Plan A

I have learned over time that there are two things I need when making a big change, a life change. The first is time. Time to prepare mentally, to make a plan. The other is accountability. When I quit smoking, for instance, I knew for years that I wanted to quit. I would throw full packs of cigarettes out the window and declare “I’m done” – only to drive to the store the next morning and buy a new pack. When I finally quit for good, I set a date several weeks out. I knew that I associated coffee with smoking, sitting on the porch with a pack and a pot in the mornings. So I planned ahead and gave up coffee for two weeks when I quit smoking. Then, I rewarded myself with a Keurig machine with the money I saved from not smoking. I also joined a recovery group. I needed to be accountable to someone. Those weekly meetings, and the knowledge that I would have to tell those women that I had failed if I had a cigarette helped me in moments of weakness. Remember from my last post, I struggle with pride, so even when I wanted to smoke, I wanted to save face more. I didn’t want to smoke, but whenever you make a huge change, you are fighting. I liken it to swimming upstream. You get tired, your muscles get weak, and it would be so easy to roll over and float – just for a minute. Fighting is tough, you become weary. But the ground you lose by floating – even for a moment – is never worth the break. You will just have to fight the same fight to get back to where you were. Sometimes you need a cheerleader on the shore.

Knowing what works best for you is vital. So, I am in the planning stages for this huge life change. I have been diagnosed with granulomatous mastitis (I have had this ailment since March of 2017), I have tested positive for antinuclear antibodies, a pretty sure sign I have some autoimmune disease, and I suffer from chronic pain my my lower left abdomen (that started in September of 2017), which I believe to be abdominal wall endometriosis, but I am still working with my doctors to diagnose that. I set a date – August 19th. Next Monday morning I will begin a 7 day juice diet. I will drink nothing but juice – fresh, homemade, pure juice – for 7 days. The next three days will include smoothies and juice, and then I will begin a whole, plant-based diet for a minimum of 20 days. That, friends, is Plan A. I tend to be a rule follower – which is both a blessing and a curse – and I have trouble adapting, making changes on the fly. Because I know this, I am giving myself grace to modify my plan – to divert to Plan B, which might incorporate smoothies on day 5, or maybe I will juice 20 days instead of 7. Sitting at my kitchen table with my son tonight, I admitted that Mommy is still learning.

To prepare, I made my first batch of juice tonight. I wanted to get an estimate on the time it would take to prepare, how much juice a batch would make, etc. It has been about seven years since I last made juice. I was surprised that it didn’t take as long as I remembered. I would say about 30 minutes, start to finish, including the clean up and washing the juicer. That’s less time than cooking a meal, if you count clean up and prep. I made a little over a half gallon of juice, which is about half to 3/4 of the juice that I need for a day. I used kale, celery, green apples, pink lady apples, lemons and pears. When it was done, I poured my kids and my husband a sample, pouring my son half of what I poured the rest of us. My daughter said it was good, but could benefit from pineapple, my husband said it tasted like a lemonhead candy and we should all it lemon drop, and my son said it was too sour (but this kid uses a whole lemon on one piece of fish, so I am pretty sure he meant too green). My neighbors even came over and had a sample. One liked it and asked for seconds, the other wasn’t convinced that celery and kale belong in juice. Either way, I now have an idea of how long it will take and how much produce I need to buy. Planning ✔.

Accountability – that’s where you all come in! A few people reached out and offered to join me on this juice fast. My amazing husband, an aunt in Arizona, a close friend, and a few others have said “I am with you.” Having people to share the journey with makes a world of difference. Even knowing that some stranger in Kenya and another in India will be reading and following along, that will make a huge difference when it comes to the times that I want to roll over and coast.

I do want to clarify – I love food as much as the next girl! Pizza? Stuffed crust, please. Taco Tuesday? Of course, is that even a question? But this food journey isn’t about weight loss, as it has been in the past. It’s not even about getting healthy. It’s about sparing myself from Prednisone and Methotrexate for an undetermined length of time. It’s about doing everything I can do to give myself the best possible chance. It’s about listening to my body and to God.

I believe that God, who created this body, provided everything we would need to maintain this body, and to heal this body when we failed to properly maintain it. Science, medicine, and pharmaceutical companies offer drugs. And I am certainly not opposed to taking medicine, I have been on some pill or a other for the past two and a half years – I even developed an allergy to at least two of those medications. I know that medicine can heal. But at what cost? The side effects of many drugs seem worse than the ailment they are trying to heal! I honestly have no clue if this will work. I may be taking Prednisone next month. But at least I will know I did everything I could do first.

Thank you for joining me! I am nervouscited – a term my kids and I coined to define that feeling when you can wait for something to happen, even though you know when it gets here you will have anxiety and probably a little bit of dread. Please, if you know someone who is suffering from chronic pain or an auto-immune disease, or some other ailment, share this with them. Who knows? Maybe we will all get well together.