Juicing, Day 18

I know.... I know I haven't blogged in a few days... *slaps wrist with ruler*

I had been pretty busy and have been going through some personal stuff as well. Aside from all of that, I still have continued to stay with drinking my juices. I haven't tried chewing my food again since a few days ago, but I plan on it tomorrow. Plan on doing it slowly. I'm going to a friend's birthday party on Friday and I want to be able to sit there and eat dinner and not feel yucky.. even if it's just a salad...

One thing I did do was let coffee back into my system. It's decaf, but still, I caved!! ..I drink coffee creamer with it, but use stevia to sweeten it. I know out of it all, the coffee creamer is the ultimate bad guy.. I just don't know what else to use. I cut out dairy a while ago and I like the creaminess that coffee creamer adds. I've tried using coconut milk (the real stuff from the can), but it overpowers the coffee too much. I love the taste of coconut, but not too much of it. So drinking it black is out of the question. Too bad, because I drink my tea black.. wish I enjoyed my coffee like that too. Eh, oh well. It's one of life's small pleasures. I don't intend on drinking it everyday. I'm still drinking my herbal teas, so if I have coffee, it will be more of a treat than anything.

I've pretty much been sticking with drinking the same juices. I'll have either the Anything But Basic Orange Juice or the Citrus Banana for breakfast. My snack or lunch depending on my day, is my version of Mean Green. I make a double batch of that so I can have it later in the day too. For my snack at night, I'll have the Almond Banana Milk. Ohhhh... that is wicked good. To me, it's like a dessert! ..What's in it? - A little less than 1/2 cup of soaked raw almonds (I soak them overnight in the fridge and then drain and rinse a few times), 1/2 cup water (fresh, not the water the almonds were in), 1 small banana, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add it all to the blender and whirl away. The blender pretty much grinds down the almonds, so I don't bother to strain it. I like it with the almond bits in it anyway :) It's sooo yummy, a good one to try and you don't even need a juicer!

I've been doing a lot of thought over the last few days and have decided to finally go for goals of mine that I had only dreamed about. Putting the wheels in motion and I'm so excited to see where it leads me. I'm being very vague because until some things start happening, then I'll share. Sound fair?! :) I'm kinda superstitious at times, so in many ways, I just don't want to jinx myself!

Well, I am beyond tired. Longer days this week caring for my nieces because my brother in law is currently in China for work. My sister gets out of work at 6.. so my days are about 10 hours long.. and it's mostly with my baby niece. My mom and dad have been helping out. They bought dinner for the girls tonight before my sister got home, so it relieved me a little early. So, what did I do with the extra time? ...Hit the local dive bar? ..nahh  ..Hustle a game of pool? ..nahh  ..Go streaking? ..Uh, hells noooo!!! ..I went right to prepping a whole bunch of produce for juicing my juices for Wednesday. Plus, I put salad stuffs aside and made my homemade salad dressing as well. I hope to have a small salad for dinner and maybe a piece of fruit. Then Thursday, I plan on eating a little more. I have to make sure that I'm taking in enough food by next week because I begin my first round of Body Beast on Monday, April 1st with a challenge group that I put together on facebook. You can read all about it by clicking on the Fitness Challenge Group tab. There's a link on the page that will take you directly to the event page.

Well, this chickie is exhausted.
Night, all! <3

Juicing Day.... Ahhhh... I lost track!

Things went a little out of sorts for me and my family on Wednesday night.
I had the scare of a lifetime. My mom called for me and was having incredibly bad chest pains and she couldn't breathe. Called 911. The ambulance got here, but beforehand, she had worked herself up so much that she started seizing (she has epilepsy). The fire and paramedics got her stabilized but she kept having seizures in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

We get to the ER and for someone coming in with chest pain and seizures, they were incredibly lax! ..I was very pissed off. It wasn't crazy busy in that ER either. At this point, my mom was still having seizures and she was in one that she wasn't coming out of, not matter how much we talked to her and tried to get her to focus. No pillows, nothing to pad her arms and legs when they flail. I was doing a slow burn. Almost an hour later the ER doctor finally made an appearance. Told him what was going on.. all the usual stuff you go through in the ER. He said ok, well we'll get something to help calm seizures, and he shuffled off. A couple of minutes later a nurse came in with the seizure meds and gave it to my mom through her IV. I simply asked if it would interfere with her heart meds, she didn't even look at me and said in a snotty tone, no. Okay, then. One thing to know about me is that I understand the medical profession and I know that they have tough jobs to do, so I stay out of the way and don't hover. Lord knows that I've spent countless hours in hospitals since I was kid with all the illnesses in my family, ranging from my grandparents to both my parents. Sadly, hospitals are not a foreign place for us. HOWEVER, if I have a question and it pertains to my mother or any other family member who is ill, I'm gonna ask. Just don't piss me off, because you're gonna hear about it. Ms. No Personality Nurse then went off to finally get some pillows.

So after a round of tests... EKG, blood work. Everything came back okay relating to my mom's heart but they wanted to keep her and monitor her especially with the seizures. So, the next waiting game began. It was after midnight when they had the room ready for her to go up. Mind you, this was 6 hours later. My dad and I went up, helped get my mom settled and got home close to 1:30 am. Long night. But given her condition, I was relieved that she would be monitored overnight.

Went in the following morning on Thursday with my dad. The doctor scheduled a stress test for my mom. That took over three hours. Her test was in the afternoon and she was wiped afterwards. The doctor decided to keep her an additional night. Went home, fed my cat and returned to the hospital for a couple of more hours. Found out that the stress test came back negative, thank God. She was released late morning on Friday. My dad went to pick her up and I had a regular day of caring for my nieces.

Very happy that she's home, but things need to change for her. She NEEDS to stick with a cardiac diet as my dad had been (still should be). And she NEEDS to move more. She is also having follow up appointments with her cardiologist and neurologist.

I want more than anything for my parents to be healthy. They mean the world to me, but only they can make the changes for themselves. I am here to help as much as possible and they know that they have my support.

Sooooo..... juicing through all of this?? ..Well Wednesday night (Juicing Day, 12) when it all happened, I had my usual juices throughout the day, but I got messed up at night. I only had water with me and ended up buying an iced decaf coffee. When it was getting late, I was seriously starving. I got home and ate a banana with a little bit of natural peanut butter.. I was starving so much and couldn't run the juicer because of how late it was. The banana was tough to eat. I felt like it didn't digest well and felt a heaviness in my chest. Not to mention, that I filled up very quickly on it.

The following morning on Thursday (Juicing Day, 13), I did juice my breakfast and some green juice for later, which I took with me to the hospital. Thursday was an all juice day.

Friday (Juicing Day, 14) was an all juice day, except at night around dinner time, I tried eating another banana and felt okay.. so I had another one with a little bit of natural peanut butter again. Bad idea. I felt that tightness in my chest again. I was very uncomfortable.

So, up to speed now and it's Saturday (Juicing Day, 15). I have had just juice today and feel better. I've realized that introduction to chewing my food is going to be a lot tougher than I thought. My stomach must have gotten smaller because I get full very quickly. It's now 5:30 pm and I've only had 2 juices. I've been feeling very down today and have not had much of an appetite anyway. I do have to run a couple of errands because I am completely out of food.. I hope that my energy level can get up there. Gonna suck down as much water as I can.    

This is such a long post.. so I'll end it now. I may write later, or not depending on my mood. I really just want to rent a movie and cuddle up in a bunch of blankets. I've been wicked cold lately.. can't seem to get my body temp up.

This looks sooo cozy... really want to make one :)

Juicing, Day 11

Hmm... how do I sum up today?
Well, it felt like food was all around me and I felt like it was watching me!

I didn't cave, I drank my juices as usual along with a gallon of water and a couple of cups of herbal tea.
In some ways I'm sure it's mental, but I'm wondering if my body or my belly is trying to tell me something like... "hey, yeah... ya know this juice is all great and stuff, but I really miss the CHEWING part!!" ;)

Along with taking care of my nieces, I moved a lot today. I had to shovel twice.. heavy, wet gloppy stuff and then later after my day was over, I got a moderate kettlebell workout in. Two rounds of a tabata style. Felt really good and I did break a sweat.

After that, I juiced my juices for tomorrow and cleaned up. It's a lot of work to do it in batches.. the fruit and veggie prep, juicing and then the clean up. Takes a bit of time, but it's worth it.

OHHHH.... Almost forgot, I have big news.. well, big for me anyway! ...One of my bestest friends signed up as a coach last night through Beachbody. My other dear friend, Matt is a coach on my team as well. So this means that I'm no longer a plain 'ol coach... I'll be an EMERALD coach!! ..That is really huge for me and I'm so grateful to have them both!! :)

Emeralds are beautiful stones.. my fave. It's also my birthstone :)

Night, all! <3

Juicing, Day 10!!!!

WOOT!! ..Made it to Day 10! ..That was my secret goal. 3 days was my first goal, but I'd really hoped to stick it out to 10.. so happy that I have :)

I plan on continuing on. Not sure for how many more days, but as of now, I'm thinking 5 more days. This could all change because one day I could wake up and be really tired of doing this... though I don't foresee that, because I feel really good. In some ways, I feel as if the longer I do this, the longer I'll stay away from the foods that I crave which are bad for me. I know coffee isn't terribly bad, but it's not really good for you either. I'll write up a separate post just on that subject. The other craving that I get is popcorn. I love the salty crunch... and it goes great with an iced coffee or hot coffee.. that was one of my favorite relax-in-front-of-the-TV-type of snacks. Well, I've been 10 days without it and *hopefully* if I continue on, I won't want to go back to eating it after this detox is over with.

No workout for me today. No excuses, just ran out of time and sleep is more important. On top of that one of my fave TV shows is on tonight.. Being Human on SyFy. I only have a couple of shows that I'll actually make the time to watch and that is one of them.. so hooked into it!!

Night, all!!
<3

Juicing, Day 9

Day 9 went really well.
It was Sunday, my dad's birthday and also St. Patty's Day!

My oldest niece, who is 11, baked the cake for my dad.. it came out so pretty!
Everyone enjoyed the cake, including my baby niece. It smelled really good, buuuuuuut I didn't have a piece.
In so many ways, I felt really bad, like I was breaking a birthday ritual in our family or something. Honestly it was very easy to tell them "no thank you, I can't eat any right now." They understood and didn't give me a hard time. But still, I felt bad. It would probably had made me really sick even if I had attempted to eat a piece. I know when I come out of this detox, I have to gradually work my way into eating whole food again.

Anyway, it was another day of juices for me :)
I had my usual herbal tea in the morning. My breakfast juice was a Banana Citrus Smoothie.. really yummy! ..My late morning snack juice was my Mean Green version. (by version, I mean that I followed the Joe Cross recipe, but I also add 2 pears and when adding kale or spinach, I lightly steam them to kill off some of the goitrogens) I have Hashimoto's, so eating goitrogenic food, like kale and spinach raw is not healthy for me. It can cause a goiter and also interferes with my thyroid meds. I may be killing off some of the nutrients by doing this, but I want the added greens and protein in the juice. For lunch I had the Sunset Blend juice, dinner juice was more Mean Green and then I had a Coconut Berry Smoothie as a snack early evening. my first time making this.. it was delicious. I made it with freshly made coconut milk. - 1 cup water, 1 cup unsweetened organic coconut flakes.. whirled it my bullet blender knock off and voila! ..Coconut milk! ..I did this twice and each time I had to strain it through a fine mesh strainer. (I didn't have cheesecloth on hand). The ingredients for the smoothie - 2 cups coconut milk, 2 cups raspberries (i used half frozen raspberries, half frozen blueberries), 1 banana. Blended it all in the blender and then I added I TB of chia seeds. When I made it, I wasn't ready to drink it yet, so I put it in a container and let it sit in the fridge. The chia seeds made it a lot thicker. Very Berry tasty! (yeah, I know that was wicked cheesy.. lol!)

I did workout yesterday as well. Changed things up a bit by working out as soon as I woke up in the AM. I warmed up, then walked for 3.20 miles and did my usual post workout stretches.

It's already day 10 and I am so excited that I've made it this far... more to blog about today a little later. Later Gators!!! :)

Juicing, Day 8

Wow, Day 8 is actually over with and soon onto day 9!!

It still amazes me that I have come this far. I initially thought I'd only be able to last 3 days, but holy cow, I'm closing in on day 10 soon :)

Today has been much of the same routine as the days before. I had my Anything But Basic Orange juice this morning, my version of the Mean Green juice, a vegetable juice that tastes much like a V8 but a little sweeter due to the apple I added. It's called Salad in a Glass. It's very good :) When I was making it, I snapped a photo because it was so pretty!

I had another Mean Green after this juice and my dinner juice was a Beet Smoothie. Very yummy! ..I snapped a photo of this as well.

The Beet Smoothie has 1 large beet, 1 apple, 1 cup frozen mixed berries, 1 banana and about 3/4 cup water. After I juiced the beet and apple, I added the juice to the blender along with the berries, banana and water. After it was blended I added 1 TB of chia seeds. Stirred in the seeds and let it sit for a good 20 minutes. I'll definitely make this one again :)


I got a great workout in this afternoon. I had a lot of energy.. walked for a little over 3 miles... total of about 50 minutes. Did a bunch of jumping jacks, a bunch of front kick to lunge combos and then my post workout stretches.

Off to bed.. Night, all <3

BODY BEAST!!!

I received my Body Beast program on Thursday! ..Yay! ..I'm looking forward to jumping into this after my juicing detox. I ain't skeeeered!!! ..Honestly, I was when this workout first came out. I thought, "oh this is for guys who want to seriously bulk up." But, I've already seen a lot of women who have completed it and they look fantastic! ..Not bulky like a guy (women naturally don't have enough testosterone to bulk). If you see a woman, for example that is competing in bodybuilding, like the physique category.. it's almost certain that she's using something illegal to get THAT big. When women lift weights, it creates nice lean muscle mass. Ladies, that's what you want! ..Of course if you eat a lot and supplement like crazy, then you will bulk, but in a different way. That is a direction that some athletes take who train for competitions. It's the bulk phase. Bulking is adding a whole bunch of muscle that isn't completely revealed yet because there is a layer of fat. The cutting phase is to reveal all of the muscle that has been put on and to reduce body fat ..This is when the leaning out happens. Food intake is cut way back and cardio is increased. At that point, all of the hard work of putting on the muscle will be seen because the body dips down into a very low body fat percentage. It takes discipline, a lot of hard work, science and coaching to get to this point. The average person does not need to do this to get into great shape. The similar effect could happen over time with a solid workout program and eating as clean and healthy as possible.

Btw, if you don't already know this about me, I am a coach for Beachbody. YES, Shakeology tastes delicious and YES, their workout programs work!! ..Just in case you were wondering :)

I've done most of Tony Horton's workouts. 10 Minute Trainer, Power 90 and P90X. I have also worked out to Debbie Sieber's Slim in 6 and her Slim Series, which continues on after completion of Slim in 6. I began years ago with my very first order from Beachbody and that was Turbo Jam. I still have it and my sister has used it as well. I also have worked out to ChaLean Extreme, but did not complete the whole program.

I'll be putting together a challenge / accountability group together soon on facebook. If you're interested in joining, please feel free to friend me here on facebook and let me know that you're interested. I'd love to hear form you! - Orrrr if you're BEAST enough to order it now from me or any other workout program, you can click here to go directly to my coach page!

Here is what comes in the basic kit: