Day 12

Sorry to keep you all in suspense. On Friday, after 7 days of juice fasting:
Rionna weighs 284 lbs  - 8 lbs lost
Charles weighs 360 lbs - 17 lbs lost

We have been eating for a few days now and we both miss juice fasting. We are still juicing everyday along with our meals. It is still hard to make responsible food choices but we are doing our best. For the first two days coming off the juice fast Rionna felt bloated and uncomfortable, Charles had no issues transitioning back to food. We transitioned the same way we transitioned into the fast, by adding fruits, vegetables and then grains back into our diet.

Rionna has now added 15 min of aerobic exercise to her routine in the mornings.

Days 6 & 7

Days six and seven went great for us! We are feeling good and just wish we had a little more energy to get some exercise in as well everyday. Today will be day eight and we are going to incorporate some foods back into our diet so we can attend a family event next week that is important to us. We will still be juicing everyday and posting our weights and measurements. Later today we will be posting our weights so check back! We feel like making it a week is a huge accomplishment and even though we did not go 60 days straight we will still be rebooting our bodies and transitioning back into a juice fast so stay tuned.

Day 5

Today was day five and it went good today. Our energy levels are up, we feel more focused, and we are sleeping better at night. We are also feeling a little less stressed in general. We went to bed at 8:30 pm last night. I went out with my daughters today and toured some stores. I really noticed how all the candy, soda, and junk are displayed everywhere! It all looked unappealing. While I was out, I took a large container of apple and pear juice. I brought it in a small cooler lunch box and it stayed ice cold. That really helped me avoid snacking while I was out shopping with the kids.  It is almost time for bed again, see you all on Day 6.

-Rionna

Day 4

Well it does get better! Today is day four and we have decided the absolute hardest part about this whole process is having to cook meals for the children over and over again every day. Since we are both juice fasting, there is no one to help us with the food preparation. We have found out a few things in the last four days.
1- Stevia in the bulk section of our store contained an additive Maltodextrin, so we bought some NOW organic stevia from our local health food store.
2- Herbal Tea is not created equal. We found some of them to have additives and had to sort through our tea collection.
3- This is harder than we thought

And yet here we are pushing on. After careful thought on giving up, we have decided to keep going! Today we are both feeling better than we did this weekend. We are not officially weighing in again until Day 7, but we did get on the scale on Saturday and I will tell you this much... we had already lost over 20 lbs between the two of us.

Days 2 and 3

Days two and three did not go well. I felt ill and we both had no energy. We expected this as a part of our detoxification. All we thought about was food, food and more food. There was a moment of complete weakness that we shared a grilled cheese sandwich. To our disappointment it did not taste as good as we remembered, and it disagreed with our bodies in different ways. After this weekend, we doubt our ability to go for 60 days….

Day 1

Yesterday was day one of our juice fast. We did great! Our energy levels were  low by the end of the day. The last thing I remember was that it was 7:30 pm and the girls were asleep in bed, then I was waking up on the couch with Charles and it was midnight. We both went to bed and decided to post in the morning. I have been adding ice to my juice and it is nice to have it colder. We had a yummy green juice yesterday that was:

4 Handfuls of baby spinach

4 Carrots

1 Tomato

¼ Cucumber

1 Stalk of celery

1 Granny smith apple

1 Small chunk of ginger

We had my grandparents over yesterday and they thought it tasted terrible! I guess we are just used to the green juices now. Charles really struggled with no solids yesterday. He stayed away from all the food preparations. Today we are ready for day two of juicing, thanks for your support!

T - 2 Days to the start of our juice fast

We are now only two days away from beginning our juice fast. Yesterday was a difficult day for us. We had fruit juice in the morning, green juice in the afternoon, and fruit juice in the evening. For lunch, we had brown rice and baked vegetables. For dinner, we had some more brown rice, half an avocado each and fresh celery and carrot sticks. Our green juice yesterday was:

 3 Handfuls of baby spinach

2 Carrots

2 Stalks of celery

½ Bunch of purple kale

½  Cucumber

1 Apple

 Charles really liked this recipe, but I had a hard time drinking it. Later I discovered that I did not enjoy the taste of the fresh celery either, and this was probably the issue with the green juice. The celery was organic and we had never tried it before. It had a stronger taste to it than usual. Note to ourselves: use less celery! Our energy levels are mid range in the mornings and low in the evenings. We were in bed around eight o’clock for the last two nights. We felt the urge to snack watching TV, so instead we just headed for bed. Today we are off the grains and nuts. I had a fresh banana for breakfast with a glass of pear-apple juice. Charles had a juice mixture of

1 Orange

1 Apple

1 Pear

2 Handfuls of raspberries

and it was so delicious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are still struggling during mealtimes for the children. We prepare five meals a day for them breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, and dinner. That gives us many opportunities to say no. To make sure we do not get disappointed with progress, we will be reporting weight changes once a week. Friday is just two days away now, but this preparation week is really helping with the transition. My favorite emergency drink right now is a hot cup of mint tea with a tiny bit of stevia to sweeten it.                         

-Rionna

T - 4 Days

Today we used our juicer for the first time. The very first juice we made was one pear and two apples and it was delicious! We had steamed brown rice and zucchini for lunch and juice made with purple kale, carrots, tomato, and an apple. Rionna is feeling hungry this afternoon and Charles is craving all the things he cannot eat. It was difficult to smell lunch, as we had to prepare lunch for six kids today (two of ours and four child care children). It was tempting to pick some chicken and noodles off their plate, but we prevailed! We have posted a picture of us today in the kitchen. Here are our starting point numbers.

                  Rionna-                 Charles-

Weight:     292.6 lbs                 377.5 lbs

Neck:        16”                          18¼”                         

Chest:       52”                           59”

Waist:       55”                           60”

R Bicep:  17 ½”                        19”

R Thigh:  31 ¼”                         32 ½”

T- 5 Days

On Friday night, we went to see family for a holiday. We received our juicer on Friday as well. We could not start our whole food diet today because we have not gone shopping yet. Today we are cleaning out or refrigerator and pantry. We will be checking most of the stores today to look for produce options and prices and stock our home with good foods. Mentally, we are starting to feel changes towards food. Rionna is reading more labels and feeling ready to give up eating.

Charles is mourning the loss of his favorite foods, but both are excited. We have told some family members now about our plans to juice and are hoping they are supportive. So far, we are answering many questions. We have been reading Juice Fasting & Detoxification By Meyerowitz (2002), in order to prepare for the upcoming weeks. Today is our last day of animal products, any processed foods, and caffeine. It is liberating to go through our food and make a fresh start.

Meyerowitz, S. (2002). Juice Fasting & Detoxification. Book Publishing Company: USA

T - 8 days to the Ruley Reboot

In 8 days, we will be starting a reboot of our bodies.

Our life together started almost eight years ago. During the two years before our marriage, we both gained approximately 100 pounds. How did we gain 100 lbs each? Contributing factors included jobs in a call center, fast food, and no physical activity. Over the past five years, we have attempted to change, but nothing has made a lasting difference. We have tried all the usual suspects such as gym memberships, Weight Watchers, and most recently, a physician guided weight loss program.

We watched the movie Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead last week and it has inspired us to try again to regain our health. We will be starting a 60-day juice fast in eight days (Friday January 13^th). We will be preparing for it by eating whole grains, nuts, seeds, fruits, and vegetables only for the five days prior to our fast. Please join us on our journey! We will need all the support we can get.