Update:

My wife went out and bought me a $50 juicer ... works great on fruit juice. We'll see how the vegetables work out.

By the way, fresh apple juice can give you a wicked sugar rush.

DG

Juice Fast: Day 1

Well, I gotta tell you. Thank God for Mother's Markets. I don't own a juicer, and really don't want to fork out $400 for one, so to have them make the stuff right there is awesome!

Day one wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I drank about 60 oz. of various fruit and vegetable juices and lots of water. There were points when I got hungry. I found that by drinking a 16 oz of fruit/veggie juice early in the day and then taking in about 8 oz of fruit juice every 2 hours before another 16 oz lunch and dinner works well to keep the wolves from the door. Last night I had a combo called "Garden Salad Surprise." It was lettuce, carrots, bell pepper, garlic and wheat grass. I thought I was going to have to choke it down, but it was really good.

Side note: It's interesting how much temptation there is to eat when you're fasting. I had HUGE opportunities to mow down on cookies and other things. But I didn't. I guess I have what they were talking about during Breakthrough, "A vision that drives you through the pain of transformation."

The only detox effects I've felt thus far is some skin breakouts, my skin has been itching too, a little brain fogginess. While I felt tired at the end of the day, it wasn't as bad as normal. This morning I feel not as drowsy as usual.

On to day two ....

DG  

I haven't been feeling really well for about the last year. You know tired, no energy, not sleeping well ... feeling like I'm on the verge of getting sick. You know that feeling where you just don't "feel" right? That's me. This has been going on for way too long ... and most of it is because I ws resisting any kind of change because, well ... I like being able to eat any and everything I wanted. But now, as I'm entering the 3rd month of my 44th year, I think it's time to give my body a break from the years of abuse I gave it.

So starting today, I'm going on a juice fast for 2 weeks, then follow up the last two weeks with a detox diet to clean out my system and give my body a break. I've talked to my doctor and other health professionals about what I'm doing and they think it'll work out great for me. Sort of a jump start on a new life. Frankly, I'm looking forward to it. I've talked to others who have done this, and they told me if you can make it past day three, you're in like flint.

I've already had breakfast ... fresh pressed carrot, apple, parsely, ginger and celery juice. With some more juice in my cooler bag. To be honest, I feel pretty damn good about this.

If you don't mind, I'm going to use Xanga as a bit of therapy during this, so please bear with me during this time.

I'm sure you'll be hearing from a grumpy, toxig DG tomorrow.

DG 

So the Iron chef thing went great .... it all came together at the last minute, too. We finally got the audio and video going and were able to broadcast to the big screen in the main dining area. It was really funny, and the food was awesome. We were expecting and cooking for 20-30 ... 75 people showed up.

Funny thing was, everyone got more than enough food, and there were left overs.

Hmmm .... I remember something about loaves and fishes....

DG

Our church is very eclectic. It's mostly made up of artists, musicians and "fringe" folk. It's really an awesome group. It makes for some interesting times, too.

Tonight our church is doing an "Iron Chef" style cooking competition, which will end up as a banquet for the congregation. I get to be one of the commentators while the guys are cooking. It should be a good time. However, I don't know how they'll be able to cook all of that food in one hour.

How's that frozen squab working for you?

I'll let you know the dramatic results tomorrow.

DG 

It's 8:14 in the morning. The house is quiet, the dog and the wife are asleep, and I'm sitting in my office typing. The guy down the street is coming by to tape and mud the garage today. Once that's done, the builder cones back in to finish the framing and swap out the doors. Then the painter comes, then the flooring guy ... then the cabinets, then move everything back in.

It seems my life has been revolving around home improvment projects lately ... I hope it doesn't become all consuming, as I'd like to be able to actually ENJOY my home rather than keep looking for things that need to be renovated.

That being said, the kitchen is next on the list.

Have a great Sat!

DG

The garage is going quite well ... all the drywall is up, and it's ready for tape and mud. Then the guy who does the epoxy flooring comes in middle of next week, and the week after, the cabinets.

All this stuff makes me thankful I'm not a DIY kinda person. I mean, I love the end result, it's just getting to that point that sucks. That's why I'd rather pay someone else to do the work. I'm not lazy ... well ok, maybe a little, but I'd rather enjoy life than get all pissed about how stuff isn't working while I'm building it.

Her'es a pic of the progress so far. If you click it, It should open bigger. This was taken before the finishing of the drywall.

AS you can see, it's come a long way from what we started with. I'll post more pics as it's finished. Have a great rest of the week!

DG

Well I'm feeling much better, thanks. It was the perfect weekend to rest and relax and it paid off. Now today, I have to take my wife up to the dentist to get some root canal work done.

how's that for capping off a nice weekend? Sad thing is I'm going to need one too. I've been avoiding it for some time now and I think I can put it off for another few months. We'll see.

So how was everyone's Valentine's weekend?

DG

So I went home from work today ... wasn't feeling good at all. Sometime's it's a good thing to just lie around the house and rest ... probably the cause of not feeling good ... doing too much .. resting too little.

So here I am.

DG 

Well, the boating and goodbye party went well ... it was an awesome time to reflect back on a friendship that has spanned a 23 year history. Man, time certainly flies when you get older. I can't even believe we're almost halfway through Feb!

We found a last minute electrician to come over and do all of the wiring in the garage. I thought for sure this was going to be a MAJOR expense ...turned out to be half of what I planned on. Thank goodness. The upside is he'll have all the wiring done tomorrow, so the garage will be ready for taping and mudding by Friday. Then all we have to worry about is the cabinets.

Newsflash: My wife just informed me that a house in our neighborhood sold for just under $600,000. My god. If I ever sold this place, I couldn't afford to live in this area. I don't understand California at all ....

Hope you all have a good week, I'll try to post some pics of the garage in process.

DG