How Not to Get Bored on a Juice Fast

There's something wonderful that I discovered today when I was juice fasting.  In the past I would always start my day with a concoction of veggies.  Greens, apples, carrots, cabbage, beets, cucumber, celery, sweet potatoes, zucchini, ginger, just whatever I had on hand.  Now, there's nothing wrong with this combination, it always tasted great and I felt like I'm getting a variety of nutrients.  My second juice of the day was always the same though.  Needless to say, I would get really bored drinking the same juice over and over.  So I decided to just try a few ingredients this time.  I've seen lots of recipes for juices with just 3-5 ingredients, but I just never tried them.  First I juiced some honeydew melon, watermelon and an apple.  It was yummy!  Then I juiced 3 stalks of celery, 1/2 a cucumber, 1 apple, and 2 leaves of Chinese cabbage. It was so goo!

What did I learn? Vary your juices each time you juice or you'll get bored to death and not want to stay on your juice fast! My taste buds got to experience different fruits and veggies, not just everything in the kitchen thrown together. There are so many wonderful fruits and veggies to experience, why just stick with the same ones? I feel like I'll be better able to stay on the fast for a longer period of time, just with varying the juice I make. It was definitely a valuable lesson to learn.

New Breville Juicer, much better than my old one!

I'm so excited!  I bought a "new to me" juicer on Craigslist.  It's a Breville Juice Fountain Multi-speed juicer. It retails for $200 and I got it for $100.  I have been wanting a new juicer for along time now.  I already have a Breville juicer, but it's the inexpensive compact model.  It fits nicely on a small counter, but it's a pain to clean because of the cylinder design.  Also, I have to stop making juice once the pulp collector fills up or I have to dismantle the whole juicer just to make more juice.  It's much nosier than my new one.

The newer model is so easy to clean.  I can put a plastic bag in the pulp collector and just throw the bag away when I am done, no need to wash it.  It's so quiet.  It has 5 speeds to help juice different types of fruit and vegetables. The juice holder is also so much bigger. Love, love it!

I highly recommend spending a little more on a quality juicer and not get the least expensive model.  It will save you so much time and trouble and be well worth it.

Eight Days of Pain, Didn't Do Well, But I'm Not Giving Up!

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve written in my blog.  Why, probably because I haven’t been doing very well.  I ended my juice fast on day 12.  I was fine with that, I felt like it was time to move on and start learning how to eat “raw”.  I was doing fine and eating all raw for 4 days start and then it hit me!  I started having terrible pain in my bladder (from my IC disease).  I didn’t even have my pills with me.  I never leave the house without my pills (ibuprofen and Vicoden), but I honestly thought I was healed and that I wouldn’t need them anymore, apparently not.  I’m okay with that. I guess it’s just not God’s timing yet for me to be healed.  I’m thinking that the pain started because I had made a Jicama salad sprinkled with lime juice and dressing made with orange juice.  I’m not supposed to be eating any citrus, but again, I thought I would be fine.  I continued to have pain everyday for 8 days start.  I had to take my pills all day long! Plus I wasn’t sleeping well at night.  I was depressed and not eating as well as I should have of. I was still eating about 50% raw, but when I’m depressed and in pain, I want comfort food. So I was eating cooked food. Then of course I don’t lose weight and wonder why? Duh! Because I can’t eat cooked foods; noodles, rice and other stuff and expect to lose weight.

I’m doing much better now.  I had a couple of days with no pain, a good night’s sleep and I’m feeling much better.  I talked to my daughter and she encouraged me and told me it would take time for me to learn to eat all raw. She’s right.  It won’t happen for me overnight. 

I threw out all of my nuts and seeds and the cocoa/coconut fudge I had made.  I realized that I was eating way too many calories with these foods and that they would have to go for now until I lost all of the weight that I wanted.  Then I can re introduce them into my diet a little at a time.

Conclusion, I'm not giving up! I'm going to continue eating raw every meal that I can and take each day and each meal, one at a time, with God's help! 

Losing Weight, Getting Healthy God's Way

Gosh, I can't believe it's been 3 years since I've posted anything new.  Part of the reason why is because I'm such a private person and it's hard for me to share my personal feelings with "the world".  But my prayer is that I will be able to help someone else in their journey as God helps me along mine!

I have decided to go on a juice fast again.  Why, because I am overweight again.  I’ve gained back a bunch of the weight I lost on my last fast and lifestyle change. It lasted for a good while, but my new lifestyle went back to my old lifestyle and that’s why I gained back all of those pounds.

Plus, I’m sick.  I have terrible hot flashes daily, I have a bump on my knee and it is tender and sore and I have trouble moving it sometimes.  I have a bladder disease called Interstitial Cystitis which is basically painful inflammation of the bladder.  I’m not in pain everyday but when I do have an “attack”, that’s what I like to call it, it’s bad and I’m in bed for hours with terrible pain.

I want to take control of my health and my weight.  This time with God’s help.  I think in the past I prayed some about my diet, but not faithfully or seriously.  I realize now that I CAN’T do this alone.  I know because I’ve tried many times to lose weight, only to gain it back again.  My willpower was not enough.  I need God!