Day 1 of Reboot (Quick Start)

Day 1 of Quick Start Reboot: For some reason I woke up at 7am after going to sleep around 3am, so I got on my cruiser bicycle and went for a short ride, going against the wind on the way home. whew!!

I started out with Chamomile tea with lemon and later, had one quart of Mean Green juice. YUM!! Then I met a friend who is visiting the area before she goes back home. I was so hungry by 1:30pm that I decided to go out to a restaurant to eat. I headed out to Wellington to eat at California Pizza Kitchen (they have great salads), but realized I was very close to Whole Foods!! I had a wonderful self-made veggie salad with red kale, spinach, romaine, roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts (not the ones in oil), broccoli with raisins, and an asian cabbage salad with sesame seeds. I meant to add some dressing to the greens, but it was too late to go back after I had paid ($6.00!!!), so I had it with the flavors from the other salads.... It was awesome!!

Then home to rest... later in the afternoon I had 1/3 of a fresh pineapple with some strawberries. That was tasty and nice to have something sweet. Later I made a carrot, celery, apple, ginger juice. I love me some ginger!! It adds some heat to the juice.

Anyhow, the world of veggies and fruit is opening up to me after a 30 year absence from that lifestyle. I am starting to feel 30 years younger, and the mind-set of those days is coming back, the good part, that is.... haha...

I will be juicing and eating veggies and fruits for 9 more days, for a total of 15 days. I want to do a juice only fast for about 10 days, see how that goes, then possibly for 30 days. I will see how I feel and where my head is at by then... I also have to see my doctor to get his OK before doing a juice fast, so I don't get into trouble.. lol.. .

I am excited to think that I could be 50-60 pounds lighter.. a day at a time.. For today, I am very happy with the progress and am feeling great and very upbeat....

Day 4 of Reboot (Express)

Day 4 was uneventful, but awesome! I started with Star Anise herbal tea with lemon. Very nice.... Then I juiced endive, celery, fennel stems, carrots, apple, lemon, and ginger root. What a great combination, but I think it was too sweet because the carrots are high in sugars. I only drank one quart of juice today, and the elimination stopped!! So my experiment shows I need to drink at least two quarts of juice each day.

I went to dinner with friends tonight and had a small dinner house salad with a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar on it. Also had a cup of tomato florentine soup... was probably Campbell's tomato soup with some spinach chopped into it. Very BLAH and very BAD... I should have stopped after the first spoonful. Now, I want to find a Reboot type tomato florentine soup recipe for after the reboot.

SO, I am doing a 5 day Reboot (Express), immediately followed by a 10 day Reboot (Quick Start)... Hopefully, after that I can start a juice only Reboot.

The point of all this is to get the toxins out of my body, to be able to stop taking medications, to lose weight. I have to start exercising, too. That is really holding me back. The 5 day Reboot I am currently doing is a warm-up for better things to come, sort of like I am getting my feet wet...

I love my juicer, love the juices coming out of it. The greens aren't bitter and nasty, as I remember drinking years ago, but very palatable and tasty because if the apple and lemon added to it. I also found the benefits of lemon by doing a search on Google. So I am trying to use more lemon in the juices and also in the tea I drink first thing in the morning, and last thing at night.

Happy, happy, off to a good start, but I have a long way to go... One Day at a Time comes to mind.

Happy Juicing, everyone!!!

Day 2 of Reboot (Express)

I started out today with herb tea, then baked apples with dried cranberries (this was so good), then impatiently waited for my juicer to arrive. I had a banana and some strawberries while I waited. and waited. and waited. LOL but finally, after having my nose pressed against the window glass, the mail lady came and I met her and a couple of the others who were waiting for their mail. My juicer had arrived!! I brought it into the house and started unpacking... actually, the packaging reminded me of how Apple packages their stuff... I washed everything and started juicing! I have been watching videos on YouTube on the specific juicer I purchased, the Breville Ikon Multi-Speed juicer, model BJE510XL.. This juicer has a 900watt motor and it zips right through kale, ginger, and really hard stuff. It has variable speeds from 1 to 5, 5 being the hardest. I can't even tell you how delicious the Mean Green juice was today. OH YES I CAN.. The Mean Green juice today was so delicious!!!

Later I made a Mean Red juice. LOL.. strawberries, apple, red beet, endive, and I got the celery out but forgot to add it. The main thing, I am told, is to balance the juices as 80% vegetable and 20% fruit. I am not feeling the effects of the juice today, but I probably will tomorrow..

My sleep patterns are starting to change and instead of getting to sleep at 3am and getting up at 11am, I am getting to sleep a little earlier and this morning woke up at 8:30am, refreshed and energized, so I guess I am feeling the effects of the juice in a subtle way.

Each day, I will get with the program more and more. I just got stalled out, waiting for my juicer to arrive, and now that it's here, I have to stock up on some goodies...

This is very exciting!! Plus I am losing some weight. I weigh in every Sunday morning, and last Sunday I had lost 3.8 lbs from the week before.

I know I can be a normal sized person and not overweight and obese. I know I will feel better and be able to move around again. I am hopeful and know if I do the work, I will get the results... If I don't, I won't..

More tomorrow!!!

Day 1 of Reboot (Express)

I watched a documentary, "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" on Netflix last week. I saw two men who were overweight and unhealthy, Joe and Phil, turn their lives around by doing 60-day juices fasts. I am starting out with sensible eating fruits and vegetables and juicing. The Mean Green juice that was the base of Joe and Phil's juice fast. It is 6 leaves of Kale, 4 stalks of Celery, 1 Cucumber, 2 Green Apples (I use Granny Smith because I LOVE them), 1 Lemon, and a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger. The apple and lemon take the edge off the bitterness of the kale. It is very tasty and very healthy.

I am 63 years old with high cholesterol, high blood pressure, GERD, and depression. I have been going to the doctor for 3 month checkups for several years. The last time he did bloodwork, he warned me about the high cholesterol, and that he would put me on cholesterol meds at my next visit in 6 months. I think he gave me an extra 3 months to DO something about myself. He said, "Barbara, it's diet and exercise," and I heard him loud and clear.

I had a juicer (Acme Supreme Juicerator) sitting on my shelf for YEARS, I mean 20-30 years. It was time to take it down off the shelf and clean it. I started juicing, but after a day or two realized I needed to get a new cutting blade. I found one on Amazon.com. I started using the new blade and it zipped right through the produce!! But then it started vibrating and jumping around as though the basket was full, but it was only after juicing one apple. I think I need a new "clutch nut" but in the meantime started looking at the Breville Ikon Multi-speed juicer which is 900w, rather than the Acme 550w. Like Tim the Toolman Taylor, I said I need some POWER... So my juicer was ordered and this morning I found it was out for delivery today!! So I can get really serious about juicing and doing the reboot.

The new Breville I ordered is like this: You put the produce in the chute, the pulp goes out one side and the juice comes out the other, into a pitcher which is provided. This way you don't have to keep stopping to clean the pulp basket like you do with the Acme. You put a plastic bag in the pulp basket, so when you are done juicing, you just lift out the bag and toss it, or if you have a compost pile, you can put it there. Some people add onion and garlic, herbs, water, to the pulp and simmer for 15 mins, then drain the stuff off, making a nice vegetable broth that can be sipped. I like this idea because I hate the idea of throwing out the pulp... It's my PA Dutch "Waste Not, Want Not" sensibility.

So I will attempt to do a documentation of my progress, ups and downs, successes, etc. of my journey to a healthier, happier, more active person.

Let's just see how this all plays out!!??