Self-Reflection Sundays: She got the juice

Last Sunday, I set out to do something I had never done before and it was one of the hardest things I've ever done in my 35 years of living. 

I STARTED JUICING

One week later, during my self-reflection, three thoughts became prominent:

  1. Make every effort to take care of your health.
  2. You can do ANYTHING you put your mind to.
  3. Don't go back to something you already came out of.

My husband has juiced before and has been successful with it. But anytime he made a juice for me, I would drink it with a meal. He told me that the juice was supposed to be a meal replacement. I never joined him with his juicing because substituting a drink for food didn't make sense to me at all. I loved food way too much and didn't understand how just juice could possibly be enough.

So why juice now? Well, I eat a lot. More specifically, I snack ALL the time. In middle school, I was called Big Hungry. I would eat snacks in class, on the bus, everywhere. If there was food, Big Hungry was eating it. In high school, they dropped the "big" and just started calling me "Hungry". Now that I'm a borderline diabetic adult with high blood pressure and unwanted extra weight, I've decided to try something unconventional. I have goals to come off of my blood pressure medicine, to lose weight, to develop healthy eating habits, and to be a role model for my children. My husband has been making tremendous strides health-wise and I want to get on the bandwagon.

Day1As of last Sunday, I weighed 202 lbs. I wrote in an earlier blog post that I wanted to lose 30 lbs by the end of the year. I didn't really have a specific goal for this juice fast. I just knew I wanted to do it for three days. I thought it would help me jumpstart a healthy lifestyle; maybe it would serve as a cleanse. I started off really strong; 3 juices a day (I also drank water and coffee). On the second day, I started really feeling victorious because I only had one more day left. Surely I would make it. Then my husband convinced me to extend the juicing to 5 days in order to really reap the benefits. Thursday - day 5- had come and I felt amazing. I could see physical changes, I was losing two pounds a day which made me feel pretty confident about juicing for a longer period. I decided to juice for as long as I could. To give it a realistic time frame, I committed to juice until the end of October. I was looking at 2 more weeks of juicing. 

This whole time I felt that juicing was completely doable. I had my moments where I missed food but with the help of my husband, I kept being reminded of the results that I had already started to see. Not only was I losing weight, I was feeling more energized and my skin was looking clearer. I truly felt amazing! 

Then came Friday...

I wanted everything; pancakes, ice cream, chicken, Chinese food, popcorn. Things were getting rough. I was constantly asking my husband for reassurance. I was watching YouTube juicing videos to get motivation. Although I was feeling weaker, I made it one more day. By Saturday, things were looking bad. I didn't think I could make it. I was looking for permission from my husband to stop. What if I eat today and start over tomorrow? What if I just eat one meal and juice the rest of the day? No matter what I came up with, all he kept saying was, "I support you no matter what you choose". I wanted to finish this. It wouldn't be worth it to pause. I might as well keep going. Clearly I could make it, I had made it this far. I just had to focus my mind on that. I made it all the way to Saturday night. Then it happened. I told myself that I was starving. I told myself that I needed something to eat. The truth was that I just wanted to eat something bad. If I was going to keep going with juicing, then there were some foods that I wanted to say goodbye to first. So I gave in. I ordered shrimp egg foo yung and crabcakes. Just as I suspected, it so wasn't worth it. I paid for the food on Saturday, and I was still paying for it on Sunday.

By juicing, my body was already cleansing out toxins. To dump bad stuff right back into it was not the correct move to make. I could have at least eaten a salad or something, but I went for the terrible things. Have you ever known that something wasn't good for you and you indulged in it anyway? That's when guilt sets in. You can be doing so well and then the temptation starts to feel so unbearable that you give in to it. You might think, "one more time won't hurt". Listen, I'm hear to tell you that that last time might be your last time. You're going to end up paying for it somehow. It's not worth it. If you're a new creature in Christ, then walk in newness of life; don't be entangled again in bondage...(Bible references from 1 Corinthians 5:17, Romans 6:4, & Galatians 5:1)

Although things didn't go as expected, I'm excited about starting over tomorrow. No matter what, I can say that I successfully juiced for 7 days. I'm also excited to report that despite my shortcoming, I am down 10 lbs. Nothing can take that away. So why not go in with a new mindset. It is possible to only have juice. I can do this. I just have to rethink food. This past week made me see how much time I spend eating for no reason. I often eat two breakfasts. I eat in between the time in between the time in between meals (I meant every word). I have to have something right before bed.  I even snack when I'm feeding the baby in the middle of the night,  just idle time, with my idol. I was not taking care of myself and I felt like no amount of exercise was going to make up for my bad eating habits.  But for the past seven days I did not eat or chew food. I just drank juice that I made, water, and coffee. Throughout the day, I would see food on whatever show I watched, I would see it as I scrolled on my phone. It was in my house. I couldn't escape it. Food was everywhere, but so is the opportunity to stick to what I started. I was happy seeing the results of juicing, but discipline is they key that will keep me when I want to fall. It truly is a "mind over matter" issue. I fell, but I didn't have to. So I'm starting over.

I can go into a store now not needing to buy a candy bar for the drive home. I can find things to do throughout the day at home instead of just snacking because I have idle time. I can keep my mind on my goals instead of thinking about the chicken that I want to fry or the burger that I want to buy. Instead of the mindset that says, "I can't wait til this juicing is over so I can get some Chinese food", now I can't wait to eat a salad and make veggie burgers. 


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