The last day of 2012

Well it's the last day of the year.  A lot of people are recommitting to their health and fitness which is great.  I am more successful if I make short term goals so I'm going to try to prepare all/most of my food in January.  I guess the real goal is to avoid (over) processed food and eat three meals a day (dinner).  Should be a fun attempt.  I have a food processor, a blender, a juicer, a nu wave oven, a nu wave cooktop, a George Foreman grill, a crock pot...  I can make anything.  I should be catering not eating out lol.  It is also partly a financial decision.  Ideally I'd like to spend $300 a month on food max.  It is completely doable when I cook.  Much harder when I don't.  I am usually really tired when I get home in the evenings, mentally if not also physically.  This is what makes cooking dinner hard.  I'll have to experiment with ways to get over that hurdle.

So resolutions are daunting for many, but even if you can't accomplish all your goals I still think there is growth in setting them.  Here are some things I've learned about achieving fitness goals:

1. Set a small, reasonable goal.  If you want to lose 50 lbs that's a great goal but set something small that you can accomplish on the way so you can have a sense of achievement at some point.  Then use the momentum to keep it going.
2. Make your goal about the journey, not the destination.  It's easy to fall into the numbers trap ("I wanna get back to 150 lbs"), but if you focus your energy on the path to get there ("I'm going to work out three times each week"), the goal feels much more tangible and the numbers will follow.
3. Don't try to make too many changes at once.  The keys to healthy living are a good diet and exercise.  Consistently.  It's easier to be consistent with small changes.  Despite my addiction I can give up sugar for weeks at a time because I don't give up salt or processed food at the same time.  When I am craving a donut I just eat Cheetos Puffs lol (true story though).
4. Moments do not have to define days or months or years.  If you are not any closer to your goals on July 1 than you were on January 1, don't be discouraged!  The year is not lost!  You don't have to be miserable about it until 2014!  Recommit and get going :o).
5. Always remember success is not final, failure is not fatal, it's the courage to continue that counts. It's ok to fail.  Adjust your goals and continue the journey.

Wishing you health and happiness in 2013!

3 day reboot pt. 6

Yesterday morning I woke up feeling pretty damn fabulous.  I did not opt to go on my long run but chilled at the house instead.  I was down a pound from the day before (more water weight).  I drank my fifth juice and hit the road for NYE.  I decided I would call it a fast for dinner and decided on Chipotle. But it was closed :o(.  So I my friend suggested TGI Fridays.  I think it's probably wise to reintroduce food sensibly (e.g. a salad or some other veggie-filled food), but everything looked fabulous and I opted for a burger (it was partly a financial decision, partly an alcoholic choice since I knew I'd be drinking in excess soon).  I ate half of it and all of my fries.  And an ice cream sandwich.  And a couple beers.  Then I had to go to the bathroom.  It hit me a fast but no lingering effects.  I didn't feel sick or anything either which I thought I might.

Anyway I consider the 3 day juice fast a success.  My impressions: I think it was a great experience.  I like eating.  And I like balanced meals.  But I never felt like I was starving myself and I never felt bad/sick.  I felt good.  I'm not sure I would want to do it for more than 3 days but I enjoyed it.  It did give me a chance to try some new juice recipes and learn more about my new juicer.  I might do it again... in like 6 months.  I'm a happy lady.

3 day reboot pt. 5

Well it's 7:18 and I'm feeling just fine.  I don't have the hatred for juice that I had last night at this time but I'm not feeling too fond of the veggie smell in my kitchen.  My friend invited me to see a movie and I was nervous about how difficult it would be to resist popcorn and junk food.  I drank my second juice of the day on my way to the movie theatre to make sure I wouldn't be starving during my outing.  I actually did not feel a strong desire for popcorn or anything else while there.  It probably helped that the people I was with were not eating either.  I shopped around for a NYE dress for about an hour and the smell of food was in the air but it wasn't torturous.  I started daydreaming of tacos and french fries on my way home but I knew I was dehydrated.  I got home, had some water, and it helped. I am not really sure I'm up for making/drinking more juice tonight though I could go for some.  Right now I'm sipping on tea and feeling pretty content.  Again it really helps that I am home, in a controlled environment.  If I was out and about surrounded by rich foods (even corn sounds pretty rich at this point), I'm sure this would be much harder.  In Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead a lady goes to a steakhouse with her family and just drinks her juice.  That sounds like pure torture.  It's definitely easier at home.

Physically, I have not really felt weak or tired.  More than anything, I am a bit worrisome about the effects of not eating food (e.g. wondering if I'm dizzy; obviously if I had to wonder I was not lol).  I didn't work out today minus walking all over the mall.  I would love to get a long run in in the morning but I don't think I wanna play with it.  I may consider doing a run by myself (so that I can stop if I get tired), but I will probably just save the long run for Monday.  I did get in a bit of a mental funk as the night wore on.  I was a little mentally tired after the movie (it was loooong) and by the time I got home I just wanted to sit and chill for a while.  I can't really say whether the mental funk is due to the juice or being alone most of the past two days.  If I had to guess it'd be the latter.  Ironic since I credit the discipline I've been able to maintain to being alone.  A resurfacing of the reality that social outings are centered around (unhealthy) food.

Anyway, I'll consider day 2 a success.  Again I'm not hungry despite only having had two juices (about 2.5 glasses, maybe a bit more), and I like that.

I do plan on going out of town for NYE tomorrow afternoon so I'm not sure what my plan is, but I should probably figure one out.  I can either consider the reboot over before dinner and eat tomorrow night or keep going until Monday morning.  The former is probably better for the long run.  Yes, tomorrow will be interesting...

Juice recipe reviews II

I decided to start with the breakfast drink of day 2 today.  It had grapes, blackberries, apple, and what I think is waaaaaaaay too much ginger.  The recipe called for 2 2x2" pieces.  I knew from yesterday that that was probably too much but as I've said I like to follow recipes exactly, especially if it's a new recipe.  Anyway I was right, too much ginger, but good besides that.  I haven't been pouring the juices over ice, but this one I did to dilute the ginger a bit.  I think it's also very sweet, so the ice helps that too.  I would make this one again using just an inch of the ginger root.

The gazpacho juice was actually pretty good.  I packed it to go and drank it down in a hurry without issue.  I think it was refreshing not to have ginger lol.  It wasn't sweet at all, the first drink without apple.  I've never had gazpacho so I'm not sure if it lives up to expectations but it was easy to make and pretty good.  I did get pretty self conscious about my breath because of the red onion.  Maybe the parsley canceled it out but I wouldn't drink this one before a hot date lol.Will probably try this one again (or some variant).

3 day reboot pt. 4

Well last night I didn't force myself to drink the last three juices.  I think the very LARGE portion of the second juice was to blame for my preference for drinking bleach over another glass of juice.  Perhaps the run didn't help either.  The good thing is I definitely was not hungry.  I imagine there can't be that many calories in the juice.  I am a big proponent of eating enough calories, especially when trying to drop lbs and when living an active lifestyle.  The typical advisory is >1200 cals and I'm sure I ate less than that yesterday.  But since I wasn't hungry I decided to skip the additional juices anyway.  I do think this is an important reason to only juice for limited time periods.

I read a lot about the adverse effects of juicing.  These included bad breath, body odor, and bathroom issues.  I spent most of yesterday by myself so I'm not sure if I smell terrible but I don't think I do (ha ha).  I don't really care to discuss bathroom issues ever, but I will say that nothing happened worth mentioning.  At no point did I feel it was crucial to be near a bathroom.  No big deal.

I woke up this morning feeling pretty good.  I'm a little tired in the way you feel tired early on a Saturday morning.  I don't feel full but I am not staving either.  The 3 day reboot suggests you drink a glass of hot water (lemon or ginger optional) first thing in the morning followed by a large glass of water.  The 17 day diet suggests something similar.  I like it when my health resources agree.  So I'm having my water, and I will try to get some juice down in the next hour.  I don't hate juice right now lol.  Ready to get back to it, so it's probably good I didn't force the other juices.   My plan is to just continue down the list of drinks so today I will start with "Lunch" from day 1.

 I am shedding some water weight.  Yesterday I was 137.2 and today I am 134.8.  I tend to hang out around 135 when I eat right and exercise (I have put on quite a bit of muscle since my earlier blogging days.  I have ~22% body fat at my best, prob a bit more right now).  I actually do not like to drop weight via diet and cardio alone because I worry about losing muscle mass.  I think protein does a body good.  I've read that there is some protein in veggies, however if I were weight training I would be very uncomfortable just juicing.  I will have to read up more on this.

My takeaway I have from day 1 was to buy the fruits and veggies as you go.  Had I bought the entire list for 3 days versus 1 I would prob end up with way too much food since I drank less than half of what the plan called for.  Something I didn't think about is serving size.  I am smaller than the average person (5'0, medium frame), so the amount of food listed is an overestimate for me.  I'm sure there are larger people who find that the amounts are two small.  I'd suggest buying the foods as you go so you can adjust accordingly.  My $30 of food will probably last me the entire 3 days.

3 day reboot pt. 3

I do not want any more effing juice lol.  Seriously.  I'm not hungry but I am tired of drinking.  I am supposed to drink 3 more juices today.  It's 6:47.  Arg.

I just finished a 6 mile run.  Running (if you do it right) suppresses your appetite so I hope that is part of it.  My run was fine.  I had a few short intense side stitches a couple times in the second mile and again in the fifth(?).  But besides that I felt pretty good.

Ok, off to make the third drink.  Large sigh.

3 day reboot pt. 2

Ok so I'm on my second juice and I'm already tired of washing the Breville lol.  I am hopeful since I won't be making this much juice this close together once I incorporate juicing into my diet and thus won't have to clean it this much.  Cleaning all the parts is what makes it a pain in the ass; the only thing that's really hard to clean is the mesh basket.  I'm also nearly out of dish soap which isn't helping my annoyance lol.

My second juice included kale.  I've read that there's more to juicing leafy greens than other things.  You have to put it in with/in the middle of other juicier foods to get the most out of it.  I put in some apples then stuffed in the kale.  Then I turned the juicer on.  If you recall there were basically three rules to using the juicer but one of them is to turn the juicer on BEFORE you add food.  Oops.  I see why that matters; it took a minute to get the juice flowing.  Luckily no major damage done but lesson learned.



The juice is green so I guess I got enough juice out of the kale... I guess?

The pulp was a bit wetter than that of the first juice.  So I decided I would try juicing the pulp (which I had read about someone doing).  Yeah... that just made a mess lol.  I'm sure the amount of additional juice I gained wasn't worth it.  I don't think I'll be doing that again ha ha.

It's 2:30 pm and I am not hungry (I'm sipping on juice now).  A friend of mine started texting me about gumbo and I had to make a point not to think too hard about it lol.  Besides that doing ok.  I'm not a huge foodie anyway but as I said before I tend to crave cheese and sugar.  So far so good.  I've also been sipping on water (another thing I try to do regularly but don't), so that's probably keeping me full too.  It was my intention to run today.  I should do that soon so we will see how I'm feeling after that if I actually get out and do it.  Anyway no adverse effects so far.

Oh.  It does help that I'm at home.  I have just run a few misc. errands and I'm already behind schedule; I still haven't had "lunch."  Not sure how you could do this if you were working.  The juice is supposed to be made fresh according to the resources I've consulted.  After this weekend I envision myself drinking it in the morning and/or evening, before/after work.

Juice recipe reviews I

So my awesome neighbor bought me a book on juicing with tons of recipes so I will be trying a lot of miscellaneous combinations after this weekend.  For now I am trying to exactly follow what's listed in the 3 day reboot.  This morning I really enjoyed the carrot/apple/ginger concoction.  It was a nearly perfect yield amount (a little over one glass) and was a surprisingly complex taste (in a good way) despite few ingredients.  That one is the first one added to my repertoire.

The Mean Green juice however...  First of all it yielded nearly an entire pitcher.  My cucumber and apples were admittedly large but goodness!  The ginger gives it a nice kick but it needs to be a bit sweeter.  And this is coming from a person who doesn't like sweet drinks.  I don't like sugar in my alcohol (I drink vodka with water) and I rarely drink soda at all.  But this... this is a bit much.  I thought I would really like it but it tastes like grass.  Grass with ginger lol.  It's going to take me an hour just to finish it.  I'll try this one again with larger apples and a smaller cucumber/celery stalk but first impression is not impressed.  It might be good if there was something else on my palate.

it's a journey not a destination: 3 day reboot pt. 1

Ok so I am the worst blogger ever ha ha.  But it's a journey not a destination so I'm ok with that.

So for Christmas I got a Breville juicer.  I had waaaaay too much to drink the other week and the "day after" I was craving nutrients.  My neighbor has a juicer and hooked me up.  Then he suggested I watch "Fat Sick and Nearly Dead", a documentary about juicing so I did (so I can now accept that Netflix wasn't a total waste; before I wasn't so sure).  Anyway the documentary added to my already growing desire to own a juicer and lucky for me Christmas was near so I put it on my list and voila!

In general I am very much against "diets."  I think healthy is a journey not a destination (I see many things this way) and too many people want a quick fix to drop weight but don't want to eliminate the habits that caused them to put on weight in the first place... but I digress.  Anyway nutrients are good; I like that I will be full of them and preservative-free for a bit.  I do strongly believe in eating and balanced meals but it's only 3 days so I can live with that (I think).  And if I'm craving food tomorrow at this time I'll just eat lol.  But I think I can do it so 3 days is the goal.

I'm following the 3-day plan on the reboot your life website/blog.  The plan is to drink 5 juices a day.  I made a grocery list for today last night and woke up ready to get started.  I love love love cheese and sugar (I am sure there is scientific evidence somewhere that they are addicting and I am definitely addicted to both), but I ate both yesterday (#winning!!) so it wasn't hard to stay in the produce section this morning.  Anyway everything was surprisingly easy to find, nothing too exotic which I like about this plan so far.  I like trying different eating plans because it usually makes me try new veggies.  Today I bought ginger, beets, and swiss chard for the first time.  Again I most appreciated that they were easy to find.  The ginger was in the first juice, which I've already had, and though I've had ginger before, I really appreciated the spice it added.  My first thought was, wow it doesn't take much.  I only used an inch of it in a full glass of juice and could definitely taste it.


My total was $27.18.  I think my grocery store, HEB is an averaged price store.  It may be a bit toward the low cost end of the spectrum.  There are a few mistakes on the receipt, e.g. he didn't charge me for clementines, he rung up the beets as kiwi, etc. but I'm guessing it costs about $30 to make 6 glasses of juice or about $5 a glass.  In my mind I'll be making juice out of leftovers (I buy parsley to make pasta, use 3 sprigs and throw out the rest), so I'm not too concerned about the cost.  Plus I plan to drink a glass or two at most in one day so I think it'll balance out.  And you can't put a cost on health :o).

The Breville was super easy to use.  I was worried I should read more of the manual but just kinda went for it and it was straightforward.  Turn it on before adding food, push through with the machine not your fingers, turn it off.  This seemed to work lol.  I took the stems off my apples but I don't think I needed to.  Other than that I just washed the food and put it in whole.  Easy peasy.

What was less easy peasy?  The cleaning.  I see people complain about cleaning these things a lot.  The wire basket was a bit tricky but that's why it comes with a little brush to help.  I washed the juicer parts right away and I can see that being a really good idea lol.  I'll try to keep that up, though I definitely use my food processor less cause I hate cleaning it.

Finally, I'm really interested in using the pulp that the juicer leaves over.  I talked with my neighbor about this a bit.  He throws his away.  I took a bite of mine.  Then I also threw it away lol.  It was good but very dry (the juicer works!!), and a weird texture overall.  The carrot/ginger/apple pulp seems like it would be good in bread or muffins.  I'm gonna have to step my cooking game up to deal with it (I like to follow recipes EXACTLY and I'm sure not many are calling for carrot/ginger/apple pulp).  I did read that the veggie pulp is good for broths.  And compost.  I'll have to get creative.

To summarize: I'm one drink in and I'm a happy lady :o).