Reboot Days 2 and 3: Crash and Burn

Day 2 started out on a hopeful note.

Headaches were gone and Joseph woke up feeling like he had more energy. It seemed like his body might be adjusting to his new diet. He and Matt started the morning with a Blackberry-Kiwi smoothie (it was delicious and very sweet!) and slammed a slightly disgusting "V28" juice afterward.

And then things went downhill. And kept plummeting down.

Joseph has a very fast metabolism, so his body processes sugars (and other things) very quickly. Shortly after their breakfast smoothie, he crashed. We skipped church because he just needed to sleep. He barely had enough energy to get out of bed and walk around the house. His eyes looked glassy and, if I'm honest, the whites looked slightly off-color. I don't know if it was just a coincidence, but it was worrisome nonetheless. We usually see his family for dinner after church, but he felt too shaky and sick to leave the house, so Diana and I went without him.

Lunch was basically a large salad and he perked up again after that, but was soon huddling under a blanket, shaky and nauseous. Both he and Matt spent a large amount of the first and second days dashing to the bathroom, but that was expected. Dinner was more filling (Roasted Acorn Squash stuffed with Mushroom and Sage and a Green Vegetable Soup), but even though Joseph was trying his hardest to pack as much food as possible into his (admittedly small) stomach, he never felt satisfied. His body was definitely craving other things. Shortly after dinner he started feeling terribly sick with pressure and tightness higher up in his abdomen but below his stomach. Eventually he threw up (sorry, people), and around 12:30 AM he started feeling a little better.

I wanted to support Joseph supporting Matt. I wanted to help him stick to his word and exercise his willpower. But that man was sick. I read somewhere on the Reboot site that symptoms like dizziness, fatigue and nausea are simply toxins leaving your body, but this kind of violent reaction just didn't seem right. I'm not sure I've seen him so sick in the five years I've known him. Plus, I (and maybe most women) have this incredible desire to care for people and nourish them by feeding them. It's hard to see someone starving when you can't fix things by feeding them. And it's especially unnerving as a wife to have your buddy and your rock being sick and miserable for days. I told him to just eat a piece of toast after he felt better. He struggled with some worries about being a quitter and not having enough willpower or being a man of his word. Luckily, when you hold a piece of toast in front of a starving man, internal moral struggles become very brief indeed. Afterward he even had some chili and felt oh so much better.

This morning (Day 3) he was mostly back to himself. Still a little shaky and tired to begin with, but throughout the day he ate toast with egg salad, a piece of pizza, and a taco, and now he's walking around with as much energy as ever. He even worked out tonight. I have noticed that when he gets hungry he is DESPERATELY hungry. I think his body may be trying to counter the perceived famine by demanding as much food as possible.

It's easy for him to feel like a little bit of a failure since he only made it two days, but I honestly believe that his body is just not made to cope with a diet like this. Obviously if this was something he really wanted to do and he had a very strong reason for doing it, he could make it work. But even vegetarians eat protein, and I think if he'd been able to eat non-animal proteins, this would have been easier. As it is, this diet is just not sustainable for him.

I think we've learned some good things, though. We know a little bit more about his metabolism and what kind of foods he needs when he's low on energy. I've learned that it's actually incredibly cheap and easy to keep many varieties of vegetables and fruits around and work them into our diet. I can throw some spinach/spring greens, romaine hearts, onion, tomato, carrot and avocado into a salad in no time. When I do, I'm more likely to snack on that than something easy and accessible like crackers. I've been doing much better with snacking- eating leftover salads and fruit instead of crackers and cookies.

The Reboot didn't go quite as planned, but we learned some valuable lessons anyway. Joseph may never willingly eat another salad in his life, but I think it will be easy enough to throw vegetables into our normal meals and we'd be more willing to eat them and try different varieties.

Matt is doing much better than Joseph and will continue with the 15-day Entry Program and then drink exclusively fruit and veggie juices for 45 days after that. He's already lost 6.6 lbs and while it's difficult for him to do his triathlon training on this diet (surprise! ;) ), he seems to have a decent amount of energy and be feeling fine. It's good to know that the Reboot can work for some people!

Reboot Day 1: First Impressions

After the Great Shopping Trip. About $250 of veggies and fruit.

Today is the first full day of the Reboot for Joseph and Matt. It may be the end of the world.

Maybe it's not THAT bad, at least for me. Matt seems to be holding up pretty well too, although he has a nasty headache. Joseph is not faring well. Not at all. I think he's asked at least three times today if he's going to die. He doesn't even have enough energy to program. He has a headache and feels full after he eats, but not satisfied. You can see their meal plan for the day here. The portions are generous, but Joseph doesn't fill up on fruits and vegetables. It's becoming apparent how much his body depends on carbohydrates for energy. Apparently it's common for people to feel lethargic, dizzy, or even nauseous for the first few days of the Reboot. Since this program isn't about counting or restricting calories, he can snack on things between meals like carrots, salads, apples, bananas, etc. But his body is still adjusting to the lack of energy from carbs. He describes it as being very similar to having the flu, but without the aches.

After seeing how difficult it is for Joseph and Matt, I really can't complain. But while Joseph has zero energy, this feels like a very mild version of being a working single mom. I get up with Diana, have some breakfast with her, and then start making the guys' breakfast/ mid-morning juice. I'm basically always either preparing a meal, taking care of Diana, or cleaning up so that I can make a meal for Diana and myself. This does have the benefit of making Diana a little more independent since I can't just sit down with her anytime. I hope as I get into a rhythm of cooking and cleaning, this will get easier. I expected it to be added work, after all. Unfortunately, it also brings out some bad habits of mine. I've found myself "sympathy eating" more. I barely stop to consider whether I'm hungry before snacking on something just because I wish Joseph could have it too. Also, today I tried to eat in secret so I wouldn't tempt Joey. It sounds helpful, but secretive eating was a destructive habit of some of my relatives and it is not something I want to do.

Despite the work for me and misery for Joseph, I can already see some benefits to having so many varieties of fruits and vegetables in the house. Last night, Diana drank several ounces of Joseph's beet-pear-apple-carrot juice and loved it. Joseph also gave her some of his apple-cherry bake and jicama from his salad. She seems to like it all. She even preferred steamed green beans to spaghetti tonight! I've been eating their leftover soups and salads between meals and they're delicious. I've started thinking about the kinds of foods I eat to fill up. Sometimes I just grab goldfish crackers or a cookie to fill up until the next real meal. But these salads have so much variety and are so filling! I imagine if I just kept more fruits around and had some kind of salad sitting in the fridge most of the time, I would probably feel better grabbing a healthy snack.

We're only one day in, so it's likely that things will improve for everybody. There are already some great benefits from this diet (at least for me and Diana). We'll just be looking forward to later this week when everyone's feeling better. :)

Joseph and Matt on Day 1 drinking their mid-morning Green Juice.

The Great Reboot Experiment

Today marks the first day of Joseph and his friend Matt's Reboot diet experiment. The diet is based on the juice fast cleanse/diet used in the documentary "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead." It's a great story. If you have Netflix, you should watch it sometime. The main subject of the film is overweight and has some uncomfortable health problems as a result, so after talking to his doctor he decides to try a juice fast for 60 days. His idea is to eat as many fruits and vegetables as possible to help him lose weight while getting some healthy nutrients he wouldn't normally eat. Apparently it's hard to eat as many fruits and vegetables as he would need to be healthy, so he threw them all in a juicer and drank veggie/fruit juice for 60 days while being active and generally preparing to live a healthier lifestyle. He looks and feels amazing at the end, and it works so well that he converts some strangers to his diet, with similarly incredible results.

Now, Joey is very much a meat and potatoes guy. Quote: "The four main food groups are: hamburgers, pizza, Italian noodle dishes, and tacos." However, he occasionally has stomach problems. Some may be hereditary, and some of it may have to do with, oh, I don't know... drinking an average three cans of Pepsi a day, skipping random meals, trying to make up for it by snacking on Doritos, etc. Our hope is that this diet/cleanse will give Joseph time to reset his digestive system a little bit with lots of healthy fruits and vegetables.

Joseph is not alone. Obviously Diana and I can't do this with him, but he will be trying this Reboot with his friend Matt. Matt's weight has fluctuated over his life, but in the past two to three years, he has gotten serious about losing weight and being active and has gone from this:

Matt, August 2008

To this:

Matt, July 2010

A shadow of his former self- in a very good way!

However, Matt's weight still fluctuates in a way he's not happy with, and he wants to get a head start on getting down to his goal weight. One of the ways he has lost so much weight already is by putting himself on a very calorie-restrictive diet- sometimes 1,000 calories/day, but for a while he stuck to a 600 calorie/day diet. When you can only eat 600 calories/day, that means you don't want to waste calories on eating things like fruit. You pack in as much protein and filling food as possible. That has left Matt's diet a little lopsided. We think the Reboot will be a healthy way for him to start losing weight.

Obviously this is going to be difficult for Joseph and Matt, especially since they both live in places where family and roommates will be eating a more balanced and delicious diet. ;) The Reboot program based on the documentary has several levels based on people's goals and nutritional needs. Joey and Matt will be starting with the Entry Program. It's a 15 day program for people who have never done a juice fast before, so it is not exclusively "juicing," but includes eating whole fruits and vegetables as well. There's a sample meal plan at the bottom of this page, which is what they'll mostly be following for 15 days. After that, Matt intends to follow the Reboot program for another 45 days for an entire 60 day diet cleanse. 

And me? I volunteered to help make all the salads, soups and juices so that the guys could focus on other things. I'm going shopping for the first week of the diet plan today, and my shopping list includes: 8 bell peppers, 37 stalks of celery, four pounds of collard greens, 14 cucumbers, 24 radishes, 33 tomatoes, 14 zucchini, 8 romaine hearts and probably something like 10 bunches of spinach, and that doesn't include all the many fruits of different varieties and the miscellaneous things like ginger, jicama, carrot juice, coconut, onions, etc. It's a VERY long list. Our refrigerator is going to look like a jungle for a week or so. 

Diana and I won't be doing the Reboot with Joseph and Matt, but I imagine we'll be trying things like their leftover salads, squash soups, apple chips, etc. So at least our diet will probably branch out to include more vegetables and fruits since there will be more around. That seems like it could be healthy for us, especially since Diana is starting to go through a picky phase. If it's not oatmeal, noodles, or pizza, she's not interested in eating it. 

SO, this diet is a grand experiment, but we hope it leaves everyone healthier anyway. Joseph and Matt are both excited about starting the Reboot, and if it works well, maybe they'll do it again in the future!

A great family picture. Or at least a good story.

I have no misconceptions about how photogenic I am (not). Thankfully, I married a man who looks great, and it shows in pictures.

Isn't he a hunk? Thankfully, he passed that along to our daughter, who looks like a little baby model sometimes. I may be slightly biased.

So imagine my delight when we had our picture taken for the church photo directory and the picture came out great! 

For two thirds of us!

(I especially can't stop looking at Diana. She's so adorable!)

So WHY does Joey look like he's about to eat the photographer's head off?

Because that was probably exactly what he wanted to do at that moment.

To hear Joseph explain it, he doesn't DO fake smiles for cameras. I guess I have to agree. He's so naturally good-looking that his candid shots or a slight smile works best. But that's not what this photographer wanted. He wanted everyone to make a big fake smile for the camera.

(Except Diana's is genuine. She liked the Tigger toy he was waving around. Have I mentioned I think she's adorable?)

Mr. Photographer's mistake was in trying to patronize Joseph. "Oh come on, Dad, give me a big smile for the camera! Look at Tigger!" [Shakes Tigger in front of Joseph's face in an aggravating way.] Is it common for grown men to entice other grown men into happy, genuine smiles using stuffed animals? I would guess not. Clearly his hilarious techniques did not produce results, unless you just like good stories behind odd pictures, which I do.

About Us

We are a weird family.

Our family consists of a married man and woman who love each other and one sweet, intelligent and healthy child with one on the way. Already a strange setup.

We live in a little house in a small town and try to live within our means. We go to church on Sundays. We like and get along with our in-laws. Dad works most of the week and mom stays home with the baby. If this is a little too Leave it to Beaver for you, it does get more interesting.

Our interests include traveling where most people would not be interested in going, thermodynamics, rocketry, serially starting (and taking care of) businesses, bioengineering, oceanography, current events and politics. We've shared an apartment with rats, lived in a school bus and a half-finished house with no kitchen or laundry room. We're still camping out in half our house while we slowly finish the rest by ourselves- with some help from friends and family.

We're moderate, well-read people who love hard work, common sense, and old-timey values. Winston Churchill knew where it was at.

We're no ordinary family. We hope we keep a good blog anyway.