June 24, 2012: Blending & Juicing,...

Hello and Happy Sunday!  

Life has been full of changes for me lately, both personally and professionally.  I have traveled back to Wisconsin twice, have pending career changes, enjoyed time with visiting relatives, and other significant changes going on in my personal life.  So in typical foodie pattern, I turned to food for comfort and enjoyment.  (I do enjoy good food!)  And yes, the waistbands on my slacks once again appear to be stretched to the limit.  That means it's time to incorporate some changes to shed a few pounds. 

I have been reading up on juicing, both the pro's and con's, and watched some interesting videos on the subject.  A friend highly recommended viewing Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead (2011).  This is a documentary about a man who was 100 lbs overweight who had an autoimmune disease, and about his journey back to health.  He traveled 3,000 miles and interviewed others across the states, and inspired life changes in several others.  I also highly recommend this video.  (You can rent the video or watch it free by clicking on this link.)

So, newly encouraged, I decided I really wanted to purchase a nice juicer, but couldn't afford it at the time.  And even if I could, I was afraid it would end up sitting on the shelf like so many other gadgets, once the novelty wore off.  I tried blending smoothies for a while, but was really interested in seeing what the juicing craze was all about. A friend contacted me with the news that she wasn't using her juicer anymore and that I could just have it.  (Thank you Wendy!)  I am really grateful!

Yesterday was Farmer's Market day!  I loaded up!

I downloaded the Juice Lady's Weekend Weight-Loss Diet to my Kindle and found some great recipes.  (BTW: You don't need an actual Kindle to read Kindle versions of books.  There are free Kindle readers that you can download to your computer.)  Of course I modified the recipes to suit my taste and availability of ingredients.  

My intention in juicing was not to cut out whole food over the weekend, but to supplement it.  I decided to substitute my regular breakfast with a healthy berry, apple, and greens juice drink.  Lunch consisted of a juice concoction derived of a wide variety of dark leafy greens, beets, carrots, tomatoes, garlic, cucumber, etc.  It wasn't bad!  Okay, it's not quite a substitute for steak and lobster, but I found it filling.  And I was actually excited about the thought of consuming a super nutritionally-packed drink with very little calories.  Healthy does feel good!  Throughout the day I also consumed sunflower seeds, hummus, vegetable soup, etc., so again, I didn't adhere to the "fast" portion of the diet completely, but found after taking the time to create two very healthy juice meals, I was less tempted to eat junk in the evening.  The temptation wasn't completely gone, mind you, but it was easier to tell myself I would first eat something healthy, like yogurt, before considering raiding the cupboards.  It worked!  I didn't go on an evening binge!  I felt good about myself.  And as a bonus, I am down 1.4 lbs this morning!  

When I was talking with a vendor at the farmer's market about my intention to juice for 2-days, she mentioned that several other people approached her recently, stating they were going on 10-day juice fasts.  I admire the motivation and dedication, but decided that 10-days was too much for me at this time.  Two days, however, was something I thought I would be more willing to commit to.  So now it's day two, and I continue to be motivated.  I am going to make a breakfast smoothie of berries, nuts & seeds that have been soaking overnight, pineapple, & coconut milk.  Lunch will consist of another vitamin-packed green concoction.  Sometimes we need to keep things novel in our weight loss journeys to keep the momentum going strong!

There is a lot of information on the web about juicing, both pro's and con's.  If you are considering it, please read up on the subject so that you approach juicing in a manner that contributes to overall, sustained good health!

Happy Juicing!   

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