Two weeks in...

Well we are two weeks into the juicing thing and still going strong. While I haven't had any more significant weight loss, I have maintained my initial loss without being overly careful. I can also honestly say this whole endeavor has made me feel so much better. 

My energy is still high, and I am also still (mostly) caffeine free not counting the occasional cup of tea. Another benefit I didn't plan on - I have greatly reduced my dependency on OTC pain relievers. My go-to drug of choice was ibuprofen, or sometimes Tylenol.  I would say that 5/7 days in any given week would have seen me taking two or more doses of the stuff, just for general aches and pains like headaches or leg cramps.  Now I'd say I'm down to 1/7 days where I take ANY OTC pain relievers, and when I do, I can take smaller doses and still feel completely better. 

Also--TMI ALERT IF YOU CARE--last week I started the first period I've had since January. As someone who has had a consistently inconsistent cycle my entire adult life, this is a big deal. It means my body is becoming healthier, and trying to self-regulate. I'll take it, and I can only hope the contined influx of veggies and low GI fruits will continue to work their magic on my system. 

If nothing else, this has been a great learning experience, and a generally good thing for the hubby and I to do together. It's nice to have a partner in crime, and someone to bounce ideas off of in terms of juice recipes and ways to make it all easier and more sustainable. 

Speaking of ease, last night I tried the trick of lining the pulp-catcher with a plastic bag before using the juicer. SMART! It saved me a lot of time in the cleanup process, and it also made the job of carrying the pulp out to the compost bin a bit easier to complete.

80/20

After lots of reading/research this week, I've learned that it's important to try to stick with a vegetable:fruit ratio of 80:20 when juicing for health purposes and weight loss. Usually we are successful at this, but sometimes it's hard to get enough variety with veggies. I try to think of it like a buffet where I need to choose four servings of veggies and one serving of fruit.  Generally speaking, if my juice comes out a nice, green color then I know I've done pretty well. The big exception to this would be carrots because their color tends to dominate. 

Overall juicing has been a good experience for us this week - I definitely think our vitamin increase alone is worth the time and effort we've put forth. 

Top Shelf

The top shelf of our fridge is slightly ridiculous after my most recent Sam's Club run.  You can't even see the light come on anymore because the produce is stacked so high:

I've honestly never bought so much produce in a week in my entire life. I guess if we are using it then it's a worthwhile expense. Certainly beats spending that extra money eating out, which is what we would have been doing last week. 

I stopped in to restock our supply of greens, and ended up picking up a few new things to try in the juicer too.  Among them, green beans and sugar snap peas. At this point we're still experimenting and trying to nail down exactly what an how much we need to buy in order to sustain juicing 3x a day for 2 people. Haven't found the formula yet, but have found a few really good "go to" juice recipes. At the moment my favorite green is spinach. It's very water-packed so it yields a lot of juice. It's also nutrient dense and very low in calories so that's a triple-win in my book. 

Onward and upward...

Energy...and a few more resources

Energy...it's a beautiful thing! Now granted I'm on spring break this week so I've afforded myself quite a bit more downtime than usual.  I am aware that the way I feel this week may not paint the whole picture of my working-life reality.  Still though...for a very long time now, I have been able to almost guarantee a 2:00 p.m. energy crash to swoop in and put a big damper on my day. 

Not only have I been without coffee since Monday, but I actually have more energy than I've had in a while. This week, when I could have taken naps if I felt the need, 2:00 p.m. has come and gone with very little notice on my part. I didn't think that much of it until today. I got a little sleepy at around 4:30 and was surprised to see that it was already 4:30. And "a little sleepy" is a very different feeling from my afore mentioned 2:00 p.m. energy crashes. The jury is still out for me as to whether this is related to juicing or not, but I think this change is very notable and very important. Also, back to the coffee for a minute, I have also still NOT experienced a caffeine craving headache, which I would have fully expected by now. I have had some small amounts of caffeine here and there, a cup of tea last night and the little bit in the chocolate I ate after lunch yesterday, but considering what I would've had by this time last week, I would have thought my body would be in full withdrawal mode by now. 

I was also pleasantly surprised this morning when I discovered I've lost 4 pounds. I didn't even have a perfect day yesterday with food choices (think chocolate) so I wouldn't have expected such a dramatic loss but I guess a 100% increase in vegetable intake and water will do that for you.  I'm still not ready to make the switch to drinking only juice for ANY number of days, but I have been successful with drinking only juice for breakfast and eating less along with some juice for lunch and dinner. For now that will be my plan and I will reevaluate at the end of this week. My main goals with this plan are sustainability and better health. Sub-goals include weight loss, better energy, and skin improvement. 

To that end, I have found a couple useful apps that I want to share: 

1. My Fitness Pal - calorie counter, food diary, etc. it's great! 

2. Juicing - it's free and offers recipes by category, as well as an option to sign up fro recipes & tips via email

3. My Diet Coach - Also free and looks cute, although I did just download it today. 

4. Day 1 - An app for private journaling on your phone. Helps me keep track of the juices I've tried and feelings about them. 

Juicing

We finally bit the bullet and bought ourselves a Breville juicer yesterday.  I've been wanting to try juicing for better health ever since I started seeing green juice recipes on Pinterest a couple of years ago.  Watching the documentary by Joe Cross: Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead is what cemented the idea for me.  I've seen the movie twice now, the first time alone, and the second time when I shared it with my husband.  The stories shared are eye-opening and compelling - they have inspired me to want to do better, and to want to be healthier.    

We had some green juices along with a light dinner last night, kind of just sampling a few different recipes we've seen.  This morning my husband made me the "Mean Green" juice that is recommended by reboot with Joe for breakfast.  He tried a green smoothie by adding a banana and a cup of milk. So far it seems to be going well.  My juice was pretty good but I think our ratio of cucumber was a little bit off – I needed it to be a little bit sweeter.  I do have to say I feel satisfied enough. it is 9:28 and I am hoping that will hold me off until an appropriate lunchtime…

My short-term goal right now is to replace one meal a day with some form of a green smoothie, and see how that goes. If it is sustainable and I'm able to lose a little bit of weight then I will consider maybe replacing two meals a day and so on. I'm not quite ready to do the full on "body reboot" as advertised by Joe Cross just yet.   I want to sort of take it down by notches and see how that goes...be sure this is something that I can sustain while also working full time and raising a family.  One thing is certain and that is that there are tons and tons of resources available out there, many of them free, that will help me along this journey.  One I've already used more than once is this great PDF that gives you the correct ratio for different green juice or smoothie concoctions.  I plan to laminate this and tape it to the wall right next to our juicer for easy reference.  

I am also really liking the relatively low investment cost of this idea, and the fact that it is all based on natural foods that are much healthier than what I have been eating. Even when we did the LA weight loss plan – having to buy their bars and pay for their program and all of that – it seemed a little...I don't know...gimmicky somehow?  We are still working our way through and trying to figure out the formula for what we actually need in order to sustain a week's worth of juicing.  Still though, going to Sam's Club and literally filling our cart with fresh vegetables and fruit felt really good - really life affirming.  Even if I don't manage to lose the weight I want to lose, I know I am going to be healthier, and be doing my body a favor by consuming so many vegetables.  I'm kind of thinking of it like an army inside my body - and all of this produce is my fortification of that army. 

Overall I do already feel better. I have not had any coffee since Sunday, and I don't have any headache so far. Hope I didn't just speak too soon.  I also have the same (or slightly more) energy that I would feel on a normal work morning, but this is without coffee. I plan to blog about my journey a little bit, mostly just to chronicle the process, and to keep track of my learning process and any great resources I find.  Only time will tell, but the idea that I can fight back against my life-long struggle with obesity, and against all the processed, refined CRAP out there by using my body's natural healing powers, and following a plan that is both simple and sustainable in terms of cost and upkeep - well that is empowering, and I'm definitely ready to give it my best shot!!