Juicing, is it worth it?

So last night after I blogged about the 5th day and how hard it was I sat down and thought really hard. Many thoughts, questions, frustrations, and ideas crossed my mind. I decided that I needed to do more research and I came up with more stuff that I did not know about. Such as, I was craving salt like crazy well I forgot I needed to be adding salt to half of my drinks I was drinking. I read that if you don't listen to your body and what it needs and eat when it tells you then your organs may shut down. Yea that sounds like fun NOT. SCARY. You may hear about all the celebrities that do this but they have a nutritionalist, fitness trainer and Dr. by their side 24-7. Most of us can't afford those bills so its easier for them to do with that kind of support than use "normal" Joes.

I also read that starvation (which you're literally doing with the juicing cleanse) causes euphoria hence why people say they have energy. I barely had enough to make it through the normal day. I did not feel like myself. I felt like a couch potato which if you know me that is not by any means who I am. I can't sit in one spot for more than five minutes without getting the urge to get up and clean, play with the girls, exercise, cook, something anything other than sit. I have been anti social staying indoors keeping to myself. Yet again, not like me. I was not liking the feeling or the way it was making me look, act, feel. Best way to sum it up was a depressed zombie walking in a haze a cliche I know but still I was drained couldn't sleep well and my bones hurt.

My skin looked amazing but is it worth it? And yes, the weight loss end of it was great and all. But on the 5th day I started to feel really bloated and ballooned back up 7 pounds of what I lost. I re weighed myself this morning and it all came off but it was all water weight. That can't be healthy adding and subtracting a matter of 7 pounds every day off of your body. Your heart can't keep up with that. On a max you are supposed to loose 1 pound a day to have your heart be ok with it. So the further and further I dug in my mind and thoughts I said screw it. I will juice but when I really, really need to eat I will eat. I need more nutrients in my diet than what vegetables and fruits can give me. I work out to much to deprive my body of that. I kept getting mixed responses about whether or not vegetables and fruits have enough protein to sustain muscle mass. I knew for a fact that that was not the case. I'm a work out freak and I felt like this cleanse was eating away at my muscles. I felt so weak like I was laid up in bed for a year. I felt like I was regressing not progressing. So last night I ate some food (not much because my stomach had shrunk from the past 5 days of fasting) and guess what?! I slept like a baby. I feel amazing today. The best I have felt since I started the cleanse. I guess its about trial and error and knowing your body. Like I said before this cleanse is not for everyone. Its all a matter of knowing your body and going with the flow.

So my proposal is this: I will juice morning, lunch, dinner and snack BUT when I feel like I am hungry or need energy I will eat but not just anything...good food for the body. The only reason why I want to continue juicing after such a big pit fall is because I know I do not get enough fruits and veggies in my body during the day so this helps out in that department. I would like to thank everyone for the great advice, words of wisdom and support and mostly a huge thank you to my husband who has helped me through this cleanse, babied and listened to me when I was not feeling like myself. I could not be where I am without him and my daughter's. Family is an amazing thing!

Day 5=FAIL

Lets first rewind into yesterday's cleanse. I was feeling fine until I took a nap mid day. I woke up feeling more tired and crappy then I did when I laid down. My body was detoxing hard. I had the sweats and felt clammy all at the same time. I took a shower and felt 100% better. Later in the evening I decided that I had energy so I worked out on the elliptical for half an hour. Fifteen minutes in, my legs were weak and my mind felt foggy. I should have stopped - I should have listened to my body but I didn't. After the workout was done I got off and I immediately felt like I was drained. I sucked it up and took my shower. My thought as I stepped in the shower was "I'm gonna be super unhappy if I faint or if I slip because of my stupidity of not listening to my dang body. STUPID STUPID STUPID!" I survived the shower and mustarded up the energy to make myself a juice. Instantly I felt much better. Then later that night laying on the couch I got a bad, and I mean bad migraine.I then tried to sleep it off. 3 hours later to no avail I had to take tylenol. I hate taking meds unless I really truly need it and I needed something last night. It wasn't much but enough to make the pain managable so I could sleep.

After a rough night I woke up feeling like crud. I hopped in the shower and felt so much better. I made the girls their breakfast burrito. It consisted of egg, morning star breakfast patty (ground up), and cheese all rolled up in a whole wheat wrap. It smelt and looked so good!! They were eating away and I decided to make my morning smoothie with juice and frozen fruit and some protein powder. The girls were done and went off to play. Their food just sat there staring at me. I couldn't take it anymore. I wasn't hungry but that food just looked to good to pass up. I CAVED I can't believe I freak'n CAVED!! Ugh. I guess it was bound to happen. I'm human and make mistakes so I guess I shouldn't be to hard on myself. Right?!! After a little bit of a guilt trip I said screw it its a learning mistake and I knew it was gonna happen one of these times. I will just have to be extra good from here on out. Good news is that Im down 9 pounds in 5 days. Pretty dang good if you ask me. Well off to me juicing my dinner. Hope you have a great evening!!

Day 3

Hello all! Im still alive and kickin!! The third day is almost done with only one last juice of the night. The juicing is a trying cleanse. It has its ups and downs and weird feelings and its just plain different from anything else I have ever done before. It is hard to explain (I will try my hardest) and each person's experiences are different. I have to give my husband mad props right now because he is trying to quit nicotine and doing this diet as well. I can tell his withdrawals with food and nicotine is way worse then what I am going through. That is what keeps me going. If he can do it so can I. I am glad he is saying he's DONE and its time to be healthy. I'm a proud wife right now can you tell?! Heheh. Well, anyway enough mushy stuff here's MY pros and cons:

The pros:

•  Energy: Yes, it can be a hit or miss but I would say 80% of the day I have energy and it's a different energy than usual.  (considering that I havent had coffee or any caffeine in 3 days I am doing great I think). Again, this is a hit or miss but I would say 80% of the day I have energy.
• Weight loss: In two days I lost 7 pounds! And an inch of my belly. Honestly, I just think it was water weight and nothing more so we shall see how much more will come off. I already set a goal weight in mind and if this diet takes me past that point I am done. Nothing like being a skeleton because THAT is not attractive at all! Remember its about health and cleansing the body and not about trying to be super model anorexic.
• Taste's buds and sense of smell are heightened: This can be a pro or con I suppose but its just crazy how well you can smell everything around you from perfumes, to peoples body odors, to food OF COURSE. As far as tastes go its a lot easier to pin point what is in your food. My husband can almost guess whats in the juices I make which is coming from a smoker who stopped 2 days ago!  
• Toxins: My body is getting rid of them and with every day I feel better and healthier.

The cons:

• Juice: Some not ALL the juices taste pretty gross. It makes the mind second guess if you REALLY want to do this for another 12 days. I highly suggest if you do juice to add some fruit to every juice you do. Keep a 70% veggie to 30% fruit ratio in mind. However, in the mornings we usually do 50% 50% just to give us a boost of energy. 
• The shakes/headaches: Sometimes you get the feeling your body is shaking (although its not) and slight headaches. This is just your body saying hey listen I need more calories, Im getting weak, so feed me and also a sign of withdrawals. Yet again listen to your body.
• Body aches: When I sleep at night for some reason I will fall asleep one way and wake up about an hour later with my body completely achey so I have to change positions and of course that equals to loss of sleep. 
• Lack of working out: No more cardio for me just weights, yoga, full body strengtheners and stretching. I miss my cardio!
• HUNGER: Yes, you feel like your hungry but you're not starving. Just make sure to drink plenty of water or herbal teas throughout the day and you will be fine. 

The pros and cons are almost even but as of right now knowing that my body is detoxing and getting rid of all that bad stuff is the biggest thing that is keeping me wanting to continue. This cleanse takes a lot of hard work and discipline. I am so used to eating the leftovers of food from my daughter's plates or munching on random things through the day or while I cook. The smell of food makes your mouth water like no other. You may be wondering what I am craving right now. Weirdly I'm not. Throughout the day I chew on sugar-free gum. I know its probably not part of the diet but I want to make sure those muscles stay strong from when the diet is over. I am wanting to eat and not be on a liquid diet for ever hahah. 

One thing I just recently read is while juicing you need to have an herbal laxative.  Your body may not be able to process the food (since your'e not eating solid food) to cleanse your colon out. If you don't the toxins will sit in your intestines and slowly leak back into your blood stream making your blood and body toxic yet again. So be prepared for that. 

Looking into the future: My husband and I talked about after the cleanse what we are to do with eating. We have done tons of research and watched plenty of documentaries to know that the majority of food that is in the supermarkets are way over processed and cheaply made. So after this diet it's going to be clean eating, and being educated about the food that our family ingests. We do not want to be made into the majority of people who are having horrible health problems at a younger age each decade. Did you know that 1 in 3 kids will have a form of diabetes before they become adults?!! Im sorry but that is just sad news. That was not the case 20-50 years ago. Its time for a change. Im telling you the more you research the more you learn the more you want to change. If more an more people demand healthy food the prices of those foods will drop a lot. Its all a part of supply and demand. Thanks for reading. Please feel free to ask me questions.

Veggies from the Korean Market roughly costs= $45

Juice Cleanse Day 1

First off let me start by saying MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone. I hope you had a blessed and wonderful day full of laughter, joy, love, family, friends and of course FOOD.

Speaking of food I have finally decided to do a 15 day cleanse. It consists of nothing but juicing vegetables and fruits. The documentary "Fat, sick and nearly dead" was the eye opener that my husband and I needed. I have included the website info below for more reading. Also you can find amazing info just by typing in juicing. You may be wondering why we are doing this cleanse.Yes, my husband is going on this adventure with me. He's great!! Neither one of us is fat or chubby. We have a little bit of fat here and there but who doesn't? I bet someone out there is thinking we are off our rocker. Well, no matter how thin a person is they still can be very unhealthy on the inside. The fast food that you had a year ago more than likely is still sitting in your gut, intestines and other organs of your body. DISGUSTING if you ask me. So this is a detox that cleans you from the inside out getting rid of the bad and in with the new. Great way to start off the New Year right if you ask me. I am a great believer in listening to your body and doing what it tells you. If your tired, rest. If you feel like you have energy, use it. Lately I have been feeling like I needed an extra boost that exercise and eating decent wasn't getting me. We are not specialist in this field so we are going in this blind other than the research we have done and talking to the people who have juiced. We know what to expect but the experience is completely different for each person. So it will be a interesting journey to say the least.

So your probably wondering how DAY 1 went. Well, let me start off with the menu of the day:

Breakfast & Lunch: I made something that I will call 1,2,3 GO for breakfast and lunch consisted of 1 apples, 2 carrots and 3 beets. Personally there was to many beets in it so I watered it down with water which helped a little. Next time I will have to try: 1 apple, 2 beets and 3 carrots. 
Snack: I juiced 2 apples and 3 carrots. That juice was AMAZING. 
Dinner: I had what I will call a juice salad. It was 1 head of romaine lettuce, 1 tomato, 1 bell pepper, 1 carrot, 1 stock of celery, a handful of pecans. This looked, smelled and kinda tasted like a bell pepper rolled around in grass. Hahah I bet you just got a crazy visual because I did.


Throughout the whole day: I drank water and green tea or hot lemon water . 

The beets made Christmas festive for a moment....

So how do I feel and what happened to my body? My energy was a roller coaster to say the least. I was low for most of the day until mid afternoon/night hit and I felt like I have amazing energy. One thing that I do have to warn about though is if your body is not used to fruits or vegetables your body will go into an OVERDOSE. It happened to me today with the beets. My body took in more than what its used to. Lets just say I peed (yes my pee was pink), threw up and pooped beets all at once. Not a pretty sight but I am being 100% honest with my journey with juicing. I also noticed my pores all over my body seemed more open than usual and a film felt like it was on my skin. This was totally out of the normal. A shower fixed that right up. I brushed my teeth more than normal today. The juicing causes bad breath and a dry mouth. Your body is getting rid of all the toxins from EVERYWHERE literally. So please, please, please be hygienic if you do decide to do the juicing.  I am not starving but the hunger is there. I think its more of a physiological thing. It is really hard to smell amazing food and the worst part is having someone in front of you eating it. Its hard but the pay off I am praying will work. Stay tuned for updates on the juicing.

http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/

Amy's Kitchen Lentil Soup

Ok guys seriously I think I have found a soup that actually tastes like its homemade and its in a CAN and its HEALTHY for you. I just wish that the commissary would carry more of their items (note to self: ask them to carry more of their items). Take a look of their ingredients and nutritional facts:

Ingredients : No Trans Fat/No Added MSG/No Preservatives (Vegan) Filtered water, organic lentils, organic celery, organic carrots, organic onions, organic potatoes, organic extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, spices*.*100% pure herbs & spices (no hidden ingredients)

Nutritional Facts:

Serving Size: 1 cup

Servings per Container: 2

Calories: 180

Calories from Fat: 45

Total Fat: 5g

Saturated Fat: 1g

Trans Fat: 0g  

Cholesterol: 0mg

Sodium: 590mg

Carbohydrates: 25g

Fiber: 6g

Sugars: 3g

Protein: 8g

Organic: 99%

Vitamin A: 30% 

Vitamin C: 10%

Calcium: 2% 

Iron: 15%

http://www.amys.com/products/product-categories/soups

Peppermint & Chocolate Bark

Every Christmas I make a delicious sweet tempting dessert called bark. It makes a pretty dish for a Christmas get together, a great gift, or a sweet treat to send with the hubs to work. The basic no fail recipe is: Chocolate and Peppermint. You can't go wrong with either. However, the possibilities are endless with this goodness. Different chocolates (white, dark, milk) and the different hard candies you use (peppermint, orange, raspberry....). Yes I have tried all and I have never had any problems with the whole batch being gone in a matter of a few days. Usually I just make slabs of the stuff (easy peezy) and break pieces off. This year I decided to go a little crafty and these are the results:

These were seriously heavy. The gingerbread probably weighs in at about two pounds of pure chocolate. A lil heart attack in heaven!

So how do you make these? Easy. All you need is the chocolate you want to use and the hard candies you want to use. The amounts vary so you will need to play with it. You always want more chocolate than the hard candy.

Step 1: 

Put your unwrapped hard candies in a ziploc bag. Double or triple bag because this can and will make a mess.

Step 2: 

Get your anger out on the ziploc bag and the hard candies by pounding it with a mallet, rolling pin or even a pan. When you have a grainy but a few small chunks left  your done with the anger management.

Step 3. 

You can double boil or microwave your chocolate. If you are using two different chocolates you need two separate bowls. Personally I like double boiling because its pretty hard to over cook the chocolate. 

*(You may be asking me what double broil is and because not everyone knows here is the directions for that...just get a small pot fill half full with water, get a metal bowl that is bigger than the pot and place on top of the pot. Turn on the flame and add your chocolate to the bowl. Make sure to wear heat pads because the bowl will get hot and make sure to stir. When your chocolate still has a little bit of chunks in it but mostly smooth take it off the pot and finish stirring.)*

Step 4: 

If you want flat bark that you can break into pieces (not like the above picture) grab a cookie pan and line with parchment paper. 

*See below picture to see how you make the shapes like I did.*

Step 5: 

Cover the parchment paper in the chocolate. You can get crazy here if you want. If you have two different chocolates you can swirl the chocolates together to make a marbled look or you can layer your chocolate. Whatever you see fit. When your done laying down your chocolate to how you want it add your crushed up candy. Press gently into the chocolate and place in the refrigerator flat. Wait until it sets. Take it out and simply break into pieces. 

Step 6: 

Devour the tasty goodness!

         If you want to make bark like I did here is the silicone baking pans I used. Its the same processes minus the parchment paper.

A lil late is better than never...RIGHT?

So this is it guys. I have decided to start a blog about my life as a home maker.  The main fare will be the de-lish foods I make (hopefully most healthy with a few sinfuls). Im praying that this experience goes well. Any suggestions, ideas or thoughts will be greatly appreciated. Also if there is anything specific you would like me to blog about or try like a new recipes, a new craft and other items like that. please let me know and I can sure try to find something to tickle your fancy. Happy homemaking from my home to yours!