the struggles of staying healthy.

Its been another week after the end of my 2nd juice cleansing,  I've still been juicing breakfasts but not my other meals. I eat vegan meals but still struggling with correct portion sizes. Even with my workouts it is not making up for the regular meals I am eating and I am not mainting the weight loss I had from my cleansings :( which is kind of disappointing, but I am kind of determined to figure out how to maintain a healthy weight without having to juice all my meals, so have a stronger desire too try and really monitor my portion sizes. I'll let you know if I'm successful in that.

update on transation from cleansing to vegan

Okay so my 14 day cleansing has pretty much ended, even though it hasn't quiet been 14 days. I am at the end of my transition week (juicing breakfast and lunch and vegan meals for supper). It has been more difficult then anticipated to make sure I do correct serving sizes and I have been constantly juicing breakfast, however only juiced lunch sun-wed then started just eating small raw snacks for lunch because I was drinking late breakfasts. For my supper I have been eating a baked bean casserole I made and this evening a vegan meat loaf I made. The recipes were slightly more difficult then anticipated but have been pretty good. I am really needing to work on my portion sizes and exercising more. I plan on attempting to jog with the dogs and I am still doing my 10min beach body workouts twice a day for most of the week. ( I dont' always do it every day). This past week I have just been making my own juice recipes when I do juice. This morning I just ate fruit instead of juicing it. I don't have the recipes I made with me, they are at home and I am at my parents. But I will post those if you are interested because they were all pretty good, even the veggie one. Well this cleansing wasn't as successful as I had hoped, but I am still making a lot of progress with how I eat and with exercising more, so my change has been baby steps but I feel has been some what successful. I'll keep you updated on my progress with getting/staying healthier.

day 1 and 2 of week 2 cleansing

This is an update on how my second week is going on my cleansing. Sunday I did a juice drink that was mainly fruit but had some veggies (don't remember which one sorry :)) I turned it into a smoothie with ice and banana and spent most of the day drinking it (it turned out pretty good). I then had a taco salad for supper. If you have  noticed by the fact I had a taco salad for supper I am starting to introducee other foods this week besides just raw foods,  along with more exercises. I am enjoying having extra food such as the veggie beans that were added to my salad however it is adding extra calories I am needing to adjust for if I want to maintain my weight loss. Today's breakfast drink was so large that I drank half of it for breakfast and finished the rest with lunch as well as having a store bought bagged salad I added almonds, broccoli and cherry tomatoes too. My supper was just snacks, but not as healthy of snacks as I should have had. Tomorrow I plan on having juice breakfast and a juice lunch and will have a regular vegan supper that will be a baked bean casserole I made this evening. I will keep you update with my transition/cleansing week and let you know how it is going. The recipes I will be making for my vegan meals are difficult to re post so if you want the recipes for my vegan meals you will have to ask me and I can e-mail them too me. I will still post the juice recipes, however I did not keep track of today's juice recipes very well and can not remember the exact recipes, sorry I will keep better track tomorrow :).

day 7 (half way through)

Today is day 7 of  my newest cleansing. This time it is a 14 day cleansing. Although I still have some of the same struggles I have had from the beginning with just really wanting regular food I have made it to the halfway mark and today had a pretty good day with not really craving other foods as much. I feel that I am doing pretty good and that although I a may still just want to stop :) I will make it to day 14. Today's morning drink was Grapefruit, orange, and pineapple. I am not usually a fan of grapefruit but this drink wasn't to bad. I had a late breakfast so for lunch I just did a little snack pack that included raw broccoli, carrots and almonds. For supper I did a green juice recipe, in the paste the green juices have not been a friend of mine but this one was actually pretty good. Day 7 has been another pretty good day. Below are today's juice recipes.

Grapefruit, Orange, and Pineapple
-2 grapefruits
-2 oranges
-1/4 pineapple
-1/4 lemon

Delightful Green Juice
-1 apple
-1/2 cucumber
-1/4 green cabbage
-handful spinach (I was out of spinach and used a handful of Kale instead)

Day 6 of new 14 day cleansing

So I am now on day 6 of new 14 day cleansing. Today was a slow start because I wasn't really feeling very good so I slept in pretty late, but once I got going did pretty good today. I am getting a little tired of juicing and am looking forward to eating regular food (healthy regular food). However both of today's juices were actually really good my breakfast was called grape, orange and carrot, which is weird cause it doesn't have any carrots in it lol :). It should be grape, orange and apple. My lunch was carrot and asparagus juice which may not sound very good or really look very good :) but surprisingly enough was really good. then my supper was just salad with spinach/cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, avocado. Today was a pretty good day, besides feeling week and a little tired this morning. Below are today's juice recipes.

Grape, Orange, and apple
-3 cups green or red seedless grapea
-1 orange
-1 apple
-1/4 lime

Carrot and Asparagus
-4 carrots
-1/2lb asparagus
-4 celery ribs
-2 apples
-2 cups firmly packed spinach leaves

day 5 of 2 week cleansing

The longer I do this cleansing the harder it seems to be. I have little motivation when it comes to drinking veggie juices(and rarely finish them) and I just want to eat a sandwich , but I am still sticking with it despite the struggles. Changing your life style and how you do stuff is never easy and although the last time I did a 7 day cleansing I might have said it wasn't to hard and I could do it longer this time it is a lot different. My last 7 days I was at a different job, most of the time was spent alone(except treatment times with kids when I was not eating). At work I just went from school to school on my own, I stayed at home on my own making my own foods. At my new job there is always multiple numbers of  other therapists and children around eating many different things, little cracker snacks, candies, whole meals etc. I have also been spending more time going to visit my parents then I have in the past and it is difficult trying to make sure I have the stuff I need to juice and that I just juice while they eat regular meals. I have stuck with it and plan on trying my best to keep going, I just wanted to acknowledge the struggles I have had. Today I was able to sleep in really late so I had a very late breakfast juice called mango,orange, banana. Because my breakfast was so late I did not get around to lunch until getting home from work which ended up being a late lunch/supper combined. My lunch and supper where just a very large salad, I decided to do things a little differently and start to work in learning how to eat out healthy so my salad was actually from subway and when I got it home I just added avocado and cherry tomatoes, I also cheated a little bit and put a little bit of non dairy organic ranch dressing on it, in the future however I am going to try and flavor with lemons or limes or something like that. Yesterday I weighted myself after not weighing myself for a while and I was down another 5lbs. I don't think that is all just from the last 5 days but I'm sure a majority of it was lost from this current cleansing. It helped give me a little motivation to keep going along with pep talks from my mom and a close friend. I will keep you updated on how I am doing and if I do truly make it the 14 days this time around. Below is the recipe from todays juice.

Mango, Banana, Orange

-2 mangoes
-2 oranges
-1/4 lime
-2 bananas
(I only had one mango left so only made it with one mango but it was still good)

update on new cleansing

So I have not posted since my brief description on day one, I am now half way through day 4. This time around has seemed to be quiet more difficult when it comes to wanting regular food. I have not been feeling full of my juice meals and have been graving and getting hungry for other foods more frequently.This time around has been so much more challenging with wanting to stay with it that I have considered multiple times stopping or just making it a shorter cleanse. I did get a new juice book to help with ideas for different juices so I do not have to have the same juices all the time, that has been nice with lots of options and different choices. Yesterday due to some conflicts with meetings and other things I had one juice meal and 2 raw meals with raw fruit or vegetables. My dinners are the same they were before, spinach salads with tomatoes, onions, cauliflower, and avocado.  I am going to try and make it through at least the rest of the week and then see how I am doing. I have not been feeling any different this cleansing around, besides hungry :). I tried to keep track of the recipes I have been using the last few days so here is the list and recipe of juices I have used this week. I did adapt some of them for what ingredients i had such as a few times using spinach instead of kale and sometimes an apple instead of a pear or cutting recipe in half.
(all recipes say they serve 2 people)
Tropical Carrot
-4 carrots
-2 celery ribs
-2 apples
-1 mango
-1/4 lime

Carrot Kale
-6 carrots
-4 celery ribs
-1 apple
-3 cups firmly packed kale leaves
( i have used with kale and with spinach in replacement of kale, like with Spinac better :)

Peach and pear
-3 peaches
-3 pears
-1 apple
(calls for 1/4 fennel bulb but I didn't add that)

Grape Kiwi and orange
-6 kiwis
-2 oranges
-2 celery ribs

Blueberry, strawberry,apple
- 1 qt. blueberry
-1 pt. strawberries
-2 apples
-1/4 lemon

beggining of new juice cleanse 14 days (2 weeks)

In my last post I said I would let you know the time I was starting a new juice cleansing. This time I am doing it for 14 days instead of just one week. I am doing a second cleansing and one a little longer for the following reasons. 1st I got off track and feel I need to clean out my system again and restart, 2nd I was having some trouble adjusting from juicing to a healthy diet and I feel extending a little bit will help me see more of a difference then I did with just 7 days. However this time around I do not feel as strong and as confident as I did when I was doing 7 days so we will see if I am able to stick with it. I started this morning on a Sunday, the beginning of the week so it would be easier to keep track :). I plan on doing it how I did it last time 2 meals juiced on meal pretty much raw foods. I will keep you further posted on how it goes.  So far today I've just had breakfast, it was a an apple berry drink the recipe will be below. I will post again later on how the rest of the day went and what I did for lunch and supper. Because I am still at my parents my lunch will probably be raw food and my supper will be a juice meal. Below is today's breakfast stay tuned for other meals :)

Blueberry, strawberry, and Apple:
-1qt. blueberries
-1 pt. strawberries
-2 apples
-1/4 lemon
(can garnish with strawberries)
(services 2 people)

struggles (2 weeks after 7 day cleansing)

Its been just over 2 weeks since I stopped my cleansing. Sorry my update is a little late, but its hard to update on stuff when your not quiet doing what you are supposed to be doing. the last week and half has been a little bit of a struggle for me, I've been preoccupied with a job change I've been going through so other things kind of fell to the side. I took a break from my workouts for a day (after an over 2 and half hour work out on monday), one day turned into 2 and into 3 and so on, and a similar thing happened with my juicing. I have juiced a couple times in the last week but not like I wanted too and I am back to not really eating breakfast and lunch and then eating a bunch of little meals later in the evening, and even though for the most part they are still pretty healthy to much of healthy food can still be bad. My struggle came with the shift of no longer just juicing and being able to eat regulare foods again. It is very difficult to find a good medium between just juicing and balanced meals. I am still working on exactly where the line is. So I have decided its time to get back to consistent juicing. I need to get myself back on track and juicing gets me on a good starting point. I have not made it to the grocery store to buy my supplies to start this as of tomorrow so I will probably have to officially start it on wednesday, but I plan on doing a juicing diet of some type starting Wednesday at the earliest and I plan on doing it for not just 7 days but 2 weeks. I will also be getting back to more consistent exercises every day and drinking my water bottles everyday. I will keep you informed on when I start this and if I am successful. I wish this update could be more inspiring but changing a life style isn't always easy :). Wish  me luck.

week one after cleansing

Sorry it has taken so long for an update, just never got around to doing it. My first weekend after my 7 day cleansing was spent with my parents for my moms birthday. I tried to stay healthy but was eating more food then I had for a week and was not getting my exercises done so did put on weight. After that weekend I decided to just keep juicing. I continued to juice my breakfasts and to make a veggie juice for lunch that sometimes include a sandwich on the side. I have been doing a more extensive workout this last week to try and make up for the increase in calories since I'm eating more regular food. I have not really tried any new juices, just been using the ones I have previously posted, with adaption depending on what ingredients I had on hand. So far i am doing pretty good but the last couple days have had some work issues and there for have been eating more unhealthy then i should be, I have been increasing workouts to try and make up for it but do need to get back on track. I think the main problem is not drinking enough water s,o I feel hungrier then I need too. So far though I think I am maintaining a happy appetite, but have found out recently that I think some veggie meats make me sick because I have been adding them back into my diets and lately have been having upset stomachs. I am still not for sure what exactly has been causing it since I had added multiple things back into my diet the last couple days, but will start taking things out against to try and figure it out. Anyway I will continue to let you know how things are going as I continue to try and maintain a healthier diet and as I continue to juice breakfasts and some lunches :). Oh I did try a new juice this morning below is the ingredients for the melon melody, kind of tastes sweet like candy :).

Melon Melody
-1/2 watermelon
-1/2 honey dew melon
-1/2 cantolope.

Day 7!!!

Well it has come day 7! But it really doesn't even feel like it has been 7 days. Makes me feel like I should have gone longer cause 7 days wasn't very hard at all :). Todays morning juice was orange and grapefruit which I wasn't sure if I would like because i'm not much into grapefruit, but it was actually pretty good. My lunch juice was a little blan so I again added an apple to it and I was able to finish this one today :).  At day 7 I am about 5 pounds lighter, I have more energy through my day because I am actually geting breakfast and its an easy breakfast for me to do. So now to answer the big question, what are my plans after day 7? I plan to pretty much keep going. I am going to add light regular food to my diet but I am still juicing my breakfasts and I even have a juice for lunch tomorrow, but I will also have a vegetarian turkey sandwich on hemp bread with spianch. I will be having a fuller supper becuase I am going to celebrate my moms birthday with her and my dad at my parents apartment tomorrow, but I will only be doing correct serving sizes so not a full full meal. And the rest of the day I will be juicing my meals (besides the sandwich for lunch). I will continue to blog on the juices I do or the meals I try, however it might be weekly updates instead of daily updates and I will probably change the name of the blog :). Stay tuned if you want to know more about how I'm doing after my 7 days!  Below are todays juices.

Breakfast blend
-3 oranges
-1 grapefruit

Green Boost
-1 medium stock (6oz) broccoli (i accidently forgot the broccoli!)
-1 small yellow squash
-1 medium celery stalk
-1/2 green bell pepper
-1/2 inch slic cucumber
(I forgot the broccoli but added an apple :)

Day 6

Well Day 6 is now finished. It really doesn't even seem like it has been six days and planning on what I will eat after day 7 actually feels wrong, like I'm cheating or something. My day six breakfast was called sweat pea and the name pretty much says it sweat pea snaps, pear and celery it was actually pretty good but the recipe did not make very much juice. My lunch was called Energy on the Run it was a little strong so I added an extra ingredient too it, but when it came time to drink it was unable to finish it all. I tried to get it all down but just didnt' have the time between kids to truly force my self to drink it so I got just 3/4 of it done, but stopped because it had been sitting for a while and was getting warm and drinking it would have just made me sick. When I got home from work I cut off some of the pineapple from a previous drink, I think later ate my normal salad mix with green peppers, onions, spinach, guacamole, tomatoes and tonight added a tiny bit of organic black beans. I later also had a couple strawberries :). Well not a lot to say about today, was pretty much like the other days. Got up sleep but once I got going was fine, my lunch was hard to get down, had my typical supper and did my 3rd night in a row of a 30 min (easy) workout. Made it through 6 days one left to go! Below are the recipes from today's drinks.

Sweat Pea
-1 cup sugar snap peas
-1 stalk celery
-1 pear

Energy On The Run
-1 small wedge of cabbage
-2 medium stalks celery
-1 medium carrot
-1/2 large beet
-1/2 large red pepper
-1/2 lemon peel and white pith removed
(now that I see the ingredients I don't think I remembered the pepper lol :), but I did add an apple to make it sweeter)

Day 5

So I had to check my old posts to remember what day I was on :). Day five started out a little rough cause I was not feeling good this morning, but that is mostly because I haven't been working on my poor sleeping habits and I didnt' get a lot of sleep last night. Once I got up and going I was fine. My breakfast this morning was a berry juice full of just berries (raspberries,blueberries and strawberries) it was pretty good. Lunch wasn't so bad today I finished it, but I still struggle with the vegetable juices for some reason. I was a lot more hungry today so when I got home from work ate some fruit as a sort of snack pear,peach, and plum. My supper was the typical serving of vegetables and then a small salad but I didn't finish all of it tonight, maybe I'm just getting tired of the same thing :). I have been getting better about drinking more water (2 20z water bottles full today) and started adding exercises into my daily routing (well for the last 2 days anyway). I exercise for at least 30 min but so far its just my wii fit exercises, I will get to tougher stuff sooner. Well made it through day 5 and still doing pretty good. Today I was thinking about what my plans are once I hit day 7. I am still going to be doing juicing for breakfasts and maybe even a small one for lunch and just add a small sandwich with it or something. We will see what I decide to do once day 7 comes and goes. Below is the recipes from today's juice meals :)

Berry fruit juice recipes
-2 cups strawberries
-2cups blueberries
1 and 1/2 cups of raspberries
(I actually did 2 cups of everything)

Super C green
-1 cup of spinach
-1/2 cucumber
-2 stalks of celery including leaves
-3 carrots (I suggest smaller carrots unless you want it to taste very carroty)
-1/2 apple (I did a whole apple)

Day 4

I just want to say I miss bread, even though it has only been 4 days (well technically I have been off bread for a week but still not very long). I'm not sure that I could make it for 30 or 60 days like some people do, but I am making it through my week :). Day fours breakfast was a kiwi blueberry drink which was pretty good but did not make very much juice so I also ate the left overs from the drink I made for lunch, which was half a pear and half a green apple. My lunch drink was again hard to get down but I think it might have been better if it had been colder and if I had added a full apple and pear instead of just the half it called for. In the afternoon during lunch and after lunch I was feeling a little nauseous. My supper was a serving (3/4 cup) of vegetables (carrots, broccoli, cauliflower) and a small salad made with spinach leafs, onions, green peppers, tomatoes, and squeeze of lemon juice. Today I also finished two water bottles of water (32 oz each), so I was not really hungry for snacks at all today. Day four went by without to many issues, besides still having to force down my lunch drink. I am looking up and working on finding a veggie juice that I don't have to force myself to drink. Below are the recipes from today's drinks.

Kiwi and wisdomberry
-3 kiwis
-2 cups of blueberries

Mean Green Juice #4 (from Joe Cross website)
-1/2 pear
-1/2 green apple
-handful spinach
-handful parsley
-2 celery stalks
-1/2 cucumber
-small piece of ginger
-slice of papaya

Day 3

So day 3 has been a struggle for many reasons. To start off in the morning, and through most of the afternoon, I was feeling very weak and extremely fatigued, took a lot to get me going this morning. Slept in way later then planned. After I finally got up and did get my breakfast and take the dogs on a walk I felt a little better. My breakfast was a juice called peachy blues it was a good drink however it did not hold me over very long and I became hungry quickly, i snacked on some grapes. My lunch started my second problem for the day with my veggie drink. Again i tried to pick a juice that had a good variety of vegetables and one I had not tried yet. My lunch was called Delightful Green Juice, it didn't taste horrible but was hard to get down. I think it could have used less cabbage. It wasn't my favorite, but was better then the lunch the day before. I managed to finish it but it stayed with me for quiet a while. My stomach felt heavy and full for quiet a while after I finished it and made it feel a little unsettled. By supper though I was feeling better and had my typical salad with spinich/spring leaf mix, onions, tomatoes, avocados, and organic pinto beans. After supper the feeling sick started going away so I have been doing better this evening. The other hard thing today was grocery shopping. The first few days I went to the store it was fine but this evening there was a lot of temptations that looked very good and were hard to pass up. I just tried to stay focused on what I went to the store for. I make sure I have my list and now what I"m getting and go straight to produce section to prevent temptation. Well it was a rough one but successfully made it through day 3. For day 4 I will be making a lunch that is more of a mix of veggies and fruit so its not so hard going down.  Below are day 3 recipes.

Peachy Blues:
2 pears
1 peach
1 cup of blueberries

Delightful green juice
1 apple
1/2 cucumber
1/4 green cabbage
handful spinach
(i also added some green grapes to sweetin it up)

Day 2

Well made it through day one and two :). For day two I remembered that I was needing to make sure I drank lots of water too, so I tried to make sure i added that in to my meal plan. Today I was still pretty overly tired and was feeling a little weak this morning when getting ready for my day, but that could be part of the process. I've also been having a few more head aches this evening. Today's breakfast I finished the last little bit of my 5  P's juice from yesterdays supper and then I made Tropical Trio which was pretty good, but I think would have been much better if my mango had been a little ripper. Have been more hungry through out today then I was in other days so had a few snacks my after lunch snack included a bowl  of grapes. The roughest part about my day was my lunch. My drink for lunch was called drink your veggies. This particular drink has been one that I have been unsure about from the beginning, but I needed to get a variety in so I tried it. It was a little rough going down and wasn't sure if I would be able to do it I had to put it on ice and add a little lemon too it, but managed to finish it :). I think it might have been better if I had measured out the ingredients more accurately, but not sure. For my supper I made a mix of avocado, tomatoes, cucumber, onions, broccoli, and cauliflower in a bowl all diced up then scooped it up into a big leaf of cabbage and ate it kind of like a burrito, it wasn't to bad :). To finish the last little bit of it I added some organic pinto beans and spinach and ate it like a taco salad. For my drink for supper I just made sure I drank water. For an evening snack had plum and a pear. only on day 2 but realizing this is gonna be a little harder then I thought because I was really craving actual food, but I made it through :). And I'm sure will continue to be able to make it. Below are my recipes from todays drinks.

Tropical Trio (breakfast)
1 mango
1 wedge of pineapple
1/2 of papaya

Drink Your Veggies (lunch)
4 medium carrots
1 large apple
2 inch cucumber
1 inch fresh ginger
(garnish with lemon to serve)
(I squeezed to lemon slices into my drink)

Day 1

Today was rough because I needed to get up earlier to have time to actually make a breakfast and a lunch too!  I was very tired and did not want to get up, but after hitting snooze a few times I did and made a juice called Morning Dew :). It was pretty good. I actually usually skip breakfast because I am just not hungry and don't feel like eating anything but drinking it was a lot easier and it actually made me feel quiet refreshed.  My lunch was a juice called Drink Your First Course which wasn't to bad but it took me quiet a while to actually finish it. I started to feel pretty hungry in the afternoon when I got home from work, but held off until about 4:30 before eating my small serving of salad which was spinach mix, onions, green peppers, tomatoes and avocados I ended dinner with another drink mix for desert :) a small glass of the 5 P's juice (also below) which was a mix of different fruits. About an hour after I finished my dinner I became extremely hungry and was wanting to eat more then just my juices and salad. I went to the fridge and found a large piece of cauliflower and ate it right up like it was an ice cream cone or something :) but it did the job and I was no longer feeling hungry.
So far my first day as not been to bad, the juices have been filling me up pretty nicely, for the most part anyway. Below I will list the ingredients for the 3 juices I tried today. Oh someone asked me what diet plan I was using, not really using a specific one, just going on my own path and making it up as I go along. It is however sort of  based off of the one used in the Documentary Fat, sick and Nearly Dead. The documentary recommands a longer cleansing. I am currently starting just 7 days of a cleansing, but will possibly go longer if it seems to work well. That's all for now, if you are interested in trying the juices they will be listed below :).

Morning Dew: (my breakfast)
1 green apple
1/4 (16 oz) honey dew melon
8 strawberries
1 cup of green grapes
(makes about 2 servings it said to serve you could garnish with strawberries but I didn't need to decorate my drink :)

Drink your first course: (my lunch)
5 medium carrots
2 large stalks of celery
1 medium apple halved
1 spring parsley
(says it makes about 1 3/4 a cup and that it can be garnished with lemon wedge but I didn't do that)

The 5 "P's": (my dinner dessert :)
1/4 fresh pineapple
1 peach, stone removed
1 pear, halved
1 plout, stone removed (if you don't have a plout you can use a second peach instead)
1 plum, stone removed

reason for cleansing

This blog is going to document my findings as I do a special diet to cleanse out my system and try and get myself healthier. Some of my family and friends may know that I have had many different health problems that have gone unoticed by doctors. I will go in for side pain, chest pain, breathing problems, extreme weaknesss and fatigue and to the doctors everything is fine. I am perfectly healthy. I have also had continual issues with sleep. I can not get to sleep and if I fall asleep have diffiuclty staying asleep. Something else that was tested at a sleep clinic but again, doctors said I was fine and was perfectly healthy. Upon the recommandation of my cousin, I am spending the next 7 days cleaning out my system. I am going to go on a juice diet with a raw food supper. This is to clean out any foods that I have been eating that may have been causing any of the above issues. 7 days may not seem very long but following these 7 days I am hoping to try and stay on a more strict healthy diet keeping out foods that I know cause me trouble . I will keep track of the juices and meals I have eatin in this blog during these next 7 days and how I am feeling that day. So if you would like to know how I am doing, and if I have noticed any changes in this short period of time, watch out for my blog entries to follow my progress.

Status: Day before starting cleansing
I Have been tired today and a little weak, also my stomach has not been feeling very well. Todays meals where simple due to beginning to start preparing myself for my 7 day cleansing just fruit cup, smoothie, (home made) taco salads and a few corn chips/whole grain chips and dip.