So many juices, so little time...

Been playing catch up since coming home from vacation and then having my husband and 2 of the dogs come home earlier this weeks.

I will start with 2 juices I used fresh raspberries in.  Not a fan of that; however, that being said, perhaps if I added some honey it would have sweetened it up a bit and I would have liked it more.  Both were a little too green for me.  I used spinach in one and kale in another, a pint of fresh raspberries, banana, almonds and water.  Neither one were very "Smoothie" like and both had a very raw green taste to them.  Not a favorite.  Why do I post?  Because maybe someone will add honey and then post that it was a good juice.

The next juices are simply favorites of mine that I will use when I am doing a day fast.

Carrot Favorite

8 carrots
4 celery
4 apples
Thru the Breville juicer.

I simply love this juice.  Sweet, tasty, has a mild celery kick and it goes down easy.

Another favorite actually contains beets!  Yep.  BEETS

Sunshine Beet (right one)
2 peeled grapefruits
4 peeled oranges
1 lemon
1/2 large beet
thru the Breville.

I love this citrus juice.  Smooth, refreshing and good for you!

The rest are NutriBlasts

Smooth Yellow
Kale/spinach blend
banana
pineapple/mango blend
ginger
scoop vanilla protein

Has a hint of ginger.  The protein fills me up and gets me thru til lunch.

My goal this week to juice all day and eat sensibly at dinner.  I had gained a little weight on vacation and I am happy to report that I have shed those 5 pounds.  It was super hard these past 2 weeks since I had been eating food during the day while on vacation and I missed that.  Slowly, I re-trained my body, stomach, mouth and mind to get back on the juice and I am happy at the results.

I still have 20-30 more to go.

Juicy Thursday

Today, my first juice is a garbage juice.  Doesn't sound delicious does it?  However, this is why it is garbage juice.  I take a look in my fridge and see what produce needs to go ASAP and I make it in to a juice.  I just so happened to have quite a bit!

Week old tomatoes, both round and a few grape ones, and green onions as well as a head of butter lettuce.  I added a bit of fresh produce to round it out in to a nice tomato juice

Garbage Juice
1 head of butter lettuce
tomatoes (as many as you want)
4 carrots
4 stalks celery
green onions
wedge lemon
2 hands full of spinach

 I was off the diet this past week end and I certainly paid the price.  Although I did not gain any weight, the toll it took on my digestive system was great.  I suffered, up til today, with bloating and gas pain.  I imagined that there was a battle in my intestines between the good stuff moving in and the bad stuff trying to hang on, but getting moved out.  I am feeling MUCH better today.

Next juice is a citrus beet juice.  I had a piece of leftover beet as well as grapefruits and oranges that needed to leave the house one way or another.

Citrus Garbage
2 peeled grapefruits
3 peeled oranges
1/4 beet
4 carrots
wedge of lemon
nub ginger

Enjoy the juice.

Pearrific Juice

Keeping it slow and steady with another pound lost.  Matt is holding it down at 40 pounds lost.

Pears are known for their anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.  Pears are also one of the easier to digest foods and have a high amount of digestible fiber.  I know when I add them to a smoothie, they add a thick texture that feels decadent on the tongue and a nice sweet flavor.    Pears are also considered to reduce the risk of Type 2 Diabetes and lower heart disease.

Today, I have juiced a nice pear and citrus juice that I am excited to drink for my morning juice.

Pearrific
3 pears
2 peeled oranges
1 lemon
ginger

I am also still on my citrus juice

Citrus Kale Juice
6 kale leaves
2 peeled grapefruit
1 peeled orange
1 lemon
2 handfuls of spinach
1 cucumber
turmeric
ginger

Feeling inspired... and citrus benefits.

It's Monday.  Again.  We have decided that the last 2 cheat days have gotten out of hand and we are going back to what we were doing in the beginning:  Being careful on cheat days, but enjoying one meal of what we want.  My meal is usually a burger.

I am feeling inspired because I got an e mail from my Uncle Jerry and he requested prayers due to some health concerns.  I told him of course and then shared with him our journey of juicing.  He asked for all of the information and I sent it.  I then talked to my cousin this morning and I am sharing it with her as well.

It makes me feel great when I can help people.  This juicing has helped me tremendously.  The first week is the hardest, but once you see the weight loss, it will keep you motivated.

Monday's juice.  For the following recipe, I basically used up any greens that were on the edge that were in my fridge.  If you only have fresh, use those

Green Citrus Lemonade
Half head of Romaine
4 leaves of butter lettuce
bunch dandelion greens
1/2 lemon and peel
1 orange (peeled)
1 grapefruit (peeled)
2 apples

My next juice is tried and true and very kid friendly.  Want to get the kids on juice?  Use this.  Sweet, a little tart and healthy!  They will never know they are also drinking celery.  The color is also kid friendly.

Tart Celery

4 apples (granny smith are best)

10 stalks celery

10-12 carrots

Some of the benefits of citrus:

Vitamin C 

Cancer prevention

Did you know that lemons are one of the most alkaline foods?  Cancer can not grow in an alkaline environment.  Add lemon to your water and drink to your health.

Oranges have been known to lower your bad cholesterol!!

Citrus helps eliminate free radicals from the skin helping to keep it young and healthy!

Oranges help in the absorbing of Vitamin D and calcium, leading to stronger bones.

Grapefruit helps boost your metabolism and aids in weight loss

So don't overlook these delicious fruits and add them somewhere to your diet.

A Rare Saturday Post

Ate spaghetti last night.  Need to juice today and be strict.

I still have another 20 pounds to go.  I have lost 30 pounds since January 6, 2014.

So.  I made 2 juices for today and am planning to make chicken lettuce wraps for dinner.

Straw-Grapefruit Juice
2 pints of strawberries
3 grapefruit peeled
nub of ginger

And the next juice is another simple juice.

Carrot-Apple-Celery
4 granny smith apples
6 carrots
8-10 celery stalks

An update about the melon cucumber juice I made yesterday.  I did not like the taste and am not using an yellow melon any more.  The cantaloupe melon is much sweeter and easier to drink than the yellow melon.

Enjoy the week end.

Monday

Not too bad of a cheat day yesterday.  Just ate a burger and fries for lunch but had a sensible breakfast and dinner.

Starting the day with a NutriBlast.  

My 2 snack juices today are designed to keep it tasty.  I have discovered that when I deleted the 2 snack juices, I had a hard time staying on the diet.  With these juices added, no problem at all.  So, I will keep them in the plan.

Carrot Pick Me Up

14 carrots

1 peeled grapefruit

2 peeled oranges

ginger to taste.

I say "ginger to taste" because a lot of people do not like a strong ginger taste.  I do think it it important to keep the ginger in.  Ginger has so many health benefits.  It' main benefit is helping to relieve gastrointestinal distress and promotes the elimination of intestinal gas.  Ginger also has anti-inflammatory compounds and has been known to protect against colo-rectal cancers.  So.  Add a little to your diet every day.

My next juice is a green juice with pineapple for sweetness.

Afternoon Green

1/2 head of romaine

6-8 kale leaves and stems

2 cucumbers

handful or parsley

1/2 pineapple

apple

Matt tried a little bit this morning and said this was a very good juice.  Can't wait to drink this in the afternoon.  

Monday, Monday

Now I am not gonna tell a fib and say I was very good this week end.  I did pretty good on Saturday.  Sunday was a true cheat day.  However, the good news is that I did not gain any weight.  Whew.

So now to detox and get back on track.

I have a bit of a scratchy throat from being out in the rain and cold on Saturday, so I wanted a juice high in vitamin C.  I also wanted our regular morning juice and a green juice to detox on.  I guess that means we made 3 juices.

The morning juice is the same - the spinach and fruit in the Nutri-Bullet

The juice on the right I will call Vitamin C Plus

2 ruby red grapefruits peeled 

12 hulled strawberries

ginger

turmeric

What a refreshing juice.  I can feel the vitamins going right where I need them.

Green juice is simple

Kale

half bunch dandelion leaves

1 wedge pineapple

celery

2 cucumbers

ginger

turmeric

Both of the juices went thru the Breville juicer.

My goal for this week is to lose 3-5 pounds.  I am determined to do it.  

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:

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

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.

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.