30 Day Cleanse Update

Today would mark Day 15 on the cleanse, the middle day, almost finished right? Well, I decided that I couldn't be on a diet anymore--I needed a break--I was done (I've technically been on a "diet" for a month and a half). A lot has been going on in my personal life since Wednesday, more than I want to talk about in a public blog. Doing this cleanse began getting in the way of work and personal relationships in a way that should never happen. Last week I became obsessed with my weight and how my body looked. To top it off I was having horrible cravings, I was super cranky, and extremely tired of planning so much and not being able to enjoy meals away from home with my extended family. Part of cleansing and losing weight is to become happier and more at peace with yourself and when a cleanse becomes more of an obsession than a 'cleanse' it is time to stop and focus on what is really important. I recently read a blog post that really brought this message home to me and I realized I was focusing more on my body and my food than my relationships and my work. If you have a chance to read Marlena Torres's blog Health Through Indulgence she really has some good advice on how to learn to love yourself instead of judging.

Now, after saying all of this I want to first say that I loved the cleanse I was on and I will probably do one or two or all three of the phases again one day, when I have the time to focus on it. I really like this cleanse, which my mom has recently named "10/20/30 Day Revive, A real food plan to Reshape, Repair, Restore" because the diet is easy to follow and it is also easy on the budget. There are no expensive super foods to buy, you just use what is available and in season (like cucumbers). Also it is not too extreme. I have gotten pretty extreme in my eating habits, but this is a diet any one could implement and it can be customized to fit any person no matter what they are used to eating. I will say though if you are addicted to carbs and sugars you will have some major withdrawals when you begin this diet because the sugars are almost completely eliminated. Which is excellent to get anyone eating healthier for life.

Just because I have gone off serious dieting to focus on my spiritual life, work, and relationships doesn't mean I am not going to eat healthfully. Nor does it mean I will go silent on my blog. I want to go back to my own version of a 80/10/10 ish / rawish diet. I loved how the focus on fruits made my cravings almost completely disappear and so that is what I will be shooting for. I want to eat peacefully and enjoy my food without obsessing about it. What you see above is my dinner from last night, stir fry on top of a roasted spaghetti squash and topped with raw Napa Cabbage from my mom's garden. It was so yummy I stuffed myself (which is also something I am trying not to do). I will be sharing periodically some more recipes and what my husband and I both eat so, if you are trying to eat healthy, but have to cook for more than yourself you can get some good ideas. I also have a guest post planned from someone I admire very much and this post is definitely something you do not want to miss. I have some good stuff planned for you and some more recipes coming your way very soon!

Happy Juicing!!!

Have you ever decided to 'diet' by not dieting? How did you feel? 

 

30 Day Cleanse: Day 12

Today was a good day. I was happy with the kids, I got some testing done (which I can't wait till I'm finished with it) and I got to spend some time with my husband. All in all a good day with little to report.

I am not going to do another juice cleanse though...its too cold and I hate juicing in the cold. I have even changed the time I drink my morning juice so I can be warm in the car while I drink it. (I drive to work at around 6:30 in the morning so I can be at school at 7:00) So anyway...

Yummy eats

20 oz beet, carrot, lettuce juice with dandy blend, cinnamon, cacao powder, and stevia
Raw Tomato soup with sprouts
32 oz carrot, orange, avocado, spirulina, cinnamon smoothie

Coconut lemongrass soup and 2 crystal rolls with peanut sauce (oops, tofu is not on the diet and I am sure it had sugar) from Swing Thai.
Raw chocolate dipped in almond butter
Almond butter mixed with coconut butter and cacao nibs
And I am going to finish the night off with some hot canela (cinnamon tea).

Happy Juicing!!!

30 Day Cleanse: Day 11

Today was a really down day for me. I am not sure what the problem was...maybe I ate too much last night, maybe it was weighing myself, maybe the weather is changing,  maybe it just carried over from the bad night I had last night. Whatever it was I was pretty depressed today. I juiced during the day, but just felt like I needed something tonight so I ate some leftover soup and that seemed to do the trick. I feel a little better now, but I really need sleep so I'm gonna keep it short.

Today's eats

8 oz hot lemon water
24 oz "Waldorf Salad" Morning Cleansing Juice
24 oz "Fall Harvest" Midday Cleansing Juice (really yummy!)
24 oz carrots, kale, ginger, apple, cucumber, lime juice
1/2 bottle of homemade berry kombucha
Daikon radish and asparagus soup
a couple of the cookies I made last night
fudge brownie chocolate protein bars (which are very good, I didn't put protein powder in them and I used agave for sweetener. But the vegan chocolate chips probably are cheating. I probably won't eat much more of them because I don't think that black beans are very nice to my system.)

Happy Juicing!!!

30 Day Cleanse: Day 10

Yeah! First phase is finished and on to the second phase. I can eat nuts now...So excited, but first a three day juice cleanse :)

Today's eats (oh I did cheat today. I ate organic ketchup, mustard, and I forgot my stevia at work so I sweetened my cleanse-ok cookies with agave.)

8 oz Hot Lemon Water
Lots of tea
16 oz beet carrot ginger orange
Jicama with All-Veggie Hummus
16 oz kale, lime, apple, cucumber, lettuce, ginger
3 baby carrots
1 pear
Leftover kale salad

Lentil Cauliflower Burger wrapped in lettuce, with raw onion rings (Ani Phyo) and raw daikon radish fries.

To end the night I made some quinoa spice cookies, which I will post the recipe when I finish tweaking.

Happy Juicing!!!

30 Day Cleanse: Day 9

I am almost finished with the first 10 days!!! I am so excited! The first phase will be finished and I will eat a little almond butter and cacao :) Not that this past 10 days hasn't been full of good eats...but I am definitely ready to eat more like I am used to eating.

On another note...I need to remember that weight loss does not only hinge on food. I also need sleep, exercise, and reduced stress and working all day then making food and juices all evening does not help weight loss. Someday I will learn...baby steps, right?

Today's eats...

32 oz Low Sugar Creamy Strawberry Smoothie
1 pear
Jicama and all veggie hummus for snack
1 pear
More Jicama and hummus

Carrot-Ginger Sauce (Detoxinista) warmed with chopped broccoli, mushrooms, and zucchini on top of daikon radish noodles (not my favorite noodles). After we ate this dish I added some soy milk and arrowroot powder to thicken the sauce and my husband really liked this cooked version.

2 apples baked with apple pie spice and dipped in spiced vanillacado

Happy Juicing!!!

30 Day Cleanse: Day 8

Finally on the last two days of the first 10. I have been having cravings today! Granted this diet is not as extreme as what my diet has been; I've been cooking my food, eating beans, and some whole grains. But I am really missing sweet fruits, chocolate, and almond butter. I am so excited to be able to add in chocolate, nuts, and squashes next week! I can't wait!

Today's Eats...

1 pear
24 oz kale stems, cucumber, beet, oranger, ginger juice
1 pear
8 oz No Pumpkin Cream, warmed

Baked and raw daikon radish hash with siracha sauce and homemade, raw ketchup
Apple pie quinoa topped with buckwheat crunchies and pomegranate (not on the cleanse, didn't realize this until I had spent the time opening 3 of them--my husband will get to enjoy the fruits of my labors, "sigh")
Leftover Quinoa Bowl

Happy Juicing!!!

How is everyone doing who accidentally started this diet with me? Are you having any cravings?

No Pumpkin Cream: Iced or Hot

This dessert is perfect for the first phase of this diet. There are no added sugars, no bananas, and no actual pumpkin. This would be really yummy in an ice cream maker, if you have a small one. I just stick mine in the freezer for a little while. It is also yummy warmed, but if you warm it watch the stove so it doesn't boil, check the temperature often and take it off just when it is warm to keep as many nutrients as possible.

No Pumpkin Cream

5 carrots

1 apple

1 knob ginger

1 avocado

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp cinnamon (optional)

1 tsp ground cardamom (optional)

Juice the carrots, apple, and ginger together then pour the juice into a blender with the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth. Put in the freezer or warm on the stove, Enjoy!

Happy Juicing!!!

30 Day Cleanse: Day 7 (oops)

Today was such a wonderful day! We got to go trail running up at Red Rocks Amphitheater. If you  have never seen Red Rocks you have to look up some pictures, it is just gorgeous. It is very close to Denver and there are trails crisscrossing all over the place. We usually choose a trailhead about four miles from the amphitheater and my husband runs to the amphitheater and I turn around at about two and a half miles. The sun was shining and the sky was a glorious blue--just a perfect start to the day/week.

I think that today I have hit the happy place for my body. Today I feel like, if I could look this way for the rest of my life (or until my body decided it was too tired and needed to look old) I would be happy. I also had a revelation while I was running this morning. I think that it takes a long time for a person to get used to the way she/he looks if that person has lost a lot of weight or has lost weight quickly. I think that it would be very easy to sabotage a person's progress because in the person's mind they still look the way s/he did before and your mind wants to get back to that image. I feel that is a very good reason to be content with the way you look no matter what and practice seeing yourself the way you could look or really do look. I have an extremely hard time being content with most anything, especially the way I look. I am practicing though and the more I practice the more of a habit I will form.

Here are my eats for today. I did make one big mistake today--I didn't eat enough, oops!

8 oz hot lemon water with stevia
24 oz Jason Vale's Beyond Detox from his 3 day juice detox
2 pears
Dinner was sprouted black beans cooked with tomatoes and jalapenos, kale salad massaged with avocado, raw daikon radish hash browns, and lettuce leaves for tortillas
Dessert: No Pumpkin Cream Iced

Happy Juicing!!! 

Day 6

Yesterday was day 6, I thought I would write this morning because I didn't write last night. I will post tonight also. We had a really good day yesterday. It was a beautiful day so we went to the mountains to find firewood for the winter. It was a nice, relaxing day.

24 oz strawberry, lettuce, raw coconut water, lime juice, avocado, zucchini smoothie
2 pears
snacked on carrots, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, cucumber dipped in a all veggie hummus
pumpkin cream, iced
Dinner was roasted veggies on top of a quinoa and kale salad. It was really yummy,

Happy Juicing!!!

Day 5

Today went really well, I didn't have to go to work! We are on Fall Break so I got to stay home and, sort of, be lazy. I was really hungry today and couldn't figure out why. Then I realized I hadn't made my juices and eaten regularly and I got to go to a hot yoga class this morning. More exercise with less food planning and almost no food left in the house makes for a very hungry me. :)

Well I am done with a pure juice cleanse for a while. On the plan the juice cleanse part is supposed to last for 3 to 5 days. I had planned a seven day cleanse with Jason Vale's 3 day cleanse at the beginning so yesterday finished off my juicing.

I am very sad about one thing though. Figs are gone! I just found out I love them and now they are gone! I have to go back to waiting for persimmons, "sigh"

Today's Eats...

16 oz kale, chard, lemon, apple, celery, cucumber. parsley (cleaning out my fridge) juice mixed with a 1/2 Tbls apple cider vinegar
3 Apples
1/2 Avocado with salt, pepper, and lime juice
16 oz carrot apple juice blended with the other half of the avocado, cinnamon, and nutmeg
2 small asian pears
Almost a whole 16 oz bag of baby carrots
Baby kale salad with cherry tomatoes, avocado, marinated mushrooms and a homemade balsamic vinaigrette
Almost raw tortilla soup with daikon radish as the tortillas
Few spoonfuls of Pumpkin cream, iced (recipe to come)

Happy Juicing

Now I'm on Day 4 with Sweet Grapefruit Juice Recipe

I was ok most of the day today after getting only six hours of sleep. I was having a bad morning until one of my students made me laugh. I was asking him why he was pretending that another space ship was shooting at his spaceship, he didn't really know so he said "actually that's just how they roll."
Food went ok today, I enjoyed my juices and didn't really crave anything until I had to skip a juice and got really hungry. I was craving cookies today though, because I made two amazing kinds. This week my theme in my classroom is fall so today we made pumpkin cookies and I used a gluten free recipe from kibbysblendedlife.com that I absolutely love. The kids loved the cookies too and it was so difficult not to eat one (actually I did lick the bowl, but shhhhhh, don't tell). Besides the pumpkin cookies my first and second grade class earned a reward and so did my preschool class so I had to make them a treat (I started making homemade treats so that I could regulate how much sugar they ate in class.) My first and second graders chose gingerbread cookies of all things so I convinced my preschoolers to choose the same treat. I ended up making PB Gingerbread Chocolate Chunk Cookies from chocolatecoveredkatie.com because I could make them gluten and dairy free (there are some allergies in my classroom) and the kids just loved them. I was very pleasantly surprised, but that didn't make it any easier not to taste a cookie "sigh".

Yummy Juices:
12 oz hot lemon water
lots of tea
16 oz dandelion, kale, apple, cucumber, parsley, lime, celery
12 oz beet carrot dandelion apple
16 oz Pearfection by thevegetablecentrickitchen.com
16 oz Sweet Grapefruit Juice (Recipe below)

I dislike grapefruit very much, but I love this juice. It has the pleasant taste of grapefruit without the bitter taste.

Sweet Grapefruit Juice

4 leaves dandelion (optional, will make the juice a little more bitter)

2 apples

1 grapefruit

8 carrots (adjust to your liking or until you get 16 oz of juice)

Juice all ingredients and enjoy!

Happy Juicing!

Day 3 Cheating?!?

Today went really well! I felt really happy this morning and I was energized and playing with the kids. I was not even very hungry for my first juice, but drank it anyway because I knew I needed it. I thought, "This is my juicy high!" Then the state representative showed up and everything got messed up. The state sends someone to all the preschools to make sure they are following state standards each year and we have been waiting for this. I was super nervous, but the worst thing was I didn't get to drink my juice at snack time! and by the time she left I was starving! Not good. I drank a huge carrot juice and thought everything was fine, then the weirdest thing happened. I was picking some groceries up at Natural Grocers and I suddenly felt super shaky and really hot. I can't explain it, its never happened to me before and I don't know why. So I quickly drove home and ate some "emergency" food that I am now feeling a little sick over. I finally came to the conclusion I had been drinking to much caffeinated tea! Oh well, tomorrow is a new day and I am excited for some yummy juices!

16 oz dandelion leaves, celery, lime, apple, chard, ginger juice
12 oz dandelion leaves, carrots, apple, beet
12 oz pear, celery, kale, parsley
24 oz carrot, grapefruit, orange, cucumber, ginger
1 pear (emergency)
12 oz broth from last night blended with 1/2 avocado
other 1/2 avocado with Himalayan pink salt, pepper, and lime juice (emergency)
 1/3 cup homemade coconut butter mixed with bee pollen and peppermint stevia (emergency and I don't think coconut butter is even on the diet, oh well)

Happy Juicing!!!

(Hee Hee, sorry everyone who read this post before this morning, yesterday was only the third day. I guess I was tired last night )

Cleanse Day 2

Today I was REALLY hungry. I learned that I need more juice otherwise I may cave in and eat something I shouldn't, I was craving anything and everything today. So tonight I made more juices to take with me in the morning and now I am exhausted so here are the juices that kept me going today...

16 oz kale, chard, lemon, apple, ginger juice
12 oz beet, kale, apples, spinach, lemon, ginger
16 cucumber, pear juice
12 oz green kombucha (store bought because I was so hungry)
24 oz tomatoes, green onions, poblano pepper, carrots, celery, cilantro, parsley, lemon juice mixed with warmed veggie broth kept frozen from last spring.

Well goodnight

Happy Juicing!!!

If you are also following this cleanse let us know how you are doing in the comments below or on my facebook page!

30 Day Cleanse

After I finished my raw month I went a little crazy for one day and ate things I don't eat all the time, like Seitan Wings from City O' City. But then I started Jason Vale's 3 lbs in 3 days juice detox because the Big Juice Reboot starts on Wednesday and I wanted to join, but had something else in mind so I did it early. I lost about 5 lbs in the three days, which I assume about 3 of them were the water weight and bloating I gained from the raw food.

Today I started a new 30 Day Cleanse :) I like doing challenges, they keep my diet interesting. This cleanse is really special because my mom designed it. She has been a health nut for as long as I can remember, always weighed less than me, and has taught exercise classes since I was born. She is currently in school so she designed this diet to help people lose weight and start eating healthier (I will let her tell you more about it later). It is not perfected yet so I decided to make her 30 Day Cleanse my next challenge. The first 3 to 5 days are juicing or raw days and I decided to juice for about 4 and a half more days so today was my first day continuing to juice (and I am starving right now!)

I decided to document what I eat this month. So here goes...

8 oz. Hot Lemon water
Lots of tea (with caffeine, sorry)
16 oz My version of Green Lemonade (courtesy of Natalia Rose)
12 oz Beet juice
32 oz Green everything juice with spirulina
16 oz Carrot, orange, ginger juice
12 oz beet juice mixed with homemade kombucha and a little stevia
Lots more tea

Happy Juicing!

My Month Eating Raw

I finished my month of eating raw on Tuesday! I went through so many interesting experiences during September I wanted to share them with you so if you every want to do something like this you may have a better idea of what you are doing than I did. The one thing that really surprised me was that eating raw was so much easier than I anticipated. It was also full of amazingly good food (I ate way too many nuts:)

When I began eating raw I really didn't know what I was doing. I made some yummy raw biscuits and a yummy Apple Sauce smoothie that I shared with you. But during the first week I started to get these really weird dizzy spells, one of them happened while I was driving and I felt so disoriented I had to pull off into a parking lot and wait until I felt better. So when I got home I called my dad (the doctor) trying to figure out what I needed. He said "I never thought I would have to be telling YOU this, but you need to eat more!" Well I didn't think anyone would ever have to tell me that either, I love food a little too much! but I started counting my calories and realized that I had only been eating around 1000 calories a day--not good. So I made some yummy raw cookies full of almond butter by the Detoxinista and started watching Fully Raw Kristina's videos. I found out that a fully raw vegan and someone who is following the 80/10/10 diet eats around 2000 calories in fruits and greens a day. So I amped up my calorie intake and began eating a whole lot more fruit. I was not exactly following an 80/10/10 diet because I ate quite a bit of nuts, especially those first two weeks, but I did what I felt I needed to keep eating raw. By the end of my second week of eating raw I was feeling so good, eating less nuts, and most of my cravings for food had gone. I felt very peaceful about food and I didn't feel I needed chocolate, which was great!

My menu during this month included some super yummy things such as figs--my new fav! raw cupcakes, raw lasagna, raw cheesecake, raw almond butter oreos, lots of raw kale chips, and lots of raw pasta :) I will be posting a few more recipes when I get pics.

One of the things that didn't sit so well with me during this month is that I became incredibly bloated with all the fruit and extra fiber I was eating. It was very uncomfortable, but I found out that one day of juicing takes care of the bloating. If I ever go raw again for any amount of time I will do a three day juice cleanse every ten days and be very intentional about eating less nuts and a whole lot more veggies.

I am now starting a few more goals which I will share with you in a couple days, but until then I hope this post helps guide you if you are thinking about going raw. I did give some fun blogs in this post, but if you want more either connect with me on Pinterest via lifeandveggiejuice.blogspot.com or just ask in the comments.

Happy Juicing!!!