Day 2 done. Yippee!

I seriously miss eating, but I’ve only felt hungry twice today and it was only because I was overdue on the next juice. This is reassuring as I was worried I might feel hungry most of the time. This definitely isn’t the case. I just feel full enough, not hungry but not full (as you would from eating). I’ve felt much hungrier on other ‘food’ diets. In fact, I’ve felt hungrier just being on a low histamine diet. I felt like I was starving and deplete of nutrients for at least the first 3 months until I learned a few staple recipes which were a hit. Cauliflower pasta sauce was one of my most memorable misses!

The juices have been particularly yum and sweet today, despite one juice being fir tree green, and I’ve scanned ahead and can see there are different delights awaiting me each day.

This was a good thing, as I would have loved to have shared in the Sushi my family ate out for lunch, and even more so the Deliciously Ella Chocolate mousse which I made for my kids for tea. The smell alone was to die for. But thankfully I was stood next to the fridge at the time and there was my equally delicious carrot and apple juice waiting for me. A good glug and very quickly my craving went away.

Having a science background I’ve been fascinated by how the juice fast is affecting my bladder and bowel. My first observation is that my urine became clear straight away, with practically no colour at all, despite the vibrant colour of the juices I have been drinking. Does this mean all the nutrients are being absorbed and only excess water is being excreted? My bowel, however, appears to have stagnated. Oh dear…

My skin on my hands is the worst it has been for a long time. It’s red and itchy and at nighttime I have been scratching my hands until they bleed, so I have swollen fingers now too. Large cuts cover the bends in the last joint of every finger. These are extremely painful and they have been struggling to heal for over a month. I can only use Tea Tree Oil hand wash now and regular use the same hand cream to prevent/control infection in the cuts. I’m very keen to see if my skin gets any better after 5 days on the juice. Fingers crossed – blimey I just realised I can no longer cross them at all!

I soon learnt after one day of juicing that there is no time in the morning on school days to do the juicing, so I’ve decided to make the 4 main juices for the day in the evening, the night before. The best thing about a masticating slow juicer is there is minimal oxidation of the juice which means it stays fresh for longer and can last for up to 3 days in the fridge without spoiling. I appreciate that juice made and drunk immediately is best, but I have to be realistic. With the boys still waking nearly every night and my night owl personality, getting up at 5am is just not realistic. Teeth cleaning alone can take half an hour in the morning as both boys have decided they would rather have rotten teeth, despite me showing them graphic pictures of children with horrendous dental problems (the scientist in my again).

Prep is now done for day 3. One juice tastes ok, but the other is pretty foul, so I’ll be downing that one. A celery overdose!

I woke at 6am with a few butterflies. It’s okay talking about doing grand things, but it’s another actually doing them.

And not eating! I love eating!

I enjoyed my first thing hot water and ginger infusion, downed in-between making breakfast for 3 children, brushing hair, wiping faces, tidying up and making my first juice.

My Omega Mega Mouth Slow Juicer is a thing of beauty and I’m really very lucky to have it. It’s a masticating juicer which means it slowly mashes the fruit and veg rather than cutting it. Masticating juicers yield more juice than other juicers and produce a better quality juice as they are capable of breaking down the tough cell walls of the plants where the majority of nutrients are found. I bought it from Energise Your Life through eBay for £399, having spent hours researching which to buy.

My machine was a gift from the wonderful families in my daughter’s year at school who raised money for me and my family while I was in recovering from my second mesh removal surgery. My kind parents also gave me a donation from their charity to make up the difference. I’ve been using it every 2-3 days ever since. The kids love helping feed whole apples and veg into the chute, and the joy of drinking real juice is a habit that has now stuck.

My first juice of beets mixed with carrots, apples and ginger wasn’t bad at all.

I filled a flask with coconut water (something I’ve only looked at in supermarkets before and have never tasted), dropped the kids at nursery and school and hurried on my way to a follow up appointment with Professor David Nott, the wonderful doctor who removed my hernia mesh in October. A fortuitous appointment as he took one look at my hands and announced I wasn’t suffering from nerve damage after all, but Raynaud’s Syndrome, likely triggered by chronic inflammation. He was so sure of it, he said he’d write me a referral to an expert colleague right away. Something else to read up on now!

The coconut water was pleasant tasting (if you like coconut), and filled a hungry gap.

Preparing lunch for the twins after nursery was hard. Lots of home made tomato pasta sauce with garlic, onions, olives and juicy prawns with tricolour pasta shells. Hunger pangs set in and strangely I found myself wandering to a cupboard for a snack. No No NOOOO!! Focussing on my second juice, it turned out as green as they come. A stack of kale leaves, a handful of celery stalks, cucumbers, ginger, and apple. It was definitely the type to down. My boys wanted some, tried it and left it! Enough said.

I won’t lie, there were hunger pangs during the day. I did wonder a couple of times whether five days was too big a target, but then it was time for another juice so those feelings and the hunger soon went away.

The last juice of the day was absolutely delicious: blueberries, apples and pears with a sprinkle of cinnamon. Yum, yum yum, yum, yum! Just a herbal tea to go and that will be my first day done! Hoorah! I did it.

Thanks for joining me!

Today I venture into a world of no food! Only juice and water for up to 60 days.

I’m attempting 5 days initially, then if I can get through that, I will aim for 10 days, then 15, may be 30 and hopefully 60 days in an attempt to reboot my immune system. 

I’m doubtful of myself, scared of failure, excited at the thought of regaining my health and hopeful that I might put, what I believe, are mesh-induced immune conditions into remission. I don’t know whether I have the will power yet, but the reasons for taking this path are so strong, I hope they will be enough to see me through.

So, why am I putting myself through this? Following in the footsteps of Joe Cross, star of Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, this is a mission I never expected to take. I love food, cooking and eating. But things have changed. In July 2018, I was diagnosed with severe Histamine Intolerance (or HIT for short). Yikes, what on earth is that? A super duper reaction to a bee sting? Not quite.

Histamine is made by practically every cell in the body and is contained in all foods, but my favourite foods – fish, strawberries, spinach, strawberries, chocolate and champagne – are full of the stuff. Once histamine has done its job in the body, it is quickly removed by enzymes in the gut and liver before it can cause any unpleasant symptoms. The analogy is that we have a bucket for histamine which fills and empties and people who are histamine intolerant have a bucket which overflows, causing miserable symptoms including oedema, brain fog, cognitive issues, hives, skin itching, and is associated with allergies to all sorts of things.

In December 2018, I was sent tests results that were positive for a rare immune disorder called Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS), of which Histamine Intolerance is a part. As my immunologist had previously told me to pray for a negative result, this news was horrifying. I’m still trying to get my head around what this illness entails, but in short it can affect practically the whole body with unpleasant symptoms and significantly increases your risks of developing chronic disease and cancer.

But the driver for this juice mission is not MCAS or HIT, but that I lost the ability to bend all of my fingers back in October 2018, just before my last mesh removal operation.  My mesh removal surgeon said the surgery couldn’t have come quick enough. As the inflammation following the surgery began to subside, I slowly regained some finger movement. The first time my fingers twitched was a moment of pure joy, especially as it was a nurse called Jesus on duty who witnessed the movement!

However, despite the initial joy and hope that being mesh free would give me my hands back. Fine motor movement has not improved much. Writing is hard, doing up buttons a struggle, and even typing hurts. My balance is also affected as my toes no longer bend either. I see a wonderful physio every week who is helping me to build up strength in my legs and maintain the strength in my feet and hands.

But I can’t wait for the neurologists diagnosis at the end of the month and no doubt more prescription drugs to take for a lifetime, so have decided to juice my way back to health, starting today. My GP and angel of a mesh-removal consultant support me fully, so I take the plunge with hope in my heart and an open mind.

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton