A Good Day

I just turned 31, it was my birthday/Thanksgiving weekend, and I was at home visiting family in Saint Louis. I had spent the greater part of the day doing some work out of a coffee shop, then hanging out with a friend and going on a Budweiser Brewery tour. That evening on the way home nothing was too out of the ordinary.

I came to a red light at an intersection. The intersection of Forest Park Parkway and Skinker to be exact. He was standing at a popular spot the homeless use on Skinker catching the south-bound traffic.

I saw the a guy off to my right holding a sign. I didn’t think much of it though. On occasion, if I have a few ones on me and it’s convenient enough to not interrupt a recently changed green light, I’ll give. However, that day I didn’t have any cash on hand.

As I sat there, with the heat on blast and shuffling through Pandora stations on my iPhone. I happened to notice more about this guy standing to the side of me.

He looked just like me.
He was younger than me.
I rarely see them younger than me.

As I studied him more.
I noticed he was sobbing.

My heart sank at that moment. A plethora of thoughts raced through my mind.

Why was he crying?
Why was he so young?
Was this his first day homeless with nowhere to go?

Then the light turned green.

I drove off.

As I drove away,my mind continued to race.

Shouldn’t I turn around?
Shouldn’t I see if I can help.
Maybe he’s hungry.
Maybe I’ll go buy a pizza and circle back.
There’s no where to make a u-turn.
What if he’s gone by the time I get back?
There’s no where to park close by to where he was.

I never turned back.

That experience clouded the remainder of my evening. I went and got sushi later that night at my favorite spot, but couldn’t stop thinking about the him.

Despite not helping that young man that evening, the memory is branded into my brain. I’ll never forget that day.

As I went on to enjoy time with family, friends, laughter, smiles. I thought about him a lot during the days following. Especially as I indulged in all the ‘extras’ in life.

good weed.
good drinks.
good food.
good people.
good times.

It’s easy to take your blessings for granted when they’re consistent in your life for so long.

The Change

The moment when I saw that guy changed me. Giving cash is fine. But what about going above and beyond and making someone’s day. What would happen if we all did just a little bit more? I wanted to go a step further and contribute care packages to people in these situations. Because it could be any one of us in a moments time.

Nobody is immune to being exactly where he was.

Here’s what I realize

1) I had nothing to do with how I came into this world, the family I was assigned to, their financial stature, their parenting ability, etc.

2) If everyone who hit the blessing lottery, whether during adolescence or adulthood, humbled themselves to acknowledge all of the external factors that played a role in their current position, imagine how different this world would be.

“Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple.” – Barry Switzer

Some are disadvantaged because they made one or a series of bad life-decisions. Others, had odds against them from birth. Despite such odds, some overcome them. And many never do.

Just How Far Are Any of us from the street?

Just think that if you tomorrow are diagnosed with a rare illness that your health insurance doesn’t cover the treatment of, have a freak accident, lose a lawsuit, your husband/wife demands a divorce out of the blue, that juicy adjustable-rate-mortgage that you thought was a good idea seven years ago…adjusts and now your payments are double, your bad credit spending habits catch up, and/or you lose your job. Any of this and let’s say that bankruptcy is just not an option you’re eligible for, just for sake of example.

How much savings do you really have to fall back on? How long before the repo man shows up with a tow-truck to take away your beemer? How long before the bank forecloses on your crib? Even if you’re ballerific (read: financially well-off) and your house and car are paid-off, you still don’t own anything 100%. If you think it’s a game, neglect to pay your personal property tax and real estate property tax. See what happens…

Perhaps my examples seem extreme and not likely happen.

Maybe.

But…

Maybe not.

The September 11th attacks, Hurricane Katrina, Boston Marathon, multiple public mass-shootings, etcetera etcetera. Most didn’t foresee these events as ‘likely to happen’ but they did anyway.

My intentions aren’t to spew Doom & Gloom. But rather, to resonate with at least a handful of folks reading thus making them realize, we’re all subject to various occurrences outside of our control.

Merely, only a few bad events separate us all from non-homeless to homeless. We are not in control.

The Concept Derived

From that day forward I felt like I had to do better to serve such people in need. So after some thought I came up with the idea of the care package. This care package could be carried in one’s car trunk at all times and contain non perishable food items, hygienic products, and other items of comfort.

I came-up with this concept in my head that same night I saw the homeless man. I even ran the idea past a few friends and they all thought it was a good idea. But then…

I didn’t take action

I had a good idea. One that wouldn’t take much effort on my part and could possibly change a few lives. A simple care package from a stranger may be the morale boost needed to turn one’s life around. I realized this, but kept procrastinating for a convenient time for implementation.

Meditation

Fast-forward from 2011 to now in 2014: On Saturday, February 1st I went for a bicycle ride around my neighbourhood and found an isolated spot in nature where there weren’t many people around. I picked out a park bench and just sat. No headphones, no book, no iphone. Just me and the earth where minutes turned into hours. With my unstimulated mind at idle it didn’t take long.

“That homeless care package idea you had a while back, start doing it next week”.

Now, I’m not here to preach to you.
But that message came straight from God.

It was so clear I was scared at first.
After I calmed down, the excitement set in.

Follow Thru

Once I got home, I took to the web to finally take action on the nearly 3 year old idea and began doing research on what it is homeless people really want. I already had a good idea in my head, but I wanted to use the minds of my social media friends to get some additional insight.


I also scoured the web and found some good articles that helped me come up with a general list of items to include in the care package.

Contents:
Drawstring backpack
Wet Ones sanitary wipes
Hygiene Kit (toothbrush/paste, mouthwash, razor, shave cream)
Bananas
Snickers/Milky Way
Water
Sodas
Peanut Butter Crackers
Pop Tarts
Camping Mug
Comb
Can Opener
Flash-Light
Kleenex
Wool Socks
Bandages
Tide Detergent
Apple Sauce
Chapstick
Hand Warmers
Magnum Sharpie
Ramen Noodles
Can of Baked Beans

In addition to these items, I also had quite a few belongings around the house that I was in the process of selling on eBay or gifting to the Salvation Army. Because, I hadn’t completed this house cleaning at the time that I decided to implement this, I decided not to sell a few things and just include them as bonus items to whomever says they’ll find a use for them.

The extra items I’ve wrangled thus far are:
Tent
2 Yoga Mats
Sleeping Bag
Pillows
Sheets
Blankets

Chances are you have items collecting dust in your house, that someone could be using right now. I’m nearly certain you could put together a list of items similar to the one above.

Plan In Action

After I put these packages together, I gave them away immediately. Although, the original purpose of this project was just to put the care packages together and then have them ready in the trunk of the car upon finding a homeless person at random.

Once I got all of the packages assembled, I didn’t want to wait. I felt compelled to find these people to help. On a Saturday morning, I went to an area of downtown Houston where there’s a soup kitchen. There were nothing but homeless people out at that time of morning and in that vicinity. About 3 blocks from the soup kitchen, I found a group of 5 guys just having a seat on a park bench. They didn’t have tattered clothing or 5 month beards, they were pretty well groomed, but it was obvious that they were homeless.

I just pulled up and parked the car, hopped out and asked, “Do you guys want some supplies?” One guy immediately says yes and walks over to me. I gave away the 3 care-packages and some the extra blankets, yoga mats, etc. that I mentioned above.

I was met with surprise and thankfulness. I could tell they were both in shock and appreciative. It felt great to perhaps have been a positive difference in people’s day.

You Can Do it To

Don’t do like me and wait a few years to directly help someone in need. You can make a direct impact on someone in just a matter of days. I’ve done the legwork for you. You can create your own care package using the list above and head to your nearest store.

Or you may simply just purchase the pre-assembled trunk package via the Amazon link below. Most of us have no problem taking action when the steps to do so are easy and right in front of us. You can simply purchase this pre-made package from Amazon, throw all of the contents inside the drawstring bag backpack and throw it in your trunk. This will be enough for 3 care packages and will only cost you $35.38 (minus shipping to wherever you are), which breaks-down to $11.79 per person. And of course, you can adjust the merchandise quantities for less or more depending on what you’re willing to spend.

Help a Homeless person for less than a tank of gas

Giving materials versus money removes the, “they’re just going to use it for drugs” excuse. And I’m not judging anyone. I use to have that excuse myself. But by providing these packages, you’re just simply helping another person out, even if only for the day. They are human beings, just like you and I. They’re just less fortunate for the time being.

“I can’t help the poor if i’m one of them
So i got rich and gave back
To me, that’s the win-win” – Jay Z

All I ask of You

Let’s keep it all the way real.

In a perfect world, I would hope that if you read this article in it’s entirety, you would be inspired to take-action and begin carrying care packages with you in your car as soon as next week. We would all sing “We are the world” on a beach while barefoot and holding hands around a bonfire eating smores with white wine. However, I know that’s not going to happen.

If you don’t vibe with the concept.

No worries.

All I ask is that you share this with someone you think will.

If you like this article, please share it on your Social Media.

[instagram-feed]

You’re on the Right Track?

You’re active. You go to the gym 4 days a week and play basketball every Saturday. You have a fairly clean diet and only drink on the weekends. You get your teeth cleaned twice a year. You visit your doctor once a year for a check-up. You consider yourself health conscious. You’re doing everything right. Right?

Not so fast.

There tends to be a large focus on the foods we put in our bodies and methods of physical activity appropriate for cardiac health and overall health and wellness.

What’s often overlooked and is just as important as what we put in our bodies, in the form of food, is what we put on our bodies. Namely our skin, hair, and teeth. Paying close attention to the grooming and cosmetic products that you use is very important to your overall well being.

You’re Smearing Cancer all over your Skin

Our skin is the largest organ that we have. It performs a variety of functions inclusive of keeping all of your gooey guts contained in their proper place.

One fun fact that I’d like to mention about our skin is that it is permeable. It has a low permeability, but it is permeable nonetheless. This means that stuff can seep in. A good example of this are the nicotine patches which help smokers kick their habit by providing them with a slow, steady, and diminishing dose of nicotine. You also have birth control patches, Icy Hot, deodorant, etc.

So, now that we now acknowledge the skin and it’s ability to let substances into our bodies. We must take a closer look at face/body lotion and their ingredients. The main ingredient that this article is the focus of, is controversial as it is considered to be carcinogenic by only part of the medical community. What we’re talking about are…

Parabens

Parabens are the most widely used preservatives in personal care products; they stop fungus, bacteria and other microbes from growing in your favourite creams and makeup, especially in the moist, warm environment of a bathroom.

Here’s a list of the different types of paraben and what you can commonly find them in:

Butylparaben: eye shadow, foundation, sunscreen, facial moisturizer
Ethylparaben: antifungal preservative, food additive
Heptylparaben: preservative, food additive
Methylparaben: used mainly as a fungicide on things which attract fruit flies
Propylparaben: water-based cosmetics, creams, lotions, shampoos, food additive

Why is a Paraben Considered Carcinogenic?

Well, now that you know how we commonly can get parabens into our bodies. We must address how they are argued to be carcinogenic.

When a woman/man feels a lump in her/his breast, it’s considered one of the most common indications of breast cancer.  After noticing said lump, the lump turns out to be cancerous and the next step is the surgical removal of it.

There have been numerous cases where the removed breast tissue was examined to reveal a high concentration of parabens.  Putting two and two together, one might conclude that the intake of parabens in any form is detrimental to one’s health and could be the cause of some cancers.

I don’t have a MD, but she does…

But if you want to hear more about this Paraben stuff from someone with the proper credentials.  Take a look at the video below (2.5 minute length).

This video snippet is from a much longer consultation that I had with WellnessFX doctor, Myiesha Taylor.  The WellnessFX service,  is identical to what you would imagine a virtual doctor to be.  I ordered a comprehensive wellness test, I went to my local lab to get my blood drawn, and a short time later I discussed the results with a WellnessFX affiliated doctor via phone. I think I’m done with traditional check-ups.

High Estrogen Level. WTF?

Without such a comprehensive test, I may have never learned about parabens and that my estradiol level was a tad high and more importantly, why it was high.

Estradiol is the most important form of estrogen found in the body¹. So since that showed high, it meant my estrogen level was high. And despite my estrogen level only being just a tad bit high, I solely attribute the results to the fact that I was able to look in my medicine cabinet, read some labels, and find some form of paraben in about 80% of my products.Such products that I (formerly) used were:

• Proactiv Skin Care
• Noxzema Face Wash
• Vaseline Intensive Care Lotion
• Head & Shoulders Shampoo

The above list reflects products that I used to use all on a near daily basis.

I can’t lie. Getting a test back stating that your estrogen is high, as a man…is a bit disturbing.  I mean seriously, I don’t want to start growing tities.

Well, What Now?

Now that you’ve been hipped to the game. I highly suggest that you check out all of the products that you keep in your bathroom. Read the labels and remember you’re looking for any of the following; butylparaben, ethylparaben, heptylparaben, methylparaben, and propylparaben.

If you have any products that contain parabens, you can continue to use it until you run out. I just suggest that you restock with something better for you. Begin reading labels next time you’re shopping in the toiletry isle. I’m certain you’ll begin to notice certain products boasting that they’re “Paraben Free”.

And if you don’t want to do all of that reading when shopping, you can take the easy route and just buy what products that your local Whole Foods Market has to offer. Whole Foods continues to amaze me as a brand. They only offer the best products for your body, whether it’s food or body care products.

Whole Foods has put together a comprehensive list of ingredients that they consider to be unacceptable. Thus, you’ll never find a product on their shelves that contain any of them.

And get yourself tested. As in, I suggest that you get a comprehensive blood test from WellnessFX. It’s highly convenient, and in my opinion this far exceeds the information that you are able to gather from a typical in-person visit to your regular doctor.

When’s the last time your doctor told you that your estradiol level was low, normal, or high? Chances are…never. Especially men.

If you like this article, please share it on your Social Media.

Footnotes. …or better yet Footloose

While I’ve had this practice of goal-setting for many years, this year I’ve decided to step things up and to focus as hard as I do in the gym, in the kitchen as well.  Although, I’ve kept a decent diet practice over the years, I’ve never taken it very seriously as I would typically follow a healthy diet from Monday thru Thursday.  Then a cheat day of Friday, would carry over into Saturday and most times Sunday also.  This breaks down to cheating close to half the week.

My tipping point was when I noticed that my mentality of, “eat whatever you want as long as you burn it off”, just wasn’t working for me anymore. I started to notice that my body-fat was starting to get harder to tame.  This puzzled me initially, because I consider myself a pretty active dude.  A typical week may consist of 4 days of weight training with 4 days of cardio.  So, some days I’d workout twice a day, for about an hour each, and I could no longer cancel out all of the pizza, beer, and french toast.  My daily morning routine of a weigh-in on my Withings scale complete with BMI (body mass index) and percent body fat reading was telling me this story.  I realized that a few of the multiple contributors to this difference in my body make-up are; increasing age/slowing metabolism, increased sedentary hours behind MacBook, higher calorie intake, high carb diet. I realized that I needed a new regime.

My new regime is the Paleo diet

If you’re not familiar with Paleo, in a nutshell it is considered a “caveman-like” diet. You mainly only eat organic fruits, vegetables, eggs and meats.  This is basically a very low-carb diet, that the cavemen ate way back in the day.  No grains at all.  So no bread, pasta, cereal, pancakes. None of that.  New studies are beginning to reveal that grains aren’t good for you at all, and many of us are gluten-intolerant.  This is why you hear about “gluten-free” foods more and more now.

Prior to beginning this new Paleo diet…

I wanted to detoxify my body to start with a clean slate

This brings us to the 10 day fruit and vegetable juice fast.  This was my 2nd attempt at a 10 day juice fast as the first time, I was doing it to prep for a bicycle ride across the United States and I dropped the fast after 5 days and gorged on half a box of Eggo waffles. It was great yet disappointing at the same time. I never quit things.  My number-one mistake during my first juice fast attempt was that I was doing it on top of two-a-day workouts.  My calorie deficit was crazy and I mentally broke-down half way in.

This second time around, I dropped the workouts completely.  I wanted to focus on successfully completing this juice fast.  And I wanted to pay close attention to how I was feeling without the cloud of post-workout exhaustion/hunger.

So I broke out my Breville Juicer (BJE820XL). Which I highly recommend.  This thing is powerful enough to juice a tree trunk.

The fruit and Vegetable Juice Fast

I kept a daily diary to document the 10 days of juice fasting. And like I mentioned earlier, I weigh myself every morning, so I’m also including that information also so you can see the effect that 10 days of only fruit and vegetable juice effected my body.

Monday, February 19th: Juice Fast DAY 1

Weight (lbs): 203
Percent Body Fat: 13.7
BMI: 27

I woke up with the sad realization that this thing had begun. Sipping caffinated Green Tea had helped me out during the first attempt. At least until day #5, before I broke down.  However, due to the fact that I was adding sugar or honey to that green tea, it wasn’t a true juice fast.  So no half-assing this time.  Just straight juice, water, and I found some uncaffinated Cinnamon tea to sip and I’m not adding anything to it.

This day was extremely hard.  My only shot at making it to the end of 10 days is not working out.  So I’m taking 10 days off from that.  My previous attempt, I was working out twice a day while only drinking juice.  I don’t know how I made it as far as day 5.  But I will say, I never knew one could get shredded in such a short period of time.  I definitely was.  I wonder if that’s guys do before they hop on the cover of Men’s Health magazine and other covers.

I have not taken a dump all day.  But I’ve been pissing so much it’s annoying.  It’s to the extent where I’ve just been pissing outside to save toilet bowl water. Yeah, call me a cheap-skate. But I call it “going green”.

I’m starving!

Tuesday, February 20th: Juice Fast DAY 2

Weight (lbs): 196.7
Percent Body Fat: 15
BMI: 26.1

Woke up today without a hunger, which was refreshing.  It was still depressing however to know that this was only day 2.  There’s something about only drinking juice that is severely dissapointing.  I couldn’t imagine what people have to go thru when they have broken jaws.  But then again, they probably drink Ensure, smoothies, and protein shakes. Those are far more filling.

I try to maintain cognizance of my motions, being mindful not to expend any more calories than I have to.  While I sit behind a computer for 12 hours daily among other regular daily activities, my personal stats measured previously (via BodyMedia device) tell me on average I burn about 3K calories per 24 hour period.  And juice-wise we’re talking about a max of 300 calories per cup of juice.  I knock back around 60oz per day max. I make nearly 2 completely full Breville 40 oz jugs. There are 8 oz per 1 cup, so that total is approx 7.5 cups daily consumed or 2,250 calories. Which is approximately a 750 calorie deficit per-day rate.

The loose calculation for weight loss is that a calorie deficit of 3,500 per week will lose you 1-2 pounds.  The opposite is true regarding weight gain.  I’m on an approximate 5,250 calorie deficit per week schedule which means I should be losing weight at a rate of about 3-4 pounds per week.

Wednesday, February 21st: Juice Fast DAY 3

Weight (lbs): 195.3
Percent Body Fat: 15.4
BMI: 25.9

Not much of a hunger this morning. Even more-so than yesterday.  I actually didn’t drink any juice until after I was awake for about 2 hours.  Just drank some water when I first woke and I was fine for a bit.

Today I discovered a new juice recipe that was straight crack.  You ready? One whole pineapple with 4 apples and 6 strawberries.  I could probably bottle this and slang it in the streets. $8 a cup.

No lie.

It’s that good.

It tastes like a melted popsicle, which is right up my alley with my sweet tooth.  I know I shouldn’t be juicing so much sugary fruits, but I’m just trying to get thru this thing at this point.

I still feel light-headed like ALL of the time.  My body is confused.  It’s like I’m playing a bad joke on it.  No food for days, only juice. I miss chewing.

But to end on a good note, I dropped a duece today.  That’s not news to most, but it damn sure is to me granted that I haven’t done so since before I started this fast.  I was starting to have bad visions of where the waste was going. So cheers to that.

Thursday, February 22nd: Juice Fast DAY 4

Weight (lbs): 192.7
Percent Body Fat: 15.6
BMI: 25.6

I think I may be over the hump now.

Morning hunger seems to be a thing of the past. I’m able to function now for at least 2 hours without drinking juice. However, the light-headedness is here-to-stay it seems.  I’m also experiencing a sort of dizziness at times.  I did some Googleing and these are proven side-effects of any type of detox.  Not specific to only a juice detox, as I also happened to be researching about Paleo dieting and I saw the same symptoms reported in forums by those detoxing while transitioning from their bad diet to a paleo diet.

It was also mentioned that these side effects will subside after 3-5 days.

Friday, February 23rd: Juice Fast DAY 5

Weight (lbs): 191.8
Percent Body Fat: 15.7
BMI: 25.4

Although this is only day number 5 of 10, but I have a strong feeling that the hard part is over.  Today is going well with no problems.  Energy-wise I even felt fine riding my bicycle about 3 miles to pick my car up from the shop.  And crazy as it sounds, this was on an empty stomach.  This wasn’t by choice.  I just ran out of produce.  I did get a bunch more on the way back though.

I found myself steering most towards the fruits in the store today.  Although this is only my second attempt at a multiple day juice-fast, I’ve been juicing consistently for about a year now.  And throughout that time, I still haven’t found the solution to make some vegetables not taste like COMPOST when juiced.

The whole point in juicing, is to get good nutrients and to enjoy it right?  Otherwise, nobody is going to stick with juicing over the long haul.  Some of these juice cookbooks out are full of recipes that are straight garbage.  Few of them actually taste good. Maybe I should create a recipe book with only the best tasting juice combos, that are completely original.  I swear these other authors can’t be taste testing those recipes!

I’ll tell you right now, there are a handful of vegetables that I will never juice again.  I don’t care how much fruit I mix it with, they tend to overpower the entire juice batch.  Romain lettuce is one, Broccoli is another, asparagus is a maybe, but even it’s flavour is super pungent.

I’ve been “regular” since the Wednesday, in-case you are wondering.  I guess as regular as I’m going to be, is a better way to put it.  Without grossing you out ‘too’ much, I’ll just say that the quantity is hardly normal (on the low side).

Saturday, February 24th: Juice Fast DAY 6

Weight (lbs): 189.7
Percent Body Fat: 15.2
BMI: 25.1

Today I made a batch consisting only of carrot, orange, and grapefruit.  Peeling the oranges was very difficult with this batch. I think this happens when the oranges aren’t completely ripe.  So for half of the oranges I used, I ended up throwing them in the juicer with the peel on.  I’ve done this before and didn’t like the outcome, but today I felt like I could do it because it was only half the batch.  Welp, my juice batch ended up tasting just like you would imagine.  Very strongly of orange peel.

Still drank it though.

Also, whipped up a batch of my crack juice. Pineapple, strawberry, kiwi.  Too many sugars, I know. I know. But I had to do it.

I watched, “Super-Size Me” today. It must have been about the 3rd or 4th time I’ve ever seen that documentary.  If you haven’t seen the documentary, it’s were a guy experiments with McDonalds by eating only McDonalds for 30 days straight for all of his meals.  He gains 25 pounds, his cholestoral shot up, and he did some damage to his liver. And pretty much almost died.

Despite all of this, I never viewed McDonalds in such a delicious perspective.  I don’t really even like McDonalds and I was craving some after this film.  I was ready to lick the screen.

It seems that even though I’m over the 3 day hump, I constantly fantiszie about food.  When I go out in public, I noticed that my nose is more sensitive to the smells of food.  Everythings sounds delicious at all times.  BBQ, fried chicken, pizza, steak, french fries, lasanga, bacon, pork chops. Everything…Everything bad.

I have to be careful not to binge on horrible foods on Friday when this is over.  The whole point of this fast was to use it as the detox precursor to a Paleo only diet.

Sunday, February 25th: Juice Fast DAY 7

Weight (lbs): 189.8
Percent Body Fat: 14.7
BMI: 25.2

I tried juicing kale for the first time today. My local grocery store just now starting carrying it, so I picked some up.  I juiced with with some grapefruit, celery, ginger and lemon.  With most leafy greens, I tend to have the best luck canceling out their “Veggie” taste with some citrus.  The lemon and ginger combo usually is a given to work.  Not this time.

I don’t see what the big rave is about kale.  I’m aware of the nutritional benefits, but this shit is just plain disgusting.  The only batch that I made worse than this one where I used collard greens as the base.  And another where I used WAY too much asperagus.  But, I’m not going to give up too soon.  I’ve bought some more kale and will give it another shot.

Monday, February 26th: Juice Fast DAY 8

Weight (lbs): 189.5
Percent Body Fat: 15.2
BMI: 25

I think my stomach is shrinking. I’m rarely hungry now. But I still have the urge to eat versus juice.  I had a dream last night where I abstained from eating food that was in front of me because I was on a juice fast. How crazy is that? I can’t even cheat in my dreams. Ain’t that a bitch!

I dropped down to 189 lbs from 203 at the beginning of this fast.  For me that’s nothing to brag about because it only involved calorie restriction through the juice I’ve been drinking.  I’m certain that I’ve lost a bit of muscle also in that weight loss as my percent body fat seems to hover at 15% while my pounds decrease.  Now if I had gained muscle and lost fat, while dropping 14 pounds then I’d be more geeked up about it. That would take the inclusion of weight-training. None the less, my six pack looks pretty good right now without the extra layer of fat over it.

Tuesday, February 27th: Juice Fast DAY 9

Weight (lbs): 189.3
Percent Body Fat: 13.2
BMI: 25.1

This juice fast shit is for the birds. I even fantasize about salads right now. Uhm…yeah…SALADS. Even a ceasar salad would be so right-on-time right now. I can’t wait to chew some food.

It’s almost like I feel like I’m being fed via an IV. Although I don’t have any personal experience with this, I imagine it feels like I’m how I’m feeling.  As, I’m getting my proper nutrients, but my stomach never has the familiar sensation that I just ‘ate’ something.  It doesn’t matter how much juice quantity I drink.

Wednesday, February 28th: Juice Fast DAY 10

Weight (lbs): 187.9
Percent Body Fat: 13.4
BMI: 24.9

The last supper. I’m so glad. I’m fantasizing about what to buy at the grocery store as my fridge is empty at this point.  I should rephrase, it’s empty of suitable foods for my strict paleo transition. I even have AMP energy drinks still in there. It’s crazy because I don’t have any desire to drink one.  I’m almost certain I would get sick if I did.  And because of that, I don’t have any desire to eat any junk after all the hard work of the last 10 days of detox.

I gave Kale juice another shot today. And I’ve got the recipe. Kale, orange, lemon, lime, ginger.  Basically, the recipe is to match the kale with more spice and citrus and then it won’t taste so much like a lawn mower bag.  The juice still smells that way though, but I can live with that.

Overview:

To tell the truth, this juice fast was hands-down one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.  I don’t think there has ever been a time where I went 10 days without eating food.  So that’s a first in my life.

Unexpected side effects: The whites of my eyes became whiter and my skin looked better.  This was crazy because I initially attributed the better skin to the fact that I switched to using witch hazel as an astringent.  But I then realized that I’d switched to the witch hazel over two months ago.  My skin started looking really, really clear just a few days ago, almost like it was airbrushed.  It was totally the juice.

Conclusion

The first 3 days were filled with withdrawal pains. Prior to this fast, I had a weekend full of junk foods because I knew it would be a long time before I had them again.  French Toast, Pizzas, etc…Mucho carbs.  What I later learned about carbohydrates:

Foods rich in carbohydrates give you quick energy, but that energy wears off just as quickly as it came. Since grains break down into sugar, they create a rise in insulin levels when those levels fall you crave more grains and, thus, the vicious cycle continues. ¹

This completely explains why I had a strong crave for the same foods for the first 3 days.  I was going thru a “carbohydrate withdrawal”.  Now that I’ve learned the term for it, there’s tons of information about it available on the web that I’ve found and it all makes sense to me now.

My suggestion to you:

If you’re looking to kick-start your weight loss and/or fitness regimen with a juice fast, I applaud you.  Here are a few tips:

1. Drink plenty of water in addition to your juices.
2. Find a good tea to drink that tastes good without adding any sugar. I used “Celestial Seasonings – Cinnamon Apple Spice“. I don’t know how, but the cinnamon-spice flavor of this stuff comes across sweet resulting in a taste-illusion of added sugar.
3. I wouldn’t suggest fasting with anything more than a moderately intense workout.
4. If juicing is new to you, you may want to experiment and discover which juice recipes you like before you start the fast.
5. Know that the headaches and dizziness in the beginning is considered ‘normal’. Don’t worry you’re not going to die ²
6. And lastly, It’s best to buy organic produce, however for some produce items it isn’t necessary. Check the “Clean 15 and Dirty Dozen” list below. Dirty Dozen = must buy organic. Clean 15 = you ain’t gotta.

Overall, I am pleased with the detox of the 10 day juice fast.  I have a new feeling inside my body.  I just feel lighter.  And I don’t mean lighter as in lost 15 pounds.  But overall, just less bogged-down.  I will likely plan to implement these 10 day juice fasts twice a year and perhaps a shorter 3 day fast every quarter.

Want more? Check out “Juicing With Justin” on YouTube

If you like this article, please share it on your Social Media.

Footnotes. …or better yet Footloose

I was too glad to make it into California. Last state of the trip. But at the same time, I knew I still had a good amount of ridiculous desert to roll thru.

The thing about the desert is not that it’s too hot or arid or anything like that.  But that there is so little out there.  You can ride 50 to 80 miles without seeing so much as a single gas station.

This is horrible when you’re hungry, thirsty, want to take a break, and etcetera.

My first day in California, I only came across one gas station and they happened to have a mini restaurant inside of it which was AMAZING. At that point the fact that they offered good food made-to-order was a huge bonus.

Closing out the first day in California I rode the last 25 miles of it in the dark, which was a bummer like always. I hate night riding. But regardless, I made it into Amboy, California and pulled into the desolate town right as I noticed that the motel I scouted out on Google maps was out of business.

The owner of the only gas station in the town was closing up as I pulled in.  Turns out his gas station didn’t even sell gas, or food really.  He was only there because this station he bought was on the historic route 66 and he was selling t-shirts and other nick-naks, among candy bars and trail mix until he got it fully restored.

I told him that I was looking for a place to stay and the motel next door that I planned on was out of business.  He offered to let me camp out in the picnic area near the public restrooms for his business.  I took that offer.  Had no choice.

The bonus was that his restrooms stayed open all night. So I liked that.

The town was so small that nobody really came by to use the restroom except for once every few hours or so.  Thus, I felt it was cool to take an entire bath out of the sink in the womens restroom.  I choose the womens restroom because the hot water actually worked, as it didn’t in the mens.  Would’ve been a bit more than awkward if someone came in there and caught me.

But nobody was around.  I found an electrical outlet on top of one of the stalls in the womens bathroom also which was great.  I charged my iphone up on it before I went to sleep. Then, put my ipod on there overnight.

Bad move.

As I woke-up and my shit was GONE.

Summamabitch!

I thought it was safe enough to leave it on there.  Most of the people who came by to use the restroom were men throughout the night anyway.  I had the charger tucked away in like stall number 8 of 11, what are the odds that it was found? And besides, who would want to steal my ipod with a cracked screen.  You couldn’t even see the songs you were playing.

That truly pissed me off. I used that ipod versus my iphone so that I wouldn’t drain my phone battery when playing music on it for 8 – 12 hours a day.

Well, at least I was smart enough not to leave my iphone in there. But damn. That hurt. I hate hate HATE when someone steals from me.

…

My last day started in Palmdale, CA. It was a tough ride because I had the San Gabriel Mountain range to get through in the Angeles Forest.  One last series of mountain climbs prior to getting to LA and confronting urban riding.

The San Gabriel mountains were interesting, I swear they were never ending.  The path I took; I knew I had 40 miles of ups and downs.  There were a few areas where I could see fire damage from a recent forest fire.  I even saw a helicopter dumping water on areas. I didn’t see any fire though.  It must’ve been close because I also saw the Fire Department out there doing drills and such.  Or perhaps, the helicopter was running through drills also.

I also came across a construction crew working on the road.  One of the workers stopped me, to tell me that he had some cold water to offer in a cooler.  He said it was for the crew and hikers and cyclists that came through.  That was super cool.  I refilled at least two of my bottles thanks to him.

I could tell when I was getting closer to LA, because the traffic picked up with motorcycles.  A lot of guys with their sport motorbikes where up in the mountains “canyon carving” as it’s called.  This is when dudes would suit up in full leathers go out on their sport bikes and enjoy all of those twisty turns up in those mountains.  Think, any sports-car commercial you’ve ever seen, and swap car with motorcycle.  It’s mad dangerous, as many areas of those roads didn’t even have guardrails. One slip-up on a patch of sand and it’s a wrap on life. But if you stay safe, I’m certain it’s an amazing thrill.

Once I got to the peak of what would be my last decent, it was an amazing feeling.  I could see Glendale, CA off in the distance.  To say I enjoyed that last downhill, would be an understatement.  And with my most unbiased opinion, that downhill was the most fun due the the number of switch-backs it had.  I felt like I was doing my own canyon-carving.

I had to fight thru the traffic of Glendale, Burbank, West Hollywood, and Beverly Hills before I got to the beach, which was my ending destination.  Once I finally got to that beach, it was a trip to just let everything set in and reflect on the entire journey that I had started 65 days prior.

I was most happy that I didn’t suffer any major injuries or worse on this trip.  In my head I kept thinking, “If I die on this trip, my Mom is going to kill me”.  She certainly hated the whole idea.  But now she need not worry about it anymore, because at the moment I definitely wouldn’t even think about doing it again.  But who knows…I have no idea what I’ll be into a couple of years from now.  I could have the itch to do it again.

But right now, all I can think about is letting my body repair itself.

Although this journey is over, if you’d like to stay posted with what adventure I’m on now or have planned next, be sure to subscribe to my free newsletter for updates.

As I exited Arizona, I encountered a mountain range that was unexpected because it didn’t show up on my Google map.  On second thought, it wasn’t really a mountain range I don’t think.  The issue was that the city of  Bullhead City, AZ was at an elevation of approx.  400 feet.  And all the land surrounding it was at 3K+ feet.  So the city was basically just in a valley.  It was real fun entering that city, at about 25 miles of good downhill.  But coming out SUCKED.  Especially since I didn’t expect it.

I was so exhausted once I got out of that valley that I decided to skip visiting Las Vegas.  It was a tough decision, because I really wanted to kick it in Vegas for a few days.  But I just couldn’t stand the idea of another surprise valley/mountain range like that again.  And besides that, at that point I could definitely start to feel my body breaking-down.  I made the call to B-line to Cali and get this journey done.

Adventure Cycling Across America – Diary Entry #11

As I exited Colorado, I stopped at the 4 corners monument where, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona meet.  It was pretty anti-climactic actually, I don’t know what I expected.  It was cool to stop by and look at, it keeps you interested for about 3 minutes.  And on top of that it costs $3 to enter. I know it’s a small fee, but I hate paying a fee to see something that’s already outside. Like if you had to pay $3 to look at the Seattle space needle.

Once, I left that monument, I entered northern Arizona shortly thereafter and also entered the Navajo Nation.  And I instantly noticed a huge increase in roadside litter.  And about 80% of said litter was in the form of beer bottles and hard alcohol containers.

As I rode, I thought to myself…perhaps alcholism really is a big epidemic in the native american community.  I originally thought it was a bit exaggerated, despite learning of this problem years ago.

It’s as large a problem as I read about.  I even walked past an HR Block in Kingman, AZ and taped to the front door was a notice that stated, “…if a customer is believed to be intoxicated on our premises they will be asked to leave and police will be called”.  I was like, “damn”. It ‘IS’ that serious.

I mean, seriously.  There was so many bottles on the side of the road, that it looked like a dump truck drove at a speed of 20 mph, with its truck bed tilted while it just unloaded all of these bottles.  And because these bottles were most likely thrown from cars whizzing by into the desert sand, so many of them weren’t broken.

If someone wanted an idea for a side hustle, they could go and clean-up the bottles on both sides of US 160 for about 100 miles.  Take the bottles to California and cash them in, or another state that pays out for recycling.  Some states pay as much as 5 cents per bottle.

Adventure Cycling Across America – Diary Entry #10

After leaving Montrose, CO I was starting to get used to guaging my daily distances by how many mountain ranges where ahead of me.  So leaving Montrose, I knew I would be set stay in Telluride, CO or Mountain Village, CO.

I ended up staying in Telluride for the simple fact that was easier to get to at the end of a long day.  They are neighboring cities, and I could visibly see that Mountain Village was situated at the peak of a mountain to the right of the road I was on.

By the time I found a place to stay the night with a reasonable rate, checked in, and showered, it was around 9pm. And what I didn’t know is that the town pretty much shut-down at 9, when it’s off-season (non ski season).  This was going to be a problem, because I was starving!  This town was so desolate, that if I didn’t find a place to eat, I would’nt have been able to even get gas station food.  There wasn’t a gas station! I just would’ve been SOL and hungry for the night.

So I stroll into a bar, which seemed to be the only place open past 9. I ask if the kitchen is still open and the barkeep says it just closed.  Once I ask, if there are any other alternatives for food nearby, dude says no…and he could tell that I’d be screwed for the night.

So he talks to the cook in the back.

I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I could see the chef look at me while they were talking and then nod his head.

The barkeep comes back and says, “we can only offer you one dish, if you’re interested”.  He goes on to explain that it would be roasted duck, on a bed of spanish rice, with braised tomatoes and a sunny-side up egg.

Sounded like a very unique dish to me.  But he said it was only $8 and plus I had no other option.  He coulda said that they had squirrel and bear meat stew and I would’ve been game (pun intended).  So I order it.

Man!

That dish was amazing! I wish I would’ve taken a picture and asked more about the indgredients so that I could try to recreate it after the trip.  It was dope how something so good, could be so thrown together.

I was very thankful that the barkeep hooked me up. Because he was the difference in me having and not having food that night.

Telluride itself was a very unique town. When I walked to that bar from my hotel, the town had a very surreal feel to it.  Like in a manucured way.  The best way I can describe it, is that the whole town felt like a movie set.  Like it was created to mimick what the set designer felt a quaint mountain town should feel like.

I learned later that Oprah, Tom Cruise, Jerry Sienfield, among others currently have or had houses here in the past.  I can totally see that a town like Telluride would have such a draw.

Adventure Cycling Across America – Diary Entry #9

Prior to this journey I had never been more than around 1K feet above sea level.  As I entered Colorado and made my way towards Pueblo, it seemed that there was a gradual incline for miles that was barely noticeable until I got on the western side of Pueblo.

Once I headed towards Westcliffe from Pueblo, I soon realized that I should’ve left WAY earlier. I was riding thru the mountiains and it became a typical night of where the sun set way too fast and I was still about 2 hours away from my stop for the night.

This was my first real mountain climb since the Appalachians back east. I must admit that it was super scary riding thru this mountain range in the dark.  The crazy thing is that besides the occasional car that would pass in either direction, maybe every 7 minutes, it was extremely silent.  I’ve never been outdoors before and it be ‘that’ silent.  So this means I could hear absolutely everything else that was out there with me in those mountains.  At one point I heard a pack of coyotes/wolves off in the distance.  This was unsettling but, I didn’t worry about it too much because I could definitely tell that they were pretty far away.

I was riding and I got all the way to the point where I was 8 miles away from town. Only 8 miles!  At a climbing pace, I was usually doing around 5 miles an hour. So my day was nearly at it’s end.

At this particular point in the climb, in addition to the sound of the nothing I heard the strangest sound that I’ve ever heard and I couldn’t even describe accurately what it was, but I’ll do my best…

So, imagine the sound of a cat being strangled while it’s gargling listerine.  Strange combo, I know.  But that’s literally what it sounded like.  And the sound was loud enough to where I could tell that shit was just off the road in the bushes.

I stopped immediately once I heard that and turned around. It was THAT bad. I had no idea what animal that sound came from but was loud!

I had a decision to make. Keep going past the “thing” (worst-case scenario = mountain lion). Or find somewhere to camp nearby.

There happened to be a house nearby. It was out in the middle of nothing on this mountain.  I could see that dude was home as he had all the windows open.  He looked like he was gaming on his laptop or something.

Once I stepped foot on his property, I could hear his dog barking, but I couldn’t see it.  But it was definitely outside.

There was no fence around his crib.

I had the hardest time trying to get his attention while not getting bit by his stupid guard dog.  He had a window open, so I just started saying “Hello!” and he eventually heard me.

I initially asked if it would be cool for me to camp out on his land. He wasn’t cool with that. But he did offer to call the sherrif to pick me up and take me the last 8 miles into town.

So I went with that.

The guy was kind of irritated by me.

Anywho, Dude made the phone call and 20 minutes or so later the sheriff came by and picked me up in his SUV patrol vehicle. The sherrif was pretty cool. At first, I thought he’d be frustrated that I was wasting his time or something.  Turns out he was a cyclist too. So during the drive we were talking about bikes and the town of Westcliffe.

Before leaving Westcliffe, I had a mental battle with myself about whether or not I should double-back to the spot to where I got picked up.

It was a tough argument, because I knew that doing so would add an extra 16 miles roundrtip to the start of my day. I tried to reason with myself that I had already rode in excess of 16 miles while taking wrong turns leading up to this point.

But I ended up just doing it. It sucked too because a lot of it was a climb. I cursed the whole way. Feeling like I should’ve manned-up the night before and kept going.  But anyway, once I got it done I felt good about it as I knew that if I got to LA without doing the entire trip under my own power, I would’ve felt like I cheated.

There would be an asterisk next to my achievement, just like so many juicing pro athletes with their names in the record books.

Adventure Cycling Across America – Diary Entry #9

Kansas.

What can I say….

I’ve never really been in Kansas past the University of Kansas in Lawrence, which is in the eastern part.  And I found that Kansas doesn’t look as flat and desolate cliche-Kansas until you near the central parts of the state.

The flatlands of Kansas are really refreshing when on a bicycle. No worries about hills. You barely break a sweat in this state, besides when there are some strong headwinds or crosswinds.  Then, the resistance feels as if you have a parachute attached to your back or side.  Needless to say a tailwind is the BEST.

Town after town in Kansas was completely identical.  You could usually count on a grain elevator in the center of it and usually a water tower.

Beaucoup cattle. Beaucoup smell.

This sounds incredibly boring. However, I will say that some of the most amazing views I’ve seen on this trip where in Kansas.  There were areas where the land was SO flat in all directions, it was surreal that a Lake Michigan or a Gulf of Mexico wasn’t nearby. You’d swear that a beach was nearby. That’s the only time I’ve ever seen land so flat.

No picture can really do the sight justice, but this is my view from a dirt road shortcut with what seemed to be grain growing on the left and raw land on the right where the crop was already harvested.

I have no idea what this was growing to my right as I got further down the road. But I thought it was amazing to look at. There are so many times that I could just stop and sit for hours while admiring the sights. But then, I wouldn’t get anywhere.  Still, I think this is screensaver worthy (do people still use those?).

I’m not the only cyclists on these roads.

On the way to Ordway, Colorado I happened to be riding and in my side-view mirror I noticed a small red-dot in the far distance that was approaching me fairly fast. Initially I thought it was just another car…

Minutes later.

I see.

It was a trip to see this guy.

Especially since he was hauling so much ass, he literally had to slow-down for us to chat and ride.

Turns out, his name is Jan and he was with his friend Zack and they had started their trip in upstate New York and where on their way to San Francisco.  So, Zack and Jan started out together and they met up with a guy named James in Illinois who was riding from Nashville to Washington state.

I met up with all three of these guys and they turned out to be pretty cool people.  We all ended up riding together into Ordway, Colorado as we all planned on stopping there for the night.

Jan actually had a contact to a lady who had a hostel, of sorts, which was a spare trailer of many on her property that she opened up to people from time to time.  It was actually really cool of her to open it up for us. I wasn’t expecting much, but the trailer had a bunk-bed, a stove, and was carpeted.

It was pretty awesome. And FREE.

Once Jan, Zach, James and I got to the hostel, we were met by yet another cyclist, Matt.  Who was traveling from Washington state to Virginia.  So it was pretty cool that all 5 of us where in this trailer just hanging out, telling stories, and what-not.

I found it hilarious that Matt seemed to carry the least luggage out of all of us on his bike, yet somehow had enough room to pack a 4 course meal, which he’s eating in this pic.

From left to right, Jan, James, Zack, Me, Matt.

We all ate breakfast together the next morning and then split up to go our separate ways.

Matt, was going east into Kansas.

Jan and Zack were headed south into New Mexico.

James and I were both headed to Pueblo, Colorado for the night, so we headed out together.

Adventure Cycling Across America – Diary Entry #8

Day 22 starts in good ole St. Louis, Missouri. The hometown.

What I found strange is that for 22 days I have been inching my way across the country and my perception of the accumulative distance wasn’t really intact until I arrived in Saint Louis.

Strange. I know.

But, my train of thought was kind of like…

New York to Philly…ah not a big deal. It only takes a few hours to get to Philly from NYC on the train.
New York to Baltimore..same thing.
New York to Indiana…that’s sorta far
New York to Saint Louis…wow. that’s around 1K miles. And to drive that would take at least take half-a-day and at least a few audiobooks for sanity.

It was a bit odd once I was in East St. Louis, IL as I had to do a bit of googling to find out which of the 3 main bridges over the Mississippi river was pedestrian-friendly. I hadn’t been faced with this dilemma all trip.  This was a large issue. Because I damn sure wasn’t going to take the main interstate bridge. I love life too much for that.

I ended up using the Eads-bridge and was surprised that it had a sidewalk.  So that was a plus.  I’m fairly certain that bridge was just recently revamped to be walkable.  Otherwise I might have been SOL (Or rather SOOL. Why is it that acronyms with redundant vowels are often condensed into one letter? Someone reading this knows EXACTLY what I’m talking about. wink-smiley-face)

Once I cross into town I head on over to my Mom’s house and it was great. So great that one planned day-off turned into 4. Man, I took so much time-off that I almost forgot all about this trek. With my Mom hooking-up homemade pancakes and such every morning, I had thoughts to ditch the rest of this bike endeavor. That’s not a joke.

But, during that time-off I was able to chill out.  Let, some recent thigh chaffing heal-up and go to the outdoors shop (REI equivalent)  to get some additional stuff:

More lights for the bike…
to stop the paranoia about not being seen at night

Firewood starter gel…
I was pissed-off last time I was camping and couldn’t get a fire going because of damp wood

More innertubes…
because you can never have enough of these things on hand

Handlebar side-view mirror…
best thing since that happend to this trip since listening to podcasts. I now won’t have to rubber-neck in traffic always.

Once I did leave STL on Day 27, I was able to hop on the Katy Trail.  The Katy Trail is a trail that nearly runs the entire width of the state of Missouri.  It’s a Rail-to-Trail, as it was once a route where trains ran and they’ve since made it obselete, pulled-up the rails, put down some fine gravel, and now it’s a trail for runners, cyclists, equestrians, etc.

This wasn’t the first Rail-To-Trail that I’ve come across as I rode a few hundred miles on trails in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio.

Here’s the rundown about trails…

The Good:
It’s relaxing to not have to worry about someone dude who is multi-tasking by dipping mint skoal with his left-hand and texting his toothless girlfriend with his right-hand in his super-duper modified Ford F250 complete with gun-rack, lifted suspension, camo paint job, and anti-Obama bumper stickers.

That guy, might just pass by you and give you 1 foot of space…or worse

The Bad:
These trails cut through some of the most remote areas of states. There have been times where I have ridden 20+ miles, multiple hours and not run into another soul.  Also, 20 miles can feel like 40 miles when you see nothing but the same constant canopy of trees. This provides for minimal distance-reference because the next mile looks like three miles ago. And when your iPhone says “No Service”, for hours at a time, that can also trip you out.

So a good mix of the trails is ideal.

Adventure Cycling Across America – Diary Entry #7