I avoided the scale today

I didn't weigh myself today (& I know you're not supposed to do it every day anyway, but I am kind of addicted) so I can't tell you if I lost anything. I did have a juice for breakfast and dinner though. My lunch wasn't healthy. I'll admit it. I had BBQ... and potato salad. It was amazing! But back to the juicing! I've been adding carrots to my juices, on the assumption that they're healthy for you, but while many people talk about the health benefits they're getting from them, my nutritionist told me to avoid those (along with wheat, corn, caffeine and sugar) because those are things that can generally be rough on your intestines.

Anyone else out there have a similar disease to mine? 

What do you do?

And real quick, I will admit, there is NO WAY I can stay away from caffeine all the time! Sure I can drink decaf coffee but we don't always have it available and I'm a coffee drinker! I don't drink loads of it, but I'm a mandatory 1 cup type of gal.

I've noticed that adding a pear instead of an apple to my juice gives it a better flavor when I add lots of vegetables. I try to throw in a pear and a couple of strawberries. My taste buds haven't yet adapted to all those juiced veggies. 

What do yall do to "cover up" that vegetable taste? Or have you grown used to it?

Also, for people who have done a juice fast, where do you get your protein? I watched the documentary Fat, Sick and Almost Dead (which is what really inspired me) and I vaguely recall him mentioning something about juicing nuts. Has anyone tried that? Let's just say that when I eat nuts, it's not really a good thing for my UC. My dad sent me some protein powder but I can't help but wonder if that is defeating the purpose of my all-natural goal!

This probably sounds crazy....

I'm not happy with myself! 

All the weight I worked so hard to lose is back and I know exactly why - I got lazy. In 2010 I got tired of being tired, of not having energy, of not being comfortable in my clothes and of seeing myself in the mirror. I have a daughter, who was 8 then, and she is on the chubby side still. I knew I wasn't being a good role model of health and fitness. To top it off, in 2009 I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis which is a gross disease that no one wants and I think I'm way too young to have. I was put on Prednisone to help my UC, and while it did help, it made me hungry all the time. 

 First I started attending Zumba, I swam laps at my university's pool, I cut out the fast food and before I knew it, I was a calorie counting queen. I could tell you the calories in anything! I lost weight, I felt better, I was happy... and I was obsessed.

In 2011 I went on two back to back vacations (lucky me) and I lost my obsession. I refused to count calories on vacation and when I came home, it was almost impossible. 

A year later, I'm back where I started. 

I've tried counting calories again and it makes me cranky. I've tried to increase my workouts but honestly, I'm just too lazy to up what I already do. Plus, I want to get rid of my UC. I would love to not be dependent on $400 a month medicine. 

So I bought a juicer. I'm not on a juice fast - yet - but I've started replacing my breakfasts and dinners with a mix of juiced fruits and veggies and then eating some kind of lean protein for lunch. It's rough. But I'm down 3.6 lbs in a day, so that's encouraging enough!

Let's see if I can repair myself the natural way.