Exciting Plans for March

So, February is over and I'm glad to see it go.  The weather is gradually getting better and better although there are still way too few sunny days for my taste.  We are supposed to get ice and frigid temps for Sunday and Monday but then it is supposed to warm up to normal temps for this area and time of year.  So with the majority of the really cold stuff behind us, I am confident enough to go ahead and start another juice fast.  I'm juicing at least through March and maybe part or all of April.  I'm calling this my March Juicing Madness!
I reached my second 10% goal in February so that was a huge victory that put me at 275.5 and I actually got down to 273.  But overall February weight loss was quite slow.  I believe that it is probably normal for our bodies to hold onto the weight tighter when we are exposed to frequent subzero temps as a safety mechanism and I was definitely exposed.  Not as in, "Baby It's Cold Outside" so I'll stay in my house where it's nice and warm.  Oh no!  I'm talking cold as in my house is a pile of crap and you can't keep it warm.  Cannot.  I have been freezing my assets off this winter.  But I just feel in my bones that my body is ready to start letting it go again so as a kick start, I'm back on Da Juice!  I have my brain in juicing gear so that I'm not even looking at or thinking about the chewed stuff.  That is the hard-to-describe difference between wanting to do a juice fast and having it just not take off like I did earlier this winter and a juice fast that is working for me.  I'm in the zone baby.  
I'm really pumped because the 10% goal I'm working on right now is to go from 275.5 to 248.  Making 248 will put me just 8 pounds away from having lost 100lbs.  So I've been hoping that I could hit 248 by the end of March but now I'm thinking that I will go on into April however far it takes to actually hit 100lbs gone.  I'm really going to hit 100lbs gone!  Like within the next few weeks!  How exciting is that?!
I made a youtube vid about my March plans that I've also posted here on my blog and I am getting ready to upload one about willpower.  I said I didn't believe in willpower and a friend said she was curious about that and I should make a vid so I did:)  It'll be up shortly.  I don't usually feel like I really articulate what I'm trying to say in these videos which is frustrating for me as public speaking is another one of those things that I used to be good at:/  But it is a personal challenge I've set for myself.  It's almost therapeutic.  
So that's where I'm at for March.  I'm planning to weigh in on Fridays so I'll at least post progress blogs on Friday or Saturday of each week.
JUICE ON! WE GOT THIS!!!

February Plans and Some Reflection On My Weight History

So after a VERY depressing Superbowl and yummy and healthy but overly plentiful game day snacks, I am ready to get this ball rolling again.  I was planning to just flatout juice fast through the month.  But since the weatherman has revised our 2 week fore cast to stay below freezing the entire time with lows in the teens and single digits, I'm not sure I can face how cold I feel on just juice.  My house only stays about 50degrees when it's this cold and I have no hot water now (long story) so I have to heat up water in an electric pot to clean my juicer and jars.  We will be out of here by the end of the month but, of course, it will probably start to warm up by then.  And I've spent too many years waiting for the perfect conditions to do what I need to do.  So I WILL juice in February in spite of all the challenges I face.  But I will probably also have a bowl of veggie soup now and then when the cold gets to me.

I'm predicting that my weight will start with a 2 and a 6 by the end of the month.  Oh, I'm 278 today. I haven't seen a 260-something in about 8 years.  Maybe 10?  I know I got down into the 240s in 2000 when we lived near Grand Lake which was the lowest I'd been in many years at that point. I hadn't been below 220 since the 1980s.  And I hit the 260s I believe within a year or two of moving away from Grand Lake.  I know I was battling to get out of the 280s from '05 if not longer.  So even being in the 270s is a huge victory. For nearly 2 years I fought hard to lose the weight and get healthy but I didn't realize yet that the food I was eating was making that impossible.  When the doctor sent me to physical therapy in Spring '09, I had been fighting the 280s for a while already.  I found renewed hope in the progress I made with my physical therapist and started really trying to "eat right" according to conventional wisdom and I was working out like a BEAST.  When the PT maxed out on my insurance, she told me I should start swimming.  So I did.  I joined the Y and went swimming 3-5 times a week and was going upstairs and working out on the machines for 30 minutes 3-5 times a week as well.  In spite of all that work, I never got below 280.  I got in good enough shape to go to work again which was awesome.  Started doing cell-phone tech support.  I fought my way through the MG flareups and the increasing pain in my back, hips and legs.  In February of 2012, my truck broke down and I walked the mile and a half to work when I couldn't find a ride.  The walk home was all uphill and was killer on my pain areas.  I could only take that for so long and had to quit my job.  I was having more and more MG flareups and the pain in my back and hips was getting unbearable.  There were times I couldn't stand in the mornings until pain relievers took effect.  Those times became more and more frequent until that was my everyday condition.  In early 2013, I had already been diagnosed with high blood pressure and hypothyroid and was on medications for those.   The doctor convinced me to go back on blood thinners to postpone the amputation of my bad leg as long as possible.  I was giving up.  I figured I had hit my wall and my good years were past.  When I was diagnosed with Paget's and told that the combination of the location of the bone disease and my weight, which by this time was about 320, the bones in my pelvis and hips were becoming deformed, I was trying hard to accept that a wheelchair was in my near future.  That was about a year ago.  I put on another 20 pounds to top out just over 340, became seriously depressed and just gave up on life.  Last summer, I had become so weak and in such constant pain that I rarely left my bedroom.  I began having symptoms of congestive heart failure.  That's when I decided to stop fighting and just die.
So that brings us up to where I started this blog.  I saw "Fat Sick and Nearly Dead" and "Forks Over Knives" and decided to live.  And in 5 months, I've undone the damage from the last 5 years of rapid decline, gotten off of all medications.  And I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that the next year will undo more like 20 years worth of damage.
I turn 52 a week from tomorrow and I will hit that day feeling better than I have in years.  And I'll hit 53 feeling better than I have in decades.  I was planning to do another progress picture on my birthday in my new jeans just because it felt so amazing to be able to wear jeans again but... my new jeans are already too big!!  Maybe some size 20 jeans will be my birthday gift to myself;o)  I started out in a 28 so that isn't too shabby.  But I won't buy any if I can't find them discounted because I know I won't be able to wear them for long.  Now that is my kinda dilemma.
JUICE ON!!  PLANT-STRONG FOREVER!

If You Are Juice FASTING, Then, for Heaven's Sake FAST!

Okay, I'm gonna rant a bit so prepare yourself.  And remember that this rant applies to the old Natshell as much as to anyone else.
I have heard SO many people say, "I don't like vegatables."  And I've even heard quite a few say, "I don't like water."  Let's be clear here.  What you are saying is that you have become so addicted to artificial crap posing as food and drink that your body has forgotten what it really needs.  That, in my humble opinion, is the best and most important function of a juice fast.  It gives your body the chance to get out from under that addiction and remember what it really, biologically, needs so that it will start telling you that this is what it wants again.
Those of us who have been through some juice fasting tell newcomers not to worry because their taste buds will change.  It's truth.  The same is true of the water.  There are some people who try to baby people along and tell them to do whatever is easiest for them.  "Just drink tea or flavored water." "Don't worry about giving up your coffee if that is too hard for you."  "I'm sure a diet soda once in a while won't be the end of the world, at least you'll be getting some healthy juice too...."  I tell people similar things sometimes when I sense that they are really not mentally prepared to deal with their addictions.  But here is my honest to goodness bottom line.  Here is where what Natalie really believes departs from what kind Natalie isn't going to push on others.  When I'm in a public forum, I am pretty good at feeling out where someone is mentally and emotionally and I don't generally push.  I'm not God and I'm not the world's leading juicing expert so I encourage people to find their own path and make their chosen path work for them.  Here's the not-so-kind truth why I say and act that way.  Everyone out there has the same resources I had to find the truth.  Everyone has the same responsibility to themselves to find it.  And everyone out there has to live with their choices.  Meanwhile, here on MY blog, I can be blunt about what I've learned and about what I believe without worrying about hurting anyone's tender feelers. So, are you prepared now?  This isn't the Natshell you are used to....
SUCK IT UP BUTTERCUP.  JUST DRINK THE JUICE AND THE WATER.  Your body was not designed to crave coffee or that poison crap called soda.  It was designed to NEED and CRAVE pure water to survive!  Your body wasn't designed to crave a cheeseburger.  It was designed to crave plants.  Give it a chance.  Give it a tiny little chance to get out from under all the addictive S.H.I.T. that our illustrious scientists have created to cause it to crave those things and you will be ASTOUNDED by how fast it will switch to doing what it was designed to do.
In case there is anyone out there who hasn't yet come to accept that the food industry intentionally hooks us on unhealthy crap, don't take my word for it:

You haven't been able to "eat in moderation" or use "portion control" any more than a crack addict can "control" himself with crack.  It's addictive.  And if you don't believe the higher ups at the food giants know this and use it to sell more more more, then  you are too naive to waste my time on.  So with you, I'll be gentle and kind in another place and time.  For now, those of you who can handle the truth, suck it up, recognize you are being used and abused and do what you would tell any alcohol or drug addict to do.  Step away from the crap that is hurting you.  Replace it with what can make you healthy and strong.  If you don't "enjoy" it in the beginning, just "take your medicine" and have faith.  You will come to enjoy it.  You will come to crave it as the life-giving substance that it is.  Your body knows.  Once you clear out the crap, you can trust your body to tell you what it needs.
Let's not forget that sometimes old, sick tapes can still play in our heads and tell us that we "deserve" to "enjoy" the junk that Barbie and Ken are having at the family picnic.  After all, look how sexy they look!  Just remind yourself that what you really deserve is health, freedom from disease, depression and obesity.  What you really deserve is to live into your 90s with vigor and purpose.  And it doesn't hurt to remind yourself that you can "enjoy" things that don't hurt you!  Do I feel deprived when I'm having a vegan, raw chocolate brownie at the party while others are having TollHouse cookies?  Hell no!  I'm getting the great hormonal boost of the raw chocolate without the heaping dose of poison on the side!  Thanks anyway;o)  And it doesn't hurt to remind yourself that in 40 or 50 years, Barbie and Ken will probably either be pushing up daisies or toodling around a nursing home with their walkers while you are doing 5ks or (if you are me) trail riding with your grandkids.
One more little bitty rant and I'll return you to your regularly scheduled easy-going Natshell. Promise.  When you are on a juice fast.  FAST on JUICE.  "Is it okay to add a bit of meat so I'll get enough protein?" No.  "Is it okay to take a bunch of chemical pain relievers because I have a headache?" No.  "Is it okay to have my coffee in the morning since it's liquid?" NO!  Go ahead and do those things if you want.  But DON'T call it a JUICE.... FAST!  Caffeine, meat and chemicals are some of the precise things your body is having to try to recover from in detox!!!!  If you are still using those things, or having a super healthy weight watchers frozen dessert to keep from feeling "deprived" or having "just a bite" of the kids mac and cheese, you aren't juice fasting.  You are giving your body some great nutrition.  You are giving your body a chance to battle the effects of those toxins.  Giving your body a fighting chance is a good thing.  But it isn't a juice fast.
(Big sigh.)  I feel better now.
Oh and, for those who care to know, I'm juicing February starting the minute the Superbowl ends.  I have my healthy snacks and my salad and I am READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL!!!!  Go Broncos!!!!
Oh and my birthday is Feb 11 so I will be having a super yummy, satisfying and indulgent vegan healthy meal on that day.  Is that a "planned cheat?"  NO!  It's a planned healthy meal.  I DON'T CHEAT!
Okay, NOW I feel better.  Let's just say that some Dysfunctional Eating Societies posing as juicing support groups are making me a bit cray cray.  But I'm aaaaallll better now;o)

JUICE ON!!

January Juice and Chew Day 9

Day 9
4 pints juice
3 tangerines
1 banana
1 boiled egg
1 large baked potato with Mrs. Dash

I'm a little overwhelmed by my non-food related life today so I'm going to leave it at that for today.
JUICE ON!!  Everything is better with juice!  Even all the sh** the world throws at you.

JANUARY JUICE AND CHEW DAY 8 Or The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men...

So, not juice fast day 2 and not day 1 again.  I'm postponing my hardcore juice fast for a week or two.  Hubby isn't snowed in anymore but his truck broke down so now they have him put up in a motel in Indiana while he waits his turn for the shop to fix his truck.  Around 200 other guys are waiting for the same thing.  Some new fuel they have made him use in the truck gels up when it gets too cold.  Yup, trucks broke down all over the North half of the country.  Him not moving for a week means my grocery budget will be VERY tight.  Also, when the pipes thawed out, there was a burst pipe in the bathroom.  Long story but it won't be fixed for at least a few days so we have the water to the house shut off.  Not shut-off valve in the bathroom - retarded right?  See why I'm moving?  So clean up will be challenging this week too.  So we'll just go ahead and do what I've already been doing since the 1st.  It's cool.  I'm feeling very zen about it.  The facebook group I LOVE,  Reach4Raw, is doing a 90 day juice and chew challenge so I'm just travelling along with my rawfriends there:)  I'm eating healthy, drinking juice and losing weight so it's all good.

J&C Day 8
Weigh in - 281.8
3 pints juice
3 tangerines
1 LARGE salad with greens, tomatos, mushrooms, green onions, cucumber, sprinkle of sunflower seeds and light balsamic.
I did a 20 minute Sparkpeople resistance band video and discovered that my right leg is still very much weaker than the left.  It wasn't as bad after I finished physical therapy but over the last 3 years being so horrible health wise, it has gotten really weak again.  (I had a massive blood clot in that leg that damaged the veins and also the right knee is the one that is trashed.)  So I have a goal now to rehab my right leg.  I finished the video but was not able to do all reps on the right leg and my form sucked!  So room for improvement:)

On a personal note, I was really excited when Kitten the Juice Pirate joined my group on rebootwithjoe.  She is SUCH a huge inspiration for me and one of the first examples of what you could do with this lifestyle.  I posted on Reach4Raw about this and got lots of great responses but I was so touched I can't even tell you when my friend Taffy said that I was her Kitten the Juice Pirate.  That I was to her what Kitten was to me.  Wow.  I am floored.  The day before, I posted my progress picture and had a few people say that seeing that gave them the inspiration to get on with it and start juicing and eating raw!  Me!!  Inspiring people!!!  On top of all the really stressful stuff that was going on I have to confess I shed a tear or two.  But we'll just say that was emotional detox and keep that between you and me okay?

JUICE ON!!

Winter 2014 Juice Fast Day 1

First off, I have to start by saying my heart goes out to those affected by this insane cold front that has blanketed the nation.  Many areas are getting down in the 30 below area!!  Here in Oklahoma it was in the single digits most of the time for the last two days.  Windchill last time I checked yesterday during the day was around negative 12 degrees.  My main source of heat is out so we have portable electric radiator style heaters.  They do all right when it is in the 20s or 30s but single digits are too much for them.  It was 35deg in my house when I went to bed last night.  It is supposed to get up in the 40s and 50s for the rest of the foreseeable forecast so we're fine here.  But so much of the country is just frozen. My husband is snowed in at a truck stop in Gary, Indiana.  And this cold is apparently hard on heating systems because my daughter and several friends have reported their heat going out.  However, my main thoughts and prayers at a time like this are for the homeless.  The shelters are just woefully inadequate, at least around here.  I feel bad because I didn't take any hats and scarves to the shelters this year at all.  The last couple of winters have been so mild it sort of fell off my radar.  So my knitting challenge for the duration of my juice fast is going to switch to just making as many hats as I can, both adult and infant, as well as scarves and glittens.  If they report another cold front headed for us, I'll take them to John 3:16 shelter.  If not, I'll send them to the reservation.  (To make the time pass faster during my juice fast, I'm knitting for charity.  When I set myself a knitting deadline, the time always flies by.)

Now, my report for Monday.  I have to report on the previous day, obviously, since I can't know for certain what all I will do today!  So, weight will be current mornings weight.  Food will be from the previous day.  Got that?  So tomorrow will read "Day 1 - Again"

MONDAY, 6 Jan 2014
Weigh in: 282.3
Juice: 3 pints
Liquids: 16oz water, 16oz broth from cabbage soup with pepper
Food: 1 banana, 3 tangerines, 1 baked potato with salsa

Detox symptoms: Yes!  My eyes are all gummy and I have a headache and some nausea.  Someone just asked me yesterday if I experienced nausea last time and I said, "No, not really."  And then in the wee hours of this morning, bam.  Nothing too unbearable, but not all that pleasant either.  I also feel pretty upbeat and cheerful from some fool reason.  But I do feel like the glitches on the reboot website are maybe more than I can handle right now without ripping someone's head off so I'll wait a while to log in.

And, by the way, it is up to 40 degrees inside my house!  Whoopee!  I am planning to also include any workouts I get in on these posts but I didn't do any yesterday.  Maybe today or tomorrow at the latest it will be warm enough for me to take off some layers (ha! I typed lawyers at first - I'll take off some lawyers) and work out with my resistance band:)

Stay warm everyone.  And pray for those who can't.

Progress Pic As Promised

Okay, so this is not exactly earth shattering but there is a difference.  Pic on the left is August 23rd, 2013 at 340.  Pic on the right is January 2nd, 2014 (that's 4 months and 10 days) at 287.

I was going to try to use the same clothes but it was too freaking cold!  It was hard enough to take off my jacket for this one.  and the next one probably won't even be able to be in the same spot since we are moving soon. (Thank God!)  The only measurement I'm going to share right now because I am being lazy, is that my waist went from 52" to 45" so far but trust me, my hips, legs and upper arms are all smaller too.  Now... bring on the next 50!  Now THAT will be a progress pic!!

So for my daily update that really will hopefully become daily:/  Friday and Saturday, I had a couple juices along with a couple pieces of fruit and a big ol' salad.  Today, I'm having more juice, less fruit and a veggie soup that I'm mostly just taking the broth off of.  It has herbs and spices, very little salt, cabbage, mushrooms, squash, green beans and a few stray carrots.  It's yummy:)  I plan to scoop out the veggies and put them in the blender for a cream soup for the girls and I'll set back the broth for me.

Weight this morning 284.
Exercise - 0 (I usually don't exercise on Sunday.)

JUICE WITH ME!!

Welcome 2014!

This is the first time I can ever remember being happy on New Years.  Usually New Years, like my birthday, is an occasion for me to try very very hard not to fall into a terrible depression; or at least to not let it show to my family.  People talking about their New Year's resolutions just reminded me that I had let yet another year go by without doing anything to change the dismal direction of my life.  Thank God for Joe Cross and his movie Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead and for all the other wise and wonderful people and resources that it led me to.  Dr. T Colin Campbell and Dr. Esselstyn among others.  Today I can honestly post this on facebook and mean it!  (As I, in fact, did;o)

That pretty much sums up how I feel about New Years.  I lost 54 lbs during the last 18 weeks of 2013.  And I have every expectation that I will lose double that during 2014.  That will put me at the weight I graduated high school in 1980.  I don't know what my final ideal weight will be but I know that will be an unbelievable victory and that I will be in radiant good health.  I have reclaimed my dreams and plans.  I think of 2013 as the year I came back to life.  If you read my blog, you know that this is not hyperbole.  Now here is how I think of 2014:

I am not one for big, involved New Year's resolutions but I have made some plans for the new year.  I eat a clean, healthy diet but I am still growing and learning in this lifestyle.  I am not fully raw, just high raw and I am not even 100% vegan.  For now, this is cool with me.  Maybe I'll "evolve" beyond this and maybe I won't.  But I really do feel a need to both track my food for my own benefit and to be accountable.  So I plan to start posting here daily instead of randomly.  I may frequently only post what I ate and what specific exercises I did but there will be something every day unless my computer or ISP goes down.  I'll also post my weight every Friday.  And everyone has been after me to do progress photos since I've lost over 50lbs now but trust me, since I started at 340, 50lbs isn't a dramatic change to the naked eye.  But I'll do them. I'll try to do them and post them tomorrow.  And I will post progress pics every 50 bs or every 4 months, whichever comes first or seems to make more sense at the time.

And, for the record, I am starting another juice fast Friday.  I will go to the store tomorrow for supplies and start juice only the next day.  I am committing to 30 days of nothing but juice. Period.  After the 30 days, I'll decide on a weekly basis.  I'm hoping to go 90 days.  I may end up having a one day a week salad and I will be having a special, healthy, vegan meal at a great restaurant for my birthday on February 11th but hopefully I can do 90 days other than those exceptions.  I have no problem with making up my own rules about my juice fast as I have nothing to prove to myself this time.  I am just pushing for as much health and weight loss as I can possible get in the next three months.  I have things to do and horses to ride come this summer so we got to get this party started!!  

Hopefully, my third long juice fast will be late this summer when I have a garden of my own to harvest and I'll be juicing as fresh and organic as it gets.  Yeah babay!  JUICE ON my friends!  2014 is Going. To. ROCK!!

Guest Blogger Reynolds - Surely Juice fasting isn't (gasp) ever difficult!?

Hello Ladies and Germs, it appears to me that contrary to all previous articulated notions to the contrary, doing a juice fast can, for some, in certain specific circumstances, be just a tinge on the difficult side.

Who would have thought? Let's see.... ceasing to chew food after decades of that thrice daily ritual ... ingesting liquids that look like your grandpa in South Louisiana just dipped a pitcher into the swamp to conduct mosquito larvae experiments... giving up our favorite foods of Snickers and Cornflakes on rye and cold Chef-Boyardee ravioli with apricot and dark chocolate pieces... living in a world where inundation from food sellers is more difficult than winning the lottery three times in one week... being ridiculed, criticized and called crazy by our FRIENDS!!! ... having removed from our listening pleasure the melodic sound of freshly produced cellophane wrappers crackling in our fat little fingers... having that little invisible monkey that piggybacks around with you screeching that he is hungry at the top of his lungs ... and the icing on the cake, so to speak, having to wash the dog in the backyard as your sadistic neighbor grills burgers and bacon every night. Then you realized that you've bathed the dog in the back yard four times this week already.

This is a big head game, this juice fasting. It is an exercise in distraction, illumination, redirection, denial and wistfully hoping.

It is all about dealing with THIS hour. Whatever it takes is what it takes. Taking a walk, cleaning the bathroom, calling your mother, vacuuming the car, weeding the roses, reading a book, watching Fat Sick and Nearly Dead again. Whatever it takes. The big thing is you have to believe that rebooting is beneficial and worth the sacrifices. Has stepping on the scale and seeing a smaller number show up, does that spin your top? How about knowing that you just began the process of expelling decades of stored toxins in your body, likely extending your life and making your remaining years healthier? If none of that works, then get creative. Try following a squirrel into a tree and do the squirrel bark at him until he looks mad enough to jump on you. Get creative!

Just please, please........... don't go eat 19 twinkees and a bag of Oreos and expect to feel good tomorrow, or feel good about yourself. It is not gonna happen. We are rooting you on gal. We've walked that walk. It is all about THIS HOUR. So just win this hour. Whatever it takes.

- See more at: http://community.rebootwithjoe.com/discussions/topic/100-lbs-or-more-starting-a-9113-30-day-reboot?p=135#sthash.Ys8JReho.dpuf

Guest Blogger - Reynolds

I am a member of the fantastic community of juice nuts at rebootwithjoe.com based on Joe Cross and his experiences as seen on "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead."  My friend Reynolds is the guy that everyone in our group turns to for wisdom and inspiration.  He is in the middle of this same journey that I am on and, like me, feels that nothing in this world is going to offer the things that juice fasting can.  Another friend on the group had had a pretty significant slip-up on day 6 of her first juice fast and wondered if she should just give up and "pig out for a few days" or jump right back into juice fasting or maybe just try to transition onto a healthy "diet" instead of juice fasting.  She got tons of great advice and support but Reynolds words really hit home for many of us.  I asked him if I could post his reply here and he agreed so here it is.  Someone out there needs to hear this.  I just have this feeling.

Heathie: I read your post then went offline to compose a thoughtful response. When I came back to post, Katie had posted her very sage advice gleaned from numerous reboots over the last 6 months where she trimmed over 100 pounds from her frame. My words are very similar to hers, I'm just more long-winded. But the common points on which we both touch, we hope resonate with you. Here is mine:

ROFL..... Heathie your number three, "pig out a few days and then start back?" had me splitting my side. You probably don't get it but Natalie, Katie and Jana do for sure.

You are likely saying, "but I wasn't trying to be funny." Exactly! You were asking the SAME question every Fattie asks themselves when they get a mouthful of mud... "so do I just go back to being who I was for all those years?" Every single one of us in this forum have had huge doubts when we stumbled and we asked that same question.

Here is the whole enchilada wrapped up in a long thought :

All fat people got that way for a reason, maybe three. Once fat, we had family, friends and society send us mixed messages about our rising weight. At some point we became obese, and while we learned a host of excuses to push back anyone who cautioned or criticized us, we never managed to get around to accepting responsibility for STAYING fat. It is one thing to get fat over our teenage and young adult years, but it is another thing to keep gaining in our twenties, thirties and forties. Jana, Natslie, Katie and I are all near or above 50. Sure, we'd tried to lose weight every year or two. But we never found a way to get it off and keep it off. Until we ran into Joe Cross and juice fasting.

Heathie, what happens on a JF is a fundamental change in the mind. It doesn't come with most any other weight reduction plan. During a prolonged JF the mind is allowed, yes even forced, to put some distance between food and ourselves. Not having reason to be so intimate with chewed foods for a period of time allows us to reduce, and even remove, the emotional bonds that exist between EVERY Fattie and food. Finally, the stranglehold food has had on us is broken, literally, for the first time. It is not a permanent break up, necessarily, and yes that is the challenge of every Fattie that has gone through an extended JF must deal with.

I can't tell you how many days you have to be on a JF (10-45?) before the brain makes the switch and the mind sees things like it has NEVER seen them before. That change has as many looks as there are people doing a JF. But most JFers come to the realization that they have been lied to by the commercial food companies, but worse they've been egregiously lying to themselves as well.

During the JF the combination of detoxing, losing lots of weight and stepping back some distance from food synergizes together to give the person a birdseye view of food, addiction, compulsion, cravings and binging. I guess it is akin to seeing a ghost or Bigfoot. -- you might later question what you saw, but at the time you were unmistaken in what you saw. It is that pronounced of an awakening. The trick is to live out what we know. But we have 10-20-30 years of bad habits and only days/weeks/months at having a deep appreciation of vegetables and juicing.

So it is hard at first to win every single fight with our compulsive/addictive self. We'll lose once a day, then once every third day, then once every week, until finally ... finally the body relents and goes along with what the mind has been saying! Then, the struggle is cut to a fraction and the person is "over the hump." Will he or she struggle occasionally? Most certainly. But the struggle isn't at 10:42am, 2:39pm, 6:05pm, 8:47pm -- it is once every week or so.

The addiction is broken, but no immunity is created or a magic shield thrown up around the person. The lust of the eye is still there. The difference is that the new mind sees food differently. It no longer is a surrogate lover as it was. Now it is something to use as needed to meet a basic nutritional need. Sure, enjoying food is fine, but seeking pleasure from food no longer controls your every chewing decision. Most critical for the typical JFer out living in the chewing world again is the ability to master perceptions of food and thereby strictly controlling what goes in the body. There is no longer a free-for-all where just anything goes. We cant kid ourselves anymore. When eating again, every meal is a considered decision. Do want me to say that again? Every meal is a considered decision.

So why this loooong post? Well, what I'm telling you is this, it is so US. So fattie, to flop off the horse and then say, "oh what the hell, I think I'll just go eat a pan of peach cobbler." That is what fatties do routinely.

But in the near future, maybe within only a week or two, you too will recoil from the thought of going and pigging out with every stumble. Soon, you'll want to flee from pig outs as you will see them for what they are -- compulsive , uncontrolled bouts of mania. Yep, as part of JFing the mind changes its perceptions and with the changed perceptions comes a changed behavior. But! It is possible to slide back into the abyss, so vigilance is required for a long time, usually for more than a year.

Have you ever talked with someone that has climbed a massive peak like Kilimanjaro or Denali? Invariably they will mention that besides being staggeringly difficult dealing with all the adversities, it was a very specific system to summit and return to base camp safe. Freelancing was tantamount to death. The many that had gone before had spelled out all the problems and obstacles threatening each climber. While only thousands had done it before, nevertheless all the perils, risks, pitfalls and dilemmas any climber could face were very well articulated and defined by previous climbers writing about their experience.

So it is with a JF. There are no new wrinkles to be discovered by a new JFer. The struggles are all well known and written about here and in many blogs. It is important to know that what each of us are going through on our JF, is completely commonplace. It is predictable! Really!

Oh, not everyone has the exact same issues of headaches and diarrhea, or like. But your weaknesses, cravings, panics, listlessness and other symptoms experienced in your JF are the same ones the rest of us have experienced. Promise! So you see where I'm going with this -- learn from climbers that have summitted and come down to tell about it. Don't think for an instant that you , or me, or Natalie, or Katie, or Jana or Danielle -- can beat the established path that has been blazed ahead of us. We simply can't do it. Knowing the regimen and then sticking to it is imperative. We just aren't smart enough to find a new, better route up the mountain. Stick to the known, proven routes. Going rogue has bad consequences.

So what! You fell off the horse! You did it. Now that is history. Are you going to live in that momentary failure or instead jump back on the horse and ride. I hope you choose the latter, and choose it immediately.

Heathie, you have inside you a champion. But you'll have to find that champion. Usually the champion doesn't show up in the first couple of days as that time is so full of confusion, angst and flailing about.

But she will show up if you stay on the horse. But, before she does, it seems like you are about to expire. The body throws a fit, and then capitulates finally in day 4, 5 or 6. This gets lots easier. We are sure rooting for you and want you to ride with us on our journey to get healthy and lose weight. We hereby grant you a full absolution of your face plant! Now c'mon, go with us. You can only fail if you quit. So don't quit! :)

- See more at: http://community.rebootwithjoe.com/discussions/topic/100-lbs-or-more-starting-a-9113-30-day-reboot?p=83#sthash.AEETWGPg.dpuf

It's Different This Time - from Sunday, August 18, 2013

I know we've all heard that before. Well, for me, it damn well better be different this time because I seriously doubt there will be another time. My body is failing fast. I am weaker and fatter and sicker than I have ever been; than anyone should ever be. I am not really sure what exactly I weigh. A few months ago I weighed at the doctor's office at 324. I'm pretty sure I've gained a few more since then.  [Working scale revealed I was at 340.]  I can literally barely get from my bed to the car. I spend my entire day on a loveseat 6 feet from my bed. I am on a bunch of medications that make me feel like crap and now I'm having symptoms of congestive heart failure. I have never put a lot of faith in the traditional medical community but it's amazing what you'll give in to when you are actually afraid for you life. I am 51 years old and I want to do some more LIVING before I die!! 

I have tried before, obviously. I tried Atkins and WW and just tracking food and trying to stay in the traditional healthy guidelines here on SP. All my life I've heard, "Make incremental changes. Small changes add up to big changes." I reduced my salt, I quit drinking soda years ago, I quit using added oils and other fats, (Boy do I miss deep fried okra!) I cut waaaay back on "whites" like white bread, potatos, rice, sugar. This has all been over the course of 25 years or so. In those years, I have gone from overweight at 220 lbs in my late 20s to over 335 or so now. I'm sick of people looking at me as if I must hoover cookies into my mouth all day. And most of all I'm sick of sitting in this house and feeling helpless and useless. I'm sick of being a horrible example of how to live a life to my kids, two of whom are still at home. No more small changes. Now, EVERYTHING changes. I'm gonna die or I'm gonna LIVE. 

Friday (Thursday is grocery day - my son goes for me) I am starting a juice reboot a la the documentary Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. Boy doncha know that title caught my attention. I thought they made a documentary about me!! LOL I watched that. I watched Forks Over Knives and I watched Food, Inc. I did my own research. I read more books than I'm going to list here right now. I have chosen my path. I will do a minimum 10 day juice fast, actually planning for a 30 day but we'll play it by ear. After the juice reboot, I will start the 6 week plan in Eat To Live. I am still trying to learn how, in my area, I can avoid GMOs and such but I will just do the best I can to get whole, unmodified foods. As I become more mobile, I can shop at the whole foods stores in Tulsa instead of just the supermarkets here in my small town. 

So, how is it "different this time" for me? I don't give a craphat about conventional wisdom any more as it has gotten me to this point of being literally fat, sick and nearly dead. I don't give a tinker's damn about how I look or what other people think of how I look. I am doing this so that I can live. I am doing this so that I can enjoy living again. 

I am not the least bit worried I won't stick. I'm not weak (mentally) and I'm not stupid. Show me something that makes sense and that actually works in the important ways and I WILL do it. And I have an advantage in that I very rarely leave my house right now. The food that is brought in is picked up for me by my son and he follows the list I give him to a tee. I also will have an advantage that for the first week at least, everyone in my house will be doing the same thing. We are using this next few days to get rid of ALL perishables in the house and putting all canned goods into storage. There won't be anything in this house that isn't on that eating plan. Do I feel guilty for my poor 17 and 19 year olds having to give up their lunchmeat and hot pockets? Nope. I feel good about doing this FOR them. My 17 year old has high blood pressure and weighs 280 lbs [Once I got a working scale we discovered she was actually up to 303lbs.] (she is 6'3" but still) My 19 year old has high cholesterol and weighs 260 [This one turned out to weigh 288.] or thereabouts. My son and dil are living with me right now but they are both nearing 400 lbs! They are having trouble conceiving a child mostly because of their weight and I fear that my 29 year old son will have a heart attack before I do!! I am showing them that getting your body the nutrients it needs to function correctly and to heal itself as God intended it to all along, you do what you need to do. It's priority one. Period. 

So. That's where I'm at today. I've been on diets before but that person is gone. That person tried and tried and failed. This one is succeeding. This one is doing, not trying.