I got me a brand-new chronic incurable disease - yay

Here is a video update...in a nutshell, I got sick and had something that resembled a stroke. Doctor has a feeling it wasn't, but getting tests anyway. He does not feel the diet or exercise caused it either - he thinks if anything they are helping and keeping away more serious complications.

Then my sister calls me and informs me that she has been diagnosed with an incurable chronic disease - Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. This is a disease also called inherited emphysema. And, it's supposed to come on earlier and more severe than emphysema caused by smoking.

She also informs me that she got it because both our mom and dad are carriers so...I have it too!

It is a problem with our DNA. Our bodies don't produce a protein that protects our lungs and eventually it begins to attack our lungs and our livers, eventually destroying them.

I do have a lot of the symptoms - asthma (mine is induced only by illness), difficulty drawing blood, easy for respiratory illnesses to progress, etc.

He told her diet and exercise will NOT make a difference - no matter what she does. However, I've looked around the internet and it looks like many doctors recommend vegetable juices and vegetable juice fasts with flare-ups. I myself know my illnesses don't get very bad if I keep to vegetables.

I've also seen that inflammation is a component - and most raw foodies know that when you go raw, inflammation goes down. So I'm going to up my raw and see. She is younger than me and her symptoms are worse...but she does smoke a lot. So far I don't have a lot of problems unless I catch something or the weather changes.

Anyway, here's my video.

My personal raw food diet nutritional data

I eat a "mostly" raw food diet, and I have type 2 diabetes - so I can't get a lot of help from fruits yet. I've been trying to keep track of what I eat and trying to get my diet as complete as possible.

This is what I ate today and the nutritional breakdown from Nutritiondata.com. Most of it is fantastic. The carb, fat, protein ratio is not where I would like it yet. The highest fat thing I ate was an avocado and that really raised my fat intake. I need to lower that without lowering the nutrients I struggle to get (see below). If anyone has any suggestions or wisdom to share, I would appreciate it.

Here is a picture of my daily values chart. The yellow ones are ones I don't want to get a lot of. They are salt (Na), cholesterol (Ch), saturated fat (Sf), and total fat (TF).




I'm amazed at my vitamins and minerals! The raw food diet rocks! The total fat is high, but again that avocado threw me off, and not sure how stressed I should be over an avocado. I haven't had an avocado in a week either.

Tomorrow I could try to omit the avocado. I could also try to omit the nuts & seeds (but I need the zinc from the pumpkins seeds). I could also try to omit the olive oil.

By playing around with this site, I've gotten an idea of what nutrients I have to be especially vigilant about getting because they are harder for me personally to get from fruits and vegetables.

NUTRIENTS I STRUGGLE TO GET ON A "MOSTLY" RAW FOOD DIET

• Vitamin D. (I do get this from at least 5-15 minutes in the sun 2-3 times per week, but wont be reflected on these charts) Good sources are fish, fish oil, sardine, mushrooms, egg yolk.
  
• Vitamin B12 (don't need daily). Good sources are liver, beef, fish, poultry, meat broth, cheese, eggs.
  
• Selenium (Need to find balance, toxic in excess and the body stores it). Good sources are liver, brazil nuts, meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, nuts (not peanuts), chicken, mung, red kidney beans, lentils.
  
• Zinc (Little ability for body to store zinc). Good sources are shellfish, red meat, calf liver, poultry, giblets, pork, cheese, yogurt, peanuts, beans, yogurt, pumpkin seeds (most concentrated non-meat source). Many foods have less because often deficient in soil. Diabetes can make zinc absorption harder. Overdosing on zinc is a bad thing too.
  
• Calcium (Vitamin D necessary to absorb calcium). Good sources are broccoli, kale, spinach, oranges, legumes, salmon, sardines, sesame seeds, corn tortillas, almonds.
  
• Vitamin E. Good sources are wheat germ, vegetable oils, whole grains, nuts, peanut butter, tomato puree/paste/sauce.
  

WHAT I ATE TODAY

Breakfast (Juice)
1 apple
2 C chopped celery
1 cucumber
1 tsp ginger root
8 oz kale
juice from 1 lemon

Snack
1 banana

Lunch
1 avocado
1 tomato
raw corn cut off cob
2 scallions
handful coriander
1/2 tsp mesquite meal
1/2 tsp chia seeds
1/2 tsp sunflower seeds

Dinner
5 baby carrots
4 oz canned salmon, bone-in
1/4 cup pumpkins seeds
1 tbsp shallots
1/4 ounce sunflower greens
juice from 1/2 lime
half a head of lettuce
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt

Dessert
5 dates
4 almonds

BREAKDOWN OF MY "MOSTLY" RAW FOOD DIET

Total calories: 1753

Estimated glycemic load	92 (under 100)
Inflammation factor	1700 (over 50)
Protein quality	120 (over 100)
Ratio Carb/Fat/Protein	50/37/13 (60/30/10)
Calories	88%
Carbohydrates	187%
Fiber	202%
Total Fat	118%
Saturated Fat	57%
Cholesterol	31%
Protein	103%
Vitamin A	2500%
Vitamin C	547%
Vitamin D	261%
Vitamin E	95%
Vitamin K	2640%
Thiamin	113%
Riboflavin	145%
Niacin	160%
Vitamin B6	227%
Folate	147%
Vitamin B12	231%
Panthothenic Acid	151%
Calcium	104%
Iron	101%
Magnesium	199%
Phosphorus	223%
Potassium	177%
Sodium	84%
Zinc	188%
Copper	332%
Manganese	574%
Selenium	106%

How I Make my Green Juice

This is the green juice I try to drink everyday. Diabetes-friendly juice recipes are hard to find, even for green juice. Good luck at juice bars - they are usually loaded with carrots.

Anyway here it is.....

"As Seen on TV" comes to the rescue!

Yesterday was a bear. I was totally off schedule, running behind, and out of my mind. :)

It happens.

All day long I kept feeling like I was forgetting something. Then about 9 pm I realized I hadn't had my green juice for the day. It was 9, my son had just gone to bed, I was tired, and my kitchen was a DISASTER.

I've found if my dishes and counters aren't clean, it's not conducive to making juice or raw food in general. I need to be sure to do dishes at night and empty the dishwasher upon rising and rinse stuff off and stick it in there. Because of my off day, the dishes had gotten neglected and I was not in the mood for washing them. I just wanted to go to bed.

What do do? My "regular juice" requires a clean counter and my big (clean) blender.

A while back a good friend was moving and unloading things she didn't want anymore. She gave me a Magic Bullet Blender. You've probably seen the infomercials. This thing has been really handy with raw food. I probably use it in ways it was never intended to be used, but it's working for me, haha.

Anyway, the basic thing I'm trying to get out of my green juice is chlorophyl from the dark leafy greens. The other stuff is gravy. So I packed the blender cup with as much spinach as I could and filled it with water. I screwed on the blades and blended it. FAST! I strained it really fast through my bag (while balancing the bowl on the counter with my stomach, haha). I suppose I could have just drank it as a smoothy right out of the cup, but I felt like strained juice.

So, anyway...that worked!

It's so small, I could probably pack it pretty easy for trips. It along with my paint strainer bag (or nut milk bag), and my little sprouter, and I'm set lol.

My juice formula

Here is the basic formula I use for my green juice now:

Makes about 1 quart

1 small bunch or 1/2 large bunch celery
1 cucumber
1/4 - 1/2 pound dark leafy greens (kale, collards, swiss chard, spinach)
1 cup of water

1 apple (optional for flavor)
juice of a lemon or lime (optional for flavor)
a small piece of ginger (optional I like the smell and makes me happy)

I use a blender. I put this stuff into the blender with the juicier items on the bottom to help the blades move easier. I mix it and then puree it until it's pretty smooth and blended, no large specks of greens floating around.

Then I'll pour it into a bowl I have lined with a nut milk bag or a paint strainer bag. I gently massage the bag to get the juice out. Then I pour it into a quart jar or glass and drink. :)

SPECIAL NOTES: I make sure and mix up the greens so I don't overdose on just one type - especially the spinach. You don't want to be eating a whole lot of spinach regularly it has oxalates that can be harmful in large amounts.

If I have all organic items, I wash well but don't peel anything. I also will sometimes fill my glass 1/4 of the way with some of the mix with the pulp in it and then strain the rest. This way I get some fiber and something to "chew."

However, if it's not organic stuff, I make sure and peel stuff that has a waxy coating. And I strain the whole thing. I hear pesticides and toxins reside in the fiber - kind of magnetically attracted to it. So I strain it out and get rid of it on non-organic stuff. My budget varies, so I try to get organic when I can.

My First Vlog

I made a video showing my pics before raw food, after raw food, and also showing how I look now. I weigh the same but there is definately something different. So I have re-committed to raw food and this first vlog is a documentation of my journey and where I am now.

If you would like get updates to my vlog, subscribe to my channel on YouTube and or subscribe to this blog:
http://www.youtube.com/user/bjay100

Update & Recomitting Myself

Okay, I survived the holidays without gaining weight. I actually ate normal Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners and goodies. I had re-started my metformin because I wanted to eat fruit dammit. :) I don't like the side effects...hopefully I'll be able to quit it if I lose more weight.

So my weight is pretty stable between 170-175. My percentage of raw food went down. I was probably was eating 50-75% raw food. I didn't worry since my weight was okay. However, I've noticed little problems creeping back - blurry eyesight, achy shoulder joint, inflammation in my face, skin problems. Most of all, the glow is gone. :(

So I am re-committing myself to drinking 1 quart of green juice a day and mostly raw foods. I'll post my pics below and post as I progress. I have also started a Vlog on YouTube documenting my progress. I'll post that here later. Still editing it.

Here are my progress pics:

BEFORE JUICING AND RAW FOODS

AFTER JUICE FEAST AND MOSTLY RAW FOODS

NOW...AFTER LOWERING MY PERCENTAGE OF RAW AND OCCASIONAL JUICE
(EXCUSE MY JAMMIES AND MESSY HAIR)

I'm sure you will agree...the glow is gone! And my skin seemed firmer before. Hopefully adding daily green juice and more raw foods will help.

I wish it was easy to be GREEN!

Green juice makes a HUGE difference!

I stopped doing so much juice and was eating more raw. I was feeling pretty tired and I was getting REALLY haggard looking. I was looking like I was 50 (about to turn 40).

The whites of my eyes were not bright, more of a gray. My skin was looking pretty saggy and dull. The glow was absolutely gone.

I've been reading "Beautiful on Raw" by Tonya Zavasta. In that book she has testimonials from women who have seen huge changes in their appearance. All of them juiced and one of them said she felt green juice was her beauty secret.

So I decided I would try to juice daily. I would either make myself juice or I would go down to Robek's juice bar and buy some juice. I have figured it costs me up to 6-7 dollars to make a quart of juice from 1 English cucumber ($1.99), 1 bunch of celery (up to $2.50), and a head of dark leafy greens (up to $2.50) - unless I can find good organic bargains. I can go to Robek's and get a Large green juice with 2 oz shot of wheatgrass on the side for 7.99. So I've been doing either or.

I know I would save more if I bought regular produce...but in the long run I end up saving with organic. I don't think people realize how much nutrition our food has lost over the years with modern farming methods and soil that has been depleted of nutrients. I think there was a study done in the 50's that showed commercial produce had already lost 20-30% of it's nutrition and it was estimated to get worse. Don't quote me, I can't find the book that was in. I think it was one of Dr. Norman Walker's books. I can eat less organic food and get more nutrition. I can get away with a juice and a salad along with some nuts and seeds and seaweed for the day.

The people at Robek's think I'm crazy. The "greenest" drink they offer is called a Green-V, and it has tons of carrots with celery and some spinach. It comes out orange from the carrots and very sweet. Not very good for diabetics. I don't think they realize what little options they offer for diabetics.

I ask for a large juice with 1/2 of one carrot, regular celery, and tons of spinach. I used to deplete their spinach supply, so now I bring in my own cucumber for them to add. They are really nice and try to give me what I ask, and they add the cucumber I bring in. Although it does feel a little funny walking past everyone at Starbucks and the people sitting at the tables outside the juice bar holding a long cucumber lol.

I go in and get my green juice, and have done it pretty regularly. Because I bring in the cucumber, there is often extra and they'll give it to me in a little cup. One day I saw the extra, but they didn't give it to me. I just figured they didn't feel generous that day and left. The next day I was there bright and early with my cucumber and the same two girls where at the counter from the day before. I ordered my juice and then they went about making it. Then one of the girls kind of timidly asks...do you really like this juice? I said, "Huh?" and she said, "Well do you order it because you like it or for health reasons?" I said, I guess health reasons and also I can't have all the sweet stuff because I have diabetes. They go, "OH." Then went on to explain that they had tried the extra juice from the day before and they thought it tasted horrible, haha. Oh well, hehe.

ANYWAY, long story short, within a couple days of starting up the green juice regularly, the glow was back and my skin was feeling more elastic again. I feel so much better too. Happier. The whites of my eyes are white again and little spots I was starting to get on my face are gone.

Juicing is a pain in the arse. There I said it. And it's expensive. But actually if I'm really only drinking a quart of juice (celery, cucumber, lettuce) and then having a big salad (avocado, greens, sprouts, tomato, onions, lemon, garlic, ginger, peppers, and something extra like beets, broccoli, corn, cabbage, carrots, etc.) along with an apple a day and some nuts/seeds...and pretty much skipping dinner then it's not THAT BAD. I think the problem is the three diets going on in our house - hubby vegetarian (who doesn't really like veggies), son a "normal" diet, and then me mostly raw. If it were just me, that'd be a different story. And it's a pain because I don't want to eat dinner but I gotta make dinner for them.

I'll say it again, juicing is apain in the ARSE. I hate having to buy fresh veggies every couple days. I hate all the looks from people who see my cart full of veggies. I hate when the supermarket cashiers seem to pray that I don't go into their lines with my cart full of produce - half of it they can't identify let alone remember the codes and prices for. I hate having a fridge CRAMMED with veggies. Literally, I open the door and something falls out. I hate constantly having to clean out the fridge. I hate how dealing with fresh live foods means your kitchen looks like youve been sacrificing it to the Gods for eons, with little bits of veggies here and there. I hate how it attracts all the little no-see-ums and flies. I hate prepping the veggies and juicing them. I hate straining the stuff. I hate cleaning up afterwards. I hate all the veggie garbage and pulp I have to be either creative or wasteful with. (I recently began raising earthworms to eat some of that stuff) BUT....it's worth it! REALLY!

(I don't hate the taste though. I did at first, but now I crave it. )

My juice feasting experience - Lost 30 pounds!

I juice feasted for 30 days and lost 20 pounds juicing and then another 10 eating mostly raw. I had to stop because I was losing weight too fast. I knew if you lost weight fast and shocked your system, you could temporarily lose hair and could take it about 8 months to regrow again. Well I was too late to save myself from the shock (will discuss this in a later post).

I would post a pic...but I'm on a different computer and my camera's software is on my broken one. I'll post one as soon as I can.

Anyway, since I'm diabetic, this meant at least 4 quarts of green juice a day. Sometimes it tasted pretty damn good, sometimes it tasted like pond scum. I really liked the experience.

I didn't have many withdrawal symptoms. On the very first day for a couple hours I was really nauseated, but that was it.

It was a time-consuming, messy experience, but it got faster and cleaner as I got a routine down.

I drank at least 4 quarts a day. Each quart usually contained the following:

1/2 pound of dark leafy greens (2 pounds total for the day)
1 bunch of celery
1-2 big cucumbers

Dark leafy greens meant spinach, collard, kale, shard, dark green lettuce, etc. For the day I tried to juice a pound of the really dark stuff (spinach, collard, kale, or shard) and then a pound of the lighter lettuces.

Keep in mind the above would usually make enough to make a quart....but if there was low water content or the celery or cucumbers were smaller, I'd end up having to throw more stuff in. If it was just like 1/2 a cup short, I'd put in 1/2 a cup of water.

The extra stuff I would throw in would be - 1/2 an apple, a carrot, bell peppers, squash, jalepeno, cilantro, parsely, jicama, ginger, green beans, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, prickly pear cactus pads (dethorned), etc. - whatever was on sale or I got given to me.

So I would buy for three days. My 3-day list looked like this:

3 pounds of dark leafy greens
3 pounds of lighter leafy greens (but not too light, no iceburg lettuce)
12 celery bunches
12 large cumbers or more smaller ones
A bag of apples
A bag of carrots
Ginger root

Then I'd cruise the veggie section, looking for what was on sale and try to buy a bunch of it.

At first I used a Juiceman juicer, but it died. Then I used a Breville juicer, but it died. Then I used a Breville blender and would strain it through a paint strainer bag (not sure how safe this is, don't copy me, nut milk bags are safe). Then I used my grandma's old Oster meat grinder from the 50's that she used to make tamale masa and strained that. Out of everything, her old meat grinder shows no signs of stopping - they sure don't make things the same do they. The Breville blender still works, but I don't want to break it, so I don't overuse it.

I would start the day with cleaning up my juicing area. I would get out the juicer, 4 jars, 4 lids, a peeler, a knife and cutting board and three huge bowls. I would fill one bowl up with the lettuces. The other with the rest of what I was using. I cleaned and rinsed the lettuce and threw it into the third bowl and put it by the juicer and rinsed out the dirty bowl. Then I peeled the cucumbers if they weren't organic and threw them into the rinsed bowl, cut them up if I had to. Then I cleaned and cut the celery and threw it in with the cucumber. Rinsed out that bowl and put the cleaned extras in. I kept my cutting board right by the sink so I could just scoop the scraps into it, I tried to have a strainer in the sink. I made a LOT of scraps. At least 1-2 plastic grocery bags full, including the pulp. I had my 4 jars ready with their lids and also had a small saucer to fill the jar on to catch spillage.

Then I juiced or blended/strained or grinded/strained. If I strained, I poured everything into a paint strainer bag and then would massage it to get all the juice out.

I would pour the juice into a quart jar with a canning lid, making sure it was overflowing a little. I pressed the canning lid on (some of the juice would squeeze out making an air-tight lid) and screwed the ring on. I kept them cold and drank them through the day. If I had to go somewhere, I stuck them in a lunchbox with an ice pack or cooler with ice.

Then the fun of cleaning up started lol.

If I used a juicer, my dogs loved eating the pulp. They didn't like the strained stuff so much. I live in Tucson and it's HOT (I did it in June) so I would scatter the pulp outside on the ground and it would dry up and I would stomp it into the soil. Sometimes I saved it in baggies and used it in soup. I used the scraps for broth when I could. Next time I'll have a compost pile and maybe even a little earthworm farm (much easier and cleaner and unsmelly than you think - and you get great fertilizer from it for your plants or to give away, this stuff is black gold believe me).

Anyway, I juiced for 30 days. At the beginning I put in supplements - spirulina, bee pollen (later found out I shouldn't have added yet as a diabetic), green powders. But I found I didn't *need* them. I also would drink some water with lemon juice and MSN. At first I did this every morning, then I tapered off.

I felt AMAZING.

About halfway through I allowed myself a little veggie broth, I would cook veggies lightly and drink the broth. It was sooooo good. Towards the end I let myself drink any broth, even if it was a meat broth, but not often. Then I started to have avocado halves once in a while.

I was bad and didn't do the "breaking of the fast" like it is suggested by so many others. I didn't want to shock myself with the sugar from soaked prunes. I just started adding more avocado, more broth, then had lightly cooked veggies. Remember I'm not 100% raw vegan.

I was doing 100% raw for a couple weeks but had to stop, I was losing weight too fast and my skin wasn't keeping up, so I put myself into a holding pattern so it could catch up. And it is.

Juicing wasn't cheap. Sometimes I could spend $60 - $100 dollars for three days - more expensive when I added the supplements and bought all organic.

I couldn't afford all organic and I figured something was better than nothing so I started to go to more discount groceries. I got some really good bargains at the local Mexican and Chinese groceries. At these places sometimes my bill got down to around $38.

I worried about the pesticides, but I read an old book, can't remember by who - Dr. Jensen or Dr. Walker...can't remember, but he mentioned that pesticides reside in the fiber of plants and have an opposite attraction to the juice - so when you juice and remove the pulp the pesticides are repelled by the juice and stay in the pulp. True? I don't know, but it made me feel better about not getting all organic. But made me feel bad for my dogs, haha.

Recently I've been sprouting alfalfa, sunflower greens, microgreens, and growing wheatgrass. Next time I do a juice fast, I'm going to do a lot of sprouting and try to have a ton of lettuce growing.

Another thing I will be more faithful about, I need to be more faithful with the techniques to help move more toxins out - like skin brushing, hot/cold showers, massages, and making sure my intestinal tract is moving thing out. When you juice feast or eat raw, your body is de-toxing big time and will do so through the skin, colon, etc. If the toxins aren't removed in a timely manner, then your body may re-absorb them.

I don't know if I will do another 30 day fast again though. I may do shorter ones through the year. Maybe even once a month or once a week, not sure yet.

Why I started this

As the editor of DiabeticMommy.com, I try to keep up on all the latest treatments, products, discoveries on the diabetes landscape.

I do what I'm told - follow a diabetes diet, take my medications, check my levels, and try to keep my blood sugar values in the accepted range. I have had diabetes for 15 years and for 15 years have had no serious complications from diabetes (knock on wood).

However, as I've been getting closer to 40, it seems like I've been really feeling my age (feeling OLDER actually) and new health issues are popping up. I know I have to get my weight down and optimally reduce or eliminate my medications, but that has been easier said than done. I've tried all sorts of diets - Adkins, South Beach, grapefruit diet, cabbage soup diet, zone diet, Slim Fast, Weight Watchers, diet pills, hypnotism, nutritionists, etc. I've done all sorts of exercise - gym memberships, personal training, jogging, training for and completing a 5K, training for a half-marathon (halted by injury), etc.I usually notice health improvements. And my body composition changes. However, I don't really lose a lot of weight - especially none of my visceral intra-abdominal fat.

I have no doubt that I have willpower - because I have always given these things a really good try and have been very good. However, I stop out of frustration when months pass and I see no results on the scale at all. Or I get injured or sick from overdoing it, and have to stop with a loss of motivation.

The past few years, I have been in a cycle - I try really hard but when nothing happens, I give up and figure why try at all. This year, I had pretty much given up. I drive a carpool, and the father of the girls I drive home often tries to give me diabetes advice. If you are a diabetic, you know how this is. Often the advice you get from non-diabetics is cockamamie. Or they will say things like, "You know, you JUST gotta lose weight and your diabetes will go away." I won't go into that now.

Basically a type 2 diabetes body has been modified into a fat-storing machine, it is streamlined for times of famine. We can make due on less. Well, I can't remember the last time we had a good famine here, but my body is busy storing away. Our hormonal system sends out chemical messages to the rest of the body - Don't release the fat! I want carbs! It's the same as if we took a pill, we are drugged by our own bodies.

ANYWAY....my friend kept giving me advice, and I'd smile and say, I'll look into that, and drive away. One day he came out with a flyer for a talk about diabetes. He told me he knew the speaker personally, and that he has "cured diabetes by giving people a bunch of green juices - made diabetics lose weight and all beautiful and everything." I asked myself, "Is he not only saying I'm fat but ugly too?" I smiled and said thanks, I'll check it out.

Not too long after, my online gaming friend Kurt decided to do some research for me after hearing me complain about diabetes. He's not a doctor, but he's a smart guy. He told me he read that I should be eating vegan, and mostly raw, and cut out cheese. Hmmmm, was it a sign to at least give it a try?

So I looked at that ad again. It was for a seminar by Gabriel Cousens, M.D., and it looked like he was promoting his book "There Is a Cure for Diabetes: The Tree of Life 21-Day+Program

I looked up that book online. I discovered the book explained how diabetics could "cure" diabetes with a raw vegan diet...WHAT? Raw Vegan diet - F THAT! So I forgot about it for a couple days.

I also didn't like that they used the word "cure." To me "cure" means that it's gone and you don't have to worry about it anymore. This program is more about gaining control - and managing with diet and exercise. To it's credit, it's not easy at all to control diabetes with diet and exercise, and often you aren't successful and then have to add in medications, but this is a way of life that almost guarantees you will get control.

In spite of my doubts, I began to wonder if I might benefit from just a vegetarian diet. So I started to surf around the net and somehow ended up watching some videos by Philip McCluskey of LovingRaw.com.

For some reason I really related to him in this video. He had lost a lot of weight, was happy and healthy. He was eating a raw vegan diet and was loving it. I wanted to be there too.

So I surfed around some more and was amazed and flabbergasted by some of the blogs, testimonials, and before/after pics I was coming across. Everyone seemed so happy, so energized. It was like you see in movies and read in books when someone becomes a vampire - they are transformed into an extraordinarily beautiful person. I'm serious, many of the blogs I found showed pictures like that. Google "raw food before and after" or "juice feast before and after."

I bought a couple books - Ani's Raw Food Kitchen: Easy, Delectable Living Foods Recipes by Ani Phyo and Raw Food Life Force Energy: Enter a Totally New Stratosphere of Weight Loss, Beauty, and Health by Natalia Rose. These were great books and got me excited about raw/living foods. I tried a couple recipes from Ani's book - and even got my son to eat one of her oatmeal recipes - very willingly.

Since then I've bought a LOT more books and will share my favorites later.

Anyway, this inspired me to at least give it a try. I never intended, and will never force myself to go 100% raw, but I try to aim for around 80% - so I still get to have my favorites once in a while.

My First Post!

Hello!

I am currently Juice Feasting...and am on my 11th day now. I'll post later about the details and WHY the hec I'm doing this .

Right now I want to go ahead and get to the kewl stuff - pics! I'm already feeling and seeing huge differences. I've lost 10 pounds. It's not really apparent on my body, and I don't hear lots of people saying they think I've lost weight, but I really see the difference in my face right now.

Here are some of the changes I've noticed:

• Clearer skin
• Liver spots going away
• Some long-time facial bumps going away
• Inflammation and puffiness going away
• Whiter teeth, plaque going away
• Softer skin
• Fresh breath, fresh body smell
• Increased energy, feeling lighter
• Arthritic aches and pains are mostly gone
• Better mood - happier, clearer thinking processes
• I also have had these yellowed/scarred areas in the inner part of my eyes. I've been told that's from sun damage because I live in the desert and often don't wear sunglasses - that's going away too!
• Oh yea, and I got a pair of denim shorts I wear all the time. I gotta hold them up now. If I jump up and down, they fall down!
• Another kewl thing is that I notice the color of my eyes changing. I have hazel, mostly brown eyes, but lately the green is really coming out.
  

Okay, here are some BEFORE pics...you can really see the inflammation going. These pics weren't taken on day 1 of the juice feast, but the first one was within the year. The second one a couple months before. I didn't like taking my pics. :( I'm trying to recall if I have an even more recent one, and searching. But I can tell you, on day 1 of the juice feast, I looked the same, if not WORSE and I weighed the same. I started this way of eating because I was so fed up:

BEFORE:

And here I am....on day day 11 of the juice feast.....

AFTER:

I don't know. I don't think that's bad for 11 days!

Hopefully I can keep this up for a bit. I would LOVE to do this for 60 days - which symbolically would represent the time I've been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. (It is said each day of a juice feast is worth about 80-120 days of healing - and I was diagnosed about 15 years ago).

ANYWAY, as much as I would love to keep it up for 60 days - I doubt I will be able to afford that. So now my new goal is to continue juice feasting until my fasting blood sugar hits 85 without medications or I run out of money - whichever comes first. I may run out of money here pretty soon, so I hope it goes down soon!

When I stop juice feasting, I am going to switch to an at least 80% raw vegan diet.

DIABETES...oh yea, I should mention how that's doing.

First of all, I want to say I am doing this on my own and taking my own risks. I try to learn all I can about diabetes. I'm the editor of DiabeticMommy.com. And my own doctor tends to let me do what I want - literally stating, "Go ahead, you seem to know what your doing."

I personally don't feel "juice feasting" is harmful for me. I don't have serious complications. Plus juice feasting is not starving or fasting. I have figured I'm still getting at least 1600 calories a day in the form of 4 quarts of special homemade green vegetable juice, 2 tbsp hemp oil, 1 tbsp bee pollen, 1 tsp powdered kelp, 1 tbsp powdered super green formula, and 1 tbsp spirulina.

Before the juice feast I was taking 2500 mg of Metformin/Glucophage (500 mg over the max recommended dosage), 40 units of Lantus at night, and 15 units of Humalog with meals.

My blood sugar levels had quite a range. In a day I could register a low of 11 (yes, 11, and I didn't pass out either) and then skyrocket to 250. On "average" my fastings were usualy between 90-120 and two hours after meals I was around 180.

When I started the juice feast, I stopped everything. The first day my levels hoovered around 250. Each day my levels went down about 10 points and they didn't fluctuate through the day. As of today my levels are pretty steady around 150 and they get lower everyday. After a juice "meal" it goes up about 10 points.

I think the missing ingredient is more exercise. I've been pretty casual with my exercise lately, and gotta do something more regular. So I'll be starting to add that in - man, if I can find time.

I'm also going to try to drink a cup of cinnamon tea with dinner from now on - just boiled water with a cinnamon stick. Yummy.