juice feast: day 1-3

Happy Monday Beautiful People!

Today is day 4 & I’m starting the week off feeling fabu! I awoke at 5:15am & took some time to enjoy my morning mug of warm water, lemon & cayenne before The Brownboy Superheroes woke up.  I can already notice the difference in my energy.  For example, anyone who knows me knows that I’m a complete scatterbrain…and I’ve self-diagnosed myself with ADD but this morning I was ON!  I had myself ready for the day, a hot breakfast made and a clean & tasty lunch packed for the boys before they woke up at 6:45am.  To top it off, they were dressed, washed up, fed & sitting on the couch reading…errr, playing their Nintendo DSs instead of scrambling around the house trying locate their shoes & backpacks.  AND we were out the door by 7:28am; the goal is 7:30am but 7:38am is typical.  We only live 2 blocks from their school but with a 4.5 and 8 year old––one dragging their feet & the other stopping to dap up every lil’ boy & look back at every lil’ girl––they are pushing the 7:45am bell.  So 7:28am NEVER happens to me when I don’t have morning help or prep the night before & it damn sure doesn’t happen on a Monday.  I do have to give hubs props for washing out their planetboxes before he left for work this morning.  Thanks, hubs!

So energy.  Hmmm, also I feel lighter.  And I AM!!  5 lbs lighter.  Ok, so I know I said I broke up with my scale but that mostly meant that I wouldn’t step on it every single time I went into the bathroom.  A larger loss of weight will more than likely occur the first week because you are shedding water weight.  It might have even been more for me if I hadn’t gotten all caught up in the moment & had a margarita & a half saturday night.  Whaaa?!!!!   Yes, I dropped the ball…totally forgot about this end of the summer BBQ & my friend convinced me it would be great for the blog if I showed you we all F up sometimes.  I was convinced! 🙂 I mean, c’mon…don’t you ever wonder: Like he seriously went 30 days JUST drinking juice & water?!  Not a bite of his kid’s french toast or his wife’s sausage?   I don’t buy it.  I think people just don’t want to admit it.  They think if they omit it, it didn’t happen.  OWN that shit!  My name is Mia and I had a margarita…and a half.  I hate feeling like I’m “cheating.”  When I’m not juice feasting I wouldn’t have thought twice about that/those drinks.  I would have just said, ok, Sunday I’ll drink more juice & water.  It doesn’t compromise my diet, it makes it a manageable lifestyle.  I’m human.  Shit happens.  Get over it & move on.

As I was saying…I used to think my water weight issues were attributed to too much sodium alone but now I understand it a little differently.  I have a lot of inflammation when I’m not eating clean.  Inflammation occurs when you eat certain foods that cause chemicals from the body to be released into the blood or affected tissues. This release of chemicals increases the blood flow to the area of injury or infection and may result in redness and warmth. Some of the chemicals cause a leak of fluid into the tissues, resulting in swelling. This process may stimulate nerves and cause pain.  Think arthritis.

Let me tell you this lil’ story real quick.  Once I blew up 17lbs overnight!  I shit you not.  True story.  The Chinese Food Debacle of 2011.  I was out of town & ate some Chinese on New Years Eve.  It was the strangest thing. Within an hour of eating the food my skin started to tingle and my body started to swell.  My abdomen, hands & feet were most noticeable.  Then my legs felt tight.  I couldn’t even bend them without feeling enormous pressure.  The skin on my legs was tight and hot to the touch.  My feet were so swollen–– all I could fit on my feet were Uggs.  I looked 5 months pregnant.  It was a mess!  Long story short, I went to the ER, a primary physician & had a sonogram done to verify it was water & it was.  But they couldn’t figure out what caused it.  None of them had ever seen anything like it before. When I got home, I went to an allergist.  I told him what happened, he looked at me like I was from another planet.  He had this incredulous look on his face and made me feel really silly for about 2 seconds.  Then I showed him the pictures…

Which, I will not be showing here.  But we did figure out that more than likely it was an MSG reaction. MSG is not something I ever eat because it’s usually in packaged foods–it’s a chemical used to opens your taste buds & give foods a burst of “flavor.”  I had never had an issue with eating cheap Chinese carry-out or dim sum before I started eating clean.  It seemed like the oddest thing but chances are my body built up an immunity to it because it was gradually introduced over years & years of eating packaged foods.  The same thing can happen with food allergies.  Just like pollen makes you itch, sneeze & snot, something you eat all the time could be affecting you negatively & you don’t even know it.  For example, the runny nose & loose stool you have today could be a mild allergic reaction to the peanut butter & jelly sandwich you had yesterday.  All that to say, think about the foods you are eating that may cause it.  If you have a difficult time losing weight or it fluctuates a lot, water retention, inflammation or food allergies could be causing it.  Some of the most common culprits of inflammation are vegetable oils (extra virgin olive oil & coconut oil are good options), margarin or butter substitutes containing partially-hydrogenated oil, milk & dairy (almond & rice milk are good options), and white flour bread & pasta (whole grains are better).  By juice feasting, you are cutting a lot of possible allergens out as well.  Keep a (mental) journal of what you eat & how you feel immediately after, later in the day & the next morning.  Just like with babies, only introduce one thing back into your diet at a time works well.  See how each change makes you feel.  I was able to determine my gluten intolerance this way too (most of us have this too but that’s another post).

So the two biggest things I’ve noticed the last few days was energy & a 5 lb weight loss.  My skin also looks better & hubs commented on it yesterday.  I haven’t had any headaches since I started but on day 2 I did poop A LOT.  Yes, I talk about my poop with random people.  I’m THAT chick.  You should all be so lucky to be so in tune with your poop.  It tells you a lot.  But I will save that topic for a post all it’s own. 🙂  Until then…

light & love,

MK