My juicer is still broken. I have no idea how to fix it, so here is what I am doing now.

I am eating fresh fruit and vegetables for the main part of my meals. I'm also mixing some nuts and grains in. I've found that if I eat small meals, and then graze throughout the day I feel full and don't wind up over eating. For breakfast I had 1/2 cup of granola mixed with a generous (depending on your spoon size) scoop of plain yogurt and I mixed in fresh strawberries. It was soooo yummy. I had a carrot for a snack, and a while later I had a piece of celery. I went to McDonalds for a play date today and I ate a couple of pieces of celery before I left, and I brought a little bag of almonds and some sliced kiwi with me. I ate the celery before had so I wouldn't get there and feel hungry and break down for a burger! I wasn't really hungry while I was there, but I munched on some almonds and the kiwi so that I was still eating and enjoying myself without feeling deprived. This morning I had lost a full pound from yesterday, so I must be doing something right.

I'm still disappointed that my cleanse didn't go as planned, but I'm trying to keep the healthy eating style that I would have achieved after my cleans as a part of my daily diet.

I need to start working out again, I've been really horrible about that lately. I've got a really full plate with my kids and school and keeping up with the house, so working out usually gets put on the back plate. I am thinking I may need to sign up for a fitness class, because when I pay for something I feel like I have to go. It's much easier for me to decide not to work out at home when it's just me and the couch looks so inviting.

Well, my juicer won't turn on.

I have no idea what the problem is. I really got into the swing of things last night and this morning. I juiced extra with breakfast so I had enough for a snack and I cut up everything for lunch in advance. So lunch rolled around and I got the juicer put back together and now it just won't turn on. I'm really frustrated. I was excited that I had figured out a good system and now I'm kind of at a stand still! Until I can figure out what is wrong with said juicer I will be eating fresh fruit and vegetables. I'm trying to find something to help me figure out what's wrong but I just have no idea! The juicer website was useless, it said to make sure the power was on (duh) and make sure it was put together properly. So, here is hoping I can get it fixed!

day 2

Well, I decided to switch myself over to the Reboot Entry Program: (information from www.jointhereboot.com )

"Our entry plan is a 15 day journey to wellness. In this plan, you can juice and blend produce as well as eat raw and cooked vegetables and fruits in any order or combination that suits your life. This program is intended for those who are brand new to eating a plant-based diet, those who have recently completed a juice fast or those who would like to participate in a Reboot, but don’t want to exclusively juice, for 5 days. In this program you can juice with eating for the entire time."

Here is why, first off I've been really hungry. I think if it was just me I could probably do it a lot easier. I don't know why I think that. However, it's been SO SO SO challenging preparing food for my daughter and my mom (who is staying with me while my husband is deployed) and NOT eating it. I had to make a formula run today for my son and walking past all the food and everything was pure torture! I made the mistake of running out around lunch time thinking I wasn't really hungry and it was just a quick trip. I promised my daughter a trip to chick-fil-a on the way home and by the time we got back I was ready to snatch her food right out of her little hand! I started getting shaky, but I didn't have any left over juice from this morning and I didn't take the time to cut up the vegetables for my lunch in advance. That was poor planning. I should have made extra with breakfast and drank that on the way to the store so that I wasn't starving by lunch time. So I think I will mainly juice, but allow myself to eat fresh fruit or veggies when I feel like I'm needing more.

I really want this to be a positive experience. I really believe that the cleanse is good for your body and I am committed to eating a vegetable based diet once I finish. Hopefully I can get a work out in tonight between bedtime and studying. (I am enrolled in a dental assisting program)

Anyways, breakfast this morning was strawberry, apple, orange, and grapefruit. Let me tell you, it was SO wonderful. Oh my goodness. I should have made more, but I'm still learning to gauge how much juice I will end up with. I didn't have any left overs of that juice.

for lunch I had pear, green apple, kiwi, broccoli, celery and cucumber. It was really yummy too! I had plenty of extra so I will have a good snack later on today.

I am planning to juice the left over salad I had last night (even though there was a little bit of that darn arugula!) and adding lime and apple to it. Maybe some strawberry too, we'll see!

Day 1 cont

It's a bit earlier than I was going to post this morning, but I had to write about my night.

Yesterday morning started out great, I felt fine. And then in the afternoon I got a horrible headache. I also felt like I was starving in the afternoon. I had another glass of juice for a snack, but that didn't cut it. I caught myself a few times automatically reaching for popcorn (my mom took my daughter out for a movie date) or about to grab a pickle. Anyway, around dinner time I was just feeling so sick that my mom said she thought I needed to eat something solid. So I ate a salad, all micronutrients! Last night I was feeling pretty bummed. I was feeling like I let myself down or something. Which is kind of silly. There are juicing plans where you combine eating with juicing, so I am going to see how today goes and then look into that. I might end up switching over. I really want to do a full cleanse, but it's really important for me to listen to my body. If I start feeling poorly again this afternoon I will do some looking into maybe juicing for two meals and eating one. I also broke down and had a red bull yesterday too. My head was hurting so bad, and caffeine combined with tylenol knocked it out of the park. I probably would have resisted the temptation if there hadn't been one in my fridge. That was poor planning on my part.

Today is a new day though. I will post about today this evening and see how I feel!

Juicing cleanse day 1

Here is what you need to know about me:

I'm in my twenties. I have two children, a girl and a boy. Along with those bundles of joy came lots of extra weight, that I want to be rid of! My husband is in the army and just recently left for deployment. Now, let's get into juicing since that's probably why you are reading! I have heard about juicing a bit from various sources, but I felt like it wasn't healthy and didn't bother to learn more. Then while I was recovering from having my tonsils removed I decided to watch Fat, Sick, and Nearly dead. And now here I am about to start on a 14 day fresh fruit and vegetable juice only cleanse. A few of my weak points are:

fried foods: I love everything fried, I try to eat it only on occasion, but sometimes that doesn't work out for me!

pumpkin and chocolate baked goods: It's almost fall, which means plenty of these will be available!

movie popcorn

CAFFEINE which I am trying to get myself off of as well

and chocolate

On the whole I eat very healthy I only indulge on the things above every once in a while, but I recently discovered that I am a stress eater. And since I am trying to lose weight, I just need to give my body a overhaul and get back on track.

Starting out on my juicing I weigh 143 pounds. Which means I've gained about 5 pounds in the past few weeks! I was eating a TON of carbs and crap with all the stress from the deployment. Which is partly why I timed my juicing for now. Anyways, so far so good. (so far being the key words here) My goal is a 14 day cleanse, and at that point I will re-evaluate. I may go longer, depending on my results. I will also be walking, nothing too heavy as far as workouts go.

For breakfast I had Honeydew, Cantaloupe, and apple juice. Thinking back I probably should have added in some celery or cucumber to get some veg in there too. But I will make the lack of veg up with lunch and dinner.

Lunch was spinach (which had arugula mixed in, more on that later) kiwi, cucumber, celery, and apple, and lime. I got a bag of mixed spinach and arugula thinking that both would be good because I eat arugula in salads all the time. I was wrong, the arugula was VERY strong. I had a hard time tasting anything else. So I kind of chugged it down and decided to remove the arugula from the mix and set it aside for future salads.

I am a bit hungry this afternoon, but I had some left over juice from breakfast that will make a wonderful snack. I did about 10 minutes of a kettlebell workout, but I came to the decision that it was a bit too much while I am just starting out on juicing. :) I was feeling very optimistic. Luckily the intense heat we've been experiencing here in Texas seems to have let up a bit so I'll go for a walk tonight.

So on the whole, so far day one has been pretty nice. I got some cleaning done, and I don't have the dreaded caffeine headache. I'll try to post every day, to keep track of the weight loss. I am also going to measure myself today, I can't find my tape measure. I will post that tomorrow.