End of Week 7: Reclaiming My Health!

My weight stayed almost the same, although when I weighed myself in the middle of the week, I was two pounds lighter. My husband gained one and a half pounds. He’s feeling a bit puffed up with fluid retention which he tends to get after travel. He just got back from a week-long business trip involving numerous flights. In one of the places he visited, he had a difficult time following a plant-based diet. Although he ordered carefully at restaurants, he thinks he ate some meals that had butter and cheese in them. I can’t believe these ingredients were not disclosed on the menu.

At the doctor’s office this week, it felt great to be reclaiming my health. When the medical assistant updated the list of medicines I'm on, I was so pleased to inform her that I’m no longer taking most of them, at least the supplements. And when I filled out that dreaded symptoms sheet that I have to fill each time, I had few symptoms to report (and those were probably medication related). When the nurse checked my blood pressure, it was a little lower than last month. I have a very low BP to begin with and am just concerned that it doesn't go down too much. But how much is too low? As for my thyroid, it was elevated as I suspected. My doctor explained that it’s probably because I’m eating more cruciferous vegetables (cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and kale). This is good news because it means my body has started producing more of its own hormone! Then I told my doctor about my goal of coming off all medications. She said I could start by lowering my thyroid dose to a quarter. She also said it would be okay to discontinue another hormone that wasn’t helping me anyway. I was ecstatic! I'll make sure I monitor any changes carefully and have my thyroid re-checked in five weeks.

Well it’s been four days since cutting back on these meds and I’m already finding that my body aches have increased, my hair is shedding a little and I still can’t sleep. Hopefully these symptoms will subside as the excess hormones leave my body. Other than that, I’m feeling really great! I’m also making further changes to how I eat.

A friend recommended that we watch the documentary Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead because it shows a diet with similar health benefits to ours. So we watched this movie on Netflix and found it truly inspiring. It’s about an Australian man who does a road trip across America, surviving on nothing but fresh fruit and vegetable juice for 60 days. He starts off sick and morbidly obese, but by the end of the film we see his amazing transformation. Along the way, he talks to many interesting characters and draws a following of people who are inspired to do the same.

We too were inspired, not to do a 60 day juice fast, but to incorporate freshly squeezed juice into our own regimen. First my husband did some extensive research and benchmarked different juicers. It was surprising how many types there are: masticating, centrifugal and triturating (twin gear). After much deliberation, we finally bought a vertical masticating type that can effectively handle leafy greens as well.

We’re off to Costco now to stock up on fruits and veggies to juice. And while we're there, I won’t be buying any Halloween candy as I usually do at this time of year. Now that my kids are at college and I’m on this diet, I will no longer be taking part in the candy giving tradition of Halloween. Although my cravings have subsided, I still don’t trust myself around leftover chocolate!

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