Getting Back on Track ~ Again!

Wow!  It's been two weeks since my last blog entry!  Definitely time to "get back on track"!  Truth be told, even though I hadn't been keeping up with my blog, I had stayed on track until last Friday when we took off for an impromptu trip to Dallas/Fort Worth - a nine hour drive each way, so two days on the road and two days actually there!   We met my son and looked at over a dozen properties together - trying to find the "perfect one" for our family!   It's been a challenging venture but it does  look like we're getting closer to making this happen!

The fact is each time we take off on a trip, we do get off our program somewhat. Too much eating out does tend to sabotage our efforts at times, even when we try to make good choices.   I came back with a two pound gain - probably half of that being water retention (sodium in restaurant food as we all know is atrocious!).   But we are back on track - combining juicing with eating small meals.   Today I started the day with a wonderful spinach and mushroom omelet and a thin slice of home-made oatmeal bread, a wonderful veggie juice for lunch, and our dinner will be a large veggie salad with spinach, romaine, tomatoes, cucumbers, celery mushrooms, avocado, and a 1/2 cup of canned salmon.

Returned to my fitness routine today - 45 minutes of lap swimming.  Felt great to return to swimming after being away from the pool for a week!   I plan to return on Saturday morning as tomorrow I have a funeral to attend.   Next week, I'll try to get in two days of swimming as we are heading to Montana on Thursday.  More challenges with food choices - but we'll do the best we can!  However, staying at the condo in Montana will help us avoid eating out more than we need to - at least that's what I'm hoping!

The Journey Continues

    As I mentioned in my previous post, my husband and I needed to make a decision as to whether we would pick up our journey where we left off, or change it up - now that the 5 Day Juicing Spring Clean was over.   We made our decision today - and what we've decided to do is Juice for the next three weeks for three days each week...three days all day juicing, and four days only partial juicing.   The reason is we'd like to take off my pounds before we leave on our vacation in early May.   We will most likely return to a 5 Day Juicing Fast after our vacation - more as a detox.  Then we'll decide again how we want to proceed with our Journey.  I know I've said this before, but it bears repeating - it makes it so much easier to do this Journey with my husband than without him.   We are truly each other's "support system".  

   We do intend to continue being adventurous with our juicing - by using a variety of recipes.   For example, on Monday, we're trying out two totally new recipes - one is apple, pears,  parsnips, along with with mint and lime.   What a melody of flavors!  Another new recipe for us on Monday will be:   apple, carrots, beetroot (just one for both of us as it does have a strong taste as we found out when we tried making a juice with beetroot last week).  The apple, carrots and beetroot are first juiced in a juicer,  and then blended in a blender with blackberries!   Sounds wonderful!   We will also try something we didn't do during the past week (yet it was in the program so I'm not sure why we omitted it) - having the "Ginger Shot" at the beginning of each day - a shot glass filled with apple and ginger root juiced together.  Jason Vale describes this as "a shot with a massive impact"!  He actually learned about this juice while in Denmark - and has this to say about its effects:

"Regardless of whether I am on a particular juice plan or not, I make sure that the first nutrition to hit my system everyday is a Ginger Shot. Not only was this super shot responsible for curing my severe hay fever, but it’s also a natural antibiotic; a wonderful decongestant; natural anti-inflammatory; great for travel sickness; it inhibits the formation of blood clots and helps to lower cholesterol. Ginger is also loaded with minerals, including – copper, potassium, sodium, iron, calcium, zinc, phosphorus and magnesium. Ginger juice is simply one of the finest health tonics on earth."

And so The Journey Continues....

5 Day Spring Cleanse - Day Five has arrived!

Thought this graphic was cute - and appropriate since more than 25,000 people from literally dozens of countries around the globe took part in Jason Vale's 5 Day Spring Cleanse!  I joined an international forum on Facebook with hundreds of members participating in the cleanse.  It's been fun sharing our ups and downs with others from around the world during these past five days.

Arriving at Day Five of the 5 Day Cleanse is almost anti-climatic for me.  I know it's not the end of the  journey - if anything, I'm thinking of how I can keep up the momentum I've felt during this week!   As anyone who has started Juicing should know, unless one makes a paradigm shift about eating, the taste of "success" will only be temporary.  Today seems to be more of a reflective day for me rather than a day to celebrate the end of the Juice Fast! I actually look forward to continuing this new eating lifestyle I've embraced!

I've downloaded this book by Jason Vale into my Kindle: "Juice Yourself Slim: the Healthy Way to Lose Weight Without Dieting".  I do see Juicing as a paradigm shift and a wonderfully easy way to lose weight without missing out on good nutrition.  It expedites weight loss like no other program IMO.  Once again, it has to be incorporated into one's eating lifestyle - it cannot be just a 'temporary fix'.   I am fine with combining juicing and eating solid meals on a daily basis - either two juices and one solid meal, or one juice and two solid meals depending on the events of the day.  I will say that so many of the recipes are so delicious, it's really not difficult to embrace this way of life!   I'm also finding out that I am acquiring new taste buds as the combination of the huge variety of vegetables and fruits on the recipes I've tried result in some very interesting juices!  There are a few I've not liked as much as others - but then that's true for meals in general.   

Another way I'm acquiring "new taste buds" is how I feel about "junk food" and foods that are laden with sugar and fats.  Jason decribes this as a mentality shift - going from "I want - but cannot have" attitude to "I can - but do not actually want" attitude.  I look at photos or ads of foods which simply are not healthy and have no cravings for them - this is including rich desserts, burgers, just about anything fried, etc.   As he says, this frame of mind eliminates the need for willpower and this frame of mind is a "slimmer's dream".  If one no longer craves "trigger foods", then there is no longer that internal mental battle which is so common among "dieters".   

Not surprisingly, this week of all day juicing has become easier by the day.  Would I do all day juicing again?   Absolutely!   In fact, the recommendation is once every three or four months.   There's lots of flexibility for those of us who are still on a journey to lose weight (which for me is still about 50 pounds -so I still have a long ways to go!).   There is the 5-2-5 program which is all day juicing during the week and eating 'normal' on the weekends.  There are 5 Day, 7 Day or 10 Day  - and up to 30 day programs both on Jason's website and on Joe Cross's website.   

Jason Vale also recommends that the solid foods we add back to our eating lifestyle, as much as possible, should be LHI (low Human Intervention) which means foods that come from a natural source - such as organic farms, etc.  with a heavy emphasis on veggies, fruits, eggs, and some poultry and fish.  More and more healthy eating advocates are promoting the low HI way of eating.  Of course, this is easier accomplished when one lives near such farms or has access to a Farmers' Market - or better yet, if one can grow his or her own veggies!  

Now that the 5 Day Spring Cleanse is over, I will simply continue my journey as I need to do!   I'm now 17-18 pounds less than I was at the beginning of this year - so if I continue at this pace, I just might be able to make my goal before the end of the year!  I look forward to the continuation of my Journey to Better Health!  In fact, I don't think I've ever been this excited about my journey as I am now!

5 Day Spring Cleanse - Day Four

This morning I took a peak at the scale - looks good!  I had set a "goal" before the week started and it looks like I might even reach it!   My official WI day isn't until Monday and Jason Vale does suggest that we weigh ourselves a few days after the Cleanse as it takes time for weight to readjust.  He also says not to weigh ourselves during the Cleanse as weight tends to fluctuate so much from day to day.

Since this morning was another avocado smoothie, we did the berry smoothie again - my husband really hates avocado!   We've made other variations on recipes - don't think it matters too much as long as we are getting lots of nutrients and not 'cheating'.   We've also eaten 2 or 3 pieces of fruit throughout the day - which is allowed  (they are called SOS's) - and I've continued eating my Activia yogurt at the end of the day.  Since yogurt is allowed in the smoothie, that should also be acceptable.

We started this morning with our smoothie at about 8:30, and had our early afternoon juice at about 1:30 p.m.   The name of that Juice is Minty Sunshine - primarily since it has both oranges and mint.  However, we had to substitute pears for the oranges (we had run out of the oranges and I hadn't realized that we needed them as they were left off of the grocery list I printed out).   The other ingredients were carrots, lemon and lime, ginger root and mint!   The result was a very delicious and refreshing drink!   I look forward to having a repeat of last night's drink this evening - except this time I'll remember to add the broccoli!   It's important to get a variety of vegetables and fruit as each one has a different set of nutritional benefits.

On to Day 5....

5 Day Spring Cleanse - Day Two and Three

I am combining Day 2 and 3 of the Spring Cleanse on this post.

Both my husband and I struggled a bit yesterday (Day 2) and both of us got a bit cranky as a result!   Jason Vale, the JuiceMaster who has been heading this Spring Cleanse sends out videos each day - and he did in fact name yesterday as "Tetchy Tuesday".  He sure hit it on the nose!  We both had fleeting thoughts of eating solid food - but we kept telling each other - hey, this is only for FIVE days - we can do it!   I'm so grateful that we are doing this together - it's such a tremendous help to be each other's support!  I also joined a support group on Facebook - they call themselves Inspired by Jason Vale.  It's been a great help to know that others are also having those fleeeting moments of "why am I doing this?"  And everyone else is great at keeping each of us on track!  Also, the recipes yesterday were not quite as good as the first day - but then I realized that I had put too much raw beetroot in the Ruby Tuesday drink - and had not blended the second juice which was with avocado as much as I needed to so it was too lumpy.  My husband is not a fan of either beets nor avocado so he was not too happy with either one.  I do like both but even I realized I had messed up a bit on the recipe.  They were OK - just not as great as the Turbo With A Kick which we had the first day.   I did end the day with a great conversation with a friend of mine from the Chicago area who is just starting to juice and had some questions and needed both advice and suggestions.  It ended up being a "pep talk" for both of us - we both know exactly WHY we want do this, and how important it is - not just for short term results, but in the long term as well.   It was great talking to someone who is on the same page I am!  Thanks, Elaine, for the vote of confidence and I'm glad we're in this together!  : )

This morning, which is now Day 3, has started off on a more positive note.  In fact, I woke up really energized!   We also started out today with another delicious drink - a berry and yogurt smoothie!   I made it into a protein shake with whey protein and also added unsweetened almond milk.   My spirits today are higher than they've been all week.  Of course, that's exactly what both Joe Cross and Jason Vale have said - when one does a Juice "fast", as the days go on, one feels better and better!   That makes it so much easier to see it through to the end, and now I'm actually considering doing yet another 5 Day "Fast" next week!   We're also planning to do a 5 or 7 Day Cleanse next month after we return from our vacation.  Juicing has certainly become a permanent part of our lifestyle!

It's only now 10 a.m. so I will add to this entry at the end of the day - and comment then on how the rest of the day unfolds...

Here it is, the following day and I'm just now completing this post which I started yesterday.  The rest of the day went well - the only time I felt hungry was when I realized I needed to drink water.   That is one reminder I constantly have to give myself - as since all my meals are juices or smoothies, I tend to forget that I also need lots of H20 to keep myself hydrated.

The last juice of the day was nearly identical to the juice we've made our mainstay in the past several weeks we've been juicing.   It's a great one as it's packed with nutrients - here is the recipe:
apples
pears
cucumber
celery
spinach
ginger root
limes

We were also supposed to add broccoli stem but forgot to.  However, we added celery which wasn't the actual recipe.   An ingredient that we normally add to our "mainstay" recipe is carrots - which wasn't in this recipe.   Carrots tend to be quite tasty and filling and we enjoy just about any recipe that includes them.

On to Day 4!....

5 Day Spring Cleanse - April 8-12 - Day One

Day 1 -  Monday, April 8

Wonderful beginning!  No hunger pains, and the juice recipes by Jason Vale are so delicious!   So glad we can add these to our repertoire of juices - it's always nice to vary them, especially since various veggies and fruits offer a wide variety of nutrients.  Another thing I like about Jason's recipes is he gives us the nutritional benefits of each recipe.

We were given two recipes for the day.  Jason had suggested up to four juices per day, but I had more than my fill after having three juices.  My favorite recipe was the one we had in the early afternoon entitled:  Turbo…with a kick!  

Here are the ingredients:

Apples x 2  (he suggests Golden Delicious but we used Granny Smith)
Pineapple x 1 medium

Spinach x 1 handful

Lime  (wax free and peeled)

Celery x  1 stick

Cucumber 3 cm chunk

Ginger x 1 cm chunk

Avocado x 1 medium

How to create this creamy Juice Master piece:

Juice all the ingredients except the avocado and ice. Pour the juice into a blender along with the avocado flesh and ice and blend until smooth.   Add ice.

What’s the kick?

Unlike the traditional ‘Turbo’ recipe, I have added a nice chunk of ginger. As the name suggests this gives it a real kick!  (feel free to add more ginger for more of a kick!)

Benefits:

This recipe is rich in chlorophyll:  the lifeblood of the green plant. It helps to oxygenate the blood while alkalizing the body.

 Can't believe how easy this is!   Day Two, here we come!  

Juicing - its benefits, and some helpful links

Tips and Information about Juicing

I have several friends who have been asking me for advice about Juicing.  I have decided to post some links and information right here on my Blog.  Some of these links were posted in previous entries but I think it will help to have them all in one entry as a point of referral.   I may add more links later as I am still on the learning edge of this new addition to my journey.   

First, here is an interview with Jason Vale, the Juice Master, who is spearheading the world-wide Juice Fast we are starting on Monday (see yesterday's entry).   (Note: this interview excerpt is from a magazine called Closer which is published in England)

We asked Jason Vale, 'Master Cleanser', why juicing works...

Why is juicing so popular?

Because it works! Not just for healthy rapid weight loss, but for every aspect of health. We are not talking about chemical shakes here, but the beautiful nutrient filled liquid found within the fibres of all fruits and vegetables. It isonly the juice contained with the fibres that feeds you, fibre cannot penetrate through the intestinal wall, so you get 100% of the nutrition direct into your cells.

What are the main health benefits of juicing apart from weight loss?

Fresh vegetable and fruit juices are good for your hair, skin, nails, eyes, energy levels and every aspect of your wellbeing.  Natural Juice Therapy is becoming more and more recognised as a great alternative to drug based therapy for many common aliments and health conditions. I have received emails claiming benefits to many different conditions, especially insomnia, lethargy, stress, depression, skin, arthritis, IBS and asthma.

Some critics say juicing is just a quick fix to lose weight fast which means you'll put it straight back on, and also that it leaves them feeling hungry. How do you respond to that?

I have received tens of thousands of testimonials from people who have not simply lost huge amounts of weight inshort amounts of time, but who have gone on to hit their target weights and keep the weight off. The key is the right coaching' along with the right juice programme.

Here are some helpful links for those of you who are just starting to Juice:

www.rebootwithjoe.com

http://www.juicemaster.com/us/

http://www.all-about-juicing.com/

http://healthygreendrink.com/resources/

Taking the Plunge - Getting Ready for Our First Juice Fast

My husband and I have made a commitment to join a world wide Juice Fast organized by Jason Vale, better know as the Juice Master.   Here is his website which explains the Fast, which he calls the:  Big Juice Spring Clean   His last world wide Juice Cleanse in January was entitled the World's Biggest Juice Detox: (http://magazine.foxnews.com/food-wellness/juice-master-diet-lose-7-pounds-seven-days ).  That worldwide event resulted in over 24,000 people participating from more than 60 different countries who lost a collective total of over 100,000 pounds.

Along with the instructions for the Juice Cleanse, Jason has included the entire shopping list for the five days.  Most of the items on the list are items we already use in our juices.   The difference is we will be juicing all day, every day which is something we had not yet attempted to do.  Along with juices, there are also smoothies made with natural yogurt or avocado, and something called a Ginger Shot  (apple and ginger root, juiced and poured into a shot glass!).

My husband and I are are both looking forward to doing this!   As I mentioned recently to a friend, we've seen what juicing does for our energy level, with added benefits such as clearer complexion, stronger nails, enhanced clarity of mind - and, of course, the weight loss we've continued to have.  With all of those benefits, why on earth would we NOT continue making Juicing a part of our lifestyle?  A Juicing Fast is something people do to boost all of the results I've just mentioned.  After the Fast, we will continue to juice one or two meals a day as we have done during the past several weeks.   If we find the Juicing Fast as do-able, we will probably do one every other month or so.

I will start a day by day journal beginning on Monday and record the progress we make as we tackle this 5 Day Juice Fast.