The Reboot: Day One

Actually, I'm going to start chronicling my ten day juice fast beginning yesterday. Let me explain...

As a classic procrastinator, I put off taking out my old juicer to see if it would work until late on Saturday knowing full well that if it didn't work I was going to be screwed trying to start a ten day reboot. The thing worked okay but was woefully ill equipped to take on a daily juicing. You see, the amount of juice I will need daily is a pretty large amount and this old juicer was only going to make it one small glass at a time. So, off to the only place I knew for a fact they had juicers - Walmart. Don't get me started on Walmart. I hate the place and always have but when you need something fast they generally have it so that's where we went.

We walked into the housewares section and there they were. The juicers. And there was a couple standing over them talking about them. We struck up a conversation and it turned out she had also seen "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" and was starting a juice fast on Sunday. She also had a friend, as do I, who lost a lot of weight doing this. While we were talking, a man walked up and had questions. Guess what? He had also seen the movie and was embarking on his own juice fast. The woman was pre-diabetic and the man was diabetic and both felt they needed to do something about this now! Yet a fourth lady walked up and started asking questions. Yup, you guessed it. She saw the movie and wanted to try it. Go figure that the only time I go to Walmart there is a crowd in the one aisle and we're all there for the same reason. I quickly grabbed the juicer I wanted off the shelf. They only had two type. The pricey Jack Lalanne model and the more moderately priced GE model. I went with GE. I didn't need the fancy pulp holder and whiz bangs the other one came with. I just needed a reliable juicer with relatively fast speed that could make a lot of juice at one time.

So, this morning, I began. I made a nice called "Mean Green".

two stalks kale
two stalks celery
two carrots
one Granny Smith apple
one cucumber
and about an inch of ginger root

It took 30 seconds to make the juice and you know what? It was really good! Fresh and clean like drinking in a summer day! I mean it...I was pleasantly surprised and delighted to know that the one juice I will have to drink three times per day was good! I can make other juices each day too but Mean Green is the essential juice with so many micro nutrients. I drank it 20 minutes ago and I feel better already! (Kidding...)

I'm really dedicating myself to this in a way that I have committed to anything in a long time. I'm hoping I get good results in weight loss but even if, overall, I can just feel better it will have been well worth it. So...

Day One = mood positive, energy good, committed to the process and moving forward!

Gearing up for the big D...

So, my niece and her husband embarked on a juice fast called The Reboot a month or so before last Christmas. The idea is that you concentrate on ingesting only micronutrients which come from veggies and fruits and forego the macronutrients in meat or white potatoes and, of course, you have no processed food at all. It's meant to be a way to cleanse your systems and jump start your metabolism. You can start with ten days and go from there using a juicer to create tasty drinks. You can stop at the ten day mark or go on if you like. It's healthy and good for you. So they say.

I have a juicer that I haven't used in a long time so last night I gave my niece a call to see how the Reboot went for them. Turns out it went very well. She did it for two weeks and lost almost 20 lbs. Her husband extended his Reboot for a full 30 days, went on a two week hiatus, and then restarted for another 30 days. He dropped almost 60 lbs. without really trying. He then went on a maintenance routine reintroducing regular food into his day focusing on the micronutrient foods with small portions of macronutrients like meat, fish, and potatoes. He's kept the weight off. This week they are doing another one week fast and then so on and so forth.

Based on that knowledge, and having watched a film called, "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" I've decided to give this a shot. I'm gearing up for the big Detox which I'll start on Sunday. I'm going to do ten days which is the recommended starting point and see how it goes. This weekend I'll be clearing out the produce section of my local grocery store and my juicer will be running on overtime for the following week or do. Everyone who's tried this says the same thing. The first three days are the hardest. That's when my body will be in detox mode, getting rid of all the toxins I'm supplied it with through years of bad eating habits. Day Three, they say, is the most difficult. Apparently, sleep is elusive on that third day. But, after that, every person who's done it says something remarkable happens. Their energy level shoots through the roof. They start to sleep like babies. Their skin clears up. And the weight start falling away.

During the Reboot, you can drink as much fresh made juice as you want along with lemon water and herbal tea. No caffeine, which for me, won't be an issue really. I have about two cups of coffee per day but not every day so I know I can do without it. No processed foods at all. That, in the long haul, will be difficult because if you really think about it, we, meaning all of us, eat an enormous amount of processed foods. But I'm determined to do this. I need to do this. I'm tired of being sick and tired all the time. Getting out of bed in the morning shouldn't hurt and I'm convinced that this will get me going in the right direction.

One side affect of this Reboot, something that happens on Day Three, is that it can make you pretty cranky. So, I apologize in advance for my bitchiness that will happen next week. But after that, I'll be a peach to live with, I promise!

Mea culpa...

I can be a little hard to handle sometimes. I mean, most of the time, I'm a tolerant, kind, witty individual who would give you the shirt off my back if you needed it. But other times, I know, I am a pest. I hear myself sometimes barking orders and trying to make people do things my way and even though I hear it, I rarely stop it. So, to the ones closest to me who I know have witnessed my overbearing Miss Bossypants ways sometimes, I am dearly sorry. I can't guarantee it won't happen again but please know that I am aware of this flaw and will try to make amends.

I don't think I have to name the names of those people who have borne the brunt of this character flaw. You know who you are.

Alex...okay, it was Alex. I can be a bossy things sometimes. I'm sorry,

Now lets return to our regularly scheduled programming....

All hail, friends!

I decided to dedicate this blog entry to my friends. I don't know...I just woke up today in a really good mood and it was all uphill from there. I have great friends. And that point is driven home every day at work.

I have friends of varying degrees - those I've met and love and those I have never spoke to in real life and still love them I have friends from DMusic.com whom I care about and listen to their great music and wonder how they are. One of them, and Brady you know who you are, I miss very much because our lives have taken separate roads so we catch up on Facebook once in awhile. Yet, Brady has been a very important person in my life and I will always be very fond of him, no matter what. I'd like to think that if he needed anything he would know he could call me and I would do whatever I could for him. I also have Kathy from DM. What a great lady! So much fun and I'm not just saying that because I know she reads this blog either! I always felt we would get along famously if ever we were to meet. The same thing with good ol' Bo! And so many others at that website who have touched my life.

I have friends from a website called Community of Sweden. People, like me, who love Sweden and long to be there. Arsh, Eva, Asa, Ingrid, Gabe, Lilly, Marlyse, Barbro, Jun, Astrid, Olav and the rest! We met on a website and started corresponding and some of them have even met in real life We laugh together, cry together, dream together and I know any one of them would be there for me if I needed it. I would be there for them too. Funny how you can know and trust someone without really physically knowing them!

I have Facebook friends! Lots of them. Some of them, like those that Farmville, I don't interact with all that much. Just when I'm farming. Others, like Paul, Jamie, Joan-marie, Terry, and more keep me laughing and reading and interacting for hours! Facebook has been an overall positive experience for me. I even reconnected with friends from grade school and we've been getting together regularly and we laugh our asses off as if time stood still.

Then I have the friends who make my days great. My friends at work are amazingly silly, smart, funny women who don't let one single day go by without making me laugh so hard I nearly wet myself. Tracy, Kari, Jamey, Jenny, and all of the truly great broads here are the best. I only hope everyone has people like this in their lives.

The Internet has been a powerful tool in making connections and keeping those connections alive. For me, it has opened up my world to something bigger than I ever imagined it could be. It even brought me a wonderful husband and a whole other family in another country. I am blessed for all of this and whenever I hear ignorant people talking about the uselessness of the Internet or what a frightening stalkerish world it can be I want to thump them in the head...hard. I want to let them know that their own neighborhoods can be frightening places and that there are a lot of honest, decent, kind, intelligent people out there they have yet to meet...if they only open their minds and log on.

I really suck at Mario Kart...

Today, Alex and I had to go to Milwaukee for what is hopefully his last biometrics appointment with Immigration. Biometrics is a fancy way of saying they take your finger prints and a photo. But that's not what I wanted to write about today. It is only in the getting to Milwaukee that it is interesting. I drove.

Now, normally, I am an open road type of gal. I mean I actually love driving and I'm a better driver than I am a passenger. I hate riding shot gun. Makes me too nervous knowing what lies between me and that on-coming car is in the hands of whoever's to my left. I'll do the driving, thank you! But I hate HATE driving on the interstate highway. I have never been in a accident on the highway. Unless you call that time when a bluebird swept itself under my luggage carrier on the way home from Hayward. We found him eventually. When we took our luggage off the rack. No, no accidents. I've seen a few accidents but nothing horrible so it's not a fear of getting hit really.

It's all that swooping and rushing and passing and slowing and tailgating and speeding that goes on around me. People drive like imbeciles! On the way home today I got cut off three times in less than a half hour. It is the real life version of Super Mario Kart and I've played that game and I stink at that! I get passed by Mario, Luigi and the Princess and usually I am the one flying off the road into the abyss. This is the image that stays with me when I'm on I-94 heading to Milwaukee.

Don't even get me started about the crazy construction and poorly marked "alternative routes". I was so far of track I had to exit and double back just to get back to the city. Sheesh!

Anyway, we made it. Biometrics completed. Hopefully, that's it for now. We may get called in for an interview or we may not. Immigration likes to keep you guessing that way! If we do, it's back on the road again. Look out, Luigi!!

On the advice of strangers...

One thing I've discovered that happens when people find out you've been sick, they are full of unsolicited advice on the "very best treatment" for whatever it was that made you sick.

This past week I had what I can only describe as an "attack of the face". This means my sinuses stopped up so badly it made breathing impossible and caused an endless stream of post nasal drippage into my throat causing me to cough up a lung or two. Since nothing was flowing, my eyes turned beet red and ran tears at will and without notice. All of this backed up into my ears causing almost complete deafness and the whole thing made my head feel like a balloon. I was a sight, lemme tell you. And I was miserable. Still am, to tell you the truth, though the major stoppage finally gave way yesterday.

Upon my return to work I was accosted with the kind, though uncalled for, advice of my co-workers on how I "should" have taken care of myself. One person recommended steam and lots of it. Now, I actually did do this and usually it works. However, the Hoover Dam of sinus blockage wasn't having any of it this time. A second person, who claims they are "never sick", told me I should have called my doctor immediately and got an antibiotic. Okay, here's the thing. I'm pretty smart most of the time and, though I am not a doctor, I do know that unless there is fever or your nose is oozing with that greenish gunk, there is no infection and an antibiotic will not do anything except further decrease your bodies own ability to fight this crap off in the first place. It's the overuse of antibiotics that make people get so sick! Also the overuse of hand sanitizer and antibacterial soaps. I use both of these on occasion but those are pretty rare occasions. We need a little bacteria in our lives, folks! The last group of arm chair doctors suggested I get a Netty Pot. For those who don't know what that is, it's a small pot with a long snout that you fill with warm saline water. You stick your head over a sink, sideways, and stick the long snout of the pot into one nostril. Then you gently pour the warm solution in one nostril and it's supposed to come out the other, washing out all the boogies and gunkies and uggies that got stuck up there in the first place. To me, that sounds so disgusting the mere thought of it makes me cringe! EW EW EW and EWWWWWW!!!

For me, I'll stick with Nyquil, Vicks Vapo Rub, and lots of tea. Throw in some chicken soup and a good back rub and that's what I call a home remedy!

What I've been doing for the past four days...

I've been sick since Sunday. I have what I can only refer to as "an attack of the face". My sinuses have decided to stuff up and stay stuffed up making it impossible for me to breathe. No medicine works. My head feels puffy and full of snot. Sorry to be so graphic but that's how I feel. I cough all night making sleep impossible. I am miserable. I tried to go to work on Monday and left within one hour and have been home ever since. Daytime TV sucks. So, here's what I've been doing for the past four days.

I thank Netflix for the amazingly interesting array of documentaries they offer to be streamed right on my iPad. Some of the best are these...

1. Theatre of War - now some of you know I am an actress, or at least used to be, and this documentary is amazing. It is about the Public Theatre's production of Brecht's Mother Courage starring Meryl Streep. The production was done as the US entered into war in the middle east and this glimpse into Meryl Streep's process of creating a character is priceless. Amazing woman, even more amazing actress.

2. Brother's Keeper - Wow... this was intense. It's the story of the Ward brothers in upstate New York. They are quiet, unassuming farmers living life as they always have - uneducated, possibly mentally retarded - when one of them dies and another is accused of murder. The story of this rag tag band of brothers who've always lived on the fringe of their community and who are now embraced by that community in a show of solidarity and support is truly heartfelt. They were never really welcomed before, more like tolerated, but once they are threatened the whole town comes to their support and changes their lives forever.

3. Vernon, FL. - this is a really strange little film. It's a series of interviews with the quirky little bunch of folks that live in Vernon, Florida. There's a guy who hunts turkeys. He doesn't just hunt them, he LIVES to hunt them. There's a guy who is enamored of the swamp areas and what might be out there. There's the guy who works in a mill but who's true calling is to be a preacher. Interesting, quirky and fun!

4.Strictly Background - this is a film that follows those hardest working actors of all time - the extras. Those folks who stand around for days, bring their own lunch, do anything for just a few minutes of screen time. When I was in Chicago, I had friends who worked as extras in the filming of "The Untouchables" starring Robert Deniro and Kevin Costner. I remember one friend, Larry, who laid in a pool of stage blood for three days straight. You can see him in the movie - when they take the elevator down and find the cop laying in the alley. That's Larry!

So, I'm home again today. Still sick and getting ready to fire up the iPad. There are more great films out there for me to see. It makes being sick easier to take. Check out these films if you can. Very well worth it.