Day 2– Don’ts

OKey dokey…well…this should be interesting. I have a headache. It will be monstrous if I don’t nap while Bennett is napping. I must make this quick.

I’m down 5.7lbs. since 11:17PM on Sunday night. There is a price to pay, but I did the crime. Now, I’m doing the time.

Above, was my lunch from yesterday. Spinach, carrot, orange pepper, asparagus. I have a vivid imagination and pretended it was a Tree Frog from my old days a the Q bar in Iowa City and slammed it.  

 

Above, was our supper last night. Steve chose to have his juiced since he was running back out for a meeting. I decided to take advantage of the first 5 days and the allowance to eat raw/cooked veggies and fruit.

 

Oh…I didn’t juice him. I just had to share this photo of my Darling Prince playing with the play yard I got him this past weekend. heehee

 

I failed to take a picture of the gorgeous fruit drink this morning. I juiced strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries. Quite wonderful and it was a pretty color. Last night, Jacob ordered strawberry juice. Well, I knew he’d be loving the fruit juices, but the real catch is going to be to get his veggies this way too. So, when he wasn’t looking, I put some carrots in with the strawberries. It made a very pretty color of pinky orange. He truly did love it. I wish I had enough arms to have captured a picture of it while I was holding the baby and juicing. I must remember to take a picture of that concoction. Made me think of a party. The photo above is my lunch that I just finished. I’m saving my veggie juice for this evening. However, this salad was amazing. I think my taste buds are already being affected to really taste food better. It’s romaine and red leaf lettuce, slightly sauteed asparagus [in just a tish of olive oil], half an avocado and half a granny smith apple. I squeezed some fresh lemon juice over it.

 

I am no longer naïve in thinking this will be a breeze. I’ve had to basically ban tv [for commercials plus, my fave channel is the Food Network], Facebook and Pinterest because I am subscribed to so many food-related pages that keep posting hauntingly gorgeous recipes with pictures. Rest is a big key right now too. Thankfully, Bennett is allowing me time to do that. For the 3rd time, in our marriage, Steve and I actually bit each other’s heads off this morning. Spit them right back out because we are definitely not veggies or fruit.  

A few “Don’ts” for you…maybe these won’t be an issue for others, but they are for us.

1. Don’t give your 5 year old more than 4 or 5 oz. of fresh apple juice.

2. Don’t give your 5 year old more than 4 or 5 oz. of fresh apple juice 10 minutes  before leaving for school. It just makes for a bad day all around when your kid says, “ I can’t stop pooping.”, and you find yourself cleaning the poop off the floor.

3. Don’t juice broccoli. Just. don’t. do. it.

4. Don’t find yourself holding a baby who just and I mean JUST made a dookie diaper as you sip any variety of juice. It has happened twice now, once with delicious berry juice and another time with a green juice. As you can see, I’m having above average hurdles to overcome with juicing.

 

Allrighty…I must be off to get a nap before my head splits…but Hey! I’m rebooting my body. I’m not hungry. It’s psychological, for now. It’s all good.

Day 1 of Juicing Fast

Well, Hubby and I jumped off the ledge this morning by starting our juice fast. I'm not sure where to begin with this post. I'm excited for results. I am also battling, even at 9:43AM on Day 1, the urge to make coffee and eat the leftover pizza, in the fridge. I am not hungry or thirsty. I am keeping busy with the baby, house and reading to curb the cravings, also, when my Bennett wants to snuggle, I've got movies to watch.
About 2 weeks ago, I watched a documentary on Netflix called: Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead . It was fascinating. It is the story of an Australian fellow, who was sick of being sick and fat and decided to implement a tool, in his life, to get his body back to optimum health - by juicing. I don't want to summarize this movie. Just watch it and give me feedback on your reaction to it. I had a very passionate reaction to the film. For some time, I've been wishing - not doing anything about it - for a healthier lifestyle. I am becoming more and more impassioned with natural and not processed food. Truthfully, I've not been a buyer of much that is processed food. I pretty much steer clear of the center aisles of grocery stores. I am overweight and unhealthy due to lack of portion control, lack of exercise, ice cream before bed, not eating enough fruits and veggies, stress, lack of sleep, and a love for wine and martinis. I am embarking on a journey for the rest of my life, to make the right choices, when it comes to caring for this vessel which houses the real me.
My motives for doing a juice fast are: detoxing, HEALTH, clarity of mind and spirit and to be able to tell the difference, to deny my physical body of the crap it has been fed, weight loss -in order for the real, awesome, confident, full-of-life BETH to take over. I fully believe my addiction to food and the wrong kinds of food are a way to slowly kill myself so that I don't ever have to kick Mediocrity's ass, a cover-up and prevention for doing something TOTALLY amazing, a trap to keep me from discovering all the beauty of life and not equipping myself to enjoy it more!  I know that seeking true health will give me these things because when I lost Levi and started to make healthier choices and exercise, I was amazed at the vision and strategy to accomplish goals that I had clarity of mind to process. Basically, it's taking charge of my life and not allowing myself to be out of control. Why juicing? Why not just start doing the Wii Fit again and eating balanced meals? Because, I believe juicing is the way to give me a fresh start. I detox, then start building from there. The vitamins and minerals in fruit and veggies are unmatched to anything we can put in our bodies. I don't have the drive to eat as much fruit and veggies every day, as our bodies were created to require. By juicing, I get all my body needs and in a concentrated form - straight to the blood stream.
Here's the plan:
5-5-5 We are going to go 5 days of juicing, blending, eating raw fruits and vegetables. The next 5 days will be juicing only. The final 5 days, it's back to juicing, blending and eating raw fruits and veggies. After that time, we will evaluate whether we continue the juice fast or if we feel we have sufficiently detoxed and start to rebuild from there, using the traditional food pyramid.

I purchased my Breville juicer from Amazon.com for $99. It was originally $130 and Amazon notified me through a "coupon" I received in my email which marked it down to $99. I spent about $150 in fresh fruit and veggies from Sam's Club. It's not organic, but it's a start. I see there are a few things I will need to get in addition to, like more tomatoes, fresh bundles of parsley and cilantro and cloves of garlic.

Fruit juice from this morning - red and black grapes, 2 apples, 1 orange. There was enough for Steve and I and Jacob had his first fresh juice experience too. He loved it!

This is the veggies in Steve's and my lunch juice. It was delicious! I made it this morning. According to what I read, it's best to consume immediately after juicing. However, in Steve's case, this just isn't possible he said. So, I made it ahead of time and the resources I read, say that "a few hours" and "refrigerated" should be fine.

This is our juicer. I was using up some leftover veggies, hence the baby carrots and grape tomatoes.

New Beginnings...

Good morning from the southwest corner of northeast Iowa. :D That reminds me of Dr. Seuss, in my favorite children's book, If I Ran the Zoo. It's the first snow day for Jacob. AND the timing couldn't have been more perfect. Last night, was Bennett's first night, in his crib. While Bennett napped after his early morning feeding, Jacob crawled in with me and we snuggled since I didn't have to do any ironing for hubby. I got to get a 20 minute nap with Boy Wonder's chubby hands playing with my hair. Then...Bennett awoke and we started our day at 8AM. It was glorious.

The boys enjoying their first movie together on this snow day. It's Kung Fu Panda 2 because there is "no charge for awesomeness...or attractiveness..." LOL - I just love that quote.

Mr. Bennett is holding on to his rattle for the first time with no assistance AND getting it to his mouth to pacify those annoying teeth.

Just a snap of my Little Darling, before we left to pick up Boy Wonder from school yesterday. Be still my heart. :D

I am purchasing a juicer. I don't know exactly when it will be here, but Feb. 1st is when I plan to do a 10 day juicing fast. It sounds radical...and it is. This radical is good. I will be documenting and posting photos of this process. I am excited and anxious at the same time. However, I want results and I want to detoxify. I am giving myself through this weekend to enjoy the normal stuff. Then, I will be cutting out coffee and sugar and eating according to the traditional food triangle, until Feb. 1st., at which time I will only be drinking the juice from fresh fruit and veggies, and water for 10 days.  I make new beginnings!

No more Spanx!

Bennett is down for a nap. Jacob is at school, following a 3 day weekend with family here to visit. Hubby is back to work after the weekend too.

I open my blog and see it is two months since I last posted! I will never be able to fill you in on all that has transpired in that time. So, I am just going to pick up - like an old friend that you only see once, in a great while - right where we left off. :)

Bennett is going to be 4 months old in a week! It has been the fastest, blurriest, robotic 4 months of my life. Many told me, while I was expecting, that I would be amazed at the differences between my boys. I cannot get over it. I love it! My darlings are vastly different and yet being 5 years apart, they're little puzzle pieces, in our family, fit together perfectly. Jacob is doing well in Kindergarten. He is sounding out words that he sees and reading them regularly. It's remarkable. With that said, I miss him a lot, every day. I enjoyed Christmas break so much - the longest period of time when I had my sons together. I also had my hubby home over the break. I miss him every day too. We hope to eventually spend most of our days together with our boys. I don't know how this will transpire, but it's a dream of ours.  *Charming* folks will tell us, "You don't get to do that until you retire." Well, that response is simply not good enough. We like each other very much and we are proud of our little family and any with that response may suck on sour grapes when my love and I have figured out how to do this. ;)

What are your goals or visions for this year of 2012? If you remember, after Levi, I had become far more aware of my unhealthy eating and decided instead of a diet, it would be a lifestyle change. I was pregnant from February to September of 2011. I gained weight with the pregnancy, which was very frustrating because of the weight loss I had prior to getting pregnant. Two weeks after having Bennett, I was down to pre-pregnancy weight. Then, Bennett and I left the NICU and I had to cook my own meals. DRATS! I managed to cook a meal almost every night - which now that I type it out loud - I have to say that is rather remarkable. However, my breakfast and lunch was whatever was handy. I've gained 9 lbs. of the 27lbs. I had lost after Bennett was born. :( I have not been exercising. I told myself after Levi, and I was like a machine of taking time for myself and taking care of myself, that I'd never "go back" to dreading exercise or eating right. Well, I did not keep that commitment to myself. I despise the way I feel! AND the weight I've gained is all in the weirdest places. I attribute the strange placement of fat to recently having a baby. Even, as I type this post, I am sitting here chowing down on celery..........and delicious buffalo chicken dip....and now that I'm out of celery, I am using tostitos.....scoops........ :( !  Now that I've exposed myself and made confessions, it is time to be accountable and really visualize what I want for my health and the health of my family.
For a long time, I have wondered if so many diseases are related to the processed, preservative-filled, convenient food we all have settled for and told ourselves we "love". HOWEVER, I would love, far more, to be able to buy a cute dress and know that I'd look sassy and sexy without heaving my thighs into a pair of Spanx and then repressing gas all night long because even the gas is trapped in my fat and lycra. ;) [Oh...it feels good to share what I imagine! ;) ]

I say all of that to say this:  This year,

• I will have an organic garden, which I will blog about.
• I am buying a juicer after watching Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead on netflix instant stream. I dare you to watch it too, if you haven't already.
• I have taken the Blue Zones Personal Pledge [www.bluezonesproject.com]
• I will be healthier by being 80lbs. lighter this time next year.

My weight loss is not only so that I can enjoy clothes shopping again. It's because I need to be the example to my boys that we can and should enjoy food and cooking and baking, but I want to enjoy them and I have dreams of my own to accomplish yet! I am in no way, the best version of myself, by hiding behind weight. I'm a diva on the inside. Only those who know me well, know that. I was too afraid to play Dance Central on the xbox kinect this past weekend because I didn't want to knock anyone out with my jiggling. I love to dance! I totally jipped myself. :( I mean seriously...the world needs the next Thirty-Something, Mama of boys, Fly-Girl. Well, maybe they don't...but I need to feel the freedom to let it all hang out and all the hanging out is not supposed to be my flesh. It's supposed to be my own creativity, my own zeal for life.
Stay tuned.....and for those that are not my friends on Facebook...here are some pics of my Darlings.....