Juicing: Day 22

Today's Juice:

1 HoneyCrisp Apple
1 cup organic greens
1 enormous carrot

Pronouncement: HoneyCrisp gives you waaaay more apple-y taste for less.

I ate homemade guacamole (avocado mashed with onion salt, pepper and a little regular table salt, plus garlic) and wheat thins at lunchtime for what I thought would be a snack, but I'm still full...I guess it was the fat/protein?

So I might eat my smoothie for dinner, but I came up with a really delicious-sounding (we'll see how it actually tastes) vegetarian taco variant that I wanted to try (I'm going to write down the recipe as I go) so I might just drink the smoothie on my way to choir practice and if I'm hungry later, I might have a taco.

Tomorrow I'm going to try a banana-peanut butter smoothie. It looks really simple:

2 frozen bananas, chopped
1/4 c. peanut butter
1/4 c. oats
3/4 c. milk

This makes two servings so I can freeze one for lunch on Friday.

I might add some vanilla or cocoa (or dark chocolate chips) just to make it interesting.

Sleeping better now that I've been juicing, thank goodness. And I think I can tell that I'm starting to lose weight around my middle region. FINALLY. Maybe by next Spring I will have reached my goal weight: 130-135 lbs. (According to online research, this is how much I should weigh, with my frame and height and whatnot taken into account) Then what?

...Maybe I'll finally get a tattoo. ;)

Juicing: Day 21

Today's juice:

2 c. greens
2 carrots
4 small apples
1/4 cucumber

I made lots more juice and as a result my mind is fine but my body says RUN EVERYWHERE! DO EVERYTHING! LOTS OF EXERCISE! AHHHHHH!!!! All-natural energy drink. Yikes.

I also made 2 smoothie servings and split them up so I have lunch for the next two days. It looks like a light brown salad dressing, but it contains:

1/4 cucumber
1 can pineapple
4 c. yogurt
2 c. greens

I am also eating Wheat Thins (lighter on fat than a lot of packaged crackers) for a snack.

Tracking with Sparkpeople is showing me I am not meeting the daily requirements for anything right now - I'm trying to get right up close to it but some days my calorie/protein intake is much lower than it should be. Trying to figure out what that balance is.

I am eating eggs, yogurt, meat, and cheese for protein - but the fat content of cheese means I can't eat much - about 1/4 c. day.

as for calories/carbs...since I'm trying to eat mostly raw food (about 3/4 of my diet), they're just lower than I should have. Not sure what to do with that, because I'm full all the time.

Anyway - learning to balance and eat healthy on every level - mostly raw food, making sure I get the right amounts of nutrients, and trying to get up the nerve to do more exercise than jogging/walking/practicing music.

Tonight I'm going to make chicken and rice soup - I cooked a chicken in the crockpot (most favorite way to cook a chicken - and least favorite because I have to get the organs out. UGH.) and then shredded it and reserved the broth, so all I need to do when I get home is cook the rice. I'm going to have a salad with it (topped with balsamic vinaigrette dressing), organic greens (buy 1, get 1 free at Bi-Lo! $4 total) and then probably eat one of my orange-glazed shortbread cookies.

It's nice to be on a lifestyle-change diet where I can eat a small portion of something I love (like cheese) and still feel great because I'm eating more raw foods.

I think after Stu is done juicing, I'll probably go back to 1 juice or smoothie a day - it's a great way for me to start my morning. Now if only we could work in healthier dinners...

Juicing: Days 19 & 20 and Homemade Potato Chips

Juice on Dec. 3:

3 medium carrots

2 small apples

1 c. greens

Has the taste that Stu calls "carroty-green". Not a fan

Juice on Dec. 4:

1 big carrot

3 small apples

1 c. greens

This one was much better for Stu - more "apple-y".

I tried two batches of homemade potato chips in the microwave -- they turned out alright (about half of them were crispy -- and I seasoned them with pepper and onion salt), although since I didn't use paper towels for the second batch, they were more like baked potato slices. Which are fine, but I want an alternative to fried potato chips (I cannot believe the fat content! The only ones that are remotely healthy that I've found so far are the natural Lay's Baked Chips - original flavor), so I think I'll try it again but in the oven.

The original recipe calls for heating on a plate or in a steamer in the microwave for 3 minutes with reduced power each time (60%, 50%, 40%). They mentioned you could also cut a minute out for each turn if you didn't want to reduce power, and that's what I did.

One potato makes about two batches if using a large plate. You have to cut the potato into super thin slices, so make sure you have a sharp knife.

Back to Juicing

We took a week off of juicing (mostly by accident - we forgot to take our juicer when we traveled over Thanksgiving, and then we had to wait and get my paycheck so we could buy apples), and I can tell - I have not been sleeping well (woke up several times last night) and I'm waaaaay more tired. I've been eating oatmeal for breakfast and smoothies for lunch the past two days so I'm not as bad off, but man...we need to get back to the juicing!

I found some smoothie recipes for the blender, which would a) get rid of the need to use pulp and b) pack in more fiber, so I might try that for myself for a while.

We still have kale, carrots, and part of a sweet potato, so all we really need is fruit. Stu has now found that soda is too syrupy to drink very often (???!?!?!) and has gone to drinking juice when he needs something sweet. Progress!

We also got a lot of venison from Stu's parents (I adore it) so we have been making venison spaghetti, venison steaks, etc. I eat a tiny bowl of it for dinner and am quite full. Although I just learned that you should not eat protein late at night as it will hinder sleep. Who knew. So I need to eat more protein at lunch - hence the yogurt in my smoothies.

I'm going to try beets this time around for juicing to really help with the detox. I'm also considering purchasing some organic greens with cilantro (or maybe just some cilantro). I just love that taste, and one of my friends did beets, greens (including cilantro) and...I forget what else. They sent me the recipe. But they blended it and really loved the taste, so...I'll try (most) anything once!

Next on the cook/bake list:

1. Orange-glazed shortbread cookies (my new obsession - I've made lemon glazed and lime glazed so now that we've got oranges I want to try that and see how it works)

2. Baked Kale chips - finally found a recipe that just requires kale, olive oil & salt.

3. Cauliflower crust pizza - who knew.

4. Roasted Cabbage with Lemon

5. Crackers (olive oil, flour, salt & water) & Hummus (easy recipe with canned garbanzo beans)

Hopefully between all of these I'll get back to a healthy energy/sleep level.

...Until Christmas rolls around. Maybe I'll remember to bring my juicer this time.