Fruit w/Salad Supper Day 7 – Healing Journey Day 44

Journal:
Well, today has been an interesting day. It started off with some wonderful glasses of fresh-pressed orange juice mixed with blueberry juice. I honestly could drink variations of fresh orange juice every single day. I could NEVER grow sick of it.

I did the dishes after I finished drinking my juice, and started getting ready. Our first soccer game was at 5:45 pm and I had stuff to get done before then. Since tomorrow is a fully green juice day, I had to go get the green juices I ordered. This involved two stops: One at Splash Juicery and one at Glow Juicery. I picked up my 6 juices and hopefully will have enough for tomorrow. If not, I will be arriving back at Splash.

Following the juices, I had to stop at the grocery store to pick up a few things in preparation of the three green smoothie days I will have following my green juice day.

I finally came home and had just enough time to make some food and get ready for the soccer game. This is what I made, as simple as it was:

Vegetables are really so pretty! Anyways, my dip tonight contained one avocado, one stalk of celery, one Roma tomato, two stalks of green onion, the juice of half a lemon, and three florets of cauliflower. I later added some fresh dill to it to boost the flavour, but I probably could have used some extra lemon as well.

I was not able to finish all of this before the soccer game, so I finished it after. There was a mix-up, so I was unable to play the game anyways. But following the game, I did have a Fuji apple to eat on the way home.

Now, I believe I have mentioned Spud on this blog before, but I am bringing them up again because they are such an awesome company. In anticipation of the smoothie days coming up, I ordered a case of bananas from Spud. Spud is a local organic delivery service. You go on their website, select what you would like to buy, pay online, and voila: It shows up on your doorstep on delivery day. It’s wonderful. But not only is this company good with their selection and service, they also do extra things for their customers, such as writing hand-written thank you notes, or throwing in a free gift with your order. With my last order, they threw in a bag of sweet potatoes. Now, I won’t be eating sweet potatoes for quite a long time, so I took my sweet potatoes upstairs to my housemates and offered them to them. I then seized the opportunity to share where they came from and what an awesome company Spud is. So if you want to check out their services, click on www.spud.ca.

So that pretty much sums up my night. I’m actually looking forward to my green juice day tomorrow and I’m interested to see how my tastebuds have changed in regards to the less sweet flavours of so many greens.

Review of Symptoms:
-Energy is good, though slightly tired today. Haven’t been going to sleep before midnight, so that may have something to do with it.
-Acne is good and not good at the same time.
-Cauliflower FILLS MY STOMACH UP!
-Hair is still good on day 7.
-Need to drink more water.
-Skin needs exfoliated badly.

Weight at the end of the day = 168 lbs (up 0.8 lbs from yesterday)

Total Calories = 1333 (73% carbs, 17% fat, 10% protein… a little low in calories, a little high in fat)

Fruit w/Salad Supper Day 5- Healing Journey Day 42

Journal:
I have been looking forward to this morning all week. I bought tons of Navel oranges just to make a juice in the morning with my new juicer. And today, I finally had time to make it!

So I did the same thing as last time except this time I juiced 8 Navel oranges and added about a cup of organic, blueberry juice. Mmmm… it is such a good combination!

My digestion hasn’t been the greatest the past few days for some reason, and let me just say, I stand by the juicing when you’re having digestion issues. It works very well!

For the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon, I did work on the computer. I had a few stressful things to deal with and it took a lot more time than I thought. I did go to the kitchen and slice up 5 golden kiwis that I ate quickly. Eventually I took a shower and did some running around, including getting enough supplies to last me through the rest of the weekend.

Monday will begin a day of green juices all day. So I ordered some green juices from a local juice place that I will be picking up on Sunday. From Tuesday-Thursday, I will be consuming green smoothies. It’s coming! I’m pretty far down the healing spectrum.

When I got home, I was preparing to make my salad. BUT my husband wanted to Skype. So I diverged and sliced up a bunch of mushrooms and made up a quick guacamole type thing to dip it in while talking to him. In the guac, I put an avocado, a Roma tomato, a stalk of green onion, and some lemon juice. It would have been better blended, but I mashed it to save time from getting out the blender.

Well, let’s just say I was on track to getting in a large amount of calories, closer to where I should be. BUT my housemates went to sleep before I could go out to make my salad. And since they are asleep… I couldn’t use my blender, meaning I couldn’t make a dressing which also means I couldn’t have a salad. So… I started thinking hard. I restocked my pile of lettuce while shopping today, and so I wanted to be sure to get in my head of lettuce for today. It took awhile but it hit me… banana and lettuce!

I’ve seen so many people do this, and yet it didn’t come to me right away. So many people take bananas, put them in lettuce, roll the leaf up, and just eat it that way. That was how I was going to make a “salad” of sorts and get my greens in! So that’s what I did.

     

It was so simple, yet actually pretty good. And yes, I know… my bananas were ripening funny. When I received these bananas in my Organic Box, they were the greenest bananas I had ever seen. But, they were ready, so I used them! Tomorrow I should be back on to a “normal” salad.

Review of Symptoms:
-Hair looks good! No grease after 5 days of no washing.
-SKIN IS DRY!!!!!!!! My face is flaking. Need to do some serious moisturizing and consider using coconut oil. Need to start exfoliating as well.
-Digestion is back on track today.
-Noticed a bump on my ring finger… not sure what is up with that.
-Energy is good.
-Face still full of acne… and not normal acne either… deep things that deeper than anything I’ve ever had before… sometimes with a mix of little bumps too.
-Dehydrated. Need to drink more water!!

Weight at the end of the day = 167.2 lbs (down 1.2 lbs since 3 days ago)

Total Calories = 1886 (80% carbs, 12% fat, 8% protein… so much better!)

All Fruit Day – Healing Journey Day 36

Journal:
I’m still shocked at how little of a difference the food I ate yesterday made in my weight. I’m really figuring out that the more raw fruits and vegetables we eat, the better it is for our bodies. Honestly, if you need to get healthier and lose some weight, start swapping out cooked meals for raw meals and eat as little cooked food as possible. I promise it will work.

I slept in again today and it felt great. Unfortunately, I did not make it in time for church so I watched a church service from home. My stomach felt so heavy when I woke up this morning, but of course, I knew it was because of the cooked food from yesterday, so it wasn’t really a surprise.

I didn’t eat until 2:00 pm today. I’m not meaning to do intermittent fasting, but it just seems to be happening. I’m not complaining as it does mean that I’ve learned that a hunger feeling is ok and normal. But… I should be so lazy.

So for my first “meal”, I had a smoothie made from frozen bananas and frozen strawberries. It was pretty good and came out more of a sorbet consistency.

Later, I made another smoothie with bananas, blueberry juice and strawberries. It was good as well but again, came out as a sorbet consistency.

Because these smoothies were very low calories, it didn’t take long for me to get hungry again. So then I decided to snack on ten deglet noor dates.

I didn’t do much for the rest of the night; mostly some work on the computer. I was super hungry still, so I made another banana and strawberry smoothie. However, I never was satisfied. My fruit supply is low which means I desperately need to go buy some fruit tomorrow. And then on Monday, I get to have salads for supper! I have been doing my research to find some dressings made only out of fruits and veggies so I’m looking forward to that! The variety is about to increase!

Review of Symptoms:
-Digestion is good.
-Acne still bad.
-Muscles are so sore after yesterday’s workout (need to eat more).
-Very hungry on few calories.
-“Your poo smells like roses.” This is a sarcastic phrase I’ve heard since a child. However, I have learned that the more pure the food is that you eat, the less smell there is. There is a difference when you eat cooked foods.

Weight at the end of the day = 170.4 lbs (down 1.8 lbs from yesterday)

Total Calories = 1047 (93% carbs, 3% fat, 4% protein… need to eat more)

All Fruit Day – Healing Journey Day 34

Journal:
I am finally on to eating all fruit! I’m so excited. I don’t have to depend on a blender anymore. Honestly, making smoothies isn’t so bad when I’m home with a blender, but even though I have a blender at work, it’s hard for me to break away from the students to take the time needed to make a smoothie, wash the blender, etc. To be successful with a smoothie feast, here are my tips:

1. Always have a blender. Bring it with you everywhere.
2. If you’re short on time, prep the fruit ahead of time. Freeze if possible so it is always ready to go.
3. Try to make a big smoothie to take with you if you are going to be busy, so you don’t have to worry about finding time to make another smoothie (which also means buy a big cup or container to put it in!).

So today, for a snack, I had an orange pippin apple. I had never had this variety before, but it is delicious! The flavour is intense and wonderful. I thoroughly enjoyed my apple.

For lunch, I had a Keitt mango and it was phenomenal. When I bought these mangoes, they were completely unripe, hard as a rock, and costed me $3 per mango. I took a huge chance when I bought these, but I couldn’t be any happier that I did. They have been the best mangoes I have had in years. Oh my goodness. I am in love! Sadly, today’s mango was my last one. I am going to miss them dearly.

So, as you can kind of tell, I didn’t get a lot of time to eat today. But, that’s why having easy-access fruit is crucial with my job. I only get short minutes here and there to eat, so if the fruit is not ready to go right away, then chances are I won’t be able to eat it or at least won’t be able to eat much of it.

I didn’t end up eating anything for the rest of the day. In fact, it wasn’t until I finished work, got home, went to get my local soccer player’s card, went to Eurosport and bought indoor soccer shoes, shin pads, and new highlighter yellow soccer socks, that I finally went to another smoothie place called Jugo Juice. Jugo Juice is a place that serves fresh juices and smoothies and unlike Booster Juice, never uses sorbet in their smoothies (hence why I’ve been getting only the juice/smoothies at Booster Juice).

At Jugo Juice, I got a smoothie called Blushing Mango. It had guava and passionfruit juices, blended with frozen raspberries and frozen mangoes. It was VERY good.

After finishing my smoothie, I ended up coming home. I didn’t end up making it to the gym because I was tired from not eating a lot throughout the day (my mistake). I also have had a chill all day, never seeming to be able to get warm. This made it difficult for me to want to go back outside to drive to the gym. We have snow on the ground already and after doing my morning recess duty, it’s like the chill was in my bones all day. I’m not enjoying this early winter.

I did end up drinking a little bit of organic blueberry juice before I went to bed (so hungry), but that was it for the day.

Review of Symptoms:
-HUNGRY! (Need to eat more throughout the day!)
-Acne still bad…
-Digestion is good.
-Tongue very minimally covered.

Weight at the end of the day = 171.2 lbs (down 3 lbs from yesterday)

Total Calories = 946 (96% carbs, 2% fat, 2% protein… need to eat more tomorrow…)

Fruit Smoothie Feasting – Healing Journey Day 26

Journal:
So the day is here. It’s my final transition into consuming food full time. Although the food is blended, it’s still food. I was actually kind of nervous about this day. I haven’t been eating food consistently in almost a month, and to know that this is the beginning of eating all the time again, it’s a little nerve-wrecking. But I’m sure I will adjust.

This morning, I started with a 6 banana smoothie, blended with approximately 200 mL of organic blueberry juice. It wasn’t the sweetest, I must admit. It was not totally my favourite, but I drank it none the less. I was very tempted to put some coconut sugar in the smoothie as well, but I refrained.

Work was pretty much the same. It had some highs; it had some lows. Some reasons to celebrate, and some reasons to take a deep breath. I never did get to eat another smoothie for the rest of the work day. Needless to say, I was hungry throughout the day since I didn’t get another chance to blend a smoothie up.

I ended up staying at school working on things until 5:30. By working on things, I mean returning work-related phone calls, figuring out hot lunch payments that were under a misunderstanding, and explaining things to several parents as well as trying to tie everything up on a late deadline at school. Oh man… what a rush!

Before I left the school, I made myself another smoothie. I was so hungry since I hadn’t eaten anything since that first smoothie. This time, I put about 400 mL of the organic blueberry juice in with 7 bananas. Believe it or not, it was actually sweeter than before. I thoroughly enjoyed this smoothie and even stopped on the way home to take a pretty fall picture of it for you all to enjoy!

I sat at home, talking with my housemates until I finished this smoothie. Then I headed out to run a few errands, ending up at the gym to do 30 minutes of cycling. I went higher in intensity again, and absolutely loved it.

I came home, and made a smoothie with two mangoes and almost a whole pear. I have some fruit to use up before I fly out for Thanksgiving, so I probably won’t be having banana smoothies tomorrow; bananas are easy to freeze. I will probably be consuming watermelon smoothies and mango smoothies. Hopefully it will all be good. I am so tired that I am closing here for the night. I’m looking forward to some sleep. Good night ya’ll!

Review of Symptoms:
-Acne still not good.
-Energy pretty good.
-Tongue not even half as badly coated today.
-Digestion is fantastic.
-Hair is greasy. (I will write about this soon!)

Weight at the end of the day = 174.6 lbs (down 2 lbs from yesterday)

Total Calories = 2103 (94% carbs, 3% fat, 3% protein)

Multi-Juice Feasting – Healing Journey Day 25

Journal:
Did you notice I went up 8 lbs two days ago and was already down 6 lbs the day after? What a shift! What an experiment! So essentially, my body was in shock after eating so much food, so much cooked food, so much salty and fatty foods. Then, after more hours than usual, my body proved it’s excellent digestion ability by getting rid of almost all of it within a day. I’m quite impressed to say the least.

While on the topic of my body cleansing itself, my tongue was COATED this morning. Honestly I had just opened my mouth in the way of the mirror and was shocked at how dead my tongue looked. It wasn’t white as before, but more of a dead, almost tan colour. Yuck! It came off with some tongue scraping again, but I tell you, it’s amazing what happens when you eat “junk” and then eat clean so your body gets rid of the bad stuff. Oh boy!

I wasn’t completely looking forward to my juices today, but it really wasn’t that bad once I started drinking some. From breakfast until lunch, I drank about a litre of organic grape juice. From lunch to supper, I drank about a litre of organic pineapple juice with pulp. And from supper until I went to bed, I drank about a third of a litre of organic blueberry juice. Honestly, it was very satisfying. So satisfying, in fact, that I was considering doing another day of juicing. But, alas my stash of leftover juices is getting low so I don’t have enough to do another day. So instead, I begin fruit smoothies tomorrow! I don’t have any other juice feasts scheduled for the rest of this journey, but should I ever feel like I need a “cleanse”, I now know that juicing is the way to go!

So today was an active day. It was a decent day, though not great. My free time at work is quickly getting eaten up with other things so I don’t truly get a break anymore. However, I have had less meetings so far this week after school so that has been nice. However, since I am travelling this weekend, I have much to do to prepare and I have spent the past two nights simply doing errands and trying to catch up on life. There is never a dull moment.

I went to the gym this evening and did 30 minutes of cycling. I raised the intensity some and felt awesome by the end.

And that pretty much sums up my day. After cardio, I sat at home doing work until I went to sleep. I always have work to do; there is never a shortage.

Review of Symptoms:
-Tongue coated in a dead, tan colour.
-Acne is the same.
-Energy is good.
-Digestion continues to be fantastic.

Weight at the end of the day = 176.6 lbs (same as yesterday)

Total Calories = 1252 (97% carbs, 0% fat, 3% protein)

Mono-Juice Feasting – Healing Journey Day 9

Journal:
I have determined that it will continue to be a pattern: mornings are simply a good time. I wake up feeling good. I enjoy it.

Today I had the absolute thrill of looking forward to something other than apple juice; I got to drink blueberry juice! The blueberry juice was wonderful. It was so nice to have a switch in flavours.

If you’ve never had blueberry juice before, it’s not quite as sweet as apple juice, but there is such a strong and beautiful blueberry flavour that it is super satisfying. I was so thankful to have it today, as I’m sure my body was as well.

For the most part, I did a lot of work at home today. I did go out and get some more juices to finish out my juice feasting, got a new leash for my dog, and did 30 minutes of walking on the treadmill. Yes, I am feeling stronger today, but I don’t want to “push my luck.” If all goes well, I will be adding in weights again soon!

After determining yesterday that I might be drinking more juice than my body wanted, I slowed down with the juice I drank today. What was the end result? Not one bout of upset stomach. Bingo! Listen to the body and don’t be scared to feel hunger to know if you truly are hungry or not.

Review of Symptoms:
-Acne is the same. Though one deep pimple is coming through on chin.
-Tongue covered in white again though actually not as bad as the past few days! Perhaps the majority of my toxins are getting out.
-No stomach pain due to reduced juice intake! Celebrate!
-Hair is WAY LESS GREASY! Actually was second-guessing whether it was greasy at all this morning.
-Digestion is regular (no issues).

Weight at the end of the day = 181 (down 0 lbs from yesterday)

Total Calories = 772 (99% carbs, 0% fat, 1% protein)

Day 3

I am paying for what I did last night. I never want to eat that much deep-fried food again.

I woke up in the middle of the night as dry as the desert. My mouth was so dry and I craved water. I did not get in near enough water yesterday, possibly not even half as much as my goal is. I feel awful.

I chugged down some water and realized as I was laying in bed trying to fall back asleep that I had pains from my neck to my lower abdomen. Greasy food… I strongly dislike you. My body is paying for my stupidity.

After I got up and made lunch for my husband, I took a 4L jug of water, and started drinking. My goal is to have the 4L finished today. My usual goal is only 3L, but I think I owe it to my body, especially after all that unhealthiness last night to give it some extra water to flush the nastiness out. Ugh… hopefully you’re sensing how awful I feel.

After drinking about 1L of water to start off my day, and waiting about a half hour, I ate my breakfast. Today, my bananas from the Organic Box were ripe and ready to be eaten. Remember, when you eat bananas, they shouldn’t just be yellow. They should have lots of dark spots on them. That is when they are the best ripeness. I attempted to eat 6 (I know it would even be awesome to eat 10) but because I’m still getting used to eating so much, I could only get in 5. So a 5 banana breakfast it is!

I had to run to meet a lady at a different mall today. It was good. Got there on time. Found her. Everything went smoothly. But I decided to take a quick run to the health food store there to get some hairspray that I needed. Of course, I walked by the food court, really wanted some Korean potatoes, but since I’m trying to do raw foods until 4 p.m. each day, I continued to walk by. Instead, I picked up some Solar Raw kale chips with my organic, cruelty-free hairspray. Oh they are delicious! You could never guess it’s not cheese on them. Almost completely organic, and the Solar Raw brand is a farm that grows all their own organic products using solar power! Love it! Look up the brand and see for yourself! The only thing was, they are so rich that I could only eat a small handful. I will be snacking on these later (or tomorrow).

As a late lunch, I put together a massive salad. I used some 50/50 Organic Green Mix, 1 organic raspberry (unfortunately one had moulded and spoiled a whole bunch of other ones), organic blueberries, three sliced organic strawberries, some organic cucumber, a yellow rainbow carrot, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds and soya nuts. For a dressing, I mashed 2 small avocados with a teaspoon of vegan cream cheese (not my favourite, so masking it with other things) and salsa. Oh so delicious, and very full!

After my husband came home, he suggested going out for frozen yogurt. It’s a hot day, our first “hot” summer day, so I said, “Let’s go!”

They had two vegan flavours today: blueberry sorbet and peach sorbet. I totally forgot how flavourful sorbet was! So sweet and fruity. Yum! Of course I put some fresh fruit toppings on it, as well as a couple candy embellishments as a treat. This is a late snack/supper. I’m still very full.

We went to the gym, and I had a good workout. I focused on different variations of squats, push-ups, and some planks. I did a variety of stretching, my chiropractor’s exercises, and 25 minutes of quick-paced walking. It all went very well.

For supper, I finished off the little bit of kale chips my husband left, ate 3 mangos, and then sat around with my husband trying not to fall asleep (sometimes I’m a night owl, sometimes I’m not). However, my husband mentioned that he wanted pizza, so we ordered pizza, non-cheese breadsticks (for me), Coke Zero, and Cinnamon Sticks. I was so proud of myself that I did not even look at the pizza (cheese, chicken and beef), and I didn’t even take one gulp of that Coke Zero! Not that Coke is not vegan, but of all the chemicals that are inside that thing. I did eat my cheese-less breadsticks with marinara sauce (normally would be so unhappy that there was no cheese on them… talk about cheese-addicted!), and I ate a couple of the cinnamon sticks (could have definitely gone without these). But overall, not bad with all the temptation around me!

Just before I went to bed, I finished my 4L of water. Definitely the most I’ve ever drank in a day, and I was so happy!