Day 18 of my juice fast

The pain is feeling a bit better this morning, but I’m nt getting too excited, as it usually feels better in the morning, and accelerates during the course of the day. Oh, I’m counting the days (or ‘sleeps’ as the kids say) till I can go see that chiropractor!

There are two things that I need to change regarding my juice fast today. The one is that I need to start wearing my rubber gloves when I wash the (many) juice ‘dishes, i.e. the juicing machine etc. My hands are getting so dry and chapped from the constant washing.
The 2nd thing, is that I need to start having smaller portions of juice at a time. The whole idea is to give your digestive system a rest, but I’m overloading it by having too whopping a glass at a time. 8oz is the recommended amount. I’ll have to check, but if memory serves, that is around 300ml, or just under. (I’m a metric girl, born and bred. What can I say?)
My reasoning was that if I have large amounts, then I have to actually go to the trouble of making the juice less. I can’t make juice more than 5 times a day, it’s like a full-time job already! But to solve that, I’m going to make the same amount, but refrigerate half for later. This is not ideal, because after ten minutes, max, valuable enzymes are lost, but I think it’s better than overloading a resting system.

I watched a good movie yesterday, The Butterfly Effect. I have a new respect for Ashton Kutcher, who was being ridiculously typecast after his role in That 70’s Show. He played his role well here. It’s not my usual type of movie, but I was intrigued. It’s about this guy who had blackouts as a childhood. On reaching adulthood, he starts remembering details of his blackouts, and subsequently discovers how to go back in time to these events, and change them. But the more he goes back, the more he affects the future, and not necessarily in a good way. Unfortunately, the tape ran out at the end, so I’ll have to wait until Sunday to catch the ending. Thank goodness it’s repeating.

I weighed myself this morning, just in my undies, and I now weigh just under 50kg’s. I’m starting to look a little skinny, but I guess that’s the price I have to pay for now. I’m still nowhere near as painfully thin as I was a few years back, just after being diagnosed with ms. My weight went down to abut 45-46kg, and that was during a time when I was eating large amounts of food, including a lot of carbs. In fact, my weight only (conversely) returned to normal after my ten-day water fast. This is the weight regulating power of a fast.
But I must admit, much as I dislike the weight-loss (I think it takes me back to memories I’d rather forget), I do enjoy no longer having the piglet roll of fat around my middle. I’ll really have to guard against that when I start eating again. Pilates, here I come.

I’ve read that during a fast, one might experience pain at the sites of old injuries as they heal. I don’t know if this is connected at all, but the night before last, I had some mild tooth pain, right where I had the periodontal surgery last year. It was gone the following morning. Coincidence?

I was thinking this morning, that if I have adjusted well to the circumstances of this illness, then Michael has done so ten-fold. He handles everything like such a star, which I think only the minority of spouses in this situation can do. In fact, I read the other day that ms has the highest suicide and divorce rate of any disease. Don’t know how true this is, but I do know that a lot of people with ms that I’ve spoken to on the net, have been abandoned by their spouses.
But I digress…what I’m trying to say is that I’m so proud of Michael. I think that we have both grown such a lot on this journey of ours.I realize now that loving someone is different from being ‘in love’ with them. I’m still in love with Michael, very much so. But I truly love him on a very different level. I’m so glad that we found each other.