Last Day!

UPDATE
6:00PM  Soup. Ahhhhhhhhhh.  Tomorrow, coffee!


UPDATE


5:00pm  Thank goodness for working.  I did have a couple hours break in between appointments and thought I'd go crazy during those times, but now it's 5pm, I'm getting ready to prepare the soup, and I bought coffee for tomorrow...just need my partner to get home from work when the soup is done!!!  Yay for eating again!


6:55AM  I've been up for about an hour, and for the first 50 minutes I didn't feel hungry at all!  Gee, what a break.  First thing this morning I was confronted by cat poop in the bathroom, on a towel that was on the floor.  Maybe that took away the hunger for a while... so, washing machine is going and I'm showered and missing coffee since I didn't get enough sleep last night.  But no headache at all for the time being!

Anyway, a Monday that starts with cat poop is a bit intimidating but we'll see.  We get to eat our soup tonight, so I have something to look forward to!

I Don't Have A Headache Right This Minute

8:38pm  72 ounces of water and 3 teas.  That's it.  I'm not drinking the other 8 ounces of water today, liver be damned.  I'm going to bed soon and I know I'll be up all night to pee.  And I'm still f*g hungry.  Hope I can get to sleep tonight.  Maybe I won't be so grumpy tomorrow.  I hope not, otherwise it's going to be really tough to get through my appointments! 

6:30pm  May as well just pour the water directly into the toilet.  Seems more efficient.  Also, I'm f*g hungry.  Distorting reality kind of hungry.

UPDATE

5:44pm.  Up to 50-something ounces of water today.  If I keep having to pee every 20-30 minutes I'm going to do something terrible.

UPDATE

1:36pm  Seriously miserable.  Went to the store, needed shampoo and the ingredients for the soup for tomorrow.  Wanted to run down people with lattes with my cart.  Bought the currently prohibited food items.  Came home.  Partner watching Gran Torino.  Feel this movie may horribly depress me.  So far, living up to expectations.  Headache is back.  Admittedly, not as bad as yesterday, but volume on tv is helping it along.  Too tired and cranky to make juice.  I hate tomorrow already.

ORIGINAL POST

11:00AM  This morning I woke up at 6 and willed myself to go back to sleep.  No way was I going to get up early just to face more hours feeling hungry and headachey like I did yesterday.  Finally woke up around 945.  I clocked about 11 hours of sleep last night.  That's ridiculous, but can't be terrible.  I'm drinking my first juice of the day...pineapple, orange, carrot and kale.  Just right this minute I don't feel as hungry as I did last night and my head is not throbbing.  I can feel that headache back in there but it's not like yesterday.  Um, I don't exactly feel motivated to do anything which is probably why I'm just sitting here doing this and waiting for my hair to dry, but I'll just focus on the basics.  And get through today.  Tomorrow I have a few jobs, at least enough to keep me busy and away from home in the morning and for a couple hours in the afternoon...and who knows, sometimes I pick up a few last minute gigs.  Either way...I think we agreed we would break the fast tomorrow night, so I'm going to make the same raw soup I made last time and then try to keep it raw Tuesday.  

The coffee craving has already subsided.  I still want some but I'm not obsessing about it like I was yesterday!  Not yet, anyway.  

Juice Fast Time, Again

UPDATE 10:00pm  Heading to bed soon.  I had one last carrot juice about an hour ago.  I didn't drink my 80 ounces of water today.  Only 48.  But that's about twice what I drank yesterday so I'm getting there I guess.  I think I've peed 400 times today.  My headache has backed off over the past hour or two.  


The tree looks really nice, now that it's dark and I can see the lights are reflecting on the ornaments as I expected and making all kinds of pretty brightness.  Maybe tomorrow I'll wrap one of my sister's presents and put it under the tree until the rest of the package is ready to send.  I can't put any of my partner's wrapped gifts under the tree ahead of time because he starts trying to figure out what they are!


UPDATE 5:20pm.  Writing holiday cards and with herculean effort, not writing "I'm fasting as I write this." I'M SO HUNGRY.  On my third detox tea and past 32 ounces of water.  I know, I know, I'm not keeping up with the water.  I'm trying, I'm trying.


UPDATE 3:50pm  Carrots and kale. My head hurts and I'm hungry.  Whose idea was it to start fasting the same day I start my period?  Not mine.  My partner walked into the room a few minutes ago and said, "Wow, look at you, Christmas tree, pellet stove, afghan, netbook, clicker, recliner...anything else you want?" To which I responded "Food and coffee," and burst into tears.  Well, last time I was keeping a good attitude and he was  on the verge of quitting every day, so I guess it's my turn. Note to self, do the raw food stepdown next time.


UPDATE 2:10pm  Pink grapefruit and apples, juiced.  I'm hungry.  My head hurts.  The sun is shining but I'm cold and want to go back to bed.  Ugh. 


Well, at least I put all the decorations up on the tree while I was feeling a bit more spry.


UPDATE 12:15pm  Canteloupe and lime juiced earlier, now carrots, beets, celery and parsley.  Celery adds such a nice touch to everything!


ORIGINAL POST
It's been about three months since our first fast, and my partner and I agreed we would do a three day juice fast four times a year.  So here we are.  He's been bugging me about it so we decided to go ahead and do it without as much preparation as last time.  We didn't do a proper stepdown this time, going from our regular vegan diet to only juices today.  However, we'll do a proper step up on the way out.  We may break the fast Monday night instead of Tuesday morning but if we do so it will be with a light raw meal.

I was kind of kicking myself last night because my favorite coffeeshop, Caffe Dei, had all the raw foods at buy one get one free yesterday and, well, duh.  That would have been the perfect thing to grab for dinner.  I was there yesterday, but did I take that clue from the universe?  No......instead, we had sopa de codos de trigo integral.  Onions, garlic, tomato, chile de árbol and vegan sour cream are involved in that.  Well, certainly could be worse.

I decided this time I'm going to stress less about all this stuff around which juices to drink, when and how much and put more effort into meeting my daily 80 ounces of water and 3 cups of Yogi Detox tea.  I'll drink the juice whenever I feel like it, and more if I feel hungry!  Something tells me the caffeine withdrawal will be harder than the fasting, but careful with that - don't want to be blindsided by food cravings and hunger that I minimized!

Ugh

I decided the apple hadn't done anything mean to me and it wouldn't be fair to contaminate it with that horrible taste.  So I juiced one granny smith apple, then mixed the burdock root with water, chugged it, and then drank the juice as a chaser, which did effectively push away the taste.  

So I think 6 ounces of water was too much.  I did gag though when I got to the bottom of the glass because some of the powder had already settled.  Tomorrow we'll see how 4 ounces works.  

THIS is going to be an adventure, I see.

Burdock Root Powder Tastes Gross!

Okay, so I haven't posted in almost two months.  Okay, so I'm not living up to my blogging standards.  Okay, so I'm not sure "vegan for me" was the best name for this blog.  OH WELL.  Moving right along...

I have a fantastic internal medicine and medical herbalist doctor, Astrid Pujari, MD, who I began seeing after I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder of the liver called PBC.  Following Dr. Pujari's recommendations, beginning in mid 2008, a year later all of my liver enzymes were back within normal ranges.

Life being life and me being human, however, I passed through some very challenging times in the winter of 2009/2010 and did not maintain my good health habits nor my herbal supplements.  All that challenging stuff is perhaps fodder for a different blog entry.  Suffice to say, when I came out the other side, my liver enzymes were measuring too high again, I no longer had health insurance, and I was without the financial means to get back on the regimen of supplements which had proved so helpful.

Dr. Pujari reminded me that the best gift I could give my liver was to get more exercise and eat the best diet possible, which would naturally but slowly reduce my weight - excess fat is a huge strain on the liver.  She also recommended burdock root powder as an affordable means of helping my liver in its detoxifying work.  She warned me that it was going to taste bad but it was certainly a cost-effective alternative to pre-mixed herbal supplements.  I said "No problem, I'm not a wuss." But now that I've finally got the stuff, well, EWWWW.

I thought I could just throw it in my strawberry/banana smoothie and chug it down.  That works great for stuff like kale, and canned pumpkin (a great way to get vitamin A) or hemp protein powder.  Uh, NOT with the burdock root.  It made my smoothie taste so gross that instead of being an enjoyable part of my day it was a chore to get it down.

Today I tried mixing it with carrots I'd just juiced.  I juiced a granny smith apple into the mix thinking that would have a strong flavor that would fight the burdock root, and I threw in some red grapes for sweetener.  I would have to say it was perhaps not as disgusting as the smoothie attempt, but quite gross.

I need to find a way to make this easier; I procrastinated buying it for a ridiculously long time - for no good reason; I don't even understand why since I'm really anxious to heal myself and not end up needing a liver transplant - and I don't want to find myself skipping the burdock root.

Tomorrow I'm going to try juicing just the granny smith apple, mixing the powder in and chugging it.  The thing is the taste is not so disgusting that I gag on it; it's just so incredibly chalky.  It thickens the liquid quite a bit too.  If the apple juice is still thin enough to be drinkable without leaving half the powder stuck to the glass (ugh just thinking about this) then I guess I'll try to chug it down and immediately juice something else to wash the taste away.  

Since I've been juicing rather sporadically this could turn out to be a blessing in disguise; I hoped to drink one juice a day and since I need to take the burdock root daily, I may work out a routine.

We'll see what happens with the apple tomorrow...

Residual Results

Had the most unusually cleansing weekend that felt like a mirror of the juice fast - only in a household way.  We made a major change that we've been considering but avoiding for some time, and once that was done it was as though the accelerator had been pressed.  I suddenly rearranged all the furniture in the living room (okay, there's not really that much furniture, but still) and I felt so energized by the space that had been opened up that I took on some other cleaning and technical projects.  Overall it's been a stabilizing few days.


Cooked black beans, zucchini and tofu for dinner this evening.  I marinated the tofu in balsamic vinegar and sort of stir-fried it; it didn't exactly come out right but it was edible.  The flavor was great, just didn't get the texture I was going for.  I cooked the beans with water only, no seasonings or other vegetables, and I ate them just like that.  It was a surprise how delicious they were - I've gotten accustomed to eating them with nutritional yeast and Bragg.  I was really craving simplicity today in the food department, and the plain black beans satisfied that craving.  Between the beans and the tofu, my protein intake was solid, and that's hopefully a focus this week.


In this month following the fast I can see how much food affects my energy and mood.  It's not that I've been on the straight and narrow ever since we completed the fast, but I've been much more aware of how my choices are dragging me down or lifting me up.  I must always remember that it's never the wrong time to take a positive step.  

Another Week Done

We've dropped our juicing down dramatically, not intentionally but probably a result of getting a little tired of juices after the fast and because we've been just plain lazy.  We're getting back on track though.  I think it's important to drink at least one juice a day.  We're still eating pretty well and keeping off the weight we've lost.  It's time to step up the food tracking though and get creative about lunches again.  Definitely a work in progress.


I found another great recipe, this time at cooks.com, using black-eyed peas which are very popular in our household.  It's really delicious and I think it's going to become a fallback.


That's all for now.  I'm off to the Puyallup Fair later today to table at an informational booth for Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest.  I'm glad I can get the word out to the community that planning is the key...