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:

Juicing, Day 7

This is gonna be a short post, because I'm super duper tired, but I'll give the run down of the rest of my day today :)

I drank 6 juices today! ..I think that's the most in one day so far. They were all really good and it helped to keep my energy levels up. Along with getting in my gallon of water and herbal teas also.

After taking care of my nieces, I had a bunch of errands to run. One of those errands was grocery shopping. Very much needed because I was completely out of food ..I bought a bunch of produce for around $38  -and that being both fresh veggies and fruit. Fruit can be kind of expensive around here, but I shop at Market Basket and so far their prices are even lower than Walmart Supercenter prices! It should (hopefully) all last me until at least Monday.

I made almond milk tonight after I had finished up with juicing some juice for tomorrow. Earlier, I had soaked 1/2 cup of raw almonds .. left them in the fridge for about 3 hours. Rinsed them well, then added 1 cup water, the almonds, 1 banana, cinnamon and nutmeg to my blender. At first, I was going to strain off the almond bits, but decided to leave them in because they blended very fine. It tasted soo good and was a nice "treat" to have tonight while watching "Grimm" :) The fat from the almonds help to keep me full and I don't get hungry throughout the night or feel like giving in to cravings.

No workout for me today. Ended up being too busy and exhausted.

Night all! <3

Juicing, Day 6

Once again, I skipped a day blogging... oops! ..Well, sleep is more important to me right now and I had a lonnnng day yesterday.

So, to recap yesterday.
My day began the same as it has for the past week. When I first wake up, I have a mug of warm lemon water with a little bit of stevia. Then a little later I'll have my cup of herbal tea. I had chamomile yesterday.

Drank my morning juices along with a bunch o' water. Took my supplements as well.

I kept drinking my juices throughout the day.. had a Banana Citrus for breakfast, my version of Mean Green late morning and for lunch I had the Sunset Blend juice. Later in the afternoon I had more of the Mean Green juice.

Was a bit hungry after my day was over taking care of my nieces, so as soon as I could, I started juicing my dinner juice - as well as the juices for the following day.

The day started out well, but ended up feeling really long. It was a bit challenging and let's just say stressful and aggravating. Most of it was due to my baby niece. She'll be two at the end of April and I've been caring for her since she was a couple of months old. She has her days when she is very whiny and yesterday was one of them. Since she was born, she's been a firecracker and she's VERY high maintenance to say the least. ..I love her to pieces, but she knows how to push my buttons!

Anyway, that day is over with and it's a new one.. so far so good....

I did get a workout in. Walked 2.30 miles on my treadmill and did my usual post workout stretches. I actually felt like running, but held back. Even though it was later at night, I really needed it. It helped me big time to tune out to the music on my ipod and de-stress from the day.

Gotta run... will be blogging later. Can't believe I've made it to 7 days!!! :)

 

Juicing, Day 5

Wow, I'm very surprised that I have made it this far!

Busy day, but very surprised at the amount of energy that I had to get through it. At times, I do feel little hunger pangs, but when I do, just like if I was chewing my food, I would simply eat.. so I grab some juice or water or tea :)

Changed my blog look once again.. wasn't too crazy about the other one.

I didn't workout tonight, although I did yesterday and forgot to mention that in the last post. I walked for 2.50 miles. Tonight, I just didn't have the energy. After my day was over, running a couple of errands, juicing a whole bunch and then cleaning up.. I was wiped!

My belly has felt a little funky the last couple of hours, so I think I'm going to call it a night. The extra sleep really helps. Along with doing this detox, I've also been staying on a good routine of getting to bed as early as possible.

Sweetest of dreams, all!
Night <3

Juicing, Day 4

Whooops... yeah, it's now almost noon time on Wednesday and I'm just now getting to write about my day yesterday. I was so exhausted last night and didn't even go near my computer, not even for facebook.

My day yesterday was good! ..Kind of the same as the day before.. I've started to fall into a routine.. which is really good for me :)

I did weigh myself yesterday morning - and to not jinx myself, I'm not saying the amount that I lost. But it was a big shock to me to say the least, especially where I was thinking that I hadn't lost anything! ..Today, I'm starting to feel it in my clothes.. they're feeling a bit looser.

I'm going to continue doing this indefinitely. Basically when I feel like stopping.

This juice detox/fast/cleanse/whatchamacallit! has helped me in many ways.

~ I haven't had coffee (decaf) in 5 days.. which is huge for me! ..Not sure if I'll go back to coffee, but I'll need to find an alternative to what I put in my coffee. I used to use coffee creamer. I haven't had dairy in weeks, so wasn't using cream. I don't want to go back to putting those nasty chemicals in my body again from the creamers.. so coffee just may be out.... permanently!

~ At times, I would eat too late at night before bed. That has stopped.

~ I seriously was addicted to popcorn... it's been great to have broken that!

~ I feel really good knowing that what I'm putting in my body is free of chemicals.. just whole, natural raw food.

~ When I'm done with this detox, I'm still going to keep juicing. Replace one meal with it and then I hope to be on a completely raw diet.

~ I hope that the affects of this detox have helped to somewhat heal my body. It would be so great to be med free and have a healthy, functioning thyroid :)

Later taters, until tonight when I blog about today....

Juicing, Day 3

So I initially sought out to do this for 3 days. Now that I'm feeling pretty good, I'm going to continue it indefinitely. Basically until I get bored with it! ..I'm aiming for 6 days first, then hopefully for 10!

I felt like I had more energy today. Didn't wake up with any aches except for a headache again. Not sure what's going on with that.

I drank all of my juices along with a bunch of water.. almost a gallon and have pretty much stayed with the ones that I've been making. I really like them and the variety.

Later in the day, I ran my errands.. Walmart and Market Basket to pick up more produce. I may have had enough for another day, but wanted to make sure I had enough on hand to make the juice in batches. So much easier doing it that way, like I mentioned in my earlier post. Plus, the juicer scares the bejeezus out of my baby niece. Soo, to make life easier I make them ahead at night for the following day while leaving my dinner juice to juice fresh.

Didn't feel foggy today, felt a little sharper in the tool shed! Which definitely helps with things like driving a vehicle, cutting with knives and oh yeah solving difficult preschool animal block puzzles with an almost 2 year old! ..lol!

Anywho, that was pretty much my day. I didn't walk today, kind of bummed about that, but I cleaned a bit today and the usual ins and outs of caring for kiddos. To say the least, I was active and not sitting on my arse! ;)

Well, Being Human is on soon ..Damn I love that show. But before I leave, I meant to post about using a veggie wash to clean your fruits and veggies with. I found a homemade recipe online and use it to clean my produce. Very simple.. Get yourself a spray bottle - Dollar Tree for a buck!, Vinegar, Baking Soda, Lemon Juice and Water. Recipe calls for 1 Cup of Water, 1 Cup of Vinegar, 1 TB Baking Soda and half of a lemon squeezed or you can use the store bought concentrated stuff. a WARNING though!! ..Remember the school science projects with the erupting volcanoes?? ..Yeah, that's exactly what will happen if you combine the vinegar with the baking soda first thing. My suggestion is to add the water first, then the baking soda, then the lemon.. swish it around a bit so the baking soda dissolves, then SLOWLY add in the vinegar. It will fizzle, but if you add it slowly it won't erupt on you! ..I keep mine in the fridge as well.

Juicing, Day 2

Yippeeee! ..Got through day 2!!

I forgot to mention in the Day 1 post that I'm also taking supplements. I take a multi vitamin, omega 3-6-9 (take that once at breakfast and then another at lunch), B12 sublingual strips and a probiotic.

So, the run down of my day today:
Woke up really early without my alarm, but ended up drifting off back to sleep. My body felt achy and I had a bit of a headache. I shouldn't be having any caffeine withdrawals because I haven't had any caffeine in a couple of weeks. I'm thinking that it's partly my body beginning to detox.

First thing, I had warm water with lemon and then made some herbal tea with added stevia.
My breakfast juice was Greens with Banana. Then I had a ton of water and lemon water.
My lunch juice was Anything but Basic Orange Juice. Drank more water.

Got another workout in. Walked again fro a little over 2 miles, did a bunch of jumping jacks and my post workout stretches.

I had my version of the Mean Green Juice after my workout, then took a shower.

Juiced again with the juicer to make my dinner juice and also my breakfast juice for Monday morning. I've been finding it much easier to make batches of juices. So much more convenient to grab from the fridge and go. It would be a huge pain in the arse to have to use the juicer to make each juice. Though, the juicer itself is very easy to clean and I'm super happy with it, I wouldn't want to be using it too much, plus it's kind of noisy.

I had the Sunset Blend Juice for dinner again.. really like that one and the Anything But Basic Orange.. super tasty!

This evening I had the rest of the Banana Cashew Milk that I had made last night. That is soo good.. if I could lick the inside of the bottle, I would have!

As I'm sitting here typing this, I'm drinking some chamomile tea and the rest of my water. Starting to feel tired.. the fatigue hit me the same time last night as well.

I felt pretty foggy in the brain most of today.. and also felt very lazy. I didn't nap, but didn't do too much either. I had errands to run but have put them off until Monday. I only had 2 cravings today. One was CAWFEE!!! ..Dang it, I walked by the kitchen when my mom was making some and it smelled sooo good! ..The other craving was popcorn. I had gotten so addicted to this stuff, it's bad, it's like crack to me.. though I don't know what it's like to be on crack, but I'm guessing it might equal my popcorn addiction! ..It hit me while watching Once Upon a Time (LOVE that show!). My sister was popping some in the microwave and the aroma drifted down the stairs and in MY FACE!! ..Ugh, it was so tough to not get up and make some. Btw, I make it on the stove top or air pop it in the microwave. I don't buy the bags of microwave popcorn. I kind of think it's like a comfort food to me because there are times when I crave something crunchy and salty. I don't eat chips of any kind, so that's where the popcorn comes in!

Well, that was another chapter in a day of my all too exciting life!
I feel pretty proud that I have made it through 2 days!! ..My goal was to do a 3 day detox/fast/cleanse/whatchamacallit!, but I may go to 10 days. It all depends on how I feel and my energy levels. During the week, I have to keep up with an almost 2 year old and an 11 year old!!

Night, all! <3

Juicing, Day 1

Today was officially day 1 of my juicing /detox/cleanse/fast/whatchamacallit!!

So happy to say that it has been a success (for the most part). I did screw up making a juice. It was supposed to be an all veggie juice, kinda like a V8, except that I put waaaaaay too many green onions in it. I mis-read the recipe and thought that it initially called for 3 bunches of green onions (scallions). I modified it to reduce the servings of the total recipe, BUT that wasn't the issue. I thought it read three bunches of green onions, soooo since I cut the recipe back, I put in 1 bunch. It was meant to be only 3 stalks of green onions.. not bunches! ..D'OH! ..Yeah, it had a very overpowering onion-y taste. I diluted it with water and even added more tomatoes but that didn't help. Oh well, live and learn, right?! :)

I felt really good today. Weighed myself (even though I didn't want to), but did it to see if there is any weight loss during this journey. I didn't have any unusual cravings. There was only one time when I felt a twinge hungry, so I had more juice. I drank a gallon of water along with my juices and had 2 cups total of herbal tea with lemon. I also got in a workout. Going very easy but still moving my body to help my lymphatic system. Since I don't own a mini trampoline, I did jumping jacks, warmed up a bit and then walked on the treadmill for 35 minutes.. a little over 2 miles. Got my usual post workout stretches in as well.  

Here's how my day looked in photos. I used the juicer twice today. When I woke up this morning, I made a cup of herbal tea with lemon and stevia and then got to work juicing. The second time I juiced, I made my dinner juice and a juice for tomorrow morning. 

My herbal tea this morning :)

The juices that I made today: 

Sweet and Greens Juice - Breakfast and Late Morning

1 Pear

1 Granny Smith Apple

Handful of Spinach (lightly steamed) 

Handful of Kale (lightly steamed)

2 Celery Sticks

1/2 Cucumber

Mean Green Juice (My version - inspired by "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead") - Post workout juice & Lunch

1 Granny Smith Apple

1 Cucumber

2 Celery Sticks

5 Red Leaf Lettuce Leaves

1/2 Lemon

1/2" Fresh Ginger

Greens Juice with Banana

Handful of Kale (Lightly Steamed)

Handful of Spinach (Lightly Steamed)

Handful of Romaine (already had some chopped up)

1 Kiwi, peeled

1 Granny Smith Apple

2 Celery Sticks

1 Banana - (Added the banana to the juice in a blender and whirled away)

Sunset Blend Juice - Dinner juice

1 Large Sweet Potato

1 Large Carrot

1 Red Bell Pepper

1 Beet

2 Golden Delicious Apples

1 Orange

Banana Cashew Milk - Drank half of this tonight. Very filling! Makes 2 cups

1 Cup Raw Cashews - soaked in water for at least 2 hours

1 Cup of Water

1 Banana

Cinnamon and Nutmeg to taste

Strain the water from the cashews, add all of the ingredients and whirl away. WICKED TASTY!!! :)

Anything But Basic Orange Juice - Breakfast juice for Sunday

2 Oranges

1 Apple

3 Carrots

1 Celery Stick

Yawwwwn.... off to bed I go.
Very sleepy!!

Night all!

Sweet dreams <3

Juicing Journey

Last week I watched the documentary, "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead". For some reason I had never watched it and in the past it had always been floating around in my sights.. saw ads for it, friends would talk about it, etc. So on a whim, I decided, what the hell, I'll watch it and see what the talk is about. I honestly didn't have too much interest in juicing until I watched this film. I was completely surprised by it and it has completely inspired me! ..I'm on a health journey of my own and I'm trying to heal my body. I have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. It's an autoimmune disease and honestly can be a real bitch most days. It has completely messed up my metabolism, I feel fatigued quite a lot and mentally, I get very depressed and anxious. So, yup, I'm pretty much a mess! After seeing that Joe (Joe Cross) cured his own autoimmune disease by juicing, I figured that I have a pretty good shot of at least reducing some of my symptoms.


Sunday, I went to the outlet shops and bought my first juicer. I got the Hamilton Beach Big Mouth Juicer. Tried it out and it works great! ..I'm also fully stocked with a bunch of fresh produce that didn't cost much, surprisingly :) I hope to have enough to last me at least 3 days. I'm giving myself that much time, though I might extend it to a full week depending on how I feel. That's kind of my goal. 


Today (Friday) was going to be the first day of my juicing detox/cleanse/fast/whatchamacallit... lol! ..There are so many terms for it! Anyway, I had to run to the market last night to get the remaining ingredients. Came home and then did a lot of washing and prep. It was late by the time I was done and just wanted to climb into bed. So it officially begins on Saturday. That's ok, because it just gave me another day for my body to be used to all raw food. (My diet for the last 5 weeks has been mostly raw anyway).


I'm very excited to begin! ..I plan on blogging each day with my progress and posting more photos.

Joe Cross from "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead"