Day 26 and beyond: Home and deranged...

Day 26 and beyond : Home and deranged...

The last couple of days at Juicy Oasis went in a flash.  Jason gave us his juicing talk, which was fun and I learned some new things despite having mostly heard it before back in August.  He also gave us a talk on Friday about next steps and we got the last chapter of his new book, which hasn't been released yet, but deals with the 28 day program.  His advice as ever is to find the option that you'll be able to stick with and to go steady on your forays back into actual eating.  This is definitely good advice as going too rich or too much at first is not advisable.  I've been pretty cautious - mostly sticking to salad with a little baked or grilled or steamed protein.  So far so good!

On our very last night at JO we said a farewell to the group in a circle lit by candles.  It was warm and welcoming and I got a bit emotional.  We burned small pieces of paper with things we wanted to leave behind as we move forward.  I burned my emotional eating and eating to spite myself.  Things I've done that seem more insane the more I think about them now.  Eating when not hungry is lunacy but I've done it so often in the past.

We also said goodbye to Kate and Jason and the rest of the team.  I blubbed all over both Kate and Jason as they hugged me.  I thanked them both because without their retreat I feel like I would be in a much worse position now.

Saying goodbye to Kate and Jason - first of many many tears that night, even though they were tears of joy and happiness and gratitude.

So here is the good bit : the results!

I lost 28lbs in weight over the month (27.6 actually but I'm claiming that last pound!), my cholesterol dropped 41 points (using the scale where under 180 points is normal and I'd started at 267 and it dropped to 226), my blood sugar was normal before and normal after, my urine test showed I was nicely hydrated and was producing ketones.

I dropped 16cm from my waist, 8cm from my hips and 1cm from my thigh.  This pretty much correlates with where I felt I was losing the weight although the thigh is a bit misleading as I've definitely lost weight there but need to get toning before the difference shows in cm.

I can also see a real difference in my arms and it's looking likely to me that at some point I might need skin reduction treatment there, but I'm not going to worry about that til I hit the weight I want to be because lots can change as you shrink.

Here are my before and after pics!

Before:

After: 

Before: 

After:   

 So I think it's mostly noticeable in my face as although I lost a lot from my middle, neither top is really tight enough for that to show.

It's more noticeable in the photos below:

Taken July 2014 in NYC a couple of weeks before my first trip to Juicy Oasis.  Here I was 4 stone (56lbs) heavier than at my final weigh-in at JO on Friday 14th November 2014

Taken Thursday 13th November 2014 at Juicy Oasis, Portugal.

I truly believe that if I'd not gotten into juicing and gone to JO I might not be walking now.  My mobility was on a downward path and my weight was increasing a little each month.  I'm very glad to have had the resources and family/friend support to be able to go to the retreat because I think back then I'd have struggled to do this at home.  So much so that I really don't think I'd have stuck with it. I'd have found it too hard and fallen off and I'd be just as big as in that picture in NYC.

My journey started at the beginning of 2014 when I stepped on my scales and saw the heaviest weight I'd ever been.  It was also scarily close to a new decade of stone weight and quite literally I frightened myself.  I started reading everything I could get my hands on about diet as I'd tried so many before and felt like I must be missing something.  It was around this time that I saw the documentary Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.  This struck such a chord with me that I started looking around for UK juicing websites and resources.  This is how I found JuiceMaster and Jason Vale's books and then their Juicy Oasis retreat.  

I do honestly think I'd be in a wheelchair right now if I hadn't pursued this.  I now weigh 4 stone 12lbs lighter than the day I scared myself silly as I stood on my bathroom scales. It's all due to juicing, learning about clean food, cutting out refined sugar and following these principles to completely redesign my lifestyle with regards to food. I daresay I'll have the odd thing that I didn't make or that has sugar in it as I like to be social and sometimes its difficult to avoid.  But these things are no longer in my day to day diet or in my cupboards!  The truth is I have no yearning for them because even the memory of the taste is artificial and too sweet.  I made the mistake of having a sip of ice tea drink after getting home and nearly gagged on the sweetness - and this was a drink I'd always liked before! The re-education of my tastebuds never ceases to amaze and amuse me. Every food I'm eating is a new wonder in the context of juicing for that long. Tomatoes have become an event! Avocado is to be savoured like a food of the gods.  Cucumber is cool and hydrating and deliciously crunchy.

Sorry Steffi - still haven't eaten the flipflop - having too much fun with veg!

Fi

xoxo

Day 14 to 26 - It's been a while

Well I had planned to blog the whole thing but somewhere in the middle I forgot about it and its been a while!

In the middle of week 3 (so somewhere around day 17 or 18 I think) the weather had properly turned and Kate our fearless leader decided we would start to get soup in the evenings. Now yes obviously soup is cooked and therefore not containing the phytonutrients anymore, but as Kate said by this point our systems were pretty well cleaned out and we'd still be getting 3 juices a day so having a little cooked vegetable soup wasn't going to hurt us and could be useful in slowly transitioning us back to food that needs digesting.  Also some veggies like tomatoes actually improve nutritionally when cooked (because of breaking down for easier digestion apparently) so not all cooking is bad.

Needless to say we fell upon the soup like a pack of starved dogs.  Hilariously most of us couldn't even finish a bowl of it.  I personally managed about half a bowl and I don't think I've ever felt so full.  We went into the cinema to watch "Fed Up" (v.good and worth watching) and I didn't feel normal again til the end of the movie. I got really hot and my stomach felt so full.  And this from half a bowl of soup!

Here is the bowl of soup that I couldn't eat half of!  But it was very tasty.

The pattern of each day has been pretty similar but in the last week (so from day 21) we got a new fitness instructor called Sally who teaches Nordic walking.  I decided to go for the introductory session to see what it was about and really enjoyed it!  It's strange that actually it uses more muscles than normal walking but feels more supported to me.  I've already ordered some sticks for home and found a local teacher who runs classes.  One of the really great things about it is that when going up steps I can use both knees when using the sticks for support.

Nordic walking sticks! Use more muscles than just normal walking and look a bit like a cross country skier who has lost their skis. And snow. And outfit. Ok nothing like a cross country skier.

I also did a couple of yoga classes just to try them out but had a few issues with getting up off the floor without pain.  The yoga instructor Kenny got one of the sunbeds into the studio for me to use so I could still participate! I do love that about this retreat - they really do anything they can to help you participate.  I don't think yoga is for me right now - too many things I couldn't do even with the bed but it gives me a good feeling for the future when I'm in a position to be able to lift my body using my arms etc.

We've had quite a few different soups now and this one is my favourite - Tomato and Basil! It tastes just like yummy pasta sauce and I think if you spiralised a courgette into the hot soup after its blended you'd get a fab pasta experience without the starch or gluten!

Amazing yummy Tomato and Basil soup!

All of the soup recipes have been really tasty.  Of course our raw food chef doing demos this week has pointed out that at this point a flipflop would probably prove tasty due to lack of variation in juice tastes.  I think she has a point but I'm not munching my flipflop to find out.

Her name is Steffi Jeffs - she's a raw foodie who runs a raw cookery school in London amongst other things and has been doing demos for us.  She made the most amazing raw chocolate dip as well as a spicy raw "pho" like soup thing (yes it has hot water from a kettle but it's not cooked and so the veg still stays raw - the water is to sweat out the garlic and ginger flavours mostly).  I'm personally not likely to go fully raw ever but her ideas were certainly food for thought!

Steffi about to make love to some Kale through massage!

She showed us how to warm food with our hands (massage)  by putting oil and a little salt on some kale.  It tasted pretty good! Definitely one to experiment with.

Then yesterday Jason gave a talk on addiction.  As ever he's an engaging raconteur - I could listen to him for hours.  And we did because he always overruns on time. :) He made lots of sense but the abiding message that stuck with me is that you can only break the addiction cycle whether its food or cigarettes or whatever, if you recognise the craving demon for what it is and deal with it. He also pointed out why cutting down on the thing is the most pointless exercise ever.  Mostly just makes the problem worse because it prolongs / exacerbates the physical symptoms.  I really need to read his book again - "Freedom from the diet trap".  One thing is for sure - I'm pretty decently off sugary things.  All the cravings I have are for savoury foods and most of them healthy at that!  The only non healthy thing I'm really craving is KFC chicken and I've found a paleo (ie no wheat) recipe that I'm going to try when I get home that hopefully will fill that. It's not the breading I'm craving but the spices I'm pretty sure.  I'm going to go carefully but spicy food is in my future because I've missed it!

Tomorrow we have our nurses appointments to find out what we've lost and differences in our blood results etc.  That should be interesting!  It's hard to believe that tomorrow is our last day.

Here is a selfie from last night - when I do the final post with all the results I'll show some before and after pics too.

Day 26 selfie - nearly there!

Fi

xoxo

Days 11-13 Icecream and Ouchies

Days 11-13 Wednesday to Friday - Icecream and Ouchies

On wednesday we had a really nice treat - one that no one was expecting.  We got to have icecream! Well sort of.  It was frozen banana put through a masticating juicer and the pulp is like icecream.  It was sooooooo good.  We also got to have almond flakes, coconut, raw cocoa, cinnamon as toppings and everyone really enjoyed the little treat :)

Banana icecream with almond flakes and coconut :) YUM!

One of my goals since being here is to cut down on my medications.  I'm currently taking 3 different painkillers for my arthritis and I want off all of them.  Yesterday I was feeling really good and decided to start to cut them all down.  This I did. By half. Obviously I totally overdid it in my enthusiasm and as a result today I'm very ouchie.  As luck would have it one of the other juicers here is a GP so I had a little chat with her about the best way to withdraw and she gave me some really good tips on how to manage it without hitting this level of pain.

So today is going to be an easy day while the meds kick back in a bit and then I'll try reducing more slowly.  A slow day is called for once in a while.

Also yesterday I had the most amazing massage with Aoife one of the therapists in the Eden Spa here.  She did Myofascial massage and a little reiki on me.  Mostly focusing on my left knee and right shoulder which are the worst of my joints right now. It was really good and I suspect that some of my ache is due to that.  Also I found it an emotional experience and I'm feeling very emo today.  I expect part of that is due to the elevated pain but I wonder if part of it is also fall out from the experience yesterday.  Either way I've booked for another one next week because I want as much healing experience as I can get out of this trip.

Fi

xoxo

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

Days 4-7 The Rough and The Smoothie

Yet again a bit gap in my blogging that I hadn't planned.  The first week was difficult in places and I think at the time I wasn't ready to articulate why for fear of wallowing in the feeling.  However, having come through I'm ready to talk about it now!

Day 4 - Wednesday

This was a weird day - I felt cold a lot and didn't manage to get to my step target of 5K steps - this would become a pattern for a few days. My tastebuds were still really craving sugar and the small amount of fruit in the juices were barely registering, so the first juice of day 4 was incredibly welcome. The Anti-oxident King is full of fruit and I barely registered the presence of beetroot in it.

I knew coming into this experience that I wouldn't like every juice.  I'm not a big fan of beetroot and celery juiced.  Which is weird because I'm perfectly happy to eat them at home and do on a regular basis. I think the bitter edge of celery puts me off and the earthy taste of juiced beetroot does.  I usually have beetroot thats been "vinegared" which of course cuts the earthiness.  I must investigate better ways to eat beetroot at home. But if I can't find any then this juice is certainly a great way to get it into my diet even if its pretty fruit heavy.

Day 5 - Thursday

This was my roughest day with the taste of the juices so far.  The pattern on most days of the program is that you have a "thickie" juice for the first and last juices of the day and then a "thinnie" for the two in the middle.  The thickies are achieved by blending the juiced fruit and veg with non-juiceable items like banana, avocado or berries and sometimes a combo of these.

The thickies on day 5 were the Anti-inflammatory green blend which was fine - a very green juice made with pineapple (yum!) as well as celery and other veg and then blended with avocado.

However the "thinnie" of the day was the Rainbow Remedy which is the first juice I haven't been able to drink at all.  It has celery, beetroot, red cabbage in it as well as tomato which is a very unusual ingredient for juices here.  For some reason the taste of it hit my gag reflex straight away and I couldn't even use a straw to get it down at either serving.  When the program repeats for the second fortnight I'm going to ask for a different juice because I just couldn't do it at all.  I don't think I was alone - lots of people struggled with it and there were multiple glasses left with half or more of the juice left.

I brought with me some of Jason's "Juice in a Bar" snacks because my medication timing means that I would need to take meds on an empty stomach at some point in the day and thats a recipe for disaster. Since I have no desire for a hole in my stomach or repeated vomiting I chose to come prepared with the bars so I could have a third of a one to take meds each day.  This is allowed on the program - in fact you can have an entire bar a day if you need as a "rescue".  I can't see me needing that but I've never been so glad to have them as on this day because I was hungry!

I only made 80% of my 5K step target this day.  I just didn't feel the energy or inclination and had an extra sleep in the afternoon despite sleeping fully overnight.

Thursday was definitely the hardest day so far.  I was exhausted after having a bad sleep overnight.  I had really vivid dreams including one where I was an XFactor contestant and Simon Cowell gave me his baby to look after and it was sick and no one would help me with the sick baby.  I literally woke up hyperventilating from that.  One of the other juicers here said that the baby represents me in my struggle to get healthy.  Makes sense I suppose.

I feel like each night I've been sleeping a little better and so far no significant insomnia which no doubt my roommate is happy about.  Speaking of roommates I really feel like I've lucked out on the allocation there.  She's American, pretty much the same age as me and we get on really well.  She's chatty and lovely and doesn't seem to mind when I ramble a bit :) we have similar-ish views on everything so far and she loves her family and animals and totally gets that I want to talk to my mum every day because she's checking in with her daughters every day.  It's nice to have someone who gets my neurotic behaviour! She's also been having the vivid dreams and many others have reported it too so I guess it's a thing.

Day 6 - Friday

As a pure contrast to the day before, Fridays juices were FANTASTIC! We made it to the weekend which is awesome (our juice week started on Sunday so Friday/Saturday are our "treat" days).

The weekend is where the pattern breaks on SuperJuice Me.  We started Friday with Fibre Optics which is a delicious blend of Carrot, Apple, Cucumber, Banana and Pear with Raw Ginger and Basil. This is one of my favourite juices that I've done at home so I was very pleased to see it here.

Then the thinnies for the day were The Diuretic One which is a refreshing green juice with cucumber, asaragus and spinach leaves amongst other things.

But the best part of the day was the last juice.  We got to have Tahini Cocoa Beaney!

Recipe here: http://news.juicemaster.com/recipe-tahini-choco-beaney/

I think it's obviously had a name change but the smoothie is still the same.   Everyone loved this one and there were only empty glasses by the end!  Strangely it tasted very chocolately and sweet to me when I think it would be less so it I'd had it on the first day.  My tastebuds have definitely changed already.  This was like the sweetest chocolate pudding I've ever had!

Tahini Cocoa Beaney yummy goodness

Day 7 - Saturday

Today was the first day without much programming as the staff were having a day off and everyone was encouraged to have a day where we explored what we could do for ourselves.

Again todays juices were LOVELY and ended with another almond milk/banana combo that also had berries and spinach in it and tasted much like a milkshake.  Once again this felt pretty sweet to my tastebuds but less indulgent than the chocolatefest of the night before.

I had a really sore knee all day due to having slept on it awkwardly so didn't manage many steps.  As of day 8 my step target goes up to 6K so really need to get my skates on.

I also really wish I could have weighed myself today.  The resort doesn't have any accessible scales (they must be hidden away) so none of us know how much weight we've lost.  I can definitely see it on some of the others but looking in the mirror is still not really showing much to me.  I have taken a Sunday selfie that I'll when I write up today that we can compare with the first one I took.  Hopefully it will show something!

Fi

xoxo

Days 0-3 The first steps...

I had originally planned to blog every day but honestly I'd forgotten how the first couple of days at Juicy Oasis can really throw your plans for a loop!

Day 0 - Saturday
After a fairly painless journey from Heathrow where I'd met up with the lovely Emma (a friend from my week here at JO in early August), we finally arrived at the retreat around 10pm.  It was a little like coming home because it was very welcoming and seemingly little has changed!  They even had a juice waiting for us... one of my favs - the Blood Builder : http://www.juicemaster.com/recipes/smoothies/blood-builder
I'm not actually that keen on beetroot in juices but it works brilliantly here in combination with the pineapple, avocado, etc.

"Blood Builder" and room key. A Study with iphone shadow.

It was pretty late once I'd had the juice so after crashing my suitcases as little as possible and trying very hard not to wake my roommate, I got to bed.  I didn't succeed on the "non-waking" front but luckily I've been blessed with a lovely person to share with who didn't seem to mind being woken 4 times while I found toothbrush, pyjamas and then showered off the travel!  So far so very good.

Day 1 - Sunday

Having woken early enough to meet my roommate properly and firmly establish her awesomeness as she didn't mention any of my suitcase crashing, we headed down for juice and the welcome chat.  I was very happy to see Kate who had been resort manager on my previous week and is Jason's other half. 

She talked us through why we are here and also got everyone to introduce themselves and although there are only 31 of us here we are a diverse group age wise and in terms of country of origin.  Lots from the UK as expected but also USA, Canada, Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Brazil and I'm sure a few other places that I've forgotten!  And a nice range of juicing enthusiasts and people who are pretty much novices like me.  The 28 day program attracts people who are serious about getting well, getting fit or looking to address a specific health issue.  I think the mix of people is similar to those coming for a week (based on my enormous sample of 1 whole prior week here to judge that), but definitely has a few more of us who are looking for the kind of positive disease outcomes that the documentary showed.

Later on sunday I had an appointment with the nurse to get my stats done.  Weights and measures were expected but they also did a cholesterol test, blood pressure, blood sugar and checked my pee for proteins or something.

Everything was fine except the weight (well duh), the cholesterol which was high (again expected) and the blood pressure which was a little elevated but I put that slightly down to having just come from the beginners fitness class in the gym as well as the cuff REALLY hurting - super tight!  I was panting through the pain while the machine took the reading.  Doubt that gave an accurate reading under those circumstances, but honestly it's all about the difference between the two sets - they are measuring us again at the end!

Day 2 - Monday

Monday started with nausea and a pervading feeling of grottyness.  Nothing to do with the juice - this was caused by medication taken sunday night.  Thankfully I only have to take it once a week and the feeling wears off as the day goes on, but it put paid to any plans to join the morning walk.  This turned out to not be a terrible thing as others with mobility issues struggled with the incline plus gravel combination and I would have too.

In the afternoon I had my first colonic of this trip.  I'm having two - one at either end, and I'm glad it happened this afternoon because it certainly helped bring me out of my grotty feeling.  The nausea had thankfully passed at this point.  Colonics are a weird thing.  I would definitely recommend them as I felt so much better afterwards.  I felt lighter and somehow more myself.  It's hard to describe but its a good feeling. Monday ended with an early night because frankly I was cream crackered. (oops first unintentional food mention - DO NOT TALK ABOUT FOOD FIONA). (No really, I got told off for talking about food with someone earlier because others were within earshot and didn't want to hear it)

Day 3 - Tuesday

Having utterly failed to get to the walk yesterday I was DETERMINED to do it this morning.  I managed to get a really good nights sleep despite having to get up to pee - all the water has to come out as well as go in - and got down for my ginger shot on time at 8:45am.  

Todays walk interested me greatly because we'd been told it was the "flat one" and therefore most likely to be doable for me.  I didn't manage to do the whole thing but did get across the bridge before turning around.  The bridge was pretty fogged in which is a weird experience - we could see the bridge/road itself but nothing but fog rising from the lake either side. 

My fitbit says I did 1.3 miles but as my stride is pretty short I expect it was closer to 1 mile.  Still not bad though considering it was done before the first juice and therefore my meds!

View from the main balcony as the fog was just burnt off of the lake by the sun.

Later after juice and meds I managed to get into the gym and do another 11 or so minutes of treadmill to help me gain my step count.   This weeks target is 5K steps per day.

Then I fell asleep.  Then there was more juice. Then more sleep. Then more juice.  Also today I felt cold despite a high of 31 degrees here today.  I can only think this is all "day 3" syndrome because really I shouldn't have been tired.

Tomorrow there will be more of the same and more of the different.  I am LOVING the programme of stuff they've put together for us.  Lots of variety and new things to try.  I haven't gotten to it all yet but I will do as much as I can over the 28 days and you never know I might even find an exercise I can do and I like!

Day 1-3 face! Hopefully I can stumble into some better lighting for the next one.

Fi

xoxo

This blog is to document my SuperJuice Me experience on the 28 day program at Juicy Oasis!

I'm flying out to Portugal on Saturday to I'm very excited!!!  It's been almost 9 weeks since Mum and I got home from our week there and honestly I've been gagging to get back ever since.  I've had some health ups and downs in that time including some change in meds, my arthritis hitting a new flare peak and also a trapped nerve in my back that has made my left leg go numb at the bottom!  But I'm convinced that getting back to the amazing atmosphere at Juicy Oasis will help me with my goal of improving my health.

On my first trip there back in the beginning of August I managed to lost 21lbs in 7 days and despite all of the dramas since then I've kept that off and lost a further 10lbs.  I truly believe in juicing and whilst I'm still working out how to get it in to my life successfully, I know it'll be part of my lifestyle forever.

The only part I've managed to get in on a daily basis since coming back is the ginger shots.  Ginger shots rule!

Might have overdone it with the size of this ginger shot!