Around The World, Around The World

... or just around America. Whatever. Same diff. Only not really.

Anyway.

Tomorrow I begin an epic trip. A writers adventure. A YouTubers journey. The ultimate dorky excursion.

I'm driving cross country... and back. And I'm doing it alone. By choice. I have friends, I swear... really!

"You're going... ALONE?"

"Is that safe?"

"Can I come!?!?"

This is just something that I've always wanted to do. Ever since I decided I wanted to be a writer. I would fantasize about traveling the world and just taking in everything around me as I write my pathetic little heart away. These fantasies never really included the company of another... it just wouldn't be the same if I wasn't in solitude during these travels.

So... it begins now. Well, tomorrow if we're being technical.

It starts with America. Across and back. Easy enough.

Originally this was just going to be a "writer" thing, but shortly after declaring my plans for travel, some awesome YouTube friends chimed in and offered me a place to stay as I'm passing through.

This will inevitably result in a collection of colorful collabs and blogtv shows :)

As of right now, I'm officially staying with the following people:

(in order of appearance on my travel timeline)

Josh
http://www.youtube.com/joshsource

Cameron
http://www.youtube.com/cameronm82

JP will be joining Cameron and I
http://www.youtube.com/pdxvlog

Shay
http://www.youtube.com/shaycarl

Brett
http://www.youtube.com/Bretttheintern

Josh (Empty)
http://www.youtube.com/emptysawesome
http://www.youtube.com/emptyisawesome

Ryan
http://www.youtube.com/ryanshw

Thank you so much to all of you guys for giving me a place to stay and some company along the way! Look forward to some possibly amusing collabs with them!

If anyone else would like to meet up or whatever... drop me a line and maybe we can make it happen.

I will updating my youtube channel and blog as often as possible along the way. For now, I need to finish packing...

America, I'm gonna make you my bitch.

Day 10 - Kiss My Ass

"Are you fucking crazy?"

"Are you dead yet?"

"I bet you look all anemic and shit."

"I'm going to laugh when you die from starvation."

Day 10, bitch. What now, huh? What now you non-believer!

Am I dead? No. Did I pass out? No. Did I turn into a lemon/lime creature? Maybe. Wait, wait... no.

I feel good. I feel proud. I feel in control.

You would think at this point I would be so thrilled and excited to begin eating again tomorrow. Honestly, I'm pretty neutral about it. 

The cravings completely disappeared yesterday. I didn't think about food at all again today. I'm sure I'll be happy to have food once I have it again, but I'm not dying for it like I was a few days ago. Odd.

Tomorrow I'm allowed to eat fruits and vegetables only. I'm fine with that. I stocked up on some bananas, grapes, plums, carrots and broccoli. Hooray vegan day!

Weight Loss: 11 lbs

Hunger: None.

Emotions/State of Mind: Normal.

Daydream Food of The Day: None.

Day 9 - Fast - I Bet I Can Last Longer Than 10 Days

Today I felt completely normal in every way. Actually, I probably felt better than normal.

After lunch, the girl sitting in the cubicle next to mine was going on and on about how she didn't feel well and how she was tired and blah blah blah. I was thinking that I'M the one that should be feeling like that, right? I mean... I've always thought no food = sick, weak and tired. Somehow this was not the case.

I started drinking orange juice today and am officially done with the lemon/lime crap. I was a bit nervous that the transition would be painful or have some sort of negative effect. Nope, I was fine.

I took a moment and thought to myself,"I have not eaten in 9 days. I HAVE NOT EATEN IN 9 DAYS! How is this humanly possible?"

I cut myself to make sure I was still human. I was worried lemon/lime juice would start bleeding out of me... but no, still blood.

Of course I didn't cut myself, you silly nilly!

But seriously, I honestly don't understand how I could be feeling this normal after 9 days of not eating. Oh well, whateves. :::shrugs:::

Not only am I alive and well... but I had no cravings today. I didn't fantasize about food. Which was odd.

My office manager bought pizza for everyone. When offered, I declined. Obviously because of the fast. Who the hell declines free food?

But the amazing part of this was that when I declined the pizza, I was totally cool with it. I didn't have this longing "if it wasn't for this damn fast I could eat that" kind of feeling that I had been experiencing for most of this endeavor.

I'm very happy about that because it leads me to believe that I will really be able to make some changes to the way I eat. Let's hope.

Weight Loss: 10 lbs
Hunger: None.
Emotions/State of Mind: Normal, if not better.
Daydream Food of The Day: None! WTF?

Day 8 - Fast - Goodbye Lemon/Lime Crap & Hello Orange Juice!

Today was my last day consuming lemon/lime juice. For the next two days... the last two days of my fast (YES!)... I will be drinking orange juice in preparation for eating solid food.

I must say, day 8 was a piece of cake. Mmmm cake :::drool:::

No but seriously, today was probably the easiest day by far. Even easier than the weekend when all I did was go to the grocery store (for limes and orange juice), go online, and sleep.

I felt energized, healthy, and happy. I even got complimented on the "glow" of my complexion today. Which I loved since I'm sure anyone reading this is assuming I'm pale with dark circles under my eyes and ready to pass out at any given moment.

For any of you that are going to take this on... I'll have you know - day 8 is smooth sailing.

I still fantasize about food though. Food is my lover.




Weight Loss: 10 lbs
Hunger: Not even a little bit.
Emotions/Mental State: Good as any other day. The only things bringing me down were the norm... such as my job.
Daydream Food of The Day: Anything cheesy and delicious!!! MmMmMm

Day 7 - Fast - Still Not Dead! Yay!

It is officially an entire week since I began this fast. I kind of can't believe it. Of course I have been committed to completing this fast... and many other people have done this before... but I couldn't really SEE myself not eating for this long of a period. But here I am... with not a single piece of food in my tummy for a whole week straight.

Some people have been inquiring if I've "cheated" at all. I won't lie, I've been tempted. There were times that I would tell myself a few little crackers won't hurt anyone, no one will know! Someone would've known... me. And really that's all that matters.

Fasting over the weekend was a bit easier than fasting at work. I guess because my job makes my day go by painfully slow... with or without food.

Just a few more days to go! Amazing.

Weight Loss: 8 lbs
Hunger: A few moments of hunger through the day... okay for the majority.
Emotions/State of Mind: Felt really good today.
Daydream Food of The Day: Mozzarella sticks! Yum. And mmm.

Fast - Day 6 - Limes FTW

Today I woke up and I'll be honest... I felt pretty weak. It was the weakest I've felt since I began this fast. I realized it was because I didn't drink enough juice yesterday. The reason behind this is... I'm friggen sick of lemon juice! So sue me.

Apparently, you can also make the juice with limes. So I went to the supermarket and picked up some limes. 

Sigh, the supermarket smelled so beautiful. This heightened sense of smell thing is pretty cool.

I decided I will be drinking lime rather than lemon juice for the remainder of this fast. It was so much better! But who knows, maybe that's because I'm just so sick of lemons at this moment.

ALSO - I've made a slight alteration to the way the 10 day fast is SUPPOSED to be played out. After the 10 days you need to only drink orange juice for 2 more days without food, in order to prepare your body to process solid food again. Then on the third day you're only supposed to eat fresh fruit and vegetables in order to get your system running again.

Which sort of results in a 12 day fast. The problem is... I REALLY need to be able to eat solid food on Friday. It's my last day at my current job and we plan on having a "goodbye lunch". It would kind of suck ass to have to only drink orange juice at MY goodbye lunch while everyone else has a lovely feast!

Plus I made dinner plans on Friday before I realized I might not be able to eat solid food...

So I decided to start drinking orange juice on Tuesday, which will be day 9 of the fast. This way Friday will be the first day I can eat REAL food.

I'm not considering it a cop out considering that on day 9 and 10 I still can't eat food. I can only drink orange juice.

If it wasn't for the situation I probably would go for the full 12 days... at this point I know I can do it. 

Meh... 8 days on lemon/lime juice crap and 2 days on orange juice ain't too shabby in my eyes.

***IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ THIS IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN DOING THIS FAST - I have received a bunch of emails and blogtv pm's asking about this fast because they are interested in doing it. I do NOT want to give you the recipe for the juice myself because I don't want to misguide you. If this is not done properly it can be VERY dangerous. If you are really interested in doing this, please email me at denisevlogs@gmail.com. I will send you the .pdf file that you need to read in order to know how to do this right. Also, if you are under 18 I don't advise that you try this. :)

Weight Loss: 8 lbs

Hunger: Very little in the morning.

Emotions/Mental State: Fairly normal.

Daydream Food of The Day: Cold Stone's birthday cake signature creation... mmm ice cream.

Fast - Day 5 - No Thanks, I'm Not Hungry

Something amazing happened today. Something I didn't think was humanly possible. Maybe I'm dead. That would suck.

Anyway... the amazing thing was I felt NO hunger today. Seriously. The past 4 days I felt at least a little bit of hunger and had immense cravings... but today, nope. Hmm, I still had some cravings.

Well, not cravings exactly. It was different than the way I craved food the past few days. Before I would crave certain foods like I would do anything to have them. Like I NEEDED them. Today it was more like I was reminiscing over the memory of food.

How can I explain this...

Okay, this is weird, but it's the best comparison. It's kind of like when a pet dies. When my little Maltese, Crumpet, died 4 years ago I was devastated. I cried for days and missed her dearly for maybe a year. Maybe less, I can't remember. Whenever my little pup would come to mind I felt a longing to pet and play with her.

But now, 4 years later, when Crumpet comes to mind I just have nice thoughts but I don't feel a longing or a sadness. I don't NEED Crumpet anymore. It's okay now. But if she somehow came back to life I would be very happy to see her. But only if she isn't a zombie dog. What? Let's back on track...

Did I just compare food to a dead dog? Yes. Yes I did.

So initially I missed food dearly and craved for it to be in my tummy... but now it's okay. I don't hunger for it and my cravings are not driving me mad. Yet I still have the memory of food and I still look forward to when food and I can once again be together <3 src="file:///Users/Denise/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/moz-screenshot.jpg" alt="">

Weight Loss: 6 lbs.
Hunger: None.
Emotions/Mental State: Had a little bit of trouble concentrating. But I think maybe I was just feeling done with the week and didn't want to work.
Daydream Food of The Day: Chicken marsala over bow tie pasta (as seen in the picture above). MmMmMmM :)