Friday, April 27, 2012

On The Juice

Day 5

Woke up with a sore throat today.  Boo.  It's the first one I've had since we moved to Hawaii.  I don't get sick often, so maybe this is a sign of toxins leaving my body.  It could also be from the weakened immunity that comes with cleansing.  Or maybe it's the universe mocking me for complaining about tasting cough drops!  Probably.  No midnight trips to the toilet last night, so that was a bonus.  I did have some movement first thing in the morning.  Made me feel worthy of this badge of honor a friend shared with me...


I got on the scale to check the numbers, and it read 120.2.  Actually, it read 120.0 the first time - seeing my goal weight stare back at me was wonderful!  So wonderful that I wanted to see it again and again, so I got off and back on several times just to make sure it was real.  The universe scoffed, and on the third or fourth attempt, it rose to 120.2 and stayed there.  Apparently, excitement weighs .2 lbs.  Sorry, Universe.  I'll try and contain it next time.  But .2 pounds wasn't going to put a damper on my day.  I grabbed my skinny jeans out of the "one day" pile and tried them on.  I was able to button them a couple weeks ago, but when I stopped sucking in for all my might, the muffin top made a full 360.  Not a good look.  (Though this doesn't seem to stop a lot of women from rocking it, does it?  Very unfortunate.)  Today, however, those puppies buttoned and NO MUFFIN TOP.  Woot! Woot!  I haven't been able to wear those jeans since July of 2009!  (Which was when Jake came home from Afghanistan and our Happily Ever After also became a little Heavier Ever After.)  I took the jeans off (before the universe decided to split a seam in the crotch!) and went downstairs to get my juice on.

I don't own a juicer, so I've adapted some recipes from The 3 Day Cleanse to fit my blender, so my "juices" will be more like smoothies.  Here's the menu for the next 3-5 days.

 
These are the ingredients for each smoothie.  I'll be adding enough liquid to each (coconut water, Silk Coconut Milk, or unsweetened vanilla almond milk, depending on what I feel like at the time) to get everything blending in my Vitamix.  I may also add a little stevia for sweetness, just to make some of these more palatable.


Greens w/ Apple
1 handful of spinach, 3 stalks kale, ½ of a cucumber, 2 golden delicious apples, 1 lemon, ½ a handful of parsley
Spinach Blueberry Apple Lemon
  1 handful of spinach, 2 c. frozen blueberries, 1 granny smith apple, 1 lemon
Spinach Carrot Pineapple
  1 handful of spinach, 2 medium carrots, 1/3 of a large pineapple, 1 lime
Apple Beet Pear Ginger
  2 small granny smith apples, 2 small pears, 1 beet, 1” piece of ginger
Pineapple Orange Celery
  1/3 of a large pineapple, 2 oranges, 3 stalks of celery, small handful of mint
Carrot Apple Parsley Beet Orange
  2 medium carrots, 2 granny smith apples, 1 beet, 1 orange, small handful of parsley
Carrot Apple Ginger
  3 medium carrots, 2 granny smith apples, 1’ piece of ginger
Pear Banana Blueberry
  2 pears, 2 fresh (not frozen) bananas, 1 ½ cups frozen blueberries, ice
Strawberry Banana
  2 cups frozen strawberries, 2 frozen bananas, 3 cups almond milk
Nut Milk
  1 c. raw nuts soaked 1 hour in 2 c. water and drained, 2 c. water, 3 tsp. coconut oil, ½ tsp. vanilla extract, 4 tsp. agave nectar, pinch of cinnamon, pinch of salt.

The first cup of the day was greens with apple.  It was pretty... bleck.  All I could taste was grass parsley.  But I'm not a fan of parsley anyway, so no big surprise there.  Will definitely be adding a packet of stevia to this one in the future.  But it was really filling, and it felt good to have that "bulk" in my stomach.  Mid-morning I had the apple-beet-pear-ginger.  I went ahead and added the stevia, just because I have had beets in my smoothies before and know how strong their flavor can be, plus my pears were hard as rocks.  It was SUPER tasty. And gorgeous!  So gorgeous, that I have to show evidence.







Isn't she pretty? TELL HER SHE'S PRETTY!  Oh, sorry... got carried away. 

I got to my "lunch" of spinach-blueberry-apple-lemon smoothie later than planned.  My baby girlfriend fell asleep on the couch, and so cherished is her silence naptime that I feared to bungle about the kitchen and wake her prematurely.  But once I finally drank it, it was tasty.  By the time I got to the pineapple-orange-celery, (which was pretty damn good, I might add) I was so full of fiber that I couldn't finish it.  I think the juice versions of these drinks are about 8 oz portions, but the my blender versions are running more like 10-20oz.  That's a lot of pulp.  So much, in fact, that I was looking 3 months pregnant by late afternoon.  Not exactly food baby... more like roughage baby.  THAT should be fun tomorrow.  I didn't have enough room to finish the spinach-carrot-pineapple, either.  It wasn't bad, but not the best, either.  I pushed my leftovers onto my son with a "Drink it. It's good for you." and a Look that said You Don't Have a Choice In This.  His first taste of it resulted in a wrinkled nose, but he sucked it up. (Literally, huh?)  I waited a couple of hours before attempting the cashew nut milk, just to give my gut some time to make room.  To quote Randy Jackson, "It was just okay for me, Dawg."  Kind of reminded me of canned coconut milk, but not so coconutty.  Within a few minutes, I could feel my stomach going, "What IS this? FATS?!"  I feared there might be an uprising, but the feelings passed.  I really like that this juice cleanse provides some healthy fats, because they'll help the body process all these fantastic nutrients in the juices.  And for the first time all week, I wasn't wanting to gnaw my arm off when I lay down for bed.  I'm thinking tomorrow that I might strain some of the smoothies to remove some pulp.  10lbs of roughage baby is not something I want to "give birth to" every day.

3 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Who needs Jamba Juice when we can make these, right? :)

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    2. I can't wait to try that gorgeous juice!! I think I just licked my iPhone.

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