Monday, July 5, 2010
It's the small things....
Well last night I had three men look at me differently. My spirits store owner said to me "you're always so nice", the Potbelly server guys were very friendly and flirty, lots of smiling and eye contact. Then tonight, my friend KT said a couple of times: "wow you are so vivacious. Your sparkling eyes, your energy...." I am a little inclined to think that this is due to the Livatone. I couldn't say for sure, but it feels like a probable conclusion at the moment. :)
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Why is this so hard? I mustn't be doing it right....
Well there's an obvious conclusion for you (the title I mean)...I am not doing this right. My attempt last week was an epic fail. I slept in way too long, I never got off my ass and looked for juice, I had a headache from the moment I woke up, which I blame on myself for not drinking caffiene the day before. I had plenty of water....by 2pm when I was going to get my hair done I realized that the chemicals in the salon would probably make my head hurt more and send me hurling. So I stopped in at Macca's and got a coke and a McChicken which lifted the headache. Later that night I caved and got Burger King. Sigh.
I am so determined to get it right this Wednesday. I will pwn this juice fast for at least 24 hours!!! No headache, no hunger pains, no dehydration and lots of sleep!
My fennel is now sprouting in other news, and I am starting to feel the positive effects of Livatone...I seem to have more energy, my liver hasn't been hurting (although I am not wearing a bra much since it is Summer so I can't say for sure...I am, on the whole, eating less sugar and junk food, and I may never eat junk food again after Friday's post-Backyard Burger poonami incident. No, not going into details here...let's just say it was a close call and the toilet bowl may never be white again. Not the burger's fault...my belly just seems to act violently when I haven't eaten all day, and then finally do eat. Poooooooooooooooooooooooooooonami!
Grossed out yet? Yeah, me too.
I am so determined to get it right this Wednesday. I will pwn this juice fast for at least 24 hours!!! No headache, no hunger pains, no dehydration and lots of sleep!
My fennel is now sprouting in other news, and I am starting to feel the positive effects of Livatone...I seem to have more energy, my liver hasn't been hurting (although I am not wearing a bra much since it is Summer so I can't say for sure...I am, on the whole, eating less sugar and junk food, and I may never eat junk food again after Friday's post-Backyard Burger poonami incident. No, not going into details here...let's just say it was a close call and the toilet bowl may never be white again. Not the burger's fault...my belly just seems to act violently when I haven't eaten all day, and then finally do eat. Poooooooooooooooooooooooooooonami!
Grossed out yet? Yeah, me too.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Trying again
Well it is Wednesday and I am now on my new attempt at a juice fast. This week I have done well at staying away from junk food. I did eat three McChicken sandwiches but in comparison to other things I could have eaten, that wasn't so bad. I have eaten at Subway, Potbelly, Chipotle and Panda Express this week. My attempts to lessen how much caffiene I drink have been pretty poor. I have kept up my fish oil, vitamin D3, Livatone and Gotu Kola though. Tomorrow I get to upgrade to 4 livatone tablets per day.
I am ready with my water for tomorrow, worried about headaches because I didn't manage to drink any caffiene yesterday, I have my pill supply ready to go, but no juice. I am going to try, hopefully just until I move into my new apartment, to buy 100% juice from Whole Foods and Central Market instead of juicing my own. I am also worried because I suspect my period is about to arrive which means a potential headache from hormonal shifts too. It also means I will be on the toilet all day peeing the out the water I am retaining and the water and juice I will be drinking. Joy joy. I will look into green tea though, I think that has caffiene?
My thyme and sweet basil and catnip are doing great, the mint has survived and thrived. Still waiting for the other herbs to show any shoots.
Feeling cautiously optimistic about tomorrow, despite what I said above. 24 hours with lots more water and juices from a bottle seems like a more more likely recipe for success. :)
I am ready with my water for tomorrow, worried about headaches because I didn't manage to drink any caffiene yesterday, I have my pill supply ready to go, but no juice. I am going to try, hopefully just until I move into my new apartment, to buy 100% juice from Whole Foods and Central Market instead of juicing my own. I am also worried because I suspect my period is about to arrive which means a potential headache from hormonal shifts too. It also means I will be on the toilet all day peeing the out the water I am retaining and the water and juice I will be drinking. Joy joy. I will look into green tea though, I think that has caffiene?
My thyme and sweet basil and catnip are doing great, the mint has survived and thrived. Still waiting for the other herbs to show any shoots.
Feeling cautiously optimistic about tomorrow, despite what I said above. 24 hours with lots more water and juices from a bottle seems like a more more likely recipe for success. :)
Friday, June 25, 2010
Day two....
Well I will say that I felt like crap for most of the day....listless, headachy, tired, hot, sweaty.....which progressively got worse. I ate a little pineapple and pomegranate in the morning. I was feeling too nauseated to consider anything else too seriously. About 7pm I decided I should eat...but it was 9pm before I was at Chipotle ordering food. I thought a shower would make me feel better and wake me up, but I was starting to get quite dizzy as I showered and needed to move slowly. The headache, lack of focus and listlessness really slowed me down a lot.
Once I had my burrito I gorged on it, and the whole time I was thinking...I am going to make myself sick on this, I am going to end up with some nasty diarrhea from this....and I did, but nothing like what I was expecting. I actually only felt mildly nauseated once and that was in the last 2-3 mouthfulls of the burrito. The diarrhea was bearable and didn't come with much gas pain at all. I also stopped at McDonalds and got a large Coke and a large Diet Coke (yes, that much...and I drank it all too...my body made me!) About an hour after eating and drinking my headache was gone, I had more energy and was grateful that my body temperature and sweating had subsided.
The mistake I made in this fast was not having enough liquids, and not drinking enough juice on day one. I needed that water to flush out the toxins. I underestimated the headaches I would experience from the caffiene withdrawal and I didn't start this with enough sleep. The symptoms I experienced were my body's way of working toxins out of my system....and the book warned me that it could be bad. No kidding.
I wanted a 72 hour fast and ended up doing a 45 hour fast. I know I could have just gone to bed, not eaten and I would have made at least 56 hours but I couldn't risk how bad I would feel the next day. My headache did come back overnight, I woke to go pee at 8am and was aching...so I went back to bed...when I got up at 12pm the headache was gone and I had energy to shower and get through a ton of jobs and messages.
Conclusion
I am going to do this as a once-a-week thing, but I am going to prepare properly and get sleep beforehand and have lots of water nearby to stay hydrated. I will plan for a 24 hour fast but prepare for going for 72 if the first 24 hours go okay. I will keep up with the Livatone, vitamin D3 and fish oil.
I am also going to work on weaning myself off caffiene and stay away from junk food. Acceptible places to eat will be Chipotle, Roti Grill Indian food and Subway/Potbelly. And any other place where they make food with real ingredients and less fat than any junk food restaurant. Oh yeah....and I could always cook from home. I will also aim to up my intake of raw fruits and veggies daily.
Next time my juices will be more....juicy....and less pulpy.....and less in quantity.....but varied in other ways.....and not taste like dog poop...or have LFA in them..... :)
On the upside....my thyme and sweet basil has shoots!!! And my mint and spearmint has recovered well from being repotted :) I am curious about how much water my mints need, as it turns out, more than I thought. I am wondering if this is true of the other herbs as well....but I am doing what the box says and watering them from a spray bottle. Hopefully enough.
Once I had my burrito I gorged on it, and the whole time I was thinking...I am going to make myself sick on this, I am going to end up with some nasty diarrhea from this....and I did, but nothing like what I was expecting. I actually only felt mildly nauseated once and that was in the last 2-3 mouthfulls of the burrito. The diarrhea was bearable and didn't come with much gas pain at all. I also stopped at McDonalds and got a large Coke and a large Diet Coke (yes, that much...and I drank it all too...my body made me!) About an hour after eating and drinking my headache was gone, I had more energy and was grateful that my body temperature and sweating had subsided.
The mistake I made in this fast was not having enough liquids, and not drinking enough juice on day one. I needed that water to flush out the toxins. I underestimated the headaches I would experience from the caffiene withdrawal and I didn't start this with enough sleep. The symptoms I experienced were my body's way of working toxins out of my system....and the book warned me that it could be bad. No kidding.
I wanted a 72 hour fast and ended up doing a 45 hour fast. I know I could have just gone to bed, not eaten and I would have made at least 56 hours but I couldn't risk how bad I would feel the next day. My headache did come back overnight, I woke to go pee at 8am and was aching...so I went back to bed...when I got up at 12pm the headache was gone and I had energy to shower and get through a ton of jobs and messages.
Conclusion
I am going to do this as a once-a-week thing, but I am going to prepare properly and get sleep beforehand and have lots of water nearby to stay hydrated. I will plan for a 24 hour fast but prepare for going for 72 if the first 24 hours go okay. I will keep up with the Livatone, vitamin D3 and fish oil.
I am also going to work on weaning myself off caffiene and stay away from junk food. Acceptible places to eat will be Chipotle, Roti Grill Indian food and Subway/Potbelly. And any other place where they make food with real ingredients and less fat than any junk food restaurant. Oh yeah....and I could always cook from home. I will also aim to up my intake of raw fruits and veggies daily.
Next time my juices will be more....juicy....and less pulpy.....and less in quantity.....but varied in other ways.....and not taste like dog poop...or have LFA in them..... :)
On the upside....my thyme and sweet basil has shoots!!! And my mint and spearmint has recovered well from being repotted :) I am curious about how much water my mints need, as it turns out, more than I thought. I am wondering if this is true of the other herbs as well....but I am doing what the box says and watering them from a spray bottle. Hopefully enough.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Go!!!!!!!!!!!!! Day one....
Mood:
Positive yet apprehensive. I suspect I will be tasting some pretty funky things in the next few days.
Taken:
10,000 mg Vitamin D3
2 x Livatone
2x Salmon Oil
2x Gotu Kola
Juiced:
Recipe # 18 with some water added...maybe 100-150 mls?
Lessons learnt:
1) Beetroots stain everything. EVERYTHING. So much for my nice new white measuring cups and funnels etc. Anything with beetroot will have to be drunk with a straw so I don't get pink teeth!
2) The juicer is cool but will always need the stick thing to help the ingredients get around
3) While prepping the ingredients I remembered that the author is Australian. I looked at the teeeeeeny beets I was prepping and remembered the beets I have seen in Australia are HUGE. The lemons I was peeling were also small in comparison to what I have seen in Australia. Did the author make the adjustment? To match in size, I used two lemons and three teeny beets to match what I remembered seeing in Australia to the proportions of the recipe.
4) I totally missed adding LFA (grrrr) even after thinking about it 20 times. I will use that in the next juice.
5) I have too much produce. I will, even if I drank 5 juices a day, be throwing out some of the fruit and veg I brought. Lesson learnt: shop only for 2-3 recipes for 1-3 days. I guess I could always eat things? That probably defeats the purpose of a juice fast.....
Verdict:
Okay that was gross. As soon as I opened the canister to drink some, all I could smell was garlic. It tasted wrong. Too much beetroot perhaps and on the whole....not enough actual juice. I got down about 4 sips before I closed the lid. Ugh.
Juiced:
Own recipe of nectarines, oranges, apricots and peaches. LFA and green tea with mint added.
Lessons learnt:
1) Some fruits have no juice and shouldn't be used for such a purpose!
2) When you add green tea with mint, you are gonna get that mint flavor!
3) When adding LFA...LESS is MORE!
4) Linseed needs to come pre-grounded. The hulls are nast to work around
Verdict:
Too thick with just the fruit, just wrong with too much LFA, green tea added was a help. Now I have a huge pot of juice with LFA. Tastes fine, texture okay aside from the hulking hulls floating in it! I am not a dumb person....why did I not think of this when I was adding so much LFA?!?!?!
Juiced:
Own recipe of oranges, apricots, apples, and a lemon.
Lesosns learnt:
1) There is a fine line between a nice glass full of juice and dealing with a trough of juice
2) Not doing this in the kitchen is going to be a pain. Hopefully we will be in a new kitchen soon!
Verdict:
By far the best of the day, but still quite thick.Too thick to be a flat out juice?
Overall:
A somewhat challenging beginning, but I am not deterred. I have had a few hunger pains, but nothing too bad. I did end up eating two avacados, bout 5 hours apart, and had very little of either of the first two batches of juice. I have been sleepy today but that may have more to do with my sleeping habits of late. My abdomen has been rumbling a little and there is a threat of a headache developing. Again, could be from the lack of sleep. I am considering just eating the low-juicing fruits with a teeny sprinkle of hot sauce so they don't get wasted.
Positive yet apprehensive. I suspect I will be tasting some pretty funky things in the next few days.
Taken:
10,000 mg Vitamin D3
2 x Livatone
2x Salmon Oil
2x Gotu Kola
Juiced:
Recipe # 18 with some water added...maybe 100-150 mls?
Lessons learnt:
1) Beetroots stain everything. EVERYTHING. So much for my nice new white measuring cups and funnels etc. Anything with beetroot will have to be drunk with a straw so I don't get pink teeth!
2) The juicer is cool but will always need the stick thing to help the ingredients get around
3) While prepping the ingredients I remembered that the author is Australian. I looked at the teeeeeeny beets I was prepping and remembered the beets I have seen in Australia are HUGE. The lemons I was peeling were also small in comparison to what I have seen in Australia. Did the author make the adjustment? To match in size, I used two lemons and three teeny beets to match what I remembered seeing in Australia to the proportions of the recipe.
4) I totally missed adding LFA (grrrr) even after thinking about it 20 times. I will use that in the next juice.
5) I have too much produce. I will, even if I drank 5 juices a day, be throwing out some of the fruit and veg I brought. Lesson learnt: shop only for 2-3 recipes for 1-3 days. I guess I could always eat things? That probably defeats the purpose of a juice fast.....
Verdict:
Okay that was gross. As soon as I opened the canister to drink some, all I could smell was garlic. It tasted wrong. Too much beetroot perhaps and on the whole....not enough actual juice. I got down about 4 sips before I closed the lid. Ugh.
Juiced:
Own recipe of nectarines, oranges, apricots and peaches. LFA and green tea with mint added.
Lessons learnt:
1) Some fruits have no juice and shouldn't be used for such a purpose!
2) When you add green tea with mint, you are gonna get that mint flavor!
3) When adding LFA...LESS is MORE!
4) Linseed needs to come pre-grounded. The hulls are nast to work around
Verdict:
Too thick with just the fruit, just wrong with too much LFA, green tea added was a help. Now I have a huge pot of juice with LFA. Tastes fine, texture okay aside from the hulking hulls floating in it! I am not a dumb person....why did I not think of this when I was adding so much LFA?!?!?!
Juiced:
Own recipe of oranges, apricots, apples, and a lemon.
Lesosns learnt:
1) There is a fine line between a nice glass full of juice and dealing with a trough of juice
2) Not doing this in the kitchen is going to be a pain. Hopefully we will be in a new kitchen soon!
Verdict:
By far the best of the day, but still quite thick.Too thick to be a flat out juice?
Overall:
A somewhat challenging beginning, but I am not deterred. I have had a few hunger pains, but nothing too bad. I did end up eating two avacados, bout 5 hours apart, and had very little of either of the first two batches of juice. I have been sleepy today but that may have more to do with my sleeping habits of late. My abdomen has been rumbling a little and there is a threat of a headache developing. Again, could be from the lack of sleep. I am considering just eating the low-juicing fruits with a teeny sprinkle of hot sauce so they don't get wasted.
Ready.....set.....
One hour at Central Market, one hour at Tom Thumb, three trips to the car to get everything upstairs, and I think I am ready to go. A basket loaded with fruit and four big brown bags of veggies in the fridge.
Different combinations of the following are good liver cleansers, metabolism starters and more (go get the book if you really want to know exact measurments and recipes :)
Beetroot Parsley Oranges Nectarines
Lemon Cilantro *Watercress Red onion
Red apples Mint *Oregano Raddishes
Carrots *Basil *Lemon Thyme *Plums
Cabbage leaves *Chives String beans Celery
Broccoli Grapefruit *Brussel sprouts *Spring Onions
Garlic Fennel Tomato Cucumber
Honey *Dandelion leaves Aloe Vera juice *Kelp powder
*Fenugreek *Horseradish Water Green tea
Watermelon Alfalfa sprouts Ginger root Pineapple
Spinach
* = I couldn't find (or in the case if brussel sprouts, can't stand)
Different combinations of the following are good liver cleansers, metabolism starters and more (go get the book if you really want to know exact measurments and recipes :)
Beetroot Parsley Oranges Nectarines
Lemon Cilantro *Watercress Red onion
Red apples Mint *Oregano Raddishes
Carrots *Basil *Lemon Thyme *Plums
Cabbage leaves *Chives String beans Celery
Broccoli Grapefruit *Brussel sprouts *Spring Onions
Garlic Fennel Tomato Cucumber
Honey *Dandelion leaves Aloe Vera juice *Kelp powder
*Fenugreek *Horseradish Water Green tea
Watermelon Alfalfa sprouts Ginger root Pineapple
Spinach
* = I couldn't find (or in the case if brussel sprouts, can't stand)
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Woohoo!
It's here! My juicer arrived today. It is a big momma of a thing...biggest blender I think I have ever seen. It had to be sent in two boxes and came with several recipe books. I was excited before because it said it could make soups with the centrivical heating element, but that involves a bunch of pre-cooking. So forget that. The icecream recipes look easy and fun though. I kinda cringed when I saw some of the recipes say 'fructose'. Anyways, those recipes are not why I got the blender....but it is fun to know they can be made! I shall refer to my blender/juicer as Monty now. After Montel. I spent the whole day waiting for UPS to deliver it so I still haven't been out food shopping, but I will tonight after the sun goes down.
So, I am good to go for tomorrow once I buy the food. I am eating my last hamburger, drinking my last soda and my last frappuccino for a while. Cheers to better health!
So, I am good to go for tomorrow once I buy the food. I am eating my last hamburger, drinking my last soda and my last frappuccino for a while. Cheers to better health!
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