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. =)

Day 2 - 145, 1lb lost!

3PM
I actually opened my blog this morning to post a morning update, but having 7 children ages 10,8,7,5,3,1, and newborn will....yeah, kind of keep you from getting the time to actually SIT and write! Thus, the afternoon update instead.

I weighed myself in the middle of the night (I like to do this, it's fun to watch the scale go down during the night when I get up several times to feed the baby) and it seriously was 149! That's alot to weigh after a whole day of just blended fruits & vegetables. Geez! Kind of annoying but that's okay, I know the green smoothie feast DOES WORK to lose weight so I'm not going to give up.

This morning I weighed myself and I was down to 145.6, 1 lb less than yesterday morning. Yay! And weighed myself again a few minutes ago and it was 145.0. So I expect to be at least another pound down tomorrow which is what I wanted, 1 lb per day. We'll see!

I was VERY glad I had two big sports bottles full of green smoothie this morning when I woke up. Because I lounged in bed with DH & the baby for a few hours and didn't actually "get up" until about 11am. I was really hungry by that time and of course, the kids were ready for lunch so I had to make them something. It was life-saving that I had a smoothie to just grab & gulp before starting my day.

My headache developed into a full-blown problem during the night so I took 2 Tylenol. Normally during fasts I refuse to take any meds unless it's absolutely dire, but last night I just couldn't handle another thing to deal with. So I was headache free when I woke up, thank God. I realize this might extend my detox but I'm OK with that - I need it to be as easy as possible or I will not be able to do it.

I've had some occasions where I catch myself starting to be a witch with a capital "B" and harping on the kids for really dumb things. Things that normally are not that big of a deal. I immediately realize I need to eat because I've been warned about this and I do NOT, repeat do NOT want to take it out on my kids. They don't need to suffer just cuz I'm trying to lose weight. So as soon as I eat, I feel better - but it's too easy to go too long with all the children's needs to take care of, so I'm being careful to watch for the signs.

Just now I made a big green smoothie with an entire bunch of Romaine, ground flax, pears, grapes picked from a neighbors vine, bananas, water, and bee pollen. I made one and 2/3 Vitamix pitchers full so that it'll last me a bit longer. That's always what keeps me from drinking green smoothies is that they have to be made. Even though it's pretty quick, you still have to wash the greens and/or cut up and wash the fruit - it's just time consuming and in my world where there isn't much time, it's good to do it ahead of time.

I'm really excited to have one whole day and a half under my belt, and still going strong! Yesterday I took 3 of my children to the farmer's market where I stocked up on lots of parsley, spinach, romaine, bananas, and pears. Spent $18 - but that should hopefully last me a good 3-4 days. (About $4 per day)

The house is asleep during naps so I'm off to do my HIIT running routine for 45 minutes - my new shoes arrived and I'm looking forward to trying them out!

11PM
My run went really well! I was proud of myself for actually doing it - I was tempted to not go at all in the name of "family peace", as we had a really chaotic morning trying to get our house cleaned up from being gone to the party last night. But things settled down and I got in exactly 47 minutes worth of exercise and excelerated heart rate. When I got back, on a whim I weighed myself and I was at 144! That's a pound less than I weighed this morning. I think it's fun to weigh myself randomly like that, usually in hopes that I weigh less than that morning - kind of fun when it actually happens!

Tonight I decided to make two Vitamix pitcher's worth of green smoothies. I used a bunch of spinach and split it between the two, adding in lots of bananas, apples, mixed frozen fruit (I LOVE the mix I buy from Costco, full of yummy summer fruit!), ground flax, bee pollen, and "Sun is Shining" powder. It's nice to know I won't have to refill until probably naptime tomorrow - a little more freedom!

I had alot of energy tonight after the kids went to bed. I did a whirlwind clean so that it'll be nice in the morning...and it felt good not to be in such detox like I was yesterday. Oh yes, I forgot to report that my poop was green this morning! Not that you wanted to know that, lol. But other than the "ewwww" factor, I wanted to share that little fact, since it means I am now officially clean of the SAD food I was eating previously.

I'm also noticing significantly LESS body odor. I rarely use deodorant, because when you eat raw foods you don't really have that much B.O. But eating SAD so much lately, gosh, I've definitely needed it! So I'm happy to say that the B.O. has significantly subsided and hopefully I will have none in a couple of days - it feels so nice not to have to wear that stuff!

I'm really enjoying the green smoothies now. I've never, ever had them for 2 days straight so it's been an interesting experiment, especially given the fact that I tend to get bored REALLY fast with food. I use it for my excitement, something to look forward to, thus the ice-cream and all those other SAD things I've been eating. It feels nice to be in control of my eating once again, and also to be enjoying and looking forward to drinking them. It feels like I'm drinking "Life"!!

G'night!

Day 1 - Starting Weight at 146

9AM
Weighed this morning - 146 lbs. I made my first 60oz. green smoothie with bananas, pears, spinach, water, and ground flax. It tastes delicious, and I'm not just saying that. =) This should keep me most of the morning - I'm off to shop some garage sales with some kids and will be bringing the GS's with me in case I get hungry. I'm feeling very motivated, optimistic, and excited! I also plan to stop by Costco later today to stock up on more greens, and frozen fruit.

3PM
So far, so good. I've made 3 60-oz green smoothies and drank 120oz. so far. I feel a little bit spacy and have a slight headache like I get when I don't eat enough. I am treating this in my mind like a master cleanse. I have successfully completed 4 of them - 10 days, 21 days, 29 days, and 39 days. Each time the first couple of days were SO. HARD. Once I literally had to sit on my hands so I would not reach for those tortilla chips. Another time I physically got in the car and DROVE to the store so that I could buy cheese puff chips. What is it with chips? I didn't get them, and was sooo happy when I got over that "hump" of detox and cravings in those first 3 days.

I just made a gross smoothie. I put in 2 big bunces of spinach, then added 4 bananas, 3 stalks of celery, and a cucumber. Duh, those aren't exactly sweet, I don't know what I was thinking. I might dump it all back in the Vitamix and add some frozen fruit but I'm feeling kind of lazy. I'm also really, really tired from being up at night with the 2 month old.

BUT!! I am very much looking forward to tomorrow!! I can't wait to see that scale go down again - I so hope that I can lose 1 lb a day, that would be awesome. I'm also finding that I'm really thirsty - so, lots of water for me.

Tonight is a birthday party for my sister, she wanted a game night with all her siblings and their spouses. You can bet there will be lots of snacks that I love - cake, ice cream, donuts, chips & salsa.....but I'm going to make sure I have lots of bananas in my smoothie so that I feel full and don't have that empty feeling in my stomach.

DH is gone doing errands but I'm really hoping I can go running before the party tonight. I try to do 45 minutes of powerwalking with 7 1-minute sprints sprinkled in there. It's my favorite form of exercise, hands down!

10PM
I never got to go running, but that's okay - I started to feel on the weaker side this evening. I didn't feel good the rest of the day, kind of like I was coming down with a cold. My family IS currently battling the common flu with aches, runny nose, low fever, cough - but I very very rarely get sick. So I'm assuming this is probably detox. I feel a headache coming on, that feeling when it is kind of on the verge but not full blown yet, and could possibly get better instead.

At the party yes it was true, there was cake, donuts, cookies, chips - everything I thought there would be. I wasn't tempted at all, but that actually wasn't really a surprise. I'm rarely tempted to eat unhealthy OR binge in front of people - lots of people know about my diet so it helps me to stay strong when I'm around others who are watching me. But when I'm alone - oooooh boy, totally different story.

I weighed myself before bed tonight, shouldn't have done that. I'm not obsessive with the scale, but I love to see out of curiousity what it says. To me, my clothes fitting are a way better picture of how my weight loss is going - currently, they are tighter than normal. =( I weighed 148, EXACTLY the same as last night. Boo. Oh well, guess we'll see what happens tomorrow.

When I am eating mostly green smoothies, I notice that I have a bowel movement almost every time I go to the bathroom. And it's green, sorry if that's TMI! But they have not turned green yet, which tells me that even after a full day of LOTS of green smoothies in my system, it is not yet cleaned out...there is still stuff in there from yesterday. So, maybe I'll see weight loss in the morning.

G'night!

Getting Psyched up - Green Smoothies for 14 days!

I'm excited to see how this goes! My plan of attack on those cravings AND feelings of uuuuuugh I don't want this anymore is to ALWAYS have a green smoothie to grab in the fridge. That means when I drink my last one, I immediately make another 60oz to replace the ones I made.

My hope is to release 10-11lbs in 14 days. I am going to weigh myself in the morning (after having a serious couple of binge days on ice-cream, popcorn, zucchini bread, and homemade wheat bread with butter and jam!) which is going to be kind of scary....but that's okay because I'm DOING something about it. Nothing is as depressing as feeling like I'm in a rut and wishing I could do something but not really wanting to make the effort.

I am also going to start running again, hopefully 4-5 days per week. So I'm looking forward to that. Nothing is going to pass my mouth unless it is blended with greens, except for my Mother's Milk Tea, Fenugreek pills, and PostPartum vitamins.

My goals:

Lose 10lbs - hopefully to reach 135
Clear up face acne
Glowing skin
Energy
Skin Brush every day (this is so hard for me, for some reason!)

Looking forward to tomorrow!