Sunday, December 30, 2012

Sunday morning Breakfast

This morning I thought I would try something different for my breakfast juice. I wanted to do simple yet flavorful and I think I accomplished my goal.

Here's what I did:

2 Green apples
3 carrots
1 inch ginger
3 kale leaves
1/2 inch slice of a beet

This is a spin off of jointhereboot.com's Carrot-Apple-Ginger which I like a lot. I've decided I don't like beets (yet) but I had some cut up from Friday that I felt bad throwing away so I thought I could hide it in this one. It worked. I've learned that ginger and lemon can hide just about anything.

I'm attempting to post some pictures for the first time so I hope this works.. I promise that the pictures will get better once my house is clean and I'm back to full health.

This recipe made 16 oz of juice. It's not too pretty but it tastes pretty damn good.

Now I'm enjoying my juice while relaxing in bed watching Da Bears, praying this isn't their last game of the season. I'm also hoping that one more lazy day is all I need to totally get over this cold. I could breathe when I woke up this morning so I'm taking that as a good sign.







Juicing

So far, my juices have either come from www.jointhereboot.com or have just been random concoctions that I have thrown together.  I started this whole thing after watching the documentary "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" by Joe Cross.  He chronicles his 60 day juice fast in which he loses over 80 pounds and basically cures himself of an autoimmune disease by consuming nothing but fresh fruit and vegetable juice.  I think I like chewing too much to do something that drastic, but I thought that replacing one meal a day with juice would still provide beneficial.  For the most part, I have been drinking juice for breakfast every day.  For the first few weeks, I drank Joe Cross's "Mean Green" which is:

1 bunch Kale
1 whole cucumber
1/2 lemon
1 inch ginger
2 green apples
4 stalks celery

I added either 1 orange or 2 clementines at first because it wasn't quite sweet enough for me as a breakfast.  It definitely tastes like you are drinking a salad, but after a few days, I really grew to enjoy the flavor of this juice.  It made about 32 oz of juice - which was a lot more than I expected.  Because of the sheer amount of juice, I found that it kept me pretty satisfied until lunch as long as I drank it slowing over the course of the morning starting at about 8.  Some days I am hungrier than others and will sometimes eat a snack of veggies and hummus or peanut butter with my students around 9:30 or 10:00, but a few days, I would just be too busy and not feel the need to eat anything.

A new favorite for me is the Apple, Carrot, Ginger from jointhereboot.com.  This juice is just as easy as it sounds - a few green apples, a couple carrots and a chunk of ginger.  It's a little spicy from the ginger and very refreshing.  This recipe only makes about 1 normal sized tumbler full of juice though so it doesn't hold me off until lunch without a snack. 

Last week, I tried the Gazpacho juice from jointhereboot.com.  Here is the recipe:

4 plum tomatoes
1 large cucumber
2 celery stalks
1 red bell pepper
1/2 small red onion
2 cups parsley
1 lime

While it isn't getting the best reviews on the reboot mesage boards ("WORST JUICE EVER!") I kinda liked it.  It is pretty ugly - an odd brown color, but it "smells like a salad" according to a friend of mine.  I accidently left out the onion, but it tasted like gazpacho. I would make it again, but might add some jalepeno for a bit of a kick next time per the advice of a message board poster.

That's it for tonight.  I'll post whatever I come up with for breakfast tomorrow and maybe some pictures.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Detoxing fun

So I thought I should go back and detail some of the interesting (and funny) things that have happened to me over the last month.  I have gotten quite a few skeptical, raised eyebrow looks from colleagues at school as I walk around with my tumbler filled with random green juices.  Overall, everyone is supportive, but not interested in joining me.  The second day of the change, I had a terribel headache.  I felt nauseous,   After doing some research, I determined that I was basically going through withdrawl of crappy food and my body was detoxing.  I drank about a gallon and a half of water and decided that taking a detox bath would be a great idea to help cleanse myself of all the yuckiness trying to escape. 

I consulted Pinterest (who needs Google anymore?) and found a detox bath that sounded pretty easy to do.  I picked up the different ingredients on the way home (epsom salt and baking soda).  I moved my iHome into the bathroom, started filling the tub and got my Nook. 

Now, I have never taken a bath in my house.  Never.  I have lived here for 4 and a half years and have never even really felt the urge to take a bath.  What happened next reminded me why.

I got stepped into the tub and sat down.  At this point I realized that I have the most shallow bathtub on the face of the planet.  Instantly, the water level reached well above the emergency drain and started emptying.  I tried to lean back and relax and at this point I realized that I am about a foot too tall to fit comfortably in the tub.  By then the water had mostly drained from the tub and I was either sitting up, with my legs submerged or laying back with my knees sticking out of the water.  By the end, I was frustrated, cold and felt the need to remodel my bathroom.  Needless to say, this was not the relaxing, cleansing experience I was hoping for.

Whether the bath helped or not, I felt much better the next day.  I have felt great ever since - with the exception of this week.  More on that later.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

One month in...

So I'm one month into my new lifestyle.  I've decided that is what I'm calling it - a lifestyle - because a diet seems temporary...and difficult to do....and boring.  Lifestyle has a more all around feel to it - sounds more permanent. 

In the last month, I have started juicing fresh fruits and vegetables daily, cut out dairy and eggs almost completely (cut out meat about 7 years ago) and have really tried to focus on eating non-processed, whole, good for you type foods.  Sure, I've had Chinese a few times, experimented with a Tofurky vegan pizza (not terrible - but EXPENSIVE), but I believe that you can't completely deprive yourself or you set yourself up for failure from the start.

So far, in 28 days, I have lost 13 lbs.  I'm not sure how many inches because I didn't measure at the beginning.  That is on my agenda for tomorrow.

I'm very happy with this progress.  Usually, I hate going to the doctor because I have to get on the scale.  Right now, I have a crazy bad cold and I'm tempted to make an appointment just because I want my doctor to see my progress since I was there the last time (3 days into this journey) for my yearly physical. 

My brother and my step dad both mentioned to me on Christmas that they noticed a difference - and when two guys notice - there must be something going on.  Especially my dad - he's usually pretty oblivious.  I love him, but it's true.

So here goes month two.  Wish me luck.