Day 12 in my Juicing Journey

I am 12 day into the Juicing Cleanse.  I started this journey about a year ago when I came across Jon Gabriel's methods and decided to try meditation for weight loss.  I tried hypnosis some also, but don't think I gave it enough of a try.  I was always too busy to sit and listen to the hypnosis, although I did use it to go to sleep.  I liked Jon Gabriel's voice and I liked his way of thinking.  If you are interested, go to www.gabrielmethod.com and see what he has to offer.  I still use his visualizations at night and as often during the day as I can remember to do it.  My husband likes to go to sleep listening to Jon as well, it's a soothing and positive message.  He has an app, and you can only get the ones you want.

I lost about 10 lbs listening to Jon, but was still having high blood pressure and my weight loss hit a plateau for a number of months.  Then I was reading Dr Mercola's website and he talks about intermittent fasting and how it helps your body learn to burn fat again and get off the cycle of refined carb burning.  I liked this idea and so I started doing that.  I was wonderfully successful at it on the weekend when I could go outside and work in the yard before eating.  But when I was at work, sitting at my desk, I would get so hungry and need to eat.  So I couldn't do it all the time.  Plus I was still having issues giving up the sugar.  I've been a sugar addict since childhood.  I truly believe that refined carbohydrates like sugar and white flour are as addictive and as bad for you as narcotics.  But they are not illegal and so easy to get.  My body has labored under the burden of these foods and stress for so many years that I wasn't even sure I could really heal. I tried every kind of diet, and knew I needed to give up the refined carbs, but had trouble doing it.  Even when I did, it was short lived and I lost and gained weight a number of times.

All this set me up for being insulin resistant and after a while, my body just would not respond to my attempts to eat sanely and in a healthy way.  I didn't eat that much, but was still stuck at an incredible weight that I can't believe I was even at.  Then a few weeks ago, I saw an interview on Jon Gabriel's site where he talked to the Juice Master Justin Vale and something clicked for me.  I watched the interview, then I watched Jason Vale's documentary where he helps 4 people get healthy.  And I decided to give myself the gift of health for my birthday.  I'm 58 years old now and I won't be getting healthier any younger.  So now is the time!  Go to www.juicemaster.com to see Jason's website and you can watch his documentary for free there.  

We had tried juicing before and had the ultimate Omega juicer languishing on the counter from our last attempt.  But my husband got tired of doing it and we had only done it for morning, never for all our meals.  So I had the equipment, I just needed a bit of guidance.  So I got Jason's 28 day plan, and decided to try it.  It was that or consider weight loss surgery, and believe me, I was not willing to go there.  But I also could not go on any longer dealing with the side effects of high blood pressure or the meds to artificially keep it low.  So I decided to do it for me, for my birthday, for my sweet husband who loves me no matter what but was so worried about my health because we married late and we have a lot of catching up to do. 

So far, so good.  Here is my 12 day video blog.

10 days and still going!

I'm 10 days into my 28 day juice cleanse and still going strong.   I've lost about 13 pounds and my blood pressure is lower than it's been in 15 or 20 years.  I am so excited to have such great success.  Nothing else has worked so well for me to lose weight.  I've tried it all, counting calories, counting carbs, Nutrisystems, you name it, I've done it.   I had some small success with intermittent fasting, lost maybe 15 lbs on that but I would hit plateaus and I got so hungry at work.   This just shows such great results that it keeps you going.   I feel so much better being able to sleep.  Plus my blood pressure is NORMAL.  I've been 130-135 systolic for so many years, and now that's lower.  Every time I take my blood pressure I just start laughing.  It's so crazy.  My father-in-law said that maybe I should have tried another blood pressure medicine, but I told him that lack of blood pressure medicine didn't cause my high blood pressure. It was stress, weight gain, and possibly buildup in my veins.  So why mask the symptoms when they don't cure the problem, it will just get worse!  I am so happy that food is healing me.  I'm getting better adjusted to the liquid diet and am excited each day to get up and see how well I'm healing.  Here is my video diary.

Day 6 of my Juicing Journey

Well, as of the morning of Day 6, I have dropped 11 lbs and last night when I took my blood pressure, it was 117/72!  Tonight, more of the same, 116/70.  I'm so thrilled that my blood pressure is doing great with no drugs.  I've been off my blood pressure medicine for over a week now, and I'm sleeping so much better!  I feel great and I'm drinking the juice.  I'm pretty regular too, so no issues there.  I get food cravings but I'm not usually very hungry.  Once in a while my stomach grumbles but not too often.  Yesterday I had trouble drinking all my juice and tonight, it was a bit much for me also.

I don't look so happy in my video this morning, but I was happy.  I just still am a bit slow first thing and need time to wake up and look more normal.

Day 4 video blog

I'm having some technical difficulties adding my videos to my blog.  So I am going back and adding day 4 video after the fact.

My Juicing Journey

I have decided to try juicing to improve my health.  I'm 58 years old tomorrow, about 140 lbs overweight and have been on thyroid medicine and more recently, blood pressure medicine.  I gained a lot of weight after my kids and dieted to lose and then would gain it back.  Of course a highly stressful relationship had something to do with the weight gain also.  But I was also a fitness instructor part time and was teaching 5 aerobics classes or more per week as well as doing yoga and was still 50 lbs overweight.  So something else was wrong.  I've been low thyroid probably most of my life although my mom swears she had us tested as kids.  But the old standards were faulty as many of you know now.  And I had many symptoms of low thyroid for years and years.  Finally, getting medicine helped me feel more normal but it didn't seem to help my metabolism.

I figure at some point I became insulin resistant as well from the diets.  I've done many, low carb, low calorie, Nutrisystem, and many others, but nothing really helped much.  When I hit menopause, I gained another 50 lbs and was at my highest weight ever.  I've been up there for a number of years but have now started to go down.  I started using Jon Gabriel's meditations to help and started gardening to get me out and about.  I have a job where I sit all day and don't see the sun at all.  So getting outside is a must.  I was Vitamin D deficient several years ago but that has turned around and my last level was around 60 which is decent.  I take 5000 units a day which so far has not hurt me and is finally bringing my levels into the healthy range.

I lost about 20 lbs with Jon Gabriel and the gardening, but it is slow and in the meantime, my sleep was increasingly bad.  The blood pressure medicine I was on, tended to make my Restless Leg Syndrome severe and it was hard to sleep at all, plus I would wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to get back to sleep from the pain in my legs.  So I needed to do something or else go crazy.  I'd had a lot of trouble sleeping since menopause and I believe my cortisol was also off the wall.  I had it tested and it was all out of whack, low in the morning and then up and down but not at the right times.  Add sleep apnea on top of all this and I was seriously dragging every day.

So I decided I needed to lose weight NOW and get off the blood pressure medicine immediately.   Plus it would help my sleep apnea.   So I downloaded an app from the Juice Master Jason Vale and started today for a 28 day juice cleanse.  Here is my first day's video blog.

I stopped taking the Lisinopril with the HC(whatever) about 5 days ago and I have slept so much better.  No restless leg, or nearly none and I can go back to sleep if I wake up.  My blood pressure is steady around 135/80, better than before, but I think that will improve once I get the juice cleanse going good.  I think the 20lbs I already lost has helped some with the blood pressure.  

I'm hungry, but I don't care.  I think it will be worth it long term so that I can enjoy my life with my husband and my children/grandchildren.  This is a journey and I will post things I've found that have helped me as I go.