Juice Feast DAY 5

Hi,

Morning blood sugar: 113 -- yippee!
Morning weight: 336.5 -- yippee! (down 9.5 pounds)

I consider my starting weight to be 346, which I believe is the weight my doctor's office scale, and my home scale read before I started the program. The two scales used to be different but I recently relocated my doctor-type scale (the one with the little weights at the top that you move back and forth to balance the rod) to another part of the room and noticed it needed to be adjusted, so now they weigh the same. Anyway, that is a 9.5 pound weight loss for this morning which is the beginning of day 5 on the juice fast.

I've been trying to get me to stop weighing every day but am still doing it. It has been amazing to me that I weigh different weights at different times of day and that, while juicing, there have been moments when the scale said that I had put weight on!!

Imagine that! Juicing and putting weight on. I've really had to remind myself that it is too soon to be weighing and too often. I believe this is why they say "don't weight every day" because if you are not willing to steel yourself to the readings, it can really play havoc with your mind. I suppose that after having finally gotten a good reading I should just leave it at that and wait a week until next Tuesday to weigh again in the morning.

You know that old saying: "It is always darkest before the dawn?" Well last night I was really considering chomping down on some of the veggies, instead of drinking them. I had decided to have a cup of chamomile tea, instead, when the phone rang. It was my very dear friend Susan calling to say she had been reading my posts and wanted to give me some encouragement.

She had been reading some Bible verses and commentary in a book and wanted to remind me that no matter what I am going through, no matter how I feel, God is still there watching over me. He does not change!! Whether we have sunny skies or cloudy moods, God is still loving you. God is still guiding you. God is still God and He has good things in store for those who love Him. Praise the Lord!

What a blessing it was to get her call. Just the fact that she has been reading my posts, and thinks I am doing the right thing was very encouraging and I really am grateful that she acted on her instincts and picked up the phone and called. It made a huge difference in how I felt and in keeping me on the right track.

She shared with me that she thought I was doing the right thing and it was nice to be admired for doing something right. Not everyone agrees, but, for the most part when they don't agree, you don't hear from them. It was very nice to hear that both she and her husband were impressed with what I was doing. It just felt good, and I really appreciated the shot in the arm of good will and reminders about God. Thank you, Susan -- and Thank you, Lord, for watching over me continually. What a Good God I have!!

I was getting hungry so I just went to the kitchen to concoct a juice for myself. As I looked through the fridge choosing what to juice my eyes lighted on the three-pound bag of broccoli florets that I had purchased the other day at Sam's. I bought it at the same time I had bought the bag of broccoli, cauliflower, and baby carrots which I shared about before. Since I had discovered that the broccoli does not yield much juice I decided to just juice the whole bag and be done with it. It yielded almost exactly twenty ounces of juice which I tasted. At first it was simply the same flavor I recognized from eating sprigs of raw broccoli. But after about thirty seconds it suddenly became bitter on the back of my tongue -- which I had been warned about in some of my reading about juicing.

So I added one green apple, one huge Swiss chard leaf, and about six or seven Italian parsley sprigs to the mix. That seemed to take the bitter after taste away but it still needed something, so I salted it, and added some of my favorite curry powder. That seemed to make it more of a meal for me. I swigged one glass and poured another which I am now sipping. It still amazes me that a twelve ounce glass of green juice fills me up like a turkey dinner -- only better. With a turkey dinner I would have eaten all the carbohydrate laden side dishes and pumpkin pie, too. I would have come away feeling like a stuffed pillow straining at the seams, moaning and groaning and then having to take a nap, only to rise and do it again in a couple of hours. All the while I would have been feeling guilty about all that I had eaten and if I checked my blood sugars they would have been alarmingly high which is scary. Then the next day... I would have stuffed myself with left overs a couple more times. Whew!!

I like the juicing WAY better. I'm feeling full, almost stuffed, really, but without being over stuffed. Green juice really fills me up. That is why I just don't feel like I'm fasting. How can you feel stuffed with food, and also feel empty from fasting -- the two cannot occupy the same space.

Oddly, this makes me recall a tale about a man in a concentration camp during WWII that I heard shared on a video called: "The 23 Psalm for People with Cancer." I don't recall his name but he later became a teacher at a prestigious school and shared with his students that when the Americans came and opened up the camp, the majority of the people in the camp were skeleton thin and without strength but he was not as gaunt or weak as they were. He attributed his better health to the fact that he had very early on decided that he was not starving, he was fasting. He told them he did that as way to not let the enemy be the winner. He was in the presence of the enemy but he was not under their control. This was told concerning the part of the Psalm that says: "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over." Amazing how belief in God can make such a huge difference. That is why faith is so important. Faith in God and Jesus Christ make a huge difference in a person's life in the present and in the hereafter, too.

I have decided that I am no longer going to call this a "juice fast," I am going to call it a "Juice Feast!!" I have heard that term used before but now I understand it. I am feasting every day on the foods that God provides and I feel very good from it and about it. Again, I must say, how grateful I am for Susan's encouragement. Thank you, Susan!! :)

God bless you and give you faith in Him!!

Be back soon,

Marcia