Still Standing!!!

Hello out there:

Just because I have not been posting, doesn't mean I have strayed from juicing and eating "clean."  Since November, 2011, I lost 30 lbs!!  YES and I am in a smaller size pants (still not small enough).  I gathered up my "big" clothes to give away, because I am determined not to ever wear them again.

I started walking about 20-30 minutes a day, then started riding my one-speed bike.  It has been windy lately and my legs turned to rubber the first day out.  Each day I seem to get stronger.  I downloaded an app on my iPhone, Sports Tracker, and it uses GPS to determine, speed, time, altitude, draws a map of your workout, and has an online component that expands on the data provided.  Today, it was raining so I did a "mall walk" and tried not to knock people over, especially the little ones and the elderly.  See?? I am a nice person!  lol  The map of the mall walk was very wobbly, but I assure you, I was not high or drunk.

I had a beautiful watermelon juice today.  I was so nutritious, I could feel it filling in the gaps as I drank it.  Do a google search on "watermelon" and you will see what I mean.

So, the diet and exercise thing is in play.  I have a doctor's appointment in May and am very excited to see the medical results of my efforts to improve my health.

I ordered a new bicycle, a 7-speed, Pacific Shorewood, from Amazon.com. It is inexpensive and practical.  I also ordered a front basket (Wald 135 deep basket), and a rear cargo rack, Pletscher style, retro looking.  COOL!!  

This is an example of the workout data.

This is the mall walk, not really wobbly, but maybe the GPS had trouble finding me inside the building. It was raining, so I went to the mall to walk instead of not doing any exercise today.

This is the FABULOUS watermelon juice I had today... It really hit the spot!!

March 20, 2012

Here is a photo of my juicer... Breville Juice Fountain Elite.... Notice the plastic bag in the pulp container. After juicing, the pulp can easily be removed and thrown out, neat, no muss, no fuss.

I weighed myself this morning and am now 27.2 lbs down from November 2011. I am amazed because I am juicing twice a day and eating one main meal. If I eat too much I don't feel good, so I do best with smaller wholesome meals. I don't pretend to know what I am doing, but I keep doing internet searches to see the possibilities. There are so many schools of thought, so many ways to go about regaining health, vegan, vegetarian, juicing only, so I am trying to go middle of the road. I think I am off to the side of the road though, because I eliminated sugar, processed foods, meat, dairy, etc. BUT I have had a few items that are processed, and last week I had a chicken breast. I am trying not to be so stringent, use common sense, and enjoy what I am doing. I don't want to be so rigid that I will have a "beat myself up" attack if I stray a little here and there.

My skin has changed to softer, even though I am 63 years old and try to stay out of the sun as much as possible since I live in Florida where the sun is very strong and harsh. My forearm and legs used to be "tougher" but now it has changed.

Today I had juice twice. I went to a salad bar for a late lunch, ignored the "free" frozen yogurt machine over there, and tried not to eat things with too much oil. They have an amazing olive tapenade, they call it muffaletta, and I love that stuff!! So I have to be light with that.... If I love it that much it is because it is not that good for me... :-)

Anyhow, one of the juices was pears and fennel bulb. That is so good... Usually I have greens in any drink, but not that one, not today. It is very refreshing...

OHHhhhhhh...... Yesterday I made socca, and that is a chickpea flour, tortilla type thing you make in a cast iron skillet that is heated in a very hot oven, then you add some olive oil, then the chickpea batter, then bake it for 25 mins at 450.. I know.. I thought it would be burned!! But I flipped it over, added some carmalized veggies, and put it back in the over for 3 mins. Then I cut it with a pizza cutter... It has a very different flavor that may take some getting used to... but I love the idea of having such a high protein item that is like pizza!!!! LOL I must experiment more!!

That's it for today. My official weigh-ins are on Sundays... More will be revealed!! haha

March 13, 2012 - Doing well!!!

I have been eating cooked foods, plus raw foods, plus juicing. My experiment has lessened my weight loss. If you feel you are losing weight too fast, just eat some cooked veggies and that will slow it down. I will say that the more I eat, the hungrier I am, and when I mostly juice, I don't feel as hungry.

Today I had "mean green" for first juice of the day, then I ate some cooked cabbage, carrots, and potatoes, which was okay, nothing special. Then I made collard greens, parsley, carrots, celery, red beet, and ginger root. It was tasty and I do love the red beets. Go very easy on the red beets to see how you react to them. If you are pre-cleanse, the red beets really pack a wollop because of their liver cleansing properties. They are also high in sugars, so at first I used 1/2 beet, now I am up to a whole beet. If you do too much too fast, you can become nauseous, blech.....

I make 32oz of juice at a time, drink 16oz of it while I clean the juicer and refrigerate the other 16oz for about an hour later. I sip the juice slowly and wash the juice around my mouth to stimulate saliva, digestive juices.... Then I read that the acid from the juice can erode the enamel off your teeth... Even something good can be bad?? One thing I learned is to rinse your mouth with water after drinking juice, don't brush your teeth right after juicing, wait a while.

Because I had a good meal, and mostly juices today, I feel pretty good. The juice gives my stomach a rest from digesting foods. I suffer from GERD and take medication for it, and I don't know if I will ever be able to stop this medication. Maybe I am just built this way? I think once the weight comes off, a lot of these secondary problems will go away.

My skin is clearer and not spotty, and the texture is moving toward the soft side. My weight loss has slowed, so I have to start eating raw foods, not cooked, and use portion control, and really get serious, I MEAN IT, about walking about 30 mins every day. I have some weights, a yoga mat, yoga bricks, Wii Fit Plus, etc. It is all waiting for me to GET SERIOUS!!!!

I am sending my first Breville juicer, the Ikon Multi-Speed, back to Breville tomorrow for warranty replacement. Sometimes when I am ready to juice, it will not start. I tried taking it apart and putting it together again, still won't start... Wait a while, still won't start, then I turn it on out of nowhere and it starts!! This drives me crazy, especially when I have everything all set up to juice..... Hopefully, the new Ikon won't act like that and I can keep it as a backup or sell it to someone, or who knows what. I love the Breville Juice Fountain Elite, but it would be nice if it had variable speeds like the Ikon. I like the metal basket on the Elite, the Ikon plastic basket seems to collect residue that is difficult to get off the surface. I use Dawn detergent and it does a good job. Anyhow, Breville said it would take 14 days to get the replacement Ikon, thank God I have a back up...

I love the juices, but I don't feel I have enough variety. I tend to use what I buy which lasts a while since I am the only one in the house juicing. I need to try fennel bulb with other fruits besides pears, just to change things up.

I bought quinoa, brown rice, 7 bean mix, lentils to try. I read that lentils and brown rice was a complete protein, so I will try that with some raw veggies, or steam them lightly. I have to stay away from the Whole Foods cafeteria and eat at home. Stay away from flour, wheat, sugar, dairy, meat, eggs, cheese, butter, ok that is dairy, but I feel so much better, still have cravings for those foods, so that tells me I am not juicing enough, or eating raw foods enough. Once that conversion happens I don't think I will have cravings...

More later....

March 8, 2012

I got on the scales yesterday and came down one more pound. Every pound counts.

I made a lunch/dinner that was mediocre at best. I overcooked the steamed broccoli making it inedible. I roasted a spaghetti squash and it was awful. One good thing is I also roasted a red pepper, a sweet potato, celery, etc. I also made a tomato sauce for the spaghetti squash and that totally sucked. I ate the mushrooms that I put in the sauce, but threw the rest out. I won't kid myself by thinking I will eat it later. So my meal was pretty much gross. I have done better, but this time.. ick...

BUT, I made a delicious juice this evening: Two oranges, peeled; one lime, peeled; and one green apple. It was so refreshing and I really enjoyed it.

I went to a different farmer's market today. This one is also close to my home. I bought a HUGE bunch of collard greens that I had to put in the refrigerator sideways... It must weigh 10 lbs!! All that for $2.50!!! So I will juice the heck out of that!! The kale was puny and ridiculous, so I switched over to collard greens for a while. They also had NICE ginger root for $2.50/lb instead of $4.99/lb.

I got a lot of things I usually don't buy, because I am trying to have variety in my diet and not eat the same things every week. I also want to make some lentils and brown rice, supposed to be a good combination for a complete protein. I will have that with some steamed veggies and try not to steam them to death so they are edible... Maybe for 3 or 4 mins!!

So that is what is new on the food front.

I ordered some surround sound speaker stands which are supposed to be delivered tomorrow. I rearranged my living room and had to move the speakers, so that is my solution for the rear speakers. They sound so good!!

I also ordered a corner breakfast nook bench for my dining area. I will be getting that March 28, photos to follow, but here is the type of bench I am talking about. I love it and the price was right, $250 and free shipping!! Thank you Sears!!

That's it for today, I have to get to bed... Sweet dreams everyone!!

March 1, 2012

I LOVED this salad today. I went to Jason's Deli, they have a wonderful salad bar for $7.79 all you can eat, but I only visited the salad bar one time. They had mufeletto, several types of olives chopped, and I put it on a crisp bread... To me it was an olive tappenade which I totally love... Also on there was calamata olives, quinoa, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, bean salad, some lemons, red and yellow pepper and red onions, baby carrots, etc. I REALLY enjoyed this salad.

I had a veggie juice and later a fruit juice. Both were awesome, but I find my appetite is perking, which means I am not focusing on the juices enough. If I have enough juice, I don't want to eat and eat. So tomorrow, a visit to my favorite produce market, hopefully, they will have some of their beautiful kale, and I can get back on track with the 80% veggie and 20% fruit juices. Lately, I have wanted fruit juices. It is not a surprise to know that my weight loss has stalled.

I think I get it... stay on juices til I reach a desired weight, then slowly introduce foods back into my diet, one by one. I will find which foods are agreeable to me by my body's reaction to them. I see the logic to that now, and since I have a new juicer, plus another juicer I may send back for warranty replacement due to some motor starting issues, plus I have my Acme Supreme Juicerator from 30 years ago that I bought a new cutter blade for and I just received the clutch/nut that needed to be replaced.. Now, the juicer is doing a great job and working properly. So I can juice up a storm without fear that I will be in the middle of a reboot or fast and have juicer problems.

I am glad I took some time off of Reboot (3 or 4 days), so I can regroup and get focused...

That's about it for today... Life is so good!!

Feb. 28, 2012: New Juicer

First thing this morning I had pear/fennel juice and I eliminated pretty heavy, an intense detox.

Then, my Breville Juice Fountain Elite 800JEXL arrived, and I immediately washed it and started making juice: Apple, Beet, Carrot, and Collard Greens. I got nauseated from the beet, and I think I might have drunk it too fast, or I put too much red beet in it? Who knows, but it hit me the way wrong way... Way wrong... I thought I was going to chuck it... So, I drank some water to dilute the juice that was already inside me. It took a while, but finally the nausea was gone.

I figured I needed to slow down the detox so I roasted some vegetables: Red potato, sweet potato, celery, carrot, red bell pepper, red onion, herbs, garlic, small amount of dressing and some olive oil. Roasted for about 50 mins at 375. That hit the spot and I felt so much better after I ate it, plus it was so delicious. I think I have to really be tuned into my body to know what not to eat, when to stop eating, etc.

Then later, I had a slice of Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain bread (no flour!) spread with hummus with black olives and roasted red pepper (from the roasted veggies). I warmed the frozen bread in the toaster oven and spread the hummus mixture on it. That was also delicious!!! Now, I want to purchase the Ezekiel sprouted wheat tortillas and experiment with different stuff, like my favorite Mexican dishes translated into "clean" foods. This should be interesting! There is so much information online that I should not have any trouble finding recipes and ideas.

I sorted through my pants and separated out the smaller size, so they could be grouped together for me to wear. This is so exciting! Soon I will be getting rid of the big sizes, because I don't ever want to go back there.

That's about it for today because it was pretty uneventful and peaceful. I wanted to take a 30 min walk this morning, but that didn't happen.. LOL... tomorrow is another day, but I will play some Wii games later this evening.

Live is good.. and the best is yet to come.

Feb 25, 2012

I am taking it easy today. I had a wonderful breakfast juice: fennel, pear, pineapple, cucumber, ginger, and lemon. It was very tasty and I loved it!

I weighed in this morning 20 lbs less than in November, 2011. To celebrate my 20 lb weight loss, I made a video of me in my undies, front, side, back, stating the date and my weight. I hope to do this at different intervals though this process. I wish I had made a video at the beginning, in November, so I had something to compare, but I wore size 16 pants yesterday and there was breathing room. I don't like to squish myself into clothes (at this point anyway), because it looks ridiculous when I am overweight, like a sausage being stuffed into a very small casing... and I tend to hide under my clothes, which makes me look worse.

At some point I will feel comfy in my clothes and they will fit properly and I won't feel like I am stuffed into them. Oh, happy day when that time comes!!

I am here to report that my dinner juice was so gross I couldn't get the last couple of swigs down. I juiced a sweet potato, friends please stick to roasting or baking your sweet potatoes, or put them in a pie.. The juice was grainy and gritty, and HEY I scrubbed it really well. Not going to do that again...

I made red cabbage slaw, which was pretty good, but was very light on the sweetener (honey) so it is a bit vinegary. Hey! I can put some pineapple in it!!! YUM!!!

More tomorrow!!