Introduction...

This is Me and Sam (my oldest daughter) a few years ago

Okay, so here's my new blog.  I'm writing it mainly to remind myself of what I've learned, and to motivate myself to stick with it.

I'll start out by discussing my health a little.  I'm 5'3 and my average weight has always been around 100lbs.  I wasn't the healthiest kid around, but I never really complained (unless my gym teacher made me run the mile, I swear it took me the whole hour - hated running).

When I started having children, I never really changed my eating habits which were the typical American teenager foods (however, ice became a daily necessity).  When I met and married Don, I started changing my diet to exclude sugar and milk (with the exception of a piece of chocolate every now and then) 

Left to Right: Ammon, Katelynn & Caianna about 3 years ago

Between Ammon, Caianna & Katelynn I started actually losing weight (I averaged somewhere between 89 & 95) but it wasn't until my miscarriage that I started having real health problems.  I was hospitalized for 10 days and told I had a cyst on one of my ovaries and abscesses filled with "fluid" in my abdomen. I was given a bag of blood, 2 bags of Potassium along with pain killers and tons of antibiotics.  They even went in to drain the fluid, but never could explain what was going on.  Friends who came to see me thought I was going to die, I was too drugged to really know how bad I was.  Don was pretty worried.  My veins kept collapsing, so they had to change my IV almost daily - ouch!  Before they could operate, they needed to make sure my bowls were empty, I couldn't understand how I could have anything in there because I was so sick I couldn't keep anything down, but they brought me 2 Dixie cups of the most salty disgusting stuff I have EVER had.  I thought one cup would do it since I was 90lbs sopping wet, but they insisted.  So I took the second cup, threw up and pooped ALL OVER THE BED and left a very smelly trail on the way to the toilet.  Serves them right, it think! Anyway, they still couldn't figure out what was wrong with me, so $60,000 (and an infection in my arm from not changing my IV the last day) later I told them I was leaving.  Because if I was going to die, I would do it on my terms with my family, not in that hospital bed and not so drugged that I couldn't even speak right!  The nurse said "You can't just leave... you at least need to get released by the doctor."  So I told her to get the IV out of my arm and get the doctor because I already called Don and I was leaving.  The doctor came and asked me if I was leaving against my will (give me a break).  I said no and that we were no closer to knowing what my problem was now than 10 days earlier and I was leaving.

So Don took me home, put a salve on my arm and gave me tons of  herbs and vitamins to help me get heal.  By that afternoon I already felt 50% better, then slowly got better from there.  Don's good at this stuff.  It's not main-stream medicine, but I have found over the years, that he's usually right when it comes to my health (sometimes irritatingly so).

I should probably mention here that our diet has drifted into regular eating and strayed from trying to eat carefully, avoiding regular sugar and milk by using substitutes like honey, fructose, stevia and rice or soy milk.

Sunshine holding Sophie last year

Now two more children later (Sunshine and Sophie) I am 40lbs overweight and not feeling too well.  That stupid cyst is double the size it was before and I've been fighting a nasty kidney infection.  I have constant headaches, I fluctuate between being sick to my stomach and cramps.  And I'm tired to the point of exhaustion all the time.  Pregnant? Nope, regular menstrual cycle.

I told Don the other day that I was so sick and tired of being so sick and tired and that I was going to go on a juice fast.  So he got out some tapes that he found at either Good Will or Deseret Industries and suggested I listen to them.

The cover looks like something out of the 80's and my tape player is broken so the guy sounds like a chipmunk.  But that chipmunk had good information, so I  got Don's Champion Juicer out, dusted it off and went to the store for a bunch of produce.

In this blog, you'll see videos by the guy I listened to in the tapes (Jay Kordich).  He talks a little funny - not my favorite and oh, my, those eyebrows need HELP, but his intentions are good and I believe his plan will help me not only lose weight, but get me truly healthy for the first time in my life!

I will track my progress here, list the food and juices I'm eating and drinking and what changes I've noticed as I go.  Hopefully I'll feel well enough to get some Jazzercise in again soon.  This should be fun!