Aging

I feel like such a jerk. I've been getting depressed about my birthday because it's coming up. I feel like I'm getting older and basically hating it. I want to avoid my birthday altogether. I saw this picture on Pinterest just now.

How dare I take advantage of growing a year older. Young people, my age and younger, die from wars, fights, disease, etc, and here I am, being depressed I'm turning 25. I should be ashamed of myself. 

There are multiple things that will really put you in check: the Make A Wish Foundation website has stories of wishes of terminally ill young people. Here is one that is particularly heart-breaking: The First Wish. This boy died at age 7. 

I refuse to complain about my age anymore. I'm embarrassed that I ever was in the first place. Sometimes, a little perspective is what is necessary.

Day 13 - 15 - My 1st Day After Rebooting

Another blog entry is unnecessary for days 13 - 15 of the Reboot. They were great and normal. Though, my first day after the reboot is worth blogging about.

I get hungry MUCH less often now, I've noticed and I am very aware of my body's hunger needs when I actually am hungry. So yesterday, I decided I was going to eat sushi with my friend for dinner for my official first meal off the reboot. I didn't eat anything until dinner simply because I wasn't hungry for anything until then. We went to eat and I noticed everything tasted especially salty. I was eating my sushi with soy sauce at first, and after a minute, I couldn't do the soy sauce anymore. That was just way too much for me. I ate a good amount of sushi (which was delicious) and had some iced tea with it (oh how I missed you so!). Didn't feel gross that night.

BUT, I woke up this morning and had what I can only describe as a "food hangover." I felt. . . not sick, but. . . weighed down and - honestly, I don't know how to describe it. I didn't feel good. I didn't feel like I've been feeling for the past 15 days: fresh, light, energetic, all good things. The reason I choose sushi to break my Reboot was because it has a lot of fresh raw veggies in it, so I thought it would be a good transition meal. The cooked part was the tempura shrimp, salmon, and the crawfish (I only got one roll that was raw, which was spicy salmon), and of course the rice in the sushi. I can only imagine the suffering I would have gone through with something like a big veggie burger or some popcorn shrimp or something horrible like that! Night. Mare.

The only thing I could think about after my meal about eating the next day was some apples and carrots. LOL! I couldn't get my mind off of fresh raw fruits/veggies. I realize how much my taste buds have changed and how my body WANTS this raw, fresh food. It's not that I was CRAVING them, it was that it was naturally what my body wanted to sustain it. So I just came back from Target, got a bundle of apples, some grapes, and some dried fruit, pistachios and some oatmeal.

I am so happy I did this reboot. I also went to the doctor today and she took my blood pressure. Before the Reboot, it was 130/90-something. Today, it was 110/?? (I don't remember the second number). When she took my blood pressure, she said, "Wow!" LOL! So that was a nice reaction. Also, they took my blood to do blood work so I'm excited to see if anything has changed.

I HIGHLY recommend doing this Reboot. You don't have to do 15 days like me. You could do like a week or something. It was absolutely wonderful and I have NO DOUBT whatsoever that after Ramadan I will do another Reboot.

Day 9 - 12 Summary

Total weight loss: 8 lbs. If you're 5'1", that's significant. LOL!

It's to a point where I'm getting tired of raw fruits & veggies. But, at the same time, when I'm done with my Reboot, I still see them being the majority of my intake. My body knows in needs them now. I'm obviously going to slowly ease into eating cooked foods because if I just go crazy and eat a big meal, I am confident I will feel very sick.

So Day 9 - 12 have been all about perseverance, even when you don't even want to LOOK at another fresh plant from the earth. "Allah loves those that patiently persevere!" :-D

Sorry no vlog! I just simply don't have the time. :-(

Day 5-8 Summary

This weekend was ridiculously busy for me. I had so much to do, I had no time for blogging. Anyway, there really isn't a whole lot to say about Day 5-8, really. I've been feeling good, I have energy and I feel like I have on any normal day of my life. So far, I've lost 7 lbs since the beginning.

I will tell you this though. I've really wanting some cooked foods right about now. Remember: for the past week, I've only had raw fruits & veggies, drinking only juiced veggies/fruit, water, and I can have tea if it doesn't have caffeine. Honestly, I think I just want something WARM. That would be nice. Oh well. I really only have 7 days left.

I do feel like when I'm off my Reboot, I will have made permanent changes to my diet. I'm probably going to have my majority food be raw fruits or veggies, and have everything else sparingly. I WANT it that way. It's amazing how delicious and satisfying these things are, and we're never told this. Our American taste buds are not trained on raw fruits and vegetables. But doing this Reboot, my body is changing and I want these things.  I can imagine my normal day after the Reboot to be something like this: fruits/veggies (raw) all through the day and maybe 1 small cooked meal a day. Something like a small piece of fish and some rice. I want 80-90% of my intake to be raw fruits/veggies, and doing what I'm doing, that is not only possible, it's probable.

This Reboot has seriously change my outlook on food. I'm so glad I'm doing it.

Today, I had watermelon, a banana, coconut water, carrots and avocados.

Day 4 Summary - Juicing

Day 4 was much like Day 3, feeling-wise, only with less juicing. I only made 1 juice in the morning.

Pear-adise
2 pears
1 small handful blackberries

Word of advice: blackberries are incredibly difficult to juice because the seeds get stuck in the juicer (until you wash them out), but it was difficut, nonetheless. I suggest you just eat them instead.

Cleaning my juicer is getting faster and easier for me, seeing as I clean it after every use. I ate squash, tomato, and mushrooms throughout the day. At night for dinner, I went to On The Border with my mom and order the Guacamole Live (no chips, please). I didn't juice for dinner at all.

I felt good all day. No headaches, no pains, no anything-bad! So it was good.

Goooodddddd, I love mushrooms. FRESH mushrooms. I was talking to my mom about what my "first meal" would be after my juicing ends. And you know. . . I honestly don't feel deprived in any way right now. I'm not *dying* for this to end and I feel great. What I'm mainly thinking about is when I do have my first meal, will it make me feel sick. LOL! Because it most likely will. But I decided on sushi.

Day 3 Juicing

My veggie juice drink was the following:

3 stalks celery
3 carrots
1 apple

It was actually good! I'm ready to make more veggie juices. As of Day 3, I'd lost 4 lbs. I have had no cravings whatsoever and never felt deprived so far. 

Day 2 Summary - The Juicing

So Day 2 was a unique case. Unfortunately, I did NO juicing at all. I woke up at 4:30 AM and had no time to juice before I left home for the day. I took 3 bananas with me on my mini-road trip and ate 1 of them. I wasn't really hungry because I was still naseous from the veggie drink I attempted Day 1. I tried to drink a lot of water, but I was on the road and really only drank probably. . . 6 total?

All day, I was sooooo tired. I had a headache the entire day. I was lethargic, restless, but I really had an overall bad consumption day. When I got home, I ate 2 avocados. So my entire day consisted of 1 banana and 2 avocados. :-( I actually had to force myself to finish the avocados, too, because I wasn't feeling it. I felt so bad that day that I didn't have any desire to eat.

Sorry no video for Day 2. I had no motivation at all so I compeletely skipped the video.

End of the First Day!

I'd Rather Eat Shit

3 stalks of celery

2 collard green leaves

3 carrots

7 radishes

1 apple 

This is the most absolutely horrible, disgusting mixture ever. I had to force myself to even drink half of it. I don't know what exactly made me nauseous: either the taste of that juice, or that my body isn't used to all this raw fruit and vegetable.

Update later on in the night: I am very tired. This is unusual for me, as I usually go to sleep no earlier than 11:45 PM. I feel nauseous and basically, like shit. This is normal because apparently, my body is pushing out all of the toxins and bad stuff from my body. It's 9:48 PM and I'm thinking about going to sleep, like now!

The Juicing Has Begun!

So Day 1, morning. I've made my very first juice combo, a creation of my very own! I am not going to be mixing up my own veggie juices (making my own recipes), but I thought fruit should be fairly simple to do myself. So here is this morning's creation:

Kiwi-kidink!
1 red apple
2 peaches
2 kiwis
10 oz cantaloupe
2 key limes (squeezed into the drink - not juiced)

LOL! I made that name up, too. ;-) It's delicious! I'm drinking it now, actually.

I went grocery shopping yesterday at Sprouts and bought all of my veggies and fruit. I'm not sure how long they'll all last me, and I bought a shitload. I'm fairly confident that it will last me at least 2 weeks, but after juicing a couple of times, I'm not so sure. When you juice an apple, you get about 1/4 cup of juice out of it. My entire refrigerator is FULL. For the first time in YEARS, actually. It's pretty nice to open it up and have food in it. LOL! Especially fruits and veggies only. So I was expecting to spend probably about - at LEAST $100. When the cashier told me the total, it was $66! Sprouts it the BOMB, guys! Always cheap and delicious stuff. My friend & I were shocked! It's cheaper than anywhere else when it comes to fruits and veggies. Love this place.

Also, I bought some coconut water that I can put in my juices as well. It's not anything extra, it's simple coconut water only. Love it. When I was a kid, my dad used to buy coconuts and drill a hole in it and we would drink the water out of them.

I bought my juicer on Saturday, and it was about $49. I did my research before I actually bought one, but it I think I made a good choice for my price range.

GE Juice Extractor

It's incredibly easy to assemble, it's easy to clean, and it gets the job done. What more could I want! It's awesome. It sounds like a vacuum cleaner when I turn it on though. LOL! That was unexpected, let me tell you that. 

I play on vlogging the end of my days when I do this fast. I also plan on extending my fast to 15 days instead of just 10. We'll see how it goes. I'm excited, guys!

10-Day Reboot

I am going on a juice fast inspired by the movie Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. I'm kind of WAY excited about it. My aunt actually told me to watch the documentary about a year ago, but it really didn't come to mind until I was browsing Netflix and recognized the name.

I'm going to be doing the 10-day reboot, otherwise known as the Quick Start Reboot. Here are the details:

Basically, I'll be on a 100% raw, vegan diet for 10 days. I'll be juicing - a lot. The good thing about this particular reboot is that I can actually still eat food (as in chew things!). The man in Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead (Joe Cross) went on a 60-day juice fast that was specifically juice. I'm taking baby steps, guys. 10 days is plenty of time for me. I'm planning on having most of my intake stick to actual juice. Of course, I won't restrict myself from eating (read: chewing) fruits and vegetables, but juicing gets the most amount of nutrients to your body effectively.

The great thing about the reboot website is they basically give you every resource you need to have a successful juice fast. So much useful information! Anyway, I'm hoping to blog my fast and see how it changes my health for the better. It's a short fast, but I will see results. Also, I have a wonderful lady in my corner to help my (my aunt) and also the reboot website has an awesome community as well. Also, Joe Cross has a Twitter account, and he's always such a sweet, motivational guy.

During the first few days, they tell you to expect to feel crappy: dizzy, lethargic, grumpy, constipation or diarrhea, maybe even nauseous. They definitely emphasize staying very hydrated and drinking tons of water. They don't restrict calories, they tell you to eat/juice whenever you want. They tell you to plan to eat about 5-6 times a day

Anyway, wish me luck, guys! I'm starting my juicing June 11th and completing it June 21st.

If you're interested, you can watch the entire documentary here: http://www.jointhereboot.com/