I survived!

I haven't chewed food for 5 days!  This is my breakfast today!  I get to chew again!!!  I did 5 days of juice and fruits and veggies and 5 days of only juice.  No FOOD!!  Now I am on to 5 days of food and juice again.

The juicing was hard over the weekend.  I have not been hungry at all!  It is the emotional hunger I talked about before.  I drank 5 juices each day with hot tea and coconut water.  I have not been doing the best with the coconut water so today I decided to add it in my juice!

Can you see what is wrong with this picture?  Look very closely at the top shelf.

Maybe this will help!  My daughter decided to make peanut butter balls yesterday.  Can you imagine not being able to eat anything for 5 days straight and walk in to fresh peanut butter balls?  Oh my will power was truly tested.  I did not however, eat one!!   I'm sure they will be gone by Friday, my last day of my reboot fast.  

A few other things I have learned while doing the fast-

• I have so far lost 7 pounds
• I am cold ALL the time!!!!!
• One might need to get a fix by smelling best friends breath after they drink coffee. 
• Garbage must be taken out DAILY!
• Fresh beets don't look very good but one must not judge another by their looks.
• Sometimes the best part of the juice is the bendy straw.
• Just because you are drinking the juice doesn't mean food doesn't get stuck in your teeth.  Check a mirror.
• The drinks have gotten better tasting and easier to drink since the first day.
• Krogers carries Fennel but they call it Anise.
• Mason jars are perfect for storing juices for the next day.
• When on day 5 of juices only, one might find Cheetos in daughters room.  It is amazing how much of your face you can stick in a Cheetos bag to get a BIG sniff.

My friend B and Tommy started the juice fast with me.  B got VERY sick on day 1.  She had to detox the diet coke from her system.  She decided she could not drink the juices and decided to just eat clean now that she was detoxed.  Tommy is not only doing the juice fast with me but decided to quit smoking.  I am proud to say he has made it 10 days juicing and smoke free.  He also went through detox last weekend, day 1, 2 and 3.  He had flu like symptoms and a little crankiness too!  He has lost about 10 pounds and looks so  much healthier!  He has been very hungry during the last 5 days.  He has been such a trooper though.  We sure to laugh a lot and BOTH of us had our head stuck in that Cheetos bag taking a huge sniff!!! 

We have made it this far.  The next five days will be a breeze.

In light and love,

j

Things I have learned during my juice fast.

Starting day 3 with only juice.  This is todays menu.  Starting to look all the same isn't it?  I can be pretty sure that I will be drinking red or green juice!  Yesterday was a good juice day.  I liked all of them.  I am not a huge fan of green lemonade but made it through.  I didn't find myself physically hungry but I started to get emotionally hungry.  Do you know the difference?  

• Physical hunger is hunger that happens below the neck.  Your belly growls and is ready for nourishment.
• Emotional hunger is hunger that happens above the neck.  (craving for certain foods)
• Physical hunger comes on gradually while Emotional hunger comes on suddenly.
• Emotional hunger leaves guilt in it's wake while physical hunger does not.

I bought some sweet and salty cliff bars for my daughter's tennis teams lunches.  I accidently bought one too many and it is sitting on my kitchen table.  It is full of peanutty goodness.  It looks like dreamy goodness!  I stare at it.  It stares at me.  I walk away and it calls my name.  Stupid cliff bar!  How did it know my name?!

I didn't eat it!  I didn't.  I am hoping my daughter took it to school today.  Have you ever thrown good food away just so you won't eat it.  Yeah, me too.

Just in case you are thinking of doing a juice fast, here are some things I learned so far.

• I have to go to the grocery store every two days.
• I only walk over to the produce section and then to the registers.  I never visit any other part of the store.
• Meijers has the best selection of the produce and fresh herbs that are not available anywhere else.
• Aldies has the cheapest produce available but they don't carry everything I need.
• I eat A LOT of spinach and kale.
• Fennel bulbs smell and taste like licorice.
• Coconut water is expensive and hard to find.  Mejer or Health food store.  
• The "Mean Green Juice" taste just like fresh cut grass.
• Pears do not last.  Juice them within a day of buying them.
• If it goes in one color- it might come out the same color.
• Who knew you could juice four cups of parsley.
• Hot tea does help my coffee craving.
• I LOVE coconut!  I heart it  on everything, in everything and around everything but I do NOT love coconut water.  It reminds me of snot.
• Best to cut the fruit or veggie to fit through the juicer rather than thinking "it will fit".
• A little ginger goes a loooooonnnnnnnnng way!!!!!!!!
• I don't drink nearly as much water as I normally do.
• I pee A LOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Better to keep the "pusher" in place because fruits and veggies do jump out and try to escape.
• Cleaning the juicer isn't hard but it is time consuming.
• My side by side fridge is not nearly big enough to store two days worth of produce.
• Produce that does not fit in fridge go in a cooler.
• My energy level has NOT fallen!!!!
• Celery wilts fast if not used.
• Regular carrots taste better than baby carrots.
• Juicing costs about 20 dollars a day.
• I feel empowered with all the fresh produce around.
• Who knew you could juice a sweet potato.
• My tummy feels flat!!  
• When rushing to pee, one must make sure toilet lid is all the way up.
• Kale does not like to be juiced.
• It is time consuming to make shop, clean,  cut, dice, juice everything.
• It is worth it.

I am headed into the weekend of only drinking juice.  I will be headed to Fort Wayne tomorrow.  Someone told me, "There are a lot of great restaurants in Fort Wayne!"  Yeah well, I won't be able to discover that.  It's ok though.  I can do this!

Have a beautiful, blessed, positive day friends!

Love j

On to day 2 of only juice

I did it.  I only drank juice for all my meals yesterday.  This was my day-  


Breakfast-  Purple power juice!  This was horrible because it contained too much ginger.  Note to self.  Less ginger in all juices.  
This included 6 cups red grapes, 1 apple, SMALL piece of ginger, 1/2 c blackberries.  




Mid Morning Juice- Green Lemonade. This wasn't horrible but not my favorite.  1 apple, 2 cups spinach, 2 cups Kale, half cucumber, 4 celery stalks, half lemon.


Lunch- ABCs- This was good.  2 pears, 2 apples, 2 beets, 2 carrots, 1 c cabbage, 6 handfuls of chard.


Afternoon drink- 16oz coconut water


Dinner- 16 oz coconut water and V28.  This was by far my favorite of the day.  3 beets, 2 carrots, 2 celery, 4 plum tomatoes, 4 c parsley, 1 jalapeno, 12 red radishes.  




I did not feel hungry at all but....I had to make 20 sack lunches for my daughters tennis team.  I made 20 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and let me tell you, it was not easy NOT to lick the peanut butter off the knife!!!  Then the fed ex man brought me some coffee that I had ordered.  Coconut Island coffee.  I stared and stared at that coffee....I thought maybe I will just make it so I can smell it.  I was obsessed with it and had to get it out of my vision.  I didn't drink any!!


My energy level has not plummeted either!!  Yay!!!


On to day two.


Blessings,
j

Last day to chew....

Day five!  For the last five days, I have eaten plenty of fruits and vegetables and drank one to two juices daily.  For the next five days, I only will drink fresh fruits and veggies.  I am a little worried because, well-- I love to chew!  
Here is my menu for Tuesday......

These are the ingredients for my great green fruit blend.  Strawberries, banana, apple, spinach, pear and coconut water.  Below is what it looked like in the Vitamix.  Not very appealing is it?!  I have to tell you, it was Delish!!!!!!!!!!!!  Tasted like a strawberry  and banana smoothie!!!

My Mid Morning juice was a refreshing fennel-pear juice.  That's right, just two ingredients, 2 fennel bulbs and 2 pear.  

This is what it looked like and let me tell you I LOVED IT!!!  Fennel has a bit of licorice smell/taste to it.  It was a great combination!

Lunch is a Reboot Green Salad- basically anything veggie and green!!

Afternoon snack- leftovers from the day before.  Baked Zucchini and sweet potato/carrot fries!

Dinner was Sweet potato and bok choy soup, sweet potato fries and roasted brussel sprouts. 

This is me taking my last bite of food I will be chewing for FIVE WHOLE DAYS!!!!  Not sure why I am smiling cause it FREAKS ME OUT!!!!!  

And This my friends is my meals for Wednesday!

Wish me luck!

Growth and Change is good!

love j

Day Four Reboot Juice Fast

Day Four is finished!  I am still feeling fantastic.  For breakfast I had a bowl of fruit.  (Sorry no picture).  This included, kiwi, pineapple, grapefruit, mango and fresh mint!

Mid morning juice was a Mexican Style Jugo.

2 large cucumbers

4 cups cilantro

1 lime

1 jalapeno pepper

1 apple

I enjoyed this juice very much!  

For lunch I had a cucumber salad and sunset blend juice.

 Sunset Blend juice had one sweet potato, 1 carrot, 1 red bell pepper, 2 red beets, 2 apples and 1 orange.  This so far has been my least favorite juice....but I did drink it all!

This was my afternoon snack.  Green soup. All the green veggies you can think of!

Sweet potato and carrot fries for dinner plus baked zucchini with tomatoes and herbs.

Day four complete.  I feel AWESOME!!!!  Day five is my last day to chew....I will only be juicing from  Wednesday to Sunday.  I'm a lil scared.

Peace out,

j  

Day Two and Three

Hi Friends!!  I am currently on day 4 of my Reboot Juice Fast!!  But here is what has been going on during day two and three-




I did wake up with a horrible headache one day one- which was gone with an afternoon nap.  Day two, I awoke with just a slight headache but thankfully, it was gone before I even realized it.  I have been feeling great ever since.  

These are pictures from Day 2-  This was my breakfast.  Kiwi, pineapple, mint, blackberries, pear and flax seed!  Yumm!!

This is a V28 juice.  3 beets, 2 carrots, 2 celery, 4 plum tomatoes, 4 cups parsley, 1 Jalapeno and 12 red radishes.   It tasted a lot like beets to me.  I like beets so it was all good!!

That was mid morning juice.  I had a carrot dill salad for lunch with dried apple rings.  This was a very big salad so I had the rest for dinner.  I forgot to take pic!

Day Three-

Baked apple for breakfast

Minty Fresh Berry- 2 cups blueberries, 2 kiwi fruits, 16 strawberries and 2 cups mint leaves.  This was delish!!!

I had Roasted Acorn squash stuffed with mushroom and sage for lunch!  Oh my goodness....healthy goodness!!

Dinner was sweet potato and carrot fries with veggie soup.  If you have never had sweet potato fries, you are totally missing out.  Again, I forgot to take a picture but here is the recipe!

Sweet Potato and Carrot Fries

2 medium sweet potatoes

2 large carrots

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp Cajun spice (or any spice you prefer)

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Peel sweet potatoes and carrots.  Cut the potatoes in half lengthwise and slice each halve into 4 equal wedges.  Cut carrots in half crosswise into two chunks.  Slice each chunk into 2 pieces lengthwise.  Put all ingredients into gallon size ziploc bag and shake, shake, shake.  Arrange on baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake for 30 minutes or until tender.  Enjoy!!

I get to enjoy these tonight for dinner too!!  I can't wait!  

In light and love,

j

Day one- Juice Fast

Day one of Reboot 15 day juice fast.  For breakfast I will have cherry cinnamon bake.  Mid morning snack is that lovely green juice up there :)  The green juice consists of 2 cups of Kale, 2 cups of spinach, 1/2 cucumber, 4 stalks of celery, 2 green apples and ginger root.  I will be having a salad for lunch with mustard vinaigrette dressing and carrot ginger soup.  Dinner is a salad with green beans, snow peas and broccoli with ginger honey soy dressing. You can find all the recipes and the different reboot juice fasts here.  I start and end my day with herbal tea or hot lemon water.  


Ha, I just noticed the dog treats behind my food.  No doggie treats for me!!!


I woke up with a headache this morning, which I am sure is from lack of sleep.  I didn't go to bed until late.  No coffee this morning is going to hurt.  I don't think I over-do the coffee but I definitely LOVE my cup in the morning!!!  


I will be trying some new vegetables that I have never tried before.  I put Jicama in my lunch salad today.  It is an australian yam bean or also known as a mexican potato.  It is kind of sweet and crunchy.  Sort of like a cross between a potato and a pear.  


No extra protein in these meals.  It will be all plant based.  I am wondering how that will affect me.  


Until tomorrow,


love j

Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead....

I just watched the movie, Forks Over Knives and Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead.  Forks Over Knives was a documentary about a eating a plant based diet and how eating this way can actually reverse disease in the body.  If you are a vegetarian and considering becoming a vegan, this is the movie to watch. I'm on the fence about this because I feel we need more protein....there is protein in veggies but I'm just not sure if it is enough.  Like I said, I'm still on the fence so I can't give you a good opinion on that.


Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead was a documentary about a 40 year Australian man who was literally Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead and decided to see if he could change his health by only putting the best and freshest food in his body.  He did a 60 day juice fast.  He did end up reversing his health problems, lost a lot of weight and helped a lot of people along the way!

I would never recommend a 60 day juice fast unless it is totally under doctor care.  But this juice fast got me to thinking....could I do it....will I be hungry....will I feel any different?  Let me say this, I LOVE to chew my food. I am NOT one to drink anything but water, coffee or tea.  The official website is here.  There are several different reboot juice fasts that can be done.  I have chose to try the 15 day reboot.  I have two weeks left of my one ingredient diet so this is the perfect time to try it.  I am starting tomorrow.  I will do five days of eating a plant based diet AND juicing...followed by five days of only juicing....followed by five days of eating a plant based diet and juicing.

I have never been a big person on detox diet fads.  I do feel that if you eat a healthy diet, your body will cleanse itself.  With that being said, I'm going for it.  If juicing will help someone that has major health problems, how will it help someone that is healthy?  Will I go through detox?  Hunger?  Weight loss?

I will let you know!!  In the mean time here is a great recipe I made the other night!


Serves 2; Adapted from Your Lighter Side.


Ingredients:


1 cup cooked, riced cauliflower
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
1/2 tsp garlic salt
olive oil (optional)

pizza sauce, shredded cheese and your choice of toppings*


Directions:


To "Rice" the Cauliflower:
Take 1 large head of fresh cauliflower, remove stems and leaves, and chop the florets into chunks. Add to food processor and pulse until it looks like grain. Do not over-do pulse or you will puree it. (If you don't have a food processor, you can grate the whole head with a cheese grater). Place the riced cauliflower into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 8 minutes (some microwaves are more powerful than others, so you may need to reduce this cooking time). There is no need to add water, as the natural moisture in the cauliflower is enough to cook itself. 

One large head should produce approximately 3 cups of riced cauliflower. The remainder can be used to make additional pizza crusts immediately, or can be stored in the refrigerator for up to one week.


To Make the Pizza Crust:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup cauliflower, egg and mozzarella. Add oregano, crushed garlic and garlic salt, stir. Transfer to the cookie sheet, and using your hands, pat out into a 9" round. Optional: Brush olive oil over top of mixture to help with browning.

Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.

Remove from oven. To the crust, add sauce, toppings and cheese. Place under a broiler at high heat just until cheese is melted (approximately 3-4 minutes).

Enjoy!   *Note that toppings need to be precooked since you are only broiling for a few minutes.

This is the crust before cooking.....

After cooking....I did double the recipe and I think I should have cooked the crust just a bit longer....

With my toppings....basil pesto, spinach, artichokes, sun dried tomatoes and mushrooms.

The end result!!  YUMM!!!


Namaste,
j

What would J do?

One of my friends and clients wrote something and left it on the front desk.  Somehow when I read it, I knew she had wrote it even though she did not sign it.  She is to be admired because she is very in charge of her health!  I wanted to share with you what she wrote-

            

     Is It Really All Good?

In times of Trouble

Loneliness

Fear

Temptation

Celebration

Heartbreak

Boredom

Failure

Depression

Recession

Frustration

On a Vacation

Shopping at the Grocery Store

Hanging Out with Friends

Dining at a Restaurant

Watching Movies or TV

In Every Situation

Ask Yourself

W.W.J.E.?

Remember your body is a Temple

Try To Keep it Clean!

What Would Janet Eat?  Clean & Healthy.  Be Inspired!!

Thank you Victoria!!!  I am very inspired reading that and I couldn't have said it better myself!  If you look at each situation, food always accompanies them.  We eat when we are in trouble, lonely, scared, bored, frustrated, on vacation, with friends and in front of the tv!!!  Sometimes it is easy to say, "Just this once, I will treat myself to _______"   But one situation turns into two which turns into a bad habit of eating the wrong foods.  Consistency pays off friends.  Small changes in each meal- every day will make Huge results in your health.  

The next time you are in one of these situations, ask yourself- 

What Would J Eat?

In light and love,

j