Weigh In - Week 38

Hello everyone!  The weeks seem to be ticking away at break-neck pace these days.  Life at our home is busier than it has ever been.  My natural reaction to increased business is to increase my organization.  These past few weeks, my husband and I have revamped our weekly schedule and created more time in the week for him to be at work, while I take the boys, tend to the house, food prep, home office, Charlie's mounting therapy appointments, etc.  Hubby is hard at work finalizing his submission file and personal statement for tenure.  Its an enormous undertaking and I'm more than happy to accommodate his new work schedule.  As I sit and write this, he is cleaning our kitchen - something he does without fail EVERY night.  So, I think we've found a good groove over the past few weeks.

With all of this controlled chaos and schedule switching, I've had to be diligent about making time for me and my Smaller Sarah priorities: boot camp, training for my upcoming 5K (it's only a few weeks away!), eating well, and of course my juice cleanse.  Today, is day eight of consuming only green juice.  So far, it's been pretty successful.  But it took some serious planning and the support of my husband, who is 100% behind me.  (Thank you, darling!)

Overall, the cleanse has been a great experience.  I'll continue the juicing today, tomorrow and then break the fast on Wednesday morning.  One of the many benefits of taking a break from solid food is that I am experiencing a heightened awareness of tastes and smells.  When I was eating the standard American diet, high amounts of salt, sugar, white flour and processed genetically modified food substances overwhelmed and dulled my sense of taste and smell.  During the past week, I have noticed a big shift - I can taste the astounding differences in the green juice I make.  One kind of celery tastes saltier than another.  Kale from one bunch has a sharper bite than a previous bunch.  Some cucumbers are sweeter and produce a denser texture.  An apple juiced on Tuesday is so different than an apple from the same bag juiced on Friday.  These differentiations are really eye opening to me.

I am also experiencing a sense of deep gratitude for and respect of the food available to me.  I have never really respected my food - not really.  Don't get me wrong, I love food and have always loved it - but respect it?  Not so much.  I was preparing dinner for my husband and son last night - salmon fillet on a bed of butter lettuce with cucumbers, Roma tomatoes, and raw pecans.  This might sound a little hippy-dippy, but when I touched the salmon, I could feel the whole fish at a time when it was water bound.  It was just a little flash of the fish's previous existence, being farmed with thousands of other salmon.  And the butter lettuce too.  When I was washing the leaves and could sense a time when it was root bound.  I could feel the pecan tight in its shell, attached to a swaying limb and then battered as it was sent through a shelling machine.  And it went on and on this way as I cleaned and prepped each ingredient.  So strange.  And silly, too!   I've never taken that much care with food.  When I set the salmon salad down in front of Jack with a fork, I said a silent "thank you" for all of the countless natural and unnatural interactions that brought this meal into my home.

See?  I told you this would sound a little hippy-dippy.

As for my weight loss, it has definitely accelerated because of the juice cleanse.  (So don't freak out, Mom, I don't have an eating disorder or anything...)  I don't expect all of this weight to stay off - I'm sure some will come back.  However, when I did the three day fast in September, I lost 4 pounds that never came back.  So, I'm crossing my fingers!

Pounds lost this week:  9

Total pounds lost:  62

The "I Did It" List

consumed only water and yummy nutrient-rich green juice all week

attended 2 boot camp classes (I missed the 3rd because Charlie was sick)

ran 2.5 miles on Saturday and another 2.5 miles on Sunday

I made home made meals for my family most every night while juice fasting

bought another round of veggies from the Bountiful baskets Co-Op

wrote in my journal every day