Exciting Juicy Stuff!

Sorry I haven't followed up after the juice cleanse. I have been very busy and super stressed! My job and the children I care for have taken all of my thoughts for the past two weeks and I haven't been able to think about much else, but the problems seem to be mostly resolving themselves and I can go back to thinking about other things :) Only now I have a final paper to finish in one week! Well, I guess it will have to get done!

So after the Big Juice Spring Clean you could send in a video about your experience to win a prize to Jason Vale's newest juice retreat in Portugal. You could also send in a picture. My husband sent in both and, while he didn't win the prize we are getting Jason Vale's Funky Fresh Juice Book for creativity and the video is posted on the website! So I wanted to share it with you because I am so proud of my husband:) 

 His picture also did not win, but it was featured in the collection of pictures that were sent out on email.  See if you can find it!
 

That is what I will leave you with tonight, but I have three really exciting recipes to share with you! Look for another post soon, I can't wait!

Till then...

Happy Juicing!

Juice Cleanse Days 11, 12, and 13

Day 11 (this would originally have been day 10, but I forgot to count day one)

Wednesday was a very snowy Colorado day. I felt VERY cold and juices did not sound particularly appetizing in the least. I drank my juices because I was hungry and not because I wanted them and I definitely drank my share of hot tea! I was supposed to go shopping on Wednesday (it happens to be double add day at sprouts.) But I just did not want to because it was snowing. So my husband picked me up from work and on our way home we stopped at Tokyo Joes. Probably not the best place in the world, but it was cheap and after a big bowl of Miso Soup with nothing but onions, I was feeling much better. I went home and did some yoga and drank some yummy peppermint cocoa made with brazil nut milk.

Day 12

I started Thursday on a wonderful juice high and had a really good day. After school we went to this nice little produce warehouse that is on our way home and bought all the veggies for the next day. When I got home I was still in a good mood and I started making myself and my husband a HUGE pot of soup/broth. While the broth was simmering I made all of my juices and then sat down with my dinner to  figure out what veggies I was going to need for the next week. By the time I was finished with all of my 'work' I felt depressed and extremely irritable. I made some tea and took a bath which helped a little, but I was still feeling awful when I finally went to bed. 

Day 13 The End

Ok, even though I decided to end the cleanse early I learned a lot today and I think that today was a very nice breakthrough for me in terms of discovering me and what I am able to do. I woke up horribly irritable this morning partly, I think, because I did not wake up in time to work out. I just kept telling myself that if I would only work out I would feel much better. When the kids came in to school their smiling faces made me feel so much better and I was ready to have a good day--for about 15 minutes. Then they decided to be more quarrelsome than usual all day long. So I was very glad to finally leave at 1:00. At this point I wanted food! I thought, I am going by Natural Grocers I will stop, get a Kombucha and some nice, dark chocolate. Then I ended up doing some self talk. I realized something epic--Food Never Solved Anyone's Problems! This realization made me calm and peaceful, I drank my juice and thought, "I can do this I can go one more day." I realized I didn't need food to solve my problems. I only need food to quench my hunger. I am now a little more free. 

Having said that, I still decided to end the only juice part of my cleanse. I was ready for a nice meal with my husband which didn't involve me cleaning the juicer. We went out to the Watercourse and got veggie bruscetta for an appetizer (I realize I probably shouldn't have eaten the bread). Then I ate a wonderful, Build Your Own Salad with arugula, spinach, avocado, mushrooms, tomatoes, and grilled zucchini with Balsamic Vinaigrette. We ended the night polishing off my Strawberry Cheesecake (really yummy) and I probably ate way too many mini vegan chocolate chips :) But I feel very good and accomplished. And I am excited for a grilled zucchini, sprout, sandwich tomorrow on raw bread!

I must say I am really impressed with those who can Juice Feast for an insane amount of time! I have really been enjoying following Rande's 90 day juice feast and she has really inspired me. I think I will eventually do a long juice feast, but not in the near future. I've decided sometime when I can take a little time to pamper myself every night so I don't go so crazy. 

What I Learned

Well I promised to tell you what I learned during this cleansed. This is really quite simple, but I guess we sometimes have to be hit over the head by something before we really 'know' it. This past winter I was under a great deal of stress because of work, school, and a very bad relationship. I began to gain weight which in turn made me feel more stress. In all I think I gained back about seven or more pounds. After Christmas I did Jason Vale's 'The World's Biggest Juice Detox' and began to feel AMAZING. But I didn't lose any weight, I played around with my diet and still didn't lose any weight. I didn't feel bad, just kind of annoyed. Finally, this time, I lost seven to ten pounds, easily, in one week! What made the difference? I am convinced that it was the time of year, SPRINGTIME. Apparently your body wants to cleanse itself and so if you give it the tools the body slims down--naturally! I have learned that during winter my body needs some heavy foods and it needs to eat, pure juicing may not be the best thing for my body during winter. I may put on some pounds, but that is ok. It is cold and the body naturally wants to protect itself. When it is time my body will naturally detox and lose the 'winter weight'. I am very happy to discover this and will (hopefully) not worry about it next winter. My plan is to eat less, but eat the foods I feel my body needs and be reassured that, in the spring, everything will go back to normal. I am also putting away the scale because I feel that every time I step on it I begin to define myself by the number. I will no longer be a number! I am a beautiful, confident person! And so are YOU!

Happy Juicing!!! 

Juice Cleanse Day 9?

Today started out horrid. I could have gotten up at 4 this morning to do some yoga, but I didn't and when I did wake up I was very irritable. I was extra strict on my kids today and almost everything annoyed me. I didn't want to drink my juices, but got so hungry I finally did and they turned out to taste better than I thought. At snack time we made Chex Mix for the letter Xx. I let the kids take some chex cereal, honey roasted cashews, and pretzels and we drizzled some melted peanut butter on top. I really wanted to eat that peanut butter! I had a spoon in the jar and when I finally started cleaning up I looked longingly at the gooey, sugary spoon. Scraped it off and threw it away! After that my day got better for some reason. I did not care to eat food anymore and when I was deciding what to buy at the grocery store tomorrow, I thought, "I can finish this, its easy!" I do think eating broth at night is really helping during these couple cold days. 

I made a mistake in my last post. I actually started my juice cleanse last Friday, ate some food on Saturday, but then when straight back on Sunday and have been juicing ever since. So I actually have just finished my tenth day! Exciting! 

I promised a couple days back to tell you what I learned from this past winter and juice cleanse, but it will have to wait because once again it is late and I have to get up early. The latest I will post what I learned will be Friday.

Happy Juicing!!!

Juice Cleansing Day 8

Wow, I don't know if I have ever made it this far in a juice cleanse before. I think that tomorrow will make it the longest juice cleanse I have ever done! I am having a lot of trouble with it right now though and I think it has something to do with the, almost, foot of snow we have outside. I love snow and this kind is the best because it makes everything perfectly quiet, but snow and juice cleansing are not friends in my world! I tend to get extremely cold and my cravings get worse. 

Today I did not want to drink my third juice of the day--it just sounded nasty to me. I went home and made some broth, which was ok and helped me feel warm, but not satisfied. Honey, unfortunately, took care of that. I must have eaten at least 2 tablespoons of honey, but I do feel satisfied. I may not make it on this cleanse past tomorrow night, if it is still this cold. I will keep you updated. Hope you are keeping nice and toasty!

Happy Juicing!!!

Juice Cleanse Days 6 and 7

The Big Juice Spring Clean is over, but juice detoxing is not finished for me. I decided to do eight more days! Yay! I think :) Yesterday went really well and was pretty easy. We woke up late and had an amazing almond butter smoothie with spinach, made some juice and went on a nice hike with my mother-in-law. At night I did eat a piece of raw (cashew) strawberry cheesecake, that I had made before we started juicing, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. 

Today was very difficult. I tried to go trail running, but it was super windy and not as much fun as I would have liked. Also whenever I juice cleanse I tend to get a sharp pain in my right side when I exercise hard so I had to walk instead of run. After we came home we didn't do much except laundry and homework and by the time 5:00 came around I was bored and hungry. I just wanted to eat ANYTHING! I wasn't craving anything in particular, I just wanted to chew something. It didn't help that my husband has chosen to eat at night and he was snacking on a yummy zucchini hummus with veggies. But I didn't eat. Instead I went and made my juices for tomorrow and my night juice. While I was making my juices I watched all the videos from Jason Vale's 5lbs in 5 days app for day 1. I was really feeling like I started all over on day one and the videos helped. I decided to not have food and just shut up! :) Ok so I am still craving food.

I just wanted everyone to know that I lost about 8lbs last week and my husband lost about 10. I am really happy because I have lost all my winter stress weight and I am back down to last summer's weight. The reasons I am continuing are not completely for weight loss. I have had the experience this winter of losing weight on a juicing cleanse and then gaining it right back afterwards. So I wanted to not only kill my food cravings once and for all, but I also wanted to make this weight loss permanent (for the summer) and my theory is that by doing another week and coming back on to eating food really slowly that the pounds will stay off for the immediate future. I will say that I am loving my body and I feel perfect! Its nice to know that losing weight is almost as easy as gaining it. I have learned a couple more things during this spring cleanse but they will have to wait for tomorrow because I am tired and ready for bed. Good night!

Happy Juicing!!!

The Big Juice Spring Clean Day 5

The end is here! Well, maybe not here, but near. Today one cleansing plan ends and tomorrow I will start on a new one--right after I reward myself with the Detoxinista's Chocolate Peanut Butter Milkshake! I use almond butter instead of Peanut Butter and add a huge handful or two of spinach. This has become one of our favorite smoothies. 

Today I felt really good. I had energy, I was happy, and I was very peaceful. I can't say that I just wanted to go go go, but I had enough energy to be awake all day and really get my work done. I guess I would call it peaceful energy. I really like this feeling. Today we had one of the best juices on the plan. It was a combination of pear, apple, lime, and wait for it...parsnip...amazing!!! (The recipe also called for mint, but I didn't put it in, because I didn't have any.) One way to stay on a juicing cleanse is to drink juices you really enjoy, that helps ALOT! I did get hungrier tonight than I have been so I made some canela tea and that is effectively curing my hunger as I write. 

If you have never had canela tea before you have to try it...it is just cinnamon tea. Start a small pot of water simmering, break up a stick or two of cinnamon or canela (the best cinnamon sticks for this tea can be found at any Mexican or Hispanic Market) and throw it into the pot, let the water simmer until the pot is half full then fill it up with cold water and wait for it to get warm. Once the water is hot/warm pour some into a cup and add sweetener (and nut milk, if you want). Traditional canela is served with lots of sugar and sometimes milk. 

In other non-juicy news...Tahini anyone?

Today I went to the store to stock up on my fruits and veggies and was going to buy some tahini so my husband could make hummus for this coming week since I am still not cooking. But all the tahini I could find was so expensive and most of it was roasted. I thought, I make almond and coconut butter why not tahini? So instead of buying a $7 jar of tahini I bought a $3.30 pound bag of organic sesame seeds. When I got home I poured about half of the bag in my food processor and...boom...

in a few minutes I had smooth, creamy, warm inexpensive, tahini. I think the half pound made about half of what is in a regular jar of tahini that you would buy at the store, but I didn't measure. 

Happy Juicing!!!

The Big Juice Spring Clean Day 4

Is it already day four? Wow this has gone by so fast. I have been going back and forth in my mind whether I want to continue and finally decided that I did want to continue juicing for another eight days. I really just want to kick my addiction to food and although I know it will take more than just these juice cleanses I can already see a huge improvement. For one thing I am not craving the foods that I used to crave like pizza and burgers and other things which is nice. I do have a nagging feeling that I just want to eat ANYTHING. But I know I really don't want to--so meal plan and shopping list made the cleanse continues.

Today I didn't feel exactly "high on juice" I did feel much more calm and relaxed at work which is nice. I believe I just don't get enough sleep during the week or the time to work out so I don't know if I will exactly get that "high" we will see I guess. I did learn why I gain weight and just want to eat when I am at work. STRESS! Today four of my boys were being extremely inappropriate with each other and I had to put them on red (discipline rainbow) which means I had to talk to all of their parents. Out of anything I have to do I dislike talking to parents about their child's misbehavior the most. I feel so bad because their kids are really good kids and I feel like they are not going to have as nice of an evening because I had to talk to them. But the students make choices and I have to be consistent and follow through with my promises (or threats, however you want to look at it). So at the end of the day I just wanted to leave, I was super stressed, and I wanted to EAT. I was very surprised and pleased that the sweet carrot-orange juice took care of my "need" to eat.

Today I realized two things I extremely enjoy about juicing:
     1. There is very little clean-up compared to a regular meal
     2. I don't really have to think about making my meals--just throw in the juicer and go!

Very nice for a busy person like me :)

Happy Juicing!!!