Wednesday 29 October 2014

Days 8 - 10 Anyone for Tennis?

Day 8 to Day 10 - Sunday to Tuesday - Anyone for Tennis?

I've decided to blog in the lumps now as its too hard to remember what I did on what day!

As promised here is my Sunday selfie:
Sunday 26th October Selfie - found some better lighting!

Personally I'm not seeing any massive differences in my face so far but it's always harder to see it for yourself I know.  I am feeling the difference in my clothes more - especially around my middle.  I brought a couple of pairs of workout trousers that are not stretchy with me.  One pair was a size smaller than I was at the start and the other a size smaller than that.  The larger pair of the two I can now get on but they are really tight.  I couldn't sit down in them because they would split I'm pretty sure! Still, being able to get them on at all is a win :).

Juices for the last couple of days have been reverted to the usual thickies and thinnies and lots of veg in them.  They've all been fine, no issues regarding taste at all.  I think I'm getting used to the celery in juices more because although I still don't like it, I'm more accepting of it and so taking it better.

So on Tuesday we got a visit from a Herbalist.  Actually a practitioner of Herbal Medicine from the UK called Sara Clooney who as it turns out was at Uni with my brothers best friend Layla and knows her well. The world is smaller and shrinking by the minute!  The talk was really informative and she gave us loads of tips for adding herbs and spices to our juices to add benefit.  She even had worked with the kitchen to create little shots of them for us to try - one of them tasted like a Mojito!  I made sure to get the recipe for that one :). She also talked about the benefits of turmeric and its anti-inflammatory properties.  I can see many curries and turmeric added things in my future!

One of my medications is Methotrexate.  I take this for my Psoriatic Arthritis once a week and it's an immune system suppressant. I've been on it for 7 years and its worked really well for me up until this years flare.  My rheumatologist has put my dosage up because of the flare and so I'm taking more now than I ever have.  As you might expect this has been giving me worsening side effect symptoms the day after I take it, and on the first "day after" here I actually felt nausea for a lot of the morning.  After a bit of internet research I found a suggestion that pineapple juice might help with that so I asked the lovely ladies in the kitchen to make me some to take with my dose this week.  All hail the mighty pineapple! It worked really well.  I still felt a bit tired on the day after but no nausea and generally more energy.  Not sure if this is a result of the juicing as a whole or just the pineapple juice but it's all good.

On Monday I decided I would head down to the tennis court with the others going for a knock about. I've not played Tennis for years and with my right thumb being seriously affected by the arthritis it's not been a possibility before coming here as I'm right handed.  However, the thumb has been feeling better and I decided to give it a go. Whilst my thumb/hand is a little tender still, I was able to hit the ball with suitable strength.  Now if only my legs would obey my brain and get me to the ball quickly enough! Thats the next thing I have to work on.  But more importantly I really enjoyed it.  I only managed a few minutes on Monday but a little longer on Tuesday so hopefully it's something I can build up each time I play.  I'm also doing more in the gym each day I go.  An extra minute or two on the treadmill and on Tuesday I even made it on the cross trainer for 2.5 minutes!  A couple of months ago I wouldn't  have even been able to get on it let alone use it!  I'm also improving my steps day by day and hope to be up to 6K by the end of this week.  Of course then the challenge will go up to 7K!

I'm still thinking about food a fair bit.  That doesn't go away and I think the biggest problem with a juice fast this long is the lack of variety of textures and temperatures.  Everything is cold/room temp and a liquid!  A couple of us have been yearning for a simple veg soup or just some raw veg to crunch on. Whilst neither of these would hurt and in fact they are doing a 28 day program after ours that is juice and soup, we aren't getting either unless we ask. And asking for extras is breaking the program.  I already feel a bit guilty about the pineapple juice once a week and the little bits of "Juice in a bar" I have to take my late evening meds. I could murder a salad... ah well, 10 days down and only 17 to go since we leave early on day 28 to go home.

Fi
xoxo

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