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!