Saturday, January 28, 2012

Day 6 Juice Cleanse with Multiple Sclerosis

Overall, Day 5 was really rough for my wife. Day 6 started out much better and my wife had a much better night of sleep. Today my wife decided to add a little more solid food into her diet. She ate some celery and peanut butter, and then had a small salad in the evening. She felt a lot better today, and everything was good other than not being able to go to sleep tonight. She was up till 3 in the morning, and I'm pretty sure it was the salad that energized her a little too much. :) I also had a small evening meal, but only juice the rest of the day. I am feeling very energetic and it is getting easier to pass up foods that normally I would be craving all day long.

Today we mixed it up with a few different juices, and have found a Pear juice mixture that is one of our favorites. We have also added other items to the juice like sweet potato's, strawberries, and blueberries. Both of us are feeling much better today with less cravings, more energy and we are both getting a lot done. This whole experience has had it's ups and downs, but we are both very happy we started on this path to better health. Over the next weeks we are going to juice until dinner, and then eat a healthy meal. Up till today, I have lost almost 10 lbs, and my wife has lost 6 lbs. For more information on what we did and the recipes we used, you can follow my wife on her blog at http://myhusbandswifehasms.blogspot.com/. She started the blog recently to show her perspective, and it has been fun to see how we see some things differently and some the same. Check it out and make sure and comment on her posts.

Day 5 Juice Cleanse with Multiple Sclerosis

Day 5 started pretty rough for my wife. This seems to be the day that my wife's body has gone into major detox. She felt fatigued, light headed, and had flu like symptoms. I had felt this way the first few days but she hadn't really had the yucky feeling until today. For me, I felt pretty good all day. I am noticing more energy, and more desire to get things done than I have in a while. I still have times through the day that I get pretty drained, but I'm noticing I just need to drink juice more often to keep my energy up and stomach full. So, for me this has been an eye opening experience with how much my life revolves around food and how I overeat regularly.

Luckily, my wife juiced like crazy yesterday and we had juice to last most of the day today. I made it the whole day with just juice, but my wife ate a few celery sticks with organic peanut butter in the evening to add some protein and fiber because she knew she needed to do something different to rid her body of the toxins. I think she realized today that she needed to get her bowels moving or have bigger issues. So, as much as she didn't want to, she used an enema to move things along and felt much better afterwards. She rested a lot today, and was better by nighttime, but we are worried about getting her body detoxed so we setup a massage to help and are trying a few other things.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Day 4 Juice Cleanse with Multiple Sclerosis

My wife woke up this morning without any leg pain, so that is a blessing. She is feeling pretty good today, and is sticking with the juice extremely well. She hasn't had a single piece of solid food since beginning on day one, and has been very good about being consistent with drinking juice every few hours. So far, she has done much better than me, and doesn't seem to be struggling much with just drinking juice. I can't personally say that since I had another breakfast meeting this morning. I ate the healthiest thing on the menu, but paid for it all morning. I was bloated and felt awful all morning, and was very surprised how overly full I felt because I didn't even eat all the food. This was a great learning lesson for me to see how big of portions I normally ate, and how that affected me.

Things got a little tricky for the evening because our daughter had an out of town basketball game. We took a large cup of juice with us but knew we wouldn't be back home till after 8 or so. The popcorn, hotdogs and other snacks looked really good at the game, but we both held strong and made it home without eating any solid food. We drank our evening tea and almond milk and were fine for the evening. My wife did struggle to get to sleep tonight, which she hasn't had an issue with through the other days. She normally has issues with her sleeping pattern but has fell asleep easily the other nights of the cleanse. She wasn't able to fall asleep until 1 or so in the morning so we will see how she pays for the lack of sleep tomorrow.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Day 3 Juice Cleanse with Multiple Sclerosis

Day 3 saw both of us back to our normal routines. The challenge for me was a business lunch that I had to attend, but luckily I was at a restaurant with a salad bar and was able to eat all fresh veggies. Eating a salad after two days of just juice was quite interesting on my body. Lots of gurgling and noise from my stomach as I dealt with digesting solid food, and I felt really full after not having that much solid food in my stomach for the last two days. My wife on the other hand was full of energy and had a very productive day.

One thing that we have been drinking every night is Yogi Detox tea. The tea is supposed to help move the toxins out of our bodies, and one of the issues of doing a juice cleanse is bowel movements can stop and the toxins can be re-absorbed. The tea doesn't taste too bad, and has seemed to help, but I am a little worried about getting the toxins out of our bodies. One of the reasons this is a concern is my wife started having major leg/knee pain tonight. It became severe enough that she had to take some pain meds to help, and ended up going to bed early. This is the first odd thing that has happened since we started the cleanse.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Day 2 Juice Cleanse with Multiple Sclerosis

I have to say day 2 was pretty rough for me, and my wife. We drank a couple of different juices today, and made it to church, but other than that we were both pretty wiped out. My wife had allergy issues all day, and we aren't sure if this is a part of the detox or not. She has had allergy issues since we moved to Wichita, KS, which is not the norm for her. Normally I am the one suffering from allergy issues, but she has been fighting the sneezing, stuffy nose and sinus issues for months. So, we are hoping the juicing helps with this along with other issues as we cleanse our bodies.

I think one of the biggest challenges today was not having any energy. With my wife's allergies, and my general lack of energy, we accomplished a whole lot of nothing. We spent most of the day laying around our house trying to relax and feel better. We still drank the green juice today, and added a carrot juice. The carrot juice is much sweeter and is really great. Even with the juice, I have to say that I was starving by the evening. I finally caved when I was falling asleep around 7:15 and ate an apple with a little natural peanut butter. Once I had eaten a little, I was great the rest of the night. After one full day, we both showed to have lost 3 lbs.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Day 1 Juice Cleanse with Multiple Sclerosis

Our first full day of our juice cleanse is done and over. We started the day with a large glass of green juice that included kale, celery, ginger, carrots and cucumbers. I wondered how this would taste since I am not a fan of celery or real veggie tasting drinks. The smell wasn't too bad and the taste was actually pretty good. We both drank about 60 oz of juice yesterday, along with a cup of detox tea and some coconut water. We aren't huge fans of the taste of coconut water, but it is rich in Potassium and electrolytes and was suggested as a great supplement for hydration. I was pretty hungry most of the day but my wife was actually full enough that she didn't drink all of her juice.

She felt great all day and had plenty of energy. She is dealing with some allergy issues right now, but other than that she felt really good. For me, it was a rough day. I was dragging all day with hunger pains and a dull headache. I was even light headed but it didn't seem to affect my wife in that way. By the evening, I was feeling so bad that I decided to eat a salad and see if that helped. My wife didn't give in but ended the evening with some homemade almond milk to hold her through the night. We both found ourselves running to the bathroom often with all of the extra liquid in our systems. :)

This is a learning lesson for both of us as we try to listen to our bodies and detox. We know from past experience that when my wife's body was full of parasites and wasn't eliminating properly, she was having MS issues. This year we hope to create our own plan to keep our bodies detoxed and our systems clean. Day 1 wasn't great for me, but if this is what needs to be done to find some healing for our bodies, then it is well worth it. We talk all the time about the things we can control, and this is one of them. If we feed our bodies properly then we will see the results of that, and we will be healthier.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Juicing for Health with Multiple Sclerosis

Well, my wife and I were introduced to the documentary Sick, Fat and Nearly Dead a few weeks ago and it really made an impact on us. We had been discussing juicing for health and had talked about a juice fast to "reboot" our bodies. Both of us know that our bodies are full of toxins, waste and other things that are causing our bodies to not work properly. So, today is the first day of the beginning of incorporating juice into our diet. We have tried this before but not with the research, information and support we have now. Over the past week my wife has bought a new juicer, created a 10 day juice plan, and shopped for all the nutritious fruits and veggies to make the juices.

Today we drank a combination of kale, ginger, celery, apples, lemon, and cucumbers. I have to say that I wasn't excited about how I thought this juice would taste, but it isn't that bad. We both downed 20 oz of this "green" juice this morning and I really am full. We will be drinking 4-6 glasses of juice a day along with plenty of water, coconut water, detox tea and homemade almond milk at night to carry us through with a full feeling. I will try to post the juices, weight loss and a general feeling as we go through the next 10 or so days. We are both very excited about detoxing our body and seeing how our health changes over the next few weeks.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

New Year With Multiple Sclerosis

Well, 2012 is here and with it new joys and challenges. Who knows what kind of discoveries will happen this year with MS treatment and what lives will be restored through those discoveries. With a new year comes new hopes and dreams, which I know my wife has already started working on her goals for 2012. We have already found a new Naturopath we are going to see this year, and I know my wife has her eyes set on running a 5k this year. As we look forward we can't help but look back at 2011.

The end of 2011 brought all kinds of MS issues and new challenges. For the last 8 months we have lived in Kansas, and every time we move it brings with it new challenges and a new learning curve for my wife's MS. Over the last few months she has fell more than any other time in our marriage. We are not sure what is causing her to drag her leg so much, but we have been very concerned because the last time she fell, she fractured a small bone in her hand that is still causing her pain.

In addition to the falling, she has struggled with some other odd symptoms. For over a week she would wake up every morning to an upset stomach. After being sick for a few hours, it would all pass and she would spend the rest of the day with a little queasiness. The other symptom that we have noticed is eye sight issues. We've noticed her eye sight is better some days than others. For instance, last week we painted our daughters room and my wife didn't notice that she was leaving paint runs on the wall because she couldn't see them. This really surprised me because she is very detailed and painting has been a strength for her. I know it frustrates her when she struggles to do things that she has been able to do for years.

So, as we look forward we have to look back and learn from our experiences. We have huge hopes and dreams for this year and we are both committed to doing whatever we need to do to make those dreams come true. Our hope is also for all the readers of this blog to find some hope and healing through our experiences and life. May your 2012 be amazing and you find some peace in the chaos that is MS.