Day 8

I've been saving all my receipts since beginning the fast. I had done some research beforehand on how much produce would be required - but didn't look too much into the cost. I've never been a big fresh produce consumer, so I wasn't real aware of the market prices. So here I am 8 days in and I've broken down the prices from startup costs through produce cost to date.

Startup Cost



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The initial startup costs consisted of the juicer and Nalgene water bottles. I purchased Jack LaLanne's Ultimate Power Juicer from Costco for $89.99. I'm pretty happy with it so far, wasn't too expensive, works well, and it's fairly easy to break down and clean. I needed water bottles for storing juice in the refrigerator and for transporting to work/events. I've used Nalgene bottles in the past camping in North Carolina and have been pleased with them. I purchased 3 32-oz Nalgene widemouth water bottles at Academy Sports for $30.00. They are odor resistent BPA free bottles that are easy to clean and take on the go.

Produce Cost to Date

Unfortunately, I've been doing the majority of my shopping at Publix due to convenience. As I posted earlier, I'm going to start taking advantage of the Farmer's Market since the prices are more cost efficient. I've had to make 8 separate shopping trips to Costco, Publix, and the Farmer's Market combined. The most expensive item out of what I'm juicing are the apples. Even at the Farmer's Market - the apples were still expensive.

Produce CTD 9/4 - 9/12

With about 7.5 weeks remaining, I'm looking at a projected total produce cost of $1,150 over the 60 day fast. I'm definitely spending more money than I typically would on food. However, I'm not going out to dinner, or going out for drinks on the weekend. So, if you take that into consideration - I'm saving money overall.

Peace.

 

Day 7

It's been one week...and I'm still in it! At this point there's no turning back. I'm feeling great and am seeing positive results, as I'll be revealing in tonight's post. A lot of times after eating 'regular' food I would feel tired and sluggish. A part of that was overeating, but I believe the bigger factor was poor food choices. I don't feel that anymore. After a juice drink, I'm satisfied - but not stuffed. I'm feeling more alert and refreshed in the mornings. I feel generally happier as a whole.

I'm realizing I don't need as much food to sustain. When I go back on the 'solids', I'm definitely going to be more conscious of my portions. One of the challenges is the fact that I enjoy cooking and eating food. I'm a food junkie. I have a smoker, outdoor fryer, and food dehydrator. I had a dream the other night in which I was eating some BBQ(can't recall the exact meat, likely ribs). When I awoke I was pissed off at myself until I realized it was JUST a dream! Anyhow, I feel the fast is sustainable for the next 53 days. On to the results...

'The Biggest Loser' - Week 1 Results

For those readers who didn't see the introductory post, I entered a 'Biggest Loser' competition at my workplace last week. Tuesday, September 4th was the first day of the contest and the official 'weigh-in'. I weighed in at 214.2 lbs last Tuesday. Today I weighed in at 198.8 lbs for a total loss of 15.4lbs or 7.4%.

Week 1 Results

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Needless to say, I'm pretty encouraged by the results. I'm fairly certain the rate of loss won't keep up as the first few pounds seem to come off the quickest, but I'm OK with that. Several pounds were 'fluff weight' from the last few huge meals before the weigh in. As long as I can drop 5lbs/week - I'll easily hit my goal of 180lbs by November 4th.

I'll be posting a Cost to Date analysis tomorrow evening.  It should help me project the total cost of this expedition through November. It's expensive, but seems to be worth the investment to me.

Have a good night!

Day 6

So I'm pretty much out of produce from the farmer's market...So much for the hope it'd last me until later this week. Now that I have a fairly good idea of just how much I need, I'll make better purchasing decisions going forward.

Produce depleted fridge

Today was the first day of adding protein into the mix. I had a large bag of whey protein I purchased at Costco earlier this year. I took 2 scoops, 1 first thing in the morning, and another about 4:30PM. I think it made a slight difference in terms of hunger. It's kind of nice having something other than juice too - it's chocolate flavored.

I screwed up my right heel running about a week ago and idiotically have kept running on it. It doesn't seem to be fixing itself, so it's elliptical for me until my foot feels better. I hit that up after work and had a pretty good session. I like Planet Fitness, there's all sorts of people there. Young, old, fat, skinny, meat-heads, grandmas, etc. It's a pretty comfortable environment to work out in and it's cheap ($10/month).

Ready for tomorrow

I've been making morning/snack juice the night before so I don't have to wake up and do it, and then clean the machine. It saves me quite a bit of time in the morning. Tomorrow is 1 week into my workplace's 'Biggest Loser' competition. It's been pretty cool so far, there is some friendly trash talking going on around the office in terms of whose going to be victorious. I plan to post my 1 week results in tomorrow night's blog.

Peace

Day 5

Hope everyone had a good weekend...mine was different, in a good way though. One of the benefits of not drinking/eating crap food on Friday/Saturday nights is being able to wake up early and get more stuff done. I did a lot this weekend, it was one of the more productive weekends I've had in awhile.

I realized today I should have purchased more kale at the farmer's market yesterday. Out of all the produce I've been juicing - kale definitely goes the quickest. I guess it's because it's a leafy green rather than a larger solid item (i.e. apple). It takes a lot to get an adequate amount of juice out of it. Next week I'll be stock piling the kale at the market.

Getting prepped

I feel I'm adjusting into this routine pretty well in just 5 days. Tomorrow morning I'm going to start supplementing whey protein into my juice 2x/daily. This will add an additional 280 calories to my daily intake, which is minimal for the benefits I think I'll be receiving.

I'm going to supplement the morning and pre-workout juice with protein. I made this decision because It gives me the time to burn the additional calories. When I take it first thing in the morning, throughout the course of the day - I'll easily burn 140 calories.When I take it pre-workout, It'll be gone after a short period of time on the treadmill or elliptical.

That brings me to another point. Some people I've talked to think this is a 'starvation' diet and it's unhealthy. This is NOT a starvation diet nor is it unhealthy. Sure, I feel hungry at times - but I'm still taking in the calories, vitamins, and nutrients I need. A recommended caloric intake for someone my age/height/weight is between 1600 - 2400 calories. Right now I'm taking in right under 1600 calories, after I add the whey protein I'll be well within that range.

'Mean Green' - Nutritional Information

Pint of Mean Green

Serving(20 oz):

•  Calories: 310
•  Fat: 1.5g
•  Carbs: 57g
•  Protein: 10g

Daily Intake(100oz):

• Calories 1550
• Fat: 7.5g
• Carbs: 285g
• Protein: 50g

Welcome to my new readers up North - the blog is really taking off. Right now we've got readers from 8 different countries actively following.

Adios

Day 4

So...not going out on a Friday night was a change of pace...I'm trying to not put myself in situations where I think I would be tempted to cheat. The social aspect of this is going to be kind of difficult. What do you do when you get together with friends? There is almost ALWAYS food and drink involved. I don't really want to become a hermit but I'm committed to completing the full 60 day cycle.

Jacksonville Farmer's Market

Anyhow, I hit the Jacksonville Farmer's Market this morning. If you are local to Jax, and haven't been there - I strongly recommend checking it out. It's not in a particularly great part of town, but it's well worth the trip. The place is pretty big with 2 open air buildings with vendors lining each side...kind of flea market-esque. They have their bases pretty well covered, tons of various produce of the standard variety and some stuff I didn't even know existed.

I found each of the items I needed while scouting out the vendors and prices. I talked to a few people beforehand and they advised me that the vendors entertain haggling and be able to produce exact change. I brought 40 bucks in one dollar bills and 5 dollars worth of quarters figuring I would be able to stock up with that amount. I made out like a bandit, and only spent 20 bucks (see below). I think I'm going to hit this every Saturday. That way I can likely make it till Wednesday/Thursday and only have to pay the Publix premium for 2 days or so until I can make it back to the market. I've never considered myself to be 'thrifty', however I'm mowing through produce - and it's not exactly cheap.

$20 worth of Produce

A few examples of savings below - the only thing I wasn't pleased with was the price of apples. However, they are larger than the ones I purchased at Publix - so I'll only have to use 1 per batch instead of 2.

Item	Publix	Market
Cucumbers	8/$5.16	10/$3
Ginger Root	1/$7.01	1/$1
Kale	3 bunches/$5.07	6 bunches/$5
Apples	2 small bags/$9.98	8 large/$6
Celery	2 bags/$3.78	2 bags/$3
Item	Costco	Market
Lemons	20/$7.49	8/$2

Cost Comparison

The Gators won today, I celebrated with a tall glass of mean green. Jags need to bring it tomorrow and i'll be happy. I re-added NFL Redzone to my TV package and will be managing my 3 fantasy teams tomorrow - pretty excited about it - HA!

Shout out to my new readers from Australia and India....pretty cool - thanks for checking in.

Until next time.

Day 3

So I've been on THE JUICE for 3 straight days now and feel pretty good. The water is really helping in terms of any hunger. I actually wasn't even hungry when it came time for the afternoon helping. I couldn't even finish everything I packed before I left work for the night.  I drank the rest on my way home. 

I talked to a few people at work today and decided to hit the Beaver Street farmer's market tomorrow morning. Apparently, they have a pretty good selection....so i'll see what I can stock up on. Hopefully it'll be cheaper than Costco and Publix. The only item I haven't had to re-up on so far has been lemons - since I bought a huge bag and it's only 1-2 lemons each time I make it depending on the batch size.

Prepping dinner

I took it pretty easy at the gym today, opting for the elliptical rather than running again - pretty sore from the last 2 days. Going forward, I think I'll rotate daily between running and elliptical. I definitely need to up my running game though since I committed to the Gate River Run last weekend. I can do about 4 miles now before I feel like I'm going to die, so I need to add 5 more to that by March. Slow and steady...

I'm finally getting my windows tinted tomorrow afternoon. I've been meaning to do this since I purchased the vehicle. Having a black car with black leather interior makes for a pretty warm environment after it's been sitting in the Florida heat during summer. Anyhow, I'm pretty excited about it...should look pretty nice too.

Have a good weekend!

Day 2

I made juice last night in preparation for this morning's breakfast and mid-morning snack. It was nice just being able to wake up, drink it and go. Thus far, cleaning the juicer is my least favorite part. If you don't clean it immediately after use, the fibers from the fruits/vegetables harden on and make it a pain for when you eventually DO clean it. It's not particularly difficult, just takes another 10 minutes or so.

The amount of pulp in the catcher is pretty crazy, it definitely fills up. If I had a pet rabbit or perhaps a compost pile, I could make use of the pulp. However, I do not. So I've just been chucking it in the trash can.  I learned another lesson today - don't leave pulp in the trash can, take it out immediately. I came home for lunch and my apartment reeked. I thought it was the garbage disposal again, so I bleached the hell out of it and threw some ice/lemons down there with the disposal on. When that didn't clear it up, I checked the trash can - BINGO...I'm gonna blame it on the kale, since it's my least favorite and strongest tasting.

Anyhow, I've been destroying some produce. I'm saving all my receipts and inputting costs into a spreadsheet. Once I hit a week, It will be interesting to do a cost analysis and try to predict the total 60 day cost. Since Monday, I've gone to Costco once and Publix 3 times...definitely need to start buying more bulk. I didn't realize how much produce I'd actually be going through. I'm thinking of hitting a farmer's market this weekend to try and get some deals.

Today went pretty well. I upped my water intake and that staved off the minor hunger I experienced yesterday. I have plenty of energy and am not experiencing any of the start-up side effects. I'll probably start incorporating whey protein into my morning juice sometime next week.

I met up with my buddy Ethan after work tonight and  did a 5k run down 2nd street in Jax Beach. I typically take a day off between running days to let the legs rest....definitely should have taken today off. It was kind of tough, I don't know if it's because I ran yesterday or the fact I've been doing mostly indoor treadmill running the past few weeks. We completed it, but I wasn't really happy with my pace or stamina.

The weekend starts tomorrow. I'm looking forward to football, though it will be different. Go JAGS. Go Gators.

Godspeed.