Week 1 Of The Juice Fast

I'm gaining weight again.  Sometimes I do this.  I eat hardcore for a couple of months and then pack on 20 pounds.  If you average it out, I only gain 7 pounds per year, but over the course of 23 years........well, you can do the math.  I put a whole bunch of healthy eating and nutrition videos in my Amazon Prime watch list in order to educate and motivate myself into being a healthier person and started watching.  Eventually I got to "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" and saw Joe Cross and others improve their health through juice fasting.  I was pretty skeptical.  I didn't even know it was possible to go 60 days without eating and only drinking juice, but I came back to the movie a few more times and decided that I would give it a try.  

The week before:  Weight - 285 lbs.  I started logging my foods into myfitnesspal and started looking at nutrient deficiencies in my diet.  I really upped my veggie intake and tried to eat more vegan meals.  I even made and tried to drink Joe's Mean Green juice, but I made it in the blender so it was a smoothie that took me all day to get through.

Day 1:  Weight - 288 lbs.  I got some juice recipes from the reboot website emailed to me and started to juice.  I don't have a juicer so I used my vitamin blender to make a smoothie and then I filtered the juice out by pouring it all into a new knee high tight and squeezed the juice into a bowl.  It took 15 minutes of squeezing for me to feel satisfied that I got all the useful juice out.  I made it through the day.  It wasn't a happy day.  I was hungry and had tons of cravings that left me feeling emotionally deprived. I decided not to try and do housework or anything else for the first 3 days of the fast.

Day 2:  Weight - 285 lbs.  Bad Day!  The worst.  But I made it.  I have really developed a hatred for juices that include kale or cucumber and squeezing juice out of socks.   I was an emotional reck with a lot of hunger and HUGE cravings.  I allowed myself to lay around and feel the bad feelings, but did not cheat.  I was bummed that after trying so hard not to eat for the previous day, I only lost 3 pounds and not 100, but oh well.

Ugh!  No more kale!

Day 3:  Weight - 281 lbs.  Today was much better than yesterday.  I still get hungry, but I don't really care any more.  I usually get pretty panicked about being hungry, but I can shrug it off pretty easily.  I'm still getting bad cravings, but just take a moment to imagine eating the food I am craving and then I can deal with it better.  I could not stand another sock ringing session so I am now using a strainer.  It's annoying as it takes the juice several hours to completely strain out.  I really want a juicer, but have to wait another month until I get my tax return to purchase one.  Pineapple and yellow bell pepper make a tasty combination.

Day 4:  Weight - 179 lbs.  I felt a bit more energized today and so proud that I made it at least 3 days.  I'm noticing that I'm thinking more clearly as well.  Pear Pie juice was my favorite today.

Day 5:  Weight - 177 lbs.  I had lots of energy today!  I shampooed the carpets and was really diligent in my parenting.  The kids might not have been so thrilled that I was able to better keep up with their mischief, but it made for a cleaner house.  I was sick of the limited recipes I had so I splurged and bought the 101 juice recipes app and am loving it.  

Day 6:  Weight - 175 lbs.  Hunger is no longer an issue for me.  I just don't care.  I drink a juice every 3 hours like clockwork now.  Cravings don't happen spontaneously anymore either but I still get them when preparing meals for my kids or see an ad somewhere.  It's annoying to see so many ads when I'm out and about.  The pizza on the side of the gas station was particularly painful to be around.  My energy levels are still high so my house is cleaner yet, and the kids are getting away with less and less. I made one of them come up from the basement to shut the sliverware drawer that she left open.  Pineapple and jalapeño are delicious together.  I can't taste beets, but they add nutrition and make the juices so pretty that they are quickly becoming a favorite of mine.  I used the grocery list feature on the recipe app today before going to the store.  It was a great tool!  A friend stopped by to talk to me about using essential oils and found out about my diet and is going to let me borrow her juicer for a month.  Woo-hoo!  Can't wait! 

Day 7:  Weight - 173.6 lbs.  My favorite juice that I made today was based off a smoothie I frequently drink and involved my favorite fruit, strawberries.  I put a ton of spinach in the blender with a cup of water and blended it.  Then I added 2 apples and a bin of strawberries.  This made a very delicious, but UGLY concoction.  It looked like diarrhea.  So, I added a beet and it made it soooo pretty.  I can't taste beets in juices so I didn't even notice it.  

Delicious with strawberries and beautiful with beets

    

Update on meals etc.

Just a quick update on our meals.  I am on a new diet and not eating with the rest of the family so I'm not as invested in dinner as I used to be.  Mostly I'm feeding the family stuff from the freezer that I've had prepared for a long time, but didn't want to eat.  Tonight they had homemade pizzas though to use up the pepperoni in my meat drawer and the mozzarella cheese from the freezer.  They loved them.  Sarah can't eat pizza.  It's one of the foods on her long list of foods that make her stomach hurt.  She is warming up some grilled chicken breasts that I keep for her in the fridge.  Last night I prepared spaghetti and meatballs which is something they usually love, but they didn't eat it.  As I reflected on the meal, I realized that Sarah ate chicken breasts at 3 or 4 pm and wasn't hungry.  Leo ate 2 hotdogs at 3 pm and wasn't hungry.  Abby said she wasn't hungry but came home from an activity at church where she had a brownie and proceeded to make 2 grilled cheese sandwiches and then eat a cupcake as well.  This was all after 9 pm.  Tripp said he wasn't hungry at supper time but then cried at 9 pm that he was starving.  I hate it when I make a meal only to be wasted as everyone else eats their own meals!  Suddenly I'm seeing an easy way to cut our grocery bill in 1/2.  I am going to be trying (again) to watch what and when the kids are eating.  No more meals on their own!  

This is Leo deciding to drink the dog's water with a straw.  I stopped him before he actually did it.  Gross!  We keep it on the table when Max is on the floor as he likes to take impromptu baths in it.

He's Doing His Job!

He's doing his job, and it's working!  Look at that happy girl!  Sarah has been fighting pretty severe depression and anxiety for a while now and that includes an inability on her part to sleep.  Boy, nothing makes anxiety and depression worse than never sleeping.  While we are working with several doctors including a sleep doctor, we decided to try using a dog to help her.  The reason we got Achilles was to see if having a dog and training it to do some emotional support or service dog services could help her.  The medications she can take are addictive and interact unpredictably and we would prefer to use as few as possible.  If Achilles can calm her enough to sleep without taking more meds, then we will be thrilled!  I am happy to report that Achilles is happy to be Sarah's buddy and sleep with her at night (and sometimes during the day too).  Sarah has been falling asleep before 10 pm and waking on her own around 7 am.  She is feeling much better and we are so excited.  I was hopeful, but did not expect such quick and perfect results.  I hope this continues!  This guy is such an answer to prayers for our family.  He has even started noticing if her mood starts to go south and immediately goes to her and nudges her with his nose.  That is something we were hoping to train him to do in the future so we are so giddy about him showing a natural instinct to do that on his own.

Sarah is feeling ill today.  We are weening her to a lower dose of antidepressants as she has been having some pretty severe sores showing up on her body and has periods of swift mood swings where she is inconsolably sad.  She is on the maximum dosage of her antidepressant now that her ADHD medication has been changed and working well, I think it is causing more harm than good to be on such a strong medication.  It is an addictive medication so decreasing dosage must be done slowly and there is some pain involved.  She is handling it well and if you know her, will definitely recognize that even though she is in pain, this is the happiest we have seen her face in 17 months.  

On another note, it is Sunday and I think it is an appropriate time for me to express how grateful I am for my family.  Heavenly Father knows me and knows that being bored is torture for me.  We have been blessed with such a fun family.  I love all of their personalities so much!  It isn't easy keeping up with them, but what excitement and joy they bring to my life everyday!  Even though it is a bit warmer out today than it has been, I still don't want to go out much and I'm blessed to be inside with these guys and their loving personalities.  I'm never short on excitement or kisses in this house.    

School and Rules

Tripp's favorite book to read this week.  He is reading it a second time through.  This time he is reading 20 pages a day to Leo.  Leo will sit still for books!

New house rules for electronics.  I scribbled it in marker.  Abby insisted on typing it.....before doing her math.  It's ok.  She got interested in Kahn Academy math this week and spent 67 minutes doing problems after she made the sign.

Stuff To Keep Him Busy

Just a short post about my most recent attempt to keep Leo busy.  Colored Rice!

Cars love it!

Superman is a fan!

.....and at least sweeping the kitchen is more colorful.

Public Humiliation

Anytime we go out in public, it is a given that one of my children, usually Leo, will do or say something that ends in my public humiliation.  Many years ago before Tripp was medicated he took his favorite toy to the store.  It happened to be a plush toy from the movie Toy Story and its name happened to be Woody.  Tripp also had a hard plastic toy of the same character.  He distinguished between the two toys by calling the plush toy, "wiggly Woody", and the plastic toy, "hard Woody."  Anyway, we were walking through the grocery store and Tripp starts running off with his toy.  I start yelling, "Tripp, Tripp, Tripp!" and then received the normal disgusted looks of other shoppers who assume that I'm such a bad mother that instead of trying to stop my running child, I merely cheer for him to fall.  About this time Tripp rounds the corner to the next aisle and Leo, who was about a year old, figures out how to stand up in the cart.  Fearful that Leo will fall out of the cart and hurt himself, I decide that for the time being I have to let Tripp go and attend to Leo.  I get Leo all strapped back into the cart and we went looking for Tripp.  We found him in the next aisle over chasing down a nice elderly woman frantically waving his toy at her yelling, "do you want to see my wiggly Woody?! Wanna seen my wiggly Woody?!"  And the looks of disgust from the other shoppers turn into looks of horror as they expect to see a 5 year old flasher.  (Or so I imagine, I'm too ashamed to look at anyone's face at the store.)

This was Leo at the grocery store today.  He was a dog.  It required crawling around and barking.  I noticed that this particular store had a nice floor.  I looked at it a lot as I was avoiding eye contact with everyone else in the store.  But, Leo wasn't the major humiliation of the day, it was Sarah.  My father recommended we try watching this British show "Black Mirror" on Netflix.  It is very interesting.  Kind of like a Twilight Zone for technological savy times.  The episode last night had an English princess being kidnapped and the ransom was for the Prime Minister to have intercourse with a pig on live TV and then the show revolved around whether or not he was going to do it and if anyone would watch.  At no time did they show a person having intercourse with a pig.  But as our supper guests were getting ready to leave the house tonight, my daughter says, "are you going to watch that show where rich people have sex with pigs again?"-----by the way......my guests.......were church missionaries.

Update on Meals They Will Eat

Well, they ate all of the meals with some tweaks here and there.  Abby didn't want to eat tacos, but said she loves walking tacos so I made that minor change and all went well.  The missionaries had supper with us on bacon, eggs, and rice night so we made it a bit fancier by adding a nice fruit salad and donuts for a "breakfast for supper feast.  Everyone seemed to love it.  We did have a night that we didn't feel like cooking and we ate 50 cent frozen burritos which made everyone but Abby happy.  She had ramen and was thrilled.  It was so successful that I think I will always keep frozen burritos and ramen on hand for what I will call "junky convenience food night".  We also had a night where we were out at appointments and running errands until 7pm so we bought a large bag of pizza rolls and all stood around the table snarfing it down as we had gotten too hungry to be civilized.  It's amazing how long we can spend on a couple of errands and how quickly we can become ravenous.  Maybe I should keep a bag of those around as well for similar occasions.  I have appointments 30 miles away 4 days next week.  Odds are it will happen again.

Here are my attempts for kid friendly meals next week:

1.  Corn flake breaded baked chicken legs

2.  Spaghetti and meatballs with an emphasis on the meatballs

3.  Costco sausages and roasted potatoes 

4.  Pesto ranch chicken over noodles

???  Guess I'll have to check Pinterest for more ideas.

This is not something that the kids are this week.  It is charred broccoli and red onions on quinoa and it was so good that I ate 3x this week.  One of my former students is studying to be a nutritionist and likes vegan cooking.  Apparently her honey got her a cookbook called Thug Kitchen for Christmas and she has been posting the most healthy and delicious meals from it on Facebook.  I have been copying them to the best of my ability but if anyone wants to buy me a present, I would love to get my hands on that cookbook. 

Fred also enjoyed this but would like to see the following changes for next time:

1.  Trade brown rice for the quinoa.  He doesn't like quinoa.

2.  Add shrimp or chicken and bell peppers.

How To Kidnap My Children

The Daredevil I Can't Control (and neither could you)

Today Leo is a ninja!

Leo is 3 1/2 and a daredevil.  Of all my kids, he is most likely to end up in the emergency room.  I'm grateful for the trips to the ER and urgent care, because the alternative would be my worst fear.  We can't keep Leo from being a daredevil and getting hurt but we do our best.  Leo has ADHD but is too young to be medicated for it, but he also has sensory issues.  He is "sensory seeking"  here is a list of symptoms found on Brain Balance Center's website: 

Hyposensitivities to sensory input may include:

• A constant need to touch people or textures, even when it’s inappropriate to do so

• Doesn’t understand personal space even when same-age peers are old enough to understand it

This is Leo right now telling me, "watch, watch, watch, watch mom!"  He's totally in my face.

• Clumsy and uncoordinated movements

• An extremely high tolerance for or indifference to pain

• Often harms other children and/or pets when playing, i.e. doesn’t understand his or her own strength

• May be very fidgety and unable to sit still, enjoys movement-based play like spinning, jumping, etc.

• Seems to be a “thrill seeker” and can be dangerous at times

I don't think Leo is more clumsy than other 3 year old children, but he definitely exhibits all of the rest of the symptoms.  Leo has gotten staples in the top of his head after falling off the arm of our Lazyboy recliner and hitting his head on the heat register, had surgery for getting an infection where he had his hand smashed in our car door, and we are watching him now to see if we need to take him to the ER for a possible broken foot.  Last night he was standing on one of our kitchen chairs (the tall kind) facing backwards with his feet pointing down through the bottom rung.  He leaned over too far and tipped the chair over.  It looked like he landed directly on the tops of his feet which were smashed under the weight of both him and the chair.

This is the chair

I really expected to see bones coming out of the tops of his feet from the looks of the fall.  He was screaming very loudly and rolling round.  I could tell his feet were in extreme pain.  We live 40 minutes from urgent care and it was snowing and the roads were 100% covered in our area.  I watched his feet for a while.  There was light swelling on one of his feet but no bruising and he was able to bear weight on the other foot.  I decided not to risk the roads to take him to a doctor last night.  This morning, I'm wondering again if I should take him.  He needed ibuprofen for the pain last night as he could not sleep.  This morning he is telling us that it hurts, but it isn't slowing him down much.  He is limping, but is definitely a ninja.  After a quick Facebook poll, I have wrapped his foot in an Ace bandage and given him more pain reliever.  He is happy to be a ninja right now and I'm happy to not expose him to dangerous flu germs at the doctor's office.  I hope I'm making the right decision.  

Leo waiting for emergency surgery after the cut on his hand got infected.  Daddy was TIRED (and scared)!

Leo getting help from a wonderful big sister after surgery.  

Leo is such a danger to himself that as I typed this, his daddy removed both a knife and an extremely sharp cheese grater from Leo.  Tripp already experienced a cut from the same grater.  It was suggested to us by a psychologist (a wonderful one that I love) that Leo should be medicated as soon as possible for his own safety.  Unfortunately, we have to wait 4 more months until he is old enough to take the medications.  Pray for us to help him stay alive until then.  Our biggest problem now is that he gets overwhelmed at stores and will jump out of moving carts and run in to the parking lots.  He is fast and has outrun 4 adults trying to catch him in a busy parking lot once.  He runs unpredictably darting here and there.  I imagine his head exploding like one of Gallagher's watermelons when he is eventually hit by a car and it terrifies me so much, I have decided to not take him to stores until he can be medicated.  After watching a video about sensory overload and stores, I understand why he runs from them.  Here is the video I saw.  It affects at least 1/2 my family including my husband who breaks out in a cold sweat seeing just seconds of it.  

Tip of the day - we learned the hard way from Leo's older brother Tripp, that you should not name a child Tripp if they have ADHD and tend to run from you in public.  Imagine the looks I got from strangers and other parents as I spent 2 years running after my son in public places yelling, "Tripp, Tripp, Tripp!"  They all thought I was cheering for him to fall.

Second tip of the day - never judge a mom who puts a leash on her kids and never say, "can't you control your child" to a mom.  Sometimes they can't and as much as you think that you could, you wouldn't be able to either.

Exercising the (demons) Wiggles

We are in love with Achilles!  Even Max is getting kisses (or Achilles likes the taste of baby snot.  If so, he should be in heaven because it is pouring out of Max's nose like the chocolate in one of those fancy party fountains......I have a story about one of those too - another time)

I was educating myself on husky dog ownership on youtube (and getting sidetracked by videos of people popping gross zits and finding bot flies in their head) and there were several videos of huskies getting bored and eating their owners' couches.  All the videos highly recommended walking and walking and walking huskies - for the safety of furniture everywhere.  They also recommended brushing your dog.  One owner brushed out so much hair that he could me a dog hair angel (like a snow angel) in it afterward.  After seeing this guy brush that much hair off of his dog in his kitchen, I decided to do daily brushing outside after the walks.  I don't really want that much hair in my kitchen.

So, even though it was bitterly cold today, we walked.  This guy has a lot of pulling power and the 2 miles I walk don't make a dent in his energy levels.  I think I need to attach a sled to him and have him pull the kids around.  Seriously - I will be looking into this.

 After contemplating the inversely proportional relationship with husky walking to house destroying, I realized the same relationship exists between Leo walking and mommy destroying.  So I walked my Leo too.  It occurred to me on this walk that Leo doesn't have ADHD.  Leo is just a husky.  But - less brushing, more wiping.

Meals They Will Eat

I am often working hard in the kitchen to make something delicious and new, but am disappointed each night when the kids won't eat what I've made and we end up throwing a lot of food away.  It breaks my back, my heart, and my wallet.  Plus, at least 3 of our kids are very sensitive to hunger.  They don't really recognize and verbalize that they are hungry, but they really act out if they haven't eaten properly.  Also, with the kids being on ADHD medication that makes them not have an appetite, I have to get them to eat whenever I can so they don't lose too much weight.  Otherwise they will have to take a "pill holiday" until they gain weight and a "pill holiday" for them would be a nightmare for the rest of the house.  This week I am trying to keep it simple with my meals and I'm going for having 7 days of successful eating.

Day 1:  Hamburgers and Fries (all homemade) - total success!  All kids ate it and it was easy, and it was inexpensive.

Even Achilles wanted some.  

                                                   Ahhh....He found someone to share with!

Day 2:  Chicken Strips (homemade), carrots, oranges, and mashed potatoes.  All loved it.  All ate it!  Even better - I found out you can freeze mashed potatoes so they were made in advance and all I had to do was thaw them, heat them, and add a bit of instant to them to thicken them up.  I skipped eating  the potatoes and just had strips on a salad

Max was "helping" me cook

I have plans for the next 4 days so far.  The only problem I forsee is Abby not liking taco night, but everyone else loves the next four meals.

Day 3:  Tacos

Day 4:  Polynesian Pork in the crockpot

Day 5:  Homemade Pizzas (pepperoni and Canadian bacon)

Day 6:  Bacon, Eggs, and Rice  (Abby will tell me that she prefers there to be no eggs, but leaving out the eggs would make it be more expensive because I would have to add more bacon and she will eat it either way sooooooo - too bad, Abby.)

If I could get to 10 meals and eventually 30 meals that the whole family likes, I feel like I would be set.  It does seem that they really like me making traditional fast food items.  I'm not sure how I feel about that.  I'll let you know how it goes!

New Addition

We got our newest family addition last night - Achilles the dog.  He is a 7 year old red/white Siberian Husky.  So far all has been going well.  He has been wandering around trying to get acclimated.  He would like to play with the cats or the dogs down the street and I think he has been contemplating jumping our fence to do so.  As of right now he is not allowed outside without supervision so he doesn't get to adventurous.  The main purpose of us getting a dog was for Sarah.  She can't sleep at night and it is our hope that Achilles sleeping next to her will help.  She did sleep better last night, but there were complaints of Achilles sleeping in Abby's bed too much.  Sarah is working on training Achilles right now which includes a 2-mile walk every morning.  Today they did well practicing stepping off the path and sitting and holding on to the harness as runners go by.  Both Achilles and Sarah did very well and I was so happy to see Sarah take a walk.  I also used the time to walk my Leo and run off some of his energy.  I think the walkers/joggers might enjoy if I had a harness on him as well as he has been known to jog after a couple for a quarter mile.  Luckily Abby was a long as well and she kept Leo busy playing "eye spy" and learning how to skip.  Unfortunately, Achilles is not worn out from the walk and seems a bit bored.  I know eventually "bored" can turn into "destructive" so I'm trying to keep him busy.  He is not too interested in his toys right now.  He did bring a giant braided chew bone with him, but isn't wanting to chew it.  I've been shoving things in the grooves of it hoping to get him started, but so far he just licks them out.  I tried bacon grease and peanut butter.  I need to find a chew toy he likes.  Hmmmm.........  I wonder if a chew toy would keep Leo busy as well.  Or maybe I could get Achilles into Minecraft.  That seems to keep my other ADHD children busy.

Excuse the messy floors.  We've had lots of toys out for everyone this morning!

Blog Name and our Favorite Games

Our blog is named, "Why is it wet?", but only because "What did I just step in?" was already taken.  These are the two names of our family's most played surprise games around the house.  In fact, I bet either Fred or myself gets to play one of these two games at least once a week.  It used to result in the other spouse running to the playing spouse's rescue and both of us would work to solve the mystery.  Now it happens so often, if one of us finds ourselves as unwitting participants in this game, the other just laughs and hums the theme song we have made up for this game while saying, "It's time to play What Did I Just Step In?!" in our best announcer's voice.  Yes, we actually have a theme song for it.  No, we don't feel sorry for each other anymore.  We are just happy to not be the participant.  No one wants the prize - an all expenses paid trip to cleaning up a mysterious substance.  I wish I could tell you what we step in.  There was a mashed banana in the boys room once.  That was slimy and cold, but most of the times it is slimy and cold.  The baby leaves us spit up puddles quite a bit.  We also play, "Why is it Wet?!" on other surfaces such as tabletops, couches, and seats in the car.  Most of the time, the mystery substance goes unidentified.  We have no idea what is going on.  Maybe we are just getting slimed by a poltergeist and we just need to call in some ghostbusters.  While these two games are annoying, neither compare to the other game we play, but not as often - "Is is chocolate or poop?"  aka "You taste it!"

Spider Venom and Secret Agent Cars

So.....Tripp has been into our hall closet this morning.  He "loaded" his toy shotgun with the rest of the baby powder so it will smoke.  As I was cleaning that mess up, I see him run by with a latex glove.  Playing doctor at a new level?  Get ready for your rectal exams brothers!  No, it is more likely that he is going to fill it with water in the bathroom sink as he has done countless other times (whenever the gloves fall of the top shelf and he can reach them).  So, I go screaming to the bathroom, which now has the door locked and Tripp is yelling, "I need privacy to use the bathroom."  Yeah - right.  So I get him to open the door and I rescue the glove from the sink.  I go on and on telling him that he is not to touch the gloves.  Daddy likes to use them when he is cooking and they cost big money and he is not allowed to used them unless he is de-boning a chicken.  His response?  "Or if there is spider venom."  What the?!?!?  How can I argue with that?  Obviously if we run into a giant spider in the basement and it is spitting venom, we will be allowed to use the gloves.  Mental reminder - maybe have Tripp take a break from watching Eight Legged Freaks.  Then in the next breath he says, "Wouldn't it be great to have a secret agent car?"  Again - I'm not going to argue that.  I think I would like a secret agent car.  Maybe with its own glove dispenser.

*Side note:  The gloves are not diamond studded and cost "big money".  We actually spend very little on gloves, but I always tell the kids that they are wasting my money.  I'm not sure why.  Kind of a parenting remark I got from my parents I guess.  Like, "don't make me turn this car around!" or "I'm going to spank you until your butt bleeds!"  My dad never did spank me until my butt bled, but more on that later.......