Fat Sick and Nearly Dead day 4-7

Friday March 22^nd – Day 4

I woke up well rested from yesterday, I feel pretty good I have noticed that my hands are no longer hurting from the inflammation I usually have. I have lost quite a bit of water over the last few days and I feel really good, I weighed in at 290.3 so I am down about 5 lbs for the week, I assume that this was mostly water weight as the last couple of days I was getting a lot of water out of my system.

My brother criticized me last evening for drinking too many fruits and not enough vegetables so I manned up this morning and made a juice of mostly vegetables.

½ bag of raw Spinach

4 Kale Leaves

1 Large handful of parsley

15 cherry Tomatoes

4 carrots

2 celery stalks

2 Red Delicious apples

1 Lemon

This all tasted pretty good, there wasn’t anything in this that was too awful, I will do this recipe again more often to get my veggies in.

 

Lunch:

I went with a new store bought product for lunch today, it is Bolthouse farms Green Goodness, I am sure that these products are probably not as good as fresh, but they save me a juicer cleanup in the morning that I would have to do twice, If I were making 2 different Juices. I also had a quarter cup of almonds and a red delicious apple.

Dinner:

I decided to eat some solid food for dinner, so I have officially moved away from eating nothing except juice for the 10 days, I would prefer to keep things moving through my digestive system, after looking at the forks over knives lifestyle, I am going to be adopting a more green approach to food. For dinner this evening I had Miso soup, a seeweed salad, and some vegetarian rolls at the local sushi restaurant.

Saturday March 23^rd, -- Day 5

Breakfast:

2 carrots

2 celery stalks

½ bunch of spinach

4 Kale Leaves

½ bunch Parsely

2 red delicious apples

1 lemon

This is going to be my goto juice for breakfast, it mixes the greens in whith the fruit and it all goes down pretty well.

Lunch:

Same as Breakfast, except I added about 4 inch piece of cucumber, After lunch I was overcome with energy like I have not seen in the last year. I cleaned my kitchen spotless, did 4 loads of laundry folded and ironed all of my cloths, went through the medicine cabinet and threw away all of the expired medicine, ran the vacuum throughout the house, and swept the hardwood floors.

 

This took me about 4 hours and by the time I was done I had a nice dinner salad of spinach and tomatoes and onions and avocado with some balsamic dressing, and a piece of corn on the cob.

I went to bed thinking that I had had one of the best days that I can remember over the last couple of years.

Sunday March 24^th, - Day 6

Had the standard breakfast drink and went about the day working on the computer, got in a little pew pew with RVB. I totally missed lunch on Sunday, I went to the grocery store and stocked up on the supplies that I had run out of. I had to go to 2 different stores because the first store had a horrible selection in the produce department, it looked like their spinach had been cut with a lawnmower and then trampled by a football team. The second store had plenty of spinach and parsely and I got a deal on some strawberries.

For dinner I made the sweet potato and peach juice, and I had a vegetarian roll I picked up at the grocery as well as some fresh strawberries. For a late snack I deviated from the plan and had some ice cream, which did not treat me well, I went to bed with a smashing headache. I had been making a Sunday night routine was to go to greaters and get an ice cream, well that ritual is now finished as I sit here on Monday morning still with a smashing headache I can see that removing dairy from the diet was a good idea.

 

Monday March 25^th – Day 7

Standard breakfast juice this morning, I have a really bad headache and didn’t sleep well. I have to say it’s my own fault, these things have to be learned I guess. I felt fantastic on Saturday I feel pretty shitty this morning. I am not giving up though Weigh-in this morning 292. So that’s down 4 lbs from last week. I am pretty much going to keep living like this for the next few months, adding in exercise as I can and juicing breakfast and lunch keeping a blog about how things are going. I am sure I am going to make more mistakes but its all a struggle and I am not giving up.

Fat Sick and Nearly Dead - Day 3

Thursday March 21, 2013 Day-3

I woke up this morning pretty tired and worn out, I made my way to the shower, all the excess energy from last night was completely gone. I got dressed and made my normal breakfast concoction did the morning routine took all of my pills packed an orange and a peach for lunch as well as a quarter cup of unsalted almonds. I decided not to experiment on a lunch juice today and since I only had 1 lemon left that went into the breakfast drink I decided to pick up a Naked Green Machine at the grocery on my way to work for lunch. Today is supposed to be the day where I am groggy and tired as my body begins to adjust to this new regime, so it is right on schedule, I plan on queuing up some good upbeat music on the i-phone and getting some programming done so…

Lunchtime:

I had my Naked Green Machine Juice and a quarter cup of unsalted almonds, One of the nurses here brought me a cupcake for lunch and I graciously thanked her and told her that I couldn’t eat it as I was on a restrictive diet because of my health. It looked really good though, Speaking of health it is just amazing how much better I feel, even before the juice fast I had switched to mostly salads, with a animal protein, and low sodium and had given up processed foods, caffeine, and dairy. I find that my mind is becoming much more clear and I am able to think and work better, I feel like I was walking around in a fog for the past couple years. This fog had become my normal, I was having issues remembering details from day to day, debugging code was excruciatingly difficult, if I was interrupted I completely lost my train of thought and had to start over.  I feel that I am on the right track, and better health is awaiting me along this journey.

They also moved our desks over to a section of the building where I have a view out of the window and I can’t tell you how much better I feel sitting over here writing code getting some natural sunlight instead of all those fluorescent bulbs putting out that horrible office light. Paid my bills today, lots of Dr. bills from the last few months, seeing if I have enough left over to start looking at a new bicycle.

Dinner:

I had a very fruity juice for dinner tonight it consisted of

¾ of a Canteloup

1 Mango

1 Red delicious Apple

This made about 20 oz of juice and was really fantastic, I also ate a few almonds and a Wrap of fresh spinach as I was feeling like I had not been getting enough vegitables. I watched another movie about food, and eating a whole raw diet was beneficial over processed food. I am going to have to look for some cookbooks for whole and raw foods this weekend, Last weekend before I had started this diet I had bought a couple of cookbooks for the Paleo diet, but I think that may be going in completely the wrong direction for me, I want to eat less meat and more whole green foods. I went to bed about 9:30 and slept well.

Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead Day - 2

Wednesday March 20, 2013 Day-2

I woke up this morning feeling a bit tired, my back still aching I am a bit worried that when I finish the prednisone I am going to have a very bad back day. Saturday I was crawling around the house on my hands and knees because my back was out so completely that I couldn’t stand up for more than a few seconds without being in excruciating pain.

Morning juice: I have decided to make a large batch of this so that I can take half to work with me I doubled the recipe from yesterday

8 Carrots

4 Oranges

2 lemon

2 apple

This only made about 24 oz of juice, so I decided to take about 8 oz of this and 8 oz of what was left over from last night’s dinner and mix it together and see if I could stomach the mixture. Well the taste was not overpowered with cucumber juice like last night’s drink seemed to be, it was still pretty bad. I followed it up with another 4 oz straight from my breakfast mix to clear my palate. I am taking the remaining 12 oz of the breakfast mix to work for lunch today.

After arriving at work I see we are having lunch brought in for some type of function today. This will be quite a test for me because everyone will be bringing in deserts and all kinds of food will be here. I have my drink mixture for lunch and I also brought in an apple and an orange for snacks to put some fiber in my belly. We will see how this goes, but my willpower is still pretty strong and I feel pretty full this morning so I am hoping I don’t break down and have any bad food throughout the day.

Lunchtime

Well we had our yearly department meeting and the company brought in pizza for everyone to eat, I must say that it smells fantastic and it is really bothering me, pizza is one of my favorite foods, once I am done with the reboot, I must find a decent low sodium recipe for a personal pizza. It is not just the salt in the sauce of the pizza, Pizza is a quadruple threat, there is sodium in the crust, there is sodium in the sauce, there is sodium in the cheese, and if you put any pepperoni or sausage or processed meat on it there is lots of sodium in those as well.

So while everyone was in the lunch room feasting on the pizza and deserts, I stayed at my desk and drank my juice and ate an apple.  I feel a bit depressed that I couldn’t have any pizza, but I probably will also not have to make another expensive trip to the hospital for 4 days either.

I have found a new recipe for a v8 type of juice that I will make for dinner tonight. I like v8, but it has so much sodium in it so I am hoping that the taste is similar without the salt. The recipe is as follows

2 carrots

1/2 of a medium-sized beet

1/2 nub ginger

1 green apple

1 lemon (peeled)

2  stalks celery

1 handful parsley

1 tomato

I think that V8 also has some spinach and watercress in it, I will experiment with this tonight.

Well I also added 3 small peppers unseeded, a radish, and a shallot. (Pro-Tip for you beginning juicers like me, don’t ever juice an onion like vegitable, its like setting off a pepper spray bomb in the kitchen.)

I could only put down about 6-8 oz of this juice, it set my stomach on fire, I thought for sure that It would come back up. But then after about a half hour I got this huge energy rush and did about an hour on the bicycle while watching the health movie.

Tonight’s Health Movie : Forks over Knives – was supposed to be last night but the hobbit was released last night and I just had to watch that again. This was a very good movie, I will probably be adopting this diet when I am done with the 10 day reboot. This went into a lot about eating whole plant based foods in lowering your risk for coronary events and cancers. I would highly recommend this movie to anyone with similar issues to mine, I will be locating some recipe books for this lifestyle of healthy eating that can reverse adverse coronary artery disease, and help me get off all these medications I am now taking. That is the number one goal.

After the movie I was hungry again, the cycling kicked up my appetite, I made a nice juice out of

1 sweet potato pealed

1 peach pitted

1 apple

1 lemon

½ tsp of cinimon stirred into the drink.

This was a moderately thick drink, but it was delicious, I will be drinking more of these. I went to bed at 9 PM but was restless until about 11 PM as I was still charged up and full of energy.

Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead Reeboot - Day 1

Overview:

I havent blogged in a while I have been having some health issues which I am trying to deal with, I am still playing eve though my focus for the next few months will be trying to get my body back in shape, first through diet and then through cycling and exercise.

Tuesday March 19, 2013     Day - 1

After watching the documentary Fat, Sick, and nearly dead last night I have decided to give the 10 day reboot a try to see if it can significantly move me along the path of getting back to a healthy weight. Since last November I have been in and out of the hospital 3 times I have had a heart catheterization which showed several blockages, that were not to the point yet where they needed stents or anything like that but it did show that I have coronary artery disease.

On top of that the next two visits to the hospital were from my heart going into atrial fibrolation, this happens when the signal from the nerves at the top of the heart cause the bottom of the heart to flutter rather than beat. Due to these things I am already on a very restrictive diet. I can no longer eat red meat, no caffeine, no alchohol, and less than 2000 mg of sodium daily. Sodium is the big one, I cannot tell you how much this effects what you can eat, because anything that is processed and packaged has a shit ton of sodium in it. This is what got me interested in salads and juicing. I essentially have to cook all my own meals anyways, I am currently down 15 pounds from where I started in November but I am faltering I am 6’3” tall and weigh 296 pounds. I don’t get any exercise at this point all I do is sit at work and sit at home, and I have begun to add sweets into my diet which is not healthy for me at this point, I feel like I need to do something drastic to get me back on track and this is why I am starting the reboot.

This morning my breakfast consisted of juice from the following recipe – 365 calories

3 Carrots – 25 calories

3 Oranges – 207 calories

1 lemon – 17 calories

1 apple – 116 calories

This morning was the first time I added lemon to this recipe and I think it made it one of my favorites, for lunch today I have to find a juice bar near where I work, after work I am going produce shopping for some additional vegetables. At this point at 9 am I am not hungry but I am sure I will feel hunger over the next 10 days, I must have the willpower to see this through. I will also be evaluating how many calories are in this diet so that I am not starving myself to death I am going to make sure I am getting 1500 calories in a day at least.

Lunch: Failing to find a juicing vendor anywhere within 20 miles of where I work I went to the grocery store and bought some produce for juicing at home and also bought a Naked Green Machine juice at the grocery, I don’t know what the quality of this juice is, it tastes very good but I will make sure that I pack my lunch for tomorrow. Calories in the Green Machine Juice – 280 calories.

Dinner: This was my first attempt at making the mean green juice, I followed the recipe exactly which was

1 cucumber
4 celery stalks
2 apples
6-8 leaves kale (Australian tuscan cabbage)
1/2 lemon
1 tbsp ginger

All I can say is that this made about 40 oz of the most disgusting liquid I have ever tasted, I think gasoline may have tasted better, but I manned up and drank 20 oz of it. It left me not hungry at all for the next 5 hours, though just after drinking it I was watching the show “Bones” on my dvr and they had a burnt victim on the show this week, and I nearly puked all that juice all over the couch where I was sitting.  To say I was nauseated for the rest of the evening would be quite appropriate. I put the other 20 oz of this concoction in the fridge to see if maybe I could mix it with my morning juice and make it taste better.

I went to sleep about 10 pm a little hungry but I wasn’t about to go get into that juice again right before bed.