - so I've worked hard to nurse her first, then supplement only if she asks for it. I've also continued taking my fenugreek, mother's milk tea, fish oil, and postnatal vitamins while on my green smoothie feast. I am super happy to say that THIS time, I feel like my milk IS increasing! She can now nurse all night long (usually two feedings) without needing the supplementing. I feel like this is in part because of the TONS of greens I am eating.

My smoothie this morning was the most delicious I've ever had! I don't know why, but the combination is just awesome. Here's what I had:

3 cups water
lots of spinach - basically smashed in as much as could fit into the 60oz container in addition to the water
2 apples
10 bananas
20 giant frozen strawberries
1 T. raw cocoa powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 medium cucumber
2 tsp. spirulina
2T. ground flax
2 plums
1/2 avocado

I love doing green smoothies because you can basically throw anything in there and it usually comes out fine as long as you have about 1/4 part greens, 1/4 part veggies, and 1/2 part fruit. I especially like bananas because they are so filling.

Ohhhh yeah, I have a confession to make. Last night I was making a sandwich for DH and my MIL gave us a bag of ripe tomatoes fresh from the garden. She said they are so sweet they taste like sugar! Okay, so...yeah, I couldn't resist. I had a slice of one and mmmmm it was so, so good!

Remember, I hadn't had any salt or sugar for 15 days so my taste buds are being retrained back to their natural state. I sprinkled a little salt and some fresh ground pepper and proceeded to eat 2 whole tomatoes plus about 10 cherry tomatoes. All were good, delicious, and I didn't feel bad one iota for eating them or so many. It did feel weird to chew, though. I don't consider this to be a "cheat" because, well, duh - it's probably one of the best nutritional foods out there. Ripe, raw, organic, fresh tomatoes picked in the middle of prime season. Can't get much better than that!

RA sent in some questions and I'm going to answer two of them today - hopefully will get to the rest in the next couple of days.

Question:
1) I only have a "normal" blender. Do you think that will work to blend the greens enough to drink?

Answer:
Yes, I think it will! Just experiment and see what your blender is capable of. And by the way, chunkier is not always bad. It just has to be palatable for you, and you can see if you like it thicker or thinner, whatever.

What I do, always, is I put in the water and the greens, and then I blend blend blend! Then I pour out half of the greens into another container, and proceed to make my green smoothie by adding all sorts of fruit & stuff to the blender container. While I'm getting the fruit out, I'll keep half again as much to do the second batch. I think this will work well for a normal blender because it's not jamming too much in there. Once I've poured out the first 1/2 greens with the fruit, I add back in the second 1/2 and add all the rest of the fruits.

Question:
2) What kinds of greens do you use?

Answer:
I know it's best to use as big of a variety as possible, thus getting the most vitamins and nutrients. But I use what is available to me and what I like. If I don't like it, I don't drink it - so it has to be appealing for me. So I use kale, parsley, romaine, iceburg, red/green leaf lettuce, baby greens, and of course my favorite, spinach. I get the spinach and baby greens at Costco. The Kale I get at Roth's - they have it for $1.39 for a big bunch, almost too much for my vitamix. The rest I usually get at either Norman's or EZ Orchards just because they're close to me.

Day 15 - 139, 7 lbs lost + Two Week Results

Very happy this morning to step on the scale and see....139.0! POINT ZERO! That means I was a whole pound less than yesterday morning, and also that I am on the verge of reaching 138 for a whopping 8 pound weight loss. IF I do go over that edge and reach 8 pounds loss, that will be on day 16 for a loss of 1/2 pound per day, on average.

Each day that has gone by, as I've stood on the scale and watched for that lower number, it seriously, honestly, feels like it has taken F.O.R.E.V.E.R to get to this point. But when I look back, my gosh, 7 pounds in 15 days really is pretty good! I mean, at this rate by day 21 I should have a good, solid 10 pound weight loss under my belt.

Today when I woke up, I felt thinner. I looked in the mirror and I can see that I am shrinking - my torso looks smaller now, and the 34C bra that has up until now been pretty tight around my torso fits comfortably (well okay, on the last hook, but still --! )

Oh my gosh, totally forgot that today is measurement day! Two weeks ago today, I started this journey. Okay, I'm off to measure.....and now I'm back, and here's what the results are:

I lost EVERYWHERE!! Well, except my calves, but those I rarely lose anyway; they're usually pretty slim and stay the same when I weigh from 120-150 or so. I lost in my upper arms, chest, waist, panty line, butt, and thighs. Not a ton, a total of 1.75", but I'm happy with it! Progress - visible progress!

Now I'm even more motivated to keep going for another week. I also plan on going running both today & tomorrow while DH is home to watch the kids so I can go in the day time.

I'm so happy to be in the 130's again!

This is the day we are going to Costco to get a ton more greens - probably about 7 lbs worth, is my plan. That'll keep me for hopefully the next 5 days or so. I like to get spinach, kale, and organic mixed baby greens. Anyway, this morning we had NO food in the house. DH had to work for a bit this morning so I bundled the 6 younger kids up (8 & under) and took them to the farmer's market. That sounds a LOT easier than it was, lol. It seemed like so much effort just to run to the store for more bananas! But it was nice to have them all dressed, and hair looking nice when we came back home. But I hit the JACKPOT! Their 19c banana bin was piled high! I asked the lady for a box and ended up getting 41 lbs of bananas for $8.50! I am seeing bananas in my future smoothies...lol.

Since we're out of frozen fruit from Costco now, my smoothie consisted mostly of bananas. It included:

3 cups of water
1 smallish head of wilting romaine (glad we're going to Costco today!)
1 bunch of parsley (I've graduated to one whole bunch - taste was fine)
1 whole small avocado
2 T. bee pollen (my last - they're gone now)
2 T. ground flax
12 bananas
3/4 cup of frozen blueberries
2 cups of zucchini

Day 14 - 140

Well, here we are - day 14! I'm really glad I decided to keep on going - the scale is slowly but surely dropping and it sure is fun to look forward to that number every morning! I know without a doubt that I am 100% on the diet so there is no "I'm not going to weigh because I blew it last night" sort of mentality. I was so tired of that!

This morning I weighed in at....140.0! Oh, so so close! I have to confess that I immediately stripped down 100% and stood on the scale again. 141.5! Ha ha, lol. Dumb scale. So I was like what the heck??? And stood on it again 2 more times and both times received the reassuring 140.0 again. Darn, too bad I couldn't get rid of just one more ounce! Maybe tomorrow I'll see that golden 139 number.

9:20PM
Yet another successful day goes down in the books! Today I ran into a bit of trouble because I only had four bananas left! I'm starting to get hungry now and my smoothies are gone...and I'm not planning on going to bed soon. I'll probably just drink water for the rest of the night. Bananas are what makes me full the most, and they were sadly lacking today, so my smoothie today consisted of:

3 cups of water
1 big head of spinach
1/2 bunch of parsley
1/2 small avocado
2T. bee pollen
2T. ground flax
4 bananas
3 cups blueberries
1 lb frozen strawberries
3 cups of zucchini

I was sorely tempted to have some popcorn tonight!! I was making some for the kids while they watched a movie and it looked so good. But then I realized I was hungry, drank a smoothie, and it vanished. Nice! I love that about the green smoothies - probably the only way I've been able to stick with it for so long.

Day 13 - 140, 6 lb lost!

12:30PM
I felt so awful this morning! Just crampy and like my abdomen was burning. It's better now, but I felt anything BUT skinnier. Even one of my favorite shirts was tight around the tummy and kept riding up. I was feeling a bit frustrated until I stepped on the scale - 140.8! Super nice surprise! Okay, well maybe I was expecting/hoping it would be at 140, but that's one thing. It's another thing for it to actually be reality...very cool.

I have to report something negative. =( My hands and feet are so dry they are like sandpaper and I can't feel things very well with the tips of my fingers. It's like a layer of skin is missing - and they look really creased/wrinkled on the palms almost like it's calloused. When I hold fabric it catches on my fingers because of the dead skin - it's not as gross as it sounds, just really dry. I also can't pick up paper very well because there is no oil on my hands.

It has been like this pretty much since I went raw 3 years ago, so it's nothing really new, but I am noticing that it is getting WORSE since I started the green smoothies 2 weeks ago. Part of me thinks maybe I should add more fat into my diet, that maybe that would help? I don't know...but it's annoying that I can't even really feel the softness of my new baby's skin. I don't know, though - because when I was eating more raw I would eat at least one small avocado every day for an entire month, just about. Sometimes more. And it really didn't change much. It also could be because of the weather changing that it's gotten worse? Gosh, who knows...I'm not a very good good naturopathic doctor. =)

Kind of cool - this morning I got not one, but TWO people (one at the grocery store, one at the eye doctor's) tell me that I look too young to have 7 children, that I don't look like I've had 7. It's funny when people do a double take and I tell them that I have 7 kids. I had just the baby with me at the doctor's, and he asked me if it was my first. =) The compliments could just be coincidence, but I like to grab on to inspiration whenever I can, so I'm going to chalk that one up to the green smoothies. =) I don't feel like I look young at ALL, at least, I very much see the wrinkles appearing like crazy on my face! I'm only 32 though so....

I was out of greens again today, so that's why I was at the grocery store this morning. I bought another big bunch of kale for $1.29 and a small bag of frozen strawberries for $2.99. My smoothie for today contained:

3 cups water
1 big bunch of kale
1/2 bunch of parsley
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 cup frozen strawberries
12 1/2 bananas
2 T. bee pollen
2 T. ground flax

That's it! Really sweet and actually delicious - I could feel those pleasure hormones kicking in when I drank my first one this morning - seriously YUMMY!!

11:45PM
I'm almost there! It feels weird to be posting this, on the eve of what was originally going to be my very last day - the 14th day. Two whole weeks on green smoothies only! Who would've thought...I had no idea it'd be so easy, really. And I think it would be easier still if I weren't still going through the sleepless nights of living with a newborn. She's almost 3 months old, so hopefully things will settle down soon.

Anyway, I'm really happy that I was able to do what I set out to do. I'll be measuring on Saturday to see if there was any more inch loss. It's such a weird thing. Tonight I pulled some stretch/yoga pants out of the dryer and put them on - they fit exactly the same around the waist, but within an hour the legs were totally loose. Which is really surprising since 1) they're normally nice and snug in the legs, and 2) coming out of the dryer they should've been extra tight for a few hours. Maybe loose after wearing them for a couple of days...but definitely never right away! So just for kicks I decided to measure my thighs. Ha! Shouldn't have done that - it came out to be 1/4" bigger than last week. That's kind of messed up. Oh well, time will most certainly tell.

I'm sitting here writing this as my little girl is in her Bumbo wailing away and it's almost midnight - I have no idea what she needs/wants. I've tried everything I can think of. I'm just so tired.....I hope she falls asleep soon.

Day 12 - 141

2PM
I'm back down to 141 again on the scale today. That was strange, gaining 2 lbs for no reason yesterday! I have been feeling a little crampy the past couple of days, but just a couple of times that I noticed it, and the rest of the time I felt fine. Since I just had a baby 2 1/2 months ago, I haven't gotten my period yet so who knows - that could be why. I'm just happy to see that number again. =)

I've decided to go another 7 days. So my blog is now a 21-day green smoothie feast instead of 14. While I DO miss eating and I DO wish I could eat food, it's kind of scary for me to think of going back to eating again. Right now it's like I'm forced to eat well, because also at this point if I were to just binge and go crazy eating ice cream and popcorn and nachos and whatever else I want, my body is going to F.L.I.P out. I feel fine, great, whatever, right now - even keel and just over all, good. But what I don't realize is actually how good I DO feel (I know this from experience) compared to how completely crappy I would feel if I ate those food.

So I'm afraid to break this really nice stretch of 100% low fat raw I'm on. Cuz that's what it really is, even though I'm fooling myself into thinking it's a "Fast" of sorts. It's really not, I mean, I can put whatever I want to in my smoothies as long as it's raw and mixed with greens. I guess, though, that drinking it all is probably pretty nice on my digestion - it's already blended and ready to be digested immediately.

Yesterday I finished up the last of the 7 lbs of greens that DH bought for me on Friday, I think it was. So I stopped by Roth's and got a big bunch of curly kale - that stuff is really bitter so I was kind of afraid it was going to be absolutely discusting. To my surprise, it's not that bad! I put an entire bunch in the Vitamix + about 2 cups of iceburg lettuce + 3 cups of water. Added 2 T. of bee pollen, 2 tsp. of Spirulina, 2 T. of ground flax, 1/2 a small avocado (makes it creamy!), 10 bananas, and then a bunch of frozen blueberries, mixed fruit, and strawberries + some honey. Ha ha, that kale didn't stand a chance against all that yummy sweet fruit! So it's pretty good, almost has a faint taste of almond flavoring.

Day 11 - 143, 2 lbs GAINED??!!!

Don't worry, I'm not freaking out. But you should have seen my face when I stepped on the scale this morning and it said 143.0!! (granted, 143.0 is almost 142, but still --!)

I was shocked!

I didn't expect that. But I know that when I was on the Master Cleanse some days I would gain like that, and it was the strangest thing. Because I ate the exact same thing every day, for weeks, so why the sudden gain? Who knows...but I always was able to see the scale drop the next day or 2, and continue dropping after that. So right now I have to say I am thankful for my Master Cleanse fasts (I've done 4, from 10 days to 39 days) because they taught me alot.

Yesterday the only difference in my smoothies was that I had 10 bananas instead of 8. But I doubt that is what made the difference - I think it's probably just water retention for whatever reason. Hmmmmm.

And you know what's weird?

I am not even tempted to quit. I don't want to.

This has been a really nice time for me, time to re-establish better habits and not to worry about food. There is no temptation because eating anything, ANYTHING is simply not an option. It's just not. I love this feeling! It is what has gotten me through my long stretches of raw (85 days and 45 days being my two major accomplishments) and is what's getting me through again.

The other thing I was thinking, is that I used to always eat when I was on the computer. That was my "me" time. I would clean, clean, clean, and then finally ahhhh time to sit down, enjoy my food, and surf blogs or whatever. But now that I just drink green smoothies I pretty much just drink them on the go. When I'm nursing, when I'm in the car, as I'm picking up the house, whatever. So I've actually gained time that I normally would use up by eating - and that has been really nice! I love it.

So. Day 11. Think I'll go longer? I'm thinking yes, I would love to just continue on until I reach my goal weight of 125 - that's just 16 lbs if I go according to my weight yesterday, 141. If I lose it at a rate of 4 lbs per week, that's 4 more weeks for a total of about 40 days.

That seems like a really long time.

So we'll just take it one day at a time, for now. =)

Day 10 - 141

9AM
Good morning! Same 'ol same 'ol today. Messy house from the weekend and lots to do! I weighed in the same as yesterday, 141. So that kind of blows my theory out of the water, that the day I run, the next day I lose. I had a good run yesterday, pushed myself more than the norm - it felt good and I'm sore today. I need to work harder at running more consistently; I only got in 2 days last week. But that's better than nothing for sure!

My clothes still fit pretty much exactly the same, not much to report today. Only 4 more days to reach my goal of 14 days, I can't believe it, it's going by soooo fast!

I stocked up on almost ripe bananas at the Farmer's Market on Saturday. They put them in this big box for 25 cents/lb, the ones that are starting to get brown spots on them. And of course we raw fooders know that little secret: those are the best kind! I'm always happy when I walk in the door and see that bin piled high - sometimes it's empty which is a bummer.

So I am going to be having alot of mostly banana smoothies in the next few days. This summer it's been a struggle to keep bananas available because the garage is the only place to store them, and it gets so hot in there! Hot = rotting bananas. So now that the colder weather is here, they should be nicely preserved in our cold garage for yummy eating all winter long.

12PM
I added half a small avocado to my 120oz. smoothie - it isn't enough to make the day super fatty, I think I'm probably still under 10% fat for the day but it does add a slightly creamy element to my smoothies and makes them kind of silky! Yum! Today I also put in alot more parsley and it has a fresh, almost fresh-cut grass taste - but not in a gross way. Still very sweet, just makes me feel like I'm inhaling the fresh smell of spring or something. I'll have to experiment with those other greens - so far I've only ventured into spinach, romaine, parsley, and mixed baby greens.

Day 9 - 141, 5 lbs lost!

Woohoo! I was super excited this morning to see the scale at 141.4! Yesterday it was at 142.4 which is a whole pound lost in one day. Yay! That was really encouraging because 141 is the LOWEST I have ever been since I had the baby. What I mean is, I've gotten to 141 but never lower. So once I see that 140 mark I'm going to be cel-e-bratin' !! And the next step after that is 139 which obviously is going to be another great day since I'll be in the 130's. I am so pumped today!

Last night I dreamed that I was super hungry and started eating some food, then got all panicky because I can't! I'm supposed to eat GREEN SMOOTHIES ONLY for 14 days. I was so bummed. Then I woke up and was really happy again. Glad it was just a dream!

There's been this strange film on my teeth ever since I started doing this. It's like I need to brush my teeth 3x per day just to feel that clean, smooth feel. I wonder if my teeth are clearly fuzzy when I am talking to people, but when I look in the mirror, it's fine. Weird.

Also, I woke up this morning to a really salty taste in my mouth. Kind of like if I'd eaten SAD the night before. Hmmmm maybe my dream WAS real and I did eat those things in my sleep? LOL how sad would that be?! I was really thirsty so I drank a ton of water and it went away.

My green smoothies are getting a little bit boring...I should get some different things when I go to the store next. Like mint. I've heard it is really good in smoothies. I was making oatmeal cereal with cinnamon for the kids and I was like oh my GOSH that cinnamon smells so good! Hmmm I wonder if I could make a green smoothie with cinnamon somehow. Then I remembered that there are actually a ton of green smoothie recipes online - I should try some. Just to change things up a bit.

Oh yeah, this is cool! All night it felt like my underwear was just too big. Definitely a change - right after I had the baby 2 months ago it was really tight and now it's so loose it almost falls off. The first thing that is really, truly, getting too big. Yay!

I'm off to go running this morning....

Day 8 - 142 + One Week Results

So here we are - one week of green smoothies! It's been totally fun, pretty easy, and I feel good. Not fantasticly out of this world, but just even keeled and - good. Light, mellow, not easily provoked. Unless I'm hungry. =)

I'm a bit disappointed with the results. I thought for sure that coming from all that junk to such a pure diet would achieve better results. No, I am most definitely NOT giving up - in fact, I am more excited for this week than ever! I just have to set my expectations lower so that I am not setting myself up for disappointment again.

I weighed myself this morning and I was 142.6, as opposed to yesterday's 142.8. It's nice to see slight progress! One thing to note - I'm working hard and very proactively to improve my milk supply so it's possible that could have an effect on my weight in the next few days.

Next - my measurements. These were also rather disappointing. I kept telling myself this week that even though the scale wasn't doing anything grand, maybe I'd lose inches. I kind of did, but I also gained some ?? Weird. Here's the results (comparing with the measurements of 3 weeks ago):

Biceps - gained .25" (and no, not weight lifting!)
Waist - gained .50"
Low Waist - lost .25"
Hips - lost .75"
Thighs - gained .25"

So I gained 1" and lost 1". Ha ha, how's that for ironic? But I lost in weird places, like my low waist (basically under my baby belly) and hips. C'mon, waist, puuhleeeeze can we see some changes next week???

Despite all of the weight loss (or lack thereof!) I am very happy that I am doing something that is MOST healthy for my body! As opposed to some crappy starvation diet (no Master Cleanse, not talking about you! I love you!) that is going to tweak out my body and make me gain even more once I stop.

And I also know that there might be other things going on inside that are more important than weight loss, that my body is focusing on. Perhaps once those things are put in order, my body will focus on the extra 20 lbs hanging on to me and start releasing some of it. I'm very optimistic!

9:30PM
So tired. Last night the baby didn't sleep until after 1am, and woke up at 3am and 7am. Then my other 3 year old daughter also came in several times to try to sleep with us, and I told her to go to bed the first time. I don't sleep well when they're in the bed with me. So that's why I'm tired, not because of the diet.

Today was such a good day, though! I mean, as far as energy goes. I'm enjoying being able to handle most situations that come without getting totally stressed and snapping because of it. While I do miss my comfort foods and think of them sometimes (mostly when I'm hungry, which reminds me to DRINK!), I definitely don't miss the heart racing and other symptoms that make me feel pretty much awful for the next 3 hours.

Today in the morning I made 120oz. of green smoothie, and I just now finished the last one. So basically the entire day, this is what I had to drink:

(in 3.5 cups of water - I like it on the thicker side)
1 pound of spinach
20 plums
4 big bananas
4 tsp. of Nature's First Food
2 T. of Bee Pollen
1.5 T. of ground flax (any more and I have the most stinky gas!)
3 cups of frozen mixed fruit from Costco - this is sooo YUM!
2.5 cups of zucchini

That's it! The plums and the frozen fruit are both really sweet, so they counteract the spinach and zucchini. The only reason I'm using zuke is because I have tons of it still from my MIL, these huge giant things that look like slugs. Eeewwww! But they're pretty mild tasting so it's OK.

I forgot to say that last night, with the baby being up so late, I started to get really hungry. To the point where I knew I needed to eat something, but I was out of green smoothie until the morning. So I ate a banana. First thing I've really eaten since starting this green smoothie challenge, but I don't count it as "falling off the wagon" by any means since it was just a banana. Those are really easy to digest and get pretty mushed by the time they reach my stomach. It was just what I needed and tided me over until the morning. Hopefully she will sleep better tonight.

Day 7 - 142, 4 lbs lost!

This morning it was funny, I woke up at 7am to feed the baby and weighed myself - 143.8. Darn it, still 143. So I did my thing, got the kids off to school and was home by 8:50. That's when I always officially weigh for the day, before eating my breakfast. I was wearing a thin lightweight shirt so I just took off my yoga pants and stepped on the scale. 143.0!! Oooooh that was just too tempting, so I took off my shirt and sure enough, it dropped to 142.8. Yay! So from now on I'm taking off my pants AND shirt to weigh. =)

So it looks like I'm losing about 1/2 a pound per day. Tomorrow will be day 8, officially one week on green smoothies, and I will most likely still be at 142 so that'll be a 4lb weight loss in 8 days. Now is the part where it gets a little harder just because I get bored easily. I need to fill my life with OTHER things than food, so that I can persevere in this - I think this next week is going to show great progress. If I can hang on for just one more week I'll have reached my 14 days and hopefully have an 8 lb weight loss! Then from there, who knows - I would love to keep going and make it to 3 weeks, a 12 lb weight loss. I know once a person loses 10 lbs or more it really starts showing, so hopefully I'll be able to fit into all those clothes in my closet from before I was pregnant last year that are just one size too small.

I'm really missing my oatmeal. =( For about a week or so, I was following the John McDougal plan (which I love and might do once I reach my goal weight, for maintenance) and having oatmeal in the morning. Made with almond milk, cinnamon, honey, raisins, and frozen blueberries - it's so so so good. I better go get my green smoothie out of the fridge and fill my tummy before it talks me into making some. =)

10:30PM
I had a good day today. We had company for dinner so I spent most of the day in a whirlwind of activity, making a 4-course dinner (fun, but time consuming!), doing laundry, cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming, making the kitchen all shiny and clean. So I didn't have much time to even think about food at all.

Once our company left, the older children and DH & I settled in for an episode of Smallville with popcorn. Now, popcorn has lately been my vice - all buttery with a good douse of salt, garlic powder, and parmesan cheese. I could live on the stuff! That, and ice-cream with peanut butter slathered on the top. Goodness, it sounds so awful just to write it out! But sure is good to taste. So I was tempted by the popcorn cuz I was getting hungry, but just for a little bit. There's no way I'm going to mess this up, now that tomorrow I will officially be "over the hump" and on my way to finishing up the 14 days.

Day 6 - 143

9AM
Good morning! No weight loss today, although the scale said 143.4 so at least it's on the closer side to 142! Hopefully tomorrow. It's interesting to notice the I ran Sunday - and Monday, 1 lb lost. I didn't run Monday, so no pound lost on Tuesday. Then I ran Tuesday night and wa-lah, 1 lb lost on Wednesday! I'm sure it's probably a coincidence but we'll see, since I am not going to be able to run tonight ... but would love to see 142 tomorrow!

So - 3 lbs in 6 days, not bad! I mean, if that trend continues and I am able to see 9 lbs in 18 days, I will be happy. Not ecstatic or jumping up & down with joy, but happy. =) I'm just so used to the Master Cleanse where you lose like 15 lbs in 18 days! Oh well...this is much better than plateauing or gaining, for sure.

6:30PM
DH is headed off to the youth meeting at church, and I am soooo tired I could just drop off to sleep immediately if I laid down. So I don't dare. I'm about finished up getting dinner ready - gonna' be just spaghetti and garlic bread for the kids since DH is eating on the run.

Anyway...I'm feeling kind of bored with green smoothies. I guess I never realized how much of the excitement in my life comes from food! But I am enjoying all the baking I'm able to do without having to eat some. I made some banana bread today for the kids to have after school and that was rewarding with the yummy smell in the house. It's still kind of weird not to taste things - actually I did taste the potato soup yesterday (that everyone hated) and it tasted good to me. Ha! Better not trust my judgement then.

I'm also feeling bummed that I'm going to be with the kids by myself for the next 2 hours - same as last night and the night before. When I hit 3 nights in a row of doing it solo after also taking care of everything all day I start getting burned out. And want to turn to food as something I can at least look forward to once they're all in bed.

Not that my life is bad, not at all - I love my life! But am also realizing these stressful times or whatever they are, lead me to food and eating alot of stuff. I also feel a little bit achy like I'm coming down with something, probably detox again. I hope I'm down tomorrow on the scale!

Day 5 - 143, 3 lbs lost!

This is a book I happened upon this morning, called "Green Smoothies Diet: The Natural Program for Extraordinary Health" by Robyn Openshaw. Looks interesting! I might get it sometime down the road, but I'm a little wary that it covers mostly things that I already know.

I was super happy this morning to step on the scale and see the 143 number! I can't help but wonder if it was the watermelon that did it last night, but who knows - it may have also been running, since I've noticed that often when I go running the night before, the next day I'm down 1 lb. So 3lbs in 5 days is pretty good! Even though it seems to be going really slow, I just need to be like the tortoise & keep on keeping on. At least my life is pretty busy so there isn't time to sit around & be bored. =)

I felt like my stomach was smaller this morning so I measured and there was 1/2" less. That was cool to see! On Saturday though, will be when it is officially one week so I'm not going to write it down on paper until then. I can't wait until my clothes start getting more loose!

Last night I sent DH to Costco to stock up on TONS of spinach & mixed organic baby greens. These are the best because they're already washed and cut - just ready to grab by the fistful and stuff in my Vitamix. So currently I have lots of different fruit to play around with: grapes, bananas, pears, pineapple, apples, blueberries, frozen mixed summer fruit, and plums. I plan to just mix & match all of these so I get a good variety.

The other thing I'm going to start doing is juicing vegetables once per day. I bought a huge 25-lb bag of carrots a week or so ago and they'll come in handy with juicing. I also have alot of beets left from my MIL's garden, and some broccoli, celery, bell peppers, and cabbage. Stuff that needs to be eaten before it goes bad. And that way I'll be getting lots of nutrients in from the veggies - plus, it's great for my skin! Beets get rid of the bags under your eyes if juiced on a regular basis so I'm hoping that'll work for me - I need it after so many sleepless nights with the little one.

8PM
This day has gone very smoothly. I love doing this, it is really so very easy because it's so cut & dry, so simple. The only thing is I do miss the yummy foods in life - I don't think I could do this, like, forever. But it would be nice to continue past the 14 days - I guess we'll see. The other thing is it's a very mild "missing" - I don't even think about food at all and don't crave it much. The rolls were tempting that I made tonight, but I was getting hungry and as soon as I had some of my smoothie, I had no more thought of it.

Today it was pretty busy and stressful with the overall busy life of having seven young children. I worked for at least 2 hours in the kitchen making a really nice dinner for the family - sweet potato soup, yeast rolls, salad, and gluten, dairy free brownies. It was alot of work but I enjoyed it - I enjoyed the smells for sure. Then, lots & lots of complaining before & during dinner about the meal...and many times it has happened that I am so tired and it is really deflating to work so hard to make it nice for them, yet they hate it and tell me so. (we're working on this, teaching them the right way to act when others make meals for you, but it is still exhausting)

It's normally hard for me to maintain a good attitude when they do this...but tonight, I was so even-keeled it was awesome! I felt smooth, stable, like no matter what came my way I was not impatient or raising my voice. I was met with lots of crying and whining and this or that (one of my sons has a really hard time with homework, takes like 30 minutes to write one paragraph.) I was amazed! I've had days like this sometimes, so we'll see if it continues or not.

Life is good! Also, my jeans are more loose around my waist; I seem to spend alot of the time hiking them up so as to avoid the plumber's crack syndrome, lol. I don't know if it's just cuz they've been worn for a couple of days and are stretched out or not. And.....I weighed myself just now with my and was at 145! Woohoo - last night before bed I was 148. So maybe...just maybe...more weight loss in the morning. C ya!

Day 4 - 144

My weight was the same this morning, 144. It's amazing how I can go from 151 at night to 144 the next morning, but, (shrugging) I'm just happy I didn't gain. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be down again!

Feeling rather melancholy this morning, on the serious side, thinking about my life with God especially. How I want to spend more time with Him. And about my children, I was looking at my little 1 year old's toes as he was walking in the wet grass this morning and how adorable he is and what a precious gift - all mine! To take care of, to nurture, to lead back to God. So kind of deep thoughts today.

It is kind of a letdown that I haven't lost more weight, but I'm so determined to press on. Reading that lady's blog yesterday of 100 days of green smoothies reminds me that 4 days is such a very tiny amount to be seeing results anyway. Even though it kind of feels like a really long time, lol.

I was proud of myself yesterday for not sampling the homemade bread, chocolate oatmeal cookies, or the chicken taco soup OR tortilla chips we had for dinner. It was weird not to at least take a sip of the soup to test it out taste-wise for my family, but I didn't. I'm in this 100% with no cheating whatsoever, and as long as I stick to that, I grow stronger every day.

12:30PM
I've been so busy lately that I haven't spent much time in front of the mirror - I don't usually wear any makeup so there's no reason to. Just kind of put my hair back in a ponytail (doesn't usually need brushed), put my contacts in, and hit the ground running in the morning.

But just now I happened to glance in the mirror as I was passing through and actually did a double take. (okay, maybe not a REAL double take but it sounded cool to write that, lol) My facial skin looks really nice, smooth and soft looking with a kind of rosy glow to it. Like someone who has not been in the sun much, it's hard to describe. Kind of silky maybe? Anyway, it might be just because my tan from the summer is almost gone and it's more pale than usual, but I like how it looks! Because of green smoothies? Maybe! I've only managed to skin brush once - I need to do that more.

I decided to make Herb Pizza for the family for dinner tonight. I'll top it with last night's chicken taco soup, with the liquid strained out. Homemade pizza is one of my favorite SAD meals - I just love the yeasty bread soooo much. I of course don't plan to have ANY of it - I'll just pretend it's a yummy smelling candle. Yeah, that's what I'll do. So - wish me luck!

7:45PM
Oooooh boy, I came so close to eating that pizza! It was a "healthy" version of pizza crust with half whole wheat and gosh, I just love pizza with all the works. Veggie pizza, though - not chicken, like this one was. I just inhaled the smell and YUM - I'll have to make some raw pizza when I'm done with the smoothie feast. It's mostly the combo of bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, and pineapple that are my favorite - all raw, so definitely doable!

And, I made two big pizzas which I thought was necessary because whenever we get pizza, we always eat two Medium pizzas. But the family wasn't so gung-ho on this particular pizza so none of them had seconds. Now I have an ENTIRE pizza left that my family DOESN'T like but I do!! Aaack! I might just freeze it but that seems kind of gross for an already cooked pizza...maybe I can get DH to eat it for leftovers, but even he left the crust on his plate which he never does. I hate to see food go to waste.

I just couldn't let myself down, though, I really really want to do this! And writing on here is definitely keeping me accountable. I don't want it to be yet *another* failed attempt at doing something to be healthier and get into shape. I have a tendency to get super excited about things and do them for a few days, then just lose my momentum and fall off the wagon. This is not going to be one of those times.

But anyway, just came back from a good run. I only did 20 minutes, and I think I'll be doing that from now on. It's a pretty good, hard cardio workout where I powerwalk for two minutes, then sprint for one minute - repeat 6x. I kicked butt on the last two times of sprinting especially, I just kept thinking about that stubborn scale and how my clothes fit EXACTLY the same and how I really want that to change! And, the fact that I will only get out of running, what I put into it.

Ooooh yes, the other thing! I had some watermelon today. I was in the garage doing something and saw the last, lone watermelon sitting there. It's the last one we'll get this season and I just couldn't bear to have it wasted! Of course I could have fed it to the family but decided to go ahead and have some. It's not a green smoothie, obviously, but it's very close to liquid the way it's mostly water, and is also very cleansing.

I've been having problems with the runs and TONS of gas! As in, flatulence. =) There isn't any odor, but gosh it's kind of annoying! Hopefully this will go away.

Day 3 - 144, 2lb lost!

9AM
Ahhhh....day 3! I'm so thrilled to have made it this far, I think it's going to be smooth sailing from here on out. I've gotten settled into my routine of making big smoothies for the day ahead so I'm not constantly dragging out the blender and having to wash greens which takes a while. Nice to have most of it done for today!

And yes...another pound lost! So 2lbs lost in 3 days - really in 48 hours, but this is technically day 3, so. I am at 144 now - my alltime low is 141 since I had the baby, so when I reach 140 I will be rejoicing! If this trend of 1 lb per day continues, that will be on Friday. We'll see!

Not much to report for this morning - I'm sore from my run yesterday which feels FANTASTIC - and I'm excited for a new week and I can't wait to measure on Saturday too, my one-week mark.

I LOVE fasting because I adore cooking and baking, I enjoy it SO much and love the yummy smells coming from the kitchen, love the comfort of home-cooked dinners for my family, as well as surfing the web for better recipes. But the problem is, I can't resist all the yummy food! I just love all things home-cooked, except for meat, and especially baked goods like bread, cake, cookies, on and on it goes.

So my point is that I have a love/hate relationship with the things that I make - I cook them because they sound good to ME at the time, so I very often cannot resist eating it. Alot of it. But when I fast, I have that mental block in my head: I cannot eat anything. I just can't. So, I don't, and I have so much fun baking and cooking all these things that sound so wonderful to me - I savor the smell and enjoy serving them to my family. So I plan on making some chocolate chip cookies today for the children when they get home from school and I won't have a single bite, but will enjoy their excitement over that favorite treat!

1:30PM
Wow, I've already almost finished the smoothies I made from last night! That's okay, though - I'm not going to limit myself or I'll be asking for trouble.

I just wanted to share, I've been surfing through the RawFoodTalk forum and come upon some really inspiring things! First, one of the ladies there did a green smoothie feast for ONE HUNDRED DAYS!! Yes, you read that right. Can you believe it? You can read about her journey here. Amazing to read everything she experienced!

Another post in a green smoothie thread really inspired me:

I have basically been on a GS "feast" for 2 weeks or so now. I've been having over 80oz a day (broken up 2x-3x day) and a spinach salad, with avacado at lunch.

It wasn't an intention, all happened by accident really. I became addicted to GS versus the desire for any foods/wanting to prep any food, that I not only started my day with 30+oz, but ended my day as well.

Now my energy, skin, mental alterness, not to mention the inches that are lost...have been so off the charts that I'd like to step it up or stay on track with this group here.

Trust that once you start implementing GS's into your daily "diet" your cravings for anything else will be non existent.

These are exactly the results I'm hoping for! And while I am still experiencing cravings they are pretty mild, not intense - but then, it's hard to be hungry for something when your belly is happy and full of green yummy! =)

10:30PM
Well, I did it! 3rd day is finished and I was 100% once again. I'm super tired, even though the baby slept for 5.5 hours last night. So far I don't really have tons & tons of energy, but I do feel good. Light, for sure. I also forgot to mention that my skin is clearing up. I don't usually have a problem with acne over all, but in the past month ever since I started juicing I've noticed these bumps all over my forehead. They're not visible unless you get close but they are definitely acne. My forehead is about 50% cleared up now, with lots of smooth skin to the touch where there used to be mostly bumps.

One thing that's weird is I weighed myself just now (I always do, before bed) and the scale said 151! What in the world??? I guess I'll just see what I weigh in the morning, but I'm not expecting to drop another pound, because it just seems like a weight drop of 8 lbs over night from 151 to 143 isn't very realistic.

The difference for me, this time, is that I KNOW there is no way you can gain on a green smoothie feast. I know there have been times in the past when my body would hold onto pounds for dear life and the scale would show no loss or even 1 lb weight gain for several days, only to release 2-3 lbs like a big sigh of relief a few days later. This happened to me on the Master Cleanse so I know not to freak out if it happens now. =)