2.23 - Life and everything around it

So, it's been a few days. I have had trouble sticking to pure juice days of late. I was doing okay until this past weekend when I hung out with some friends and made burgers and chicken on the grill.  I had half a burger and there went Sunday (I was home all day and was too lazy to juice more than breakfast!).

So what has these 60 days become for me? It certainly is not the strict fast I did last time, far from the days of juice and water. I am still juicing 2x a day and having a meal. I guess that is better than doing nothing. I am angry with myself for not sticking to it 100%, but have learned to forgive myself because anger is a worthless emotion, especially self-anger.

On the brighter, juicier side, I give you Spinach Red Swiss Chard Apple Romaine:

Ick, I know. The blood-red layer is cool, but the green looks all swampy.  It tastes heavily vegetable.

When you shake it, it blends again into a dark green muck. It is not a bad flavor, but it is something very green. You can almost taste the nutrients and all those great vitamins.

I forgot to take a pic of the breakfast juice that day: Carrot Ginger Pineapple + Nutmeg and Cinnamon. I tried to take the flavors of a carrot cake and make a juice. It was good (in my opinion) though my sister hated the nutmeg and cinnamon.  I think it added interest and spice to something sweet. I want to experiment more with taking my spice cabinet to the juicer.

I also made another bloody-looking juice for dinner yesterday that had my class looking at me strangely: Beet Spinach Carrot Apple

It was thick and brown-red, and to tell the truth, I felt like a vampire drinking it as it was so deeply red-brown. I was afraid I'd smile and have it all over my teeth! I guess it didn't help that I was listening to a contemporary para-romance in the car on the way to class. Molly Harper's Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs (Jane Jameson, Book 1) series, I'm on Nice Girls Don't Live Forever (Jane Jameson, Book 3), keeps me entertained when I am juicing because the heroine, a funny new vampire, does not eat solid food and laments the smell of food and taste of it too.  It is funny if you like that sort of fiction and I have listened to them all on audiobook maybe 3 times now, and it is still funny. I have a huge fan-girl crush on Ms Harper's wit and like to imagine we'd hit it off in real life.


I digress... I leave you with this graphic about spices for your body:

2.16 - Success and not so much

I haven't blogged in several days, due to the trip and my catch-up Monday (seriously email and teaching overload). The bright sunshine outside and more than mild weather is part of a happiness cocktail, and I'm drinking deep today.

To fill in the success (and not) of the weekend - I juiced eery morning (YAY) and ate mostly veggies and fish (YAY) but there was instances of ice cream and buffalo wings.  I also may have had a beer or 10 over 4 days. Caught up in Ocean City beauty and eating out, I made some choices and they were delicious if not ideal.  Living is not easy sometimes.

Yesterday and today I am back on the juice. I ran out the door yesterday with a liquid-salad concoction ala my sister (thanks) and an almond milk + Green Vibrance powder (freeze-dried and powdered greens). Mint shake it was not, but it was filling.

Other than this, I left my teaching job hungry as heck. I came home and ate a whole bowl of edamame. Totally not part of my juice day, but there you have it. I get home after 8pm on Monday and Wednesday, so it was not ideal to break the juice. Today, however, I am a woman on a mission.

I started the day with the always pretty pineapple strawberry juice, and have another liquid salad on deck for this evening.

2.10 - Doin' the (honey)Dew

Day 10! Last day of juice before the break. So far I am down 9 lbs. I know a lot of this is water weight and lack-o-stuff in my digestive tract, so I expect to go up over the weekend at least 2 lbs. If I add fish, I may be up 4 lbs.  Who's counting that when I feel good? (secret? It's me.)

Today my iPhone could not capture the color of this juice - pure straight Honeydew melon.  I tried different lights, nothing was quite right. Here it is:

Now isn't that a cool-looking drink?  I know there are different schools of thought about juicing melons, and for this one I fall into the juice it alone camp. It does something to my digestion, let's leave it at that.  It also has a nice mild flavor that would be hidden by another juice. 

I added some young coconut water because I was making 3 pints for my sister and Hubs, but one melon (without the rind because it was not ideal) made almost 3 pints. The coconut water is only to fill the pints to the brim and keep the air out to prevent oxidation.

I wanted to share the below image of what the juice looked like in person. I lit it up because it really looks like this in person and tastes like this as well. It occurred to me, suddenly, that Mountain Dew looks like this and then is it supposed to be honeydew flavor soda? In my limited experience "doin' the Dew" - I think not.  In fact, I would much rather drink this liquid neon green madness than the bottle poison marketed to us. Let us forever more do this (honey)dew!

 

2.6-9 - 4 DAYS OF POSTS!

I am not sure how to tell you this, but I totally ate Easter Weekend. I juiced in the AM and ate PM. I wanted to partake in the festivities at an impromptu BBQ on Saturday (and hour away from my juicer in the woods), so I made juice for the car on the way out: Citrus Blast! Grapefruit, Orange, Lime

On Easter Sunday, I had a green juice for breakfast and forgot to get a pic. We went to the movies in the morning and I totally had some popcorn but avoided the soda and snacks.  Then later in the day I made some cod and potatoes for my Easter dinner and Filet Mignon for the Hubs. Nothing to report other than I was missing the energy I got from a day of juice.

Monday was awesome. April Fools Day wasn't always the brightest day in the past, but the sun was out and warm and I was revved up! It was almost 65 degrees! My lovely sister got some guys to mulch my yard (she is the best) and the outside now looks like we care for it. All around it was a great day. I had some vanilla Almond milk with cinnamon for breakfast (fav drink ever).

I forgot to photo my juice until it was almost gone. It was Pineapple Apple Orange - and it was good, of course, though it really took nearly 3 hours to finish while I taught.

Today is a repeat of the sun and happiness. I am working from home, something that presents challenges and freedoms. I was able to sign on early this morning, bang out a bunch of work before my day should have started, and I was done at 4 (well, never done, but I stopped). I made an awesome juice Strawberry Pineapple Pear

I know right? How pretty does this look?  For dinner I am having a liquid salad - whatever is turning in the fridge (I think Kale Zucchini Bell Pepper Fennel Garlic Celery). I am doing more juice tomorrow, but will be away for 4 days doing some sort of vegetarianism with some fish in that time to appease my aunt and uncle. I insisted on bringing my juicer, so we will try to get some juice in too. I am still planning it out. 

2.5 - Good Friday and good intentions

(warning this is not a post - this is just a good pic of my Good Friday Cantaloupe Apple Carrot juice)