I woke up is morning and decided I'd start a water fast immediately, instead of starting this evening. It wasn't in my plans when I went to sleep last night, but when I awoke, the thought crossed my mind since I had not eaten since 7 pm Sunday night.
It's now 5:01 pm and I'm almost 24 hours with nothing but water. I'm a little tired and have a mild headache. My gut, however, is feeling better than it has in weeks. I intend on water fasting through Wednesday evening, and then juicing. I'll update this blog entry each day with my diet and activity. Here's the plan:
Monday: Water fast
Tuesday: Water fast
Wednesday: Water fast through 6 pm. Then watermelon juice only
Thursday: Melon juice only
Friday: Fruit juice
Saturday-Monday: Luna's 3-Day Cleanse
Tuesday and beyond: Fruit and vegetable juice
Tuesday, November 5
Today was amazing! I took the day off work since I didn't expect to have much energy without eating for over 24 hours. It's amazing how just two days of water makes the symptoms go away. I had more energy today than I've had in weeks. My joint and muscle pain is gone. Completely gone. Crazy actually.
Today at 7:00 p.m. it will be 3 full days on water. I'll introduce watermelon juice only with no pulp. Watermelon juice is extremely alkaline forming, so this will help heal any inflammation, and will be an easy transition for my GI tract to accept and digest.
I even had enough energy to play tennis this evening. That is absolutely crazy if you think about it. I had more energy with only water than I've had eating the last few weeks. Now, of course the body can't live this way long term, but it's a great way to give my GI tract a rest. Let's pray than when I begin juicing that my healing stays on tract.
Wednesday, November 6
Everything went well today. I slept quite a bit, then took my Thunderbird in to get a drive belt replaced (motorcycle, not the car). Water all day went well. All symptoms other than my bowel movements have disappeared. Yay!
On another note, my son turned 23 today. I don't feel old enough to have a 23 year old;)
Thursday, November
7
Today was an easy day up until when I arrived in Austin. I
went there on M/I Homes business. I have traveled many many times with my
juicer, but this time I forgot an important part to my juicer.
I traveled with a small watermelon, cantaloupe, apple, carrots
and persimmons in my luggage. my small carry on luggage weighed a ton. Upon my
arrival, I went to my room and I began
preparing my fruit for juicing. I cut the watermelon and cantaloupe in small
pieces just to realize that my juicer wasn't going to work with the missing
part.
Ultimately, I had the woman at the front desk of the hotel
call me a cab and I went to Whole Foods for some juice. Fortunately, there was
one less than 2 miles away. I found some cold press juice by Sujo. I was very
thankful to find this because not only was it cold pressed, but it was free of
pulp. Perfect!
When I returned to the hotel, I gave my cut up melon to the
helpful front desk agent, and was set for juice for the night and for Friday.
The only real issue with today was that it cost me $50 in juice and $20 in cab
fare. Otherwise, all is well.
My energy levels are fine and body inflammation appears low.
My colon is not normal yet, but I'm sure every day it is getting better :)
Friday, November 8
Today has been an easy day as well. I had all of my juice from Whole Foods and
the day was uneventful as it relates to Crohn's. no improvement in my bowels,
however. From a business perspective, it was a wonderful day in Austin. I'm on
the return flight at the moment, and should arrive around 8 pm.
Saturday, my sweetie and I were going to start Luna's Living
Kitchen 3 Day cleanse, but we will have to delay that. When I called to order
the cleanse today, I was informed that we had to make the order yesterday in
order to have it for the weekend. So, I'm not quite sure what we are going to
do. We may end up going to Luna's and buying juice by the jar, to get us
through until Monday, or we will just make our own juice this weekend and maybe
start with Luna's on Monday.
I thought it would be nice to take a break from having to
spend an hour or more in front of a juicer this weekend, but plans evidently
have changed…
On another note, this weekend I have two tennis matches: a
singles match on Saturday at 5:00 pm, and a mixed doubles match Sunday at 3:00
pm with a partner I've never met. It's the Blakeney vs Weddinton club
competition. This should be fun. I'm hopeful that my energy levels will be
normal. The last few matches I've played, I was clearly fatigued. I play a
really good woman on Saturday. i have no idea about the doubles team we play.
Saturday, November
9
Today was a relatively long day. I'm tired so I'm going to keep this short. In the scope of things, I had a reasonable amount of energy today, but I really didn't have much sleep last night. During a cleanse you should really get more sleep than usual and I likely only had about 6 hours sleep.
I lost my singles match this afternoon against a very strong player. The first set she whooped me 6-2. The second set I was up 4-1, then got a charlie horse in my left calve. She ultimately beat m3 7-5. In looking at what causes charlie horses from a nutritional standpoint, a lack of calcium or potassium can cause it. Also, dehydration can cause it. So I've made juice with kiwi, which is him in potassium, and will have some almond milk this evening for calcium. I'm also going to make sure I'm fully hydrated.
I have a doubles match in the morning at 9:00 a.m. as well as one to 3:00 p.m. No more charlie horses please.
I'm a bit tired, so I'm off to sleep soon. Sweet dreams!
Sunday, November 10
I'm on my 10th day of no solid foods. I've had a major improvement in the last day. If you don't want to hear about bowel movements, then now is the time to stop reading. Ultimately, I slept through the night last night without having a bowel movement. Better yet, is that today's stool was free of mucous.
I've been having several bowel movements a day of not much other than mucous, but today was the first day that was not the case. So I am certain my inflammation has subsided and I'm on the way to eliminating the inflammation. Yay.
Also, I've been writing down some of the juice recipes. I will start a blog just with some of the recipes here in the near futures. Some times, I simply put things together of what I have left in my refrigerator, and duplicating it isn't likely. For example, if I have one pear, an apple, plum, peach, and cantaloupe, I may just put them all together without the thought of it becoming a recipe. Now and then I get a combination I really like.
So look for a blog on recipes soon.
Otherwise, my day was pretty good. When you're cleansing, your body is cleaning house and it uses more nerve energy than when 100% healthy, so I'm a little more tired at the end of the day during this cleanse.
Monday, November 11
I'm so tired of juicing. Because my boyfriend is juicing too, we spend about 2 hours in front of the juicer each day. Arrrrgh....
Otherwise, all is well. I'm a little more tired at the end of the day, but that is expected while your body is cleansing. It is using much of its nerve energy cleaning house and there is not much left at the end of the day.
My gut doesn't seem to be improving much. It certainly has improved since when I started, but I've plateaued it seems...
Tuesday, November 12
Not sure why, but I am thinking of food way too much today. I'm not really hungry, but I'm missing the taste of food. Tonight we pick up Luna's Living Kitchen's 3 Day Cleanse. Yay. I get a break from the juice machine. Very cool.
Wednesday, November 13
Today is my 10th day. I needed to start with Luna's cleanse. I'm needing a little motivation to continue and buying Luna's cleanse helps keep me vested in continuing. At least I know I'll stick it out until Friday since I've invested about $200 for the next three days of juices.
My bowel movements still don't show the improvement I would have like to have seen by now. I suspect I will discontinue the juice fast by Monday. I'll introduce blended bananas over the weekend and solid food on Monday. Depending upon how my body reacts to solid food, particularly, how my bowels react, I will decide whether or not to go back on the juice.
I'm kind of over it at the moment, but I don't really know what alternative I have. I certainly don't want to have to go back on medication, so juice is my primary solution otherwise. Cross your fingers that the next few days brings healing to my gut.
Other than the bowel not being back to normal yet, I do feel substantially better. Fatigue is gone, and the pain in my joints and muscles are gone, meaning my body inflammation has subsided significantly. The only Crohn's symptom I'm showing of any sort is too much mucous in my bowel movements. Let's hope the next couple days fixes that :)
Thursday, November 14
Perfect timing. I think I'm ending this juice fast tomorrow or Sunday at the latest. If once on solid foods, it appears there has been not enough improvement, I'll very quickly return. However, some times it is hard to tell if bowel movements are normal when you're not eating normal.
I will say that I believe the past day and a half have shown improvement. The Crohn's mucous is nonexistent today. Yay.
I'm still a bit tired at the end of the day, which is normal when juicing. So I will need to go back to a plant based whole foods diet soon to see if my energy and bowel movements returns to normal.
I have a mixed doubles tournament this weekend, so I'm not sure if we're going off the cleanse on Saturday morning, or if we're going to stick it out through the weekend, in spite of the tournament.
Otherwise, I'm just missing the taste of food, and chewing. Haha.
Friday, November 15
So today will be the last day of the juice cleanse. At about 7:00 p.m. this evening it will have been 12 days now. I feel great. I'll eat some type of fruits this evening and then see how things turn out in the morning. Wish me luck!
Saturday, November 16
Yay. Bowel movement is normal. No hint of Crohn's. Inflammation evidently was handled. I'll transition and have some steamed squash tonight.
By the way, I have the playoffs for your mixed doubles Charlotte Tennis Association Ladder 8.0 mixed doubles today. I'm excited and feel great! We're going to do awesome :)
Sunday, November 10
I'm on my 10th day of no solid foods. I've had a major improvement in the last day. If you don't want to hear about bowel movements, then now is the time to stop reading. Ultimately, I slept through the night last night without having a bowel movement. Better yet, is that today's stool was free of mucous.
I've been having several bowel movements a day of not much other than mucous, but today was the first day that was not the case. So I am certain my inflammation has subsided and I'm on the way to eliminating the inflammation. Yay.
Also, I've been writing down some of the juice recipes. I will start a blog just with some of the recipes here in the near futures. Some times, I simply put things together of what I have left in my refrigerator, and duplicating it isn't likely. For example, if I have one pear, an apple, plum, peach, and cantaloupe, I may just put them all together without the thought of it becoming a recipe. Now and then I get a combination I really like.
So look for a blog on recipes soon.
Otherwise, my day was pretty good. When you're cleansing, your body is cleaning house and it uses more nerve energy than when 100% healthy, so I'm a little more tired at the end of the day during this cleanse.
Monday, November 11
I'm so tired of juicing. Because my boyfriend is juicing too, we spend about 2 hours in front of the juicer each day. Arrrrgh....
Otherwise, all is well. I'm a little more tired at the end of the day, but that is expected while your body is cleansing. It is using much of its nerve energy cleaning house and there is not much left at the end of the day.
My gut doesn't seem to be improving much. It certainly has improved since when I started, but I've plateaued it seems...
Tuesday, November 12
Not sure why, but I am thinking of food way too much today. I'm not really hungry, but I'm missing the taste of food. Tonight we pick up Luna's Living Kitchen's 3 Day Cleanse. Yay. I get a break from the juice machine. Very cool.
Wednesday, November 13
Today is my 10th day. I needed to start with Luna's cleanse. I'm needing a little motivation to continue and buying Luna's cleanse helps keep me vested in continuing. At least I know I'll stick it out until Friday since I've invested about $200 for the next three days of juices.
My bowel movements still don't show the improvement I would have like to have seen by now. I suspect I will discontinue the juice fast by Monday. I'll introduce blended bananas over the weekend and solid food on Monday. Depending upon how my body reacts to solid food, particularly, how my bowels react, I will decide whether or not to go back on the juice.
I'm kind of over it at the moment, but I don't really know what alternative I have. I certainly don't want to have to go back on medication, so juice is my primary solution otherwise. Cross your fingers that the next few days brings healing to my gut.
Other than the bowel not being back to normal yet, I do feel substantially better. Fatigue is gone, and the pain in my joints and muscles are gone, meaning my body inflammation has subsided significantly. The only Crohn's symptom I'm showing of any sort is too much mucous in my bowel movements. Let's hope the next couple days fixes that :)
Thursday, November 14
Perfect timing. I think I'm ending this juice fast tomorrow or Sunday at the latest. If once on solid foods, it appears there has been not enough improvement, I'll very quickly return. However, some times it is hard to tell if bowel movements are normal when you're not eating normal.
I will say that I believe the past day and a half have shown improvement. The Crohn's mucous is nonexistent today. Yay.
I'm still a bit tired at the end of the day, which is normal when juicing. So I will need to go back to a plant based whole foods diet soon to see if my energy and bowel movements returns to normal.
I have a mixed doubles tournament this weekend, so I'm not sure if we're going off the cleanse on Saturday morning, or if we're going to stick it out through the weekend, in spite of the tournament.
Otherwise, I'm just missing the taste of food, and chewing. Haha.
Friday, November 15
So today will be the last day of the juice cleanse. At about 7:00 p.m. this evening it will have been 12 days now. I feel great. I'll eat some type of fruits this evening and then see how things turn out in the morning. Wish me luck!
Saturday, November 16
Yay. Bowel movement is normal. No hint of Crohn's. Inflammation evidently was handled. I'll transition and have some steamed squash tonight.
By the way, I have the playoffs for your mixed doubles Charlotte Tennis Association Ladder 8.0 mixed doubles today. I'm excited and feel great! We're going to do awesome :)
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