My Juicing Recipe Bible

Here are some of the different recipes I've tried throughout my fast. Keep checking back often! 

(Try to remember, you might have to use more or less of the ingredients listed below. No two fruits or veggies are alike. Use these recipes as a guide).

The (yummy) Pink Granny kid favorite
Beet, apples, pear, ginger

Orange, Spinach and Mint
The name says it all

Refreshing Citrus kid favorite
Strawberries, cucumber, celery, tangelos, mint, lime

Anti-Cellulite Juice aka The Fat Shredder
Grapefruit, apple, celery, mint

Spinach (x3) Green Juice
Spinach, celery, cucumber, grapefruit, pear, lime, mango, ginger

Kale Limeade kid favorite
Kale, cucumber, celery, apple, orange, lemon, lime

Hidden Greens

Mean Green Spinach
Spinach, cucumber, celery, apple, lime, ginger

Sweet Potato, Carrot and Citrus kid favorite
Sweet potato, carrot, grapefruit, tangelo, lemon

Tropical Cabbage
Cabbage, pineapple, strawberry

Rabbit Juice kid favorite
Carrots, pineapple, oranges, grapefruit

Kid Juice
Carrot, orange

Playing with Parsley
Parsley, kale, carrots, celery, apple, orange, pear

Kickin Carrot Juice kid favorite
Carrot, orange, lime, ginger

The Mean Green (Joe Cross' juice)
Cucumber, kale, celery, apple, lemon, ginger

The Lipsmackin Limeade  kid favorite
Orange, apple, celery, spinach, lime

Reader Request Juice 
Kale, cucumber, grapes, apple, lime

Broccoli, Celery, Citrus! 
Broccoli, carrots, celery, oranges, apple, lemon

Perfection in a Cup
Spinach, orange, grapefruit, mint

Fresh Strawberry (with hidden veggies) (kid approved)
Red cabbage, beet, tomatoes, strawberries

Tropical Spinach (kid approved)
Pineapple, orange and lots of spinach

Pretty in Pink
Cucumber, grapefruit, watermelon and mint

Peach Pie Dessert Juice
Peaches, sweet potato and ground cinnamon

Army Green Juice
Carrots, kale, cucumber, grapefruit, orange, cantaloupe, ginger

Eve's Envy
Beets, apple, cucumber, celery, ginger

Good Morning, Granny!
Celery, cucumber, grapefruit, Granny Smith apple, mint

Veggie Strong
Beet, celery, cucumber, ginger

My 30 Day May Juice Fast Journal (updated *usually* daily)

Day 1:



So far, day one has been okay.



I'm having to deal with some very personal issues involving my children so I've been on edge, moody, emotional and just pissed off BUT I know that these feelings have nothing to do with the fast.



I've had plenty of energy today. I did get hungry once, but I just made a juice and drank more water.



I think my personal issues are making it easier to not focus on the fact that I'm not eating. So yay for that, I guess.



I went for a 1.26 mile power walk and run today and it felt great. I'm not sure that I will feel up to it tomorrow, but I want to try to stay as active during this fast. During my first fast, I did very little as far as exercising. I was VERY active with my kids, running and playing, because of the over abundance of energy, but I didn't feel well enough to get out and really push myself. So far, I do. Only time will tell tomorrow.



My starting weight is 169.5 at 5'5 with a BMI of 28.2.



And now....the moment you've all been waiting for......my lovely "before" photos.

Day 2:



167.5- down 2 lbs



I trusted the principal at my children's school to...I don't know.....do what she said she would do and PROTECT MY INNOCENT CHILD. Today I found out today that out of EVERYTHING that was promised to me yesterday, NONE of it happened. Not one single fucking thing and because of that, today has been filled with rage. I've not been hungry, but I've been so incredibly pissed off that I doubt I'd notice the hunger pain over my rage! I've been yelling and screaming at everyone. I have no headaches, aches or pains. I have anxiety, fear, depression, fury, sadness, anger, and helplessness. I want to cry and cry and cry but it has nothing to do with juice. Today sucks beyond belief. And to add more stress to my already overflowing plate, I've withdrawn my children from their school where they are no longer safe and I'm now homeschooling them. Just what I needed. A school that doesn't protect the innocent. Lovely.



I could rant and rage all damn night but I'm going to just shut up now and go to bed. Irritable doesn't being to describe how I feel. I'm lost and hurt.



Day 3:

165.4- down 4.1 lbs



Today sucked on a personal level. I was so stressed out and worn out over all of the events that happened this week that even though I've been juicing exclusively, IF I'm detoxing, I don't notice it. Maybe part of my irritability is from detoxing? But it's also very possible that it's just who I am. I turn into a very different person when the safety of my children are concerned. I'm usually a vey happy go lucky, laid back, loving person. When my kids are in danger, it's like I turn into this fierce Mama Bear that will slice the throats of anyone in her way.



Emotionally today sucked. I wasn't concerned about me at all and at the end of the day, I realized I only had 2 juices the entire day. That's not good. Tomorrow I promise to focus on myself a little more.



Day 4:

164.5- down 5 lbs



My promise for the day is to focus a little more on myself. In fact, it's 6:30 am here now and I think I'll go on a brisk walk and run. I'll check in again later.



I went on a mile long run and power walk today in 13 minutes. I'm pretty proud of myself for that. I am NOT a runner and just started trying to run one week ago.





I'm not sure if it's because it's the weekend and I don't have to worry about my twins' school, but today was better than the previous days. Overall, today was BLAH vs being pure hell the last few days.



We ended the night taking our kids to the park and having fun. I wanted to walk more (I CRAVE daily workouts now) but I decided I needed to spend more time with my guys so we ended up digging for dinosaur fossils. Then, we started playing zombies and when I tried to outrun a 6 year old, I could feel the burn in my legs. I'm interested to see if I'll be able to walk tomorrow!! Hahaha

And on that note, goodnight.







Day 5:

163.8- down 5.7 pounds



Today we have church and I will be helping cook a luncheon for our congregation so I made sure to drink a big juice for breakfast filled with carrots and beets (love that energy) and I prepared and will take a mean green for lunch. No breaking the fast for this girl!



Church was fun! I had quite a few people ask me what I had been doing to lose weight and MOST everyone was either nice or kept their negative opinions to themselves. There was one woman who flat out said, "Yeah! That's not healthy at all." Now, usually I'd just keep my mouth shut and move along but I was fairly offended. This woman had a good 70 lbs on me and was quite a bit sorter, stuffing her face with bread and meatloaf. I just laughed and said, "Well, something must be working because I've lost over 30 lbs, kept it off, and I feel better, younger and full of energy!"



I will be loaning out our copy of Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead to another kind woman from our church. It feels amazing being able to prove people wrong. Juicing is unhealthy? Really? Go on and eat more of that healthy green bean casserole, bread smothered in margarine and your meatloaf. And tell me how full of energy you feel in a few hours when you have to unbutton your jeans just to sit on the couch.



Trust me, I'm not judging. I was once the very same way.....but I also NEVER told someone who was far healthier than I was, that what they were doing was unhealthy.



“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven" Luke 6:37. I choose the high road and forgive her rude and unhelpful comments. :)



Day 6:



Whew. No weight check today. My kids stayed with my mom last night so I got to *gasp* sleep in! I like to weigh myself at the same time everyday to get the most accurate weight so since I slept in, I decided to skip the scale.



I got out and ran/jogged for a mile today. I waited until almost 1 pm and it was getting really, really hot. I wanted to do more but I could tell I was really pushing myself in that heat. Plus, it is different running on pavement than it is running on gravel!



Not much else to report. See ya on the flip side!



Day 7:



163.8-down 5.7 lbs



Looks like I've stalled. I'm not going to stress over it because I know what I am feeding my body is very healthy AND I've been running, which I'm sure is building muscle in my legs.



My plan for today is to really step it up with my water consumption and get a walk or run in if possible.



I'll check in later.



Very stressful day. I had a green juice with kale, cucumber, celery, pineapple, grapefruit and orange this morning.



Then I went up to school to volunteer for 2.5 hours, went shopping for this ADORABLE dedication outfit for my son on Mother's Day, and then went by and made a police report against a child at my son's school. Just got home at 12:30 and made a quick juice of romaine, cucumber, strawberry and grapefruit. YUM!



Now, off to meditate for at least 10 minutes. I need to clear my mind.



PS I'm failing at upping my water intake.






Day 17:


162.5 down 7 lbs.



Wow! I'm officially the lowest weight I've been since High School! Woot! Woot!!



I had something very personal come up and I was unable to use my juicer for 5 days. And not just that, but I also was only able to eat the food someone else made....and that kind of food was just not healthy. Tons of processed junk. I didn't enjoy it at all and I started back juicing as soon as I was able. So even though it says Day 17, I had 5-6 days of junk and since then, I've been juicing full time. It took quite a while to get back to a normal weight and today I realized I was at my lowest weight! So yay me!



The last 10 days have been incredibly hard on me. Physically, mentally, and spiritually. To
day has been a bit better and I actually felt like blogging today. So maybe things are looking up, huh?


Thanks for all of the words of encouragement and thank you for asking me to update this. I'm glad to be back in the swing of things.

I've decided to start over.

Click HERE to see my continued progress and check to see if I reached my goal of being in the 150's by the twins' birthday party!!!!


And as always, thanks for reading!

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

Coincidence? A Sign? God.

As I'm sure you can tell from my last post, things have not been easy. I've been struggling internally a lot lately. Although I will say and type over and over, "weight loss does NOT equal success" I am going on a week of not losing any weight (weight log)and quite honestly, I'm getting burnt out. I'm questioning if what I'm doing is really going to make a difference. I feel like giving up so desperately at times it hurts. Today I had a frank conversation with God.

I don't know what your relationship with God is like, if you have a relationship with Him at all, or if you've simply never had one....and to me, it doesn't matter. I do not judge.  God and I have been round and round. I first started out loving Him because I was told that's what you do. I started out trusting in Him because the Bible told me so.
Then I started to believe that prayer was the same thing as bargaining or making a deal. "Dearest and most precious Lord, I know I don't pray to you often enough but I've really been trying to get Eric to notice me soooooo if you make him see what an awesome, beautiful, and loving girl I am and have him ask me out, I promise to pray more often." When that didn't work, I started to beg him and threaten him. "Alright now. I'm not even sure if you exist or not. They say you can do ANYTHING, right? Well, prove it to me! Let me wake up tomorrow 10 pounds lighter or else I'm just going to stop believing in you."
I had questions about my faith but I dare not ask my dad. "God is good, trust in God. If you don't, you will burn for eternity in hell." And if that was true, then I'm sorry, but I didn't care to get to know God. I felt I had a right to ask questions. There came a point on my life where I just didn't trust anymore. I didn't know of He really existed or not but if he did,, I wanted absolutely nothing to do with Him.

And what changed? I didn't have some epic life changing moment. I didn't have some Devine vision from God. I just realized that I wasn't seeing the big picture. I was angry that my phone line to God wasn't getting me immediate results and I was ignoring all the beauty that He WAS blessing me with. I realized that though my husband and I were fighting through infertility, and even though it was so unbelievably unfair, God had placed some pretty amazing friends in my life to help pull me through. I might have had to wait 3 years, countless exams, tests, fertility medicine, surgeries and thousands and thousands of dollars down the drain (and for all of that in the end to have failed), but I had the love and support of most of my family and all of my friends. I was (and still am) blessed, even in my darkest of days.

So I found my way back to God and of course, my church and church family also played (and continues to play) a very important role in that. I found a church where I didn't have to pretend I was perfect. I didn't have to pretend that I never once questioned my faith, that there was never a point in my life where I despised God. I could truly be myself and they would love me for it. And even if they don't ALL love me, they do not condemn me.

I suppose I'm really getting off topic here.

So what am I saying? God and I are on a fist name basis. God and I are closer now than we've ever been before. When I pray, I'm usually doing one of two things, if not both. I praise Him for all He has blessed me with and I ask for clarity. I constantly want to know that the decisions I am making are not just the right decisions, but the best decisions.

Which bring me to today. This morning.

I'm in my kitchen after getting on the horrid scale. I'm frustrated, mad, and desperate. I'm stressed out. I'm talking to God. I'm trying to reason with Him, asking why my efforts don't feel enough. I'm begging for some peace of mind. I need to know that what I am doing will pay off. I just want to know that I am doing well.

There was no voice talking back to me but I did feel a sense of peace. Some calmness.

Then I came across this video. It's not long, I promise. It's work and kid friendly. Check it out.

If you are obese, the likelihood your child will be obese increases by 50%.

Fifty percent. FIFTY percent. Holy cow. That's very alarming. And it was my answer.

The scale is my enemy. The scale makes me want to quit and give in but my body and mind keep telling me the I feel wonderful. My mind keeps telling me to keep going. Logic says that if all I am giving my body is fresh vegetables and fruits, I'm bettering my health. It's not complicated at all. Fresh, natural foods are better for you than processed crap. Even my 5 year olds know that.

Anyway, I really hope that no matter where you are on your journey, you are able to find peace somewhere and faith in the fact that what we are doing is an amazing gift to ourselves and for our children.

Juice on!