Adventures in Juicing: Juice Fast - Day 5 of 5

I didn't get to post this last night because I went out, but here it is!

End of my 5 day juice fast!!!!

I had whole wheat toast and peanut butter to break my fast.

I know, I know.... I ate (chewed) on veggies last night as part of dinner, but this whole wheat toast and PB is the first thing I ate that wasn't... raw veggies or fruits.

My stomach handled it very well.

I juiced for breakfast and for lunch.  Toast and PB was my afternoon snack.


Then, for dinner, I had fried rice with takana and jako (some japanese pickled veggies and tiny fish) at the karaoke bar.

It was SO GOOD. hahaha. Mmm...
It was a lot of food, but I ate it all.  Super full afterwards.

No problems with digesting.  I had no stomachaches, headaches, nothing.
Breaking my fast was super successful.


Would I ever do a 5-day (or more) fast again?
Probably not.

I lost too much weight, so maybe if my goals was weight loss, I might do it again.

I'm down to do a 1 or 2 days juice fast again, though.

I just miss chewing and swallowing too much.  *shrug*

The best part was the amazing deep sleep I got every night!!!!


Next up:  The Juices and the recipes!!!!

Adventures in Juicing: Juice Fast - Day 4 of 5

Yesterday, I said that we were gonna start breaking our fast today by eating veggies and fruits in addition to the juice meals...


Well, during the day, the only thing I chewed on was... 2 orange slices and a slice of watermelon.


I just didn't feel like eating.


I just kept juicing and drank that for meals.




For dinner, though, we had more to chew on.




H made veggie broth out of the veggies we had in the fridge and we drank hot veggie broth. YUM. 


We also ate a kale/swiss chard/spinach/cucumber salad with Hiro's homemade dressing made out of veggies we had plus lemon. YUM. 

Still nothing other than veggies and fruits, but we got to chew. :) 

We pretty much just chewed on what we would've juiced for dinner. 
We will continue to juice tomorrow and eat at night, too. Probably add other stuff back in. I'm excited.

I'm looking forward to eating again.  

Er... like, something other than raw veggies and fruits.  

I'm looking forward to sharing all the juicing recipes and which ones we liked... and didn't like as much. :) 

Stay tuned!

Adventures in Juicing: Juice Fast - Day 3 of 5

Nothing really different from yesterday, except....

I have lost A LOT of weight.
6 pounds in 2 days.

This actually scares me a little.  I knew I'd lose some weight, but I'm already pretty small and didn't have to lose too much.  I didn't want to be underweight.

My tummy is flat, tho.

I never thought I was retaining any water or had much bloating, but I think that's the weight I lost.
I just feel... thin.  Like when I grip my hands together, my fingers feel... thin.

I don't mind the juice fast, but this rapid weight loss is definitely scaring me.


As much as I don't really want to, I think I have to adjust my juice fast for the last 2 days.

You see, H and I originally planned to do the juice fast a different way.  We were going to have juice as our meals and eat raw fruits and veggies as snacks whenever we wanted to.  I'm not quite sure when we decided to make this into an only juice (plus water) fast.

Anyway, starting tomorrow, I'm going to eat solid foods (raw fruits and vegetables) along with all the juicing.


I'm not doing this because I feel hungry because, believe it or not, I don't feel hungry.

I'm doing this because I don't want to be underweight and I don't want to get myself to an unhealthy place.


ANYWAaaaaaayyyy, here's a picture of my "dinner" tonight.

- Sweet potato
- Carrots
- Apple
- Orange
- Kale
- Chard
- Lettuce
- Ginger (not pictured)


It was alright.  I think we put in WAY too much ginger. hahaha.  It was kinda spicy. :P

I had no idea you can juice sweet potato, but I looked online and there's a lot of info about it!
It made the juice a little creamier, which was a nice difference from what we've been having.

2 more days!!!

Adventures in Juicing: Juice Fast - Day 2 of 5

Here we are at day 2 of my juice fast.

I'm still not getting that "I'm hungry" feeling.  I'm doing ok.
I'm not hungry.... but I want to chew on something.  :/

The WORST was making Y's dinner today.
I sauteed some kale, swiss chard, tomatoes, and baked tofu and added in pasta and cheese with some garlic.

OMG, it smelled SO GOOD.
*sigh*


I had a total of 4 glasses of juice today.

We made a delicious "just-fruits" juice for our afternoon snack.

YUMMMMM!!!!

- Strawberries
- Oranges
- Nectarines
- Pineapple spears
- Apples

DELICIOUS~!!!

It was such a welcome difference from all the other veggie/fruit juices.


Overall, I'm feeling okay.
A bit more lethargic today.  I read that people go through this phase as the body is getting rid of toxins. The "I'm-so-full-of-energy" feeling is supposed to come soon.  I sure hope so.
I also felt a little faint when I stood up sometimes.

Time for my dessert!! Dessert = sparkling water.  Yum.  hahaha. :P

Farmer's Market Trip - June 12

Since we're juicing, I decided to go to the farmer's market today to get more organic fruits and vegetables.
It's the same farmer's market we go to on Saturday, but since I can't go on Saturdays, I went today!

Here's what we got!!

- 2 bunches of dino kale
- 1 stalk celery
- 1 bunch spinach
- a LOT of purple carrots
- 2 cucumbers
- 1 bunch golden beets
- 4 lemons
- 7 nectarines
- 1 large bag oranges

All for about $20!!

Adventures in Juicing: Juice Fast - Day 1 of 5

Here we go.

Juice from our juicer and nothing but juice (and water) for the next 5 days.
Organic veggies and fruits.

I'm not doing it for longer because I don't have to lose any weight and I don't have to majorly change my eating habits/lifestyle.

I'm doing it because... honestly... I just want to.  *shrug*

I want to send micronutrients into my system and from my research, juicing is the best way.
I want to see if it'll give me clearer skin.
I want to see if I'll sleep better.
I want to see if I'll have more energy during the day.
I want to see if it'll make me... "regular".
I want to see if it'll help my joints.
I want to see if it'll help me with my body aches.


I have no idea if it'll help me with these things, but I'll let you know.

I don't have huge expectations.  After all, I'm only doing it for 5 days.  There are people out there that do this for months!

I'm also not doing this under a doctor's care.  Again, it's only 5 days... and if I feel absolutely gross, the juice fast will be called off.

We also discussed how if it gets difficult and we are just STARVING, we will be okay with eating raw fruits and vegetables.

_______________________________
ANYWAY... Day 1 Report!

H and I had 4 big glasses of juice throughout the day that we juiced using our Omega.
YUM. :)
We juiced each time... which is okay for now.  I wonder if we'll feel like it's too much.
I know that some people advise against juicing beforehand and that it's better to drink the juice right after you juice it, but I think I'm okay with sacrificing a little bit of micronutrients...
We'll see.  Like I said, we don't mind the juicing for now.

We drank a lot of water all day long.  I always do that anyway, so this was nothing new.


We had sparkling water for "dessert".  What a treat! hehehehe! :P


I don't feel hungry, but I DO wish I was chewing something.  Every time I gave Y a snack or fed her a meal, I found myself wanting to put her food in my mouth. :/

I felt sleepy right around the time she took her nap, so I slept for about 30 min.
Otherwise, I'm feeling great and pumped for tomorrow.

H, on the other hand, is experiencing a little more difficulty.  He's hungry and said he couldn't really concentrate at work, especially with people drinking water and snacking all around him.  He also experienced headaches.


I read that it takes 2 to 3 days to start seeing any of the benefits that I listed above.

Check back tomorrow for Day 2!

Also, at the end of the 5 days, I'll post photos and recipes of all of our juices!!  :D


Have you done the juice fast before?  Any advice?

Adventures in Juicing - Experimenting (Pre Juice Fast)

I finally did it.  After months and months of research, I bought a juicer.  :D :D :D :D :D
Don't get me wrong.  I still LOVE making smoothies.  To me, a smoothie is totally different from juicing.

I bought the Omega 8004.  I went back and forth about which juicer to get... centrifugal or masticating.

Centrifugal or masticating...
Centrifugal or masticating...

Ultimately, the masticating kind won because I wanted my greens to be juiced well.


I want to do the "juice fast" for 5 days straight, where I'll only drink juiced veggies and fruits the entire time.

I WOULD start today, but I have a bonfire to go to on Saturday and... well... I don't want to juice at the bonfire.  *shrug*


SO, H and I decided to spend these next few days experimenting with various juice recipes.

Today, for lunch, I had this very deep green juice.

- Dino kale
- Celery
- Apples
- Carrots
- Cucumbers
- Lemon

(all organic)

Um, so being a first time juicer, I must say.... I did really good!! hahahah.
This was so yummy!!
I might have put in too much celery, though...
but it was still very yummy!!

AND, I am super full. I have a sandwich waiting for me because that's what lunch was supposed to be, but I'm gonna have to wait to eat it.

Can't wait to try more recipes so we can have a handful before we actually start this fast next week!!

Anyone have any juicing recipes they'd like to share with me?  (please? hahaha)

:D

Super Easy Peanut Butter Cookies

This cookie isn't green... and it's not particularly healthy... but I thought I'd share anyway! :D  

Well... I DID use "natural" peanut butter (the one with only peanuts, palm oil, little salt, and molasses)... *shrug*.  

I found this recipe on Pinterest on how to make super easy peanut butter cookies.  

It says that its only 36 calories per cookie.  Those huge cookies are NOT 36 calories.  

I made 38 smaller ones and those are like 50 calories each.  Those huge ones must be like 100+ calories.  :P

Anyway, they were SO easy to make.  I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I love baking.  

However, I broke my mixer so I've been baking less.

This recipe doesn't require a mixer.  Just a spoon. :D  

I made small dough balls and placed them on the cookie sheet. 

I also made sure to spread them out because I didn't want it to become one huge cookie like the one on the recipe.  

They actually didn't spread that much...  

These cookies are deeeeeelicious!  YUM!! 

No butter, no flour, no vanilla extract... so easy!!!

(By the way... my homemade vanilla extract is pretty much done! stay tuned for pictures!!)

RECIPE

SUPER Easy Peanut Butter Cookies (The recipe says healthy, but I think they're just... normal cookies hahaha)

- 1 Cup Peanut Butter

- 1 Cup Sugar (I used a little less than 1/2 brown and a little less than 1/2 white)

- 1 Egg

- 1 TSP Baking Soda

1.  Mix peanut butter and sugar.

2.  Mix in egg and baking soda.

3.  Make dough balls and place on cookie sheet.

4.  Bake at 350F for 8 to 9 minutes (recipe says 10, but it seemed too much for me).  

That's all! 

Let me know if you try it!

Wool Dryer Balls

So, you saw in my previous post that I started making my own laundry detergent.

Around the same time, I ordered some wool dryer balls to replace and get rid of dryer sheets.

Dryer sheets are just bad news.  They're toxic and they coat your dryer with gunk... which ultimately gets on your clothes AND Y's cloth diapers.  Those of you that cloth diaper know that you're not supposed to use dryer sheets when you dry the diapers, so that "gunk" getting on the diapers is not good.



Wool dryer balls cut down drying time.

Wool dryer balls help to eliminate static (but you have to be careful not keep the dryer running for too long... no amount of dryer balls will eliminate static if you over dry your clothes).

Wool dryer balls are kept in the dryer so you don't have to worry about adding anything each time.

Wool dryer balls last a really really long time.  Someone said over 5 years!

My wool dryer balls came smelling like mango citrus!! YUM!! The scent doesn't last forever, but I really liked the smell!

I don't have to spend money on dryer sheets!


I bought these 6 from Buddha Bunz when they had this HUGE sale (not available anymore) and I got them for cheap, but you can get them anywhere.  You can even make them yourself.  I googled "wool dryer ball" and there were so many DIY tutorials.  I might make some later!


OH, and being a massage therapist, I have to wash sheets all the time.  When I was using dryer sheets, my sheets would come out still wet because they would get bunched together and wouldn't unwind themselves... BUT with these wool dryer balls, they don't get bunched up because the dryer balls bounce around and keep the sheets from twisting! :D



I <3 my wool dryer balls! :D