A Second Sixty Day Juice Fast? Am I nuts?

Nope, just determined - and embarrassed, desperate, depressed, scared, etc.  Following is a copy of an email sent out after my original 60 day juice fast which ended September 8th, 2011.  I had triumphantly lost 40.5 pounds.  Only a few of my friends knew that I was juicing and avoiding all solid foods.  There was no way I was going to announce to the world that I was on yet another diet -- and keeping quiet worked. I lost the weight -- with another 60 to go --and I assumed wrongly that I would never gain an ounce of it back.  I have.  A significant amount of it back, in fact. I'm not willing to say how much right now - but I will within the next few days.  Basically, I don't want to get on the scale.

But this time around, I decided to share the process with whoever might stumble upon this post.  I obviously did not learn what I needed to learn the first time around.  For weeks I have had daily binges of 1,000 calories or more, consuming basically junk.  Kind of sad really, and even more pathetic when you read the following post proclaiming how good I felt eating real food.  But losing weight is similar to writing a novel  I have to keep plodding along, doing the right tuff daily, know there will be days when anything I try will fail, and I just have to wait until the next day to try again.

This time around I have decided I would not only share what I am doing on a daily basis but ask you for your good vibes for this old hippie.  Today is Day One:

The email I sent to my friends on Sept. 9th, 2011

SIXTY DAY JUICE FAST/40.5 POUNDS LIGHTER

A few you know that on July 9th I downloaded a documentary from Netflix called Fat, Sick, Nearly Dead. The story tells the true tale of Aussie Joe Cross who weighed 310 pounds and suffered from a horrendous autoimmune skin disease. He decided to come to America to live on juice only for 60 days as he hits the road with a juicer. He travels across the country interviewing strangers. True, by the end of his fast, Joe turns into a hunk but I was more touched by Phil. I identified with Phil, the physically ill, morbidly obese and morbidly depressed 410-pound Iowa trucker who had totally given up on ever being able to change. Except for the weight amount, that pretty much described me. Phil fortunately decided to follow the fast. The two men’s results were so spectacular that I insisted my husband watch it the next evening. He loved the film. On Monday July 11th I started the fast. As of today, Sept. 9th I have lost forty and a half pounds. This is my 61st day and I am now adding solid food back into my life.

But losing weight hasn’t been the only benefit. Within 3 days I had more energy than I have had since my early forties. I still feel the same way today. Except for one occurrence, I no longer have scary symptoms of my heart condition. They were becoming a daily event. My thinking has become clearer and I have worked more in these last 60 days than I worked in the past twelve months. One day I noticed I worked (wrote, cleaned the house, threw out files, studied software, did business crap) from 8 am until 11 pm. And I woke up happy, something I haven’t done since I was 24 years of age. My friends tell me my skin glows and my hair looks thicker.

The documentary talks a lot about processed foods (evil) and the benefits of a diet that is 80 percent fruits and veggies. The book following the diet/lifestyle can cure depression, type 2 diabetes, heart conditions, obesity, skin issues, well the list goes on and on. It’s all based on Dr. Joel Fuhmann’s book Eat to Live. It also claims that if you eat this way, you will meet all your nutritional needs and won’t be tempter to overeat. I doubted that greatly. Even appetite suppressants didn’t work with me. Daughter of a gun, this worked. (BTW, since I am a cynic by nature I thought these claims were was a load of crap. Now that I have experienced detoxing, no appetite and other healing processes, I think it is completely true. No more processed foods for me.)

I have coerced friends into watching the documentary—either for health or weight issues I knew they were battling. They all thought it was a wonderfully entertaining and informative documentary, too. All of them are juicing now and finding similar results, even if they not just juice fasting like I did.

Fat, Sick, Nearly Dead is funny, insightful and in my case, turned my life around.

Except for this last week—when all I wanted to do was break my fast so that I wouldn’t be successful at something—this has been the easiest diet I have ever been on. I was never once hungry, except for the first two days of the fast. Nor did I even want food. I often forgot to drink my juice and had to remind myself.

Not a shred of solid food has crossed my lips for sixty days until today. Not even the tiniest piece of lettuce. I decided early on if I were going to do it I would not listen to the ridiculous self-talk I entertain myself with for hours. Examples; “You deserve a treat”, “Everyone cheats”, “What’s the big deal? It’s only a piece of lettuce”, “I’m a big girl” “I carry my weight well”, “This is not going to work.”, “I only like things that taste good”, “Nothing works for me. Everything works for everyone else maybe, but not me. I am special. Really, it won’t work”, and the infamous “I just don’t want to do it. What’s the point? I will just gain it all back.”

No, I won’t gain it back. Pretty much I will be following Furhman’s life style forever. Mostly veggies, fruits, 2 ounces of nuts max daily, legumes, occasional whole grains and meat or fish 3 times a week. I will have a veggie juice every day (not V-8 or any processed juice. I do have at least 50 more pounds to lose, maybe even sixty. (Steve and I stopped having dairy in our house over a year and a half ago. So dairy isn’t even an issue for me. It is not allowed on Furhman’s plan.)

So, I wanted to let you all know what I have been doing. I am completely in shock that I actually did it. I am amazed at how great I feel. For those who knew about my juice fast, thank you for your support. You have no idea how much it meant to me and how much that support helped to keep me it focused. I didn’t want to disappoint anyone who believed in me. I have too much of a history of doing that to repeat it again. I told very few people what I was doing. Only the ones I had to, like the person I was spending the day with or if they were dealing with the same issues I am.

But, I was really surprised at the mind games that went on constantly in my head. My-oh- my, I can talk myself out of anything. This time I talked myself into something wonderful. (And yes, I am putting together a book and will continue writing it until I get to my weight goal.)

Fat, Sick, Nearly Dead is also available on Amazon either as a download or the DVD, and there is a book version. Joe Cross also has a great website which will redirect you, if needed, to his free program called Reboot. Just google the name of the book. (Did I mention he is also a wealthy Australian, besides being a hunk now? Sigh.)

Hope your day will be as good as mine will be.

(Feel free to pass this on, if you want.)