Day 8- Is This the Miracle Cure?

How awesome it would be, if one simple thing could be the fix-all for the years of abuse that that we inflict on our bodies.  We start falling the day we start learning to walk, and some of us actually do it on purpose.  As teenagers, we ate what we wanted, not knowing that someday that youthful metabolism would slow to a crawl.  We light the candles at both ends from 18 until retirement because we are overworked or over partied or both.  Most of us have not taken a real relaxed vacation in years.  Eventually, life takes a toll on our bodies.

Then begins the search for the perfect diet (to fall off of), the all-in-one super-expensive exercise machine (which will hold our laundry) and the fool proof exercise video with it's attached meal plan (that sits dusty on the shelf).  While the intentions are always good, it just never works out for most people.  We try the diets, but it's difficult stick to a diet that is restrictive, and without proper diet, no one has the energy to put the workout dvd into the machine, much less perform the insane amount of planks and burpees as instructed on the video.  Everyone wants a quick fix and if results are not seen immediately, we get bored and move on.

How many times do we have to hear it before we believe?  "Want to lose weight?  Eat a healthy diet and exercise more."  I think that we leave out an important step when we decide to take charge of our health.  We need to cleanse our bodies of the built up crud we've put in them.  "Cleanse," a word that has become a bad word in much of the health industry.  But cleanses are good for you once in while, and they don't need to be for 14 days, nor do they need to be calorie restrictive and nutrient poor.

Juicing is not a miracle cure, or a diet plan, it's a cleanse.  It's a way to get valuable nutrients into your blood stream efficiently, while allowing your body to do what is was made to do.... heal.  How has it benefited me? I lost 16 pounds, my skin is clear and bright, my knee inflammation has subsided,  and believe it or not, I think I'm actually a little more organized and on top of things.  The best part is that I have lots of energy, so much that I actually WANT to get up and move around. 

Also, now that I've given my body a break from digestion I'm ready to start refueling with healthy foods.  Out with the white flour and sugar, into the trash with the processed foods.  Hello lean meats, good fats and fresh produce.  Does this mean that bacon has no place in my life?  HECK NO!!!  It just means that when I choose to have a treat, I will enjoy it more and savor it.  


This is also a great opportunity to reintroduce certain foods that you think might be causing digestive issues or allergies. Today I reintroduced  salad with raw veggies, a light dressing and a soup with soba noodles, fresh veggies and spices, along with 24 ounces of my juice. 


Don't forget.... Juice for life!

  

Day 7- The Plan has Changed

I'm so happy to be near my juicer again.  I think that the next time I have to of out of town I need to search a little harder for a good juice bar.  I did however, come home from "the big city" armed with enough fruits and veggies to last me through the weekend.... then the plan changed.


Normally, I try to plan these cleanses around my work schedule and any special events going on.  If I have to, I'll make extra juice, or keep to raw foods but, as it happens, my little brother's birthday is on Friday and there will be a celebration.  Knowing that, with this family, there will be a margarita and steak with my name on it, I should  prepare my body for it. 


I have learned from experience that, after an extended duration of juicing alone, one needs to ease one's body back into the fray.  (As much as you may think you really want to eat that hot link with spicy brown mustard, trust me, you will hate yourself later.)  


Starting tomorrow, I'm going to give myself a few days to re-acclimate, starting with raw foods.  The only thing I'll be doing differently is adding fiber, as well as some seasonings and healthy oils.  



Meanwhile, my new favorite juice: spinach, celery, cucumber and apples.  

Day 6

Today was especially challenging because I had to go out of town, away from my juicer.  My objective was to find a way to juice without going to my favorite juice franchise or  grocer. I failed.... sort of. 


The day started out promising.  I was up early and made myself a healthy portion of juice with crushed ice, using the fresh veggies that I had bought at midnight.  I was well prepared.  Who, me? Yes, me! This juicing thing is producing all sorts of miracles!


My 48 ounces of nutrients and water kept me going for the morning and at about lunchtime I looked to see what the Sacramento area had to offer in the way of juice bars. I put out the word to my friends but all they had to offer me was Jamba Juice and the suggestion that I go to the closest bar for a vodka and juice.  Unfortunately, distilled potatoes are not in my juicing plan.


Using my handy smartphone app, I found a Robeks down the road.  Having never heard of Robeks, I followed the advice of some fellow Yelper's and checked it out.... and walked into a place that pretty much looked like Jamba Juice, complete with boosts.  Intrigued by the Tropi-Kale with kale, pineapple, papaya and nonfat yogurt, I took a minute to look at the rest of the menu.  As expected, there were the usual high sugar smoothies and, to my surprise, 3 fresh juice blends with my 2:1 ratio.  


I caved and got the Tropi-Kale, minus the yogurt. I know, I was weak. It just sounded so good, and it was.  Now.... to the Yelper's who rate this place as less expensive than JJ, you need to stop spiking your juice with potatoes. I paid the same for my "original size" smoothie as I would for a JJ power-sized. It was good though.

Day 5- Feeling Great

Day 5 is here.  I've got to admit that, while I feel great, the smell of food is still getting to me.  Passing by the roast chicken on my way to the produce aisle remains difficult.  I'm keeping strong though.  My body needs this and chicken will be in my near future. 


Adhering to the 3 ingredient policy,this morning's juice, orange, carrot,and golden beets.  I had been using red beets, which had an earthy taste to it.  The last time I was at the farmer's market, I found some golden beets, which are a little less sweet than the reds, but have a mellow and less earthy flavor. Unfortunately, I'm running out of veggies, so it looks like this will be the menu for the day until I can get to the market, which has never been my favorite thing to do. 


With all of this extra energy I have, I've been working toward my second goal, running my first 10k in September.  I've been doing a lot of cardio and have worked up to 8 miles, 4 miles hiking up the trail and running 4 miles down.  Normally, my knees would be complaining, but I haven't have any inflammation since I did the first reboot last month.  


Extra energy, knees feeling better and weight loss.  Works for me.... 

Day 4

Yesterday was day 4 and it was more productive than the last 3.  I had a renewed energy, which was greatly appreciated as work was fairly busy.  It made me realize how much energy it takes to digest food.  Since, I'm giving my digestive tract a short break, my energy stored can be use for movement and exercise.  


Working at  a restaurant has made it hard to resist grazing.  Sushi rolls, fried foods and dessert for tasting taunt me as I walk away with my juice in my hand. Surprisingly, last night was not so difficult.  This is usually how it works for me. The first three days are harder to get through, but once I make it to day 4, it's smooth sailing.


I think I'm going to make a few changes though.  I've been drinking three 24 ounce juices and one 12 ounce as a snack.  I'm going to change it to five or six 12 ounce glasses instead. I'm also going to change the ingredients that I'm using.  I've been using lots of different veggies and fruits in every juice. This tends to make each drink start to taste the same.  Instead, I'm going to stick to three ingredient juices, two veggies and one fruit. This way I'll be able to taste each ingredient and I'll still get a variety of nutrients throughout the day.


Keep Juicing!


TODAY'S WEIGH IN: 141.1

Day 3 - Magic Foods

Today was a difficult one.  I was running on 2 hours of sleep, my own fault of course, since I just HAD to watch the last 2 episodes of "Breaking Bad."  It didn't help any that I had an early appointment either.  Being that I had no time for hunger I made myself a 24 ounce juice and started my day. 

When I got home around noon, I really wasn't feeling well and had no appetite.  I figured a nap might be a good idea, but it wasn't as long as I would have liked, and my stomach still felt a little queasy.  

I knew work was going to be hectic, and since I hadn't had lunch, I made myself two smoothies. One for on the way to work and one for at work.  I prefer smoothies to plain juice when I know I need energy. They aren't much different from plain juice except for the addition of ice, a banana, and some mango.  I also added some ginger for my upset stomach. 

The purpose behind juicing is in order to provide the body with a wide variety of nutrients, pretty much straight into the bloodstream.  The key word is "variety."  Different plants, different nutrients, different benefits.  Many fruits and vegetables have so many benefits that they are considered magic foods. For example, spinach is a good source  magnesium, potassium, vitamin c, vitamin K (good for a strong skeleton) and at least a dozen antioxidant compounds. Berries are deceptively sweet.  Since fructose (the natural sugar found in most fruits) is sweeter than sucrose (white sugars), it takes less to satisfy that sweets craving, and it's also friendlier to blood sugar.  Broccoli is one of the best food sources of chromium and vitamin c.  Think "more bang for your buck" when you thing of magic foods.  

By mixing up the types of fruits and veggies you juice, you can get most of the recommended daily allowance of minerals and vitamin needed for your body.  Somethings that would be very hard to do if you had to eat it all.

So at the end of day 3, as my eyelids are closing I still weigh in at 143.3 lbs.
No loss, no gain and I'm ok with that.


Happy juicing!

Day 2- Thank Goodness for Jamba Juice

This morning, I woke up feeling not as hungry as one would expect.  Was my stomach already shrinking?  Had my body shifted into starvation mode?  Or, perhaps is was because  I was the first up, and no one was able to torture me with bacon.

Unfortunately, right about the time I realized I had an appointment in 45 minutes, and it would take me 30 minutes to drive there, that familiar pang of hunger hit me.  Like my car, my body was telling me, "You had better fill up now, otherwise your going to be pushing me for the next 10 miles."  Normally, I would have gone straight to 7-11 for a large coffee with my special flavored creamer mixture and a sausage and egg croissant.  So, even though I can fix my juice in about 15 minutes, I took my chances that the Jamba Juice around the corner from my house could be faster.  Luckily, I was right.  I can choose from three of their fruit/veggie smoothies (today was Apple and Greens), and while they are more fruit than veggies, it works for me in a pinch.  Another cheat that I use when I'm away from my juicer (which was at lunchtime as well) is the Naked Juice Green Machine.  A little more sugar than I'd like to consume, but a better option than caving in to the drive through at BK.

I had to work tonight as well, so for dinner I made an extra large serving of my usual base juice with some cucumber added to it.  I drank 8 ounces and filled my 24 ounce smoothie cup with the rest and headed off to work.  Normally, I'd be starving halfway into my shift, and start grazing on sushi (I know, poor me) but today I felt ok.  

Some experts ( AKA those "they" folks, as in "They say you should drinks 8 glasses of water every day) have said that sometimes when we feel hunger it is really dehydration, and if we drink a glass of water and wait that hunger will most likely go away.  For me, most of the time, this is true. I also like to go a little further with it and drink soda water with lemon.  The bubbles make me feel fuller and the lemon makes it not so boring.  

Now, I'm home from work, drinking my water and looking forward to day 3.  

TODAY'S WEIGH IN: 143.3

Day 1- This Isn't My First Rodeo

Keep in mind that this is my second reboot.  The first one was for a week.  Actually, 6 days if you count my dinner of sushi on day 7 (Hey, I work at a sushi place, it's hard for me to turn down fresh Hirame with spicy ponzu).

On the last reboot, I was using my Magic Bullet with a special juicer attachment. It didn't take long for me to realize that, if I was going to be juicing 5 times a day, I needed to get a better juicer.  Ask most experienced and dedicated juicers and they will swear by their Breville machine.  Many people who have bought other juicers, like the Jack LaLaine or Black and Decker, have returned them to get a Breville.  Being that I am on a budget, I chose the Black and Decker Big Mouth. It is a great juicer for under $100. It's powerful, produces a dry pulp (meaning more juice) and easy to clean.  It's takes me about 15 minutes to prep my veggies and fruits, juice them and clean the machine. 

Some may ask, "Why buy a juicer? Can't I just buy bottled juice?"  The problem with most bottled juices are that they are high in sugar content and have lost a lot of their nutritional value. In addition, the veggie/fruit blends do not have enough veggies in them.  A good healthful nutrient rich juice should have a high veggie to fruit ratio, and be consumed immediately, at it's most nutrient rich state.

So, now you say, "Yuck, vegetable juice? That has GOT to taste nasty."  I would have agreed with you two months ago.  I grew up hating V8, and you couldn't get me to drink a  Bloody Mary no matter how much vodka you put in it.  What I soon realized though was that it wasn't vegetable juice that I didn't like, it's tomato juice.  I thank Jamba Juice for that revelation.  They have three veggie/fruit blends that are so yummy my 11 year old niece even likes them. 

There are three key things that I learned as I started juicing. 1. Some vegetables, like beets and carrots have natural sugars making them much more palatable, especially in their raw state, 2.  some green vegetables, like spinach, kale and broccoli have very mild flavors and blend wonderfully with other more flavorful ingredients, and 3. it only takes one large orange to make a tasty beverage.

Today, my morning juice was spinach, broccoli, an apples, one orange and carrots. I'm sure it didn't taste quite as good and the eggs and bacon my housemate so ruthlessly cooked for himself, but I know it was better for me .... and there will be bacon in my future, just not for the next two weeks.

You will notice that spinach, carrots, and broccoli make it into almost all of my juices and I refer to it as my BASE JUICE. For lunch, I added fresh farmer's market blueberries to my base juice and since I was heading to the beach with the dog, I wanted something a little more substantial and filling, so I blended it with some ice and a banana. (I've learned that bananas don't juice well, they just clog the machine.)

Now it's time for dinner, I'm a little hungry, but I think that it's a hunger fueled more by the smell of cooking meat and fries downstairs.  I know from experience that a large juice will make the growling stop. 

TODAY'S WEIGH IN: 144.4 lbs

Happy Juicing!   

Joining the Reboot

First, a little backstory.  I was never a skinny kid and I'll most likely never be a skinny adult.  All I really want is to be that athletic and active person I was in my 20's. In the last 20 something years, I traded that person for a model that was content to be rounder and softer and lazier.  It took a while, but eventually I grew into size 12 jeans and topped out at 178 lbs.  Since my extra pounds were distributed evenly on my body, it took me a while to really notice how large I had become. (A case of denial didn't help either)

About 2 years ago, I changed my diet and started exercising more.  I had some success and lost 10 pounds.  Then, I cut out glutens, dairy and sugars and lost another 30 pounds.  I was not quite at my college weight but it felt great to be close.  While my food choices had improved, working out was still difficult for me.  I lacked energy and motivation. 


Then came the infamous chocolate binge.  For whatever reason, these cravings for carbs took over and in ten days I gained 15 pounds.  Yes, 15 pounds! AKA 52,500 calories.... mostly in chocolate.  I just couldn't stop.  I was an addict, and my drug of choice was sugar.  This sugar habit could easily be traced back to my childhood (one day I'll tell you about my "candy diet").  


So, why wasn't I an obese child?  Well, I'm also very competitive and my big brother was (and is still) very athletic.  I played sports in order to compete for my mother's attention. I'm sure that organized sports as a teen and my love for dancing in clubs in 80's was instrumental in my ability to eat junk food and stay at a healthy weight.


Jump to April 2012, still lacking motivation to exercise on a consistent basis, I was on the road to undoing all of the good things that I had done the previous year.  


Enter "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead," the documentary by Joe Cross, about his journey to undo the damage he had done to his body.  I can't say enough about this documentary,
so I'll reduce it to one simple sentence. It changed my life.


It didn't take much to convince me to "reboot my life." I checked out the website jointhereboot.com, dragged out my Magic Bullet with the juicer attachment and dove right in.  I juiced 4 or 5 times a day for a week.  The first three days were the hardest, mostly because I have a housemate who eats bacon just about every morning. I toughed it out, primarily by closing my bedroom door, pulling the covers over my head and pouting.


On day 4 of this stretch of the reboot, I had a 5 mile hike planned.  I juiced up in the morning, packed up some nuts and carrots (just in case) and headed out.  Surprisingly, I felt great!  I probably could have done the whole thing on the juice only, but being an experienced hiker, I knew my body needed more fuel.  Other than that, I consumed only juice for the week..... and dropped 10 pounds.  In addition, the inflammation in my knees practically disappeared, my energy levels were raised and, without pills, I was sleeping better than I had in years.


After that week, I started eating whole foods again.  Since I had gone back to my "clean eating" lifestyle, I easily maintained my weight loss.  It's not enough for me though.  Now that I know how easy it is for me to do, I am setting my sights on my original goal... to be back at my college weight of 125 pounds. This time though, it will be a healthier 125, one built by clean, healthy whole foods.  I can't rely on a teenage metabolism anymore. 


And here I am, Day 1 of a 15 day reboot.  I'm on a short journey to improve my body, my health and my confidence.  I invite you to follow me on this trip... and join me if you can.