All-juiced 6th - FLASHBACK: Symmetry.

Come back after you've enjoyed this little slice of the '80s.

NOTE: These entries were originally posted on Facebook during November 2014, a month in which I embarked on my first super-extended juice. I began the month with some significant health problems and ended it some 40 pounds lighter! 

Since then, I have eaten a whole-food, plant-based diet and lost a total of 145 lbs. and counting. I hope you are able to benefit from my struggles. Enjoy, and feel free to leave a comment! 

Day Thirty-Seven. Has it really been a week since I've posted a new blog? Wow. Only about a million cool things have happened since last Thursday. Monday, I had a HUGE non-scale victory while shopping for new jeans at Old Navy. It was time to retire the 36-waist pants, since I've been folding them over in the front for the last couple of weeks. I ended up buying three new pairs of pants: one pair of boot cut jeans that are 33x32, one loose-fit pair at 32x34, and one pair of 32x34 khakis. Mentally I was planning on wearing the 33's for a few weeks yet, and hopefully being able to squeeze into the khakis by my birthday in about a week and a half. Yesterday, though, we went as a family to the farmers' market in my wife's hometown of Holland, Michigan, and I decided to wear the 32 jeans just to try to break 'em in.

Who else has worn this Patch of Shame?

Besides the fact that the market itself was the best one I've ever been to, with regards to price and selection, the jeans fit much more comfortably than I was prepared for them to fit. Sure, they're a little bit snug in certain places, but my wife never let on if they looked a little too tight. Monstrous victory, considering two facts: one, I still get regular mailers from the big-and-tall stores in the area; and two, I remember buying 48-waist pants last summer and feeling relieved that the company that makes them were sensitive enough to my ample waistline NOT to stamp the measurements on that brown belt patch on the back of the jeans. They may as well have said "HUSKY," or "TOUGHSKINS." Anyone else remember Toughskins?

Anyway, to have lost sixteen inches from my waistline in basically a year is mind-blowing for me to think about. I can't imagine that I'm done losing weight yet, especially since I'll be eating a predominantly raw plant-based diet when I'm back on solids, for the next couple of months as I gently transition my digestive system back into regular use. We'll see where my body decides it is most healthy in a little bit!

Yup, those are *my* feet, crossing over into OneDerLand!

And speaking of weight, another significant occasion had to be finally crossing over into OneDerLand Tuesday morning. I had been lingering on the outskirts for a few days, fluctuating between 200 and 201, when it finally happened. I think I might have stepped back on the scale twelve more times after that initial reading, just to see if my eyes had deceived me. And...nope! The measurement stuck, and has stuck for the last few days, I'm guessing.

Guessing, only because I didn't bring my home scale with us on vacation, by design. My in-laws have one here, but I've already determined that I'm not going to weigh myself until we're back in Ohio next week. I want to avoid the tyranny of the scale while keeping my ultimate goals in clear focus, and that's a fine line to tread. I want to continue to pursue sound juicing habits, scripting my meals that first week I'm back on solids, and generally just...exhale. May I never see a "2" in that hundreds digit again!

I'll let you read the flashback, after I report one more significant thing that happened. I finally completed the requirements for my masters' degree in history! I'm in the Ph.D. program, so it's really just a stepping stone to bigger and better things, but a HUGE step nonetheless. I've been seriously considering career options lately, which I'm sure I'll talk about much more after the juice fast is over, but I want to bask in this accomplishment for a little while.

I promise I didn't plan this, but we were in Holland for these flashback posts as well! About to celebrate Thanksgiving, which is the ultimate test of my resolve, in many, many ways. I hope this wasn't too much to read at once, but enjoy!

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Juice-vember 26th. "You can look at the menu, but you just can't eat..." Every time I think I can slip back into my old carnivorous habits, my body tells me otherwise. I got the results from my most recent bloodwork and urinalysis at the nephrologist the other day, and most of the numbers came back pretty good. They found that my uric acid was high, and the doctor wants an ultrasound on my kidneys as a result. I have no idea if the numbers from this past week represent any sort of change from the previous decade, but I do know that the most effective way to reduce one’s production of uric acid is not to eat meat. If I ever needed any confirmation that a vegan lifestyle is best for my long-term health, this is it.

We’re spending the holiday up north at my in-laws' home in lovely Holland, Michigan. Tonight has been fairly difficult, but the last thing I wanted to do was use my juice as a placebo to try to mask my craving for whatever it was they were having. So, while everyone else ate what looked like a pretty tasty grilled pizza, I just contemplated making my dinner juice. I actually ended up sitting at the dinner table while everyone ate the pizza, sipping from my water bottle and delaying my gratification a little while longer. I felt more than a little fatigued from driving all morning, so it seemed for a bit like I was moving in slow motion as I assembled the ingredients for my double dinner batch.

Of course, that wasn’t the last of the food prep for the evening. Mother In Law prepared an excellent turkey along with about fifteen pounds of sausage stuffing. I know there’s much more than that to come, but I think I’m just going to try to stay the heck out of the kitchen until it’s all done.

Earlier this evening, one of my wife's oldest friends stopped by. She and her husband have done extremely well in losing weight and keeping it off over the years, and she was even in the middle of a run when she came over. My body doesn’t actually function in temperatures less than about 40 degrees, so I wouldn’t know anything about running outside with snow on the ground. The last time we saw each other was at the Tulip Time 5K in May of 2013, and she left us with an offer/challenge to run more races this summer.

Seems like a pretty fair challenge to make, wouldn’t you say? I mean, you circle a date a few months from now on your calendar and start to pound the pavement. Isn’t it that simple? I wonder if anyone can identify with the way I’ve handled races in the past, without having dealt with my food addiction. Basically, I filled the space that I normally filled with food, with running – in effect, toggling my addictions. And I actually did enjoy running when I was able to do it well! There’s nothing like knowing you can put one foot in front of the other for an extended period of time, at a reasonably fast pace. Both times I’ve run a race – the Gasparilla 15K in 2009 and that aforementioned Tulip Time run in ’13 – have ended badly. After the 15k my wife and I went to dinner at Outback and I must have consumed no fewer than 4,000 calories. I remember eating about 2/3 of a bloomin’ onion just to start. Even worse than that, I pretty much stopped working out and eating well for the next few months after that. Before I knew what hit me I had gained a significant amount of weight, yet again. I wasn’t in all that great shape for the Tulip Time run to begin with, and I slipped back into those old habits after celebrating my “accomplishment” for a week or two by eating poorly and not working out at all. I made excuses about work schedules and kids, but they were just excuses. In hindsight, those celebratory meals are kinda like an alcoholic celebrating six months of sobriety by going to happy hour and knocking back shots. Sometimes, for me, the post-race celebration can pretty much wipe out everything I had done to prepare for the race itself.

Not that I’ve agreed to run even one race this summer, but I wouldn’t mind having a goal like that in mind. Another big part of me realizes that because of my health and my family I’m running a much longer race than I ever thought I would be, so that should keep me on the straight and narrow. Then the skeptic in me points out that my family hasn’t been much of a speed bump between me and my selfish pursuit of addictive behavior to this point, so why should I expect anything else this time around? I wonder how differently things will go once I’ve actually dealt with my food addiction? In theory, it seems quite easy to give the post-race agenda much more thought than I have before, keeping my training regimen on the rails, and avoiding the kind of post-race celebration I’ve had in the past. In practice? We’ll see. ‪#‎juiceon

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I'm looking back on my last few posts from November in amazement at how that fast has basically mirrored this one. Tomorrow's post sees us back at home, having basked in the glow of my successes at Thanksgiving dinner, contemplating next steps. Thanks for reading!