Day 44 – Just a Quick Update

We are staying away from steel cuts so we had quinoa and millet mush—not the same as steel cuts but OK will be better with almond milk tomorrow.  We did add maple syrup to the mix (pure maple) which was really good.  Also had our favorite green drink: cucumber, romaine, spinach, lemon, lime, ginger and distilled water.

Cooked quinoa for lunch and mixed it with onions sautéed in coconut oil, lemon juice, salt and basil al mixed with freshly sliced avocado and salsa we found at the store

Quinoa mixture again for dinner with sweet potatoes cooked in oven snacked on salsa and chips from Trader Joes tonight had a good business meeting about app ideas also ran into an older gentleman we lived next to many years ago—he talked my ear off for about 1 hour.  Still feeling very good (overall) and wanting to see full relief of symptoms.

Day 43 – Serendipatiousness!

For those who have seen the movie Serendipity you may remember Jonathan Trager (John Cusack) uttering those words to Sara Thomas (Kate Beckinsale) when trying to repeat the word serendipity—it basically means a happy chance of fate (or something along those lines; I don’t write the definitions I just try to understand them).

First day back on solids… salad never tasted so good.  I even braved a few raw carrots to see how they would affect me.  So far I think so good—I don’t plan on eating a lot of them but I will continue to eat some of them raw (although I will still stay away from cooked carrots for a while).  Since we didn’t have time to run to the store last night breakfast was slim pickins!  We had some leftover spring mix—which was barely good… the kind you have to pick a few of the bad pieces out before rinsing and enjoying—with some romaine lettuce, lemon juice and salt.

Busy morning making contacts but I told my wife before she went to work that I would pick up lunch for us and take it to her school and we would eat together.  I ended up losing track of time and didn’t get out of the house until about 11:45am (her lunch starts at noon and she gets 35 minutes).  I made a quick trip to the store—picked up a relish tray and another bag of spring mix and some avocadoes.

I was so nervous I kept messaging my wife to let her know I was running a few minutes behind.  I made it to her class and she wasn’t there so I set up and was ready to throw the ranch dip away that comes with the relish tray but thought… my 4 year old may LOVE the dip.  Love he did!  He ate quite a few carrots smothered in ranch sauce.  He is doing better though, he use to use the carrots (or any hard vegetable for that matter) to use as a spoon so that he could eat the ranch sauce—at least now he is actually eating the carrot with each teaspoon of ranch.  Baby steps… baby st…  (Oh who am I kidding, at this point I’m just happy he’s eating vegetables at all he is such a picky kid.

After I was all set up my wife still wasn’t there and I began to worry thinking she would not have enough time to eat and that she would be upset when she did finally make it in.  When she came in her room she was calm… really calm, she didn’t seem stressed out at all.  The way I talk about some of this you may think my wife is the biggest stress ball around which isn’t at all true.  But—and I say this hesitantly—but, there are times when certain stresses set her off into a little bit of a stressful mood (sometimes a lot bit).  This was one of those times—there really was no time to eat and her kids would be coming back in soon but she wasn’t worried at all… something’s going right!

Lunch was great—all the stuff I listed that we bought we ate (at least some of it).  Oh, except for the ranch that we let our 4 year old commandeer—which we tossed after he was done with it.  I never imaged myself throwing away ranch dressing; I remember going to the local pizza joint in law school and ordering the grilled chicken salad—which didn’t at all resemble the grilled chicken quinoa salad I do now—I think there was about ½ cup of iceberg lettuce and then a whole slue of chicken, mushroom, onions, garlic and perhaps some other goodies all drizzled over the salad, topped with a HUGE amount of ranch dressing.  At least when my wife asked me what I had for lunch I could tell her I had a salad, right!

I met with a neighbor of mine who has owned a business for 42 years and asked his tricks of time and the trade.  It was an interesting conversation—he is 80 years old and still goes to work every day because he loves it and (as he puts it) its better than sweeping my driveway and sidewalks that don’t really need to be swept anyway.  It took a lot of years to get to where he is now but he says he loves it—which is my draw to doing my own thing (that and nobody ‘owns’ me… I can be my own boss and succeed or fail on what I do, not what somebody else does).

My wife had dinner ready for me when I got home a nice salad with cucumbers, little cherry tomatoes topped with lemon juice and some salt.  We tried to make a soup tonight in the blend tec but it just doesn’t quite do it for us.  I’m not sure what it is, but it’s almost like my bodies mad that raw vegetables are that hot but not cooked and it doesn’t want to accept them; it was just OK and I couldn’t finish it, but the recipe is (GET RECIPIE FROM MY WIFES IPHONE!)

Still feeling great—we did a Costco run tonight to be ready for tomorrow.  We are so excited to introduce grain, although we are holding back on steel cut oats.  I did find 2 brands of green salsa that seem to be OK (ingredient wise) so we are going to try at least one of those on some quinoa and salad tomorrow—mmm mmm mmm… I’m excited—nice sit in the hot-tub and am now ready for bed.  My wife and I both—FINALLY—had a full GREAT day together!  I hope there are many more—for those of you wondering, I mean a day where we both feel really good on the diet I had yet to have one together (ALL DAY) until today!  (Perhaps a moment of serendipity, but if so I hope there are many more moments)

Day 42 – Time to Begin Anew… Almost

Today is the last day of the easy logging (as far as food is concerned) and then it is time to begin anew—finding out what foods may be affecting me/us that is.  During the last few days I’ve had a few hard days but today has been a really good day of progress and feeling better (although it didn’t start out that way).  I figure there is something I’m eating that is affecting me and I’m not sure what it is.  As I reintroduce foods into my diet again I need to pay attention again to the things that may affect me.

Well food—same as yesterday—our lovely lemon, pure maple syrup and distilled water drink along with a crap load of additional water (over 100 ounces in all).  But this morning was a little rough—I could not get warm!  Usually it is my wife who is complaining about being too cold all the time, but since we have started this cleanse I have really had a harder time keeping warm—even my core body temperature has gone down by about 1 degree.

But with this my Blood pressure has also gone down.  I have—for a number of years—been borderline high blood pressure (usually about 139 over 95 or something similar).  I took my pressure yesterday and I was 93 over 79 I think.  For having lower blood pressure I will take being a little colder any day—I suppose what it means is that I will have to wear a jacket more often than I have had to before.

Anyway… the shivering I felt in the morning also almost felt like me getting sick which I don’t want to have happen—my wife has had such a great cleanse this time while mine has not been that great, I just want to both feel good at the same time.  The feeling went away by mid-afternoon and it has been a great day—physical symptom speaking—since then.  

We both have energy and I am ready to try the cleanse for another day but my wife is worried, and I don’t blame her, since I am down to my low weight tonight and will plan on falling just below tomorrow morning so I probably can’t afford to cleanse again.  For those of you doing this program before you lost the weight I envy you because it would have been easier on me if I had begun this while I still had the weight I needed to and wanted to lose!

Day 41 – Heheheheheheee Wipe Oooout!

Another simple day for a food journal—our nice drink I mentioned yesterday as well as all the water we have to drink during the day; yum, yum, yum!  Since this was Presidents Day my wife didn’t have to work so we stayed home and straightened up the house a bit and then took our kids to a Mexican Grill.  I didn’t realize how much I liked Costa Vida (Mexican Grill), but as our kids were sitting there eating their quesadilla kids meal I found myself wanting nothing more than a sweet pork or chicken burrito from Costa Vida.

It was one of the restaurants we liked to splurge on and go to a couple times a year—they have this great lime ranch dressing that is just awesome on salads, but alas… all the goods at Costa Vida are out of the picture indefinitely and I’m not sure they will ever be back.  But, if today’s craving is any indication then I will definitely be back at least for a test of the affects on my body!

My wife is still doing much better this time than last, but I’m not doing as well as last time.  My theory is that I noticed a lot of progress at first because it was such great relief, but as I get further into the process the symptoms left are just being stubborn and annoying so I notice them more—time will tell.

I mentioned last night that I tried coconut oil to brush my teeth; we did find and try an idea—mixing coconut oil with baking soda.  While making it I had the “brilliant” thought that I would try to make it the consistency of toothpaste so I took the melted coconut oil and started mixing baking soda.  I finally got the consistency and was so excited to try brushing that I didn’t even taste the final product… YUCK! I thought I was going to throw-up it was like brushing my teeth with seawater.

We did tone the mixture down a bit by adding a scoop of it to about 3 more tablespoons of coconut oil, it was still a little rough, but for now we are officially making our own toothpaste—yep bat-crap-crazy!  Tomorrow is the last day of the juice cleanse and I don’t think I will go over 3 days… my weight is just too low.

Day 40 – I’d have to Kick My Own Butt!

It’s true… if I ran into myself (today’s self) 5 years ago my 5 year ago self probably would have kicked my butt (you may have to read that more than once to get it, but I assure you it makes sense—or at least it does to me).  I am 40 days into a diet that consists of virtually no sugar (since January 1^st with no refined sugars)—not in my lifetime would I have pictured myself doing what I’m doing now.  The craziest thing is it’s not the craziest part of the story.  I’m ready to push this diet beyond the 60 days I initially intended and am… dare I say… OK with it!?!?  WHAT!

The cleanse days are the easiest to write about since our food is a steady stream of the same liquid all day every day for 3 or 4 days.  Freshly squeezed lemon juice (1 ½ cups to be exact) mixed with 2 quarts distilled water and ¾ cups of All Natural Maple Syrup with no added sugar (evidently grade B is the best to use or at least that is according to the Belly Fit Club) which is what we are using today thanks to Trader Joe’s.

Each of us—my wife and me—have to drink the whole concoction as well as drink half our weight (in ounces not pounds) of water as well.  We also take a few of the M’Lis herbs to help through the process, but not the entire shebang (30 pills at one sitting and then a few through the day and then 30 more at night).

Our twice daily regiment

Church was great and we almost made it on time—although we were still 2 minutes late—but it doesn’t seem to matter how quickly we get ready in the morning we are always walking in just past the time church is suppose to start.  Our 8 year old is beginning to pay attention and made the comment recently: “we are just late to everything.”  I think we are going to have to change that.

My wife is doing much better this cleanse than she was during our cleanse about 3 or 4 weeks ago.  Last time she ran a temperature of at least 101 or 102 and it was as high as 103.5, this time she is doing great but still has yet to see the energy kick in.  I started feeling the energy kick in after our 3 hour Sunday afternoon nap (nothing quite the same as a Sunday afternoon nap!).  It’s also nice that our boys are old enough to entertain themselves during this time… although our iPads seem to help quite a bit.

Not a lot to report other than energy is up and things are feeling great—meaning I think there is more movement in my sinuses than I remember in the last week or so.  Oh, I was also going to mention that we found out you can use coconut oil to brush your teeth (a great mixture is to mix it with baking soda [just make sure the coconut oil is fit for consumption and melted to a complete liquid] at least according to http://www.ehow.com/how_6904250_brush-teeth-coconut-oil.html who knew?

We had not—up until tonight—considered brushing our teeth with any different toothpaste or substance other than the regular brands we have been using.  It crossed our minds a few times but tonight we’ve decided that if some of the foods we eat can negatively impact our health then our toothpaste must be a possibility as well… HOLY COW! We have gone bat crap crazy!

Day 39 – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

That is a little how I feel right now.  I don’t know that I’ve ever watched the whole movie through, but it is an old Jack Nicolson movie from the mid 1970’s—I really don’t even remember much about that time since I was just a wee little one at that time, but I’m pretty sure it’s about a guy in a nut house who is either pretending to or is going crazy—that is how my wife and I feel at times and how we are sure a lot of people see us everyday.

My wife went with some roommates (old college roommates) for a little reunion—she talked to all of them about what we are dealing with and I think she got the “bat crap crazy” whisper vibe from most of them.  While they were eating a pregnant friend of hers said something like: “ooh, I feel like a jelly donut right now… don’t you?”  When she told me about that I wasn’t sure if she was just being pregnant or if she was implicitly giving my wife a hard time—her friend had the perfect out because she is pregnant and has all those types of cravings anyway.  She still had a great time.

A pretty good day for me today, but a better day for my wife—it’s funny still that we have switched places and I am feeling worse while she is feeling better.  I analyzed my mid-way point about a week ago and felt really, really good; but what’s funny is the progress of my wife is made more and more clear.  She is as even keeled as they come but there are times where her emotions typically get the better of her.

I keep waiting for one of those moments to come and it doesn’t.  As we were reviewing progress today with a checklist we filled out at the beginning my wife got to mood and anxiety and mentioned that she felt much better (I sure mentioned she was doing better), but she had only written down a 3 out of 10 possible from before.  When I saw that I opened my big mouth and said something like: “Oh sweetie, you were probably an 8 or 9 before beginning this (not having seen what she had written down at the beginning).

I thought for sure one of the swings would come for sure after that comment but it didn’t and in fact she let it blow over as I was almost sweating bullets just for thinking the thought let alone sharing it with her.  While I feel like I have slid back downhill a little in the last few days after looking at the list of symptoms and rating them I still feel like I am doing much better and know my wife is doing much better for sure.

The day was pretty good—we had to cut out all dairy about 7 days ago and cut out all meats the other day and are getting ready to start the cleanse tomorrow.  The cleanse being our favorite mixture of pure maple syrup, freshly squeezed lemon juice (again… pure) and distilled water—and we do this for at least 3 days!  I’m hoping that I have as much energy as last time and that my wife feels the benefits this time too.

Breakfast was steel-cut oats with stevia and cinnamon as well as our loaded green drink—since we are cleansing tomorrow I had a lot of kale and spinach to juice, which together is really strong stuff!  I also added a lot of ginger and lemon mixed with lime juice, celery, a ton of romaine lettuce but no distilled water—there was plenty without adding any water.

My wife was gone with her roomies for a while so it was out on the town with my boys—trip to Costco for a couple bags of lemons and then onto a local supermarket to check out the deals, lunch was a medley of the vegetables that are left—kale, green onion, spinach and celery cooked in coconut oil, lemon juice, basil and sea salt.  All this was mixed with black beans and then put over a good amount of quinoa—very very good!

More errands and then dinner: Rest of the vegetables same as lunch but we added red, yellow and orange peppers and then mixed the quinoa with the food with all the same spices but no black beans.  We had our Cacao-Pow—since we make it slightly different each time I will say we used: avocado, almond milk, cacao powder, maca root powder, hemp hearts, one scoop of the M’Lis Powder and what was left of our stevia—guess we’ll be picking up some more before the cleanse is done!

Sat in the sauna for the first time in almost 1 week—I think we hesitated a little after seeing our last month power bill which was very high for the area and for us, but we’ve decided the sauna is worth the cost for now, it seems to help!

Day 38 – Huked on Probonics Werked fer Me!

I think there may be something else that is affecting me because I have struggled more the last few days.  I am excited for the lemon juice cleanse coming up in a few days so I can reset my body and introduce things again to see what affects me and what doesn’t.  Even as I write my posts they feel a tad more boring to me so sorry if they are boring to anybody reading them—I imagine they will get better.

I do have to tell a small story about my 8 year old.  He as playing with a straw at the table (one of those twirly straws everyone of us has had or tried as a kid).  Generally this wouldn’t be a big problem or bother me too much but he does tend to make a pretty big mess when there are any liquids and something that resembles a straw laying around for him to use.  I asked him to stop blowing through the straw… he did it again, so I asked him again to stop… after the 3^rd time he tested me, which he shouldn’t do if I’m in a terrible mood.

I took the straw from him and told him that it would go in the garbage—all the tears came out and the screaming started, my wife ran from getting ready upstairs because she thought he had just broken his neck or something.  While I was explaining to him the reason I took it away (it’s that you chose not to listen not what you were doing with the straw).  He snapped back: “Oh, I guess if I’m playing with YOUR iPad and don’t listen then you’ll just have to throw that away huh!”

Needless to say I was not in a very good mood—and while I give him a ‘A’ in clever thinking (or at least good argument) I was still not too happy with the bit of sassiness coming from my 8 year old.  I don’t know that I would still be alive if I had even thought about saying something like that to my dad, but I guess I am dealing with an eight year old (and a very logical one at that), so I will live with it.

Another quick morning of juice (our standard—I did buy ginger, but forgot to ad it).  Also had Cacao-Pow but this time mixed steel cut oats and quinoa together—mmm mmm mmm.  I also ate the left-over ahi tuna topped with some green (vinegar free) salsa from Trader Joes and then made some eggs to mix some of the quinoa left over from our Cacao-Pow.  More sluggish this morning and trying to get our taxes completed so I was running around later this morning and then realized that I had scheduled lunch with my wife today so quickly mixed the quinoa and the steel cut oats with beans, put a huge spring mix salad together and headed to her work.

We had a great lunch and you wouldn’t have known it only took me about 5 minutes to throw lunch together.  A great day to be outside (not very warm, but clear), so I took my 4 year old with me to wash and vacuum the van—he was not too happy about sitting in the van for the 30 minutes it took to do both; I even had a hard time getting him to watch any type of video.  Running late this afternoon picking my wife up from work and my son has karate at 6:15pm

We made it home by about 5:45pm—threw a ton of stuff together (for dinner): quinoa; medley of vegetables including: green onions, collard greens, kale, spinach all fried in coconut oil and lemon juice mixed with sea salt and basil [OF COURSE], eggs and black beans.  Still a huge fan of the yolk of the egg mixing with the quinoa.

Anyway… we made it to karate by about 6:25pm, so late, but for coming in the door less than 45 minutes before—cooking dinner, getting ready to leave and then making it to karate as quickly as we did… got to say, it was great time!

My mother-in-law came over tonight for some help with her Amazon “prime-time” account (as she calls it).  I need to make a post here for all the Euphemisms of my mother-in-law.  She is so much—in that way—like Victoria from Raising Hope, not saying things the right way.  For instance she calls the probiotics we take for our cleanse probonics (huked on probonics werked fer me!).  She also calls a Nissan Altima an “ultima” and tonight she referred to her Amazon Prime account as Amazon Prime Time.  Good stuff… she joked later about being at our house on a Friday night so I told her: “It’s OK this is actually how we dream about spending our date nights”—not sure if her laugh was a courtesy laugh, a cautious laugh or an I will kill you someday laugh?