So, onto the next habitual life improvement. Fresh green juice, everyday. While fruits and veggies and I aren't exactly enemies, we aren't as close as I'd like to be either. My goal is to make green food my best friend, so hopefully I'm not coming on too strong. I don't want scare them off like I did with bread.
It's been a challenge to get the juice in everyday, so I've been experimenting with different times to drink it. Mid afternoon seems to be the best. I do notice a gentle increase in energy after having some juice. It's the kind of energy where I just get up and start doing stuff and then an hour later I'm like, "Oh., hey look what I did and it wasn't even hard." There is also no noticeable crash from the energy increase. This is very different from the jittery-must-do-everything-NOW coffee buzz that I get. Juice energy gently rises and then falls into a natural state of normal tired. I'm not gonna lie, I really miss my coffee buzz, so I probably won't give up coffee completely, but I have gone 4 days without it and I've made it through alright. I do not, however, miss the dramatic plane crash that is me coming off of said coffee buzz.
Prepping is key to success when it comes to juicing. If all veggies and fruits are cut and prepped ahead of time, it takes 15 minutes to make juice and clean juicer. So I need to find a good time to make the juice and clean the juicer. Leaving the juicer dirty is not an option. I've tried that, trust me, the mess (or the stink) is not worth it. What does work well is pre-making "juice bags." This is where I spend about an hour to cut all fruits and veggies ahead of time and put the proper portions in a bag so that when it's juice time I can just dump them in and clean the juicer up.
I've come to an understanding that fresh juice is not going to be fast, and if I am committed to this I just have to accept that. Health takes time. It takes slowing down and paying attention not only to what is going into your mouth, but what is going into your mind. My fast paced-busy-every-minute-scheduled-lifestyle is probably what has made me sick in the first place. So if the definition of crazy is to keep doing that same thing over and over and expecting different results...sign me up. I'm definitely in the club. But, I'm learning. Slowly. Everything will not come at once, because it can't and things that come all at once are not sustainable for a lifetime. Slow changes, one step at a time. That's why the turtle wins the race right?
Here's to turtles and the rabbits that learn from them. And here's to hoping that this juicing thing will change my health so slowly that one day I'll need this blog to remember what my life was like before I started.
My food journal follows for the last 4 days...it's getting better and better everyday. Mostly.
Thursday 4/11/13
Exercise: Walked 3 miles with hubby. What? Two days in a row? That's how I role.
Energy: Eh...okay I guess. I did notice an uptick after my juice, but that could be a coincidence.
Breakfast:
1.5 eggs
1 Apple
1/2 Pkg Oatmeal w/ 1 cream
2 Green teas with 1 cream each
Lunch:
3 Chicken lettuce wraps
Popcorn
Pineapple
Snack:
Green Juice - Pineapple, ginger, Swiss chard, spinach
Dinner:
Chicken Breast
1/2C Green beans
1/4C Rice
Dessert:
1 pkg chocolate covered pomegranates.
Friday 4/12/13
Exercise: Walked 6 miles while wildly waving my arms as I talked with a friend. Best. Workout. Ever.
Energy: Tired, again. Even after drinking juice.
Breakfast:
1/2C Yogurt
1/4C Granola
1/2C Pineapple
1 Green Tea w/ 1 cream
Lunch:
Turkey Sammy
Pear
Snack:
Green Juice (2 apples, Kale, Ginger, Parsley)
Dinner:
4 Mini Street Tacos
Tortilla chips
3 Mini Margaritas
Saturday 4/13/13
Exercise: Cleaned my house?
Energy: Even lower than the last 2 days, although that may have something to do with the 3 margaritas from above and staying up until 3am....maybe. The juice helped temporarily.
Breakfast:
1/2 package of oatmeal w/ 1 cream
1.5 scrambled eggs
1 pear
Green tea w/ 1 cream
Lunch:
Rice, black beans, salsa, and avocado
Snack:
Green Juice: (Kale, 2 apples, Ginger, and Parsley
Dinner:
Chinese...
Fried rice
Chicken and Pea pods
Dessert:
Flourless Chocolate Cupcake
Sunday 4/14/13
Exercise: Hot bath with a good book and great music....also cleaning up from family craft day.
Energy: Stable, steady, smooth and mostly calm. Juice at dinner was good, except I was too energetic to go to sleep. Need to have juice earlier.
Breakfast:
Water w/Cayenne pepper
Green powder mix
1/2C Yogurt
1/2C Pineapple
1/4C Granola
Lunch:
Tortilla chips
Hummus
5 Sandwich slice pickles
1 Green tea w/ 1 Cream
Snack:
Flourless Chocolate cupcake
Dinner:
This!
Tandoori chicken over basmati rice....it looked nothing like the picture but it was good :-)
Green Juice (kale, carrots, parsley, ginger, 2 apples)
Dessert:
None...true story.
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