January 25, Day 17

Weight: 221.0

Yesterday I was very hungry. I had only 12oz of V8 at mid-day.  Other than that, I ate only an evening meal.  My evening meal consisted of about 40oz of juiced veggies and fruit and s vegetable soup I made a few days ago.

Juice: 2 1/2 lemons, 1 lime, some pieces of unfinished orange my kids had put back in the fridge, 5 apples, about 3 cups of spinach, some ginger root, two cucumbers, celery, a few left over grapes, a few leftover cherry tomatoes, three big kale leaves.

I already posted what was in the soup in yesterday's post.

I also had a dill pickle.  :)

Additionally, I had two stalks of celery dipped in (all natural) peanut butter.  I also spooned an extra tablespoon out of the jar and enjoyed it, so my nut protein (and fat and calories) were up by an additional tablespoon. It may not sound like a lot, but it's 220 calories and I was actually expecting my weight to tick up a bit.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that it had droped 1.8 lbs.

Some of that *must* be what my body is removing from my system.  Shortly after I ate dinner last night, I needed to sit on the toilet. My body continues to surprise me.  I don't think I'm still detoxing, but it was different yet again.  Cigar sized solid waste, lots of liquid waste. And the odor was like freshly cut vegetables.  Not rotting vegetables, *freshly cut*. 

I'm sleeping very well.  I'm chipper and awake at work--even though I'm actually short on sleep.  I am definitely thinking more clearly.

The weight loss is nice and I'm looking forward to more, but the good sleep, the clear thinking, the alertness, certainly are worthwhile on their own merit.

I researched ancient Roman and Greek dishes last night and I'm interested in trying some of them.  They are rich in vegetables and spices. Aside from the roman passion for wine (and doing all kinds of interesting things with it) their diet was really quite good. Did you know that the Romans invented the hamburger? 

I'm wondering if the infusion of solid food is actually causing my body to burn more calories through the digestion process, which might account for additional weight loss.  I suspect, however, it has more to do with me expelling more waste water than anything else.  My salt intake is reduced from the typical Ameican diet perspective, but my foods are certainly salted.  I believe salt is a vital component of the diet and those who go on no-salt diets are extremely unhealthy and face the same symptoms as those who have too much salt in their diet.  I've done the research on it and am convinced this is true.  Your body *needs* salt to work properly. There is not enough salt in food by itself to provide what your body needs *unless* you are eating processed foods (where salt is added).

Jesus told us salt was a good thing.  Ancient societies so valued salt that people were paid in salt bars and some cultures used salt as currency. If you don't have enough salt in your diet, you suffer the same symptoms as too much salt.  (In fact, if a doctor believes you have too much salt, the first thing he does is give you a salt pill to see how your body reacts.  If it reacts positively, then you actually had too little salt in your diet.)

I recommend, however, sea salt.  We order it in 50lbs bags (costs $75 with shipping).  It lasts our family about 3 years--and we spill a lot of it...

Friday I will have some chicken. I'm looking forward to it.  I'm tempted to allow myself to have a weekend of chicken and eggs protein.  We shall see.  My soup will probably only last for one more day (today).  I'll need to punt for Thursday.  And Friday is my trip to Effingham and Ryan's buffet. 

I forgot to take my Byetta yesterday, but I did take it this morning.