Juicing Day Eight

1:58 PM AirplaneFoodCritic 2 Comments

I have not much to post today because it is becoming "the usual" for me. I am having no trouble at all drinking only juice. I am not having any crashes, mood swings, weird bathroom times or hunger. I have not felt any of those things these whole eight days except for my grumpfest at my poor brother's barbecue. I did have to cancel my day-long Dungeons and Dragons sesh because I was afraid that I would freak out on everyone. I instead spent the day watching great movies which took up all my time and I went to bed content and comfortable.

Today is the first day back to work and as I have mentioned in the past, it is easier for me to be at work and juice than at home. I just keep busy and drink my juices as the time comes to drink them. I am running out of yummy veggies and fruits, however. I found myself last night juicing whatever was sitting in the fridge. This made for a disgusting morning juice. It was brown, way too sweet and tasted of dirty vegetables.

Part of my job is to be sensitive to a little chemical called Tricholoroanisole and it's little related buddies. I won't go into the chemistry details but it is a chemical that can get into a bottle of wine through the cork. It smells terrible and is the reason you taste wine at a restaurant before they pour you the whole glass. When wine had TCA in it, it is called "corked". Wine is not the only thing in nature that can be corked. Apples can be corked as well as carrots. It is corked carrots that made me dislike the vegetable for my entire life. I must have had a corked carrot when I was young and never could stomach them again. The aroma is a rotting, musty, dusty, horrible scent that no one appreciates but me most of all because it is my job to identify and throw out if it is anywhere near my winery.

This story is leading up to the fact that I have a lot of carrots left in my refrigerator and that is now the base of a lot of my juices for today and going through the next two days that will complete my ten day juicing. I think I will have to go to the store and get some more lemons, apples and grapes which are my favorite additives, to mask all this carrot. I think my afternoon one will be better but I am sort of choking down the rest of the juices this week.

Day 8 weight loss: 1.7 lbs
Total weight loss: 14.5 lbs

Juicing - The Weekend

12:19 PM AirplaneFoodCritic 0 Comments

For some people the week day is the most difficult time to keep to a diet. I understand that, you are at work, there is often free food. You want...or need...coffee with sugar and cream. You are active and need energy or you are sitting at your desk and can't help snacking. Perhaps you have to go out to lunch with clients. I do not have that problem. My troubles begin when the weekend starts.

My weekend began with going to see Prometheus with a bunch of friends. Popcorn with lots of butter was my enemy that night. I learned that if I sniffed the buttery goodness, it was enough to hold me. Plus, I made a fast juice before we left to keep me satiated. I also took a Vicodin as I always do before a movie so that may have added to my ability to be comfortable the whole time. The movie, in case you were wondering, was not that great. I should be a movie critic and everyone can read my criticism and do the exact opposite. I have the strangest taste in movies apparently. And the converse opinion of the rest of the American population...and beyond. I found the movie to be confusing. It had a lot of unexplained actions and reactions. Not much connected. It was like someone threw together a bunch of ideas and called it a movie. Perhaps I should watch the Alien series to understand it better but I don't have the interest.

I digress. I survived Friday and luckily, I slept most of Saturday. Waking up at noon I walked my dog and made a half hearted juice with what was left of my fruits and veggies. I went to a local festival with my family and then to a barbecue at my brother's. I did not WANT to go but I had agreed to go. I knew I was going to be all grumpy and the food was going to be fantastic. That is one great thing about my family...One of the many...we eat good food and we drink good wine. At the festival my brother was so kind as to purchase a juice for me. The juice was advertised as being watermelon, lemon and agave nectar. I asked to have it without the nectar and they even gave it to me for half price because of that. So that was my dinner. My mother told me the barbecue would be from 3:00 to 7:00 and I had drinken juice accordingly. When the party lasted beyond that 7:00 and the food had not yet been put on the grill I became agitated and grumpy. I ended up waiting for the food to be cooked, took some aside for the bf and hitched a ride home with my cousin who was heading out for the night like young people do. I did not come out unscathed. My mom made a guacamole that was so enticing I could not help myself. I took a half spoonful and sucked on it for about ten minutes. I figured mashed avocado is like a juice...right?

I came home and had a proper juice and felt much better. I survived the rest of the night by watching a movie which keeps my mind occupied. Now it is Sunday. I slept another 11 hours, walked the dog and made a refreshing juice of five grapefruits which, after I juiced them I blended up with ice in the vitamix and enjoyed all morning long. If I can make it through the rest of today it will be three more days back at work where there are much less temptations and I will have succeeded.

How I Feel:
I have felt grumpy over the weekend. BUT I also feel pretty. I have lost a lot of weight and my skin is really nice. The bf is very complimentary as well, in fact a lot of people are. I have had people coming up to me and asking what I am doing and I tell them. Everyone wants to juice now having heard how much weight I have lost in so little time. The fact that I am still standing and walking around after not eating any solid food for almost a week also impresses them. I am glad. We all should juice. It is fun, in a way.

Day 6 weight loss: 1.2 lbs
Total weight loss: 12.8 lbs

Fourth day of ten Juicing

10:43 AM AirplaneFoodCritic 0 Comments

What I am drinking:

It is starting to be sort of the same things over and over in different combinations. I only bought a certain variety of fruits and vegetables so I can only do so much. I have to say there is one staple and that is my all green drink. I make sure I have at least 16oz every day and I actually look forward to it. It is a combination of as much kale as I can smash into the juicer, three apples, a lemon, a kiwi and green grapes.


How I am feeling:

I am still on all my meds for arthritis, including Vicodin for my commute so I really don't know if there is any change or not. Actually, I am on a new medication as of today. So needless to say, this isn't a fix all for an autoimmune disease but I never thought after five days anything would be.

I can report on the rest of me and that is going just fine. I have plenty of energy, again, mostly right after a shot of juice. I tried to have eight meals of eight ounces but I never found the time for that and reverted back to four meals of sixteen ounces which works just fine during the week. I am a bit afraid of how the weekend will go. At work it is quite easy to keep occupied and on a schedule. On the weekends my time is usually spent figuring out what to eat next.

Which brings me to what happened last night. I had just finished cleaning up after making all my juices and I was plopped down on the couch for the rest of the evening to mess around on the computer when the bf came home from work hungry. He has today off so it was his weekend and he wanted to do as we always do on the weekend and eat out. I am the only one in the family who has a car so he asked me if I would drive to the Mexican place. I was too tired and grumpy to bother. I confided with him that I have been craving a turkey burger for days. I should not have done this because my craving became his craving and he then went on and on about wanting curly fries and a turkey burger. Luckily I was in control of the car so he could not enjoy one in front of me. He settled for making potstickers at home. The potstickers smelled so wonderful but I was able to keep any eating urges down because I was not actually hungry I was just smelling that wonderful cabbage and soy smell.


What I have learned:

I have learned that I do have some self control in me. I have challenges ahead but I have a bit more confidence because I am seeing results physically and I feel just fine energy-wise. There is no reason to not continue on for my ten days.

I have also learned that strawberries do not juice well and make the juice thick which I do not like. I tried to "juice" with my Vita-Mix a couple weeks ago and there is a huge difference. Do not get me wrong, I love my Vita-Mix but it is not a juicer. When the juice from a juicer tastes bad I can pinch my nose and drink it down. When the sludge from the blender tastes bad I have to sit there and eat spoonful after spoonful of horrible muck.

I have also learned that if I have something important to do that day, like meeting up with friends, walking my dog, or a business meeting, I should drink a large shot of juice about 15 minutes before and that gets me powered up through the activity. I will put this to the test as I play an eight hour session of Dungeons and Dragons with my friends and a lot of Papa Johns pizza (my absolute favorite food in America) this Sunday.
Day 4 weight loss: 1.4lbs
Total weight loss: 9lbs

Third Day of Juicing

11:03 AM AirplaneFoodCritic 0 Comments

What I am juicing:

Breakfast: Cantaloupe, two oranges, four carrots, pinch of spinach, and a lemon.
Snack: Three green apples, a lemon, huge handful of kale and one of spinach, kiwi, green grapes.
Lunch: Blueberries, strawberries, grapefruit, lemon, orange, pinch of spinach, couple carrots.
That last one there I tried to put a whole rainbow in the juicer.

How I feel:

I am still sleeping terrible and waking up confused by my alarm. This still may not be related to the juicing though. I took a melatonin last night to help fall asleep and that usually gives me really strange, vivid dreams. Once I was up I had my first juice. I am glad I made it the night before even though it still had a layer of foam on top. It was made and that is a big time saver. Anyone who juices will tell you what a huge mess it makes. Saving time on cleaning up in the morning is a very good idea. I just stirred my morning juice with a spoon and slammed it while I put on makeup. After that I had plenty of energy. About four hours later I crashed again. It seems that around 9am I get really sleepy. That is when I have my next bottle of juice and I am up and running again. The next juice is around noon and that seems to get me through the rest of the day until I get home. When I get home I usually am craving solid food but that is when I walk my dog and get back home to make the next day's juices. As I am making the next juices, I am having my last juice of the day and that seems to do me just fine.
As for my arthritis, I am still on all the meds. I still have to take Vicodin when I drive. My knees are just killing me for some reason. Tomorrow I start a new medication and try to go off the Prednisone.

What I have learned:

Going to bed early is a good idea for two reasons: I am getting more sleep and I am not hanging around for the opportunity to crave some late night snacks.

Tomorrow I am going to try drinking eight ounces at a time instead of 16. I will see if that gives me energy all day long.

I am going to juice everything for the next day the night before. One clean up and less foam!
Day three weight loss: 3.8lbs
Total weight loss: 7.6lbs

Juicing - Second Day In

2:37 PM AirplaneFoodCritic 0 Comments

I had planned on having a nice juicy dinner last night but I was tired so I just went to bed. I didn't sleep well though. I had a lot of weird dreams. I am not sure if any of it was related to not having had any solid foods for a whole day or not. I am naturally a pretty horrible sleeper. When my alarm went off this morning at 4am I wasn't sure what was going on. I finally came out of my sleepy stupor and figured out how to turn off my alarm.

I stumbled into the kitchen where I have two juices I made last night for work today. I tried to make the morning one more fruity and the afternoon one more veggie-y. The morning one I put in a grapefruit, a kiwi, some grapes, couple carrots, a handful of kale and spinach, and a lemon.

The afternoon one was the best one yet. I put a bunch of kale and a bit of spinach in, then I put like three green apples, one lemon, a kiwi, and a bunch of grapes. It tasted just fantastic.

For the ride to work I made one with a half a cantaloupe, an orange, two carrots and a handful of kale. It was meh. I don't like them freshly made I found out, because it has that layer of froth on the top that hasn't settled. I do not want a frothy veggie mustache. I spent several sleepy minutes trying to get rid of the foam. Tonight, I will make all three juices for the day and hope it settles by the time I get up tomorrow.

Now, how do I feel? Well it is difficult to tell about how my arthritis and all that feels because, technically, it has only been about 24 hours. I am not expecting a huge change - yet. My energy is noticeable though. I notice it spike right after I drink a juice. I am peppy, awake and energetic for about an hour after slamming a 16oz  bottle of juice. The problem is then, after that hour or so, I am back to being a bit sleepy. This may be partially due to the fact that I didn't get very good sleep last night though.

I also have little waves of cravings for horrible food. I love horrible food. I really really want a cheeseburger. Better yet, a turkey burger from this place in San Rafael that makes the best turkey burgers ever. Their turkey burgers are exponentially better than their regular beef burgers even. If you are local, head over to Barney's Gourmet Hamburgers and get the Sunshine Turkey Burger. I digress.....see? The very thought of some greasy food makes me feel a bit of a twinge in my stomach. The good thing is that it only lasts a little while and I am able to busy myself enough to forget about it. One thing that is awesome is that I do not watch TV. Those commercials they play in the evenings....oh man, I want everything they are selling. My advice to anyone starting a juice is to stop watching television. It isn't that difficult to do. Instead, you can play a video game, walk or play with your dog, watch a movie at home or knit or paint. I like to watch tv shows without the commercials.


Day two weight loss: 3.8 lbs
Total weight loss: 3.8lbs

Let the Juicing Begin

12:51 PM AirplaneFoodCritic 0 Comments

Today is my first day of a 10 day juice diet. To prepare I read a lot of blogs, videos, books and recipes. I gathered tons of information and made a game plan. I went to Costco and ended up buying whatever they had at that moment. I got oranges, grapefruit, watermelon, baby kale, spinach, cantaloupe, lemons, carrots, bell peppers, mangoes, kiwis, grapes and apples. I got home, ordered pizza and started drinking a lot of wine. I figure I would go out with a bang.

I know, I know...it is common knowledge among juicers that one is supposed to go on a sort of mini diet to lead up to the actual juicing. This is meant to get your body, mind and stomach ready for what is about to happen to them. I am a rebel. I do things my own way. I sometimes have to pay dearly for it, but I love pizza and I love wine. So I threw a little party for the three of us.

I am sharing this with you because I had a bit too much wine last night. That was the genius time to start making the juices for my first day...today. They came out fine but I have no idea what is in any of them. I made two big water bottles full of juice to bring to work. I can tell you what they taste like but I just chopped up a bunch of stuff that I had and juiced it. I repeated those two steps until my water bottles were full and I called it a night.



This morning I got up a little early and made a breakfast juice that was so so tasting. I used two oranges, one mango and two big handfuls of spinach. It was fine enough. I hear it is good to have a fruit forward drink for breakfast. At about 9:30am I had my first bottle of juice. It definitely had grapefruit in it. It was the color of some baby poop but tasted pretty good. I think I put some kale and spinach in there somewhere and possibly a lemon.

At lunch time I opened the second juice. It was not as pleasant as the first. This one smelled strongly of bell pepper. I recall trying to get an entire rainbow of fruits and veggies into this one. I put a red bell pepper, a couple carrots, an orange, a green apple, handfuls of spinach and baby kale and blueberries. Sounds gross? Yeah, it pretty much was. The color was an unappetizing brown.


Lesson learned. You can not just toss anything into the juicer and hope that so long as there is some fruit, it will taste yummy.

I weighed myself this morning to get a base weight for this ten day juice feast. Tomorrow I hope to be able to report a slight drop.