Day 13 of my 60 Day Juice Feast

Setbacks

So I've totally messed up my juice feasting with a couple of salads. And they were good salads too. Yum! Back to juicing tomorrow and I'll see how it goes. No promises.

Today I had green juice and watermelon again. I haven't drank as much juice because I did eat a couple of times today. I had a salad this evening and earlier, well, I'll show you what I had and give you the recipe. They were delicious.

Setbacks are sometimes inevitable in life. But you just pick yourself up, shake it off, and start again. I'll be back to just juicing tomorrow for as long as I can go. I'm making some breakthroughs with my weight, so all is not lost. The things I'm eating, I'm just making sure are very clean. No fats or anything to clog me up.

Watermelon Treat

 

I was surprised that the kids liked this as well as they did. My 7-yr-old just loved them.

• Cucumbers sliced whatever thickness you like. The thinner they are, the easier it is to eat it, but they have to be thick enough to be stiff.
• Slices of watermelon

• The original recipe calls for feta cheese, but I used my macadamia nut cheese that I made for the raw tacos.

Sauce

• 2 Tblsp lime juice
• 2 Tblsp honey 
• sprig or two of mint 

1. Prepare stacks of cucumber, watermelon, cucumber, watermelon.
2. Sprinkle cheese on top.
3. You can refrigerate this until you are ready to serve.
4. Mix lime juice, honey and finely chopped mint. Save some mint for sprinkling 
5. Pour sauce over them and serve.
6. Sprinkle chopped mint over everything.

  This is a great cool treat for a hot day. Enjoy!

Day 11 of my 60 Day Juice Feast

Update

Today has been a pretty good day. I've had a couple of walks and the cravings are much better. I think you have to go through some trials to get to a new level in this experience.

So tonight, I'm off to make some treats for the kids. I'm not going to be updating every day from here on out. I'll try to do every second day unless I have some good recipes or something useful to talk about.


Today I've stuck with the same green juice. I have to make some more tonight and will probably do some watermelon. I know it isn't exciting, but I have 4 or 5 that I really like and those are what I tend to use.

One good juice that I might try later is warm apple juice with cinnamon. You juice 3 apples, warm it up on the stove--not too hot or you'll kill the enzymes. Add a sprinkle of cinnamon and drink. It's a nice, soothing drink to have before bed.

I'm off to cook now, but I'll leave you with this easy recipe.

Kale Chips

These are a healthy alternative to potato chips and don't have all the chemicals in them that other flavored chips have. My kids love them.

• 1 bunch of kale
• 2 Tblsp olive oil
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar (or lemon juice or other vinegar) This is optional, so you can leave it out if you like.
• pinch of sea salt

1. Wash the kale and dry thoroughly--a salad spinner works well for this. 
2. Rip into bite size pieces
3. In a large bowl combine oil, vinegar and salt.
4. Add kale pieces and toss with your hands to coat all pieces well.
5. Bake on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper on 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. Watch them carefully. 

They should be crisp but still green. Alternately you can heat the oven to 150 and put the chips in with the door slightly ajar for a couple of hours. I'm usually not that patient.

Serve. I generally have a problem getting them into the bowl as my youngest likes to eat them right of the tray before I get the chance. :) Enjoy! Try other toppings and combinations of flavors. Experiment!


Until next time. Juice on!

Well, I ended up eating a salad tonight. Still, that's the longest I've gone on just juice and I'll be back on my juice tomorrow. Spinach salad with green onion and tomato. Shouldn't slow me down too much.

Day 10 of my 60 Day Juice Feast

Update

Today I'm struggling with cravings--the same issues as last night. Stress makes me feel hungry even when I'm physically okay. We had a heck of a thunder storm and big rain, though it didn't last long. I'm thinking I'd best get out and walk while I can.

I did a couple of cups of my heal all tea today, which really increases the detox symptoms. That's probably what is bothering me. I'll just have to keep on chugging.

Food Cravings

First of all the 60 days of juice feasting is just a goal. It is perfectly okay to amend it. I think the trick is to do so intellectually and not emotionally. So while I may feel like eating half of the kitchen today, it won't support what I'm doing with the juice feasting to begin with.

EFT definitely helps with the cravings, because they are emotional. Beyond that I just tell myself that yes, I can have a salad if I want one, but I'll have a juice first and then maybe consider it tomorrow. Usually, after I have the juice I find I don't really need the salad. And if I put the decision off until tomorrow, then I can't say it's because I'm having a bad day. If I really want it still tomorrow, then I'll have it. But usually it's an emotional craving in the moment and a walk goes further to staving it off than an actual salad would.

So I'll hang in there for another day as I'm only living right now anyway and can't control what happens tomorrow. Can I do another 50 days? At this point I don't know. But I can do juice for today--for just one day. I'll try to stay in the now.

The Protein Myth

I've had people say the strangest things to me about eating just fruits and vegetables.

"Oh but what about your protein? How will you get it?"

"And what about your children? They need their protein."

 "Be careful or your muscles will turn to water."

There seems to be a lot of misinformation about this wonderful stuff called protein out there. Apparently we can't live without it. Well, this is a myth--one perpetuated by the meat industry no doubt. How do we live without the stuff?

Never mind that the people in cultures that don't eat meat generally live longer than those that do. I mean, how do they get their protein?

Well, your body cannot use protein to start with--and certainly not in the form of animal proteins. When you eat meat, your body has to break down the proteins into amino acids in order for you to be able to digest it at all. And it creates a lot of acids in your system when it does this, which causes inflammation.

Protein is a nitrogen compound and is high in phosphorus which can deplete calcium from the body.

Our GI track is longer than that of a carnivore (and an omnivore), and it not ideal for digesting meat. Animal proteins putrefy in the body causing body odor and creating toxins in the intestine which create a habitat for parasites and lower the body's ability to absorb other nutrients.

Our animal meats today are filled with growth hormones, herbicides, antibiotics, pesticides, high levels of adrenaline and other toxic chemicals from air and ground pollution. There is a lot of cancer found in cows and chickens today. Not exactly a healthy option.

So, really I don't worry about where I'll get my protein. My body doesn't need it. Neither do my children. And I'm not concerned that my muscles will turn to water, nor whether my eyes might turn into ears. That's just not possible. What we need are amino acids and they are readily available in all fruits and vegetables. They are also present in the form that our body's can digest and utilize.

There are many other problems with proteins as a food source, but I'll leave it at that.


A storm is coming and I'd like to post this before I have to shut down my computer. So I'll sign off there for another day. I'm off to drink the carrot juice I made yesterday. Here's the picture again. It was delicious.

Mini Pizzas

Mini Pizzas

These disappeared so quickly that I had a really hard time getting a picture. They ate one plate of them and this was the second pan that I baked. I guess I'll be making them again.

I made a large batch of bread dough and just made these out of what would have been a loaf of bread. So a standard bread dough recipe will suffice.

1 1/2 C Warm water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 Tblsp oil
4 C flour
1 1/2 tsp yeast

1. knead well and let rise for a couple of hours.
2. Break up into small balls and roll out (pretty much like the pita recipe I gave before.)

In fact, you could use mini pitas that you buy at the store instead if you wanted. It would be a lot less cooking time.

I added sauce and cheese and a bit of chopped green onion and red peppers. You could add any toppings that you like and make several different flavors if you wanted. That would be ideal and what I'd do for myself and my husband. But kids are always fussy, so I just kept it simple.

Bake 10 min at 400 F. 

Tip: when you roll out the dough, use semolina flour (duram wheat). You can even add some of this to your pizza dough if you want. It makes it nice and crunchy. I dust the pizza pan with semolina and it doesn't stick at all.

Great stuff. They'll be eaten before you can get the next pan out of the oven. A guaranteed crowd pleaser. Yum! Not that I ate any, but I certainly will put this on the menu one night once my juice feast is over. :)

Day 9 of my 60 Day Juice Feast

Juicy Update

Okay, so it isn't technically day 9 anymore. I missed it by 30 minutes. But we'll have to call it close enough. It was a busy day. I got some work done on my ebook, made cookies for the kids, and went shopping and made juice.

Today was pretty good, following a rough night of detox symptoms. My back was so sore last night--ugh. I'm glad it's over. But today I feel healthy again and have my energy back. I'm just a little sore in the feet--which isn't unusual for me.

I've been craving a lot of things today and I'm starting to realize what some of my food triggers are. I want to eat when I'm tired for sure and I've always know this. But I didn't realize I was a stress eater. Had a bit of a shock today when I realized we were going to have about $400 less than we thought this month and immediately started craving comfort foods--foods I don't even like the taste of anymore. And I mean some powerful cravings. But I managed to make cookies and not taste anything, so that's a pretty good day since I haven't had any solids in 9 days. :)

All in all, today was a success. I'll keep it short again today and sign off with that.

Today's Juice

So today I had watermelon juice for most of the day, but this is what I made tonight. The green juice is close to the same thing I usually make. The orange juice is 1/2 bag of organic carrots, 1 fennel (or anise if you prefer to call it that), 1 lemon, and 6 apples. I might have gone a bit overboard with the carrots, but it's quite tasty. I'd use maybe 1/3 of a bag of carrots the next time.


Okay, I'm signing off now. I'll post a really simple recipe as well tonight.

Juice on!

Day 8 of my 60 Day Juice Feast

Update

Just a short check in today. Managed to get shopping, then home and had my juice today. Went for a nice walk earlier and spent the rest of the day in the kitchen, making food for the family. Hopefully they'll have enough salads and what not for the next day or two.

Made little mini pizzas for the kids as a special treat as well. It was a real test of my resolve as pizza is probably my favorite food in the world--or at least it used to be. Now, I would love nothing more than a spinach salad. In fact, I'm drooling just thinking about it. But, I'll be able to eat all the salad I want in just 52 days. In the general course of a lifetime, that's nothing. 

I'll post a recipe of the mini-pizzas tomorrow. I had to tie the kids up while I took a picture. :)

Took some heal all tea this evening and all I can say is wow. That, along with the juicy diet, is an incredible detox. I'm exhausted and have some nasty back pain going on--but that's to be expected. Had a little nap this evening so that's why I'm so late posting.

Today's Juice

I know I'm incredibly boring, but this is more watermelon juice and the best green juice I've ever made. This is what I put in it. 4 stalks celery, 1 honeydew melon, 2 small pineapples, 2 lemons, 1 orange, 6 small apples, 6 or 8 kale leaves, 3 inches of an English cucumber, and about a tsp of dehydrated wheatgrass powder.  It was too easy to drink--evidenced by the fact that I have mostly watermelon juice left for tomorrow. :)

Okay, I'm going to leave it there for tonight, because I'm so tired, but will try to be earlier tomorrow.

See you at the end of the show.

Day 7 of my 60 Day Juice Feast

Update

I felt pretty good today, but a little tired. So if I don't sound very coherent, it's just exhaustion talking.

I managed a walk today and I cleaned for awhile, so I guess my energy wasn't bad earlier. But I'm tired now, and almost out of juice, and not able to make more until sometime tomorrow. Tonight might be a bit of a test for me and I might have to blend up a smoothie later, to tide me over. The only fruit I have left is one lemon.

Overall, I'm still feeling pretty good. Just going through some detox symptoms today--a bit tired and irritable and I have a bit of a headache. I don't think I'll have trouble getting to bed early tonight.

Today's Juice

Today I'm finishing off the last of the watermelon juice. It was really good. Watermelon, pomegranate, lemon and a couple of apples. And I made a green juice out of what I had left in the fridge: spinach, celery, cucumber and a couple of tomatoes. It isn't the tastiest juice, but it does make me feel more settled.

The watermelon juice I find very cleansing. It makes me feel a bit jittery at the end of the day. The more vegetable based juices are good for calming that down a bit. Also, I find herbal teas calming.

Blueberry Smoothie

A special treat tonight to stretch the rest of my juice a bit farther.

Frozen blueberries, watermelon juice and vanilla. Yum! Why do I feel so naughty eating something this healthy?

The Truth About Your Skin

As I mentioned yesterday I will talk a little more about skin today. Yesterday I mentioned exercising and brushing your skin. Today I just wanted to talk a bit about the function of the skin.

The skin functions as a means to eliminate waste from your body in much the way that your kidneys filter and eliminate. Some people call the skin your third kidney. In fact, if your kidneys aren't filtering well, you'll find more stuff coming out through your skin.

Toxins can be eliminated through perspiration and also through acne.

But they can't be eliminated if you cover your skin with cosmetics or antiperspirants, creams and sunscreen. It's best to use as little as possible on your skin.

I've been trying to avoid toxic chemicals because your skin is porous, so whatever you put on it goes into your body. It's almost like you are drinking your skin cream. So, the question arises, could you drink your skin cream, if you wanted to?

There are safe alternatives to moisturizers and chemical laden washes that can be made from stuff that you probably have in your cupboards right now.

Body Scrub

2 parts sea salt
1 part baking soda
coconut oil--enough to make a paste.

I also added some rose petals to this and blended it in a food processor. It was really nice and made my skin so soft. I love this and will continue to use it often.

Face Toner

Aloe Vera juice
Water

Splash on face.

Avocado Face Mask

Blend avocado with a little lemon juice

Smear on your face and let soak into your skin for awhile.

Avocado Face Wash

Avocado
Orange juice
Sugar

Mix together until the desired consistency and use as a gentle face wash.

Mouthwash

1 C peppermint tea
1 tsp rosemary

Steep, cool and pour into bottle. You can keep it in the fridge for a few days.

Tooth Whitener

Lemon juice and salt.

Apply to yellowed teeth and rinse

Or rub the inside of an orange rind on your teeth.


I still haven't found any suitable shampoo replacements. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Okay, I'm off for a cup of tea and maybe some reading before I go to bed early.

See you tomorrow.