January 2012

Well this month has gone by pretty quickly so I figure I should sum up the month before it comes to a close.  I started the month off staying strong as a non smoker in 2012.  I made it thru New Years Eve with my family and friends who are smokers and then headed home to enjoy the rest of my vacation time with my son. 

Early January found me back at work struggling to start off a juice fast on my own after being a fan of the FatSickandNearlyDead documentary film.  I failed on my first night of my solo juice fast and came home and found pleasure in my left over chicken quesadillas from the New Years Eve party.

I stumbled across the updated website for a blog I subscribe to – it used to be rawradianthealth.com, but she updated her site to radiancecentral.com.  After looking over the new site I discovered she (Natasha St. Michael) was hosting a 10 day juice fast that you could sign up for and it was only $20.  I signed right up and with her wealth of information had great success with my 3 day pre fast diet, 10 day juice fast, and 3 day post fast diet.

After the fast I was undecided about my future diet.  I was leaning toward a raw food diet because I felt so unbelievably great coming off of my juice fast.  I looked into raw cookbooks and vegan cookbooks and things started to get complicated for me.  A lot of raw food recipes call for dehydrators, high speed blenders, etc.  I didn’t have the money to invest in all of those things and with having an 8 year old son I knew that I had to keep my options open to include him on this journey. 

I continued to keep myself educated and stayed with a mainly raw food diet and definitely continued no meat and no dairy.  I had a taste of feta, pasta and imitation crab on my off day, but other than that I stayed strong as much as possible with my dietary concerns. This brings us to the third week of January and I found myself watching the movie Forks over Knives – another documentary – that I was referred to by one of the several juice fasters and their video journals on YouTube. 

Forks over Knives is a documentary about two medical doctors and their personal journeys and discoveries leading to the conclusion that food is our ultimate medicine.  Food and nutrition can compel the body to heal itself from any disease or chronic condition that can be present in the body.  These doctors based their research on a whole foods, plant based diet.  It includes raw foods, whole foods and some whole foods cooked in their most basic form.  I decided this was the route for me to take with TomTom – no special appliances needed for this one.

I am starting the last week of January with a decision on how I will approach the remainder of 2012.  I will stick with a whole foods, plant based diet.  No meat.  No dairy.  I will also continue to incorporate raw foods and recipes and juices into my diet in an attempt to smoothly transition myself and TomTom into a healthier future. 

TomTom can’t handle his dairy anyway and his allergies are off the chain right now because I haven’t been giving him his daily dose of zyrtec.  I am contemplating giving him some each day as the allergies continue to present themselves.  I know he needs to be off of it for at least one week to get it out of his system and it has only been about three days.  I am not enjoying watching him suffer and may have to continue giving him the zyrtec but maybe less often.  I haven’t come to a decision on that yet because we are playing it day by day.  Therefore it is my conclusion that if I am restricting my son from dairy, I am restricting myself.  That’s only fair, right?

Good news – I was able to find all of the ingredients I needed for some vegan and raw food recipes right here in Covington at Springs of Life.  This is great news because I don’t have to rely on driving into New Orleans to find the things I need for our every day diet. 

I was also able to find some really great recipes from another blog – tofuguru.  She is another intelligent and talented young lady who has greatly helped me confirm my journey into vegan food.  I don’t feel like I am lacking anything.  Yes, the ingredients are some times strange and foreign to me, but I don’ have any serious complaints yet about eating vegetable protein or banana ice cream with chocolate drizzle.  It has all been excellent tasting food!

I am also considering doing a 10 day juice fast at the beginning of every month until I feel like I have made some real progress over the years of nutritional damage I have caused my body.  February is right around the corner and I know I have done it once so I don’t see why I can’t do it again.

Not to mention I lost about 10 pounds on my January juice fast and have managed to keep it off and add another pound to that total even with all the food I am eating!  That’s a pretty sweet bonus too.

I plan to go to the doctor at the end of February to have him check up on my blood pressure and lab work.  Just to make sure everything is moving in the right direction.  This will also prove to be further evidence to me that I am on the right path.  Everything is very exciting and new to me right now and I hope it continues that way as I make my way into February and all the new things I have to learn in life.

Day 10 of Juice Fast

DAY 10!!!!

I cannot express how proud I am of myself for completing my 10 day juice fast.  I never imagined I would be able to do it.  The key was definitely taking it one day at a time and staying away from cooked foods or situations that involved cooked foods.  This has been an eye opening experience for me in so many ways.  I have learned so many new things about nutrition and overall care for my body that I had never known the previous 36 years of my life.  This was incredible.

Tomorrow I get to break my fast.  I will start out with either a fruit juice or a green juice in the morning.  Then for lunch I have already balled up two personal sized watermelons that are chilling in the fridge.  I can have as much of that watermelon as I damn well please!  I might also throw in a juice from Vitality if I have the time at lunch.  Dinner….oooooooo dinner… Dinner will be a huge, humongazoid, gigantor salad with all the fixings I want from seeds and sprouts to bell pepper, onion, carrots, cauliflower, cucumber, broccoli and anything else I manage to find at the store tomorrow.  Then I am going to drizzle it in various raw food dressings to see which ones I like the most.  I might even bathe the salad in the stuff if it is nonfat all raw ingredients.

As for today I tried to stick to some of my favorite juices to remember why I started on this journey in the first place.

Breakfast Juice: Beet, Celery, Cucumber, Beet Root Tops, Apple, Ginger

Lunch Juice: I made Dan the Man’s Green Life Juice and chugged it down: Spinach, Cilantro, Kale, Celery, Apple.

Fruit Juice: I made a recipe I found online called Perfectly Sweet: Carrots, Orange and Grapes.

Results of my juice fast:

I can do anything I put my mind to is my number one result.

I lost 10 pounds!  Woo Hoo!

My face is absolutely gorgeous – my skin is glowing, I haven’t worn anything but mascara and lip gloss all week, it is smooth and rosy and I wouldn’t give that up for a chocolate shake.

I have learned so much about my diet, my nutrition and my body.

I still have my itchy psoriasis. I am hoping that by continuing raw for another 15 days after the fast it will help diminish the psoriasis.

All in all I have really enjoyed this experience and can’t wait for my next journey of finding raw recipes all over the internet. My favorite so far is for chocolate coconut ice cream.  YUM!  I start my reboot diet on Monday of next week.

My video journal

Day 9 of Juice Fast

My patience is fleeting.

I tried to be a patient, laid back parent with my son tonight, but the more I see how much he has managed to approach his project for school with laziness and without any care whatsoever I am done with it.  I am so done.  I can’t even write about this anymore because it just keeps making me angry.

I am at day 9 and I want rest.  I want to stay in my bed all day and cover my head and do nothing – no thinking, no hearing, no distractions, no one to bother me.  I just want to be… under my covers and in my cocoon of nothingness.  I’m done.

I can’t get rest.  I can’t get peace and quiet other than the hour I rush home from lunch and make my juice.  I am craving the quiet and the calmness of the level my body is running at right now, but my life doesn’t allow that to happen and it is starting to piss me off.

As for today I am still on the border of being done with juices.  For breakfast I made a favorite juice of mine from before all this that called for beets as the base.  I used some golden beets that I had bought instead of red beets that I normally use in the recipe.  It was ok and I drank most of the 2 cups of juice.

Breakfast Juice: Celery, Cucumber, beets, ginger, apple

Lunch Juice: I did the Raw V-8 recipe again that I did on Day 8 but I halved the ingredients so it didn’t yield as much juice.  I only drank about one cup of the 3 cups it yielded – wasted juice and I felt horrible about it.

Fruit Juice: Orange and Apple.  I really wanted that sweet taste back that I missed so much from my hand squeezed orange juice of the past.  I juiced about 8 oranges in a citrus juicer and 8 apples.  I mixed the juice so in my cup it was 1/2 orange, 1/2 apple and again with the tangy taste and not so much sweet.  What is going on with my taste buds? 

I am seriously craving something sweet – just that sweet taste – not necessarily a bad sweet food, but just a nice sweet piece of fruit.  I hope it isn’t lost forever.  I am also seriously craving pizza, or a Lakeview Harbor Steak Burger.  And then I will start stressing about if I am ever going to allow myself that type of food again.  How will I be able to do our annual mardi gras feast at Lakeview Harbor and not eat the Steak burger and heaping loaded mashed potato?  Next thing I know I’m biting my nails and all wigged out about not getting to eat it ever again.

Why do I want it?  Because it tastes soooooooooooo good.  One of the best burgers I have ever had and that is why I always plan on going to eat there before the Endymion parade.  Am I not going to drink too?  Drink alcohol that is?? I know I can live without it, but I like to have a drink every now and again to help step back from my life and enjoy the good times.  Am I going to give that up too? 

Why do I stress out over not being able to eat these foods or drink again in the future?  I know they are not good for me at all, but there is still that wanting.  It’s crazy? !? I don’t get it.

Today my juice fast group video was about breaking the fast.  This is something I didn’t really want to think of until the morning of the 11th day.  I didn’t want to be thinking about what I am going to eat and when for the next 48 hours because it makes it so much harder to cope.  The rule of thumb is that I wake up on the 11th day and have a breakfast juice – great, more juice – and then for lunch I can eat as much of one type of high water fruit as possible.  Watermelon.  I want watermelon.  I want lots of watermelon.  I want to eat so much watermelon that I feel sick and burp watermelon flavor.  And of course I can also have a green juice for lunch.  Then for dinner I can have a big, huge, enormous, beautiful salad.  I am going to be dreaming about this salad for the next day and a half.  It is going to have romaine, and broccoli, and cauliflower, and carrots, and radishes, and onion… ooooooo onion, and big chunks of green bell pepper, and God help me… salt and pepper!  I am almost in ecstasy just thinking about it.  I will have to photo it and post it on my blog.  Then I will find a salad dressing that I can make from raw fruits and veggies and slather it – bathe it – coat my salad with it.  Then I am going to sit and be in complete euphoria as I savor every single bite and chew.

Aaaaaahhhhhhh.  I have to stop that.

I really want to have my favorite juices tomorrow so that I get over these issues I am having with juice right now.  I will have to think about that before I go to sleep tonight.  I am exhausted and don’t have time to make a video journal tonight.  I will make one as a closing for my 10 day juice fast tomorrow.

Until then….

Day 8 of Juice Fast

So close to victory!

Only two more days and I have finished this goal I have set out for myself.  I’m in that final stretch and I can see the finish line and it is nothing but strength and persistence that will help me soar through it!

Today was a good day with juicing.  I didn’t write down my juice menu before bed last night, I just played around with it in my head and decided to go with a carrot juice base today because I hadn’t done that one in a few days.

Breakfast Juice: Carrot, Pear, Cucumber, Celery, Collard Greens – made about 2 cups of juice

Lunch Juice – Raw V8 recipe from prettysmartrawfoodideas blog.  It called for carrots, beet, tomatoes, spinach, cabbage, red & green bell pepper, celery, onion, garlic, kale and chili pepper to taste.  This made over 4 cups of juice and I drank at least 3 of them. It was very good and had much more flavor than most of the juices I had been drinking.

Fruit Juice: Watermelon, nectarines, peach

The fruit juice tasted really tangy to me today and others said they tasted the sweetness to it.  I wonder if my taste is changing from the juice fast?

Today I had a negative confrontation with people that are really close to me.  I’m going to leave out all the juicy details because I’m not trying to put anyone down, but I was definitely in no mood for it being 8 days in to my juice fast.  How often are we affected by the negative things that people who are close to us say to us?  How often do we let those things run around and around inside our heads?  Why do people need to be hurtful and say things like that to you?  What ever happened to just talking instead of trying to post blame or curse at you and put you down?  I couldn’t handle it.  I got my things together and exited the building as quickly as possible.  I still don’t know what to do with it now other than just move on and put it behind me.  I have no fault in what happened and I have to let go of the things that were shouted at me. 

Along with changing my diet and health in the future I also need to take closer look at the environment that my life takes place in and think about where I want to be in the future. This is an excellent thing to happen because my juice fasting group gets to set goals for their future today!  I guess I should get started working on that now.

My video journal

What to expect when Juice Fasting – Part 9

The point.

Why I made these videos and how I hope it might help you if you are considering a juice fast.

The End

What to expect when Juice Fasting – Part 8

Clean up, clean up, everybody every where!

Clean up, clean up, everybody do your share!

Cleaning the Mess

What to expect when Juice Fasting – Part 7

I went back to the kitchen to make my fruit juice for dessert.  I wanted to share that with you and prep you for the clean up required after you make your juices.

My favorite time of day - Fruit Juice!

Day 7 of Juice Fast

I am giddy-upping to the end of this juice fast!

Yesterday I did a colon cleanse with some herbal teas.  It worked.  I am fairly confident that my digestive system is really clean right now.  I slept in today because I haven’t had a chance to do that since I started my juice fast.  I am going to guess I went to bed around 1 to 130 AM and woke up at about 10 AM.  Then stayed in bed until I had to get out probably closer to 11 AM.  I figured that since I had a clean digestive system I would let my body rest as long as possible and do some healing on the inside since it was no longer using its energy to digest poboys and meat and tortilla chips.  Or maybe I was just procrastinating because today I had to do my workout.

I finished my couch to 5K week two workouts today.  I walk/run in intervals and today I kept up with running 160 beats per minute (for every beat of the music I have a foot hitting the ground).  It was a little challenging but seemed to fit my stride I had been running.  I might need to slow the beats down when I run for longer intervals because it was a challenge for me to stay at that pace.

I played with the thought of having today’s juice fast be a water fast day.  Water fasting is super good for you because you don’t have the novelty of the juice’s calories and nutrition going into you so the detox hits harder and your cells get cleaner.  You are also in a higher state of ketosis.  I lasted until about 6 PM and am ok with that because I committed to a juice fast.  It wasn’t unbearable just having water all day.  Usually on the weekends I go most of the day until dinner time without eating.  It is just something that happens not something I ever plan – I should maybe stick with that in the future and just accept it instead of freaking out at 6 PM and eating everything in sight.  Maybe it is something my body and digestive system is craving at that time – a break – and I should ride that wave.  Be prepared.  That way when I am ready to eat I just sit down to a normal meal instead of putting thoughtless junk into my mouth to feed the “I’m Hungry!'” demand my stomach is giving to my brain.

In the video provided to me in my juice fasting forum yesterday Natasha St. Michael said something that struck a note in my head and I have been thinking about ever since.  Her message was all about connecting with yourself and your body.  I have connected with myself, my inner self, through yoga and meditation in the past, but not so much with my body.  My body has always been and outsider to me, something that needed to be changed in some way shape or form and something that never cooperated.  My mind or my self, however, was always my best friend.  Natasha said something along the lines of paying attention to and taking care of this body that I will be in until the end of this life. 

It just makes sense then when you put it that way, doesn’t it?  My mind and my inner self is of course limitless, I believe that it will go on and out into the universe in some form after my body dies.  Right now I have been granted a remarkable opportunity to experience life here on earth and to experience love, sadness, hurt, pain, laughter, everything that goes along with it.  In order to have this experience I have to live inside a body, a body I was born with, a body that I have known for 36 years.  I have always separated it from my mind.  I try to bring them together from time to time, but not to the extent that I am concerned about how my body is doing or the complex systems that work inside of it.  That light bulb went off last night.  I need to pay attention to what is going on with my body.  I need to mind what I am putting into my body and how my body reacts to different things.  The more I give my body top of the line care, the more my body will respond and be there for me in the long run.  I don’t have to grow old and be hunched over a walker mumbling insanities into the air.  I can keep my mind, my legs, my eyes, all of it – just by waking up and paying attention to the care I am giving it now.

It seems so easy when you put it that way, doesn’t it?  It should be the easiest decision to stay away from meat and dairy in the future because of the side effects it will have on my body.  It should have been the easiest decision to make when I got my first psoriasis itch back 20 years ago to re-evaluate my bodily system and figure out what was causing that reaction.  Same thing with when I was diagnosed with high blood pressure – demand more than casual acceptance of a medication and its future side effects – re-evaluate what my body needs and give it just that.  Don’t just take a pill and hope for the best.  My body has high blood pressure because I am doing things wrong.  Fix the problem by doing things right.

That is what brought me to where I am today on my juice fast.  And feeling good about it too.  Not as bad today as yesterday.  Funny how those waves can pass through you. 

I have decided to give everyone a step by step video on what to expect when juice fasting based on my personal experience with it.  I am NOT an expert at any of this!  This is just basic info for my friends who read this blog in case they want to consider a juice fast in the future. I will post each of those videos in a separate blog.

My video journal

What to expect when Juice Fasting – Part 6

My juice is done and it is time to enjoy it!

Me and My Juice

What to expect when Juice Fasting – Part 5

It’s time to maka da juice!

In this video (bad lighting again)  I show you how much time it takes to complete this juice recipe by feeding the fruits and veggies into the juicer.  You also get to see the juicing performance of the Jack Lalane Power Juicer Pro.  From what I could find online this isn’t the cheapest juicer out there.  I think it retails for at least $100.  There are more expensive juicers on the market that take more or less time to make juice than seen in this video.  You can check them all out by researching online or at YouTube.

Hey!  If my double chin in this video doesn’t express to you how badly I needed to do a juice fast then nothing I say or put on video will ;)

Maka Da Juice!

What to expect when Juice Fasting – Part 4

This is the final prep for juicing – cutting your veggies and fruits (if needed) for your juicer. This took me about two minutes for this recipe.

Bad lighting on this one!!! Sorry about that!!!

Me and My Knife

What to expect when Juice Fasting – Part 3

Rinsing your veggies before you juice them!

It took me about four minutes to wash everything off for this juice recipe.

Me and My Sink O' Veggies

What to expect when Juice Fasting – Part 2

In this part I show you the amount of vegetables needed for one juice recipe.

Me and My Juice Veggies

What to expect when Juice Fasting – Part 1

I wanted to put some video journals up in case any of my friends are thinking about juice fasting.  I went into this blind because I had no experience on juice fasting and only took with me what I found online or on YouTube. 

Part 1 pretty much covers the juicer that was on loan from a friend and the many different parts of it.  I assemble the juicer on this video and turn it on so you can judge the noise levels.  Assembling your juicer is a daily task and you will have to do it many times a day or week. 

Technorati Tags: Juice Fast,Juicer,Jack Lalane Power Pro Plus

Me and My Juicer

Holy Cilantro!

Today I was out fiddling with my compost bins and took a look over at my bare decrepit gardens.  My rosemary is still going strong, but that has always been a herb that isn’t difficult to maintain.  I planted a cilantro plant I bought from Fresh Market last year in hopes of being able to make my own salsa.  Well, my tomato crop was pathetic last year.  My onions were even worse.  My jalapeno peppers – never produced one pepper.  However, that cilantro lasted the whole garden season and I just let it be…

I looked over at my cilantro and rosemary today.  The cilantro was just a big ole beauty winking at me!  So I googled how to harvest cilantro.  What I found was you want to keep cilantro from bolting and to have it last a very long time.  In order to do that you harvest 2/3 of the plant – the top 2/3 – and leave the bottom 1/3 of the plant to grow more leaves in the future.  You are also supposed to harvest the plant once a week.

I got my scissors and went over to that beauty and gave her a trim. She is nearly bald now, with some leggy shoots sticking out of the ground.  I don’t know if all those leaves will grow back in one week, but I am greatly satisfied with my first cilantro harvest.

 

I think I will search for some more cilantro plants and put them down because they seem to thrive in that garden.  Might as well work with what I got, right?

I am so proud of myself for this.  It has been so long since I harvested my own herb or vegetable and after such a crappy garden season last year I needed a pick me up for starting my garden this year.  I am drinking some cilantro in my green juice as I type and it’s mmm mmm good!  Thank you to the cilantro gods!

Day 6 of Juice Fast

Rough.  It finally hit me today… it’s rough.  I no longer have the control of work.  Who knew going to work was such a great factor for fasting?  Normally I wake up, workout, make juice and run out the door to work.  I work until I am hungry enough to head home and make my lunch and fruit juices.  Then back to work to drink my juices and then I head home exhausted and hop into bed.  Wake up and Repeat.

Saturday.   No work. Rough.  I woke up early to go to the pinewood derby event for my son.  I stumbled out of bed and felt nauseous and sick.  Just not right in the stomach area.  I headed to the juicer and didn’t think I could take it anymore.  I didn’t make a recipe plan for today because I knew I would have time later to think about it.  I made a green juice this morning without any fruits.  It didn’t taste too bad, but I needed to add the apples to get it down.  I sat by the sink and chugged my juice down then went to get ready for the cub scout event. 

At the Pinewood Derby they were serving chips and sodas and I stayed away from it.  I drank all of my water and filled my bottle up and kept drinking.  After the event I took my son for some to-go pizza.  We placed our order and walked next door to a health food store that served juices.  It was nice to know that I have that option if I ever need it.  It cost me $10 for a 24 oz cup of juice.  I drank the whole thing while we were out shopping for more produce to finish up my juice fast.

My son ate his pizza in the car because I couldn’t stand being in the restaurant.  The car smelled sooooooo good… just like cheese pizza.  He definitely enjoyed it.  I can’t figure out what exactly it is about food that ties me to it.  I feel that is something I need to discover before I can decide how to approach my diet in the future.  It is a constant question inside my head.  I see how many things around me in my life involve food.  At work the mornings are ok, but then around noon there is at least a thirty minute departmental discussion as to what everyone is going to eat for lunch that day.  What do you feel like having?  Where do you want to go? It’s enough to drive you crazy some times.  Then after lunch there is the early evening snack attack that usually hits.  And at home it is just as bad – food for a football party, more food than needed made for dinner, and top that off with a dessert.  You can also drive by at least twenty fast food places or restaurants when you go from point a to point b.  It is everywhere. 

How did I get here?

I could go through all the details but the bottom line is that I gave up a regualar exercise schedule when I finished high school.  I have picked one back up over the last few years and that is a positive change I have made in my life.  I have never been educated on the foods that I eat and the effect that is has on my body.  Food was a standard, a three meal a day kind of thing.  I never had interest in the details about foods and how my body processes them.  I didn’t think about the foods I put into my mouth other than… that tastes good or I don’t like that. 

Over the past few months I have learned so much about fruits and vegetables and how much they can help the body regenerate itself on a cellular level.  All of the things I have learned have led me to where I am now – on my 10 day juice fast.  I could have continued on my other path – learning a little day by day and slowly implementing it into my diet – but I decided the fast was the best approach for me.  I quit smoking at the end of last year and managed to not gain any weight by dieting and keeping my exercise program regular.  I also lost about 22 pounds last year with The 17 day diet.  The juice fast seemed like the best route for me to go to do an overhaul of my diet, to determine the effect that the overhaul would have on my psoriasis and blood pressure, and to kick start my weight loss for 2012. 

It is day 6 and I have had great success.  The easiest way to do the fast it so stay out of main stream society and hang around my home.  I did have to make dinner for my son tonight.  I put together some chicken quesadillas and steamed some broccoli for him.  This experience is also having me re-evaluate the nutrition that I provide for my son. 

I know today that I will finish my 10 day juice fast and then continue on to my 3 day post fast diet that will consist of no meat, no dairy, and slowly introducing solid fruits and vegetables back into my diet.  After that I am undecided on the route I will take and I start to get a little freaked out about not getting to eat the foods I am used to any more.  I have to take it one day at a time and make my decision later.  I just feel that I have come too far to put something that doesn’t completely benefit me back into my body.

Breakfast: Green Juice from regenerateyourlife.org: celery, cucumber, kale, spinach, cilantro.. and I added a few apples.

Lunch: 24 oz juice from The Nutrition Co. aka Vitality here in Mandeville = $10

I had to lay down for awhile after I made it back home today. I was exhausted and feeling down in the dumps.  I watched FatSickandNearlyDead for some inspiration while relaxing in bed.  I sucked it up and got up and made dinner for my son and then I made my evening juices.

Dinner: Spicy Tomato recipe I found on YouTube: carrots, celery spinach, jalapeno, lime and tomato

After having such a rough day I really wanted a pick me up from my fruit juice.  No pulp or skins or greens, just straight sugar.  I needed to remember that I liked juice.  My first attempt was an epic fail.  I juiced a Papaya half I bought from Fresh Market awhile back… I peeled the skins off of it too.  I have never had papaya before and this didn’t help my impression of it.  The juice was foul and bitter and disgusting.  I am hoping it was just a bad papaya, but I won’t be brave enough to spend money on one again any time soon.

Fruit Juice: 1/2 cantaloupe without skin, juiced and then strained and put over ice.

My video journal

Day 5 of Juice Fast

Today I made it to the half way mark!  I am VERY proud of myself for hanging in there!  It is all down hill from here and I am welcoming in the weekend.  I will not be at work so I will not be as busy and will have to keep myself distracted when the going gets tough.

Breakfast Juice: carrot, radish, apple, beet, lemon and a few radish tops

Lunch Juice: Cabbage, Celery, carrot, cucumber, green bell pepper

Fruit Juice: 1/2 cantaloupe with skin

I made it through my liter of water today and drank my 2 cups of breakfast juice.  I came home for lunch and did not finish my 2 cups of cabbage juice.  I am about to throw in the towel as far as the cabbage juice is concerned.  It gets spicier as it sits and a bit unbearable for me to drink.  It’s not so bad when it is fresh out of the juicer.  I think I need to chug down my juice more right when I make my lunch.  I do not get to enjoy my fruit juice because my vegetable juice sits there and I don’t drink it.  I make both my lunch juice and my fruit juice on my lunch break and take them back to work in jars.  By the time I get to my fruit juice it just isn’t as good from sitting in the refridge and at that point I have wasted 4 cups of perfectly good juice between  lunch and fruit juices.  Then I drink water the rest of the day, I come home and I am too tired to make any more juice.  I need to drink more juice. 

My stomach still growls when I am hungry and it seems all signs are pointing to me just needing more juice during the day.  The goal is 16 cups of juice and I didn’t even get half of that today.  I am still searching for my favorite juice recipe.  I like a lot of the juices I have tried, but my favorites don’t have many greens in them.  I am working on the perfect recipe for Sarah’s Green Juice.  Once I find it I will definitely add it to my daily juice intake.

I successfully completed my Couch to 5k week 2 workout this morning.  It was in the 20’s this morning and I was out there like a crazy woman, all bundled up, doing my thing.  Go Me!

My weight is still going down and that is definitely another motivation to stay on the juice fast.  I haven’t had a chance to take my blood pressure yet, but there will definitely be time for that later this weekend.  My pulse is nice and strong and steady and I am staying pretty regular in the restroom department.  My psoriasis was itchy today.  It has definitely stopped itching as much as it did before I started my fast, but I am a little upset it is still persistently hanging on.

My internet research about fasting last night led me to subscribe to lifegenerator’s blog.  Dan the Man has his own blog and you can check it out here: regenerateyourlife.org

He has so much awesome information.  For instance, last night I watched a video of him making a salad in less than a minute by using his food processor and blender.  It looked sooooo yummy and so easy.  I would have never thought of using a food processor for that!  It just goes to show you how you can simplify things to that degree and make something so easy.  I was amazed.

Then I went on to watching YouTube videos by “The Father of Juicing” Jay Kordich.  I learned from his YouTube videos that you can juice a cantaloupe and watermelon – skins and all – to get “100% of the nutritional food value” from the fruit.  He explains that you can’t eat cantaloupe skin or watermelon skin because it will give you a stomach ache.  But all the nutrition is in the skins, and you can only access that by juicing.  Awesome to know!

I also looked some more into ketosis and bought some generic ketostix from CVS at lunch today.  I wasn’t really sure of my results but I researched it a bit more online and discovered that if you are in the darker color panels that are indicated on the side of the container, the better.  It means your body is releasing more ketones and you are definitely in a state of ketosis.  Right where I want to be!  By the way, the info I am reading to you in my video journal is straight off the generic ketostix instructions that I bought at CVS.  I found out later after I made the video that there are different levels of ketosis – the darker the color of your results the greater state of ketosis you are in at that time.  I also learned that this can change from meal to meal and you shouldn’t obsess over it.  **GOOD TO KNOW**  I had a coworker use a test strip and she came out negative.  She is not on any special diet right now and just returned to work from her honeymoon.  Welcome back Girly!  I missed you!  Her results compared to mine made me feel that the strips actually do work and made me more confident that I am going about the juice fast correctly even though I had an online support group.

OH!  She also reminded me of an old lunch spot we used to go to and guess what??? They have juices!  She did a shot of wheat grass at lunch today.  You can bet your butt I will be there tomorrow with high hopes that someone else will make some juice for me!!!!

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I also read that you can use aloe vera gel – and I have some here already – apply it to your psoriasis and some people see really great results.  I look forward to trying that tonight too.

I think I have come to a decision on what to do when my fast is over.  I have also decided that I will stick to the 10 day juice fast, the 3 day post fast, and then continue on to the 7 day raw food challenge.  After the  7 day raw food challenge, if my coworker is interested – I will join her in another 10 day juice fast.  My plan as of now is to alternate juicing and raw food until I have the end result for my blood pressure and psoriasis.  It is so exciting to think how much I can change so many things just by making these healthy decisions.  I feel like I need to narrow all of this down into one simple goal – and concentrate on that for now and not overwhelm myself with excitement.  With that being said, I will finish my 10 day fast and then complete my 3 day post fast diet. I will set my next goal when I am in the 3 day post fast diet.

I made my video journal during my lunch break so I could get to bed early tonight.  That didn’t seem to happen, but getting all this down on my blog is so much more fun.

My video journal

Day 4 of Juice Fast

I’m almost half way! I am finding so much information on fasting and juice fasting and it is really an inspiration that helps me get through my 10 day juice fast.  Every night I have been setting up my juice menu based on the fruits and vegetables that I have already at my house.  I had a half a head of cabbage and some collard greens that I wanted to juice. I googled both of these items as juice recipes and found some juices to try. 

My breakfast juice was 1/2 head of cabbage, 3 kiwis, and 1/2 a beet.  This wasn’t one of the better tasting juices that I have made during this fast.  The cabbage was really spicy and gave the juice a nice peppery kick but I just didn’t like it with the fruitiness of the kiwis.  I was thinking that it would go really well with some tomatos and bell peppers so I might give it a try that way next time.  I made about 2 cups of this juice and took it to work with me. I have also not had any problems getting my morning liter of water down since I took the lemon and lime out of it.

My lunch juice – I was HUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNGGGGGRRRRYYY!  I got caught at work late and when I couldn’t take my stomach growling anymore I headed home to make juice.  This recipe I found from googling collard green juice recipes.  I stumbled along a YouTube channel by lifegenerator.  I found a whole lot of really useful information on fasting and juicing there.  He made a juice with celery, carrot, cilantro, collard greens and cucumber.  He didn’t really give any set quantities so I winged it.  I really needed celery.  I am supposed to be eating one head of celery a day in my juices due to the natural sodium in the celery and my body really wanted it.  I put most of my head of celery in this juice.  I also used about 4 carrots (scrubbed not peeled), 2 cucumbers, and about 4 handfuls of cut up collard greens.  I had previously been using a handful of cilantro here and there, I was very sparing with it.  When I watched the lifegenerator YouTube channel, Dan put in a huge bunch of cilantro and I was amazed that you could just chunk it in the juicer like that!  So I went for it.  I put a huge bunch of cilantro in my juice (huge for me is equivalent to one bunch that you buy in your produce section).  This juice turned out pretty good.  It was very bland I thought and could use a kick of cayenne pepper.  It made about 4 cups.  I drank 2 fresh out the juicer and the other 2 I added a sweet red pepper to see if it added that kick I was looking for – it gave it a different flavor, but overall not too much flavor going on in there.  However, I really like this one and will try it again tomorrow.

My fruit juice – since I used so much greens in my breakfast and lunch juices I went straight for the apples today.  I juiced about 7 small red apples and 1 small granny smith apple and added a cucumber and the rest of the celery.  This was really good and sweet.  It made about 4 cups total and I gave one cup of it away to my coworker whose juicer I am borrowing (THANK YOU!) and drank almost 2 cups of it. 

I am considering going longer with my juice fast than the 10 days because of all the great information I have found out about juice fasting.  I haven’t decided for sure about that yet.  The weight loss  - I am getting greedy about it – it is really nice to drop so many pounds on a day to day basis.  I think I will determine if I will go longer depending on how my blood pressure is after 10 days as well as my psoriasis.  Speaking of Psoriasis, it wasn’t as itchy today.  I thought about it this morning – I went all morning without the desire to itch.  Then of course I thought about it and away it went.  But I hardly spent time wiping flakes off my shoulder today ( I am super paranoid about this).  Every time I itch my head, flakes fall, shoulder swipe, etc. 

Overall, I am really proud and pleased with my success so far!  I had no idea I would be able to do this and do it so well.  I am watching the videos that are sent out for my juice fast support group and learning more and more every day about my body’s systems and about the different foods that I put into it.  I know the after juice fast diet is also necessary to keep up all the leaps and bounds that you do for your body during the juice fast.  I am contemplating sticking with the raw food and staying away from the processed foods, meat and dairy.  I am even contemplating giving up drinking.  It will be hard to put back all those nasty things in my body when I have worked so hard to clean it out.  I am putting a lot of thought on what I am going to eat at the end of my fast to keep this moving in the right direction.

Huge Motivational Tip of the Day!!!! Another co-worker caught me in the work kitchen and said “You look awesome!”  She asked me how much weight I was down now and I said I was down about THIRTY!!!30!!!!!THIRTY!!!! pounds now.  And I stopped and appreciated the fact that someone finally noticed!  With no pre-amble from my mother about how much weight I have lost and I wasn’t in the shadow of someone else’s weight loss.  THANK YOU!  She has no idea how much that meant to me and how grateful I am that she took the time to say something.  Weight loss and Juice Fasting is in no way, shape or form and easy thing to do with yourself.  It takes a huge amount of commitment and work and thought and time and it is nice to be rewarded by having some one notice how far you have come.  Thank you again!

I hope everyone is in as good a mood as I am right now! 

I do have a bit of an ache in my lower back – that is something I haven’t had in awhile – and I wonder if it is part of my juice fast getting toxins out of that part of my body or something.  I hope it goes away soon.  Other than that it will be a cold morning and I will be out there hitting the pavement for my week two Couch to 5k workouts.

My video journal

Day 3 of Juice Fast

I am really tired tonight so I made my video journal a little longer with all the juicy details of my day. 

My son came home from eating Sicily's pizza and I blew up on him because my dad walked him in with a big ole slice of their chocolate chip pizza.  I just felt it was rude and uncalled for – they know that I am doing this juice fast – and it’s not like they didn’t eat their fill from the buffet line.  So they felt compelled to wrap up a piece of the dessert pizza and bring it to my house.  It was blatantly inconsiderate… but I digress…

My day had been going fine until that melt down.  I’m tired.  I’m cold.  I want to go to bed. 

Off to check homework and then hit the sack.

Day 2 of Juice Fast

Today is day 2 – success!

It is the end of the day and so far, so good!  I am not drinking the 16 cups of juice as recommended, probably closer to 8 cups of juice.  I think this is because I haven’t found “that” juice yet that really gets me going… if you know what I mean ;)

Today when I woke up I was dead to the world.  You practically had to drag the zombie out of its grave.  This was probably because I did not get to bed as early as I wanted to due to the time constraints of my normal life.  Tonight it is looking the same way so I am going to try to make this a quick blog. 

After I got going in the morning I was fine.  I still did not drink my 1 liter of water in the morning.  I tried too, but by 10 AM my stomach was growling because I hadn’t drank any juice yet.  I gave up on the water and went straight to the juice.  I am supposed to add 1/4 of a lemon or lime to my water.  That was a bit too tangy for me, so today I went with 1/8 of a lime.  Still too much.  I am going to try even less tomorrow and then maybe none at all because it seems to be preventing me from drinking my water.

Everything else went well – today was an off day from my workouts so I didn’t need to worry about that.  I played around with my juice recipes today and tried to wing it.  For breakfast I made a juice recipe that I had found online and had tasted before, it is one of my favorites.  Today’s breakfast juice had celery, cucumber, beets, lemon, ginger, and apple.  I added most of the beet root tops as greens for this juice.  Today’s lunch juice was all my own creation based on some “base juices” that were given to me from Natasha St. Michael in her juice fast tips (go to radiancecentral.com).  My lunch time juice was made of carrots + pear (as my base), the rest of the beet top greens, cucumber, and celery.  This juice was pretty good.  I liked the sweetness of the carrots.  It really took away from any green taste that the juices some times have in them.  I also made my fruit juice during my lunch break.  It was made from a recipe I had previously found online and it had orange, sweet potato, grapefruit, and apple.  I am not a huge fan of grapefruit and this juice confirmed it.  I am glad I only bought two.  When I tasted the fresh fruit it wasn’t so bad – but having so much in the juice – my face puckers up and I just don’t have the palate for it.  But I will try again with the other one later.

Today went pretty well.  I am still having some food cravings, but nothing major.  I bought some personal size watermelons tonight.  I had been looking for those and was glad to finally find them.  I am thinking about cutting one open and eating it, but that wouldn’t be juice so I will pass for now. 

Here’s looking at tomorrow!

Technorati Tags: juice Fast,diet

Day 1 of Juice Fast

Today was day one of my first ever 10 day juice fast.  I made it through the pre-fast menu of no meat and no dairy for the previous 3 days and today have started with vegetable and fruit juices and water.

I started out the morning with my Couch to 5k workout and that went well.  I made my son take money to school for the cafeteria so I wouldn’t be tempted by fixing his lunch.  My breakfast juice was alright.  It was a juice recipe I had made before I just added a bit more to it to get the 4 cups of juice.  It took less time to make than it would have in the blender and strainer by using the juicer, but all in all it took longer than my normal breakfast routine takes (because I had to make a larger amount of juice for the fast size serving).  It is normal for me to drink juice for breakfast so this wasn’t such a big deal.

At lunch I ran home to make juice.  I didn’t finish all of my breakfast juice – I couldn’t do it.  I had just had enough.  I hadn’t finished the water that I was supposed to drink either.  I discovered at lunch that I needed to drink the water first thing in the morning before drinking any juices – oops.  Noted for tomorrow.  I made a savory tomato juice for lunch.  I sat and ate it in a bowl with a spoon, this was a tip given to me by Natasha St. Michael who is the leader of this juice fast (see radiancecentral.com for more info on juice fasting) .  Due to only having one hour of lunch I went back to the juicer to make my fruit juice afternoon snack.  The juicer stopped working on me.  Maybe it wasn’t used to doing two juices in a row? I’m not sure, but I only made 2 cups of snack fruit juice.  After that dilemma and cleaning the juicer, I was late returning to work and walked in very late on a meeting.  This was not good.  I apologized to my boss and generally felt completely out of

Technorati Tags: Juice Fast,Psoriasis,Diet,Couch to 5K

it by stumbling in late to the meeting.  The juicing takes much longer than grabbing lunch would take me. 

I am going to have to plan some extra time for juicing until I get used to it.  I am also not finishing the 4 cups of juice that I am supposed to have at each meal and I didn’t even make my dinner juice.  I just didn’t feel like it.  I will start again tomorrow but I think I will wing it a bit more with my juices in hopes to make some creations that I really like and manage to drink all 4 cups of it.  I missed liking my juices.  It was nice experimenting with juices, but I really need some all time favorites to get me through tomorrow.

All in all temptations and cravings today were low.  Psoriasis – was itchy as normal.  I didn’t take my blood pressure so I can’t say much in that category. As for weight, I have been weighing myself, but this isn’t really about weight for me.  Just sticking to it is challenge enough – I don’t want to get bent out of shape about what the scale says to me.  I am thinking of hiding it in the closest until the juice fast is over.

I am tired and I will be hitting the hay shortly.  I had hoped to come home and go to bed early tonight, but my son’s homework intervened and it looks like bed time will be as normal.  I do get to sleep in a bit later tomorrow so that is something to look forward to :)

My video journal

 

Goodnight everyone!

2012

It has definitely been awhile since I logged in, but I figure I can just start where I left off.

The things I accomplished in 2011:
I lost 22 pounds since July of 2011

I quit smoking since November 14 2011.

I made it thru my first Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Eve hanging out with smokers and staying smoke free. I can't explain how long it has been since I made it thru a holiday season without smoking... maybe since I was 15??? It's been awhile considering I am now 36.

I have incorporated making and drinking fresh vegetable and fruit juices into my every day life. I have also tried to keep a lot of raw fruits and vegetable in my diet and try new foods that fall into that category.

I made it thru the holiday season without gaining any weight (and remember I quit smoking too). This was the major factor that I was concerned about. I didn't want to gain any of the weight I lost due to quitting smoking. I am very proud of myself for this one.


So all of this brings me right into 2012. I have managed to stay free of my largest beast of burden - smoking. I have tried to quit MANY times before, but this time I think I have got it down pat. Since I don't have my bad habit of smoking to concentrate on I have started searching for different things to spend my time and thoughts on regarding myself.

Part of my weight loss goals last year dealt with the fact that I am 36 and on prescribed high blood pressure medicine. I don't like that at all. My first goal to reduce my blood pressure was to quit smoking. So far, so good. I also lost the weight to help with this factor. I have been off my medication (of my own accord and I'm sure my doctor would be angry with me) for the past few months. I have taken my blood pressure periodically and it is always on that borderline between normal and high blood pressure. I am ready to take more action to correct my blood pressure.

I have researched using vegetable juices to heal yourself for various health issues when I started incorporating them into my diet. I tried to start a juice fast on my own last Monday and had an epic fail when I came home from work and made chicken tacos. After that I looked into group supported juice fasts and found one through a website I have been following... radiance central.com. I signed up for the 10 day juice fast. I immediately started freaking out about it. Any and every little thing I could worry myself about started taking over. I went to work to talk to a friend about it and she had heard that her church was doing a fast as well and showed me the website. She said she would do her fast with them to help support me. I gained a little confidence about my decision at that point. After talking to my coworkers all day and letting them know I would be fasting and might be a bit cranky or under the weather, another co worker told me she had a juicer that she recieved as a gift and never used in the past two years. I make my juices in a blender and strain them through a cloth produce bag. The revelation of the free borrowed juicer was extraordinary. I can't express how grateful I am that I get to use this juicer. It will save me ALOT of time during my juice fast. At that point I realized I needed to stop whining and get on with it. Everything in the world was telling me this was something that I need to do in my life.

Tonight is the night before the official 10 day juice fast begins. I have never done anything of this magnitude in my life. Last year after Mardi Gras I felt so under the weather I embarked on a water/vegetable broth fast that lasted about 4 days. That took a considerable amount of effort on my part, but I did it. I will be drinking vegetable juices for 10 days, no solid food, no meat, no dairy.

Along with this fast you have a 3 day pre-fast diet and a 3 day post-fast diet. The pre fast consisted of no meat and no dairy. I am on the last night of my 3 day pre fast and have already learned some things about myself. I had already pretty much given up pork since dieting started last July - not for any specific reason, but because I just lost the taste for it. During my pre fast I have had no problem staying away from meat. Yes meat is a convenience, it is every where and in everything that is convenient. This includes fast foods, grocery store salad bars, and my own refridgerator. However, it is not something that I have been craving on my pre-fast and my appetite can be easily shushed by eating fruits, veggies, grains, etc. The no dairy part of the pre-fast has been a bit harder for me. I have stayed dairy free, but I like milk... I like butter... I use them both alot in my every day diet. The butter I can substitute with olive oil for the most part. The milk, cheese, sour cream, yogurt - there is no replacement for - but I have managed to work around them.

I also learned during my pre fast that I am ok with just drinking juice for breakfast. Some time between lunch and dinner I get crazy hungry and want to stuff everything in my mouth. I wait too long between meals and end up in this same position every weekend. I know better, but I just keep finding myself here. I have to take steps to aviod this during my juice fast. I need to always be prepared and have things to turn my attention to when I start looming out of control.

One final thing that I have started this year is returning to the Couch to 5K program that is available online. My treadmill broke at the end of 2011 and I have had to take my workouts outside. Every other day I walk/run approx 30 minutes. I downloaded the app for this program and have used it to help me along with these workouts. So far everything is going good on that end.

I also want to write about how I am hoping this juice fast will get rid of my psoriasis. I have a patch of psoriasis on the lower back part of my scalp that is probably the same size as the palm of my hand. It doesn't sound like much, but for the past 20 years it has itched like crazy... constantly... it is a constant shadow in my mind. It itches, do I itch it? If I do I will have flakes on my collar, how long can I go without itching? I have tried MANY remedies and there is only one constant with psoriasis - there is no cure for it. I even went to the extreme of getting injections every month in my scalp of steroids. That actually got rid of it for a long period of time (maybe 6 months or so) but it returned after discontinuing the injections and is still with me today. I have read that many have gotten rid of their psoriasis by starting with a juice fast and changing thier diet. That is another reason I am taking this journey.

Tomorrow starts the first day of my ten day juice fast. I am excited, I am nervous, and I am reluctant to learn all the good and bad things that are hidden in the back of my head by going without solid food for so long. I am not looking forward to sugar and caffiene withdrawls, but they are something that must be dealt with during the fast. My goals for this juice fast are to find a solution for my psoriasis so that I can remove it from my body, and reduce my blood pressure and implement a new diet into my life to sustain normal blood pressure.

My plan is to set up my yearly doctor's appointments at the beginning of February to see how I have progressed since last year at this time.

I want to continue to move forward on this journey and embrace all the changes and struggles that come along with it.