Days 17 & 18. So very close...

Days 17 & 18

Apologies for the delayed posts, it's all been a bit hectic between work / juicing / living with a fecking PSYCHO (but thats another story)

So again, the last few days have been pretty straightforward, not many cravings and I've been going without the evening juices (I'm just about forcing down the green juice at lunchtime but 2 in a day is likely to make me fell ill again) I did go with a carrot, apple & ginger yesterday to mix it up a bit and that was really nice (as usual) and added an extra apple to the juice this afternoon to take the edge of a bit.

Although there's been no huge cravings, I did zone out a bit the other day thinking about the steak sandwich I'm going to make myself in a week and a half (fresh-cut crusty bread, med-rare steak,  melted extra-mature cheddar and Jack Daniels BBQ sauce) Win

I'm going to weigh myself again tomorrow morning, I reckon I'll have lost another kg or so but as I've already reached the target I set myself at the start (2 stone) anything after this is a bonus.

My thoughts have been turning to what I'm going to do at the end of these 4 weeks and how I'm going to carry this on. There's no denying I'm going to have a  spike of a few pounds for a few days at the end of this (I'm well prepared for that) but after that, how to carry this on?

The level of commitment I've managed to apply to this, sticking to a normal diet & hitting the gym a few times a week will be a doddle compared to this!

So the juices. I've already covered yesterday (Fruit for breakfast, Carrot apple & ginger for lunch)

Today, Breakfast

3 Apples

1 Grapefruit

Really good. As always

Lunch

3 Celery

1/2 Cucumber

2 apples

1 inch cube Ginger

1/2 lemon

Minging, as usual. Roll on Friday!

Days 15 & 16 - Green-tea-tastic

I've pulled these two days together as frankly, they have been pretty uneventful.

Major event for the weekend? Saturday morning weigh-in:

117.6kg - 18.5stone

Another big loss, I'm guessing this has a fair bit to do with the drop in calorie intake from avoiding any veg juice. I'm still sickened by the smell of it (although I suspect that the suspect smell in the fridge was due to some broccoli which wasn't mine turning a bit brown) Thats in the bin now and the fridge is back to normal, but despite only taking in one juice in the last two days I'm feeling fine (I'm going to grab some vitamin tablets on the way home tomorrow just to keep myself ticking over, I suspect I'm not getting everything I need from green tea!)

I'm aware that only 1 juice sounds like too little, but I didn't wake up till gone 1pm Saturday. Shocking I know but for some reason I really struggled to sleep Friday night & didn't get to sleep till gone 5am. I ended up getting up at 3 (after 2 & 1/2 hours trying to drift off) and sticking the ps3 on till I was ready to pass out!

The Saturday afternoon breakfast fruit juice really got me through the day, some experimenting again but it worked out well this time (I'll come to that in a bit)

Sunday was slightly different. I was up early as I was on call for work all day but as I had to stay in the house (near the laptop incase I had to remote in for anything) I was relaxing and again, sustained on green tea. By the time I thought about having something it was past 8pm and I;m going to bed soon so theres no point! More green tea & water then.

I know that the forums & things state that it takes 3-5 days for your body to adapt but given how little I've felt hungry over the last 5 days I'd say that 10-12 is a closer approximation. It's almost too easy at the minute, so long as I drink plenty of water there's no cravings & no desire for melted cheese (although that's not going to stop me having some once this is over!)

I'm sure that keeping myself distracted is the key at the minute, focusing on Ditch's party and then deciding what to do with myself for a holiday after that. I'm toying with the idea of a mini-tour through the UK to Krakow to Bulgaria and back via London. Or Vegas (but I might put that off to the end of January when the Vegas 7's is on. A week in the States now would almost certainly have me back at my start weight!) 

So my one super-sustaining juice of the weekend :

1/4 Honeydew Melon

3 Kiwis

1 Grapefruit

A slightly odd colour, but nice, and bizarrely tasted a bit like banana (???)

This will be my breakfast on Monday also (as I need to use these fruits up!)

So into the final week, 5 days to go and then PARTY!!!! Woo Hoo! Bring it on :)

14 Days. 2 weeks. 2 Friggin WEEKS!!!

It's midnight Friday, and i feel sick. Funnily enough it's not from hunger, despite my only having 3 juices in the last 2 days. It's that smell. The smell of mashed up vegetables from the juicer in the kitchen is starting to cut right through me and give me a sick feeling in my stomach every time I drink it. I didn't even finish the one I did have for lunch cause it was making my stomach turn. It's not a great sign for the coming week but I'm hoping it'll pass, especially when I'm this close!

I'm gonna go online and see what other recipes I can find which are still healthy but not green juice. Much as I'd love to just switch to fruit juices, the amount of sugar in them totally undermines the whole point of what I'm trying to achieve.

Anyway, to the positives! 2 weeks. Bloody hell. Apart from the insane loathing of the smell of mushed up vegetables, it's all positives. I've not weighed myself in the last few days but I'm hoping it's significant (I missed a bloody good party to stay in tonight, away from the temptation of beer & snacks!) Still, 7 more days and it's PARTY TIME woo hoo. Really looking forward to catching up with everyone back in the mainland (don't tell anyone over here I called it that!) It's gonna be a good weekend, so focusing on that should get me through the next 7 days!

As I said, I've only had 1 juice today. I overslept (forgot to set my alarm last night) so had to rush out without breakfast. I did have one for lunch (which I didn't finish) but I didn't get a pic as I was on the phone and had to drink & run to get back to work. It was another standard green juice though. Blagh!

I may have to treat myself to a can of Pepsi Max tomorrow, just to give my palate a bit of a shock and help get me through the last week. If I was doing a 'detox' juice it would be a no-no but my focus is only weight-loss so a drink with nil calories will be fine. That's my 14 day treat :) Anyway, I've got to go and clean the crap of the juicer without being sick. Night

Day 13 - Easy life

Weighed myself again today (Its becoming a bit of an every 2 days habit now)

120.4kg

More wins. So a total of 10kg / 22.2lbs lost so far and into single figures for the number of days left (woo hoo)

Another relatively easy day if I'm honest. Felt a bit ropey mid afternoon but that soon passed and ended up just having a large cup of green tea for tea rather than a juice so just the two today (plus so sick of green juice I'm avoiding drinking it where I can!)

Its a bit late tonight so I'll keep it short (plus I can't find the cable to upload the pics)

Breakfast :

2 Apples

1 Orange

1 Grapefruit

Really nice, as usual.

Lunch:

4 Celery

1/2 Cucumber

1 Apple

1/2 Lemon

1 inch cube Ginger

Bit minging, as usual

Tomorrows will be more interesting I promise! Night

Day 12. Tempting fate.

I'm going to go out on a limb here, but I know I'm risking major backlash and tempting fate but...

Today was easy

I've very rarely said that over the last 12 days, I've always been fighting cravings / thinking about how hungry I am / feeling getting really tired etc but today everything went fantastically smoothly. Again it helps that works so busy as it keeps my mind occupied but I've coped without any bother today, I've even been in and started deleting things from the August 31st shopping list (not many things, but some!) It might be the shift in focus to everything I've got planned at the end of the fast now, really looking forward to getting back to the UK and catching up with old friends at Ditch's party and then off on my holibobs after that (still no idea where to go but keeping the options open)

I hope this new-found optimism it's a sign of things to come but after the amount of highs & lows so far I suspect it's just a good day and it'll once again become my very own personal hell quickly enough!

So to the juices

Breakfast

3 Apples

2 Oranges

1 Grapefruit

Again. Really nice, had to add the grapefruit last minute as it was light on juice without it.

Lunch

6 Celery

1/2 Cucumber

1 Apple

2 handfuls Spinach

1 Inch cube Ginger

1/2 Lemon

Very green juice, bit minging but did the job!

Tea

3 Apples

7 Carrots

1 inch cube Ginger

Combination of being sick of green juice & having carrots which needed using up. Again, very good but I may have overdone the ginger a bit. No matter, so long as it's not green juice!

Right, second half of England v Scotland is kicking off. See you tomorrow all!

Day 11 - The Halfway Stage!!

Day 11

After yesterday, I was in major need of a serious boost. So I weighed myself.

122.3kg. 19.5stone

Win.

Not exactly jumping for joy as I've not got the energy for that, but it did give me the motivation I needed to crack on.

Todays been an odd day, not racked with hunger in the same way I was yesterday but still getting bad cravings for melted cheese. Weirdly enough I think my body started haggling towards the end of the day as the cravings switched to wotsits 'ok, no real cheese then. Fine, fake cheese? Can I have some fake cheese then....' They've gone on the list.

Feeling a little better today, not least given that everything from here is downhill! Everything from today onwards is closer to the end than the beginning, which I'm hoping will make the run in a little easier than the last 11 days have been. I'll find out soon enough no doubt.

What's also helped is I'm actually starting to notice the weight loss myself. Clothes are fitting better, theres a few shirts which didn't use to fit which do now and when I was getting my haircut earlier I wasn't embarrassed by my own reflection. I'm slowly starting to recognise the face in the mirror again.

So to todays juices :

Breakfast.

Nice straightforward one

3 Apples

2 Oranges

Very nice.

Lunch

4 Celery

1/2 Cucumber

1 Apple

1/2 lemon

1 inch cube ginger

Bloody veg juice again. Getting sick of this stuff but its only a few more days

Tea

4 Celery

1/2 Cucumber

2 Apples

1/2 lemon

1 inch cube ginger

So bored of veg juice. Back to experimenting!!

Day 10. A slight change of plan

It pains me to say it, but I've been forced into a slight change of plan :S

When I planned this fast for August, it was based on the premise I had nothing planned which involved going anywhere. However yesterday evening a good mate of mines 40th birthday party was sprung on me, and its in the UK in 2 weeks time. Bugger. I'm not sure Aer Lingus do fresh juices, and I'll be buggered if I'm going all the way back to Wolverhampton to catch up with old mates without having a couple of drinks.

So the new plan : 22 Day Juice fast, followed by a week on micronutrient-only food (Fruit, Veg, Nuts & Seeds) while my body re-adjusts to solid food again. Then pizza. So much pizza....

I hope this doesn't come across as a cop out in any capacity, as frankly after the day I've had today I;ve been so close to chucking the towel in on the whole thing that 22 days will still be pretty epic.

Today I've been hungry. Really hungry. Spent-most-of-my-day-at-work-thinking-about-cookies-hungry. I really need to be on my game at work for the next 2 weeks and I'm not sure I can be with this constant hunger pain digging at me.

The walk home was even worse. I visualised myself queuing in Mcdonalds for some of those mozzarella dippers. It was such a weird fantasy as my mind normally wanders into the realms of the sensational, like playing rugby for England or winning the lottery. But no, now it's something I could do. With ease, just by going into McDonalds. I know they're not even that nice but I'm going into melted cheese withdrawal. I don't think I've gone without melted cheese for 10 days as far back as I can remember (which granted would explain a lot with regards to my current state) 

But despite every once of my body (and a good part of my mind) telling me to fold I'm still persevering, down largely in part again to the support I'm getting from everyone. I'm going to do a weighing tomorrow morning and I really need it to go well so fingers crossed.

But enough whittering on, to todays juices:

Breakfast

Something nice & simple today:

3 Apples

2 Oranges

Tried & Tested, very nice 

Lunch

4 Celery sticks

1/2 Cucumber

2 handfuls Spinach

1 Apple

1/2 lemon

1 inch cube Ginger

Again, a standard green juice so not a lot more to add on that one.

Tea

3 Apples

1/2 Cucumber

1 inch cube Ginger

2 Hand fulls Spinach

A bit cobbled together this one as it was getting late and there was something on the telly I wanted to watch. The apples didn't drown out the taste of the spinach like I hoped so it wasn't a great concoction this one. Back to the recipe website I think....