Geez, almighty

So I guess I have failed, yet again, of keeping up with my blog posts. Why is it that I can find time to read useless crap on the internet and play on FB but can't find 5 minutes to jot down my thoughts at the end of the day. Got.to.work.on.that.

To date we are in Loudon staying with Chris' mom. We lost Bill on February 24 of this year. Who would have thought that an operation would have brought us to this point. Bill was diagnosed w/ a brain tumor and the doctor was very optimistic that once removed life would be back to normal. While rehab was starting to take place he took a turn for the worse and had a severe stroke and never recovered. It was so hard being on this side of grief. Chris was there for me when I lost my dad and now I know what it must have been like for him to have felt completely and utterly helpless. Bill was a great man and so nice to everyone. It was awesome to hear all the stories from friends of what a great man he was. I see so much of Bill in Chris that I can only hope and pray that we end up like his parents - married almost 53 years and content with the little things in life.

While we are here we have come to enjoy the peace that this little town offers. Granted there's not any watering holes to go to but we have saved a few pennies along the way. We have decided to start making the transition to finding a place to live close to his mom. She has 100% become smitten with our Abby and I think Abby feels the same. She gets taken outside whether she wants to or not and pretty much has the run of the house. If I didn't know better I would think Abby is a real life grandchild. We have decided that when we move back home (until we get the condo on the market) that Abby will stay here during the week and will get her on the weekends. I think it's a win win for everyone involved.

Till the next time..

Update

So today is 2 weeks that we have been on our juice plan.. granted the last week was modified as we did eat a couple of meals.

To date, Chris is down 13 pounds and has lost about 1 1/2 inches in his mid section. I am still only down 3 pounds and lost an inch from my stomach. Although 3 pounds was way less than I wanted I am happy with the inch lost. We can both tell our clothes are fitting better and that's all I could ask for.

In other non-juicing news we are 2 weeks in counting for our Vegas Vacation!!
Can't wait to get out of town! We are planning on seeing Love Cirque du Soleil and a couple of other shows that we will have time for. We are also planning on going to the Hoover Dam. We were going to go on our trip in February but just ran out of time.

Getting Back to Somewhat Normal

So no, we have not fallen off the bandwagon but rather continuing to make modifications.

We are starting to see some of the fruits of our labor. We are both continuing to drop a pound here and there, my joints are feeling better than they have in a long time and my energy is up.

I can be truthfully honest and say that yesterday was not a good day for us. Yesterday morning I went to walk our dog while Chris made the morning brew and as I walked in the house the smell was almost more than I could take. I drank the juice but in all honesty it took all I could to get it down. So that started the tone for the day. I hate to admit that I started letting my thoughts get the best of me but after being on this for 9 days I was in need of serious motivation! Chris helped me push through but we were both contemplating what we were doing and if this was really worth it. That is when we decided that we needed to re-evaluate our plan.

The point of us doing the juice detox in the first place was to kick some of the bad habits we had grown accustomed to and surprisingly create some new addictions.
Kick the habit of drinking at night - Check
Kick the addiction to caffeine - Check
Start the addiction to water - Check
Start craving fruits and vegetables - Check
Losing a few pounds - Check

So all in all in the last 10 days I feel that we have accomplished quiet a bit.

So this leads us to how we move forward and not undo what we have worked hard to accomplish.

I am still continuing to do some research but what we do know is that we still want to continue to juice daily, even 2-3 times a day but just start incorporating better healthy foods in our diet. My idea is to juice B/L and snacks and then for dinner do something sensible. What I don't want to see happen is that we get so sick of juicing that we lose the momentum and give up completely.

Still juicing.. what day is it?

So not too much to report. Our modified diet for the weekend turned out pretty well. We ended up eating out Friday night, Saturday and Sunday night, all while juicing during the day at least 2-3 times per day. I have to admit the food was pretty darn good! I guess I would be lying saying that we didn't enjoy it. But, as I suspected my belly didn't feel too good afterwards. Further letting us know that we can't be 100% "juice heads" until after our vacation.

I have decided that I am not going to weigh in until next Saturday. I'm finding that I get frustrated where one day I'm down a couple pounds and then the next day up a pound. I can't take it!! My mom told me today that she could tell I had lost a little bit of weight. Now, I don't know if she was trying to make me feel better or if she really could see something different. I'm not to the point where my jeans are falling off me but I can tell they fit a little better. There again, could all be in my head..

Jucing Day 7 (Saturday)

So this morning we were out to find a farmers market so I could compare pricing to see which route is cheaper. Before we headed out we had a an awesome juice to use some of the peaches that were about to go bad. Here are the before and the after. Yeah, I know what you must be thinking that the juice looks horrible but trust me, it was really good!






We tried finding the Oak Ridge Farmer's Market but the GPS lead us to the wrong destination so we ended up at Mickey's Produce in Oak Ridge. Overall we found the prices to be less than the grocery store but they didn't carry everything we needed so we still had to go the store after all but Mickey's selection was definitely fresher and looked way better than the store.

We are trying to decide what to do for dinner. We juiced for lunch and I'm starting to feel hungry. We might try our chicken flat pizza that we get at Papa Murphy's or out for sushi.

So for 7 days we have spent appx $130 and we still had a few items left over. I figure I will keep my receipts for a month to get a better idea of what the overall cost will be.

One of the benefits I will add of juicing, is the dishes. There are none except the 2 glasses we use and the juicer! It's the little things in life that make me happy :)

Juicing Day 6 (Friday)

Chris had to be up super early for work so we were rushed when we made our breakfast so I wasn't able to take any pics. Chris was able to juice this morning and then for lunch, since he was with a client, he was able to eat a salad. I mainly juiced all day with a handful of nuts and raisins and of course plenty of water.

One of the issues we have been discussing is our upcoming vacation. We are going to Las Vegas in a couple of weeks and juicing won't be an option while we are gone (and to be honest isn't the best thing about vacation the food??). Our original plan was to juice up until the week before we leave and then incorporate solid foods to get our systems used to food again. However, after much discussion we decided to modify our original plan just a tad.

Too be honest I did feel guilty because we had put a plan in place and I didn't want to think that one night off would kick us off the bandwagon. We have decided that juicing will be a normal part of our eating routine and so we decided to incorporate that now. I think the plan we have come up with will work and and is a good combination of both foods and juice. Our new plan is to juice breakfast/lunch 6-7 days a week and then weekend dinners will be in moderation.

So for dinner we decided to go to Tomato Head and eat something vegetarian. I had a great salad and the Lucy which is a vegetarian pita with mushrooms, carrots, hummus, onions and a little bit cheese. We were talking to the waitress about tofu and that I had never had it so she brought us a sample to try. The texture was definitely different but the overall taste was pretty good. Chris had the Jose Jose Burrito which was awesome as well.

After we ate we went to the movies to see Tree of Life and while I should save that for another blog, I noticed I was getting a headache and my stomach was feeling a little nauseous. I'm assuming this was my body trying to figure out what the heck is going on. I guess all in all it's a good thing we are introducing some food so our vacation won't be completely miserable.

So to date Chris is down 10 pounds and I'm down 5. Headaches for me are pretty much gone and again I noticed that when I woke up this morning I wasn't stiff. Which is a huge bonus!!

Juicing Day 5

Here is a pic of our breakfast concoction: consisted primarily of fruits but we try to sneak in a few vegi's when we can..

We also went ahead and made our lunch juice which is the Mean Green. This is the most talked about in the movie but I think we botched it up a little. The recipe didn't really define what a "piece" of ginger was so we put in almost the whole root. It wasn't awful but it was way too much.. lesson learned!


To date, Chris is down 9 pounds and I'm down 3.5. My headaches have gotten better and I suspect another a day or two they will be gone. I did seem to notice that I haven't been quite as stiff today. Usually when I get up in the morning I'm hobbling down the hall but now that I think about it wasn't that bad this morning. Could this stuff really be working?