TGIF Day 5! :)



My fridge with Juice ready to go.

It's Friday and I cannot believe that I have survived 5 days of juicing! This morning I had a carrot, orange, and cucumber. Which was pretty good, I have to give props to my hubby when it's due. :) He has definitely helped me stick with this fast. Because it is difficult, and for him to be there and help me juice and create juices for me especially when my feet flare up. It's a blessing. Today at work I did experience a headache. So I ate some almonds to get some protein in, and it went away. For lunch today, was a different story. Hubby made a kale, chard, cucumber, carrot, lime, and apple juice. It was SUPER Green which made me think about how much I would be getting in essential nutrition such as: Chlorophyll, vitamin C, A, K, calcium, and iron. Well, when I tried it it was extremely bitter. I called my hubby because he also had some, and he told me his was very sour. I went home to take my car for my hubby to fix and had him try it and he said "Wow, that's bitter!" He threw it away and made me a new one. :) What we realize is that one must mix the juices well once you make it because it will separate and you may not get the pleasant taste that one expects. Lesson learn.

There are so many things one learns by juicing. Lot's of tricks, I saw a video today on YT and learned to get enough juice one has to find a favorite juicing veggie. Cucumbers and tomatoes produce lots of juice, so always try to include them in your juicing. (I'm not a big tomato person but read further to find out my discovery and love for it now.)  Leafy veggies can be hard to make lots of juice. So when you are juicing such items like Kale, Chard, Parsley, Cilantro etc. you must add a juice producing one to get the most of of the leafy veggies. So if you put a leaf of Kale in put a piece of apple or cucumber to get the most out of your kale. :)

Greentastic from Whole Foods! Try it!
You might be surprised. :)

For dinner today, we went to my favorite place. Whole foods, and I tried my first tomato based juice. At WF it's called the Greentastic, it consists of tomatoes, celery, spinach, and carrots. I was pretty scared to try it but the guy at WF told me it's like a V8 but much more refreshing. He was right. It was awesome. Not thick, almost a hearty cold tomato soup. So my fear of juicing tomatoes is now gone. I'll be experimenting it this weekend! The Farmers Market will be open tomorrow and I will be there bright and early to buy fresh tomatoes, spinach, kale, chard, carrots, and whatever else I can find. I have 3 days till I weigh myself and see the results. I have no expectations, just hope that this helps me with my health.

Day 4 ~ Staying strong!

This is what juicing looks like!

It's Day 4, woke up a little tired, went to bed later than these past few days. I guess it's expected that if you are on this fast. You need to get at least 7-8 hours sleep. This morning I had a Spinach, Orange, Cucumber juice and what I realize is this. Apples and pears cover up a lot of the tastes from veggies. Oranges, kiwi, pineapple do not do it as effectively. Watermelon is pretty good too but, due to the high sugar in it I can't do it daily. I use watermelon 1-2 times a week for b-fast. The rest of the bases such as carrots, celery do a mediocre job. So I guess it's just something that everyone who tries will find their way of making their juice and drinking it to their liking. :)

Lunch today will be a surprise, my hubby will be bringing me a juice from Whole Foods and I will see what he has in store for me. Today has been harder that other days, I don't know if my body has decided now to try to fight and see if it can get me to eat something. :/ I won't do it. I'll stick to my plan and show myself that I'm going to make this a permanent thing in my life. I'll be back later to discuss how I will be exercising since cardio is a challenge for me. Maybe someone who reads this blog can help me with some cardio-type exercises... I'll see you later...

I'm back and we are preparing for our dinner juice, we mixed it up and used pear as a base and lots of greens. It was a little thick this time around. I think the pears I got were ripe so I was able to get juice with pulp. Not bad. Like I said before, this is all base on experimenting. There will be days your juice isn't as good. You take the good with the bad. Thankfully my hubby made my juices for tomorrow morning and afternoon. He is such a sweetie. Reason why he is doing it is because I have a serious foot condition.

They taped my foot to see if it
would help. It made my heel super tired.

That's why I said today that I would explain about my difficulty I'm having on getting cardio in my day. How am I going to implement exercise to this fasting when I have Chronic Plantar Fasciitis. I guess your wondering what that is. It's a painful inflammation of the Plantar Fascia on the base of your foot. Unfortunately, I have them on both feet. In my late 30's, I had my first outbreak of this and when I went to the doctor; they told me rest, ice, and it should go away. It did. Problem was I didn't know that I was going to put an overload on my feet by learning this wonderful dance called Salsa and it take over my world and put my feet into high stress when I started dancing 9 years ago. I didn't think that what I doing was going to really mess up all opportunity to continue to dance, hike, run, walk, or just stand for any period of time. I was told by podiatrists to not wear heels, so I didn't. I wore jazz shoes. Guess what, jazz shoes have no arch support, which caused my PF to go into high gear and stay stretched out and never relax. What this also does; it messes up your Achilles Tendon, your calf muscles, may cause your arches to fall, and can even mess up your back. Needless to say, I waited way to long to get help for my feet; and now I'm going to physical therapy 2 times a week and have been for 6 weeks. Let me tell you PT is no joke. It's painful and when I go home, my feet are so tired and sore. I can do much after that, if I try or do walk on my feet. BOY, do I feel it later that night or the next morning. What they do is they take this plastic tool and scrap my foot and try to release the scar tissue from my toes to my calf. OUCH!!!!! There is also a series of stretches, and exercises which is simple and easy for those who don't have PF. For me, it's like I've never exercised these muscles before. :( So I have finished this and I have an appointment on Monday with my Orthopedic to find out what my outcome was. Today at my appointment my PT told me I'm not much better from when i started so. I'm afraid I may need to have surgery or complete foot rest. Which would SUCK. I have to work and have too much going on. IDK. I just have to wait and see what the next step is...

Also part of my PT...

My wonderful braces. I feel like
 FOREST GUMP!

I have to wear these foot braces at night. (Picture on the left) It keeps my foot in a 80-75 angle inward so that my tendon can be stretched all night. Although it's very uncomfortable to wear these things. My feet don't hurt in the morning. Without them, when I get up, my feet feel like hundreds of needles are puncturing my foot especially where your arch and heels are. Imagine trying to walk and all you feel is pain. It takes 10 minutes of stretching in the morning to be able to walk if you don't have these.




So my question is to those who workout for a living. How can one get cardio when they cannot be on their feet. I mean I could do sit-ups, push-ups with a balance ball, mat exercises. My arms can be worked out from a chair. But when you can't do squats, push ups, planks (except on knees), jog, walk, stand, leg weights etc. What can I do??? If someone can help me with that. it would be appreciated. This fast will make me lose weight and I'd like to stay toned. :)

One of my readers asked me today if I could give him recipes of my juices I make. I promised to provide a link. This will help get you started, once you get use to it you'll make up your own stuff. :) Enjoy and remember, I'm no expert so if you have medical conditions or take meds daily.  Check with your doctor first. PLEASE. If your in the clear. What are you waiting for. Get started... At least do 3 days... You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.  Recipes to help you get started! Click here.

Have a great night, day 4 is official over and I have survived another day.

JC

Day 3

It's day 3 and this morning I didn't feel hungry at all. Yeeyay! One thing that i'm surprised is my stomach has been doing really good. Due of all the veggies I'm eating. I would of thought that my intestines would of gone to war with me. To my surprise I still go normal (yes I am talking about #2) with just juice and a few nuts a day. I can't say that will be the case for everyone but its certainly something I thought would be worse for me.

This morning I made a refreshing watermelon, kiwi, and beet juice. It was VERY RED, but cool and refreshing. I would of never thought I would be drinking so many veggies. I couldn't eat all the veggies I juice that's for sure. I tried some of it and it turns my stomach. When I juice it's good. I went to work and had a pretty decent morning. Had my water and tea to get through till lunch. I still have issues with hunger. Especially with co-worker snacking and such. I just have to focus that if I want to be healthier and leaner. This is what I have to do to get there. I made though, so it was all good. :)

Lunchtime, I had a Kale, Chard, Celery, Ginger, Lime, Parsley, Cucumber, and Apple juice w/ some flax seed to give it substance. It tasted lemony and I took longer to drink it because of the lime in it. Everyone at the office just looks at me like I'm crazy. They say to me, why not join this, (companies I won't mention not to call out anyone) or just eat the food, just exercise it off. My answer to that was this:

If I join something where I have to buy a bunch of powders, pills, pre-made drinks and such. Who's to say that it's all what its cracked up to be. Plus, what I'm doing, I don't need to sign up, pay a fee, wait for the package to get here. It's all right in front of me if I want to do it. PLUS... I'm making and seeing exactly what I'm drinking. Not a powder, not a pill, real vegetables and fruit. No added water, sugar, or anything. With the exception of wheatgrass powder which I learned yesterday NEVER to do that again. It's 100% Natural and I'm not starving. I feel full, it's my mind that misses eating steak, chicken, rice and beans, etc. If I teach my mind that this juice is going to stay for the rest of life. I will probably stick to healthier choices, and once in a while enjoy something bad. Who knows maybe my body will reject it and only want healthy food. The money one invests with all the monthly fees, supplements, powders, and drinks. Amounts to more than what I pay in fresh produce. You do the math...

 

My co-workers looked at me with a "lets see how long she lasts look" and finished up their lunch and it was back to work. Which is fine because this isn't for everyone, its for people who are tired of being sick, overweight, wanting to change their eating habits. If it were easy everyone would do it. Now the exercising part is a whole different scenario. I'll explain my situation with exercise tomorrow.

 Cleanup is always SO fun. lol

For dinner, I made a Kale, Chard, Cucumber, Ginger, and Apple juice. I'm starting to get use to the hard greens now and it's really refreshing to feel that something so green can be so good. :)  Going to finish up by making my breakfast and lunch for tomorrow and load some pics of todays juicing. Enjoy! :)

VERY MEAN GREEN

Day 2 ~

Hello my friends,


Carrot,Orange,Apple and Ginger Juice
Last night I had my moments and some hunger pangs but not to bad. Went to bed and slept like a baby. Woke up early to go to work, I felt pretty good, not hungry at all. That's a plus, because it could of been worse. :) Oh, I forgot to mention that in the mornings during this detox/fast you need to drink 8oz of hot water w/ lemon. When you sick it's all good, but when you are doing this daily because you need to do this. :( Not so good, today I added a little *Xylitol to it. I was able to get it down better today. You also need to drink 16oz of water also after you drink this. That is another thing, I'm not a water drinker. I have to force myself to drink water at times. I've gotten better these past years but it's still poses an issue at times. Anyways, today I made a Carrot, Apple, Orange, and Ginger juice but I did a experiment to see if this will help me with my hunger. I added grounded flax seeds and chia seeds (No calories when you add this, just substance and fiber) It tasted awesome.

For lunch, I added a little chia to my lunch juice which that should be interesting because it's a Mean Green juice that has the following: Celery, Parsley, Cucumber, Apples and wheatgrass powder. I'm kinda scare of this one but it's what you gotta do. Sometimes when you juice it's not always going to taste fabulous. It may be too sour, or to green, sometimes even too sweet. You roll with them and I hope as the days go by I will get use to drinking these Mean Greens juices. That's the goal and implementing them permanently in my daily diet. That's it for now. I'll come back this afternoon!

I'm back, it's 10pm!

What an afternoon! My hubby surprised me with a bigger juicer and I was SOOOO Happy. We tried it out and for dinner I made a Kale, Chard, Spinach, Celery,Ginger and Pear Green juice. This time around, it was so good. Much better than lunch. When we started to clean out the juicer what my hubby found was that the Kale,Chard, and Spinach weren't being juiced as good as the Celery, Ginger and Pear. The juicers such Centrifugal (that's the one I have) doesn't juice leafy veggies that well. But they are great with hard veggies and fruits. While a Masticater Juicer focuses more on leafy veggies and less on hard fruits and veggies. Can their be a perfect combo? I don't know, we returned the one he bought and bought another one and that one had similar issues. So what to do? We decided then used the one my mom let me borrow, and THAT one juiced everything a lot better than the newer ones. It still had some issues with the leafy greens but it was a more broken down than the other ones we tried today. The old one has issues with leakage and clean up is really messy. (Hubby hates messes) The 1st one was great for clean up and the second one was ehhh messy but not as messy as my mom's juicer. Nevertheless, it took my mind away from thinking about the hunger I was feeling. Even now almost 11pm and I must say my tummy is growling away. Day 2 is over, I'm drinking some tea and calling it a night.

Oh, I weighed myself. OMG, i'm 169 lbs. :( As promised here are my pics, no I'm not going to take pictures of me in a bra. That's not how I roll but you can see what I look like before. :) Here they are: Good Night Folks...

I know...

This is me now...

*Xylitol is a sugar alcohol sweetener used as a naturally occurring sugar substitute. It is found in the fibers of many fruits and vegetables, and can be extracted from various berries, oats, and mushrooms. - Wikipedia To buy it. Click here!

Officially Day One...

Today it's was the official 1st day of my Juicing Detox fast. I had my morning juice which was a carrot based juice. Majority of fruits with a hint of ginger. It came out a little sour due to the lime I put in the juice. My hubby didn't care for it but drank it like a champ. So did I, I don't mind the citrus sour taste in it. Just wanted to get my Vitamin C boost for the morning.

Mean "Red" Juice

Morning was good, heading into lunch hour I pulled out my Mean Red Juice which was Beets, Parsley, Cucumber, Ginger, Lime, and Apples. It tasted almost like a fruity V-8. But it more like a V-6. LOL.  It took me a little longer to drink this one I think due to the fact my body is realizing that I'm not eating my normal foods. Even though after I had this one I felt full. My head started to give me a little headache. (that means this is the start of my body fighting) I've dealt with this before. What your body does when you give it a "shock" is you get headaches, body pains, cold sweats, chills, and feeling of getting the flu. Your body will do WHATEVER it takes to get you to go back to your normal eating habits. If your serious about changing it. Deal with it, take a nap, drink water or tea. If your starving, eat a few (NOT a bag only 5-6) unsalted (raw if you can) almonds. Your body has to realize and understand that you are not going to jump off that wagon and give yourself the proper cleansing it needs. It's like your inner child that is having a tantrum. It thrives on sugar, carbs, fried foods, all those things you enjoy that you shouldn't have or maybe crave once in a while to have. This will go on for 2-3 days for me. Maybe less or more for others, once it's over, your body will crave for the juices and you will definately see the results if you stick with it.

It's 2:30pm and I will continue to update this day as it goes by. Plus I will be posting my "before" picture of me. Be nice my people, nobody is perfect and I'm going to do this. You all are welcome to join me if you wish. Want more information on what inspired me to get started. Watch "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" it's free for people in the US to see it online. It's about real people, with one dream. "Being healthy."  See you in a bit...

Mean Green Juice

Back again, it's almost 9pm EST, I had my last juice (Mean Green Juice) at 5:30pm and I enjoyed my juice. BUT, I can't lie, my mind is thinking eat some chicken or something. I've been thinking about it since 2pm. I've been getting a few headaches here and there. Eventually it goes away after while so I try not to pay no mind to it. I drank a lot of water today which helped out and I know by doing this it can only get easier and better. I took my before picture and WOW, that's scary to show. Not sure yet if I want to post that. I still need to weigh myself, which I'll do tomorrow morning. I promise to show you my before, just give me a day to digest opening myself to let everyone to see that side of me. 


Right now I'm going to enjoy my evening Green Mint Tea w/ Cardamon pods, and watch Single Ladies and call it a night. Day one is officially over, and I survived!  For those who want to check out the trailer that started it all... Watch it now! 

Till tomorrow my peeps.


JC

Preparation Day, tomorrow a new beginning.

It's a rainy Sunday night, I spent the day with my parents and borrowed their juicer to do a 15-30 day juicing detox. It's a scary but at the same time exciting. I'm scared because I don't know how my body will react to just juice made from fresh vegetables and fruits. No animal protein, starch, eating any foods for 15 days. I know, "What da hell am I doing?" I decided to do this because I watch the movie "Fat,Sick, and Nearly Dead" If you haven't watched this movie,  Click Here! To watch it for free. It's a great eye opener about eating healthier. It's on NETFLIX and I'm sure you can rent it on REDBOX and such.

Tonight, I went and did all my juicing to see how long this is going to take. I bought air tight containers to keep the juice fresh. I bought the following:
Carrots
Beets
Spinach
Apples
Celery
Parsley
Ginger
Cucumbers
Oranges
Limes
Kale

I made 2 different types of juices to start my day tomorrow.
My morning juice is: Carrot, Orange, Ginger, and Celery, and 1/4 beet.
For Lunch I made a Mean Green juice which is has: Cucumber, Celery, Lime, Parsley, and Apples.

I made a batch of Green Mint Tea w/ Cardomon pods, to drink to stay hydrated throughout the day. I pray that with new beginning of doing this that it can help cleanse my organs, my mind, my soul and give me a new jump start in my health. I will post pictures for my before and at 15 days,then at 30. Let's see how it goes. I have opened a free account on Reboot Your Life Start Here!  Join me if you like or read and see what happens.

 Happy Juicing. That's all folks!
 JC