After the Fast

My tastes have really changed since the fast. I am eating fruits and vegetables that I wouldn't think of touching before I did the fast. For some reason, they taste so good. One day for lunch, I was actually craving a spinach salad. Now, if you know me, you'd understand how crazy that is for me to crave a spinach salad. My husband and I ordered pizza the other night from a place by our house. It came with bread sticks, and a salad. Normally I would of just eaten a small salad, and had lots of bread sticks, and a couple pieces of pizza. But this time, I ate a huge salad, and just 1 piece of pizza. I tried one of the bread sticks, but they had a horrible taste to them. Must of been all the grease. I have to admit, even though I didn't like the taste, I still ate a whole bread stick. I don't know why. That night, I didn't get a gallstone attack, but I felt really bad. My stomach felt upset, and I had an over all feeling of ill. I told my husband that I'm not going to eat those again. I just can't believe how much my tastes have changed. We've decided to do a 1 day fast once a month to help us stay on track. We'll see how it goes!

Day 3

I made it through my fast. Today I am going to eat a Vegan diet. From what I read, coming off the fast is even more important than the actual fast. When I got up, I felt really good. I knew that I was able to eat today, but for some reason, I didn't have obnoxious cravings like I thought I would. During the fast, I was craving carbs, not sweets, like I thought I would. Instead,today I was craving fruits and vegetables. I ended up making potatoes for breakfast, and ate an english muffin. For lunch I had a salad and fruit for dessert. And for dinner I had a salad, and some pasta with tomato sauce. I thought I did pretty well. I'm not use to eating a Vegan diet, but from the research I did, basically you don't eat any meat or dairy. The weird thing I noticed was some foods don't taste the same as they did before the fast. For instance, I ate an apple for one of my snacks. It was a Honey Crisp apple, my favorite. It wasn't organic, I bought it before I did the fast. After each bite, I tasted a horrible after taste. Almost like I could taste the pesticides on the fruit. Weird!

Day 2

Well, I realize that it's not actually day 2. I got so caught up in juicing, and eating right, that I forgot to get my posts done. Sorry. But I did take good notes, so I'm hoping I can still write about my experience fully. When I awoke on day 2, I was surprised that I didn't feel starving...I was hungry, but not starving. I had a pretty rough night. It took me quite some time to fall asleep. I was nauseous, and very hungry. I didn't like the dinner that was assigned, the avacodo soup, so I basically skipped dinner. I warmed up a heat pack and put that on my chest, and finally fell asleep. The next morning, I got up and made my morning juice. Then I went on a walk. I was very exhausted during the walk, and had to go pretty slow. I wasn't able to go the length I usually go, I'd say about 1/2. After I got back from my walk. I took it easy for the remainder of the day. I continued to drink my water. I averaged 128oz each day. Which really helped keep the hunger down. I ended up taking a nap around 3pm. When I awoke from the nap, I felt like I had the flu. My entire body was achy, and I felt horrible. I could of stayed in bed for the rest of the day, but I managed to pull myself out of bed about 5:30pm. I was starting to get hungry. I juiced for dinner, and then had another juice for my snack. I actually had to go to my dog's obedience class that night, so I juiced ahead of time for the snack, and drank it during the class. It worked out pretty well. I found I really liked the juice that has apple, celery, and lemon in it. It is really refreshing and light.

Picture of me

Day 1 Juice Fast

Today I started my first juice fast. It's almost bedtime now, and I have to say, I think I did really well today. I started out the day like normal, and went for a 45 minute walk, then showered and got ready, and then instead of eating my usual breakfast, cereal, I juiced. I am following a meal plan from a book "The Juice Lady's guide to Juicing for Health". She suggests drinking 6 juices during the day. She also suggests eating a vegan diet the day you go off the fast. Here is what the plan calls for:

Breakfast:
"The Morning Energizer"
1/2 apple
5 carrots
1/2 beet with tops
1/2 lemon
1/2 inch ginger root

Morning Snack:
"Waldorf Twist"
1 apple
3 celery stalks with leaves
1/4 lemon

Lunch:
"Popeye's Power"
1/2 apple
1 handful of spinach
1 small handful parsley
4 carrots
1 celery stalk with leaves
1/2 beet with tops

Afternoon Snack:
"Santa Fe Salsa Cocktail"
1 tomato
1/2 cucumber
1/4 cup cilantro
1/4 lemon or lime
dash of hot sauce (optional)

Dinner:
"Cherie's Quick Energy Soup"
1 1/4 cup carrot juice-about 6 carrots
1 avocado
1/2 tsp ground cumin
(mix all in blender)

Bedtime Snack:
"Sweet Dreams Nightcap"
2 lettuce leaves
1 handful parsley
4 carrots
3 celery stalks with leaves

So far I have tried everything but the bedtime snack. The only 2 recipes I didn't care for were the Santa Fe Salsa Cocktail, and the Cherie's Quick Energy Soup. The Salsa Cocktail had too much cucumber, and I didn't enjoy the hot sauce I added. The energy soup reminded me of baby food. I tried eating some of it, however I ended up stopping. I know it will give me energy, however, it really wasn't tasty! Everything else I've had today was really good.

A couple of things I have noticed while on the fast:

So far, my urine has had a pink tint to it. I think this is because of the beets I am using. I am still drinking my 64oz of water like normal. (All of these liquids have made me have to go to the bathroom a ton today!)I have had enough energy today, but it is quickly dropping as the night goes on. I am feeling a little light headed, and my eyes are hurting a little. Also, my tongue has a white coating on it. I am very cold right now, not sure if it's the fast or not. I have found myself craving food I haven't craved in a while. Every time I open the fridge to get out veggies to juice, I see other food, and I start to crave it. I've thought a couple of times, that I'd like to quit and eat some food, but I know that I would just binge on what ever I could get my hands on, and that would be very bad!

I have also found myself contemplating a lot. Mainly regarding my food choices in the past, and my eating habits. I realized that when I get hungry, I automatically go and grab the first thing I see and eat it, then I decide what I should eat as a meal. I need to be better about planning meals out in advance, and then I think I wouldn't have this problem.

Today I had a massage, which felt very nice. Hopefully it helped to work out any toxins that are floating around in my body.

Right now I am pretty hungry, since I basically skipped the afternoon snack and the dinner. I'm hoping the bedtime snack helps with the hunger pains so I can sleep. My husband has decided to do the fast with me, which I am very grateful for. I don't think I'd be able to handle doing it on my own, while watching him eat normal food! It was hard enough going to Costco today and seeing all the food in people's carts. There I go, talking about food...makes you hungrier. Who knew food was so physiological!

I wonder how much energy I will have tomorrow morning for my walk, and if I'll be starving when I wake up? Guess I'll find out soon enough.

Everything in Moderation

I learned a big lesson last night. Yesterday for lunch I ate at a fabulous pizza place in downtown Vancouver, Pizza Paradise. Usually when I go there, I order a salad and a personal cheese pizza with prosciutto ham. I usually only eat 1/2 of the pizza. Well, yesterday I was feeling quite hungry and I ate the entire thing. After eating, I took my medicine that is supposed to help with the secretion of bile in the gallbladder, and went back to work. About 30 minutes after eating, I started to get pain in my back. I thought to myself, maybe I have been sitting wrong at my desk, but after it continued for 1 hour, I realized that this is the pain I get before a gallstone attack. After 2 hours I didn't notice the pain anymore, and so continued on with my day.

When I got home, I went outside in the back yard with Oliver, my puppy, and as I blew the leaves off the ground from our huge maple tree he protected me from the noisy leaf blower! After my husband came home from work, we all went on a walk together which lasted about 1 hour. We had been home from our walk about 30 minutes when all of the sudden I felt like I was starving. I grabbed a zucchini muffin and sat down on the couch. I felt like my chest was really tight, so I took my bra off, thinking that would help. Within 2 minutes, I realized that I was having a gallbladder attack. I started to freak out.

I know the pain from them, and it is something you don't ever want to feel. Luckily my husband was home with me, and so he quickly took control. I was having trouble breathing deeply. The start of a gallstone attack feels like you are having a heart attack. Now, I've never had a heart attack, but they say it feels like what a heart attack would feel like. The only difference, is that the pain is centered in the middle of your chest and radiates to the right side under your breast. (Your heart is on the center-left side of your body.) It is very hard to calm down, when you feel like you can't breath. I finally tried to meditate, which helped to slow my breathing down. A couple of months ago, I bought a book on natural remedies for ailments, and I remember there was a drink you could take if you were having a gallstone attack. I told Raj to go get it and he made the drink for me. It consists of about 8 oz of apple juice mixed with 1 TBS of apple cider vinegar (we only had champagne vinegar and so used that). I drank the glass and within 10 minutes the pain was completely gone. I was amazed! I have never been so thankful for anything in my life! I sat down on the couch, exhausted, while Raj got me my warm pack to put on my chest. However, after resting for 30 minutes, the pain came back, and this time stronger. Raj made me another drink, and I drank it. However this time, the pain didn't leave. So after 45 minutes of being in pain, I drank another. The pain finally started to die down within 30 more minutes, and I was able to lie down on the couch, again exhausted. Raj rubbed my feet and did different pressure points, which put me in a very relaxed state, and I fell asleep. I finally climbed into bed around 11:30pm. I had pain every time I moved, which got steadily worse as I laid down and straightened out my body. So, I curled into a ball, with my warm pack on my chest and tried to go to sleep. It took about 1 hour for me to fall asleep. I was pretty nauseous the entire time. I woke up in the morning at 7am, and the pain was gone. I did still have the referred pain my back.

The whole time I was going through this attack, I kept telling myself, I 'm never going to eat there again! And Raj reminded me that I can eat there, I just have to eat in moderation. I can have a slice or two, just not the whole personal pizza. It's just too much fat for my gallbladder to handle. I guess it was good timing for me to have an attack last night. It reassures me that I really do need to go on a fast and clean out my system. Today I am just eating a diet of mainly fresh fruits, and apple juice. I did have a plain English muffin for breakfast and a small glass of milk with a pear and apple. And, Raj made me another apple drink just for good measure! I am at work now, and for my snack, I think I'll have a banana and some apple juice. For lunch, I am going to have homemade corn tortillas and some beans and salsa, and for dinner I'm thinking just some veg. juice. I am noticing that I still have pain in my back, so I've had the warm pack on my back most of the morning.

So, the moral of the story is everything in moderation, and your body will thank you for it! I've attached a video my husband took of me right after I'd had the attack. As you can tell from the video, I am still feeling quite horrible.

Changing my lifestyle

I was diagnosed with Gallstones in May of 2007. After having 3 attacks, I finally went to the ER one night, and the Dr. said he thought they were Gallstone attacks. I was sent for an Ultra Sound, and sure enough, there they were. My Dr. said I had basically one option, Surgery. I wasn't too keen on Surgery, so I asked if there was anything else I could do. He said, some people can decrease their chances of attacks by changing their diet. So that's what I decided to do.

The diagnosis made me think about my current eating habits, along with my exercise habits. I was about 100 lbs over weight, I decided that I really needed to get healthy! So I have been walking every morning about 45 Min's with my husband and new puppy. And I have changed my diet quite drastically. I am not eating fatty foods, no pop/caffeine, limiting sweets, I am trying not to eat any processed food, and NO fast food!

I decided about 3 weeks ago that I was going to buy a Juicer and try to get healthy by juicing my fruits and veggies. I went to Costco and bought the only juicer they carried. It's a Jack Lalanne Juicer. After using the juicer for 3 weeks, I totally love juicing! The only problem is, the juicer is not quite what I am looking for. It doesn't do very well with greens. So, I am looking at getting another one. I'll have to do more research on them before I choose one for the long term. Any suggestions?

I am feeling really great with my new lifestyle. I have lost a total of 50 lbs since May. I feel great! I am on a schedule now. I wake up at 7am every morning, even on my day off, and go to sleep by 11pm every night. I would like to do a cleanse to clean out my system from the years of crappy eating I've done. Next week I intend to start some type of Juice fast. I am still researching exactly what I am going to do. This blog will help me keep track of my progress.