The results are in... Part II: No, really!

I'm sorry I cut you off with the last post before revealing anything. I'm very wordy in print.

If you skipped the last post just because you saw there was a Part II and guessed the surprise ending, you are a perceptive but terrible person. I bet you peek at the endings of books too.

We've tried Cetaphil, Cetaphil Anti-Itch Lotion, Burt's Bees, Cerave, normal Aveeno lotion, and Aveeno Eczema Therapy cream on Diana. We've tried coconut oil, sunflower oil and even emu oil. (I still want to know how they extract oil from emus.) We've tried Vaseline and Aquaphor. We've tried 1% and 2.5% hydrocortisone, as well as "moderate" and "strong" topical steroids, whose names I don't remember. This list seems short, so I know I'm forgetting some, but basically, we've tried everything we can think of. I've changed our laundry soap and household cleaners multiple times, as well as all my soaps and cosmetics. Mostly, we've had two and a half years of red rashes from allergic reactions to new soaps or moisturizers. The only thing that seems to help a little is Aveeno Eczema Therapy Cream, but since it has some alcohol in it, we can't use it where there are scabs on Diana's skin. When her skin got bad a couple of weeks ago, that was basically all over her body.

The allergy clinic gave me the results of Diana's blood panel over the phone. Hallelujah! Hooray!

And they were as follows:

Diana had a strong reaction to: cats, dogs, and peanuts.
She had a moderate reaction to cow's milk and egg whites.
She had a low reaction (which may not manifest as a sensitivity at all) to soy and tree nuts.

My first reaction was relief. Thank goodness! We had some idea of what we were dealing with, and there was scientific evidence to back it up. I've always suspected cow's milk and egg whites, but couldn't get a strong correlation between those and her eczema during our elimination diet. My second reaction was: "Rats." Only partly because we have a dog in the house. My motivation might have been a little selfish. I don't like being told "I told you so." People always ask, "Could she be allergic to the dog?" and it drives me nuts. Usually they do it gently, as if they're breaking bad news to me. As if I hadn't considered she might be allergic to the giant walking allergen in our house? Or as if I was so emotionally attached to the big dumb (but sweet and loving!) dog that I would have any kind of pang of conscience over throwing her out if I knew it affected my daughter's health? We've never had any concrete evidence that Diana's eczema was related to the dog. So I feared that the first reaction I would get would be "Well, I told you so," and I knew that the question immediately following it would be "What are you going to do with the dog?" And I really don't know. We're still talking about it.

So now we know that Diana is allergic to something she's exposed to in our house 24 hours a day. Something that is leaving extra hair everywhere because it's shedding season. You know what that means, don't you?

Nothing.

That's right. In terms of her eczema, it means basically nothing.

Really, though, we knew that. We've traveled away from the house with variable effects on Diana's skin. We were between dogs for a while and her skin was still bad. It turns out, allergies and the causes for eczema can be entirely different. Here's a very stream-of-consciousness transcript of a talk by Dr. Harvey Leo of St. Joseph Medical Hospital on that topic. Eczema like Diana's is a combination of genetic susceptibility and environmental factors. Even if we got rid of our dog (and here are some interesting stories from dog-allergic families whose eczema didn't clear up after getting rid of dogs), Diana would still have eczema. She has an allergic response to the dog, an immune system response, that would probably manifest as itchy eyes, runny nose, etc. when she touches the dog or rubs her face in her fur: something we've already seen and know how to treat. But her dog allergy and her eczema are separate things. Also- surprise!- a study by researchers at the University of Cincinnati found that children with eczema may actually benefit from living with a dog! (Technical abstract here, summary news article here.)

We'll be meeting with the allergist again this week to talk about what her results mean. For the sake of thoroughness, we'll probably try having the dog stay elsewhere for a while. She's a nice dog, but I have too much on my plate to be really emotionally attached to her, so I would have no problem being a dog-free family. But unless it will positively affect Diana, I don't see a reason to get rid of the dog when there is only a correlation between Diana having eczema and our family owning a dog. The nurse at the allergy clinic suggested that the doctor might ask us to try another elimination diet (goody) with cow's milk and then egg whites to see if that affects Diana. Since our first elimination diet didn't reveal anything, I'm guessing we won't see much improvement in Diana's skin. I suppose in reality we'll probably just end up waiting this one out until Diana grows out of her eczema. There are so many factors I wonder if we'll ever find them all. I hate eczema.

(On that note, can I take a moment to vent that I am always the one taking the blame for Diana's eczema?? Of course it doesn't matter really, but I've had so many people ask about her skin, because that's the first thing strangers ALWAYS say to me, and then comment, "Well, you're so fair-skinned, it probably runs in your family..." FALSE! NO! Not me! I'm even mixed, for Pete's sake! You can take your disapproving stares to my tan-but-completely-Caucasian husband! Oh, genetics are a hilarious and nonsensical game.)

Catching Up: Part I

I always do this with my diaries/journals, so I'm not sure why I thought I'd be able to consistently keep up with a blog. I guess I wasn't really thinking about it at all. Catch-up entries aren't all that bad. It means I've had time to filter out most of the unimportant things that seemed important at the time. Where to begin....

Pregnancy

At this point, I'm now 37 weeks pregnant. By the end of this week, baby will be considered full-term, thank goodness. I'm definitely ready to have my body back. (Yes, I've breastfed before. I know it technically won't be mine again until he's weaned.) Mostly I can't wait to be able to do normal things: bend over, walk, lift anything, throw a ball for the dog, have energy... Pregnancy is VERY uncomfortable by this point. This kid is very active, which always becomes uncomfortable when space gets tight. Contractions can be very strong. In fact, last night, they were six minutes apart and lasting a long time, but I decided to go to sleep to see if they'd last and they were gone by the morning. :P 

Baby has dropped, which means he bounces on arteries that cause the upper part of my legs to go numb at random times. I can literally be walking along and have my legs essentially fall asleep or feel like they're cramping up. Sometimes he also does something painful that feels like bouncing on my cervix. I don't know what it is exactly, but it makes it so that I have to stop where I am and just rest for a minute or two- something that doesn't always work well if I'm trying to run errands or do anything when my energetic toddler is involved. She has been very sweet about helping to pick things up off the floor and hold my hand and walk around very slowly with me. Our adolescent dog is not so patient. I feel bad- I WANT to play with her, but I waddle very slowly on our walks and I threw out my back slightly after one night of throwing her ball in the park. 

I feel like I've pulled probably every muscle that has to do with my pelvis or lower back. Actually, it feels like my pelvis is trying to detach from everything else (which is a major pain in the lower back and hips) and do its own thing. I feel compelled by a strong nesting instinct (oh, it's real, people) to start/finish a thousand house projects, but I don't have the strength or energy to do any of them. It's so frustrating. I feel useless and handicapped and huge and I just want this baby out! (To hold and cuddle and snuggle, of course. I still have some maternal feeling.) 

Diana

Our little girl grows up more every day! She can imitate just about every word we say, but sometimes she jumbles them up in adorable ways. If mommy needs a few minutes of time without Diana constantly scattering toys around or asking for "UP?!?" I put on the show "Kipper," or "Pikker" in Diana Speak. She often fingers the "pick" (clip) I have in my hair. She enjoys eating "Ogur" (yogurt). She will say "mess you!" when someone coughs or sneezes, she is very quick to point out when someone else makes an "uh oh! Mess!" She loves her dad and mom and "Nowa" (Nova). She does a happy stamping and twirling dance when she knows she's getting a snack or something she asked for. 

For some reason, clutching cheeks indicates happiness. One of the most endearing things she does is putting her hands on someone's cheek and telling them "hap-PY!" or randomly chanting "happy day!" It's so sweet and disarming when I'm frustrated or gloomy and she smiles into my face and tells me "happy day! happy day!" She is also very friendly to everyone and everything. She will wave and say "hi! hi!"  and then blow a kiss to anything you can think of: the moon in the sky, birds on the lawn, Nova, the train she hears in the distance, sheep in a field, characters in a book, etc. 

Diana has also begun to name things. Her special blanket is "Minky Blankie." The round stuffed giraffe she has is "Onk." Her bunny is "Hop-Hop." Her stuffed owl is "Howl." She probably has a host of other names for things, but Minky is definitely the most important. There can be no happiness in the world without Minky blankie. 

Diana has had eczema since she was four months old, and her skin is an ongoing battle, although as she grows older and grows out of some allergies, it has been slowly getting better. She has good weeks and bad weeks. The strangest things can set it off- like using anything with cocoa butter or introducing a new hand soap at home. Using dye- and fragrance-free laundry detergent helped, as did cutting out fabric softener. We experimented with dozens of soaps and lotions for her before finding that Aveeno's Eczema Therapy Moisturizing Cream and their Aveeno Baby Cleansing Therapy Moisturizing Wash were the only things that soothed her skin. The best thing we found was that by adding just a couple tablespoons of bleach to her bath, her skin (and occasional diaper rashes) could clear up overnight. I guess a lot of the redness was caused by bacteria on the skin naturally or that had been deposited there by her scratching. I discovered that I had to switch to a natural (Burt's Bees) body wash since she came in contact with my skin so often. I also had to stop using any lotion anyplace that wouldn't be covered by clothing (my arms, neck and face, usually). Consequently, I haven't used a facial moisturizer in like a year and I'd REALLY like to find one that works for both of us. 

Physically, Diana is so much more capable that sometimes it brings a tear to my eye. (I blame it on the hormones.) She loves playgrounds and sandboxes. She climbs up on couches and chairs and carries things around that should be way too big for her. She's sweet and very smart and still very much like her dad. Since she's over a year old, we've started on a catch-up schedule for the vaccines we thought were necessary. Unfortunately, since she's over a year old, she has a pretty good memory, and the doctor's office has become a sad place. Poor girl. 

Matt's Diet

Part of the reason this blog started in the first place! Again, Matt is the person most qualified to talk about this, but since he hasn't gotten around to writing a guest post, I guess I can write a bit of an update. After the initial Reboot diet, Matt went on and did his own exclusively juice diet for another month or two. He said he felt better than he had in a long time, and he was eating a great healthy diet (lacking only in protein and some fats and carbs), but Matt didn't actually lose weight on his juice diet. In fact, he gained it. At one point, Joseph's brother Kevin estimated that Matt was actually consuming 4,000-5,000 calories per day. No wonder he didn't lose weight! Since Matt really wanted to see results, especially if he was depriving himself of protein and caffeine, he was depressed and dismayed by his weight gain. So after talking it over with Joseph and Kevin, he decided to go on the Joseph Diet.

Joseph is a big and healthy man, but he has a stomach that may actually be smaller than mine, even when I'm not pregnant. He rarely goes back for seconds, or if he does, he usually regrets it later. Their thought was that if Matt could eat a healthy balanced diet that included protein, carbs, and limited amounts of caffeine but control his portion size by only eating exactly what Joseph ate, he might be able to lose weight and transition from a very sparse vegetarian diet to a more normal diet without swinging in the opposite direction toward giant portions of highly processed and greasy foods. 

Surprisingly, the Joseph diet did not work. Since we have a limited grocery budget, and we (by which I mean I) were suddenly feeding two grown men, we used meat very sparingly. I guess we ate more carbs and less meat than Matt was hoping for. He enjoyed eating meals that weren't vegetarian, but it still probably wasn't great weight-loss food. Also, despite my best efforts, Joseph never manages to eat breakfast and makes up for it by eating more at night or snacking on carbs (mostly chips) during the day, which I realize (though it is hard to convince him of) is NOT HEALTHY. I told Joseph that for his next diet venture, Matt should spend a couple months cooking for us, since I spent so much time making food for him and Joseph. ;) 

Matt's current eating plan is mostly just trying to eat a healthy, balanced diet on a budget, but he does love good and flavorful food. While he's not gaining weight, he's not really losing it either, and continues to flirt with the 300 lb mark despite working out very hard on a mostly regular basis. We'll see what works for him in the long run!

Everything Else

Family Trip to Mexico

We went on our first international family vacation with Diana to San Jose del Cabo in April. Joseph's friends really wanted to do a "guys' trip." Since we want to go on a big family vacation in the fall, and I suspected I'd need his help more in the last part of pregnancy, I suggested that the best time to go would be in early April. I've had lots of people tell me how generous and tolerant I was to let him go on a trip while I was 34 weeks pregnant and had a toddler. But I wasn't. I was just naive. If I'd had any idea how difficult that week would be, I would never have suggested he leave. It was a huge mistake. But he appreciated it, even though I felt each day like I was just fighting to survive with an energetic dog, an energetic toddler, and a baby using all my spare energy. :P He felt so guilty about leaving us that he arranged for Diana and I to fly down to meet him after his friends left so that we could spend a week together in Mexico as a family. One of my greatest fears with children has always been air travel, just because I know how loud, fussy, wiggly and bothersome kids can be. Did I mention Diana was going to be my "lap child" when I was 34 weeks pregnant and HAD NO LAP?? Luckily, the flying went much more smoothly than I anticipated. The novelty of travel was interesting enough to keep Diana entertained, and we flew down with my brother- and sister-in-law Kevin and Michelle and their baby, so we had help and company. Thanks to some fantastic company policies by Alaska Airlines, we actually had an open seat next to us on one leg and an entire row to ourselves on the longer leg, so Diana had room to play around. 

It was so much more relaxing in Mexico than at home, partly because I had help from Joey, who made up for the week before by watching Diana, cooking, and insisting that I take naps and read under umbrellas by the beach. Diana's skin cleared up in the sun and dry air and she loved wading and eventually being carried around in the pool. Overall we had a great time!

The Big Family Trip

Joseph and I love traveling internationally and we didn't want to stop just because we were having kids. In 2010 we went on a "Babymoon" (really an anniversary celebration) to Belgium, France, Switzerland and Germany and loved it. We wanted to go back and see more of Europe this fall, but it was going to be challenging with a 21-month-old toddler and a 3 month old baby. One of Joseph's younger sisters is studying German, so we invited her and another sister to come along with us. That way they can get to experience international travel and maybe help us with the kiddos a bit. We're very excited to plan out our trip, but really don't know exactly where we're going. It looks like it's cheapest to fly into Paris, and we'd love to see France again, so we'll probably come into Paris and swing through Strasbourg, but we're not sure where we should go in Germany. If anyone has any suggestions, we'd love to hear them!

Reboot Days 4, 5, and 6: Attitude

Matt's colorful vegetable juice, Day 4

Well, Joseph's out of the race, but Matt's still going strong. After the first three days he'd lost 6.6 lbs. It's been six days now and Matt is down 10 lbs total!  He's even inspired some other people to try the Reboot, or at least to watch the documentary. He seems to feel fine. I hope that he'll get the time to write an entry on this blog about his Reboot experience, but in general he seems to be as energetic as ever and thinking clearly. His body seems to be doing just fine without caffeine, sugar, carbs, or even much protein. I imagine he must feel better too!

I've been struggling with the workload and having a good attitude. In addition to making 4-5 dishes/juices/smoothies each day for Matt, I have to make food for the rest of us. But I can't make the food until I've cleaned the mountains of dishes (have I mentioned we don't have a dishwasher yet?) and then put them away so that I can dirty them again making two separate meals, after which they need to be cleaned. Meanwhile, Diana is running around my feet very sweetly playing by herself, but that usually involves scattering her toys (and other things) around the entire house including all over the kitchen floor where I'm working. There's also the occasional bump on the head, pinched finger, need for snacks, dirty diaper, and clinging to mommy's legs just to see what I'm doing. Then I have to pick and sweep up everything that she's scattered around the house and do more dishes. By the way, that's why I fall behind on blog posts.

Now, I volunteered for this, and I'm still happy to do it, so it should be fine. But darn it if it's not a struggle sometimes to give to others gracefully and without complaining! To me, it highlights how very much humans are weighed down by a naturally selfish nature. God gives so much to us freely, people who could never deserve it, and here I am getting grouchy about the workload that I volunteered to take on. It certainly feels like a lot of work sometimes, but I know there are other people who do still more with a better attitude. Joseph has helped me with cleaning up and dinners, which is incredibly sweet of him since he has more than enough to do with his two businesses. I have figured out that when I stay on top of things instead of taking breaks when I want to, the days go much more smoothly. There's no rushing and stressing. That's probably something I should have learned long ago, but sometimes it takes a while for things to really click. I'm also trying to work on having a better attitude regardless of the circumstances. Some days are still better than others, and hopefully I'll continue to improve with Joseph's encouragement and lots of practice. (Oy.)

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!