Market Day and lots of recipes and Hump Day

Tuesday is market day.  Time to replenish the stocks

I have been doing some freezing of the fresh fruit.  I peeled bananas, cut them in to thirds and then laid them on a sheet tray until frozen and then bagged them.  Did the same with my pineapple and papaya.  Both made the transition from fresh to frozen.

I love to shop at Freshfield Farms.  Plenty of Organic produce as well as just plain good deals.

On to the recipes

Found this on the dandelion greens I bought.

Lion's Tooth Lemonade

I plan to try this tomorrow.

The link to Lady Moon Farms  Click the name and you are there.

Anyhow.  Still adding the Vitamin C to my juices.

C-Green
8 dandelion leaves and stalks
6 kale leaves and stalks
1 cucumber
1/4 pineapple
peeled lime
peeled orange
peeled grapefruit
ginger
turmeric

Delicious citrusy with a hint of green.  I felt better as soon as I drank it!

 2 more juice recipes.  One to celebrate citrus and Vitamin C and the other is a "flu fighter"  Both of these are single serving recipes.

Apple Crisp

5 apples

2 large celery stalks

2 oranges (peeled)

Foo Fighter
2 c spinach
5 kale leaves
2 carrots
2 celery
cucumber
apple
ginger

Enjoy!

A new week

Bacon cheeseburger and peanut butter pie.   That's all I am saying.

It's Monday.  It's a new beginning.  Hitting it hard after a delicious Sunday off the juice.

Needed some vitamin C since I am feeling under the weather

C Power juice
6 carrots
3 peeled oranges
1 peeled grapefruit


I also made a green juice for the afternoon

Bunch of kale
3 celery stalks
2 apples
ginger
turmeric
cucumber

Both of these juices were very tasty.

Good news

Daily gratitude:  I am grateful that I know of one person that I inspired and she is doing well on this diet

EXCITING NEWS TIME:
I just got home from seeing my Endocrinologist. Well My Triglycerides dropped from 700 to 488 And my Cholesterol dropped from 300 to 232. My liver function went back to normal, and my thyroid numbers are coming down that he cut my synthyroid from 150MG to 75MG. 20 days guys.... 20 days and this juicing is really healing me. And I am down 8 pounds.


That was Shannon's Facebook status yesterday, February 21, 2014.

The photo that started it all:

When I posted the photo of the beet juice to Facebook, it caused a whirlwind of activity.  Congratulations in the comments, questions... and private messages.  One of those messages was from Shannon.  I told her what my husband and I were doing.  She started off eating the veggies and the fruit since she did not have a juicer yet.  She also went to the doctor to ask his advice.  He gave her the thumbs up.

Shannon got her juicer and away she went.  In 20 days she has changed her numbers.  Twenty days!  I am so proud of her.  And so thrilled that she got this motivation to keep going.

In the 61/2 weeks I have been doing this I no longer take antacid medication and I rarely take Advil.  My energy level has skyrocketed and I just feel better.  I would be curious to see my numbers as well, although mine were okay last year when they were taken.

Keep up the great work, Shannon!

New Juice

Daily gratitude:  Hmm. Tough one today

Every start of a new week, I am more determined than the last week to make this juice diet a success.  I find that my afternoon snack is the hardest juice for me to get down.  So, today, I changed it up to give my tastebuds something they want to taste.

Watermelon juice.

Read all about watermelon and its wonderful benefits here:  Watermelon

I bought pre-cut chunks

3 cups watermelon

1 lime

2 kiwi fruit 

Through the juicer.

The smell from this juice was so fresh and light.  I can not wait to try this in the afternoon

For breakfast I did pineapple and mango with the spinach.  I bought a few mangoes on Friday and they are ripe and ready.

Our morning snack juice is a green detox juice and I got the idea from the Raw Juicing and Detox Bar in Thornton Park when we went to their Grand Opening on Friday.  Click on their name above for their Facebook page.  Click here for their website.  Raw Juicing and Detox.  

The Green Lizard

Handful dandelion stems

cucumber

6 kale leaves

half a pineapple

ginger

turmeric

All ingredients through the juicer.

The Green Lizard is on the left.  Our Mango Pineapple Smoothie is on the right.

Enjoy your day.  My goal is 10 pounds by the end of the month.  I get my Nutribullet today.  Will report on it tomorrow.  Stay tuned.

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.

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 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.

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.