Wait a minute! I haven't STARTED yet....

Feeling very out of sorts today.  I haven't been getting enough sleep, so I'm tired, crabby, weak and have a headache.  Sounds like the beginning symptoms of juice cleansing to me!  But wait, it starts tomorrow. 

I'm sure that I will lose some weight, in fact, gobs and gobs of it, I hope.  So today I stepped on the scale for the first time since they made me do it during my prenatal checks over a year ago.  Do I have to say the awful number?  I suppose I do.  I weigh 280 big ones.  Ouch.

I also did some web surfing last night (one of the reasons for this hung-over feeling today) and found a very informative and motivational website: http://www.juicefasting.org/  They are very pro-raw food as well.  One thing I loved about their site was an approximation of the "stages" of cleansing your body goes through on a juice feast, like, "From day 3 to day 7 you'll probably be feeling..."  I will probably read that every day.  They pretty much stick to recommending a 30-day fast, though.  To get me past 30 days, I will probably need Angela's book, which I have yet to order...

I think I'm going to need another fridge....

The juice feast doesn't start until Tuesday, but I'm doing my big grocery shopping trip tomorrow.  Aside from food for the girls and Todd, this is what I've got on my list...does it sound like enough to get me through the first 5 days of juicing?

4 heads of celery
12 cucumbers
4 bags of leafy greens
4 bags of apples (about 10-12 apples in each bag I think)
4 bags of carrots
12 lemons/limes
2 bags of oranges
2 bags each of red and green grapes
2 pineapples
12 pears
12 grapefruit
2 each of honeydew and canteloupe
2 each of different colored bell peppers
1 head each of red and green cabbage
12 tomatoes

If I run out of anything early, I will go shopping on Friday or Saturday night, because Todd doesn't have work or classes then.

Here's to you, kid

So today is my birthday.  I'm 34, which isn't so old.  I'll always be younger than my husband, which is immensely comforting, oddly enough.  But this day really brings home to me why I need to do this juice feast.  Because I can feel myself dying.  My health is falling apart.  This heart beats too fast; I get winded going up the stairs, these legs that used to jog 15 miles a week can barely hold my weight when I stand up from a chair.  If I don't actually have knee problems yet, I will soon.  I can no longer sleep on my back, just as if I were pregnant.  I'm chronically exhausted.

I don't want to die young.  My family needs me.  My girls need me, not merely to stay alive but to show them how to live.  And I need me, too.  I only get this one body; no trade-ins, no returns.  Can't abuse it and then swap it for another.  Rescuing this body is going to take a hero, and I need to be that hero.

So here's to you, kid.  You're going to live.  Happy birthday.