Day Five

Breakfast this morning was yum-o.  A blend of strawberries, blueberries (courtesy of my sister), raspberries, lemon, ginger and apples.  It's always invigorating to start the day off with fruit.  I used to skip breakfast.  Now I look forward to it.

I prepared the produce for today's breakfast and lunch last night.  And tonight, I'll do the same for breakfast and lunch for tomorrow.  I think that's the smartest way to go.  Zip-Loc bags make it all easy to store, easy to grab, and keep the moisture in.  See?  I'm learning all the time.

Speaking of learning, I found out today that Tresa can't drink juice with jalapeno pepper in it.  Who knew?!  I mean, juicing a jalapeno seemed fine to me.  In fact, I really liked the juice I made.  From memory, here it is:

• 3 carrots
• 4 leaves of collard greens
• 1 cucumber
• 1 large lemon
• 1/2 head of romaine lettuce
• 4 radishes
• 1/4 onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1" chunk of ginger root
• 1 small jalapeno, seeds removed
• 1 Granny Smith and 1 gala apples

Like I said, I thought it tasted alright.  Nothing to rave about, but with the garlic, onion and pepper, it almost tasted like I was eating Mexican food. Well, apparently it caused Tresa to gag.  She couldn't finish it.  Poor girl.  I know how hungry I was today.  I can only imagine how she felt, not being able to have her lunch.  So I guess I'll omit any jalapenos from her juice in the future.  But, I still have 5 or 6 left and you can bet I won't let them go to waste. 

I was a little foggy this morning.  I had trouble focusing.  Literally, in the sense that I had some blurry vision for a few hours, and figuratively, because my mind was wandering a lot.  I thought about how hungry I've been, how I constantly have to pee, how much weight I've lost (more on that in a minute) and why I was sweating for no reason.  Wait, sweating?  Could it be that I've started to detox a little?  No other real symptoms though.  It certainly wasn't like Joaquin Phoenix portraying Johnny Cash going through drug withdrawals in Walk The Line.

I had a meeting at 10 this morning, right at the time I had planned to have lunch.  No problem, I just carried my juice jug with me to the conference room.  I walked in, and it was like show n' tell in 1st grade all over again, complete with the Q&A.

"What is that, swamp water?"
"Are you really gonna drink that?!"
"What's in it?"

I told everyone I was on a juice fast, how I had recently watched Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead, that I was suffering from a gout attack, and so on.  I listed off the ingredients in that day's concoction, took a big ol' swig and reassured them that it didn't taste half as bad as it looked.  I expected a fair amount of criticism and teasing from the hecklers and cynics but surprisingly, I got a lot of support.    No one threatened to take away my "man card."  I mean, I'm 6' 3" and well over 250 lbs (not for long, hopefully) and I eat like a pig.  They've all seen it cross my desk at some point, I'm sure: cheeseburgers, Hostess pies, Fritos, sodas, chocolate chip muffins, chili cheese dogs...  They've heard me talk about how I love to grill steaks and drink beer.  I was the first to offer up $5 when someone in the office would make a pizza run.  My drug of choice?  Supreme, on hand-tossed crust.  I thought they'd all be in shock at my recent change in diet.  Maybe they're secretly thinking "it's about time, fatty." Or, maybe, they want to see me succeed and inspire others.

Dinner tonight was:

• 3 carrots
• 2 cups of green grapes
• 1" chunk of ginger
• 1 granny smith apple
• large handful of spinach leaves and stems
• 3 leaves of collard greens
• 1 large lemon
• 1 cucumber

It made about 32 ounces, or 16 ox. each.  We put ice cubes in it and took it with us to Costco.  I liked it.  Tresa said she thought it tasted a little like a sour apple.  I think I'm using too much lemon.

I picked up some more cucumbers, mangoes, celery, carrots, onions and pears tonight.  We also bought some Odwalla Superfood juice for times when we don't have time to juice, forgot it at home, etc.  I know it's not the same as fresh juice but it's a healthful alternative in a pinch.

Okay, so... about my weigh-in.  I know I said that I would only weigh in once a week.  That was a lie and you ought to have spotted it from a mile away.  Yes, I've weighed myself a couple of times since last Thursday.  Yes, I've seen significant losses already.  I was just telling Tresa that my pants are falling down and that I had to cinch my belt one notch.  I think I also see it a little in my cheeks.  It's enough to notice, anyway, and I'm encouraged by it. So just this once, I'm going to share my progress early.  I weighed 254 lbs. this morning.  That's a loss of 11 lbs. in less than 5 days.  I know, I know....water.  But, water or not, I'll still take it.  I'm losing.  I'm losing over here.  I'm losing over there.  I'm bi-losing.

I had Tresa take some photos of me last night.  Front on, and profile shots.  Yes, I know that yesterday was Day Four.  When you see them, just picture me 11 lbs heavier and that's what I looked like before I started this crazy experiment.  And don't even ask; no one sees the "before" pictures until the "after" pictures have been taken on the final day of the fast.  By the way, I don't know if I mentioned the significance of my starting date, September 29th.  It was last Thursday (technically I started Wednesday at noon, but I'm counting FULL days) and that was exactly eight weeks before Thanksgiving.  Eight weeks.  Fifty six days.  I know I won't be able to turn down Thanksgiving dinner with my family.  But if I meet my goal weight, I'll have one more thing to be thankful for this year.