Saturday, April 27, 2013

Preparing Your Fruits and Vegetables


*I've found that when juicing leafy greens, mint, ginger or other produce that yields a small amount, it's best to juice them first, then juice your produce that yields more liquid. This helps make sure you get the most yield from your produce.*

The Dirty Dozen
These fruits and vegetables are usually the most contaminated with pesticides. Whenever possible, try to always buy organic with these fruits and vegetables.

Peaches
Apples
Sweet bell peppers
Celery
Nectarines
Strawberries
Cherries
Pears
Grapes
Lettuce
Spinach
Potatoes

12 Least Contaminated Fruits and Veggies
Organic is always best but if finances won't allow you to go full organic, these are generally the least contaminated produce.

Onions
Avocado
Sweet Corn (Frozen)
Pineapples
Mango
Asparagus
Sweet Peas (Frozen)
Kiwi Fruit
Bananas
Cabbage
Broccoli
Papaya
******************************************************************************
Apples-
I wash them, cut them in quarters and throw them in the juicer. I personally do not bother taking the seeds out but some people insist on it because the seeds contain trace amounts of arsenic? Do whatever you are comfortable with.

Beets-
Personally, I peel the beet before juicing it. Beets are sweet and surprisingly tasty to add to juices but they can have an earthy taste and it can make your juice smell like dirt. I think peeling the beet helps with the earthy taste but many people just juice the whole thing. You can also juice the greens that come with the beet root.
Start off with small slices of beet when you are first starting out.

Citrus-
I personally peel all of my citrus except for lemons and limes. Leave the pith on your citrus. Pith is the white stuff between the peel and the fruit.
I do not bother with removing seeds.

Carrots-
If you buy organic carrots, there is no need to peel them first. Many people say you should peel them if you buy non-organic, but I don't. I wash them well and always cut off the top ends of the carrots.

Celery-
I wash them thoroughly and juice the entire stick of celery, leaves and all.

Cucumbers-
I always peel the waxy layer off.

Kale and Spinach-
When I started off juicing, I only juiced the leaves and I would throw the stems in the trash. The stem part of kale and spinach can be bitter when starting out but with massive amount of kale I was juicing in a week, I quickly decided I wanted and needed the juice from ALL of the kale, stems and all. As with all produce, wash well.

Pineapple-
Peel the pineapple by slicing the rind off. I recommend cutting out the core of the pineapple because it can be really hard on your juicer. Cut the pineapple into chunks that will fit in your juicer.

Ginger root- I started off peeling the ginger (easily done by scraping the ginger with a spoon) and still usually do unless I'm in a hurry. If you are not going to peel the ginger, wash it thoroughly.

Peaches, plums, avocado and other pitted fruits-
Wash and remove the pit from the fruit. The pit can break your juicer.

Bananas-
Don't bother juicing. Bananas yield such a small amount of juice that it's a waste. If you really want banana, make your juice and put it in a blender with your banana. And of course, peel the banana first. *some people say that blending a banana is cheating because its not all juice. Again, this journey is personal. There are no rules. If you want to blend a banana, by all means, blend one*

Mint-
I only juice the leaves. Wash before juicing.

Sweet potatoes-
I personally peel the potato before juicing it but many people do not. You get a lot of nutrients from the skin of the potato. Wash thoroughly before juicing. Also, juicing sweet potatoes will give the juice a slightly grainy texture and don't be alarmed if you see a white milky substance in your juice. This is just from the starch. The juice is still good.

Cherries-
I've not yet juiced cherries but you will need to remove the seeds first. The seeds can break your juicer.



I am still working on adding more produce to the list. Please let me know if there are more fruits or vegetables you have questions about.


Friday, April 26, 2013

Substitution List (for juicing)





Item Substitution



Apple- Any variety, pear, red grapes, black grapes, cherries, blackberries, blueberries

Arugula (Rocket)- Spinach, kale, watercress

Avocado- banana, olive

Banana- Avocado

Basil- Parsley, cilantro, mint

Beets (Beetroot)- Golden beets, red cabbage, tomato, radish

Blueberries- Blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, cherries

Bok Choy - Kale, beet greens, dandelion greens

Broccoli stalk- Celery, cucumber, cauliflower

Broccoli- Cauliflower, green cabbage

Butternut squash- Pumpkin, carrot, sweet potato, acorn squash, spaghetti squash, delicata squash, Hubbard squash

Cantaloupe (Rockmelon)-Mango, papaya, peach

Carrots- Sweet potato/yam, winter squash, pumpkin, parsnip

Celeriac root- Celery, turnip, parsley root, kohlrabi, jicama, daikon

Celery- Cucumber, zucchini, jicama

Cherries- Raspberries, strawberries, blackberries

Chives- Scallion

Cilantro (Coriander)- Basil, parsley

Coconut water - Water, diluted fresh juice

Collard Greens- Mustard greens, kale, beet greens, dandelion greens

Cranberries- Cherries, raspberries

Cucumber- Celery, zucchini, jicama

Dandelion Greens- Kale, mustard or collard greens, beet greens

Eggplant- Mushrooms

Fennel- Celeriac root, kohlrabi, jicama, daikon, endive

Garlic- Shallot

Ginger- Lemon

Grapefruit- Another variety of grapefruit, clementine, orange, tangerine, blood orange, star fruit

Green Beans- Asparagus, long bean, french bean

Green cabbage- Red/purple cabbage, kale, arugula, watercress, endive

Green peppers- Red or yellow peppers, mushrooms

Honeydew (Melon)- Green grapes, avocado

Jalapeno (Chili pepper)- Serrano pepper, yellow wax pepper, chile pepper of choice

Kale (Tuscan cabbage)- Arugula, watercress, spinach, Swiss chard, green cabbage, mustard/collard/beet/turnip greens

Kiwifrut- Mango, orange, tangerine, lime

Lemon- Ginger

Lime - Lemon, orange, clementine/tangerine

Mango- Papaya, kiwifruit

Maple Syrup- Honey

Mint- Ginger, sweet basil

Onion- Garlic, leeks, shallot

Orange- Grapefruit, clementine, tangerine, kiwifruit, mango, papaya

Oregano- Sage

Parsley- Cilantro, kale, arugula

Parsnips- Turnip, parsley root, celeriac root

Peaches- Nectarines, plums

Pear- Apple, celery root, peach, plum

Pineapple - Orange, grapefruit, mango

Pomegranate- Pineapple, strawberries

Portobello- Any variety mushroom, eggplant

Radish- Red cabbage, tomato

Raisins- Dried cranberries, figs

Red/purple cabbage- Green cabbage, radish, cauliflower, broccoli, radicchio

Romaine- Bib lettuce, radicchio, endive, Boston lettuce, green or red leaf lettuce

Shallot (Eschalot)- Garlic, onion

Spinach- Kale, Swiss chard, romaine lettuce

Strawberries- Raspberries, blackberries, cherries

Summer Squash- Zucchini, cucumber

Swiss Chard- Kale, spinach, romaine, mustard/collard/beet/turnip greens, green cabbage, arugula, watercress

Tangerines- Orange, grapefruit

Thyme- Rosemary

Tomato- Radish, red pepper, watermelon

Watermelon- Red grapefruit, cantaloupe, honeydew, tomato, radish


Thanks to Joe Cross for this wonderful list!


Tuesday, April 9, 2013

4 Day (mini) Fast (completed)

This blog post is almost an entire week late so I apologize.

I ended my mini fast on Friday (April 5) so I went 4 full days on my mini fast and I've got to say, I'm pleased with the results!

In 4 days, I lost 5.5 lbs.

My husband and I decided to go out of town Saturday, overnight, and go to both Six Flags Fiesta Texas AND Sea World San Antonio......without kids!!!!! While we missed them, we had a BLAST!

I am not a big breakfast person so I've never, ever had a problem juicing for breakfast. Actually, I don't think there has been a single day since getting or juicer a few months ago that I HAVEN'T juiced for breakfast. Anyway, juicing for breakfast is my normal everyday. We had pistachios for lunch the first day at Sea World and then we went to a nice little restaurant for dinner. I was going to order a salad but my husband reminded me that we were on our own little vacation and that I should enjoy myself. I had half of a pulled pork BBQ sandwich, cole slaw and some potato wedges. It was good and it did not take much before I felt full. I also had a "skinny" martini.

The next day I had juice for breakfast and my husband had a waffle from the hotel. Then we went to Six Flags and my husband and I shared some nachos (ended up throwing about half away) for lunch and for dinner, we shared a medium turkey sandwich with one handful of chips each.

The next morning (yesterday), the scale's battery died so I was unable to weigh myself but I had juice for breakfast, a small juice and a tuna lettuce wrap for lunch and a small taco salad for dinner.

Today, new battery in the scale and......(drumroll, please).........I've maintained the weight loss from my mini fast!!!!!! It was nice to get to enjoy myself and not have the guilt that usually comes with it. I was able to go out, enjoy foods that I know weren't good for me....but enjoying them reasonably vs. before when I would just stuff my face ALL DAY LONG, and to still maintain.

I'm still not down to my lowest weight, but I am okay with that because I have absolutely NO doubt that I will reach it. Soon! And to quote from one of my favorite books, "Inside, outside, upside down. From head to toe and all around. I like it all. It all is me. And ME is all I want to be!"

I hope you all are having a great day!!!

Stay strong and juice on!
Teela Juicing Herman






Saturday, April 6, 2013

Juicer Reviews

I'm a newbie, stay-at-home mom on a very strict budget, mmmmmkay?
I don't got tons of Benjamin's, yo!
Money doesn't grow on trees around here, if you catch my drift.

When watching Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, they said that on average, to do an organic juice, it would cost about $30 a day. I added that up for both my husband and I, looked at our normal food bill, took into account that we have three smaller mouths to feed, and we laughed. No. It was not an option. So we only buy organic when we can, we shop around, we make our juices based on what's available and what's on sale.....we make it work.

If you want to read more about how we came love Hamilton Beach Big Mouth Juicer (centrifugal juicer), click here.


Oh man. Love at first juice. This was my main squeeze. Okay. Okay. But seriously, I fell in love. For someone not looking to spend a ton of money (I think originally mine was around $60), this is a good juicer to start off with.

Our family got the juicer and started using it RIGHT AWAY! We made juices everyday. Multiple times a day. Then my husband and I started our juicing fast on February 13. We consumed all meals through our little Hamilton Beach.

I see guys (sorry, its usually males) on review boards saying how hard it is to clean a juicer *gasp* two or more!!!! times a day and I just laugh like a crazy woman. Maybe everything is relative but...duh! Guess what? Cleaning isn't easy! And the person who prepares the meals for the entire family???? they have to....get this...clean up! They don't think that cleaning is easy, either! Haha haha hahah haha

Sorry. Anyway. Do you have to actually take apart your juicer and use some elbow grease to clean it between uses? Yup. Do I enjoy cleaning? Bwahahaha not even a little bit but the way I see it, you have to clean up after yourself when you eat, so pick something else to complain about. The Hamilton Beach Big Mouth Juicer is very easy to disassemble and clean. I also love the little brush they include.

My only complaint is that sometimes the pulp is still wet. And you are thinking, "big deal!!" and trust me, I hear ya. I thought the same thing. And for MOST people, this is not a big deal, especially for the low price of the Hamilton Beach.....but if you are going on a long term juice fast/reboot/cleanse, you will start to hate that your juicer is wasting ANY of that precious juice, because you will want to yield every single last ounce of nutrient from that piece if kale, darn it!!!!

This is a good juicer to get if you aren't sure if juicing is for you or not.I wouldn't expect it to last during a long term juice fast/reboot.

Why didn't I stop at the Hamilton Beach?

I woke up on Thursday February 20 (Day 9) feeling like I'd claw the face off of someone if they looked at me sideways (sorry, TMI ALERT!!!!! Mother Monthly had come and paid me a visit). I got on the scale....after fighting off some very nasty cravings from the night before....and there was a GAIN! A freakin GAIN!!!!!!!

Frustrated does NOT begin to describe how I felt. Livid. Pissed the &€%@? OFF!!!! It's a good thing I'm not a breakfast girl, because I was ready to just EAT ALL OF EVERYTHING!!!!! And so...I begin to cry (yes, literally. I cried like my 20 month old baby after you tell him he can't have candy for breakfast). I gather all of my stuff for my juice, I put some fresh washed kale in the juicer, turn it on, start juicing....and it dies. The motor burnt out at 5:30 am while I was standing in my kitchen having a pity party.

Seriously.

I emailed my friend, told her to see if they would somehow let us return the juicer, but I couldn't wait for them to replace it, right? I felt like this would be a lame excuse to give in (and if you haven't yet noticed, I can be slightly stubborn at times) so I took some leftover juice from the night before (we store our juice in Mason jars) and mixed it with what small amount of the kale juice I had just made and I drank my breakfast.

I took my older kids to school and my youngest and I set out to find our next juicer...


I found The Dash(centrifugal juicer) at Target and it looked a lot like the juicer Joe Cross uses in the movie....and it was only $100. It's got to be better than the Hamilton Beach, right? I mean, it's nearly double the cost!


Wrong! I HATED that juicer. The directions say to not leave the juicer running for more than 5 minutes continuously. Duh. We turn the juicer off between putting each fruit or vegetable in there, usually. At the very least, we turn it off when all the food has been juiced and we are adding more. It was probably the second apple we juiced and the motor just stopped. The same thing happened time and time again. The motor would just randomly shut off and then sometimes we couldn't get it to start working again for 5+ minutes! And when you are less than 2 weeks into a juice fast and you want your juice, you want it NOW, not in 20 minutes when your juicer decides it's feeling like it might finish the job for you. I hated this juicer from the first time I used it and my husband could tell. He gave me permission to buy my baby....which is what we used to get through the rest of the 40 day fast.....We bought the Breville Ikon BJE510XL 900 Watts Juicer (centrifugal juicer).


When I brought this baby home, it was like a whole new world! It had a digital readout that told you what speed to use for different fruits and vegetables. It had a nice BIG juice pitcher that came with it. I'll admit, because it looked so similar to the Dash, I was nervous. I've used the juicer (almost exclusively) every single day since we got it almost 2 months ago and I've not had one problem with the juicer. It's never randomly shut off like the Dash. It never needs a "break" like the dash. It is a very nice, heavy duty juicer. My only complaint is that it sometimes makes a mess by spilling some of the juice out of the spout, even when the juice pitcher is flat up against it so sometimes a little bit of juice will run down the side of the juicer and onto my counter and the spout is difficult to really clean. It's not a big deal, but it can get annoying.

My Breville worked perfectly, no problems. But I kept hearing all of these Omega owners who were once Breville owners but who made the switch.....

And I saved and saved and I finally got my first Omega 8006 Nutrition Center (masticating juicer).


Oh my word! This baby is the King of Kings when it comes to juicers. You get the absolute most amount of juice from each piece of produce with this juicer. It is also very quiet and while they  look massive, they don't take up any more counter space than my Breville did.
This juicer is a masticating juicer, meaning that it actually crunches the produce up to get the juice and it leaves the pulp about as dry as you can get. There are more parts to this juicer than to the centrifugal (fast spinning) Breville juicer, but it's simple to assemble and very easy to clean.
The downside to this juicer is that you do have to cut your produce rather small so it will fit down the chute and the actual juicing process takes a bit longer. With this model, you need to alternate your citrus with harder vegetables or it tends to get clogged but it does the best job, in my opinion, of juicing your leafy greens. It takes some playing around with to figure it out, but it does an amazing job at juicing and making nut butters. We've also made frozen banana and cherry sorbet. The kids LOVED it! It makes pastas and all kinds of cool stuff I'll probably never make! haha
This juicer is absolutely amazing and worth every single penny for the person who is serious about healthy living. I think it could be a bit intimidating and frustrating for a beginner at first, and it might not be the best fit for someone who is extremely busy and who doesn't have much time.

My most recent addition is the Omega Vert (vertical).

I was shocked to love this juicer as much as I do! I was given this as a gift and it's amazing! It did take me a little bit longer to figure out how to assemble, but that's because I go at it all cave-woman style (who needs directions?). Once you give in, read the directions and figure out that the little red dots align, it becomes very easy to assemble/disassemble. It is easier to clean than the centrifugal juicers, but not as easy to clean as the 8006 (more info below). It's also very quiet compared to the centrifugal juicers. It does take up less space on the counter, or so it seems to me.

The Omega Vert, compared to the Omega 8006 seems to handle the citrus better. I can leave the chunks of grapefruit twice as big with the Vert and it doesn't clog like the 8006. The chute for inserting the produce into the Vert also seems slightly bigger. However, the 8006 seems to juice the kale and other leafy greens better. The chute where the pulp comes out on the Vert is smaller, gets clogged (whereas the 8006 does not), and it is harder to clean than the Omega 8006.

****Also, generally, if you are storing your juice properly, when using a centrifugal juicer, you can keep them in the fridge for up to 48 hours. With a masticating juicer, when the juice is stored properly, it can stay good for up to 72 hours in the fridge.****

I hope this helps some! If you have any questions or want to add your own comments, feel free to leave them below. I love, love, love comments from my readers!

And as always, if you are interested in me giving an honest review of a juicer, recipe or book, please email me at thejuiceathomemom@gmail.com. Thanks so much!

Stay strong and juice on!
Teela Juicing Herman

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Day 4 (part 2)



So far, so good.

I was slightly irritated this morning when I realized I was completely out of celery and I flat out refused to go grocery shopping today (my house was such a mess and I needed to focus on it some) so my drinks were more on the fruity side. Thankfully my husband went to the grocery store and loaded us up on fresh greens and my all time favorites, grapefruit, lemons and limes. I'm all set to get serious and focus on the greens tomorrow.

No headaches or hunger pains today.

I also got in a 2+ mile walk while pushing my 25 pound son in the stroller and I felt GREAT afterward. I think the carrot based drink that I had before my walk really helped.

I am going to end my fast on Saturday, making this a very short 5 day fast, vs my last 40 day fast. My mom is willing to take the kids overnight and my husband and I really need (and deserve) a date night. It's been months since we've been on a date so we are going to go out and have a nice time. I want to get dressed up and feel pretty. I'm excited!

I can't get away from juicing even when I try, so again, I know I will be juicing my breakfast and all snacks, with most times juicing 2 meals a day. I don't think I really need two meals a day, at least not two meals of the same portion I was eating before. I'm HOPING I'll be satisfied with 2-3 small juices and one small meal with maybe an ounce of raw nuts as a snack when needed? Who knows. I'm honestly still learning. I might go an entire day without eating, just juicing, but it probably won't be for more than a day or two at a time until my next big fast in May.

I still have a ways to go before I reach my goal weight (which is STILL yet to be determined) so I'm still fairly certain I will be fasting for 30 days in May, ending my fast on the 31st and I am looking forward to that! Do I have anyone who wants to join me and do a 30 Day May Fast?!?! Leave me a comment below so I know if there is a group interest!!

Stay strong and juice on!
Teela Juicing Herman


Thankful Thursday

While I would love to take credit for this awesome idea, a sweet friend of mine does this beautiful Facebook status message every Thursday highlighting a few things she's thankful for that week (or just in general). What a great idea, right!?! I know that as a family and personally, I give thanks to God daily when I pray, but that's private. I want something a little more public, but still serious.

I have a lot to be thankful for so I'll limit myself to 7 since it's my favorite number!

I am thankful for my husband. He works so very hard to ensure that his family has a good life. When he gets home, he helps out with the kids and the housework. My husband was the one who got me to watch Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, which helped change my life and he has also been instrumental in giving me the love and support that I needed during my 40 day fast. He is amazing and I am one lucky gal.

I am thankful for all of my children but I will focus on just one per week and I guess I'll just go in order.


This is Little Man 1.0. I am so thankful to have such a loving and empathetic son. He always puts others first, he loves sharing and he is very thoughtful. He came home from school upset that a little girl from another class had lost her field trip money. He didn't even know what her name was but he was really concerned that she wasn't going to be able to go on the field trip if someone didn't help her find it (or return it, if it were stolen). It MADE HIS WEEK when I told him that we would get the money together and give it to the girl's teacher so we would ensure she could go. Seriously, you would have thought he won the lottery the next day when he came home from school and he had been awarded for doing that. He warms my heart.

I am thankful for rainy, chilly days. Sometimes it just feels good to just wear your PJ's all day, thankyouverymuch!

I was thinking today, I'm thankful I am able to vacuum my house. I've not yet (completely) lost my mind, i promise! Hear me out! I'm thankful I can afford the home to vacuum and I am thankful I can afford the actual vacuum to clean. But most importantly, I am thankful I have the health to vacuum and clean my house. I can bend, push, pull with ease.

I am thankful for Omas (Grandmas)who are willing to take ALL THREE sons overnight so their daughter (ME!) and son-in-law (my husband, duh, keep up!) can have a date night this Saturday! Woot! Woot!

I'm thankful to have such loving and supporting family, friends and even church family. I've only got a few Negative Nancy's and Ned's in my life currently but I am doing well at distancing myself from them, thus helping me stay happy, healthy, and positive!

I'm thankful for this blog! Corny, I know! I know! But it's true! Each and every week it brings at least one person into my life that I'm either able to help, they are able to help me, or as in most cases, we help one another! It's amazing to reach out and get involved in someone else's life. Getting and giving help is a wonderful feeling.


Okay. That's it for this Thursday! I just wanted to try something different. I challenge you all to do the same! It doesn't have to be a blogpost. It could be a status message, a journal/diary entry, a note to a loved one about a few things you are thankful about because of them, or just not them down on paper. It's nice to have something to look back on and remember that life IS good, even on bad days.

:) Stay strong and juice on!
Teela Juicing Herman





Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Day 3 (part 2)



Oh man. There was a storm last night. I tried to get to bed before 10 pm but I was woken up by my Little Man 2.0 around midnight because he was scared and wanted to sleep with daddy and me. We let him squeeze in.

Then about an hour later, Little Man 1.0 comes in to tell me that HE was scared. I knew adding another 50 lb 5 year old to the king size bed would just be too much so I went with him to his room to cuddle until 4:45 when it was time to get up and get ready for the FIELD TRIP!!!!!

I made a 16 oz serving of Mean Green for both my husband and I for breakfast. I then packed lunches and snacks for all three kids. It's a GREAT thing that I had my "berry veggie" Naked brand juice with me because I made my new "coffee" (carrot based drinks) at home before we left which was 4 carrots, 1 grapefruit, 1 orange and a big ole chunk of ginger....and I walked out of the house with it sitting on the kitchen table. I didn't realize I left it until it was way too late to go home and get it.

We went to a wildlife reserve and we all had a blast!! I wanted to share some photos we took:

                      




After driving through the wildlife reserve, it was lunch time! Lunch was family easy. Everyone brought their own sack lunch so there really wasn't too much temptation.

It's just after 3 pm and I've had just over 60 oz of water. I know I really need to drink more today and hopefully I'll finish this 30 oz bottle next to me.

Next up is dinner for the family and then I'll make another juice, probably the Anti- Cellulite Juice, as that seems to work really well with my body. Not much else to report.

Overall, I'm feeling tired (so I might make a small carrot juice) because of all of the interrupted sleep but overall, I'm feeling okay. Much better than Day 3 the first time around. Hopefully an early bedtime for me tonight.

Stay strong and juice on!
Teela Juicing Herman

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Day 2 (part 2)

I woke up 15 minutes late (because I guess both my husband and I slept through the alarm) and after going to bed much later than I should the night before, I had more energy than starting out on Day 1. I also felt lighter! I've lost weight but since I don't want to obsessively track it, I'm not going to tally up the total until whenever I decide to end my fast.

I started off with the Mean Green (about 15 oz) and then followed that up with about 36 oz of cold water. I started noticing a slight headache around lunch time but after drinking about 12 oz of water, it went away.

Lunch was 1/2 bunch kale, 1 stalk of celery, 1 1/2 apples, 2 limes and 5 mint leaves. This yielded about 16 oz of juice and was pretty good. The only thing I might change next time is only using 1 1/2 limes. I followed up lunch with another 24 oz of cold water.

Yesterday I felt like I HAD to take a nap midday and today I don't. I skipped our walk yesterday (it was almost 90 degrees Fahrenheit!!) but I was really looking forward to my walk today (which ended 45 minutes sooner than I had anticipated thanks to the rain and thunderstorm!) but the difference was that I was READY and EXCITED about my walk today.


Dinner was a juice that consisted of 4 stalks of celery, 1 cucumber, 1 apple, 2 grapefruit and a knob of ginger (this made about 34 oz and my husband and I split it). I followed that up with about 8 oz of water.

It is almost 7 pm of Day 2 and I've got to say, at least this time around (*knock on wood*) it's been relatively easy. I'm hoping that my 80 oz of water helps. I know I wasn't drinking near enough during my first 40 Day fast. Also I have to keep in mind that I only had one week (of fairly good eating) to detox from so I didn't expect it to be nearly as brutal the second time around.

Tomorrow I get to chaperone a bunch of kindergartners while they go on a field trip to a wildlife nature preserve, so I am really looking forward to that. Tomorrow morning I am going to start off with a juice heavy in carrots to give me that extra boost I'm going to need.

Well, I guess that's it. Not too much to report. I wish you all well and I'll try my best to check in again tomorrow.

Stay strong and juice on!
Teela Juicing Herman


Monday, April 1, 2013

Day 1 (part 2)

Yup. That's right!

I'm starting another juice fast today!

This fast will be different because I'm starting out today not knowing how long I want to go. I think I will take it day by day and rather than focusing on my weight loss (which I will still track, but this time not so obsessively), I am going to focus on myself! I want to focus on how I feel and how my clothes fit.

I also want to focus on meditation and prayer.

Prayer because I owe everything to God and even though I feel closer to God than ever before, I can always work on strengthening that relationship. While I know I am flawed and very, very far from perfect, I am extremely confident in the person I am today because of God. Today, I am far more blessed than I ever imagined and I owe it all to Him.

I also want to focus on meditation because I feel like it helps keep me calm and it helps put things in perspective. It's also a great stress relief and it just makes me feel good when I'm done, so why not do more of that, right?

Anyway, that's about it for now. One of my dear friends is starting her very first juice fast today so everyone out there, wish her some luck! I know she is going to do GREAT! She is actually the amazing friend who bought me MY first juicer. How cool is that??

Best of luck to all of you out there!

Stay strong and juice on!
Teela Juicing Herman

Checking In!

Well, I've been eating for a week now and I've gained more than I'd like to admit. I've gained more than 5 lbs but less than 10 lbs. which sounds HUGE in a week's time but it's really not when you think about it. My body went from only receiving nutrients through liquids to actually getting foods again. I'm sure there will be an adjustment period and I guess I was expecting about 5 lbs but it's the extra few pounds that make me uncomfortable.

I won't talk about the different foods I ate because when I was fasting, I hated reading about what everyone was eating. I will say that I have been making much better decisions when it comes to food however, there is still room for MAJOR improvements. I did NOT go to my favorite fast food places though. I was reasonable.

I had someone ask me, "So, does the food taste better now?" And I've had to really think about that one. Personally, I NOW find great joy in eating foods that I know are healthy and because I'm able to enjoy it more, I do think that healthy foods are more enjoyable. When I am eating things I know aren't good for me, I'm not able to enjoy it as much. Maybe it's because I'm terrified of going back to my old ways? Maybe my taste buds really HAVE changed? Maybe it's guilt (I went 40 freakin days without chewing so why am I allowing ANYTHING that's not good for me to go into my body?????). But I'm learning, yet again, to not be so hard on myself. I also know that I don't want to turn into THAT person who lets food define who they are. I want to remain flexible yet knowledgable. Pliable yet accountable.

Since stopping the fast, I have been juicing at least one meal a day, sometimes two, but usually just one. And I miss it! I am not nearly as run down and exhausted as I was before my fast, but I most certainly don't have the over abundance of energy I had while fasting and I want that back! I wake up feeling groggy, like I'm in a haze and after my detox part of my fast, I never woke up with that almost "hangover" feeling. And when I do eat lunch, I tend to have that mid-day crash that I didn't experience while fasting.

Which brings me to my next blog post.....

Teela Juicing Herman