Days 3 - 6: Moving Forward

As I noted at the start of my last blog post on Tuesday I got the news that my Aunt Susie was dying due to complications from her Parkinson's Disease.  Well Wednesday morning just after getting to work I got the call from my dad that my aunt had passed away.  After fighting bravely for many years God called my aunt home, and she obeyed His call.  Being here in California with my family back in Michigan can make things a struggle at times, and losing a member of the family is one of those times.  I was so upset by the news that I turned around and left work that morning and stayed home of Thursday as well.  Not only was I struggling to deal with the grief of the loss of my aunt while not being able to be with my family, but this threw me face-to-face with my issues with emotional eating.

I'm proud to say that I did not give in to all the urges I had to just start buying and eating whatever junk food I could find.  Now granted this was in part because we had none in the house and I was stuck at home with no car to go anywhere, but it was more than that.  I truly felt like it would be a horrible way to honor the memory of my aunt by letting the emotions brought on by her loss have control over my journey to get healthy.  So I managed to avoid the emotional eating, but I did get fairly withdrawn for a couple of days, which delayed my girlfriend and I doing our next juice test.

Today was a good day today.  I spent some time this morning alone in silent meditation and prayer at the same time they were having the funeral service for my aunt back in Michigan.  After that I felt like now was the time.  Now that I had another angel up in heaven to cheer me on I was ready to get back on the road to getting control of my health.  I went out and got a haircut which I really needed, losing probably about 10 lbs of hair in the process, then stopped at the store to pick up some veggies.  After a successful trial run of the juicer with the apple, carrot, ginger juice I decided to try out the Mean Green Juice from the Reboot Your Life program. The recipe is pretty simple:

• 1 Cucumber
• 4 Celery Stalks
• 2 Apples
• 6 - 8 Leaves of Kale
• 1/2 Lemon
• 1 Tbsp Ginger (About 1" cut)

Now you need to understand just how big of a step this was for me.  I NEVER eat veggies, especially green ones.  I hate the taste of them immensely.  I will try to eat them now and then but can't do it.  When I try I swear I can taste dirt and a taste that I can only describe as "green" that just makes me gag.  So needless to say I faced the prospect of this juice with a fair amount of trepidation.  However the success of the previous juice attempt gave me a bit of confidence.  So I got out the juicer and in honor of St. Patrick's Day I made this green beauty of a juice:

First of all, I just want to note that I'm highly amused by the fact that so far whatever I run through this thing comes out with a nice foamy head on it.  I'm not sure if it makes the juice better, or worse, I just know it amuses me. :-)  I tried it out and it was not too bad.  It has that green earth after-taste, so I know this is going to be one I just need to chug down and not give myself time to taste it too much, but I can do it.

Aside from the juicing, the last few days has been a challenge of cutting back on food intake in general and making better decisions.  Our niece was in a play with the community theater last night, and after the play we went back to their house to celebrate.  Everyone else was having ice cream but my girlfriend and I passed on it, all I had was a glass of ice water.  Her family looked at us in shock when we said no ice cream, but we stayed strong and had none, and eventually her family stopped asking us if we wanted any and accepted it.  Score one for us!

Today was the first day it was really a struggle for me though.  Walking around the grocery store to pick up some non-food items before getting the produce to juice I saw so many yummy treats trying to get my attention.  Even the smell of the rotisserie chicken over in the deli was driving me crazy as I passed by.  I found myself having hunger pains for the first time as my body began to realize how little I've been eating.  So far though I'm resisting the urges and temptations by keeping my goal in mind.

Finally, for all those who want to see the documentary "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" that inspired us, there's good news.  Since the last time I had looked for it the movie is now available on NetFlix as well as for free on Hulu.