Juice Feasting, Smoothie Drinking, Raw Food Eating and Approval

For the past week I have had nothing but raw foods, whether it was juicing, smoothies or salads. Since Sunday, July 3rd I've gone RAW!!! Let me tell you, I feel pretty AMAZING!!!

Now, I have been eating a mostly raw diet for the past month or so, but I have been 100% raw this week. My skin is glowing and my wrinkles are going away!!! I've lost 2 lbs in 4 days. I love the way I feel!!! Now if I could just get the job situation changed, my life would be pretty darn good!!

I received a call this morning from the nurse at my surgeon's office informing me that, they (the surgeon, nurses, and nutritionist) met and went over my file, and determined that I was ready for surgery. I thought this meeting was going to take place next week, but was pleasantly surprised and shocked when I got the phone call today. I may have to do the liquid diet if I don't loose 13 lb more pounds. I'm hoping the juicing will do the trick. I also have a colonic schedule the day before my nutrition appointment next week. This will be my second colonic, which was a surprisingly wonderful experience.

So I'm guessing I should know when my surgery will be scheduled by next weeks, once the insurance company makes their decision on approving it. I can't believe how fast this is all happening. Everyone I know that has had the surgery waited several months to a year, and it hasn't even been 3 months for me yet.

Well, until next time. Bright blessing to you all :) Get JUICIE!!!!

A New Beginning

Since I didn't use this blog for the happenings of my life, I will use it for my weight loss journeying. So welcome to my weight loss journey blog. Let me first start off by saying this is my journey and I am not making any recommendation for anyone. It is up to you to find your path and discuss weight loss with your doctor. What I feel is right for me, although you might not agree, it is my journey.

So I'll begin with a bit of history. Growing up I had always been "chubby." I was always the tallest in my class and one of the biggest. Thankfully I had wonderful friends and was not the target of bullying. There were a handful of times, someone said something about my weight that hurt my feelings, but from hearing about other experiences, my encounters with bully's was very minimal.

Most of my issue around my weight was in my own head. I was well aware that I was bigger than my friends. I wasn't able to share my clothes and because of my size I wasn't comfortable doing some activities.

During high school, I believe my weight keep me from being as out going as I would have like to be. Those that know me now, know that I'm a go-getter and outspoken. A month after graduating high school, I found out I was pregnant. Needless to say the pregnancy changed my body and weight became more of a struggle. Where during my teens, I was probably 20-30 lbs over weight and after having my son I struggled with 50-150 lbs.

Through my 20's I did all the fad diets, tried every diet pill, including doctor prescribed pills, and bought every exercise contraption on the market. Now here I am at 34, I realize the you don't need a "diet" or exercise torture devices. You need a HEALTHY lifestyle. This includes good wholesome (no processed) foods, and some kind of daily activity to move your body.

Now comes the part I drop the bomb… I am in the process for qualifying for gastric bypass surgery. Before you say it, "well that's taking the easy way out," hear me out first.

There is NOTHING easy about opting to do gastric bypass. I have been vegetarian for the past 4 1/2 years and mostly vegan for the past 9 months. I work out regularly, I have pretty much maintain my weight at 250-255 lbs over the past 4 years. In October of 2007 I was probably at my highest nonpregnancy weight ever. I'm not sure how much I weighed, but I'm sure I was over 300 lbs, my best guess was 305-310 lbs. I saw a photo that was taken of a trip I went on and was mortified!

From October to December of 2007 I dieted like crazy and got down to 280 lbs. In January 2008, I began running everyday and working out an hour a day. I got down to 265 in April 2008. There I stalled for several weeks. I went to see my doctor and she prescribed Fastin and within a month I dropped 17 lbs. I continued Fastin throughout the summer of 2008 and ran twice a day and worked out for an hour a day. In August of 2008, I moved 4 1/2 hours away from home. I continued taking Fastin until September 2008, and continued running, by October I was down to 203 lbs. My reason for moving was a job, a job which was extremely stressful, I was driving in a truck for 10-12 hours a day and was on call 24/7. I managed to keep my running schedule until late November, but when the snow came it was very hard to run. I should also mention I met my boyfriend at this time as well, so my workouts became very limited. I continued to workout but my time was cut down to 1 run a day and 30 minutes of a workout. In February of 2009, I moved in the my boyfriend I continued to run over the summer of 09 and maintained my weight around 220-225 lbs. But work became increasingly stressful and I was left with very little time to workout and I began to eat out more and not eat as well.

Needless to say over the course of 2 years my weight began to steadily incline back to 255 lbs were I stayed for about a year. In November of 2010, I went to see my doctor for my yearly check up and we discussed my weight. Although I know that taking Fastin was not good for me and I would eventually gain the weight back, I asked. My doctor suggested that I have the gastric bypass surgery. I had never thought of doing that, because I too thought "that is the easy way out." I also felt that meant I couldn't do it myself and that I was weak.

I spent 4 months researching the topic and decided to attend an informational meeting. On April 19, 2011 I spent an hour listening to a surgeon explain the procedure and how that is safe. He also explained that people predisposed to obesity, no matter how much the workout and eat healthy, weight loss is rarely successful. It made think of my own family. My mother side of the family all struggle with weight. The women are obese, including my mom. I decided to have a consultation with the surgeon and was schedule with an appointment for April 25th.

After meeting with the surgeon and going over my history, he explained that I was a perfect candidate for this surgery, since I already healthy lifestyle and ate well. At this appointment I weighed 265 lbs, had a BMI of 40, and had 112 lbs of excess weight. So after much soul searching and researching I decided to go ahead with the process to get qualified for surgery. I'm now on the downward slope of the process and thinking my surgery (if approved) will be planned for sometime in July 2011.

I still have the feeling of being failure for not being able to get a handle of this on my own, but I'm also relieve this could be the solution. Gastric bypass surgery is only a tool, and I will still need to workout and eat a healthy diet in order to loss the weight. And I'm not doing this for vanity reasons, I'm doing it so that I can finally do the activities I wanted to do for years, like rock climbing, mountain climbing, roller skating, and many others. I want to be an athlete! I also want to be healthy and live a long strong life, and see all of my son's successes and enjoy having grandchildren someday.

Bright Blessing and Good Health to you all,

~Jen~

Ok... so I'm not a blogger....

I totally suck at blogging!!! I have so much going on in my life that it's hard to add one more thing. Well I don't have a lot going on, just I have a lot of work!! I may try doing video blogs, but then there is the editing and all that. Just another thing on my to do list.

So I am back to work and I have to admit I really missed it. I was so worried about coming back and being overwhelmed, but it wasn't too bad. Right now I'm feeling overwhelmed dealing with one case that is taking up much of my time.

On top of work my beautiful Great Dane, Jewel is injured and there is nothing the vets can do. I have an appointment tomorrow for euthanasia. I am so heart broken over it. My house, my heart, and my soul will be so empty. It infuriates me when I spend countless hours in the field telling people they need to take care of their animals and they don't seem to care. They don't realized the wonderful gifts that they have tied to the tree in the back yard or locked up in the barn. Is is so sad!

I'm hoping to be more active in blogging and will start blogging on different topics. Perhaps I'll make this an animal welfare blog.

Bright Blessing to All,
~JenniRae~

I'm a blogger!!!!!

So I don't even know what I'm suppose to do? What am I suppose write about? Let start with what made me decide to start blogging. I'm 33 years old and I'm having a pre mid-life crisis. I am currently employed as Humane Agent for the state I live in, and spend my days investigating animal cruelty complaints. Cool huh? Well, not really. I began the job back in 2003 and became obsessed with the job until 2006 when I had a complete break down. I left the department and went back to school. Once school was done, I ended coming back to the department, but relocating to another part of the state. And here I am again, completely broken into a million pieces for the second time. This time I reached out for help and starting seeing a psychiatrist. That was a huge step for me, considering I'm not one that talks about my feelings. So not only is this a healing processes for me, but a learning one as well.

The doctor diagnosed me with post traumatic stress disorder, which I just thought I was suffering from compassion fatigue. I guess it was worse then I had thought. For 3 weeks, I could not get out of bed. The only comfort was the pillow and warm fluffy comforter encasing me as I spent countless hours sleeping, watching YouTube videos, and thinking about every thing I had done wrong in my life. Laying there in my puddle of self hate and helplessness waiting for someone to come save me. I realized that no one could save me, it is up to me to save myself. I must put my arms around me and give comfort to myself. Give myself patience and kindness, and in those dark moments, just sit quietly and hold my own hand until they pass. I must be my own hero!

So when I finally got out of bed, I thought back to when I was the happiest in my life. It was about 3 1/2 years ago, when I was renting this 1970's mobile home in the middle of now where. There was dark paneling on the walls, gold shag carpet, but it was BEAUTIFUL!!!! The window were big, I woke up to the sun rising over the mountains and the deers feasting on apples in my back yard. I painted, I wrote, I made jewelery, I refinished furniture, I sewed, I breathed!!!! Those were the missing pieces of me. I found them! Now it's time to get the hot glue gun out and put em' back in place.

So with this rekindling of my art flame, I have turned the shed into an art studio and I am creating. Yesterday I drew for the first time. I mean really tried drawing, not just stick figures and little bubble doodles you draw while talking on the phone. I was very inspired by Suzi Blu's art (I'll talk more in another blog about my new obsession with this women) and some of her students art. Because I really don't know what I'm doing, I copied their idea. Plagiarism I know. But I'm not going to sell them, and we all have to start from somewhere.

So this drawing was inspired by one of Suzi's student's work. Like I said, I have NO idea what I'm doing. I just picked up the colored pencils and started drawing. Although I have realized that I am very good at drawing noses!!! Eyes on the other hand....... NIGHTMARE!!!!



This was inspired by Suzi Blu's Elizabeth


Paint the world with love!!!!!! Hugz'n'Kizzez!!!!! ~jennirae