Progress

   It was Tuesday before we realized we really did get the days wrong. We should have started the juice fast on Monday and we would be done with the detox on Sunday.
   Oh well. We really don't want to start a juice fast during a week day, a work week day at that. According to the book, we could get light headed, have headaches, maybe get weak and trembly. Harry is just afraid he is going to get hungry! He might. Anyway we will start the juice fast on Saturday and see how we feel after 5 days.

   Up until now, we have been right on with the principals of the book Get Healthy Through Detox and Fasting by Dr Don Colbert, just in case you don't want to read my entire blog. I say principles because we ate like it said in the book but I made up my own recipes for the most part.

For a morning meal, the book aways had a recipe for a grain and a fruit and maybe some nuts. So nearly every day (because it was easy), we had a piece of Ezekial toast with a small smear of almond butter. Sometimes we had grapefruit as well, or we had a shot glass of pure pomegranate juice. If we didn't have the "Pomm" for a snack, we had a glass in the evening after our meal.

For lunch, we usually had a salad with at least five vegetables. Usually more. None of the vegetables were starchy. Usually two kinds of greens plus any combination of tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, radishes, mushrooms, carrots, celery, peppers, sprouts, cabbage, broccoli - etc. The book always had some sort of grain and legumes, so I would add quinoa, israeli couscous, barley, brown rice or wild rice, then some kind of beans. We tried all kinds. On occasion I would put some orange, grapefruit or lemon segments, or sliced apple. Once in awhile, we would add avocado, olives, artichokes or beets, but not too often. Invariably I made a salad dressing with fresh lemon juice, Bragg vinegar or rice wine vinegar, olive or walnut oil plus Himalayan salt and pepper. Sometimes I added garlic or ginger plus some fresh herbs or mustard seed. Umeboshi plum wine and vinegar also made a tasty base for a salad dressing. It was one of our favorites.
This was every day, unless we had left overs from the previous night.

For a snack, we had fresh fruit or fruit juice with no sugar, plus my flax seed crackers. This was a deviation from the book for sure. Dr Colbert specified breakfast, then a snack, then lunch, then dinner.
Well both of us have to eat lunch at noon and it is 7 or 8 pm before we eat dinner. It makes more sense for us to have our snack in the afternoon.

For dinner, it's vegetables, beans, grains, spelt pasta - or a starchy vegetable - and maybe some nuts. The array of vegetables were either cooked in a tagine, lightly stir fried or roasted in the oven, or a nice soup. One of our favorite combinations was a meal of turnips, sweet potatoes and kale with some black eyed peas on the side. I could do an Asian stirfry, or a curried vegetable dish. Sometimes I would roast an array of Italian vegetables in the oven. We had the grilled vegetables with lunch the next day. I have always managed to have some sort of beans every night but sometimes we had some nuts instead of grains. I realized we felt better the next day when we had both beans and grains for dinner.

For beverages, we started with 12 ounces of water with breakfast, then another on the way to work. 24 ounces during the day at work, then another 12 on the way home. We also drank one before bed most of the time. It really was not enough according to the book. We also had one cup of coffee in the morning, and one or two cups of herbal tea during the day. I drank a detox tea every day. Last, we had a 12 ounce bottle of water with lemon, cayenne, and a bit of stevia.

We have been taking supplements every day. We take our "Trucker" vitamins, CQ10, NAC - Acetyl Cysteine, and milk Thistle. The "Trucker" vitamins are a complete multi-vitamin supplement bu the name of Turbo Power. I could write about that all by itself.

We have both lost weight, we feel better, sleep better and we are not sick anymore. Our blood pressure seems to be much better. We won't know about our cholesterol until we get tested again. Again, this program is not about losing weight, but giving the liver a break. Losing weight is just a natural side effect.

Starting Saturday, we start the juice fast. All vegetables and fruits that can be juiced, in any combination we want. Four times a day. We can still drink the coffee, lemon water and tea like we did before. We can also put a bit of the pulp back into the juice. We have to stop taking the supplements though as additives in supplements make the liver work hard.

Once the fast is over, I intend to continue on the program 95% of the time. However I want to step up my attempt to lower cholesterol without taking drugs. First, we bought Lecithin granules. (Capsules are useless). We also have some brewers east which is a natural complete source of B vitamins, Inositol and Choline which also aid in lowering cholesterol. I will resume taking my niacin, red yeast rice and CQ10. Something else I just read about is Plant Sterols and Stanols. Apparently this last supplement can only be obtained in trace amounts from vegetables. I guess if you eat a trcuk load of vegetables like we do, we have a better chance. However a supplement for these is recommended as well. I already have the other supplements. I just have not tried taking them all at once.

I recently acquired another copy of a book by Adelle Davis. She was a nutritionist from the late sixties that in my opinion was way ahead of her time. I read her books 38 years ago. (Yes 38). I adhered to them to a point and gave birth to a very healthy little girl. My pre-weight was 140 pounds and my post birth weight was 185 pounds. With little effort, I got down to 118 pounds in six months without dieting. I was just eating more nutritious food and taking the supplements I learned about. I am not sure just how I swayed away from what I learned. Taking supplements can be expensive. Marrying someone (my ex), who was a fast food junkie was another wrong turn in many ways. I wonder where I would be if I had stuck with it all these years.

Anyway, Adelle had interesting things to say about high cholesterol. That is Lecithin, Inositol and Choline and B vitamins were adequate in the body, that cholesterol would not be a problem. Now after scanning the internet, I found only one article that linked lecithin to cholesterol and they didn't mention any of the other supplements. Adelle gave her life to learn about nutrition. I am happy that I found one of her books. They are all old and yellowed and out of print, but they are a wealth of knowledge.

Well my daring husband gave up on me and starting cutting up vegetables for dinner. As much as I would like to stay and write, I need to help him so we can eat before 10:00 PM.