Day Six

Well this morning I weighed in at 246 lbs. So overall I've lost 10 lbs. Not to bad for six days and not starving myself. I haven't had any more body aches other than my injuries but, even those pains have lessened at rest. Overall I have to say this was a good thing to do. So tomorrow I will be transitioning back to solid foods. I'm going to try to stay with lighter foods and plenty of water. I'll make a smoothie in the morning and split it. Half with breakfast and half with lunch. I'll keep the solid foods light and I'm planning on some rice, stir-fry, and fish for dinner.

So I'll add more tomorrow about how well te transition goes.

Day Five

I weighed myself this morning and again I weighed in at 248 lbs but, I have to say that my clothes feel looser than before. I'm sure that if I could run or do any of the high calorie burning exercises that I used to I would see a little more of the weight loss. Besides I didn't expect to see much weight loss in only seven days. I can say that I am surprised about the energy that I am feeling today. I have no body aches or headaches at all ( except for my dull headache from the injury). I can see now why everyone said you have to do the cleanse for more than 3 or 4 days.

Surprisingly I can say without a doubt that I'm sleeping better than I have for some time. For the last 3 years I've had to have 2 to 3 drinks a night to dull the pain enough to try and sleep. My sleep hasn't been consistent at all and the only times I sleep for more than about 7 hours is when I've been sick. I also usually wake up every time that I move from the pain in my leg, back or shoulder, but that hasn't happened over the last several days. This is a side effect that I never expected at all.

Now I can honestly say that when this is over I am looking forward to some meat but, I'm thinking a lot more vegetables than I ate before sounds good.

Day Four

So I've hit day 4 and I'm feeling pretty good. I'm still weighing in at 248 lbs. I'm still dealing with the pain from my injuries but, the aches and pains have definitely gone away. I'm still trying to exercise to the extent that my injuries allow. The most noticeable change to date is in my head. What I mean to say is that I feel like a fog or fuzziness is being lifted. I can think more clearly. When I get hungry I can feel the fog coming back a little. Not quite sure what that means though.

Also I have noticed that I can still appreciate looking at food and the smell of it but, I feel like I have to have it. My appetite is being handled very well with the smoothies.

The Third Day

Well I weighed in this morning at 248 lbs. I was a little surprised at the fact that my weight hadn't changed at all since I had such a large change from day 1 to day 2. I'm thinking that initial weight loss was from all those trips to the bathroom. I'm not noticing big differences but, I'm not getting the headaches anymore and the associated body aches have almost gone away as well. I am noticing that I get tired about noon fast but, I'm sleeping better and staying full.

I tried to start exercising a little yesterday so I'm feeling that in my knees but, it's livable. I'll just have to see how that goes and keep exercising a little at a time. I'm hoping to start getting a little more energy soon. Let's see how it goes.

What A Day

Well I'm writing this the morning of day 2. I'm not quite sure where to begin since yesterday was quite a day for me. First off I should say that I stepped on the scale first thing this morning and was I surprised! Yesterday morning I weighed in at 256 lbs and this morning I weighed in at 248 lbs. I was so surprised by that that I weighed myself 4 times. I never expected in my wildest dreams to have lost 8 lbs in the first day but, there was a price to pay.

I didn't have any problems getting filled up as those smoothies took care of all of my hunger but, I did have a headache from the afternoon through last night and I felt fatigued, stiff and sore. I also would recommend to anyone beginning a cleanse like this to begin on a Saturday or even better a 3 day weekend. Don't start this on a Monday if you will be at work. To begin with I had to pee at least every 15 -30 minutes and I had to use the toilet 6 times throughout the day. This is why I'm saying don't start this at work. I also woke up about once an hour throughout the night having to pee. The worst part of the day for me was laying in bed and needing to chew something. I had a lot of problems with not having chewed solid food. Not because I was hungry but, I think because I have never done anything like this before my body wasn't used to it and somewhere in my head I have always expected to be chewing the food.

I'm also finding it a little tough not drinking coffee in the morning or having any alcohol in the evening. I've been drinking coffee first thing in the morning since I was in high school. It's been over 25 years of coffee drinking so I'm noticing that I miss that a lot. I have been using alcohol for the last 3 years as a way to reduce my pain in the evenings so that I can sleep and I found it tough last night.

Now having said all of that I can honestly say that I was truly surprised to wake up this morning and not feel as bad as I did yesterday and find that I had lost 8 lbs in 24 hours. Now I'll have to see how day 2 goes. Time for me to go make another smoothie. I'll post again tomorrow with today's results.

Green Smoothies, Fact or Fiction?

So why would I begin my ramblings with a topic like green smoothies? To answer that question I should give you a little background on me. In 2005 the economy was not so good for the technology sector so I gave everything up and changed careers, I joined the fire department. I know it sounds like I regressed back to childhood but, I had years of experience as a volunteer EMT and search and rescue/emergency worker. So it really wasn't a huge leap for me.

So I went through the fire academy and got my EMT certification again and began working in my community. I absolutely loved this job. Helping people and protecting them when they need it the most meant so much to me but, all good things must come to an end and boy did they. The end of June 2008 was the biggest turning point in my life. While I was working a structure fire (house fire) I was injured. While I was tearing open steel siding the ground beneath me gave way and my feet went out from under me. I landed with my right arm pinned down behind me and a broken piece of brick or cement shoved into the backside of my lower back and hip as well as a piece of it wedged under the brim of my helmet against the right side of my neck. When I hit I blacked out. When I came too my feet were in the fire and I was alone. It hurt like hell but, I wasn't staying there. I did everything I could to free myself and get off the fire ground. As soon as I was spotted coming off the fire ground I was helped off, checked out and then sent to the hospital.

Fast forward to three years later. My right hip, lower back, right shoulder, right wrist and right knee are messed up for life. I've spent the last three years in pain twenty-four hours a day and I've been left to fend for myself by both the department and the state. Needless to say this caused a huge amount of stress for me. I've been fighting depression for the last three years due to all this. I also went from 200 lbs to at the highest almost 300 lbs. As well as being extremely active to no activity at all.

I'm sure by now you're asking ok so what does any of this have to do with green smoothies? Well I'll tell you. I have finally gotten over my depression and now I'm trying to deal with my body. I have been able to get my weight down to 250 - 260 lbs but, I just can't exercise like I used to so I've had no luck reducing my weight any further. I've also been reading for a while about people that have had all of this disease, illness and injuries that the smoothies have healed. Not to mention the incredible amount of weight loss that has been documented from it as well. So I have decided to give the green smoothies a try for seven days and see if I get any results.

So why seven days? Well from what I've read seven days gets you through the initial detoxification of the first three to four days and then allows for the last three to four days to feel the difference if any. I'm hoping to give my body everything it needs to heal and help reduce the pain and allow me to try and get back down to a healthier weight. I'm also hoping that it will allow me to get more active again. Since this is my first experiment with it I didn't want to try 30 or 60 days since I didn't know how I would respond. So seven days seemed like the best starting point.

I'm starting this smoothie cleanse today, ok so I actually started last night. I weighed myself this morning before I started. I'm weighing in at 256 lbs. I will be weighing  myself each day during the cleanse and post my results.

I am using kale, romaine lettuce, spring greens, broccoli, carrots, avocados, cucumbers, tomatoes, celery, bananas, apples, peaches and strawberries. I am mixing the greens into each smoothie and adding different combinations of fruits to flavor the drinks. I'm using a Vita-Mix blender to make my smoothies. I'll be having about a half gallon of of the smoothie mix for each meal. So far it takes me about 1 -2 hours to drink it down for each meal. I'm also drinking water in between my meals. Don't let the idea of drinking fool you. These smoothies fill you up!

Bottoms up! Wish me luck and I will post each day through my experiment.

My First Post... What Am I Doing?

Let me start by saying hello to anyone who takes the time to read this. So what is this all about? Well I wanted a little corner of the Internet to finally speak my mind on any subject I wanted. I enjoy a good debate and welcome them. I just wanted a place to put my thoughts out there and hope that they might inspire, educate or even provoke a discussion or debate. So I welcome any thoughts, comments or questions on anything in this blog. So with that I say thanks for reading and I look forward to your participation.