Day 2 - Juice to Reboot - Glimpses of 'Mean Joni'

What I didn't tell you...
What I didn't tell you at the end of DAY ONEs blog is that I did NOT follow my own advice and make an extra afternoon juice to bring with me to work.  I also did NOT make my lunch for DAY 2 which was suppose to be a big salad.  What I ended up doing was grabbing one of the prepacked boxes of spinach, a whole tomato, salad dressing and part of an avocado and threw it in my lunch bag.  At lunch time I went down to the cafe at work and bought $6 worth of stuff I already had at home but didn't feel like chopping up the night before (mushrooms, cucumbers, onions, artichoke hearts, green bell pepper and beets).

 Day 2 - Morning

Delicious Breakfast drink

I woke up feeling great!  Although I didn't feel like I slept that well.  I dreamed a lot about juicing!!  Oh no, after only two days I'm having juicing dreams!  I'm hoping as the toxins leave my body I'll be able to sleep more soundly.  I again had a nice cup of green tea on my way into work.  I was REALLY looking forward to our breakfast drink this morning. It's a combo of pineapple, blueberries, kiwi, banana, coconut milk and mint leaves. The lesson I learned from DAY 1 was to TASTE the juice before packing it up and bringing it to work because it might not taste that great.  So I tasted the breakfast drink and wanted to drink it last night for dinner.  It was that good!  Glad I saved it for today though.  I needed a delicious juice because I knew that the mid-morning juice would not be so delicious...

John texted this morning and said he's feeling bloated and gassy.  Which I read is perfectly normal.  Because we're not eating things that are hard for our bodies to digest (meat, dairy, grains) our gut lining enzymes are now breaking down the build up of toxins and poisons that we've been loading into our bodies over the years.  The toxins are looking for a way out.  I have read that the toxins will look to escape in any means necessary.  It can be in the forms of extra earwax, runny nose, watery eyes, urination, diarrhea, gas, etc.  Sounds fun right?  One book I read said something like poison hurts on the way in and on the way out.  So when I feel those feelings mentioned above I know my body is working on eliminating the crud!

Mid-morning juice

The 'not so terrible' beet juice

Well I seriously thought I was going to struggle with this one.  But you know what?  It wasn't that terrible!  John, on the other hand said in response to that same statement, "it wasn't that delicious!" To which I replied, "I like it better than the green juice we had yesterday." His come-back was, "They are running neck and neck."

Sharing with co-workers
So when I brought out my big cup of beet juice I asked my co-workers if anyone would like a taste.  Only one took me up on the offer and she said, "Not bad!  And I hate beets!"  But get this....I'm sitting at my desk at my computer and I keep smelling this odor.  At first I thought maybe I had left some food at my desk that had spoiled so I was looking around to see if there was something rotting (my desk in NOT that messy so I was certain I couldn't have missed anything like that).  So my next thought was maybe the co-worker in the next cube was having gas.  I kept sniffing around, taking a drink of juice, sniffing some more, taking a drink of juice but couldn't find the source of the odor.  I finished my juice, rinsed the cup and sat back down at my desk.  Amazingly the poopy smell was gone.  Ewww....sure glad it didn't taste like it smelled!! 

I share in other ways too.  People are really curious about this new crazy diet we're on. And if the people I talk to would have read the things I have or seen the things I have they would not think it's crazy at all.  They would be jumping on board the health wagon. So I've been trying to educate folks who ask me questions.  A close friend of mine at work and I were chatting via instant messaging about my upcoming mid-afternoon drink.  I had told her that I wasn't looking forward to it because last night when I followed the recipe it tasted N-A-S-T-Y!!  So I started adding things in to sweeten it up a bit.  An apple and some pineapple helped cover up the strong beet and celery taste. This friend of mine said, "I hope it's worth it.  I could do it for maybe a day or two but there is no way I could go 15 days on only fruits and veggies."

What makes me most sad about the comment coming from this particular friend is that she has gained a lot of weight over the past couple years.  She has all these ailments popping up that I think are big signs that she needs to start living a healthier life style.  Some examples are: needing a biopsy for her breast; a pinched nerve in her neck and needing an epidural shot for pain; pains in her knees...just to name a few. Not to mention she has a son who has ADD and another son with type 1 diabetes.  The more research I've done the more I'm convinced that her entire family could benefit from taking the bull by the horns and changing their lifestyle. 

Lunch

Salad

Lunch for me was a salad full of veggies (see the first paragraph)

Mid-Afternoon
Unlike Day 1, I didn't feel hungry and wasn't too bored at work so the day ended without me feeling dissatisfied or hungry.  My plan was to swing by Whole Foods to pick up MORE fruits and veggies to supplement the ones we already had and those that we were running out of more quickly (pineapple, apples, avocados, to name a few).

The drive home from work...
I started thinking about all the things I had to do.  I had to stop at whole foods. Then I had to cook dinner.  Then I had to make our breakfast juice, clean the juicer, make our mid-afternoon juice, make Day 3 lunch....and so it began.  I started getting frustrated as i was driving home already.  I felt like I had so much to do while John was at home all day enjoying his vacation (as he should!).  I kept telling myself "Joan, don't say anything to him.  You brought this on yourself.  You didn't ASK him for help.  He TOLD you it was a lot to take on so maybe we should do a more modified version of the plan"

I thought I had talked myself out of it and was ok.  But as the hunger set in while I was shopping at Whole Foods I started to get myself in a tizzy again.  And then the cashier rang me up and I mentally was not in a good place.  Another $100 and we were just at the store on SUNDAY.  That's only three days!!  So I started thinking, "How will we be able to afford 15 days of this???...How are we going to afford for my son to do this too??...How am I going to be able to keep up with all the juicing and preparations for THREE people???"  Those are all the thoughts going through my head between Whole foods and home.  John knew my energy was bad from the moment I sent him a text saying "this is an expensive experiment".

Knowing me as he does, he knew which Joni walked in the door last night:  Mean Joni.  And just so it's clear for anyone reading this, this is very normal behavior if I am hungry - this has NOTHING to do with the juice fast we are doing!!  So John pretty much stayed clear of me while I prepared our dinner.  He came in the kitchen while I was finishing up and while I told myself NOT to say anything negative to make him feel like he wasn't doing his part, the bitch in me came out. Fortunately dinner was done so we could EAT.

Dinner
John said it was the best one on this plan yet.  We had mushroom, onion and sage stuffed in acorn squash with a 'green soup' which was delicious!  There wasn't a lot of point to discuss the previous 15 minutes when 'mean joni' was still in the kitchen until after dinner.

Mushroom, onion & Sage stuffing in acorn squash

After Dinner
Nice Joni was back and my sense of reality came back with it so John and I were able to rationally discuss what changes in our plan needed to be made.  We came up with a few things.  Like I need to tell him a couple hours before I come home if I need his help with starting dinner.  He took the pressure off (that I put on myself - he didn't do it) of me having to make his juices and lunches.  I like to follow the plan and he's more of a 'what juice do I feel like today' kind of guy. Nothing wrong with either of these approaches.  We are both adjusting to this new lifestyle and are keeping mental notes about what will and will not work for us as a lifestyle change.

Heading for Day 3
John and I helped each other make Day 3 juices.  I made one of them and he made the other.  He helped me clean all the veggies for the week and put things away.  He's always been the kitchen cleaner so he did that too.  He is an amazing man, partner, and husband and I'm glad we're sharing this journey together.  Let's get to day 3!!