Liquid Salsa

Well today is pretty much the end of Day 2 of my juice fast. It went okay, but not great. I was very, very hungry! I usually don’t eat all that much in the morning until after I work out, so I am used to the empty stomach mornings. I didn’t work out today, wanted to, but it just didn’t happen. Anyway this morning I was working on getting school going and getting my juice ready for the day, and I didn’t end up drinking until after 10:00. Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal but today I needed to get something in me! I think it was hard to recover after that.

My first drink was blended mango, orange, mixed berries, and some spinach. Not technically juice, but I need to use the mangos and this mix is impossible to strain. I had about 20 ounces of that and then moved to water. Only about an hour later I was still starving and decided to have my next juice. This one was like liquid salsa! Sounds weird but I liked it. I did tomato, spinach, carrots, cabbage, kale, bell pepper, jalapeno (just half this time!), celery, and cilantro. I had about a quart.

I didn’t drink another juice until about 4:30, when I got home from work and co-op shopping. I can’t even remember what it was, but kale and pineapple were the big flavors, and I had another quart. It was not bad. It was way overdue though. I was losing steam and not feeling great. Very tired, very empty feeling, and just kind of out of it. After the juice kicked in I started feeling pretty good. I helped make dinner and decided I probably didn’t need any more juice tonight. So I’m saving the pint of beet and carrot stuff I made earlier for tomorrow morning. I did decide to have a teaspoon of Supergreens mixed with water, which was almost pleasant. Now I’m just relaxing before bed

So yeah. Today I was very empty feeling and very hungry! I don’t think my stomach has ever been this empty. I was kind of mentally in a fog most of the day but I still got stuff done, amazingly. I haven’t been having any headaches like yesterday so that’s good. Maybe this won’t be so bad once my body adjusts. The first 3 days are supposed to be the hardest, so we’ll see what happens tomorrow. As I mentioned I did some shopping but it quickly became clear this morning that I am probably going to be doing some kind of shopping daily. And it is going to get expensive Especially trying to use organic stuff that is on the Dirty Dozen list. It would be great to do all organic but unrealistic for me.

I do have to say that having the juicer when doing all of that juice was fantastic. Once everything was ready, the juicing was quick. I wouldn’t have wanted to mess with straining all of that in my towels!

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by Lauren on May 14, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in Diet, Goals, Health, Juice Fast, Life

Posted by Lauren on May 14, 2012

http://cookeatrunplay.wordpress.com/2012/05/14/liquid-salsa/

Laughing all the way to Bed Bath and Beyond

I decided to do the juice fast, and next thing I know we were headed to the above to ‘look’ at the juicers They happened to have just one Omega VRT350 juicer, and I had a 20% off coupon. Seemed like the right thing to do! So now we do have a juicer, again. Happy Mother’s Day?!

In using it yesterday and today we have found out that it is pretty cool. It sounds like it is chewing up the food! As far as the waste factor, we figured that I was grinding my pulp really fine in the blender and that the waste was probably close to the same. I do still think that the waste is higher with a centrifugal juicer, so I wouldn’t ever get one of those again. I did end up using the blender again though tonight, so I imagine I will still be doing some juicing in the blender.

The only con so far is the clean up. There are a handful of parts that need washing after each use. Most of the time we can get away with just rinsing with hot water, I figure we will be soap washing maybe once a day. It doesn’t take much time, but it does take up space on the counter leaving the parts to dry. I will probably make a few batches of juice at a time just to save on the cleanup, depending on how the juice keeps. So far so good.

Anyway, so now we have a juicer!

Today was good, but a little rough toward the evening. I had coffee this morning (probably my last for a while) then I went for my run. I was going to do 8 miles but when I got to 4 I decided to go one more before turning around and coming home, so I ended up doing 10 miles. I did have most of a Stinger honey packet mid-run, but I won’t be doing that again. I will have to come up with something else as it made my tummy ache. Anyway after I got home I blended up some thawed berries, a mango, and an orange. I tried to strain it in the floursack towel but it didn’t really work. I ended up just drinking it as it was, diluted with water. It was really good I did a quick walk to take back a movie while I drank that, and when I got home it was time to rest. I laid down and took a quick nap, and after that I felt okay and it was time for another juice.

This time I did kale, spinach, parsley, carrots, celery, 1/2 a lemon, jicama, and a jalapeno. Mistake on the jalapeno! It was so spicy! I almost couldn’t drink it but I made myself anyway. Didn’t want to waste all of those veggies! This made about 24 ounces and I diluted it to make double that. I think that was also a mistake, since I got to feeling really crappy toward the evening. Tomorrow I will just drink as much juice as I need to, not diluted, and drink plenty of water too.

I decided I wouldn’t try to avoid food, so when dinner time came and The Boyfriend was cooking, I was sitting on the floor playing a game with M. He grilled some chicken and I was right by the window and it smelled amazing. For a while! I even sat with them while they ate and I sipped my juice. I wasn’t painful or driving me nuts or anything. I don’t think that avoiding food is going to really help me, if I just face it head on I think it will do even more for me as far as the mental part of it.

At around 5:30 I desperately needed something more, so I did the blender juice of beet, carrots, jicama, and red grapes. It really hit the spot! I don’t want to juice anymore today since I don’t want to be up all night going to the bathroom. Hopefully I’ll feel okay in the morning and I will just be smarter tomorrow and drink more juice.

I feel like I recovered okay from my run, my muscles aren’t screaming at me or anything so I figure I’m okay. I imagine that will be my last 10 mile run for a while though, at least while juice fasting

I’ve written down a handful of juice recipes and I think I’m just going to try and keep it simple, doing mostly the same kinds of juices. I don’t want to have a ton of different things in the fridge all of the time, plus with two people still eating in the house there isn’t room in there anyway! I will definitely be shopping more often.

I imagine Day 2 will be pretty hellish. At least that is what I’ve read. I hope that I can get through it okay and just keep going. I plan to do some walking as my workout but nothing major. I’ve also read that a little exercise will help any detox symptoms to pass quicker so maybe I’ll take two walks

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by Lauren on May 13, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in Diet, Goals, Happiness, Health, Juice Fast, juicing, Running

Posted by Lauren on May 13, 2012

http://cookeatrunplay.wordpress.com/2012/05/13/laughing-all-the-way-to-bed-bath-and-beyond/

Not a News Flash

If you know me, you know that I am indeed kinda crazy. I’ve done loads of crazy stuff in the past, haven’t we all though?! So here is the latest crazy thing I’m going to do.

I am going to do a juice fast!!

I checked out the movie Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead from the library and we watched it last night and I was pretty inspired. I have toyed with the idea of doing a juice or water fast many times, in fact I did survive on orange juice alone for 3 days at a time twice I wouldn’t really recommend it though. Anyway, my first goal is to make it through 10 days. If I can do that, then I will keep going to 21 days. After that I will see how I feel and whether or not I want to continue.

What do I hope to get out of it?

Not gonna lie, I want to shed some quick pounds. I have a lot of aches and pains that I know are because of my extra pounds and I think that running will be easier if the pounds go away (obviously!). So yeah, I want to lose but I want to feel better too! I think that giving my body a break and only giving it 100% veggies and fruit juice will do that and make me feel a lot better.

I also believe that it will probably give me more confidence in myself. If I can stick to it, it will be a huge accomplishment!

I know that a lot of people will say that cleanses are bogus because our liver does all that for you, but I think there is probably something there if people can fast and their bodies do indeed heal themselves. So hopefully if I have anything going on I’ll be able to clean myself out and get some of my own healing done too.

Anyway, wish me luck if you’d like, and I will give an update as to how my first day goes tomorrow

2 Comments

by Lauren on May 12, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in Diet, Goals, Happiness, Health, juicing, Losing Weight

Posted by Lauren on May 12, 2012

http://cookeatrunplay.wordpress.com/2012/05/12/not-a-news-flash/

No Nonsense Blender Juice

I have been experimenting with juice lately. I even thought about getting an actual juicer. I started watching some YouTube videos with people using masticating juicers, and it just seemed like there was so much waste! We have had a centrifugal juicer and got rid of it because of the waste factor, plus it was annoying to clean. So I bagged that idea and just turned to blender. I have a Blendtec which is great, but you could do this with any blender. It just might not get as blended, but that doesn’t matter since you are draining the pulp anyway.

Here is what I do. I use my Blendtec, a quart measuring cup, and these oversized floursack towels, each cut into 4 smaller squares. The floursack will get stained. All I do is rinse it out and set it outside to dry in the sun, which might help the staining. They get washed with all of the other kitchen towels.

Chop the veggies and fruit on the small side.

Off to the blender, with water added to the 20 ounce line, or more if you like.

Blend one time on the whole juice setting, or until it looks like this

Floursack ready to strain.

Pour the juice in.

Gather it up and strain it out. You’ll have to squeeze and twist and it might get messy. Get as much juice out as you can.

This is how much I got out.

The pulp bag.

Maybe a cup? Not bad!

For this juice I used:

3 carrots
1 stalk celery
1 apple
1 cup jicama
1 beet

It was pretty good! I like to add greens too, spinach and kale or whatever you have. The possibilities are endless. I decided to do this one today since we are not big fans of jicama straight up, and ended up with one from our Bountiful Basket last weekend. Much easier to take this way

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by Lauren on May 10, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in Good Food, Health, juicing, Recipes

Posted by Lauren on May 10, 2012

http://cookeatrunplay.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/no-nonsense-blender-juice/

For Accountability

Okay, things have kind of gone downhill fast here! I am completely amazed at just how easy it is to fall into bad habits again. I haven’t been working out. I want to eat pizza every day I am being sucked back into the evils of potato chips! I am enjoying the wine, whiskey, and beer too much.

So what am I going to do about it??

I am going back to the real food rules AND no alcohol until we go to Portland in October.

Originally my plan was to have no alcohol this year and I caved on that, but I really do want to do good with my training plan so taking the temptation away is what I need to do. I want to be able to be lax about the rules but it isn’t working out so great for me right now. I’m starting tomorrow. It will be 151 days from then to October 7th. I know I can do it.

No more excuses!!!

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by Lauren on May 8, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in Diet, Goals, Happiness, Health, Life, Losing Weight, Marathon, Mind Games, Miskellaneous, Unprocessed

Posted by Lauren on May 8, 2012

http://cookeatrunplay.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/for-accountability/

No sugar a bust

Well I called off the no sugar thing. I really wasn’t excited about it and honestly I don’t care about it at all! I haven’t been having sugar, but I really don’t care if my hot sauce or roasted peppers have a tiny bit of sugar in it. Why they do I do not know. But it isn’t a big deal!! The main problem for me was baking and eating way too many treats. So I will continue to not do that. So yeah, no sugar May is off, and I’m glad! I kind of feel lame for giving up, but oh well. I wasn’t enthused and the desire wasn’t there so oh well.

I still plan on eating real food! But I guess I am tired of being SO strict. If I find that I need to tighten up the reins on the food and eating, I will. But I think overall I’m doing okay. Last week was kind of a bust with the drinking and we did go out to eat a couple of times. So in that regard I want to get back on track. Eating out is expensive!! And drinking too much makes me feel like shit

I am looking forward to getting back to the workouts this week. I skipped them ALL last week I’m trying to not feel too guilty and down on myself, so I’m just going to try and get them all done this week. Live and learn. And guess what? This is real life. Things happen. I need to be able to recognize what is going on and be able to get back on track. I’m still not giving up!

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by Lauren on May 6, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in Diet, Exercise, Goals, Health, Life, Miskellaneous

Posted by Lauren on May 6, 2012

http://cookeatrunplay.wordpress.com/2012/05/06/no-sugar-a-bust/

Shots from Zion

Zion last weekend was amazing as always! I love it there

Deer at the Campground

M on the Canyon Overlook Trail

Me on the Canyon Overlook Trail

Me and M on the Canyon Overlook Trail

Random Beauty

View at the top of the Canyon Overlook Trail

Court of the Patriarchs

M at Weeping Rock

Weeping Rock Trail

A Big Rock

M chillin’

K and I at the Overlook

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by Lauren on May 5, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in Happiness, Life, Miskellaneous, Vacation

Posted by Lauren on May 5, 2012

http://cookeatrunplay.wordpress.com/2012/05/05/shots-from-zion/

Relapse

We went camping this past weekend and it was great! I only drank one beer on Friday so I could get up and run in Zion the next morning. I did and it was awesome. Saturday I didn’t overdo it, even with whiskey involved. We ate great, having big salads each day and not eating a bunch of crap food. We didn’t even take any crap food really. Then we came home on Sunday, and I just let go for some reason. I drank too much, was hungover Monday, then drank again to feel less shitty. I’m not really sure why I did this, because I know how awful I feel when I do! Not just physically but it totally put my mental state in a very bad place. I quickly felt myself getting so depressed and anxious, and started feeling just not good enough.

So, I am done with that. I hope that this won’t ever happen again but I really can’t say that it won’t. I mean, it happens. I am so grateful for the 3 months that I didn’t drink at all, and while I think I am ready for real life to be happening again, I can only hope that I can keep the self control I had going and not overdo it again. That is my goal anyway. Because I love wine, beer, whiskey shots once in a while, so I am not going to give them up totally for any real extended period of my life. Better learn how to deal with it and still live a healthy life! Okay, my ‘confession’ is out, and now I can move on. I won’t be drinking at least until we go camping again, which is in 3 weeks. It messes too much with the weight loss

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by Lauren on May 2, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in Goals, Happiness, Health, Life, Losing Weight, Mind Games, Miskellaneous

Posted by Lauren on May 2, 2012

http://cookeatrunplay.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/relapse/

No Sugar May

Starts today! The title says it all. Well, mostly. We are giving up sugar, but will still allow honey, molasses, date syrup, carob molasses (since I picked some up at an international foods market). My secret plan is to not bake any treats unless they are requested! I tend to overdo it on the baked goodies so it makes sense to try and eliminate them and their hold on me for a little while. So for me, if I don’t bake goodies I probably really won’t be eating any sweeteners. We used up the last of the sugar before we went camping this past weekend and there isn’t any reason to buy any more now. Here we go!

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by Lauren on May 1, 2012 • Permalink

Posted in Diet, Food, Goals, Health, Life

Posted by Lauren on May 1, 2012

http://cookeatrunplay.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/no-sugar-may/

School vacation, just because.

We are taking a mini vacation from school over here, mostly because I feel like it

Monday was uneventful except for soccer practice and shopping the co-op. Tuesday was wide open. After our morning routine we headed to the Aviary. We caught a quick keeper talk and a bird show. A picnic watching the ducks followed, and then we hit the playground. Swimming lessons, attempting roller skating, finally dinner and then making cookies filled the rest of the time. It was a full day for us!!

(Please excuse the bad phone pics )