30 Day Juice Detox before and after the juice!

Post Juicing. How's it going?

2012-09-23T06:16:00.000-07:00

Hello my friends, it's been now about 3 months since my fast. I've decided due to the change of seasons. I will be doing a 7 day Juice fast to clean out everything and get a fresh start.

ABC Juice. Apple, Beet, Carrot

I still feel good, and I have gone back to eating meat again. Not as much but as we all have habits, old habits die hard. But the good thing is I do still juice at home and get juice at Whole foods all the time. That habit that I formed is still in me and knocks at my door if I skip even 1 day! I HAVE TO HAVE it! I still buy fresh veggies at the Farmers market almost every weekend. :) I'm glad that I did the 30 day juice challenge because it's really helped me develop my tastebuds to like veggies and fruits.

Also through this time I have gone back to working out. My foot problems are still there but I can no longer continue letting it take over my life and not let me live. So I started to do P90X with my husband. You wonder if I do it everyday? Honestly, no, I can't sometimes my feet are in pain and on top of that my entire body is sore so I sometimes skip a day or two. But I will commit to do it at least 3-4 times a week. Once I can regain my strength with my feet and body, who knows maybe my feet will stop hurting. I haven't gone back to the doctor because I know what my next step is. A stabilizer boot for 12 weeks. Six weeks on each foot, yeah that's not my cup of tea. I want to be able to go and do things and not be always sitting and relaxing my foot. Let's see what happens. I pray that working out will strengthen them and I will get better. Only time will tell.

I've also started (Today) drinking Golden Milk. This is a old Ayurvedic drink that helps with many different ailments. Here are some just for starts:

Boiling my 1st Golden Milk!

Joint Pain
Cleaning the liver
Digestive aid
Help reduce the risk of Alzheimer's or reduce symptoms
Prevents the build up of plaque in your arteries
Reduction of inflammation
Eliminates bad cholesterol (LDL)
Research it.

ALWAYS CONSULT A DOCTOR if you have severe medical issues. When in doubt just make a quick call and ask your doctor if you can consume Tumeric. :)

The list goes on and on. They say to ensure full benefits one should take this once a day or just before bedtime. It's all a learning to me and I actually liked drinking this milk. I made the paste and boiled 1 1/2 cups of Rice and Coconut Milked mixed together. Put the paste and continued to boil it. Added 1 tbsp of honey on the bottom of my cup and added the milk. I felt like i was drinking a exotic rich milk with a tad of sweet in it. I enjoyed it and to be honest I will try this for 40 days and see if I feel the benefits.

That's it for today. See you again real soon.

1 1/2 months later...

2012-08-28T17:47:00.000-07:00

It's been 45 days when I decided to make a change in my health. You may wonder do I still juice, have I gained weight? Am I eating more veggies? Going back to the same bad foods? Etc. Here are some true answers.

Do I still juice? Answer: Yes, I do, not 3 juices a day but at least 5-6 times a week. Or I stop at Whole Foods and buy a juice to get me "greens" in. I still make my mean greens, and mean reds and such. I am still addicted to juice. Which is a great thing.

Have I gained weight? Yes I have gain about 4 lbs back. Not bad, but at the same time I know if I need to lose it. I just go and do a 1 or 2 week juice fast and I know I will drop that weight and get back on track. I feel healthy, not lethargic or blah anymore. I have energy and if I don't eat right. I know I can fix that by making a super green, drink lots of water and for one or two days eat lots of greens. Doing that one knows we can cheat, just not go over board. I know what I need to do to fix it and feel better.

Am I eating more veggies? Honestly, I do try to eat more veggies, but I "drink" more veggies than eat them. I do like to make Kale Salad, Cabbage Crunch, and my awesome Avocado Mango Salad. Those are always in my recipe book. I am conscientious of what I eat and try to do more of a plant base diet. But I do enjoy my food. :) Hey I'm being honest.

Am I going back to the same bad foods? If you read my previous blog. I went back to my hometown and enjoyed some of my childhood favorite foods and restaurants. I'm not going to say I haven't had BBQ or Tacos. But I haven't eaten Fast food, like McDonald's or Taco Bell. I make sure I eat where the food is cooked fresh not processed foods. I balance how I eat, with bad comes the good. That's what one needs to do. Don't go overboard or over eat. Enjoy a little then go back to what your suppose to do. If you are at work, bring a apple, avocado, a bag of Spring mix and make a healthy salad. Put in a zip-lock bag, unsalted almonds, mint. green tea bags. Bring snacks for yourself so you won't snack on bad things. Don't starve yourself. Be happy and eat, make a better choice for you. that's what life is about.

In saying that, everyday I look in the Internet and find juicing recipes, learn about benefits of a fruit or veggie I haven't juice. I continue to educate myself to keep me motivated to stick with what I want to do. Every week I have someone who asks me "What's that GREEN Stuff your drinking? Why are you drinking that?" I tell them to watch one movie. "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" they watch it and next thing you know. I have another juicer buddy. Juicing is a great thing and I'm so glad to be part of a veggie revolution. It's a great thing and I hope that one day I could meet Joe Cross, and say "Thank you Joe for opening my eyes!"

Till the next time...

Last bit of my vacation Day 7-9

2012-08-28T17:17:00.001-07:00

As my last days in my hometown was coming to an end. I can't help to say that I was very happy to be back. So many times that i didn't want to come home due to weather, the neighborhoods changing, crime etc. My experience was quite better than expected. I found the beauty of this town and the cities surrounding it. Summertime is the best time for me to go, because I see the beauty of my home. I was so stuck with the wintertime. I forgot about the wonderful summers I had. On Day 7, I took my father to visit with his cousin, she served us a nice dessert and we certainly enjoyed it. It was a homemade peach pie she made from fresh peaches her son gave her. That was a treat. Had our regular juices for the day and it was a quiet time with my dad.

Day 8,

Lake Geneva WI

I decided to take my dad to a place he use to take me when I was a kid. It was Lake Geneva, WI, we didn't have beaches and oceans like I do now here in FL. So my father took me on vacations to WI, where there was a nice lake. Lake Michigan in the 80's was not a desirable place to go in the water. It had a lot of toxins due to factories in the surrounding area would dump in that Lake. Now 30 years later, they have stopped dumping and Lake Michigan is a beautiful Lake were everyone goes and enjoys it. Which I'm happy they did finally. Onward to Lake Geneva, it's about a 1 hour drive from where I was staying and I took my dad to a place called the "Cheese Box" where you can get fresh cheese made in WI. They don't call them "Cheese Heads" for no reason. LOL. We bought some snacks and continued our way to the Lake. My uncle tagged along and it was really nice to see my uncle and father spend time together. My uncle loved that I picked him up and took him everywhere I could with me. We walked around the Lake, through the shopping centers and enjoyed the day out there. Bought some presents to bring home to the family but most of all, we bought "Pate" from there. It's Liverwurst" I know, but they make it the best and I brought some home for them to enjoy. My son LOVED it. :) We left there around 1pm and the crew was hungry so we stopped at a Hot Dog joint that made the Original "Chicago Dog." I know what your thinking but I already had my juice and I wasn't going to deny myself this. It's been many years since I had one. I ordered for all 3 of us and boy did we love it. :) I must say my dad ate well during our vacation. He loved eating out and just enjoying things from the past. :) It was a great day.

Day 9,
Last day in Waukegan, we enjoyed our breakfast with the family and I went to get my last juice of the day. We had a great time here and I noticed down in the weight room there was a scale. Do I dare step on it? I did and you know what??? I weighed in at 157Lbs. What? I ate Pizza, hot dogs, homemade food, BBQ, hamburgers, and all you can think. I stayed the same. I was amazed. But in the end. I truly believe it was because of the juice. If I didn't find the juice places in Chicago, Libertyville and Lewis Food Market. I may have gained 5lbs or more. I give the juice the props for keeping me at my weight and allowing me to enjoy my food too. :)

That's it for this trip. Stay tuned for more info about foods, healthy juicing and much more.

Vacation Contines Day 3 - 6!

2012-08-11T12:28:00.000-07:00

Day 3

I woke up early in the morning and I was going to take my dad to Chicago to the place where my father worked and took me out when I was little. I thought, Chicago has to have a Juice Bar somewhere. So I researched a little and found a juice bar in Northern Chicago. I finally got some "greens" in me. Very expensive I thought when I bought my father, uncle and my juice and 2 exclirs close to $35. I was like MAN, that's pretty darn expensive. Regardless, I was happy to have finally gotten the juice to help me get rid of all the "fat" I ingested the last 2 days. After that we walked in Downtown Chicago and took my father to the Sears (now Willis) Tower. We walked through the beautiful windy city and my uncle just told all his stories and next thing you know lunch time is here. Where to go? What to do? I was driving on Lake Shore Drive and my uncle told me that if we continued on this road we could reach a little place called Tickies Belizean Cuisine.

I said to myself, I haven't eaten true Belizean food in a while. Why not? I had my juice today and my exclirs to take. So I decided to take my Tio (uncle), and dad there. Tickies was a small little joint right on the border between Chicago and Evanston. We went in and I felt like I was in Belize all over again. The smells of food was amazing. We looked at the menu and I saw one of my favorite appetizers. Garnachas, this is a tostada with beans, red sauce, cheese and pickled cabbage to be the topping. I got 3 of them and my dad and uncle digged in and they both said it reminded them of "home." That made me smile for sure. So we then ordered our lunches, dad had oxtail with rice and beans w/ potato salad. My Tio (Uncle) ordered beef with rice and beans w/ potato salad. I decided to order cow foot soup. This is a very good soup but is very filling so I couldn't finish it all. Take a look at the pics.

I tasted them all and it was absolutely heavenly. I didn't eat the rice but the soup was fantastic. Yes Cow foot soup is good. :) Belizeans live till 100 all the time because they utilized everything from their animals. Thankfully, I learned that when I lived there in 1994. After a wonderful lunch, we drove home. Relaxed for the rest of the evening because Day 4 is going to be new day.

Day 4,

My cousin told me about a Hispanic place right by my hotel that it was a vegetable place. It's called Lewis Fresh Market. When you look at the prices, you say "Is it that Cheap?" Yes it is. $3.50 for a 16 oz juice. It was an amazing , they were simple recipes but amazing tastes. I found my new Juice home and it was going to be very affordable too! I even got my dad into drinking juice everyday. The way it made me feel, and seeing my dad enjoy it better than OJ from a carton or from concentrate. We embarked a new tradition for us during our week of vacation. Check out the pics.

Here is a juice by Lewis Fresh Market. This is carrot, kale, apple, ginger juice

My dad and I enjoying our juice from a juicing bar in Libertyville!

Daddy drinking his ABC juice. Apples. Beets and Carrot juice. His favorite out of all of them. :)

Day 5,

This day was a great one due to I went to my uncle's house and spent the day with him downloading my family pictures from the past. My uncle has hundreds (possibly thousands) of pictures of family, friends, travels, everything you can think of. My uncle is a worldly man, and can he tell stories! That will have to be in another blog for you to all see. I spent 6 hours with him and for 6 hours straight my uncle talked with my dad. It was an experience, Can I say that I was tired, a little but I don't get to see my uncle everyday and my father doesn't either. So it was extreme but I do not regret it. Our elders always get left behind, and as many times as I talk to my uncle or my dad. They always say, "I'm bored here at home with nothing to do." Sometimes we take for granted on what we have in our elders now-a-days. They have stories, history of our grandparents and great grandparents. Things that when we were children we never wanted to listen to. Now that I'm 40-something, I want to know what my father did when he was young. Where my uncle went and traveled to when he did. It's amazing to listen to so many stories and here them laugh and reminisce through their past. It was a great day for my dad.

After that we went to Lewis Fresh Market, because while it's a great juicing place. It has EXCELLENT Mexican Food and CHEAP. I mean SUPER CHEAP! $1 Chicken Tamales, $2 Tacos, $3.50 Tortas etc. I decided to get a Torta with "Al Pastor". You may ask what's a Torta? It's a Mexican Bun that is about 8 inches wide and 4 inches tall. That is huge for me so I told daddy that we would split it. He said okay. So you ask what's "Al Pastor"? It's a marinated pork that is DELICIOUS when made correctly. Waukegan, IL is "Little Mexico" and you can get the most authentic Mexican food almost anywhere they have a stand at. You hardly ever get Mexican that is bad. So you ask why am I eating a pork sandwich? Because I'm home and sometimes you just gotta have something from home. Even if it's not healthy! For our drinks my dad had a Tamarindo Juice and I had my GREEN JUICE! So it easily balances me out with the favorites of home but also with the healthiness of drinking my greens. :)

Day 6,

This day was a pretty slow day for us, we went visiting family and such. We had our early greens in the morning and drove to different relatives homes. I was suppose to drive to the city but my father was not doing well staying with family while I went out with friends and family. So I decided to stay and my Godson, decided to do a BBQ, we had some carnitas with tortillas and hot dogs, with Turkey Burgers. I made some salad and portobello mushroom burgers for the family to try and they learned how one can still eat and enjoy great healthy food. :) Dad was content and happy to see me stay with him. I guess that's what counts now, that I spend as much time with him. He's 88 and although he looks good. You never know when he will be leaving us to meet our Heavenly Father. I felt good that night. :) Stay tuned for Day 7-9 and the final weigh in!

A week on vacation to my home state IL. How did I do??? Day 1 - 2

2012-08-07T07:52:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone, I'm right now writing to you from my hotel room. One more day here and I will be returning home. I took my father for his 88th Birthday to his long-time residence in Waukegan, IL. It's the halfway point from Milwaukee, WI to Chicago, IL. We are just a few miles from the beautiful Lake Michigan. It's been several years since I returned to the place I called home. Waukegan is a suburb and had very cold winters and dreary rains. Although this week we didn't have any rain, and it wasn't dreadfully hot either. What is Waukegan known for in food? Mexican, pizza, and BBQ. In Chicago, they are obviously known for their Pizza, hotdogs, varieties in food from Poland, Ireland, and many other countries. It's a huge melting pot in that city. So if you think I was a little skeptical if I was going to gain weight. You were right. I was DEATHLY afraid of it. So here is what I embarked so far food wise.

My first day in my cousin wanted to take my father out to eat at my dad's favorite Pizzeria. Quonset Pizza, now this is the place where my father would take me on a Sunday afternoon after Church. This was twice a month till I was in my late teens. They know how to make a pie. See to my left. I couldn't even get the camera out fast enough to get the picture of the whole pizza. It's that good. My father ate about 3/4 of this while I had a massive 6 pieces of it. I was like "OMG, I'm sooo gunna feel this tomorrow!" Needless, to say watching my father enjoy this pie with such joy and him smiling. It really didn't matter to me at this point. He was home where he wanted to be.

Day two,

Lake Forest Farmers Market

Our entertainment at the market.
A violinist.

After eating so badly yesterday, I went into my computer and looked for the farmer's market in our local area. It was Saturday, so I had to find something somewhere. Low and behold, I found one in Lake Forest, IL. Lake Forest is one of the richest cities in America. So I thought to myself. Wow, this will be great. I got up and ready to go and took my dad out to the Farmers Market, It was at the Train Station in Lake Forest which is historical in every way. It's still the original building and I believe it's preserved to make it a Historical building. What I realized is that veggies and fruits from IL are different. There was a gentleman that was selling "Non-GMO" corn. It's called "Mirai Corn" its grown in Harvard, IL. Click here for the website. I bought 6 corns for $4 and cooked them and let me tell you it was delicious. They are not big like what you see at the conventional stores but they are sweet and everyone that tried it was telling me "This is the best corn I have ever had." :)

I recommend if you live in IL. You need to find a Farmer's market and make you some of this corn. You will not regret it and what I love most is that it's seasonal. So it's grown in it's intended time and it's not being produced year round. AND it's grown and made in the USA!!!

After the farmer's market I went to pick up my cousin and we took my dad to downtown for a BBQ Competition. What I thought was going to be a great experience. WRONG, it was a private event and nobody was able to try the BBQ. :( Soo I went to the next best thing. Hillery's BBQ I went to school with the Hillery boys back in the 80's and one of the brothers were there serving up some tasty BBQ. It is sloppy, messy, but definately DELICIOUS! I always ate Hillery's as a kid and taking my dad there to pick some up was memories.

So how did my day go. Hmmm. BBQ for lunch, dinner was my dad's birthday party. What did they serve? Stewed Chicken, Fried Plantains, Rice and beans, Sweet Potatoes, and potato salad. AAAARRRGGGHHH!!! I knew it was going to difficult, but GEEZ, help me out! It was 2 days of eating pure comfort food. My belly was enjoying it but my brain was waving. RED FLAG, NEED JUICE, NEED VEGGIES!!! So after 2 days of this. Day 3 had to get better. Let's wait and see how my next few days go. I'll be back to blog more. Thanks for reading. :)

JC

Vacation time... Now what???

2012-07-26T18:37:00.000-07:00

My second week of juicing is coming to an end. I have kept the weight off which is good. BUT... This weekend I'm heading out of town with my father. It's his 88th Birthday and I'm going to take him home to visit the family at home. We are surprising him with party and we will be there for a week so he can catch up with everyone. I'm going to have to find a Whole Foods and see what happens. This will not be easy.

I do have a unfortunate update. I am having some medical issues, (juicing is not the fault) and they gave me some medication that one of their side effects is "increases hunger."WTH... Now how am I suppose to be good, and taking a medication that makes people get hungry. My doctor says: "Judy, you have to fight the hunger." I said, "I'm going home, where I ate the best Pizza, food, everything. Now your give me drugs to enhance my eating" OMG... I'll be blogging a bit more to let you know how it goes but I'm not at all happy about this.

Food wise, I'm still doing good, eating less, eating my veggies, and less meat. I haven't juiced as much due to time, stress, and getting ready for this trip. I will have juice tomorrow, they have a Whole foods there and I already told my family we must stop there! LMAO!

That's all I have today, not much, but I have alot on my mind, and just have to finish my packing and such. You all have a great weekend, pray for me. I need it to not EAT too much...

To your health and mine,

JC.

Almost week 2 off the juice. :)

2012-07-21T19:40:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone,
Tuesday will be week 2 off the juice fast, I must say that I'm still stuck on eating lots of veggies, and less meat. I weighed myself last Tuesday and I was still at 158 lbs. Which was great because that means what I'm eating now is actually working with my body. One thing I am amazed about that I'm not craving is soda. I think in my earlier blogs I have written about my addiction to soda especially Coke. That was my "CRACK" when I was stressed out or just dying to have something sweet. Since I've been eating now, I don't crave the fries that are frying at my job constantly. I don't crave red meat, and I don't crave soda. Not even soda water. What I do crave is avocado, garlicky kale, and cabbage crunch. What DA HELL has happened to me??? I almost feel like a vegetarian, but I still eat chicken, and fish quite often. So I can't be vegetarian, maybe a veggie lover. LOL. What's crazy is if I I don't have it (animal protein) my body does well without it. I'm amazed of what this fast did for me. Even my husband, although he can do without the "Mean Green" juice. He can't go back to drinking store bought orange juice or any type of juice. It's a good thing because I still make juice once a day. Mostly at dinnertime is when I make it. Weekends I make juice for my breakfast vs. eating breakfast. It's still satisfies me and I'm not hungry till lunch time. Dinnertime, I try to keep it as light as possible.

Same pineapple, now ready to eat!

My pineapple grown in a pot.

I want to touch on the topic of growing your own fresh veggies and fruits. At my parents house I grew fruits such as plantains, pineapples, Chinese plums, and I have two acerola trees, an avocado tree growing in pots. I am hoping once I have my own home. I will be planting my own fruit trees, planting a herbal, and have a veggie garden. If you never have done anything like that, you should definitely try to grow your own garden. It's a rewarding experience. Take a look at my pineapples I have been growing and let me tell you I ate one this week and used the leftovers for my morning juice. OMG sooo sweet to eat and added some great flavor to my juice.

Here are some of my pics of my meals and such for the week. :)

Remember I talked about the Apple Cherry Bake I made last week. Well I experimented on making those into a muffin type treat. I bought a Gluten-free muffin mix from Whole Foods, and tried making Apple Cherry Bake muffins. Ehhh, looks good, but tasted very bland. I got use to it and it tastes okay. I need to figure out the best way to make the batter taste better. I will keep experimenting. I'll let you know how it goes. I will find a way to make this an amazing muffin. Just wait and see. :)

Portobello mushroom before its cooked.

Most of you will know what type of mushroom this is. For those of you who don't know. This is a portobello mushroom (it's a grown up crimini mushroom) it's also known as the "steak" of vegetables. I never liked mushrooms in my life. Until my husband introduced me to them. He made me a portobello burger, just like a hamburger, but the meat was this huge mushroom. He marinated this with balsamic vinegar, spices, and a little bit of olive oil. Grilled it and put cheese on it just you would eat a burger and see the next picture.

Add caption

This is what you get afterwards. I used Ezekiel Bread and I topped my mushroom with fresh avocado slices. Did you know avocado is a great replacement for mayo... You can put cheese on it to make it savory and enjoy this sandwich. This will fill you up, I promise. My side I made some cabbage crunch, the dressing is simple. It takes 1/4 cup of olive/sunflower oil, 3 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, and 1 tablespoon of raw honey. Whisk it and chop up a cabbage and put your mix in there and voila you have cabbage crunch. You can add sliced almonds, pine nuts, or sesame seeds to flavor it up. It's up to you. This is a very healthy meal. You should definitely try it sometime. Send me a comment if you have questions or need help. I'm here to do that for you. :)

Today, I went out with my hubby and we were far from home to eat. So we stopped at Pei Wei, I wondered what could I eat. I found this on the menu. Rice wrapped lettuce with chicken, cabbage, carrots, and mint. With 2 dips to eat with. I ate 2 of these and took the extra one home. This was light, healthy, and it filled me up till I could get home. So for those of you who think you just have to eat salad. No you don't you can find healthy options. It's up to you to decide what you eat. :) That's it for today. Remember your health is not an option. It's your life, make the right choices and you will be successful. I'm still learning. Thanks for reading. See you soon.

JC

Learning how to cook w/ a healthy state of mind.

2012-07-15T19:31:00.000-07:00

Hello blog readers,

As the rest of my week has gone by, the weekend came and I was able to incorporate the veggies, fruits together to continue with my newer healthier diet. I feel like my stomach is getting back to normal and I'm no longer suffering from constipation. I know, TMI but it's the reality of eating after a fast. I tried to decide when is the best time to juice and I think what I decided is to juice in the evenings. Make a true mean green and have it at night with dinner. Since it states that drinking juice fresh after it's made. It's easier to do that in the evening, vs. making it at night and drinking the next day.

Avocado Mango Salad

While on my fast, I searched for recipes that i could make for lunch, dinner etc. What I found is that there are many recipes out there for anyone's pallet. It's not hard to change the habit. It's doing your homework before and executing it afterwards. My first recipe I tried was the Avocado Mango salad. It's a simple recipe and you can make changes to it as long as you keep it healthy. Here is a picture for you to see. If you think about what your eating, avocado has folate which is responsible to reducing the risk of heart disease. The mangoes have vitamin A, and many flavanoids, that can help prevent cancer. Tomatoes have lycopene; lycopene is a vital anti-oxidant that helps in the fight against cancerous cell formation as well as other kinds of health complications and diseases. It also contain tomatillos, which contains small amounts of anti-oxidant vitamins like vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin E. Further, the berry consists of flavonoid anti-oxidants such as ß-carotene, zeaxanthin and lutein. These compounds posses antioxidant properties and, together with vitamin A, are essential for visual health. In addition, Vitamin A is also required for maintaining healthy mucus membranes and skin. Consumption of natural vegetables and fruits rich in flavonoids helps to protect from lung and oral cavity cancers. I also put a diced apple to give it a crisp sweet flavor. Lastly, I added a teaspoon of sunflower oil and salt & pepper to taste and there you have a super-food salad.

Super booster Pizza

That's recipe will be in my diet for life, it's a great salad option. For dinner, I made a "Super Booster" Pizza. Check this picture out! This so good. Who knew how to make a pizza so healthy! This has 1 not so healthy item. The Sun-dried Tomato tortilla (Big Woop,) the rest is healthy. I put Roma tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, caramelized onions, balsamic marinated portobello mushrooms (my booster food,) feta cheese, fresh basil leaves, and mozzarella (Use very little.) put in the oven and in less than 10 minutes. I had this delicious, very healthy pizza. I became determined to create more things for me to eat that tastes great and good for me.

I saw another recipe from the Join the Reboot website and decided to try it out. This is called the "Apple Baked dish" take a look. I decided to make this dish in a cupcake fashion to create small portions. I didn't add the raisins and almonds like the recipe stated. I added pine nuts instead. I added cinnamon and nutmeg. Put them in the cupcake dish and in the oven. Forty-five minutes later my house smelled like I was baking a pie and this is what came of it. These were delectable treats that I can eat in the morning, or a mid-day snack when I'm craving for a sweet. What I'm going to try is creating this into a muffin-like item but make it a healthy muffin (No wheat or gluten). Not sure if I can do it but I will try and by trial and error I will find a way to make this a amazing muffin with all the taste but not all the calories. It will be super food, just wait!

Apple Baked dish

My next dish was one for the books. I wanted to try fish again, but wanted to do something different. I made a paste with Miso, put in on the fish as a baste and put Panko flakes for the crust of the fish. Baked it and for sides I made my Whole Foods version of Cabbage Crunch and used the left over of the Avo-Mango salad, and this is what I got. My plate was perfectly how I wanted it: 1/3 fish, 2/3 veggies. This is how one should eat. I didn't even care to have any rice or some type of carb on my dish. The panko was enough to satisfy the carb intake. It was a great dinner. My husband enjoyed it too. I guess cooking healthy has become my calling. As I continue to find new veggies to use. I will continue to cook better for me and for anyone that is looking to make that change. Stay tuned as I will be trying to eat meat. I'll let you know how that goes. :) Good night everyone.

JC

Eating again....

2012-07-12T20:09:00.004-07:00

Hello my peeps,

I can't stay away so here is an update of me getting back on track with my eating. My husband made me salmon, rice and asparagus (Tuesday night). It was good to eat fish, but I was wanting more asparagus than anything. The next morning (Wednesday) I had my Mean Red juice, and for lunch I made a Garlicky Kale salad with black beans. What's amazing is when I drink juice, it's like my body feeds off of it. It's almost like a new addiction I have. Same thing with the veggies, my body and mind loved the kale salad. For dinner my hubby made me some chicken and I made more kale with the dressing I made. If you look at the picture of that meal. There is more salad than meat and I wanted more salad than anything!

That's crazy to me, today (Thursday) I wanted to eat an egg so as I wrote about this awesome idea on how to make eggs. I made a avocado w/ a cracked egg in it. Now that was amazing dish, so amazing, I'm making it for my hubby for breakfast tomorrow. For lunch I had a seaweed salad and tried a spicy tuna roll. It was good but I still went back to work and ate the leftover kale salad I had and that made me feel better. Weird right? Before I would walk into the kitchen at my work and snack on fries, chips, cookies, etc. Now I just make my breakfast, get water, make lunch, get more water, and go back 5 to 6 times and get water. No desire to have soda. What's happened to me??? Did I just seriously break a habit? I'm going with this and seeing how long it takes me... One thing I am experiencing is constipation. Not sure if it's because I'm eating but I'm hoping it gets better because I don't like this feeling. For dinner I was hungry for veggies, so I marinated some portobello mushrooms I bought at the Farmers Market and my hubby grilled them and I sliced some avocado and sprinkled some mozzarella cheese and put it on a Ezekiel bread. OMGEEZ, the best sandwich ever...

If I am still continuing with this issue, I think my weight will be higher vs. lower due to the no movement in my intestines. Let's see what happens. I'll keep you updated. I have spoken to probably 1/2 dozen people and many are starting their fast and it's a great thing to see someone take control of their body and want to make changes. I'm here if you need me! Spread the word, make a difference and always remember. Never Forget, Live...

Good night for now...

JC

Day 30, I did it!

2012-07-10T20:37:00.000-07:00

Day 30 is here and I can't believe that I made it! It's been one crazy trip, ups and downs. Learning about what mixes and what doesn't. My journey will not end but will continue to grow. My blog will be every 4-7 days with pictures of what my new meals will be about. I don't want to use the word "diet" because it's not a diet it's a new way of eating. New habits, and new encounters of foods that will keep me healthy. I will give you progress of my workouts and anything new I try and find. :)
For breakfast today I made a Blueberry, red pepper, carrot, ginger, and cucumber juice. I was leery on the red pepper and I was right. Red pepper is strong, I think I would prefer to drink this with a tomato base drink and not with fruit at all. Although it's a sweet pepper if gives it a "off" taste from the blueberries and not a great mix. I also experimented today with aloe vera. I know this stuff is suppose to be REALLY good for you and good for digestion and such. I originally bought Aloe Vera Gel from WFoods, to help with my hubby's belly issues. He didn't like it and wanted to throw it out. I told him no, don't do that I'll drink it. So today I brought with me two oz of the stuff. I tried to drink it like a shot. OMGoodness, that stuff is NASTY!!! It did not want to go down my throat. I swallowed it and it almost came back up. So I'm in favor of throwing out the stuff. We both tried it in our juices and it just doesn't mix well either. Tonight when I get home. Bye bye aloe, aloe is good for burns, bruises on the skin which I will always use it for that but eating it. I can't do it. :(

For lunch today, I had a avo juice which was delicious. That kept me through my day until I got home. Thank goodness because I had no nuts or snacks to eat. The day when by pretty quickly as I kept myself busy. I came home for my hubby to surprise me with a nice dinner as a celebration for my 30 days of fasting. He made me salmon, asparagus, and red rice. It was delicious, but the one thing I realized was I couldn't finish the fish. Asparagus, gone, rice gone, but the protein, I got full from it. Which is good, but I still need more veggies for my day.

Today, I went back to my martial arts and took a class from a good friend. It was great to get back into it. Although, I am bruised all over, in the end if I keep up with it. (picture on left is my bruised thumb OUCH!!!) I will be stronger and will only help with my progress in weight loss and maintaining. It felt really good to do it so I'm kinda excited to keep up with it and see how far can I go. This will be my last day about the fast.

Thank you for reading this. I will continue my blog but it will be every 4-7 days with new recipes, pictures of progress and food. :)

Here are my before pictures: I think you can see the difference. :) It's a start. Have a great night!

Before

After

Before

After

1 more day! Day29

2012-07-09T20:20:00.001-07:00

Day 29, I remember day 1, when I decided to do this and couldn't wait for day 15 and on day 15 decided to do 15 more days and tomorrow is my last day juicing. It's been a ride and tomorrow is my last weigh in. At this point, I cannot assume that I'm going to lose more weight, but my goal is maintain and continue watching what I eat and incorporate my juice once or twice a day to get the proper nutrients everyday.

This morning I had a watermelon juice w/ ginger and orange beet BUT I added some aloe vera gel in it. Not bad but rather have it without it. If aloe wasn't so good for me I would skip it but it is that good for you. :)

Lunch time was carrot, blueberry, cucumber, and celery. It got me through the day but my body is realizing that this is almost over and I guess it can't wait to start eating again. :) I was hungry all day, I drank 4 16oz of green tea and nothing took away that hunger.

Dinner time made my mango & avocado salad and that filled me up for the night. I did not eat anything else.

It's short yes but it's late too. Tomorrow I promise a bigger blog for my 30th day. :) Good night peeps!!!

Day 28, 4 weeks over, 2 days left!

2012-07-08T18:10:00.001-07:00

It's unbelievable that I have been on this fast for four weeks. This morning I did a carrot base juice.

4 Carrots
1 Pint of blueberries
1 Cucumber
1 Apple
2" of ginger root

This was a very sweet juice so if you want to add some water, go ahead. It was very delicious, but a bit too sweet. Just FYI.

Today we went out for the day and no where near a Whole Foods or a Natural Food place to get some juice. So for lunch I did a soup, just broth, nothing else thankfully the restaurant I went to had that option. What what I realized that the little bag of almonds I had in my purse would come useful because that soup DID NOT FILL me up at all. I had to buy water and drink up because I was getting hungry after a few hours after lunch.

For dinner I did a kale, carrot, cucumber, apple juice which is one of my normal juices. I'm making this a short one and again I can't wait to start blogging my new recipes of food that I will be creating and sharing with you. Thanks to everyone that reads my blog. Have a great night!

JC

Day 27, 3 more days!

2012-07-07T19:35:00.001-07:00

It's Saturday and this morning's juice was a watermelon based juice. Here is the recipe:
1 Orange beet
1 carrot
1" ginger
2 cups of watermelon

I made a little extra than this recipe because I was visiting a friend and we were going to the farmers market today. I had my friend and spouse try the juice and they loved it. Going there we were able to discuss about my journey and how my new way of looking at my diet and what I eat is very important for me to continue my feat in losing weight. Although I have 3 days left in this fast. I have a new task of eating healthier and still juice. One thing is that I realize is that I'm the only one in control of how I eat. It's not easy, in no way am I saying everyone can do this. It takes times, and if you practice and teach your brain to do this. You can do anything. :)

For lunch, I went to Whole Foods and bought a Clearly Carrot juice and it was delicious as usual. I had a pretty active day because I spent a good amount of time with friends and my hubby and it was a great time.

Dinner time came around and we went back to Whole Foods but I decided to have a small dinner. Before when I would eat there, I would eat a lot of heavier foods. This time around I chose to eat this.

I got Cabbage Crunch, Garlicky Kale, and Raisin Tabouli. This was very filling. Now it's late at night, I did get a little hungry and ate a handful of almonds but now I'm good. I feel like I can go to bed without feeling too hungry. It's still a ongoing thing and probably will be for a while. One thing I am getting use to is drinking plenty of water. Water is essential to have in your body and I've had a past experience that prohibited me to want to drink water. (That's a different story another day.) Now through this experience my brain is now liking me to drink water and I can drink lots of it and feel great. I don't need sweet stuff in my drinks anymore. :) It's a great feeling. Day 27 is over and can't wait for tomorrow. Have a great evening!

JC

Day 26, Experimenting and it was Ehhh...

2012-07-06T18:37:00.000-07:00

Day 26 is here 4 MORE DAYS!

I can't believe it's almost over, this morning I made a different watermelon juice.

8 - kale leaves
2 - cups of watermelon
3 - stalks of celery
2" - ginger root

This one was a bit strong in the ginger but I liked the juice, my hubby thought it was too sour but he had it for lunch so I think the celery may have gotten bitter. Things one needs to think about when you make juice. If you let it sit for a long time the taste can change.

For lunch today I went to Whole Foods and decided to change up the usual I get. I was reading about the benefits of cabbage juice. So I got my nerve up and told the lady to make me a 20oz cabbage, spinach, collard greens, apple juice. Looks like my usual juice, smelled pretty darn good. One sip, OMGoodness, all I tasted was the cabbage and the apple. EWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!! I had the look that my friend had when she had the Green Monster at Whole Foods. It was not appeasing and gave no mercy to drink. I sucked up my negativity about this juice and I just chugged it down. I got to work and my co-workers saw it and smelled it and said, "I smell the cabbage!" I'm like Oh Geez, seriously did she have to remind me... But in the end I finished it and I don't think I could drink cabbage juice. I'll stick to cabbage crunch that they sell and eat it that way or my own version of coleslaw.

Dinner my hubby was desiring some type of fruit salad and asked me to make a guacamole for him. So I decided to try to make a Mango & Avocado salad. A few days ago I posted a picture of that salad with the recipe. So I didn't have all the ingredients and replaced some of them with some other items and it came out pretty amazing. Here is a picture of what I created on the left. Here is my recipe. (I posted it on Facebook and I already have people asking for the recipe)

2 - Haas Avocados diced (if you can get Haas then try to get one that is creamy. Do not use FL Avos.)
2 - Mangos diced
1 - tomato diced and take out middle with seeds
1- tomatillo diced
2 - tbsp of lime juice
1 - apple (sml) peeled and diced
1 - tsp. Coconut oil or sunflower oil
1 pinch salt & pepper to taste

Put diced mango, apple, tomato, tomatillo, and avocado and put them in your bowl. Squeeze 2 tbsp of lime over the fruit and mix lightly. Add 1 tsp of oil and a pinch salt & pepper to taste. Place in fridge for 10 mins and serve. Enjoy it because it's delicious and filling. My husband ate this bowl and couldn't finish it. He was full. It's very filling, it give you a sweet & sour treat with the smoothness of the avocado. Try it and please comment and let me know what you think. :)

That's it for tonight. See you tomorrow Day 27! Farmers Market day!!! :)

Day 25, helping others get started or through the veggie hump.

2012-07-05T18:39:00.001-07:00

Hello,

Yes I know, it's late, this morning it was my Mean Green juice.

7-8 large leaves of kale
2 carrots
1 cucumber
2 apples (sml)

The 7-8 leaves of kale made this juice SUPER Green, it almost reminded me of a wheat grass shot. It was very green but still had some good apple juice in it. Apple is so important when you use green veggies such as kale, chard, collard greens etc. I drank it with no problem and chose to drink a veggie juice vs. my usual morning juice. I wanted to change it up a bit because I wanted to see if my energy would be less by doing my lunch juice first. For me it was the same energy, I had my Mean red for lunch and the one thing I did experience was hunger earlier. Not sure why but I did.

One of my co-workers was having issues with his juicing so I had him come over to try my watermelon, beet, and ginger juice. Thankfully, he liked it and I told him my recipe so he can include beets in his diet. I also gave him my avocado juice recipe so he can feel fuller at night. I just hope things go good and he finishes his 30 days.

For dinner, I had a carrot, celery, cucumber, and ginger juice. Very good, and while I was cleaning the juicer, my husband pulled out the OJ in the fridge and was complaining how sweet it was. I told him that juice is not sweeter. He had me try it and it was very sweet, then he says to me "I got use to having fresh juice now." I love the fact that he preferred having fresh juice vs. buying juice. Which means I will continue juicing for him. Two thumbs up for the hubby!

That's it for today. Day 25 over. 5 days LEFT!!! I can't believe it.

Day 24, 6 days left!

2012-07-04T16:41:00.000-07:00

Day 24 is here and this morning, I had a strawberry, blueberry, cucumber, kale, celery and ginger. Here is the recipe:

Strawberry Delight

1 pint of blueberries
1 container of strawberries <You may think that it's a lot but it's really not, you'll see>
1 cucumber
4 celery stalks
1" of ginger

That's it... Add water if needed. It should make you 2 nice glasses of juice. I always juice for my husband and I. Honestly the blueberries and strawberries will only give you 6-8 oz of juice so the cucumber and the celery stalks should give you 10 oz of juice. :) Enjoy.

For lunch I made my usual Green drink. Here is my recipe:

8-9 Kale leaves
4 Carrots (if you have a fat carrot then just 1)
3 Celery stalks
2 Apples
1to2" of ginger (depends on taste)

Now that I'm going to end my fast, I will post my juicing recipes for you to try out. :) One thing that my hubby is noticing is that he is getting some gastric acid coming up during his lunch juice so today he broke his fast and ate something to see if it's the juice or is it just his stomach that may be giving him some issues. I don't know what could be irritating his stomach but I guess we will know soon now that he's eating again. As I spoke before about what my new diet will consist of, I've been thinking that kale, avocados, tomatoes, tomatillos, carrots and ginger will be a permanent part of my life. I'm going to see how fennel bulb will be with my recipes, because I think it will help my hubby with his digestion. That's just for starts. Today I was surfing and I found this awesome recipe that's called Mango Avocado Salad. Take a look at this recipe HERE. It sounds amazing, looks so healthy to eat. That's a meal in itself. So I took that idea and for dinner I made a Avocado Salad.

Why did I make a salad today instead of juice, 2 things, I wanted to eat to day and with these simple ingredients it's a juice, just eating it instead. :)
Here is what I did:
2 Roma tomatoes diced
2 tomatillos diced
1/4 of a Serrano pepper diced
a tiny bit of diced onion
2 cloves of garlic diced
1 avocado diced
1/2 lime squeezed in the bowl
salt & pepper to taste

Mixed it all up and mashed the avocado just a little bit. and this is what you get!

It was so good, and it filled me up nicely. Day 24 is over. Need to juice for tomorrow. See you then!!

Day 23, 3rd Weigh in!

2012-07-03T18:22:00.001-07:00

Day 23.

It's weigh in day, I didn't know what to expect and honestly, I wondered if I would even lose any weight. This morning I drank my 16 oz of water and I went to see my friend the scale and to my surprise. I did lose 2 more lbs! I was happy to see that the juicing is still working. I wish there was a way to see how my insides were doing? Are they cleaner, leaner, is my systems functioning better? All those questions run through my head constantly. Especially now that I'm in my 40's, the older you get the more you worry about how your health is doing.

It's was a trial and error day. My morning was my favorite, I had my Mean Red, watermelon, beet, and ginger. This morning a only had 1/2 of it and put water in it to see if it would fill me up and it did! Thankfully. For lunch I made a carrot based juice, carrots, kale, celery and 2 apples. It's become a usual to have a green juice for lunch. I taught myself not to be sad when someone was eating a hamburger with fries in front of me in the office. I just tell myself, all that grease is going straight to their arteries, and drinking it down with a soda. All that corn syrup, and pink slime grease going into your body. I started to feel sorry for them, because their young and they have no idea what they are doing to their bodies. While on a good note, last night I received a text late last from a friend. Her boyfriend and her watched "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" and she texted: "I'm watching the movie and I want to juice for 30 days like you!!!" I get so excited when I hear people tell me that they watched that movie and get motivated to take the plunge into something that is so good for their health. My boss who is the "meat and potatoes" guy today tried my watermelon juice and told me. "Not bad, you can taste the vegetable in it but it's good, not sure if I can do 30 days." I was just happy he tried it. All it takes it just a taste to let them know that it's not all that bad. On the other hand, I have another person who is juicing and is struggling with it. They cannot drink the greens because they have never ate vegetables before. So what do they need to do? Start slowly and add them with good juice mixtures so they won't give up because it tastes bad.

Tonight for dinner I did a non-fruit juice. It was Roma tomatoes, cucumber, fennel bulb, 1/2 lime, and ginger. I never had fennel bulb before. What I realize is that it's more like a anise type of taste. It's clean, not bitter, not sweet, it's a celery-type veggie. It has a medicinal taste to it. Mixing it with tomato made it taste very clean with a aftertaste of the fennel. I guess it's something one needs to get use to. Unless you like that anise/licorice type taste. It mixed okay but now that I read this veggie is good with fruits. It's noted to help promote weight loss, cleans the blood, helps with nausea, and helps clear the skin. I think I will try the fennel bulb again a later time but use it in my morning juice. All I know is my mouth feels super clean and have no urge to eat anything. :) That's it's for tonight. Stay tuned for more tomorrow! :)

Day 22, I'm getting anxious.. :)

2012-07-02T18:53:00.001-07:00

Hello all,

It's day 22, and I'm getting excited that this is almost over, and figuring out my new diet that will continue from now on. This morning's juice was interesting because I made it yesterday after I made my dinner juice and I had juiced one garlic clove... NOTE TO FILE... If you juice garlic, take the blade and clean it before using it. It will come out in your juice. :( I had a Blueberry, celery, kale, cucumber with garlic. Eww... I drank it like a pro because when your in it like I am. You take the good with the bad! LOL... For lunch, I had a "B-Clean" juice from Whole Foods. It was Apple, beets, celery, and spirulina added. Very nice a bit too beety for me but it wasn't too bad.

I am so spoiled at Whole Foods, when you don't want to make your own it's just so easy to just drive there and get it fresh. My hubby spoils me the most by picking me up to take me there too. :) For dinner, I had a kale, carrot, cucumber, and apple juice. More kale than anything, it wasn't too bitter but it my hubby thought it was a bit "greener" than normal. Not every juice is going to be great. You'll have your days where you may have added too much of one and not enough of the other. That's all for tonight. Stay tuned for tomorrow's Juice day... Day 23 is DONE!

JC

Escali Ultra Slim Health Monitor Digital Bathroom Scale

Day 21, Last week of my fast.

2012-07-01T18:57:00.001-07:00

Cannot believe I have been 21 days without food, other than juice and nuts. Only a few times where I was in a "situation" and I still kept it fluids, and veggies. This morning I had a awesome strawberry, blueberry, celery and cucumber juice. It was refreshing, not too sweet, just right. Great bfast!

My Sunday was quiet at home, did the usual; cleaning, laundry etc. My lunch juice was "Clearly Carrot" from Whole Foods with the hubby. That juice by far is the best juice I've ever had from there. So refreshing, and it tastes like Orange Juice. It's named Clearly Carrot but you can barely taste the carrot. :) I hung out with a good friend to watch a movie. Speaking with her she talked about how her Endocrinologist told her that her thyroid is not doing well. She has to give up her Diet Coke addiction and no more processed foods, junk & fast food. She was looking sad, but she knew that I had been telling her to change her diet for a while. While I feel for her at the same time I'm glad that she realized that she really has to do this for her own good. She asked me if I can help her. Of course I said yes. Who wouldn't. I am hoping she will start juicing greens to hopefully help her cleanse. It's crazy how now that I'm doing things that some people cringe to see. In the end, I'm just making myself healthier and teaching myself to be a better me.

For dinner I did my favorite juice. Avo, but with a twist. It tasted the same no difference, just greener. :) Changed the avocado from Haas, to Hardee avocado. Hardee is a less oily avocado, if I have to choose again. I would take Haas, because I love the creamy texture I get for my juice. I added a zucchini and yellow squash, my usually tomatillo, tomato, one clove of garlic, kale, and celery. It was delicious as usual. :)

Yummy Green juice. :)

Day 20, Not so good day. :(

2012-06-30T17:40:00.002-07:00

Hello my dear friends, today has been a so-so day. It started great, by going to the Farmer's Market super early. I bought some kale, carrots, cucumbers, roma tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash and celery. Spent about $19 and left to go to Freshfield produce and bought some orange beets, bulb fennel, and avocado. Total spent was $26. Here the pic of my produce for this week. I decided to make a more veggie juice than a fruit juice this morning. Here is my combo. One orange beet, 4 celery stalks, 1" of ginger root, 2 cucumbers, and 1 cup of watermelon w/ rinds.

Orange Beet, more like yellow beet

Now I usually up the watermelon to take the taste out of the beets and such. But I wanted to try out the orange beets. So I used less, I juiced the beet and it came out super YELLOW. It was a beautiful color. You always should create a rainbow juice. Mine was going to be yellow, red, green today. I drank my juice with my hubby. Then the problem began, I started feeling my throat become scratchy, it was weird. I kept drinking it and finished it but I didn't feel so good. I didn't say anything to my hubby but when we tried to go out I noticed I wasn't feeling like myself. I felt weird, almost sick to my stomach. I drank water, and ate some nuts to get passed it but I wasn't feeling so good. :( We came back home and I decided to make some fresh guacamole. One avocado, 1/2 of a roma tomato chopped, 1/2 of a tomatillo, 1/2 of a lime squeezed, and garlic powder, salt, and pepper to taste. Mashed it all up and ate it like if it were porridge. I laid down and after 1 hour, I finally felt better. I'm wondering if it was the beet I put in the juice. I use red beets all the time and never had that issue. :( So when I use it again, I will only use 1/2 of it and see if my throat bothers me again. If it does then, I may be allergic to orange beets. :( That would suck.

For dinner, I didn't experiment, I made my regular Kale, carrot, cucumber, and granny apple juice. Hubby said it was sweet n sour. I told him it was from the granny apples. Thankfully, my throat didn't bother me this time. I guess because this is my last week coming in, my body is use to certain veggies. So tomorrow I will try the fennel bulb, zucchini, and yellow squash and see how my body likes it. That's it for today. Have a great night. If your looking for a juicer, here are some links you can check out. :)

Day 19, almost 3 weeks!

2012-06-29T13:43:00.001-07:00

It's Day 19, and its now seeming normal to have my juices and being around people that eat their regular food. Since I've started, there have been several people who also started this juicing fast. At first it was only my husband and I. Now, I have 3 co-workers, 1 co-work from Chicago, 1 close friend of mine, and 1 FB/old HS friend of mine that have either started or getting started. The thing that I love most is they are doing it on their own free will. Cleansing the body is something we all need to do if you are not a healthy person. You body needs it. just like when you clean your house, car, work outside. When you clean it up it looks nice, smells clean etc. When you cleanse your body, your skin glows, your more alert, you lose some weight, most of all you've cleansed your body from all the bad toxins. You just can't beat that.

Super Green Kale. :)

Carrot base, kale, bok choy, cucumber,
and Apple. :)

This morning my usual Mean Red but added a carrot and ginger, for lunch I used a diffent type of kale. I call it SUPER DUPER Green kale, why? Because it's really dark green and it does taste bitter, but I made a carrot base, added Kale, Bok Choy, Cucumber, apple and ginger for my juice and thankfully the juice wasn't that bitter. :) Tonight I will probably do my Avo juice. I'm out of veggies and tomorrow is Farmer's Market day!! I am going to try Orange Beets and see how those taste, to change things up and see what else I can experiment with. I'm making this one short since I wrote some novels this week. Enjoy your weekend and remember you can start a juice fast anytime you want. You don't have to do 30 days. You can do a 3, 7, or a 15 day cleanse. That's a beginning to a healthier you. Be blessed and remember you only have one body, it's irreplaceable, so take care of it.

Update, no avo juice today. Went to Whole Foods and tried a new green veggie, Collard greens! It was pretty good. I had Collard greens, Kale, Chard, and apple. Very good. I bought my hubby what they call Clearly Carrot, Carrots, OJ, Beets, and Celery. The guy was so nice he gave me the extra from the juice. :) Check out the pics. :)

Collard Greens, Chard, Kale and Apple

Clearly Carrot + 1 for me. :)

Day 18, What's your Crack?

2012-06-28T05:15:00.000-07:00

Day 18, last night went to bed late and had to wake up super early. No bueno (good) for me, it's so hard for me to break the habit and go to bed early. I really need to do that get at least 7-8 hours of sleep. That will be a goal for the next two weeks.

This morning had my usual mean Red, but with a little change up, added 1 small apple, and a cucumber, a large beet and less watermelon. Why less watermelon, because I need it to be more veggie, I tried it and it was a little "beety" but I was still able to drink it. So we will see how the tummy reacts to it. For lunch though, this may get tough. I made Kale, chard, cucumbers, celery, ginger and apple. BUT, I upped the kale, cucumbers and celery to make it a serious MEAN green. Let's see how it tastes later. Did I mention how important it is to drink water. I noticed that when I don't drink enough water, I don't go #2. When I do drink enough water, I got once to three times daily. I know it's kinda hard to just drink water all day.You can always make tea such as Jasmin, Green, Mint, Peppermint tea. Try not to use any sweetners when you do this. I know it's hard, I was one that always needed everything to be sweetened. Now I can drink anything without adding sugar to it. I was BIG on Splenda 3 years ago. I would use 5-10 packets in each water-based drink. When I did my first no-carb fast, I quit the yellow packets, it wasn't easy (see below about reactions of the body that was me) but I did eventually kicked the habit and learned that I didn't need to have everything so sweet. The one thing I hope to really kick the habit is soda especially COKE. That is MY CRACK that is sooo hard to kick. I guess it's the Corn Syrup I am still addicted to. I gave up the five whites: potatoes, rice, sugar, dairy, pasta etc. Soda is my venom, lets see if this will be the end of my miserable habit. :)

I need to get rid of this! BAD SODA!

Today I was on the JointheReboot website and was reading the forums to see if I could find a new recipes and such. I read about a person that was struggling to drink green juice. They asked for help. What I read was; they were doing more fruit (too much fruit) than veggie juice, and asked if that was okay. They also mentioned that their health was seriously declining and needed advise to help them get started. I gave them some advice about teaching their pallete to adjust to drinking the juice. I know that sounds probably a little stern, but you have to teach yourself that it's mind over matter. If you baby it, it will never happen. Thank goodness, two other people backed me up and said that the advice I gave was in the right direction. The person replied back that they will continue to try to add the greens. I hope they really do because at the end of the day if your health is declining. You need to make a change before it's too late. Again, it's only my opinion.

I can relate to what their body is doing: it is just rejecting it and doing everything possible to make you not drink veggies and go back to your normal eating habits. When people tell me they want to start juicing because they think it's somewhat easy. If you eat veggies, it's not such a bad transition. If you never eat veggies, like to eat fried foods, sweets, fast food and never really ate healthy. Your body is going to hurt all over, and feel head, joint, and muscle pain. Your going to feel like a crack head in a rehab (seriously some do feel like that); cold sweats, chills, maybe even the shakes may happen. One needs to prepare that you are going to feel icky for 3-5 days. Mentally prepare yourself that you will be a cranky, edgy person for a few days when you begin a juice fast.

In order to help people relate to someone who had some bad days. I have a link to a woman who blogged about her 1st week juicing. It's very different from mine, so I thought it would be good for you to see someone elses experience.

http://planetsarah.com/2012/05/16/reviewing-week-1/ ~ She has some serious medical condtions and she realizes that this fast is not about losing weight, it's about getting the body cleansed to help her lose weight in the end. Everyone gets caught up in the whole "losing weight" ordeal instead of trying to just eat healthier. I truly recommend if you are doing a juice fast to join a forum about juicing. If you don't want to join the Reboot website, join something to guide you through your fast. So many things can go wrong if you don't follow certain rules. That's all for now, I'll be back laters. Have a blessed Day!

Okay I'm back early to give an update of my lunch juice. It's a 90/10 veggie & fruit split. The verdict is: it's drinkable BUT, I taste the bitterness of the kale, the chlorophyll of the greens, and no sweetness of the apple. I bottled it up today in a glass jar and WHAT a difference it made. Juice is fresher. I'm texting my hubby to ask to take a pic of his juice to let me see if there is a difference. I'll update you on that shortly. :) Hopefully he hasn't had it yet. Although it's fresher, I definately taste the veggie side more than the fruit. Okay back to your normal programming. :)

Back again, not too late, I went on a bike ride to my dad's house today and I rode 15.3 miles. :) Yeeyay for me! Feet feel good, no pain and I didn't get as tired as I thought. For dinner today I had what's called the "Waldorf" at Whole foods. Kale, Celery, flax seed oil, and apple. It was good but the flax seed oil was "Ehhh" I didn't like it. I am a trooper though, I finished. it. LOL See below for more pics and get ready for tomorrow's juice. This type of kale is SUPER DUPER Green! :) Check it out. Have a great night! :)

Day 17, Benefits of H2Omelon!

2012-06-27T05:04:00.005-07:00

Good morning!

H2Omelon Mean Green Juice

Last night I made my morning juice, I wanted to try a mean green but instead of the typical orange or apple base. I decided to try watermelon, let me tell you, watermelon take any green and makes it sweet as pie. My ingredients were kale, chard, cucumber, carrots, ginger, and watermelon. I used a lot of kale and chard. The Mean green is GREEN I was a little scared to find out if would taste good. To my surprise, it tasted AWESOME! So to my fellow juicers, use watermelon and if you want to add some more green clean the rind well with a fruit brush and put the rind in it too! Click here to read about H2Omelon benefits of rind.

For lunch today, I made a less fruity juice, it was Kale, Chard, Carrot, Cucumber, and 1 apple. Normally I use 2 to make it sweeter. Like I said yesterday, I'm cutting out the fruit and try to make more vegetable juice. Trying to convince the hubby to drink my Avodrink, he's not convinced yet of how yummy it is. LOL... I went to the female doctor today and he looks at me and says "You look great Judy, what are you doing?" I told him I was juicing and he says "I keep hearing about this that it's something great to do" so we talked for a second about it and he says he has a juicer and might try the Mean Red. :) Also today, where I work we have a facility in IL that take our calls. Their is a lady that I talk to and emailed her my blog. This was yesterday, and today I spoke to her and she is going to start to juice. That's crazy! Someone that I've never met in person but basically talk to her on a daily basis is going to start her juicing to be healthy. That's AWESOME! I'm so happy to hear that from people. :) Everyday, people are trying to do things to be healthy. I'll be back later to give you an update on dinner. Toodles!

Hello again, dinner time, I decided to do my Avojuice minus the cilantro. It still was a great drink, although hubby called it liquid guacamole. LOL. He liked the taste but not sure if he could drink it. I just drank mine and all I can say is it really fills me up when I do. I bought some bok choy to try out juicing and it juices beautifully, will let you know tomorrow how it goes. :) Have a great night everyone. See you tomorrow! :)

Day 16, the weigh in.

2012-06-26T11:20:00.000-07:00

Hello my friends,

Today was weigh in day and as you can see I am down to 161 lbs. Which is a total of 8lbs lost. Not too shabby, especially knowing that I'm not exercising to much. I walked two times last week, and did some exercising at home. Nothing major, this week I will focus on more water, less nuts, and see if that jolts anything. I wasn't expecting too much on the weight loss, but I'm glad to see that I am dropping and not plateauing. Let's see how next week's weigh in factors in. I'll be glad to lose 16-18 lbs from this. The one thing that makes me happy is I feel better, and that's is key. I have a bigger appreciation for veggies and thinking of how to incorporate them daily once this fast is over.

People keep asking me how's your diet going? I keep explaining that this is not a diet. It's a cleanse, here is a great explantion of it.

This is how most diets go for the average American -- let's call him Joe...

Plan A: cut calories and increase activity. Ok, that sounds simple enough. After about a week or two, Joe will decide the one or two pound weight loss per week is not worth the hunger pangs, sweets cravings and grueling excursions at the gym.

Plan B follows, shortly after Joe person gets an invitation to his high school reunion and his ex-girlfriend's wedding reception. Plan B consist of salad, veggies, and more salad until he starts dreaming of cheeseburgers in the middle of his work day. Plan B usually lasts less than 24 hours -- followed by a guilt ridden, but jittery wait in the nearest fast food drive through.

Plan F: this is when Joe finally decides, "This is just how my body is supposed to look, and I'm tired of feeling guilty each time I eat a Twinkie. I'm never going to look like Brad Pitt!"

The problem with diets, and where they fall far short of nutritional cleansing, is in the following three areas: rapid weight loss, reduced/eliminated unhealthy cravings, and long term results.

Lets go over each of these in detail...

How does cleansing help you loose weight rapidly?

Believe it or not, cleansing is not actually designed to help you lose weight, but to assist the body in its overwhelming task of flushing impurities from your system. Your body actually produces fat to encapsulate impurities (toxic air, water and foods) that enter your body. Nutritional cleansing leeches those toxins from your cells and then, as a side benefit (and a very nice one, I will say) your body will let all that extra fat melt away quickly. When done correctly, you can expect to lose 5-10 pounds in your first 10 days of a good cleanse.

How does cleansing reduce cravings?

A healthy body craves healthy foods -- that is all there is to it. When you flush impurities from your system and flood your cells with intense nutrition, you won't crave junk food. Most junk food cravings are a sign that you desperately need a certain mineral in your diet. For example, when you are craving salty foods, like potato chips, you are most likely low on sodium or chlorine. A good nutritional cleanse will flood your cells with every vitamin and mineral it needs -- resulting in less or no cravings for junk.

How does cleansing help me lose weight long term?

When impurities enter your system, your body produces fat to coat these toxins. When you diet, you lose body mass, but you still have the same amount of impurities in your system. The effect -- your body senses increased levels of toxicity and goes into emergency fat production -- this is more commonly known as the REBOUND! This is why most diets help you lose weight, but almost inevitably, you gain the weight back, and then some.

When you choose to lose weight using a nutritional cleansing, your body sheds impurities which stimulates your body to release fat. There is no rebound with cleansing since the impurities are flushed from your system and your body doesn't need to produce excess fat.

Here are the facts: cleansing will improve your health and reduce your waistline more quickly than a traditional diet. Weight loss can be a frustrating experience, so take the guess-work and "hoping for results" out of it and start a nutritional cleanse today. You are guaranteed more health and less flab.

That's the best way it can be explained. What's also funny is today I get a call from someone who I worked with years ago. They decided after all these years to call because they heard through the grapevine that I'm in "Health Industry." Amazing how people think that because I like to blog that now I want to sell Health products. Needless to say, they wanted to talk to me about this new company, and how it's going to make me money.Etc. I stopped him right away and told them I wasn't interested, thanked them and got off the phone. I guess whoever read my blog didn't see that part that I am not interested in joining anything that involves me selling anything. I don't sell juice, I'm just sharing my experience from it. If you choose to join me, it's FREE. That's the way it should be. Join The Reboot is a free site that offers free information for people getting into juicing. Okay, done venting sorry. Back to the juicing. :)

Morning juice today was H20melon including the rind (yes the green rind), carrot, beet and ginger. Very good, I enjoyed it immensely. I forgot to bring my nuts today (BIG FAIL for me) and what I have been doing to stop the hunger pangs is drinking tons of water. I even brushed my teeth to get my mind to get off of it. It got me through till lunch hour. Lunch juice was orange, kale, chard, carrot, and cucumber. Very yummy! I am having some Jasmin Tea right now, my body is rebelling that I haven't had any nuts but today I guess is my true juice fast because I have had no nuts today. LOL. For tonight, not sure what I want but I'll let you know. Chat laters!!!

Came home to find out that out water has been shut down for repair and it could be 4-5 hours of it being shut down. No water, no juicing, where to go... WHOLE FOODS!!! Had my usual and a nice can of Coconut wata! Gosh, I wish I were back in Belize, cocos are always available for fresh coco water. I love that stuff. While I was there I checked out the produce and the deliveries of fresh produce was coming out. So I bought some really fresh Kale. I was excited about it, which is not a norm for me. My hubby and I spoke about how we should implement new meal plans and include nuts, and different greens into our diet. If we want steak we only cook one and split it in half, share meat instead of cooking alot of it. I was very happy to hear he is looking to change the way we eat. Oh of course we keep juicing, just not as much. :)

When we got home, I ate some nuts (not a lot) and the water was back on. Yeeyay! That means I could make my juice. Stay tuned for tomorrows juices! Take care!!!

Half-way there! 15 DAYS! OMG!

2012-06-25T17:12:00.001-07:00

It's Day 15, and I can't believe I've gone 2 weeks without meat, carbs, regular foods (with the exception of 2 situations). I don't feel sick, or deprived of food. The juices have filled me up, and snacking on nuts have been very important for protein. I'm making it. Now I'm going to do 15 more days to complete my fast and going to try other veggies these next two weeks. Juices will change up a little, try to do more veggie juices vs. fruit with veggies. I'm going to try to make sure that these two weeks are as cleansing as possible. I'll let you know how that goes. As far as this morning, I had my favorite juice... I got H2Omelon so I gotta make the mean red! :) For lunch it was oranges, celery, kale, ginger, cucumbers and carrots. But TONIGHT, I tried my V8 Avo drink. It was off the HOOK! Here are the pics! :)

Lime, Tomatoes, Tomatillos, Celery
Chard, Garlic, and 1/2 Jalapeno

Add 1 Avocado to the blender with
your juice.

Blend it, add a little salt and pepper.
Then ENJOY IT! YUMMY!

This by far was the best avocado smoothie every. If you like avocado, and want to make a veggie drink. This is the ONE! Here is what I did:

4 stalks of celery

2 Roma tomatoes

2 tomatillos

1/2 of jalapeno deseeded

1 chard leaf

1 small bunch of cilantro

1 avocado only put in blender once you make your juice!

The rest is history. Add a little salt & pepper and BAM! You got Avojuice. The best stuff ever. This makes me feel so good after I drink it. It's going to be in my menu this week again! :) See you guys tomorrow for the Weigh in! Gotta make tomorrow's juices! Have a great night!