T.G.I.F.

Daily gratitude:  Grateful I have stuck to this plan

I have lost 2 more pounds.  Total loss for me is 18 pounds.  Matt has lost 25 pounds.  Men...


Other than the beet juice the other day, I have mainly stuck to green juice this week.  I have also looked at the detox recipes.  Our weight loss seemed to plateau and I think we needed a little extra push.

We went back to the fruit blended smoothie in the morning yesterday.  Matt likes those and it does seem to keep us fuller through the morning.  I have also started to take the protein powder in the mid morning.  That seems to help me make it to lunch.

Pear Smoothie
2 pears cut off the core
1 banana
1.5 cups water
2 cups spinach
1 avocado
blend til smooth

Our snack juice was a green juice
Rainbow chard
celery sticks
carrots
apples
lemon
lime
turmeric
ginger
I also had half a head of romaine that needed to get juiced or thrown out soon
All ingredients in the juicer.

It made an ugly juice, but I know it's good for me

Another green juice recipe
1 beet green stalk (leftover from Tuesday beet juice)
6 kale stems and leaves
cucumber
lemon
2 green apples

This was an ugly color but it was like green lemonade.  Very citrusy and easy to get down.

Hump Day

Daily gratitude:  I will never take for granted my ability to speak.

Taking a break from the blended fruit juice in the morning.  I juiced 2 juices today and both are very tasty.

Morning Breakfast Blend
4 grapefruits peeled
1 large sweet potato peeled
2 pears
cinnamon

This was a very tasty juice and very mild.  Not too acidic and the cinnamon added a little depth to it.

Afternoon juice was a green juice.

2 pears
3 kale stalks and leaves
3 celery
1 cucumber
1 lemon

Another very mild tasting juice.

 I have been pretty busy at work and with life, so I am glad that I have been making the juices ahead of time.  I do make sure that I consume all of the juice by the end of the day.  I do not think sitting for 8 hours, the juices will lose that much of their nutrient value.  I am sure some of it is lost, but not enough to make me stop doing this.

Our constant helper in the kitchen:

Tuesday... Oh Tuesday

Daily gratitude:  I am thankful I was able to control my desire for a chicken biscuit

Another lost pound will do that for you.

I posted a photo to Facebook:  This one:

With the heading that Matt and I had lost weight.  So many people contacted me after that and asked me how I did it and what were some recipes.  I was glad to direct some of them to this blog and to the "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" infomercial.  I had one friend go out and buy and juicer and start this incredible diet. Another one will start this week -end.  And I have several more telling me why they can't do the diet.

LOL

Everyone makes  choice.  It does take a lot of discipline.  But your health is worth it, I think.

One of the best benefits right now is having Matt help me in the kitchen.  He usually makes the juice in the juicer and I do the blended one.  I get all of the ingredients together for him, but he juices them and then cleans everything up.  

Today we made a beet juice

2 beets

4 carrots

2 apples

6 stalks of celery

2 limes

2" of ginger

Thru the juicer.

This is enough for 2 servings of juice.  

We are trying to do a beet juice once a week.  The lime and the ginger in this juice cut the earthiness of the beet and make it very tangy with lime.  

Here is a link to see the benefits of raw beet juice:  Beet Juice Benefits

Wow.  So drink your red juice on a weekly basis and feel all that healthy goodness inside you.  AND please, do not panic if your poop turns the water in the toilet red.  It will happen.  Sorry to be so descriptive, but...

Juicing when you are on the go.

Some of the problems that may arise when you are juicing, is finding a juice place when you are on the go and traveling.    I do not recommend pre-packaged juices that claim to be "green" or "healthy"  All of these either have preservatives or have been pasteurized and you are not getting the full benefits of cold pressed juices.

Whole Foods and The Fresh Market do have cold pressed juices that are either made daily or shipped in daily.  Check the labels to make sure there are no additives and preservatives.  A good brand is Suja and BluePrint juices.  On Juice is also another brand.  They even ship overnight.  You can even order a cleanse program from them.

Cold pressed juice directory for Florida

Check out their link to find locations.

Yelp! is another great option when looking for juice bars when on the go.  They have an app for iPhone and Android.

Unfortunately, Planet Smoothie, Tropical Smoothie Cafe and other chain smoothie places do not offer the healthiest choices.  If this is your option look for something with greens in it (you may have to ask them to add spinach) and go with something non-dairy and something without sugar or chocolate.  Most chains are providing the fruit added juices.  If this is your only option, then go for it.

In Orlando are

The Smoothie Room

Raw Juicing and detox

Week 4.

Daily gratitude:  I am grateful for my dogs:  Beau, Finn, Bindi and Meera.  They make it all worth it.

Matt and I are heading in to our fourth week of juicing.   Here is what we have noticed so far.

Weight loss
No more antacid pills
No afternoon naps
Increased energy
Decrease of bloating
Lowered blood pressure
Not needing almost daily Advil for headaches.

All of that in just 3 weeks.

Because we had a cheat day yesterday  - and, to be honest, Matt had a cheat 3-dayer - I have decided to do cleansing juices for the afternoon.

Our morning will be the fruit smoothie - the 2 cups of fruit with the spinach.  It's filling and tasty and gets us ready for the afternoon.

Our cleansing juice today will be:

5 kale stalks
3 apples
1 lemon
1 cucumber
ginger
thru the juicer

This is a lemony juice.  Tart and good and you don't even taste the green

I have started to use glass containers to store my juices.  They clean up better and leave less of an odor. Plus, I have been reading about BPA's and hey, I am juicing to be healthy, I may as well not put anything extra in my juice, especially cancer causing chemicals.

Here are the new pitchers.  Check out your discount stores for them.  I got all 3 at Ross for under 4.00 per pitcher

No cheat Saturday

Daily gratitude:  I am grateful that my father in law is going to be okay after suffering a fall and a bleed

My husband is back from one night of camping.  He did not do as well as I did and managed to consume half a bag of Doritos.  We decided we needed to juice today and save the cheat day for tomorrow.

Rise and Shine Blended Juice

2 cups of Festival Blend fruit
1.5 cups water
1 banana
2 cups spinach
Blend thoroughly and enjoy

This is our go to juice for the morning and we love using the frozen fruit.  It makes it a little thicker and a little colder.  If you use frozen fruit, make sure there is no added sugar.  I normally measure mine out and let it thaw for about an hour prior to blending.  I have an old blender and it needs a little help with the frozen and hard chunks

We made two vegetable juices for the day.  The first one is a V-8 type juice.  Here is my recipe

8 plum tomatoes

cucumber

celery

1/4 onion

parsley

red pepper

lime

Through the juicer    I will probably add a hint of hot sauce to it.

Our other juice was a green juice using kale.  This recipe will make about 60 ounces

2 bunches of kale

2 cucumbers

2 grapefruit - peeled

1 blood orange

Look at the color of that kale coming out of the juicer.  Green goodness.  

Now that the juice is made for the day, we can go about our business and not have to worry about stopping our day to make juice.  I find that this way keeps us more on track than having to stop and make the juice.  

Enjoy your day.  Happy juicing.

Taking a break from green

It's Friday.  The end of a long week.  It is the end of the third week and it has been easier to juice.  I find that drinking the protein in the morning, followed by the breakfast green juice makes me fuller and more content through the day as opposed to spreading the protein out.

My morning juice is
2 cups grapes
1 banana
2 cups water
2 cups spinach
Through the blender.

I have had my fill of the green juice.  Going to switch it up with a carrot - celery juice for the afternoon.  did you know that celery is one of those negative vegetables.  You actually burn more calorie digesting it than it has in it.  Cool.

Carrot-Celery
4 carrots
3 apples
3 celery stalks
nub of ginger
Through the juicer.

Look at that color.!  Now I used BIG carrots and got enough juice for both afternoon juices.  So this will be my lunch and my afternoon snack.

Carrots are rich in antioxidants and especially, beta-carotene.  It also has tons of Vitamin K and is good for eye health and the do have anti-cancer benefits.

Celery is a great anti-inflammatory, especially  gastrointestinal anti-inflammatory.  

Enjoy your day.

Inspiration I use on a daily basis

I start my day by being on the internet.  After I read e mails and Facebook, I then head over to Pinterest to look at juice recipes.  I usually have an idea what I am going to juice that day, but I am always looking for inspiration.  I make a mental note of what I have in my fridges (yes, plural) and look for recipes that will have those.

As I explained before, I am juicing the fruit in the morning and then in the afternoon, all veggie with an apple or grapefruit for sweetness.

Here is the link to my Pinterest Juicing board: Denise's Juicing Board


And from there, I will look at websites and learn whatever I can about the juice diet.

A website I just visited today has the differences in the juicers as well as recipes for juice.

Juicing Juice

I also use my Kindle for getting juicing books online (usually 99 cents or free) and I look at some of the recipes.

Alone time

Daily gratitude:  Hmm.  Hard one today.  I know I am grateful for something, just can't think of it right now.

My husband is gone for the week end.  I am planning to continue on with the juicing.

My morning juice will be:

2 Cups pineapple
1.5 cups water
1 banana
2 cups of spinach
In the blender.

This is what I mean when I say in the blender.  I use this:

For the morning smoothies, the blender works fine on the softer fruits and spinach.  I can get the spinach chopped down finely.

For the afternoon, I am going to try the Sweet juice on Vmac and Cheese's blog site. 

SWEET GREEN JUICE

Makes a little over a quart of juice

3 granny smith apples (or any variety)
1 navel orange, peeled (I use the first steps in this technique to peel citrus of any kind)
1 lemon, peeled
2 inch nub of ginger, washed
entire bunch spinach, thoroughly washed
1/2 bunch kale, thoroughly washed

Through the juicer.

 When I say through the juicer, this is the machine I use for that:

 The juicer extracts all of the juice and most of the fiber making the juice more of a watery consistency.  I use this juicer for the beets, apples, cucumbers - what won't break down easily in a blender.  

I went to Hubbly Bubbly last night for dinner.  Click their name for the link.  I ordered the Hummus bowl with chicken and then added tomato, cucumber, lettuce, the Mediterranean salad and pickles.  I ate half.  The other half came home with me for dinner tomorrow night.  Good clean eating at the Hubbly Bubbly Falafel diner.  If you are in or near College Park, Orlando, Fl, it is a must try.

Place all ingredients over the lettuce leaves and enjoy.  Yummy delicious and low calorie!

Enjoy your day and juice for your health.

Red Wednesday

It's a red day today.  Red blended juice and red beet juice for the afternoon.

Morning red smoothie

2 cups strawberries
1 banana
2 cups water
2 cups spinach
Blended in the blender.

This was light and a little frothy.  Delicious.

Afternoon was a beet juice.  I am trying to make the beet juice a little less beety

Citrus Beet Juice
5 beets
5 beet tops - yes, the green tops
2 blood oranges
1 grapefruit
2 carrots.

Hump Day

My daily gratitude:  I am grateful for the life I was able to live.

Another 2 pounds gone.  Now that these 12 (or 14) pounds have disappeared, I know I am going to have to step it up in my exercise program.

It is getting better week by week.  Easier NOT to cheat and only have the juices during the day.  Having a cheat day is also a great help as well. Seeing results is the biggest motivator.

About 3:00 or 4:00 pm, I had been finding myself with the incredible urge to eat something.  I had been eating a single serving size of hummus with some wheat thins.  The last 2 days, I have had a hard boiled egg. I think in order to continue the weight loss, I am going to have to get that under control.

Here is a recipe for a yummy green juice I made yesterday

2 peeled red grapefruit
1 lemon unpeeled
7 celery stalks
7 kale stems and leaves
3 green apples
1/2 bunch dandelion leaves
1 inch nub ginger
small nub turmeric
Run all ingredients thru the juicer

This is a refreshing juice that I had for lunch and for my afternoon snack.  This made enough for 4 - 9 ounce servings.

I have gotten in to the habit of making my afternoon juices after I come home from the Courthouse.  Then I am able to work and not have to worry about disrupting my work to make juice.  It also makes it easier for my husband o come home and be able to grab a glass of juice and then go back out again if need be.

Today I am making a beet juice and a sweet potato juice.  Will post more later.

Adding protein

At the advice of a nutritionist, we have decided to add protein powder to our routine.  we are not mixing it in to the juice rather mixing it with the recommended water amounts and drinking it.

we were told that doing juice we can lose protein/muscle and to be  sure we are getting enough.

Here is what we got:

I

It is low in carbs, which is what you want, and adds over 50% of the daily protein we need.  Something to consider.  We are drinking it in the morning before our breakfast juice.  To be honest, I am really full right now!  

Two Weeks

Yesterday, a Sunday, we had our "cheat" day.

we had a nice breakfast that I made and then we had a piece of pizza at Costco.  Disappointed because it wasn't even a good piece of pizza.  And amazed at its effects on me.  I had to take a heartburn pill.  I had not taken an antacid pill for nearly 10 days.  I also took a nap.  I had not napped midday since starting this juice diet.

Dinner was at Outback.  We did treat ourselves to the loaded baked potato and here's why.

We were considering going to Smokey Bones.  Why not.  We had a 10 dollar off coupon.  I took a look at their nutritional information and NOTHING seemed acceptable.  I looked at Outback and there it was.  An entire meal for the same or less calories and fat than an entree at Smokey Bones.  Decision made.

When you do a cheat day, make sure you eat foods that you really love.  If something comes out to you that does not look delicious, either send it back or toss it.  I should not have had that pizza.  I thought about that greasy mess all day long and felt guilty!  Now had it been a good slice, I probably would have felt less guilt.

I am almost relieved to get back on the juicing today.

How I am feeling on the 12th day

3 weeks ago I had some concerns.  I was unable to lose weight due to my inability to put down the fork.  I was unable to exercise due to how I physically felt.  I was concerned for my future.  I was concerned that I was not going to be able to do all of the wonderful things my husband and I planned to do once we retire. Travel?  Hike?  I was concerned I was not going to be able to do it.

I just could not get motivated.  I KNEW I had to do something before it was too late.  The one health problem, besides being overweight, that I have is high blood pressure.  I had extensive lab work done 9 months ago and it came back fabulous.  You would think that would have motivated me.  I was not pre-diabetic and I was low risk for stroke or heart attack.  So why not take the steps to lose the weight?

Physically I felt terrible.  I had sore knees.  A sore hip.  Unable to move quickly and I was just tired.  A lot. And, let's face it, I love food.

My husband was feeling the same way.  He has been saying for 3 years that this is the year he needs to do it. And we never did it.

Until this year.

He saw the Joe Cross infomercial ad, we watched to together and I went out and got the juicer.

And so.  We juiced breakfast and lunch and snacks and ate a healthy dinner.

12 days later I have hope.  My knees feel better.  My hip feels better.  I feel better.  I can walk faster and I am less tired.  I truly believe that juicing has given all of that back to me.  I can not wait to see the results in 2 weeks.

Keep me motivated. Leave some comments.

No cheat day today

Daily gratitude:  I am motivated by feeling better

I got an amazing recipe from another website.  Please visit her blog to get another dose of encouragement.

Vmac and Cheese

So I decided to try her savory green juice.

I had all of the ingredients in my fridge or growing out on my patio,  Plus, I wanted to be able to make today's juice in the morning and have it handily available.  It's Saturday, we want to cheat, but we are waiting for tomorrow to do so.

Anyhow.

Savory Green Juice:
This will make about 70 ounces of juice to drink throughout the day.

2 pounds of tomatoes
5 carrots
4 celery stalks
bunch of parsley
1/2 bunch of kale or spinach
small onion without skin
3 cloves of garlic - peeled
Run this through the juicer and then store in a BPA free container for  up to 24 hours.

It separates right away so be sure to stir it thoroughly before pouring and drinking.

10

Ten Pounds lost.

I feel more energetic.  My knees do not hurt.  I no longer take daily afternoon naps.  All in 10 days of juicing.  I am sure most of the lost weight is bloat, but I'll take it.

It is keeping me motivated for sure.

One notable mention today.  Swiss chard gives a lot of juice.  A lot of lovely dark green juice.

Juicing Citrus

Daily gratitude:  That I can make smart choices and be happy with them

Morning Citrus Squeeze

2 grapefruit
1 blood orange
1 tangerine
1 lemon
4 carrots
14 strawberries
1/2 inch ginger
Run through the juicer

This is a tangy, tongue tingling citrus juice high in vitamins C and A.  Grapefruit is also high in enzymes that help burn fat as well as having a high antioxidant content.  It is also been studied and shown to help lower cholesterol in animals.    I did not peel the grapefruit or any of the citrus as I have learned that the peel and pith contain many nutrients.  Plus, I don't mind the tartness of it.

Enjoy your morning.

The Ninth Day

Daily gratitude:  I am thankful that I no longer work in an office and that we can afford for me to work from home.

The last 2 days have been enlightening for me.  I feel more energetic.  I have less body pains.  Could one week of doing this really have this effect?  I do not know to be honest, but it has motivated me.

Breakfast:
Please remember that I am making for 2 and the breakfast juice is for breakfast AND the mid-morning snack

4 cups fruit (papaya, pineapple, mango, strawberry
2 bananas
1 avocado
4 c coconut water
4 c leafy greens
In the blender

The avocado gives this juice a more "smoothie" texture making it rich and creamy and thick.  we use this juice mainly for breakfast and mid morning due to having more fruit in it and we want that fruit sugar and   carbs to burn off during the day.

Lunch: 

4 apples

10 carrots

7 kale leaves and stems

7 dandelion leaves with stem

cucumber

2 limes

nub of ginger

nub turmeric

Run all ingredients through the juicer.  This is 4 servings of juice.

Lime was the flavor of this juice today.  I made enough for our lunch and our afternoon snack.  

DAY 8 and shopping

Sometimes you just need Whole Foods Market.

Kale and spinach can be gotten most places.  Today, I brought home some Turmeric and dandelion greens. Yes,  Dandelion greens to go thru the juicer.

Have I told you I lost 8 pounds in 8 days?

Snack and Lunch
2 c of fresh frozen fruit blend (strawberry, papaya, mango, pineapple)
1 banana
1/2 avocado
2 c spinach
2 c water
In the blender

My old Kitchen Aid struggles to blend the frozen fruit.  I will probably thaw it a little more next time.  Texture was definitely more of a shake and felt shake-like.  Again, I am trying to get the fruit done in the morning and leave the veggies for the afternoon.

Afternoon juice will be a green juice.  Please remember that I am juicing for 2 people.  Take these in half for one person.

6 Kale leaves and stalks
6 dandelion leaves and stalks
1 lemon
nub Turmeric
nub ginger
3 apples
1 large cucumber
Run thru the juicer.  Drink right away.

By using a whole lemon, this dark green juice tasted like a green lemonade.  Lemon was the predominant taste.

Dinner tonight will be 3 ounces of pork loin, swiss chard and garlic and a salad.

Juicers and Clean up and the start of Day 8

Daily gratitude:  I am grateful for my ability to to sit on my hands and not post vagueness to Facebook or send out e mails until I have cooled down.

Pounds lost at this point:  8  EIGHT POUNDS!

I have also not taken my antacid pill in 6 days.  I took it every single day before I started to juice.

Juice for my breakfast is the remainder of the tomato juice made yesterday.  Remember to always drink the juice within 24 hours.  I did strain some of the pulp from it as I am not a pulp lover and it was very pulpy.

Let's talk about juicers.  I agonized over what juicer to get.  I read review after review after review and finally just decided to get the Breville JE98XL.  Am I happy with it?  It gets the job done.  I am a novice juicer.  This is perfect for me.  I do not intend to juice wheatgrass shots or anything else that needs a higher end juicer.  The Breville is just fine for me.

Yes, I have had some adventures with it - all my own fault for not making sure it was put together properly prior to juicing.  I have had accidents with my blender as well.  Sigh...

Clean up of the juicer is easy.  I read all those reviews that complained about clean up ad what a pain it was.  Seriously people.  Did you expect it to clean itself?  I mean, it is straining juice from vegetables and you expect easy clean up?

The receptacle is plastic.  The waste slides right out.  They do make bags for this OR you can use a produce bag or a plastic shopping bag if you are super lazy.  Ha ha.

I take the machine apart and immediately immerse the blade/strainer in warm soapy water.  It stays there while I clean the rest of the juicer.

Once I am done with the "other" parts, I rinse the strainer and then use the brush Breville sends you and I clean the strainer.  It may take a few times, but it comes clean.  Run it under clear water and then put it on a towel to dry.

Here is why I hand wash all of the plastic parts.  Some of them are dishwasher safe an some are not.  I don't want to try and remember which are and then make a mistake and have a melted part and a juicer that I can't use.  Handwash the parts and you are all set.

DAY 7

Our juice for the morning is this recipe

2 c green grapes
1 banana
1 knob ginger
1/2 avocado (I substituted a pear since I had no avocado at the time)
2 c water
2 c leafy greens (kale)

Afternoon and snack juice recipes

Beet & Carrot Juice
4 beets peeled
7 carrots
1/2 lemom
Thru the juicer

My advice is to pour your glass and drink it as fast as you can.  Unless you like the taste of beets.  I immediately went right in to making the tomato juice after I emptied the waste receptacle.

Tomato juice
12 tomatoes
6 celery stalks
knob ginger
nub of jalapeno pepper
Worcestershire sauce to taste
Thru the juicer

This is delicious.  DELICIOUS.  Light tomato without the thickness of what you get in cans.

I would advise making sure your utensils, juicer and all surface areas are wiped clean.  Beet juice stains.

Because I have a busy day in store, I made the juice ahead of time. The literature would like you to believe that you lose nutrients and MUST drink your juice ASAP.  while I do agree that some nutrients are lost, I also believe that this should be easy and convenient.  People do not stick to diets when they are not easy and when they are not convenient.  Please make sure that your juice is consumed within 24 hours of processing it.

DAY 6

After our day of "cheating" we started day 6 with the pear smoothie.

Our plan was to stop at Hi-Octane Smoothies, but they were not open on Sunday.  Kind of shocking since they are located near a gym.  In a bind on our way to the dog show, Matt ate an apple and I got an organic pea, spinach and apple puree that I ate. It took the edge off, only contained spinach, pea and apple and I felt was my best choice.

WE had a green smoothie at Eat More Produce for late snack and then headed to Outback for dinner.  I failed to satisfy my beef craving on Saturday and it was very strong on Sunday.

The bread came to the table.  One slice each.  No butter.  Then the salad.  Okay.  We can eat a little cheese and the croutons.  We used vinegar and oil for dressing.  Sirloin steaks and side of broccoli.  Boy did the potato on the lady's plate next door look divine.

Came home and felt much better.  I am obviously going to need to eat beef on my cheat days in order to make it on Sunday.

Day 5 Ends and Day 6 starts

At the end of Day 5, I made a scrumptious dinner

quinoa
tomatos
cucumbers
chopped parsley
chopped kale
chickpeas
chicken breast
dressed with a touch of olive oil and lemon


Day 6 - Saturday.  The day we have set aside to "cheat"    And when it comes to it.  I don't want to go overboard.  I dreamed of hamburgers, steaks, omelettes and bacon all week.  And now.  Here is the day, 6 pounds lost and I am afraid of setting myself back.  All I know is that when someone asks if I want to go to breakfast, today I can say YES!!

More later at the end of the day.

Day Five

My daily gratitude:  So glad to find more and more Smoothie/Juice bars along the way of life.  Makes sticking to this easier.

Day 4 we ate dinner.  I made lightly steamed broccoli, lightly steamed carrots and a 3 oz piece of Corvina fish.  I also tore up some romaine and sliced a tomato.  Never was I so happy to eat my veggies.  I made sure to season them well with the Kirlkland No-Salt seasoning blend and added cinnamon to the carrots.

Day 5 started off with an early rise to leave for the dog show.  I, unfortunately, ate nothing.  Hubby ate a banana and an apple.  On the way home we stopped at Hi-Octane Smoothies in Clermont.  I chose the one I felt was closest to what I was juicing - mango, pineapple juice, banana and spinach.  Their blender was much more hi powered and the consistency was decadent.  Smooth and creamy.  Delicious.

I made it.

My afternoon lunch/snack was this in the blender

2 pears cut up
banana
water
2 c spinach

Delicious.  Tasted like pears.

On Day 5 Matt is down 10 pounds and I am down 6.

Tomorrow is our cheat day.  I wonder what I will do with it.  Hmmm.

Day Three

My daily gratitude:  I am grateful for the 5 pounds I have lost in 4 days.  It will keep me on track.

That's right.  I weighed myself TWICE this morning.  5 pounds down.

Breakfast smoothie was downright delicious.

2 c pineapple
1 banana
2 cups coconut water
2-3 c spinach
In the blender.

Thick.  Sweet.  Well blended.

Today I made the juice for both of us an stored it in the Tupperware pitcher.  It held its color beautifully and its blended state.  No separation.

A crazy thing happened when I got home from the Courthouse.  I just needed something to EAT.  So, I had one of the Jimmy Dean Delites.  It might be under 300 calories, but after I ate it I read the ingredients.  All I will keep with me is that it was under 300 calories.  Lesson learned.  Part of this diet is getting all of the toxins out of your system.  I added a few to it with that sandwich.

So.  For lunch, I  drank the other half of my pineapple spinach smoothie.  I did not have an afternoon snack.  went right in to dinner.

Dinner was a Greek salad with lemon juice dressing.
Romaine lettuce
grape tomatoes
beets
onion
cucumber
5 olives
3 oz chicken breast

Whole foods non-processed.  Clean eating.  It sure felt good to step on the scale this morning and see those 5 pounds gone.  It will keep me going.

Day Two

My daily gratitude:  I am glad I work from home.

Hubby home today.  I made the Day 2 smoothie with Kale.  Hmm.  Not as smooth as it was with spinach.  I finally did research to try and understand why there was just more volume to the blended as opposed to the juiced.  Of course I knew that the entire vegetable and fruit were in the blended, but it just seemed like so much.

Yes.  Blended leaves the fiber in.  All of it.  Juicing discards the indigestible fiber.  Juicing allows the body to absorb the nutrients immediately; however, you may or may not feel hungrier quicker.  Trust me.  You will. It also releases the nutrients in to the system quickly - which can cause a spike in blood sugar if you are using all fruit.

Blending breaks down the fiber, but your body still works to further break it down.  It offers a slower, more even release of nutrients in to the blood stream.  You do feel fuller due to the fiber left in.

So. I will blend my smoothies that call for more fruit and juice my veggies.

Okay.  That's out of the way.

Day 2.

Made the smoothie.  Forgot to unplug the machine and accidentally hit the "on" button.  Kale, strawberries and bananas everywhere.    What a mess.

2 cups berries
1 banana
2 cups water (I use coconut water)
2 cups leafy greens

Delicious.

Had that for breakfast and my snack at 11:00 am.

For lunch, I decided to juice veggies.

7 carrots.
A tomato.
 2 stalks of kale,
4 celery,
an apple
Handful of parsley
1" of peeled ginger
1 lime
In the Juicer

When I look at the gathering of veggies and fruit on my counter, I think, WOW!!  How many people in a normal day life eat that many fruits and vegetables?  Not many.  I am about to eat my entire daily servings of fruits and vegetables in one sitting.

I gotta tell you.  It was okay.  The ginger adds a flavor that seems to overpower everything else in the juice.

This was my lunch and my afternoon snack.  Look at those colors!  

They don't last if you store it.  When I went to get my afternoon juice at 3:00.  My juice was no longer a lovely orange.  It was brown and ugly.  Hmm.  What to do about that.

By 5:00 pm, I knew that I needed something to "chew" Matt felt the same way.

For dinner we ate our dinner.  I made a salad with lean chicken breast, romaine lettuce, kale, tomatoes, cucumber, celery and a little pineapple.

The End of Day 1

Day 1 ended with me finally making the Mean Green Juice.

2 green apples
4 ribs celery
Bunch of kale
knob of ginger
cucumber
1/2 lemon
In the juicer.  Drink and... well. Try and enjoy.

I gotta tell you.  It's not as good as the 40 Days of Green Smoothie recipe.  If this is the juice Joe Cross was drinking all day long, no wonder why he wanted to stay in bed the first 3 days.

My husband was not home and it was really difficult to stay on path.  I had 4 dried cherries.  Oh well.  After that Mean Green Juice I was still craving sweets.  I hope it goes away soon.

DAY ONE BEGINS

My daily gratitude:  I am grateful that I have a husband that will do this with me.

Day One has begun.  Can I do this?  

I started with this book:  40 Day Green Smoothie Diet.  Why I chose this was simple.  I needed some place to start.  I like fruit.  I like green stuff, but not as a juice.  Not yet anyhow.  This was simple, used a blender and seemed to provide for what I was looking for - delicious juice and weight loss.

The Day one smoothie made 48 ounces of juice and the author considered this one serving.  Certainly this is not right.  I watched her video and yes.  That is one serving.  Okay.  Maybe I won't be hungry and maybe I can do this until my body is ready for the hard core juice diet.  

 That was ONE serving.  Looking over the other juice diets, I am pretty certain that this counts for the breakfast and the snack before lunch.  So the lunch serving with be the lunch as well as the afternoon snack.

I CAN do this.  

I did cheat a little ad have a small cup of black coffee.  I will get off the coffee all together.  But baby steps.  It's all about baby steps.

It all starts with the juicer and the produce.

After much research, I went out and bought the Breville Juice Fountain Plus (model #JE-98XL)

 We also watched the 1 1/2 hour video of "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead"  I also did a lot of research in to the juicing diets.  What I chose was the 40 day Green Smoothie (Amazon) model for breakfast and lunch, and then a traditional juice with more veggies for the dinner.  OR, we would simply eat a salad with lemon juice as the dressing.  Basically he same concept.

This is what our fridge and our counter looks like after a trip to Costco for the produce.  This will feed us both for a week.

And so it begins.

Inspired by the "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" documentary, my husband and I have set off to try and lose weight by juicing.  Both of us know it is time to do something with out lifestyle as well as the weight we are currently dragging around.  Both of us are relatively healthy.  I do have high blood pressure, but I have had it even prior to gaining the weight that I currently am at.  Other than not feeling good about ourselves and having the daily malaise of Fatness, we are doing okay.  We just want to make a change.

Enter the concept of juicing.  My husband, Matt, had heard of the Fat Sick and Nearly Dead concept and suggested I look in to it.  I did.  It scared me.    Eat nothing by juice?  And for 60 days?  Not sure about that.

We decided to do 10.  Here is our journey.