Back from Vacation

I spent 10 days up in the New Jersey/Pennsylvania area.  I did manage to juice on the road and in the hotel.  Have Nutribullet, can travel.

Traveling overnight to our destination, we packed a cooler with fresh ingredients - spinach, berries, protein, almonds.  One at our destination hotel, we made sure we got a fridge and freezer and bought frozen berries and a bigger bag of greens.  I kept everything in one bag so I wasn't rummaging all over the place for the ingredients.

We juiced every morning.  The rest of the day was a bust.  I gained 3 pounds.  

Today, I am juice fasting all day long.  I will NutriBlast my breakfast and lunch and I made my favorite juicer juice for snacks.

Favorite Juice

8 carrots

4 pears

4 stalks celery

small lemon

Through the Breville

Two-fer

Daily gratitude:  I have not been feeling very grateful this past week.

Today was a clearing out of the fridge.  Going away this week end and I need to get foods on the brink out of there.

Mocked V-8 juice
7 Roma tomatoes
6 stalks of celery
6 carrots
1 beet top
1/2 a lemon
1/2 head romaine
half bunch of parsley
1/4 red pepper
1/2 small white onion
All ingredients thru the juicer

I tend to add a dash of hot sauce to this drink to make it spicier.

The Nutribullet has arrived.

I took advantage of the 139.99 deal HSN.com had going for the 900 Pro series.

My first use was a disaster.  I did not follow the instructions to the T and overfilled slightly.  It squirted everywhere.  Once I followed the instructions, no problem.  It really blends up the greens and the fruits extremely smooth.  Nuts and seeds are not really ground up that well and will settle in the bottom of your drink.  I may omit this from the morning routine.    Fiber is left in this drink and will keep you fuller longer.

I would recommend this blender to those looking to add a juice to their diet and do not 3 want to get a juicer.

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...

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.

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.

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.