Today's juice is a total success!

Tonight's juice was orange. I juiced a carrot, a beet, an orange, a green delicious apple and a sweet potato. Juicing was quick as was clean up. It took about five minutes to do everything. This juice tasted way better than yesterdays green drink. It tasted like a creamsicle. I was able to drink the whole glass of it today. David drank all of his too. Later I'm going to make another sorbet. This time I will use a banana, frozen blueberries and frozen cherries. That should be yummy.

Basically no headache today but I still have a lot of joint and muscle aches. I'm just grateful that the headache is gone. That's a blessing. And the joint and muscle pain is tolerable. I haven't had to take any pain medicine today.

David said the fishing was terrible this morning but he had a great time with Gabe. We had a really nice salad for lunch. I put some raisins in it today and that added a little extra to the salad. I snacked on some nuts when I felt hungry today and that was all I needed.

Boy, that juice was really good. I could see having one of those every day. That makes me happy that I liked the juice. Yesterdays green juice was okay but it had me worried that I wouldn't be able to do this. I feel totally different about it today. This is doable.

WARNING - TOO MUCH INFORMATION AHEAD - STOP READING NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW!!

I've been going to the bathroom a lot more. I can see why they call this a juice cleanse.

NOW BACK TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING.

So Day 4 has been a total success. I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

Day 4 begins again

I went back to bed until about 9:30am. I feel much better now. No headache so far and I'm not aching as much as I was yesterday. For breakfast I had a banana, some pecans and some raisins (probably a 1/4 cup of each). The dishes have finished, they are just drying now. I actually started a load of laundry even though I'm home alone. I still have anxiety about using water appliances but I'm using them anyway (shower, dishwasher, clothes washer, etc.). This is a major breakthrough for me.

It's still a bit odd that all that we have to eat is fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds. I was kind of stumped about what to have for breakfast since we have no eggs, milk or cereal. I do have those bagels left so I need to get rid of them today along with the cream cheese. Just knowing it's there is tempting me. I'm not much for eating during the day (unless it's junk food) but I'm going to try to have something every 4 hours or so. Not sure what we will juice today. I'm thinking I'll make a salad for lunch after David gets home. We'll probably juice in the late afternoon. I think I'm afraid to juice because I don't know what each type of juice will taste like. It's not that much work to juice and cleanup is very easy so it's not that. It's definitely the juice itself that scares me.

David will be home through Wednesday. The cleaning lady comes tomorrow at 10:30am. David has a doctor's appointment on Tuesday at 12:50pm. He's seeing a neurologist for the shaking in his hand. It is quite pronounced at times. I'm hoping that changing the way we eat will help both of us with our health issues. I know we won't have dramatic results if we're eating and juicing but it's better than what we were doing. I haven't had a soda in 4 days! No candy, chips or ice cream either. The sorbet I made last night helped with the sweets cravings. The taste kind of surprised me. It's so powerful. I'm going to have to get used to tasting so many different foods. I'm so used to eating bland foods along with the sodas and junk food that actually tasting food is overpowering. They do say in the videos I've watched that your taste buds will change and adapt to the fruits and veggies. I hope that doesn't take too long. :/

I'm not sure why I'm feeling so nervous this morning about changing the way we eat. Maybe the reality is sinking in since I have all the food here and I don't want it to go to waste. There's a responsibility to eating like this. I think part of the nervousness is doing laundry while I'm home alone. It's just carrying over into the eating thing. I guess I'm also worried about juicing for David for work. I don't want that to always be up to me. He needs to be able to do it in those times that I can't right now. I'm hoping we can do it together in the evening to prepare for his work day. We only have to juice 32 oz for him to have breakfast and a snack. He can have a salad for lunch from the cafeteria. At some point this may not be an issue because I'll have more energy and can take care of the juicing and even make him a salad for work but that time is not here yet.

Wow, it's almost 11am already. The days go by fast. I still have lots of laundry to do. There are shirts in the dryer that need to be put away and towels and sheets to be washed after this load of clothes is done. I'm used to doing just one load of laundry but today will have three loads Ugh! I better make sure I eat so I'll have the energy to take care of that stuff.

Okay, time to put shirts away and to try to stop thinking about junk food...

Day 4 begins early

Woke up at 6am. I got up twice last night. I don't feel well rested and will probably go back to bed here in a few miinutes. I have the dishwasher going and will start the laundry later. David just left to go fishing this morning with Gabe. They are going up on Pikes Peak. David should be home around lunch time.

I'm still planning out how to do this eating plan and when to include food and when to include juices. I also have to figure out  how to get David's juices ready for his work days. I don't know if I'll juice them the night before or if I'll get up that morning so they will be fresher. I'd probably have to get up around 4:30am!! I'm not sure I want to do that. I'll have to think about it today. Definitely going back to bed now that the dishes are going. I just have to wait for Bayou to come back in the house.

No headache this morning. My legs hurt a lot throughout the night though. I hope the headache is over with. As I get healthier and lose some weight my leg and other aches and pains should decrease. I look forward to those days. More later. Bayou is at the door so it's time to go back to bed.

Pikes Peak:

Sorbet for an evening snack

I got very used to eating ice cream every night. Tonight I made a sorbet from bananas, frozen blueberries and frozen raspberries. I put just those 3 ingredients in the blender and blended it on medium for about a minute. It blended really well. Clean up was a snap. I gave David about a cup and I had about a half a cup. It was very yummy. Tomorrow night I think I'll make another sorbet with bananas, frozen blueberries and frozen cherries. Here's a picture of what the sorbet looks like:

This recipe added chia seeds but I don't have any so I just used the fruit. I'll have to research chia seeds before I try them. The sorbet really was good though. I like that everything I'm doing is quick and has easy cleanup. I couldn't do this if there was a ton of work involved. I guess I'm not that dedicated or feeling well enough yet.

I took my night medicine so my headache is going away. I'll probably head to bed around 10pm. David and Gabe are going fishing early in the morning so I'm going to just relax until David gets home. Then I'll do dishes, laundry and meals. David is home until Wednesday. I thought it would be a good idea to be close to a bathroom the first couple of days that we change our diet to fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds. I'm sure all the bad stuff has to get out of our bodies in the next couple of days.

I truly am amazed that I got rid of all the food I had in the house and gave it to Gabe, went grocery shopping for fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds, ate a small salad, drank a mean green juice and made sorbet and liked it. It's been an amazing 3 days. Normally I would have given up by now and drove as fast as I could to the 7-Eleven. I'd still like to have some chocolate but I'll wait until I can get some healthier chocolate.

For a snack I'm going to try to make these cinnamon treats:

Cinnamon Raisin Dessert Balls

• 3 cups shelled hemp seeds (or hemp hearts)
• 1 1/2 cups packed raisins
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Place hemp seeds, salt, and cinnamon into a food processor and process until well blended and forming clumps. Add vanilla and raisins into the mixture while processing and continue to process until mixture is a cake-like texture. Roll mixture into 1/2″ to 1″ balls and chill for 20 minutes. Enjoy. Makes 20 – 30 balls. Balls will keep in the fridge for 5 days or in the freezer for months.

I did get some hemp hearts at Sprouts today along with some raisins. I have the vanilla extract, cinnamon and salt. I'm just going to make a 1/4 or 1/2 batch since I don't know how it will taste. I don't want to waste a lot on new recipes. They look good and I like cinnamon and raisins so it should be interesting.

I think I'm also going to make some sweet potato and carrot "fries" tomorrow. Here's the recipe:

Carrot & Sweet Potato “Fries” This recipe makes 2 servings. 

Ingredients: 2 medium sweet potatoes 2 large carrots 2 Tbsp./30 ml. olive oil 1 tsp./5 g. ground cumin 1/4 tsp./1.25 g. ground black pepper 1/2 tsp./2.5 g. sea salt.

Directions: 1.)   Preheat oven to 425°F/220°C. 2.)   Peel the sweet potatoes and carrots. Cut       the potatoes in half lengthwise, and slice        each halve into 4 equal wedges. For the         carrots, cut in half crosswise into two        chunks. Slice each chunk lengthwise into 2        pieces, and cut each piece into 2 or 3       wedges, making them roughly the same         size as the potatoes. 3.)   Put the potato and carrot wedges into a         bowl and toss with the oil, cumin, pepper       and salt. 4.)    Arrange on baking sheet lined with parch        ment paper. 5.)  Bake for 30 minutes or until the flesh is       tender and the outside is lightly browned      and the edges slightly crisp.

Sounds delicious. I'll let you know what we think about them.

I may not make it until 10pm. I'm getting really tired from my medication. I'm looking forward to all the new things I'll be doing tomorrow. That's it for now. Have to go put the frozen fruit away. Forgot to do that when I was cleaning up. Oops!

Our first glasses of juice

We made our first juice. The juicer worked great. It cleaned up easily and quickly. The taste of the juice wasn't too bad. Different than what I'm used to eating/drinking but okay. I'll try some different recipes and see what I like. I know my taste buds will change as I go along and I'll get used to it. I drank about 12 ounces and David had about 18 ounces. There was a little more froth than I like but I'll get that figured out too. I'm really pleased with the juicer though. It performed very well. It took about 3 minutes for clean up. Scrubbing the mesh on the basket took the longest and that was about a minute. The rest of it just needed to be rinsed and dried off.

I felt really full right away from drinking so much. My headache is a little worse. I feel like I have a little bit more energy but overall I'm still very fatigued so I won't be dancing or cleaning out the garage tonight. ;)

I am having cravings for chocolate tonight. I so want to go to the store and get junk food but I won't do that. I'll have some nuts and raisins instead.. Aye yi yi, what have I gotten myself into?!?

Mean Green juice planned for dinner

We've decided to try a mean green juice for dinner. I'm just going to make a half batch in case we don't like it. I don't want to waste food so I'll just half the recipes to start. I'm nervous and I'm excited. I haven't turned the juicer on yet and I'm wondering how loud it will be. It will probably scare Bayou. lol David and I are going to juice together so we know how it works and how to clean it up. Mostly we'll just be rinsing parts off. The cutting part has to be cleaned out with a brush that they sent with the juicer. It will be imperative to clean up the juicer after every use. That will save lots of time and effort.

We're watching hockey right now (Stanley Cup playoffs) and will juice once the game is over. I'll let you know how it all goes.

Salad for lunch

I made a really nice salad for lunch today. We had nuts and raisins for "dessert". It was very good. I was surprised at how tasty it was. I'm very tired and very sore and plan on taking a nap while David and Gabe go hit golf balls on the driving range. I know one day I will feel so much better but today just isn't that day. I took some pain medicine because the aching is just too much to tolerate right now. I tried to go without it but I was really suffering so I took it. I meant to take a picture of the salad but forget. I'll try to remember next time. We're going to juice for the first time later today. I'm not sure which juice we will make. We have 5 to choose from. There are also recipes in the Breville user manual. I'll look those over too. I'm not going to make anything complicated this first time. Maybe I'll make Joe Cross' mean green juice. It's a pretty easy juice to make. I'll think about it later though when I'm not so tired and not so sore.