A little catch up to do...

It certainly has been a while.  Life gets in the way sometimes.

I am still juicing and maintaining the 30 pound weight loss that I accomplished.  However... It is time to lose 20 more pounds.

Let's talk a little about maintaining the weight loss.  Yes.  I had to make changes.  Not drastic changes, just changes.  First off was cutting out eating out as much as we did prior to the diet.  Along with that came cutting the high calorie, high fat foods from the diet.  My next change was limiting the amount of "white" I ate. Meaning  - pasta, all rice and grains, potatoes, bread, sugar, dairy.  Not eliminating, just reducing.  I also changed out ground beef for ground turkey or buffalo in many recipes.  And, one of the important things?  Having things to eat for lunch in the house so that we did not go out to eat.  This was accomplished by stocking the freezer with turkey burgers, chicken burgers, already cooked grilled chicken and making sure I had salad ingredients.  Another change, and probably the most important change was re-committing myself to the preparation of dinner.

Along my journey, I have discovered that I need to juice my breakfast and I need to have another juice during the day.  Lunch needs to be light and should be protein to get me to dinner.  If I grill chicken, I make an extra one for my lunch the next day.  Simple 4 ounces of chicken for lunch and I can make it to 6 pm.

I have also discovered short cuts to juicing.  One store bought juice that I can recommend is Suja Juice.

You can get this at Costco, Whole Foods and some grocery stores.  Now I won't lie.  It is expensive.  I would click on the image to go to the website and research the line ups.  Some do have Stevia in the and I stay away from all artificial sweetener - even Stevia.

Suja does not have any preservatives in it.  I like that.  When I tried the Classics line up, many of the juices taste exactly like the ones I am producing out of my Breville.  I have also tried the Essentials and found them to be a bit sweeter and probably good for someone looking to add juice to their diet.

In any event.  From here on out, I plan to include not only juice recipes, but basic recipes that I am eating to maintain my weight loss and continue on with my journey to better health.

I am headed to a lab draw next week.  One year ago I had a complete lab draw and was surprised to find how good my labs were.  Cholesterol was a little up, but the good was good and the bad was good. Looking to see a change in that overall number this year.  If I can find last years reports, I will post both.  I had that done in July... and yet it took me nearly 6 months to get my act together and get going on the road to better health.

Lesson learned.  Thankfully not the hard way.

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