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.

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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

Weekend Farmer's Market Trip - May 26

I couldn't go to the farmer's market again.  I'm just too busy on the weekends.

H and Y went, though!

Here's what they bought...

Strawberries
Cherries
Kumquats
Beets
Swiss Chard
Kettle Corn (from a friend)


Strawberries are super sweet!!!  mmm~
Cherries are yummy, too.  I haven't had cherries in forever.

I hope I can go to the farmer's market with them soon.
Probably not, though, since I started work and I work Saturday mornings. booo...

What do you like to buy at the farmer's market?

Cloth Diapering in Japan - UPDATE!!

Last week, while I was in Japan, I was lucky enough to visit my friend, Julia in Ishikawa-ken.
She's about to become a mommy and I HAD to visit her before her little one arrived (I HAVE to visit her after the baby's born, too... hahaha).

We looked through all the baby stuff she had.  I swear, Japan has some of the CUTEST things ever... and the most useful things.  Some of my beloved baby products are from Japan.

I'm super excited that she's going to be cloth diapering her baby!  She showed me the cloth diapers she received from people in Japan... and she asked me how to use them.

Well, first of all, they look nothing like what we use, have used, or have ever seen.


These diapers are super long, super thin, and is one big loop.  They seem different from our flats here and the directions on the package did not help.

We had a better idea about how to use these ones... but it still didn't really make sense. thats the cover on the bottom right, and thats the absorbent cloth pad in the middle... but that larger light cloth on top??  It's super super thin.  We thought it was a liner but it's bigger than the cloth pad part, but not big enough to really wrap it... and if you keep it open like it is and place it in the cover, it won't fit.   hmm...

Me being silly with the first diaper.  See, it's a big loop.  

She gave me two of these long loop ones... If I can't figure out how to use them, they're gonna become dish towels....

Both of these diapers are sold in major baby stores in Japan.  She has a lot of these... both kinds.  It would be great to get some insight on how to use them!

I tried researching, but haven't really found an answer... any input is greatly appreciated!!


Small update!
I found this site that shows one way of folding those long loop diapers.  It's not one of the ways shown on the package, but I decided to give it a try...

I did the hotdog fold and followed the t-fold method directions.

I decided to use a Snappi, though, since Y is very active and I don't want the diapers to unfold.

(click for bigger photo)

Anyone else have any other suggestions?

No 'Poo Tuesday Report - Week 13

So you may wonder if I've given up on this "no 'poo" experiment since I've been MIA for so long.

Well, I'm still doing it and I LOVE it still.

I went on my tour in April and went back to 'poo.  My face broke out!!  Using shampoo again made my face breakout, and I thought maybe it was the change in climate or the traveling... but as soon as I got home and started back on my no 'poo regimen, my skin cleared up again. hmmm~

Then, last week, I traveled to Japan and used shampoo for 9 days.  I broke out AGAIN!  and again, I thought maybe it was the climate change and the traveling... and again, as soon as I got back and started using my no 'poo concoction, my skin started to clear up. HMMMM......

Anyway, I love the no 'poo thing.  I wish I knew more people that were willing to do this no 'poo experiment with me.  My hair isn't greasy.  It doesn't smell funky. It's super clean and I have way more volume than before.  I think it's because I'm not using chemicals that strip away EVERYTHING in my hair, even the good stuff.

I'm super happy to be back on my no 'poo experiment once again.

Are you doing it yet?  :)


To read about my past weeks and to find out my no 'poo recipe, check out my no 'poo arvhive!