A Step Down a New Road

If you read any of my previous blog, you'll remember that I had started on a weight loss journey. If you haven't, here's my story.

I've had an issue with my weight for most of my life. I've tried a hundred different diets and failed a hundred different times. I asked my doctor for help and the first words out of his mouth were "gastric bypass". That was over 10 years ago. At the time, I thought that was a drastic measure. One I'd never consider.

Fast forward 10 years and multiple diet failures and I'm considering the Lap Band surgery. I've talked to many who have done it. I've talked to my insurance company. They'll pay for up to $10,000, but... There's always a but. BUT, I have to be on a medically supervised diet for 6 months. Okay, I'm at the end of my rope.

So I go see my doctor. He doesn't have any prescribed diet plan, but if I want to join Weight Watchers, I can come in once a month, get weighed and at the end of the time period, he'll write a letter for my insurance company. Easy, right?

I joined Weight Watchers on August 4, 2011. I lost 20 pounds within the first 2 months. Not as big a deal as you'd think. I'd already lost this 20 pounds about 10 times before. In October, a friend of mine knew that I wanted to start running and she got the fire lit for exercise. I was due to leave for vacation, but when I returned, I got into a regular exercise regimen.

More weight started coming off. By the end of January, I'd lost about 45 pounds. This was my 6 month mark. Even after the surgery, I'd still have to continue the lifestyle I now led, so why put myself through major surgery.

Then I hit a plateau. I adjusted my diet, I worked out more, I got frustrated. From February until now, I've only lost another 10 pounds. I'm still following the diet guidelines. I'm working out 2 hours a day for 4-5 days.

A friend got a juicer and said she planned to do a juice fast. I said, "okay" but wasn't intrigued. Then she told  me to watch Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. So on a Friday night, I downloaded it from iTunes and watched it. Then promptly decided to do a juice fast.

First, I needed a juicer. Living in Germany, anything 110v has to have a transformer so I wanted something that was 220v. In our local community, there is a website where people can list things for sale so I checked it out. Sure enough, someone had posted a 220v juicer for sale the previous month. Figuring it was already gone, I sent an email anyway. It was still available. So I bought it. And I saved 40 euros.

Juicer in hand, I decided to start my juice fast on Thursday. I'd done a ton of reading and joined forums after watching the movie. I knew the first few days would be the hardest. My husband had a trip planned and would be gone from Thursday through Sunday. Perfect. I'd be over the roughest part by the time he got back.

I've played around with the juicer, made a few juices and so far, not bad. I haven't tasted anything yet that I couldn't drink. Tomorrow will be the big test. I'll be trying a version of the Mean Green for the first time. We'll see how it goes.

Tomorrow's the big day. I'm starting out with 14 days. At the end of that time, if I'm feeling good, I'm going to keep going. I hope you'll ride this new leg of my journey with me. Say hi or offer up your own stories.

Juice out!