Day 9-10

Day 9 - I was in San Francisco all day however I did manage to have a "green drink" with Kale before.leaving. In addition because we left so early I decided to have my cup of green tea for the road. I packed veggies and the lunch provided had plenty of salad / raw - steamed choices to choose from. For the drive home I broke down and had a "decaf" coffee but figured it was okay since I drank so much water throughout the day. Felt great & had a lot of energy.
Note: It seemed since Sunday I felt on my back of my throat a lot of mucus...maybe coming from my lungs going into my stomach? Its gone as of Tuesday and my fear that maybe I was getting sick has subsided.

Day 10 - Well I started off the day with a Green tea, then a Green Drink, then to the gym for an hour. Felt great but really hungry. Now I haven't been hungry the last 9 days but today I was hungry;-) Close to that time of the month.
Anyway had a nice salad, some Mary's gone crackers- love them! and a can of sardines.
Okay I know that probably grosses you out but I LOVE Sardines, they remind me of my dad. But later I had a teaspoon of raw almond butter and cutie orange. Then again some almonds, yogurt covered raisins, some cashews. For dinner I had steamed broccoli and made my first 2 Raw recipes...Gazpacho & Spicy cold soup. I just tasted these since they are for tomorrow. Yes they are Yummy! Who knew raw could be so tasty;-) Now since this is my last day I have to admit to eating the broccoli cheese dish my kids didn't eat...it just looked too yummy. My goal is to keep my dairy consumption low, red meat low, and try to follow a 80-90% veges/fruit 10% lean protein diet. Oh I declared a raw day in my household once a week starting next week, we'll see.

Day Eight

Lost another 1/2 lb when I stepped on the scale. I feel great with lots of energy. This AM I tried to eat some pomegranate seeds but the roof of my mouth hurt from eating, seems strange. So I had the last of my green smoothie drink and called it good. Probably will make another smoothie for lunch since I do not want to experience the roof of my mouth thing.

Forgot to mention on Day Six I had upper leg soreness which I attributed to the toxins being pulled from my largest muscles.
I learned that 2 years ago when I tried a 2 day water fast... in hindsight it was a bad idea. I did research about all the pains I was having -headache(likely caffeine withdrawal) and the leg pain(toxins).

We have my neice's college signing party(Volleyball scholarship) to go to later, probably will have a green drink before just in case there isn't anything I can eat.

Oh here is the yummy spinach caesar salad recipe - you substitute ground nuts instead of the pumpkin seeds, be creative;-)

Enjoy you day!

Day Seven - SUCCESS!!

I waited to write all day as I was waiting for "something" to occur today.

Quick recap of yesterday's Day six; I started off feeling shaky in the am but ended the day feeling good. I drank the epsom salt drink at 3:30PM (had to rub my tongue with an orange slice to tolerate it) although the last sip I did end up gagging anyway. I got through the eight tablespoons of olive oil and fresh squeezed lemon juice ( I put them in shot glasses as it seemed easier to take). Plus the last one wasn't as bad as I though it was going to be. Now for the record I would drink olive oil any day before I would drink epsom salts again.
The idea was for the olive oil to get into the bile ducts and flush out the liver/gallbladder with your then passing some kind of stones in your stool early AM (2AM). DAY SEVEN, 2-3-4-5-6-7AM etc came & NOTHING HAPPENED!! I couldn't believe it after all that hard work nothing happened, ugh! So I woke up had my juice (today is a juice fast day) went to the gym at 7:45AM ran 3 miles, did weight training. BTW I was surprised how much energy I had with so little food. Went to my son's soccer game and ran errands. In substitute for my morning green tea I had hot water and fresh lemon juice, it was surprisingly satisfying.
But then about 5:30PM "something" did happen but truthfully I am not sure if I saw any stones in there, just lots of green pea looking things among other stuff??? I should have googled a picture so I would know...or on second thought maybe not;-) I guess I was expecting like real stones, rocks that sunk to the bottom of toilet. Okay so I just decided to "bing" it, didn't find any pictures but Yey!!! I did find out MY "something" was as the website described it "Only bile from the liver is pea green. The bowel movement sinks but gallstones float because of the cholesterol inside" "Sometimes the bile ducts are full of cholesterol crystals that did not form into round stones. They appear as a "chaff" floating on top of the toilet bowl water. It may be tan colored, harboring millions of tiny white crystals. Cleansing this chaff is just as important as purging the stones" I had that too!

The gallbladder is simply a bladder that fills with bile ready to be put in the digestive system. Its only a sac. Everything in it comes from the liver. The stones are made of fat. This is the way the liver stores the fat of the body. The problem is that over the years we take in more fat than we burn off. The liver gets bigger and bigger from the stones in storage because the stones not only increase in number but increase in size and after a period of time like 25 to 30 years the liver gets enlarged and filled with stones and then the stones at the bottom of the liver get deposited into the gallbladder. Usually by the time the stones are in the gallbladder they are bigger.

My juice fast today was with some Acai juice, pomegranate white tea( with probiotics- figure my intestines need to be replenished with the good bacteria after 7 days), and also super green smoothie(Bolthouse)in a bottle(yum) that I bought at the grocery store. I have to admit I broke down at the local Japanese restaurant tonight and had some miso soup, well its sort like juice-"juice of the tofu", right?

Sarah had a rough morning but I'll let her tell her story when, if ever she decides to "blog";-) We will wait patiently;-)

Tomorrow is raw veggies/fruits - may try out a recipe from my cookbook then steamed veggies /fruit on Monday...Where I'll recap with all the highlights etc.
Oh my Raw Un-cookbooks have arrived today!!...Now I just have to convince my husband that we need a dehydrator.

Click here for more info on Epsom Salts
Epsom salt uses plus lots of other suggestion/alternatives if you ever need a safer natural laxative -

Day Six

Well last night's epson salt drinks were vile. I expected it to be salty but it was oh so bitter. The internet post I read earlier that day stated you would likely be in the bathroom within 30 minutes however I did not see the bathroom until 9 hours later. Nonetheless I woke up this AM seemingly flush, with hot flashes, somewhat shaky and out of sorts. I feel like I need to eat something not out of hunger but just to get rid of this awful feeling. Nonetheless if this keeps up I will not be having a productive day. Today is a fast day then 3PM another awful epson salt drink followed by 6PM drinking olive oil and lemon juice (every 15 minutes for total of 8X) I am having a cup of mango/passion herbal tea this AM and it seems to be helping - not sure if it's allowed but at this point don't care. Day Six is the big day where all the hard work pays off, Day 7 is a juice fast day - so looking forward to tasting something sweet tomorrow. Also looking forward to eating again albeit even if my stomach is now the size of a grape;-)

Day five

Veggies all morning then in the afternoon only water, and epson salt drink at 6PM(not looking forward to that one). After googling "drinking epson salt" I found out I'll need to stay very close to a bathroom. I suppose I will not be going with the kids to my nieces volley ball game tonight, dad will have to take them. Feeling good today, stomach is flat - no bloating - eating snap peas, carrots, celery and broccoli. I am drinking lots of water and even enjoyed some caffeine free peppermint tea this AM. Hope to get to the gym or do yoga at home before I have to pick up kids from school. Sarah told me her headache is gone and she lost 1 1/2 pounds. I never checked my weight before hand(I kinda know since I rarely fluctuate by very much) but hope when it's all done to have lost at least 5 pounds for all this. Thinking about attempting a raw lifestyle for the next 30-60 days - just waiting for my raw uncookbook to arrive from www.rawfamily.com. I made a yummy spinach caesar salad from the site www.fromsadtoraw.com/RawRecipes.htm.

Day Four

Wow! I have to say day four has been great. I thought I would fast on water and a little apple juice throughout the day. Nonetheless after a four mile run at the gym (BTW had amazing energy-would have kept going but had to get Ava from school) I broke down and had some pomegranate seeds, celery and a cucumber. While at the gym I seemed to be sweating more than normal but figured it was all good. Still feel great just have to be careful about my stomach burning with the apple juice. Overall so far it is a lot easier than I anticipated we'll see when I have to fast all day. Oh the only downside is I can tell I have stinky breath so I am trying not to get too close to anyone;-)

Day One - Sunday

My husband treated me with my morning green tea bummer I couldn't drink it. Two glasses of Apple Juice down so far plus the Green drink. No caffeine headache yet. I am trying to ignore that each serving of apple juice has 140 calories, 35 carbs, 31g sugar, and just 1 g of protein. I may just drink 1/2 of a gallon of apple juice today, lots of water and take the magnesium malate tablets instead. All that sugar is going put me in a sugar coma;-) The green drink comes in at abt 215 calories, with about 4 g of protein. Nonetheless feeling a little sluggish this morning. Thinking about going for a bike ride to the lake with the kids hoping that will perk me up;-)