The Daily Juice 8-18-14

So here it is Monday.  August 18, 2014.  Matt is home from vacation and we are re-starting the juice diet in an attempt to lose more weight.

From January to May, I lost 30 pounds.  Matt lost 35 pounds.  From May until today, we were learning to maintain tat weight loss, adjust our eating habits as well as learning portion control and moderation.

One difference is going to be the lunches.  I am adding protein to lunch and not juicing.  I will only eat 4 ounces of a protein.  That seems to get me through to dinner and takes care of any tiredness I might feel mid-day.

Breakfast was the typical Nutribullet smoothie

2 cups of triple green blend
banana
handful goji berries
handful of almonds
1 cup of triple berry blend
chocolate protein powder
3 prunes

Satisfying and delicious

Snack juices are a typical green juice.  For this juice diet go around, I am going only green juices and vegetable juices.

That is a bunch of Lacinto Kale
bunch of parsley
2 cuts of pineapple
2 apples, celery
lime
2 cucumbers
ginger

I supplemented it with the Suja Essentials Green Delight.  I am doing this so that we will get four (4) 12 ounce servings out of the juice.

Tonight's dinner will be chicken breasts, broccolini, cauliflower and a salad.

I will cook enough chicken to have leftover for tomorrows lunch.  I usually get breasts that are pretty big ad I cut them in half prior to grilling.  4 portions right there.  No over eating of the protein.  I am not concerned with the amount of veggies that we take in.  Salad dressing usually consists of vinegar and oil and occasionally I whisk in a little Dijon mustard or lemon juice.

NutriBullet recipes

I know not everyone has a juicer.  Many people have the Nutribullet.   I will start giving equal time to the Bullet since I use it as much as my juicer.

Tropic Thunder
2 cups spinach
1 cup pineapple
banana
goji berries
shaved coconut
water to the fill line

So delicious.  You can taste every Ingredient in there.


Antioxidant Blast
1 cup spinach
1 cup blueberry/raspberry/blackberry mix
goji berries
water to fill line

You can easily double the ingredients and make a bigger blast.  I used the small cup since I also ate a hard boiled egg.

Enjoy

Quick Recipe

Crazy Sweet Dill Pickle
1/2 cucumber
fresh dill (as much as you want)
1 pear
Fill water to the Nutibullet "max" like and blast away

Tastes very mild - like a sweet dill pickle

Re-set Monday

Daily gratitude:  That I was able to get my husband to get some things done around the house this week-end.

Spent Saturday visiting the produce places and then came home and processed all of the fruits and veggies - mainly the fruits.  Mango, pineapple, papaya for the tropical mix, and blackberry, strawberry raspberry for the berry blend mix.  Also snagged some citrus - oranges, a few limes, grapefruit. I also grabbed some seeds - pumpkin and sunflower.  I am getting back to the fruit in the morning and a veggie juice in the afternoon.

Monday is re-set the diet day.I am hovering at the 27 pounds lost mark and I want to shake it up and get a few more pounds lost this week.

So, with all that good produce, here are my juices for the day.

For breakfast I am doing the NutriBullet blended smoothie.  Greens, my tropical mix, a banana and some pumpkin seeds.  For lunch will do in the Bullet - greens,berry blend, protein powder and banana and almonds.

Mid morning juice:

4 peeled oranges
1/2 sweet potato
8 carrots
1/2 beet
turmeric
grapefruit (not pictured)

For my afternoon juice (not a great photo)

Peeled grapefruit
4 celery stalks
bunch parsely
3 cucumbers
lime
ginger

It's Monday.  A new week begins.  Broken resolutions can start over fresh.  Enjoy

Ahhhnother week done

Technically not until tomorrow night, but I feel I accomplish something by getting to Friday.

I have a food confession.

Went to Costco on Wednesday.  Had a hot dog... and suffered for the rest of the day.  Stomach pains really bad and 2 antacid pills did not take away the pain.  Lesson learned.

Friday.  Back on track.

Nutriblast for breakfast

Made 2 juices for the day:

1/2 watermelon
pint of strawberries

The second juice was a green juice and I was getting rid of things in the fridge

3 leaves red leaf lettuce
1/2 head butter lettuce
2 red apples
3 stalks celery
handful of broccoli
cucumber
ginger and turmeric

 I have been having a NutriBlast for lunch.  These are filling and just what I need to get me thru the afternoon

2 handful greens
banana
scoop of protein powder
tablespoon golden flax
1 cup frozen blueberries
10 roasted almonds
water
Blasted.

So delicious.  I feel almost guilty drinking this.  The chocolate of the protein powder gives it a chocolatey taste, the banana makes it creamy and the frozen berries give it a chill and make it thick.  The almonds add a depth of flavor.  It's like a milk shake!

Enjoy.

Advice to new juicers

I think that since I have been doing this for nearly 60 days and my weight loss is 27 pounds, I can comment on what to do when you are first starting out.

1.  Decide how serious you are about this.  Do you want to lose weight?  Do you want to get more greens and veggies into your diet?

2.  How long do you plan to do this?  Is this something that you are doing for a month?  A year?  The rest of your life?

3.  Based on your above decisions, get the right equipment.
    a.  decide how much money you want to spend.
         - a blender will make a smoothie, but will not extract the nutrients you need completely.  You can can              get spinach and softer fruits to break down pretty well, but nuts and kale, hard fruits and most
           veggies will not break down.

            -  Nutribullet 600 or 900.  One of the best options.  The 600 is cheaper and will do the job.  These                   extract the nutrients and break down your fruits and veggies, nuts and seeds completely.  Easy to
                use, easy to clean and I highly recommend it.

             - Juicer.  One of the best options to get if you are looking to get the nutrients right in to your system               and looking for a consistency that is more juice like and less smoothie like.  Everything can go in
              the juicer.

4.  Decide how you are going to juice.  Do you have time to juice 3-4 times a day?  Or is it easier to juice all of your daily juices at once.  Don't worry about reading that it's not good to store your juice.  If you are drinking them all in one day, nutrients are not going to be lost.

5.  If you do not like the taste of vegetables, making them in to a juice is not going to change their taste.  You need to make sure you are adding fruit to the juice.  Pineapple is your sweetest choice.  Costco has a Festival blend that includes pineapple, strawberry, mango and papaya.  You can use it frozen or thawed Bananas also add sweetness.
Spinach is one of the mildest dark greens.
My advice is to make a green smoothie in the morning with your greens, banana and pineapple and then in the afternoon, do a more veggie one with pineapple added.

6.  Beets are not for everyone.

7.  Once you get your tastebuds used to it, move on to other greens such as kale, chard, etc.

8.  Use resources to look for recipes.  Pinterest is a great resource.

9.  Read ingredients on soy milk, almond milk and other "healthy" drinks.  You might be surprised.

10.  Lastly, enjoy what you make  If you did not care for a juice, tweak it the next time and see.  This is all trial and error.

And be healthy.

 

A Green day

Daily gratitude:  Hmmm...

Feeling the need to detox has got me seeing green.

For breakfast I blended the Power greens, 1 banana, 1 pear, sunflower seeds, water (ice in hubby's)

I added a little cinnamon to mine.

And it blended to a smooth consistency.  The pear adds a little texture to the smoothie, but over all, very tasty.

Afternoon juice was another green concoction:

Bunch of kale
6 celery stalks
cucumber
2 wedges of pineapple
pint of strawberries washed but not hulled
1/2 lime
nub of turmeric
nub of ginger
1/2 pear

This is a sweetened green blend that will get the good minerals and vitamins right in this afternoon and hopefully take the burgers and tacos out!

Yes.  My Sunday cheat day was awesome.

Protein Smoothie and Tuesday

Somehow, overnight, I managed to lose a pound.

Went to Costco yesterday and stocked up on some frozen organic blueberries, blackberries, spinach, pears, etc.  Looking forward to juices this week.

I have amped up the protein powder.  I scoop of protein powder, 1 cup frozen berries, i tablespoon ground golden flax and water to the Max line in the Nutribullet.  So delicious and filling

The frozen berries made it thick and the chocolate powder made it chocolaty.  Delish.

Taking advantage of the berries.  Our morning smoothie is in the NutriBullet

2 cups spinach
1 banana
1/2 cup blackberries
1/2 cup blueberries
1/4 cup flax seed
water to Max line

I did a version of this for our lunch but used the Power greens that Costco sells.  Baby spinach, baby kale, baby arugula, etc.

For the snack juices we did 2 different ones.  I will be honest, I am having a hard time with my afternoon juice so I have been doing a lighter, sweeter juice.

Mid morning juice

Bunch of kale
5 carrots
6 celery
1 pear
1 lemon
nub ginger
in the juicer.

For the afternoon snack (and I am hoping to be here to enjoy it)

1/2 baby watermelon
pint of strawberries
1/2 lime

Oh if you could smell it.  I will have no problem drinking this juice.

Enjoy your day.

NutriBlast Monday

If anyone is still hesitating to do this diet, hesitate no longer.  Forget the juicer and get yourself a NutriBullet.

Seriously.  I have the Pro 900, but I know that they are running a special on the 600 on the actual website for Nutribullet.  2 for 1.    I have posted some links below where you can get this awesome device.

Nutribullet

Home Shopping Network

What I like about the Nutribullet is that it is easy to clean up.  It comes with all of the equipment you need to make a days worth of healthy smoothies.

It has the 2 extractor blades, a large cup - which is good for 2 snack size juices, 2 medium cups good for a juice, 1 small cup, 2 lids, a sippy lid, a handled lip ring and a plain lip ring.  Everything you need.

In a hurry?  This is perfect.  Don't want to clean up a juicer, this is all you need.  On days my husband travels, I only use the NutriBullet.

Todays juices are:

Red leaf lettuce - cups
1 banana
cup of strawberries
Tbsp flax seeds
water to the max line

Blend 30 seconds.  Stop.  Blend 10 seconds

Smooth and delicious

I also made a Kale juice for myself for breakfast in the small cup
1 cup kale
5 strawberries
flax seeds
blend 30 seconds.  Rest.  Blend 20 more seconds

This time I got the kale smooth.  No chunks.

If you follow the instructions in the book NutriBullet sends you, you will get the right smoothie consistency you are looking for.


Enjoy your day.

Juicy Couture

I have learned a secret about the NutiBullet and why you should read the manual it comes with.  You can blend for 40 seconds and if the consistency is not what you want, blend again for up to 40 seconds.  You can blend 3 times before having to let the motor rest.  Trust me.  Two 40 second blends are exactly what I needed.

The almonds were completely broken down and the NutriBlast was smooth and delicious.

I am so impressed with the NuriBullet Pro 900.  It came with the base, 2 extractor blades, a big cup, 2 large cups, a small cup, 2 lids, a handled lip guard and a regular guard, 2 books and a packet of Superfood (chia seeds, Goji berries, Cacao nibs, Maca powder).  I use the airtight lid to store our lunch NutriBlast in the fridge.  How convenient is that?

I have been adding the almonds because the Chia seeds are like bird seed.  Now that I know how to blend correctly, I will try those tomorrow.

Got some delicious blackberries for the morning NutriBlast.  This week we will be traveling close to Plant City, FL ad will get a flat of strawberries.  Can't wait for that.

  Moving on the juicer.

1 large Sweet potato
2 apples
1 beet
turmeric
3 carrots
1 lime
Run through the juicer.

Can't wait to try this.  It smelled like lime and so refreshing.

Links to articles and recipes

I will add to this post periodically.  Keep checking

How to Start Juicing

Juice recipes

All about greens

Denise's Juice Board at Pinterest