I am still on this amazing journey. I tried another juice fast in March and made it less than 3 weeks. I had a little budget crisis and a whole bunch of stress the 3rd week of March and just decided to go back to modified. It's cool with me because I don't feel a need to prove anything to myself or anyone else at this point. I am just continuing on my healthy path. It's all part of the journey.
I did discover that letting the stress of life get to me does impede my weight loss even if I don't eat wrong over it. I have been on a plateau for about 3 weeks now, just running up and down the same 3 pounds. Frustrating. But then I remember that I am struggling to get the weight loss going again to get me into the 250s when this time last year I was struggling to stay OUT of the 350s.
So where I am at right now is trying to figure out exactly what approach will be a good overall weight loss approach within what I'm already doing. I am in this for the long haul. I still need to lose 100 lbs or close to it (I'm 264.. or 5... or 6 lol) so I want to find the plant-based approach that is the perfect balance for me between optimum weight loss and what works with where I am right now in life. We are moving at the end of the month (finally!) so my house and kitchen are a disaster. I am feeling overwhelmed with all there is to do before the end of the month too so I just need it to be simple. Honestly, if I wasn't on a budget crunch, I would just do an all raw, high fruit cleanse for April. I just can't afford all that fruit. So I've been playing around with options and for the first two weeks of April. I'm doing the following:
2-4 days a week of juice ONLY - Sunday, Monday, probably Tuesday and maybe Wednesday.
On the other 3-4 days, I will have 1-2 juices and 1-2 healthy, plant-based, raw meals, 1 plant-based, cooked meal, and as much as I want/can afford of fruit, nuts and seeds. I will try for healthy, home-made dressing on my salad but if I need to use a premade dressing, I will. No stress this two weeks. This will not be very structured or well-defined. These food days are pretty much what I have been doing when not on juice fast this whole time. Will this plan break through my plateau? We shall see.
I would love to do a food journal here but I can't promise that to be honest. I am writing down what I eat in a little notebook though. At the end of two weeks, I will switch up some things and see what affect it has on my weight, energy, mood etc. Not sure yet exactly what I'll switch up. May try 7 days of all juice except 1 raw meal. That would be a pretty big switch up. Or I may just cut out the bottled dressing altogether and start being more structured with exactly how much I allow of the fruit and nuts. We'll see. Who knows, since I will be actually coming up on the time we move during that portion, I may want to do all juice 5 days a week or something. Stay tuned!
My new progress picture is taken with my two youngest daughters who have been on this journey with me since day one. In this picture, I have lost 75 lbs and Harmoni and Gini have each lost in the area of 45-47 lbs (can't remember which is which to tell the truth.) We went for a walk together and a friend was waiting at our house when we got home and took this pic for us. The pics on the left are us when we started back in August. The butterfly is to cover where Harmoni's top had ridden up and her pants were low cut so her belly was showing which she was self-conscious about. She is SOOOO long-waisted that she has this problem a lot. Poor kid has heard, "Harmoni! Pants up, shirt down" so many times in her life it's pathetic. Anyway, we are feeling fantastic this Spring! How about you?
