Back At It Again! 30 Day Juice Cleanse

And I'm back at it, with another 30 day juice cleanse.  I'm on day 2, looking at day 3 in a few hours. Right now, I do have cravings. I am doing smoothies as well. Hoping to taper off smoothies by the end of the week.

I'm hoping to achieve mental clarity. I'm trying to declutter spiritually and emotionally. I was at Lowe's today and turned around and saw and entire row of candy. Like, why? I had to turn my back to it. I would have grabbed something had it be any other day.  But not today, not today.

Am I exactly happy about the next 28 days...not really. I know its something I need to do. First time, I did a cleanse it was for acne. Now that my acne is gone...YAY...I'm more working on looking internal.

But for now, I'm just trying not to daydream about cheeseburgers.

Juice Cleanse: Day 23

It's day numero 23!! I'm still alive and well and feeling just fine.  I started adding celery back into my juice for the great benefits it offers despite the awful taste. It won't kill me! LOL. The only thing that is aching are my knees and mid back and times, which are issues I've been dealing with.  I'm hoping that as I continue this wellness journey those pains will disappear. Plus I think the planking challenge is working my entire middle out that may contribute to the back...I think.  It's not a bad pain at all, so its OK. Plus, I need to stretch more. I don't stretch. I have to do better.

Acne Update
Let's talk about my acne, shall we? After all, that is the reason I started this cleanse.  My acne breakouts and drying up...they are taking their sweet 'ole time but they are drying up.  My skin overall, looks a lot better. But I can't see past the breakouts, so once they're gone I'll do a blackflip (in my head of course!).  So the acne is still a work in progress, but progress is happening. Yay!  My skin on my entire body just feels so super smooth and wonderful, its' awesome. Like a newborn baby!

Rewarding Myself
I set milestones and a rewards system just to give myself something extra to look forward to.  I'm happy to announce that I've earned 4 rewards! yay! I owe myself a professional manicure, homemade pasta and homemade pasta sauce dinner for the family (my reward is having fun making it, even though I won't be eating it) and I get to purchase $40 of oils for myself! Super excited about that. I tried to pick rewards that I know I want and love, like making the pasta and buying oils, etc.. Basically my "rewards" are items on my "want list" so by achieving my goals I get what I want...winning!

A New Start
This cleanse is really just phase 1 of a whole new life.  This is kickstarting my 5k training, new eating habits, new thinking, a new everything.  I so far lost over 25 pounds as of day 20.  I say over 25 llbs because I didn't weigh until day 4 of the cleanse.

Cravings
None! I'm not addicted anymore. I'm not addicted to breads, cheese, pasta, chocolate, sugars. That need to feed on those things are gone. I can be around other people eating them and not have a care in the world. So awesome...that stuff is addictive.

Check out my other blog for my updates on my juice cleanse, I alternate postings back and forth between this blog and my other one.

Juice Cleanse: Day 19

No, I haven't been keeping a daily log of my juice cleanse, simply because there isn't much to tell. It's still an experience, but not as eventful as the first week thats for sure.

I picked up a share of produce from an organic collective. Got organic kale, oranges, cabbage, celery, carrots, lemons, etc... Since I am juicing nothing but organic going forward, that was a helpful kickstart.

My acne is still here, that's a bit depressing since I was hoping it when be gone by Day 20, which is tomorrow. Things seem to be drying/healing up, but they are still present which is a huge bummer. The key may be a colon/liver/kidney cleanse which I will start on next to flush out toxins that remain in my body.

I must say I am proud of myself for sticking with it. When I was on day 2, I didn't know if or how I'd make it to now. But I am grateful for sticking it out because the only way I could get to day 19, was if I successfully completed day 2.

My awareness is so keen. I am thinking so clear and fixing the things that I just didn't really want to to deal with and getting things in order as much as I can.

I realize that every other commercial pushes food in our faces. Laden with bad fats, oils and stuff we don't need. It is constant. I can't blame the media for how unhealthy some people are, but they are not innocent. I just don't think we are aware of the subliminal messages that we get to eat and eat and eat and eat stuff that really isn't that great for us. It's a cycle, and we as a society are stuck. It's only by doing this fast did I see the pattern that was there all along. To anyone that overeats, undereats, binge eats, eats for no reason and/or eats "bad" foods, ask yourself why. I think we will see that our external environment triggers internal levers that make us participate in unhealthy habits. I'm not a health guru by any means but 19 day of this cleanse has given me clarity that I just didn't have and clarity I think many people don't when we as stuck in the cycle of fast and processed foods.

I have, in effect drank more vegetables that I ate probably in the past six months...maybe close to the past year (sad but true) in just under 20 days.  True story. And this is stuff that my body needs to do its best. I've been in effect, starving myself all this time.  Never again. never again.

Right now I am looking forward to the next 11 day of this cleanse. Going to focus on detoxing the organs I mentioned above. I'll post about that as well. I know I need to drink more water even though it seems like I'm ALWAYS drinking it! I also started going to the sauna to help my skin detox, so I hope to keep this up as well.

I must say I feel fabulous, I really do.

xoxo

Healthy Resolution #1

Each day I'm on this juice cleanse starting today which is Day 6, I'll be making resolutions for a much healthier lifestyle.  I'm learning so much about food, health, fitness, etc... its crazy. There is a lot of conflicting information out there but one thing is a consistent message: processed foods are bad. They have too much salt, sugar and other stuff I can't even pronounce and the body doesn't need.

So here goes:

RESOLUTION #1:  

Significantly reduce intake of processed food. Buy whole foods and make as much as possible. This includes sauces, pasta, etc..

Sunrise Juice

I've been experimenting with various juicing recipes and coming up with whatever I think will work and taste pretty good.

I just made the below recipe for breakfast. It's super delicious! I hope you can try it and let me know what you think.

3 Large Oranges

2 Handfuls of Spinach

1/8 of Pineapple

1/4 Lime Juice

Ginger (about half a thumb size)

Makes about 12 ounces of juice.

Next time I make this I'll add a bit more spinach and a little kale too.

Enjoy!

Juice Cleanse: Day 5

This is exactly how I feel about my juice cleanse!

I meant to start Jan 2. But because of an unfortunate mishap, I suffered 2nd degree burns on my lap (spilled a hot bowl of water) and started later than I intended. It would have been easy to just say forget it, but I knew this is something I wanted to do as I was/am in bad need of detox and a body reset. In addition, I wanted to know what foods were causing me to breakout (diary!) and other things. On top of that I had just been tired of eating, tired of chewing I really didn't have a taste for anything so it really was a perfect time to get the party...cleansing...started.

So, I'm sure I could have had a much more defined plan. I'm sure I could have purchased the juicer in advance and did all these other things. But, really that was just a delay tactic. I just got started with the juices and veggies we had on hand and my blender (used a strainer to strain out some of the fibers). I purchased a juicer via Amazon, and it came in 3 days instead of the 9 they said it would.

Long story, short I'm glad I started even if I wasn't 100 percent perfectly prepped in advance.

This is Day 5 of my juice cleanse. This morning I had a pineapple, orange, spinach and ginger juice, about 12 ounces. It was pretty good. Next time, I'll cut back on the pineapple because it was quite sweet...even for me!

Also today is the first day I'll be cooking for the family...wish me luck in resisting the urge to taste! Last week  couldn't really even be around food that was cooking. I had to go upstairs, I really couldn't stand it, it smelled so good and was so tempting.  Last night my gf made fried chicken, her fried chicken is so delicious. It smelled good and looked good, but I didn't feel like I was going to loose it and scarf down 5 pieces. I drank my juice and my water and had some ginger tea before bed, that was that.

I must say this past  5 days has almost felt like 50 days, lol...but hopefully that will get better as I ease into this and it becomes easier for me to do.

I was shocked at the amount of energy I had this morning. I almost jumped out of bed. My knees, which have been "bad" since HS feel so much better. I feel like I won't make any definitive calls on how I feel/look until about halfway through the cleanse...just to be sure it's not all in my head!

So here I am on day 5, with 25 more days to go. OMG...that seems like a lot. I'll post updates here, possibly every other day or so.

I'm ff to drink some fruit infused water!