Day 19 - Thursday

Down 0.6 pounds from yesterday, 16 pounds from the beginning, and 92 pounds from my heaviest weight. 

Today is the first of two transition days out of this fast.  The first thing I ate this morning was a strawberry!  Yum!  Then I made fruit salad with a banana, an apple, strawberries, and mangoes.  I mixed it with some homemade yogurt (to replenish good bacteria in my digestive tract) and cinnamon.  Mmmmm!  As soon as Brianne’s done washing dishes I’ll start cutting up my salad so it’ll be ready for lunch.  I also made a cup of hot tea.  Instead of cream I used evaporated skim milk.  I read that on a list of food substitutions I saw on Pinterest.  Yuck!  I poured it out after drinking only half.  My tummy is quite full anyway so…  I’ll compare the label of evaporated regular milk with cream, see how it stacks up, and may try that.  I don’t miss smoothies or veggie puree at all! 

Yesterday I went for a 1.2-mile walk and jogged twice for 30 seconds and once for a shorter time.  Today I’ll try for jogging 1 minute at a time since I’ll have more food (energy) in my body. 

Evaporated regular milk has a better nutrition profile than cream or half & half, but the taste is just so-so.  Maybe I can experiment with combining low and high-fat items to come up with one that tastes good. 

I walk/jogged for a total of 25 minutes doing 1 minute of jogging and 3-4 minutes of walking.  Friday I’ll do longer jogging sections and work my way back up to running a full 3.1 miles.  I’m looking forward to it!

I like salad anyway, and it sure was nice to eat some Thursday.  J  I’ll do that Friday too and until the salad is gone.  I used only one bag of spring mix, not one bag plus one bag of spinach, 4 Roma tomatoes, 1 cucumber, 3 carrots, 2 chicken breasts, and 4 eggs, and it still made a HUGE amount of salad.  I may be eating this into Sunday.  Saturday I’ll have BBQ at this place:    http://www.smknjsbbq.com/

Pulled pork and brisket, but just a little of each.  No sides; just meat.  And ½ sweet tea ½ unsweet.  Mmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!

Day 13 - Friday

Down 0.2 pounds from yesterday, 12.2 from the beginning, and 88.2 from my highest weight.  This is the same as Wednesday. 

Yesterday was quite a busy day.  I did some work and then made supper for some friends who recently became foster parents to infant twin girls.  I prayed that I would be able to fix the food without tasting any of it and without mindlessly licking my fingers.  I even asked a couple friends to pray that specifically!  Praise God, I didn’t taste or lick! 

I went to a birthday lunch for my nephew and took along some veggie puree.  I also went to a smoothie store and got a smoothie.  On the cup was this saying: 

That’s not true.  Chewing is wonderful, and I look forward to next Thursday when I’ll be able to chew again!  I made sure it had no added sugar, dairy, protein, etc.  It tasted okay but was too sweet.  I was trying to figure out why it was sweeter than what I make at home when it had basically the same ingredients I use.  After some thinking, I realized that I add pumpkin to my smoothies sometimes.  That’s nutrition but not sweetness.  There weren’t any bananas in the store-bought smoothie and I put them in my homemade ones.  I know they’re sweet, but somehow it’s a different sweetness than other fruits.  Anyway, the lunch was at a BBQ restaurant, and BBQ is what I want when I’m off this fast.  More prayer.  It smelled so good when I got out of the car!  I ordered only water, though, and drank my smoothie and puree.  I also was able to feed and play with my niece, which helped distract me from the fact that everyone else was eating. 

Yesterday was set up to be a very difficult day food-wise for me, but it really wasn’t.  Thank you to the friends who were praying specifically, and thank you to all who were praying in general.  That certainly played a big part in how my day went.  Another thing that helped the day go smoothly is that my heart wasn’t divided.  For example, when I got out of the car at the restaurant I knew I wasn’t going to order anything or take a bite off anyone’s plate.  I didn’t have to agonize over what low-cal, low-fat, low-whatever thing to choose from the menu.  I wasn’t going to eat.  Period.  Simple as that.  Honoring God by reining in my flesh was the highest priority.  I wasn’t feeling sorry for myself.  This is more about God gain than weight loss, and I certainly experienced growth in God yesterday!