Strange Disappearance, and update from the fast!

I kinda disappeared there didn't I?!  I certainly didn't plan to!  Friday, day 3, I went to work with plenty of juice ready to go.  I was fine for most of the day, and toward the end of the shift I started getting crankier.  More emotional.  Worn out.  I figured I was hitting the detox finally and ignored it as best as I could, apologizing to the poor unsuspecting guys I was working with for my odd behaviour...

By the time I was done with work, I dragged myself to the car with the last of my berry juice for the day, turned on some music I used to listen to while my husband and I were still long distance, ages ago, and got weepy on my way home from work.

I took a bath, got mad at the water for not being hot enough.  If I'm not careful I can put too much cold in, and then I have to wait a while for the water heater to heat back up enough for a good bath, and it just makes me mad.  It was worse than usual Friday.  I gave up and just went to bed.

Saturday I woke up with a high fever, and my whole body hurt.  I didn't have much energy, so I camped out on the couch with the kids, tried to get comfy, and rested all day.  My husband, who was not juicing with me other than tastes here and there, was also pretty sick with the same symptoms, so it occurred to me I was sick on top of detoxing.  I did some restorative yoga poses and rested.

I managed to make myself a nice large batch of green juice to get through the day, but nothing sounded good. Not even that.  I had a couple cups of it, but was just getting weaker and weaker.  I decided, for the sake of my sanity and the lives of my children, I should probably eat something since I was sick.  I managed to eat two tacos that night, chewing every bite crazy carefully.  It took an hour to eat that much.  Apparently my juice cleanse shrank my stomach right up!

Sunday I felt way worse than Saturday, and the fever went higher.  I was too sick to do any yoga, no matter how "restorative".  Monday I woke to a low grade fever, which then disappeared, but I had no energy to be up and moving, so I stayed home to rest. Managed some of the simple yoga stuff, but not much. Tues, I went back to work but had trouble breathing some, so I went to the doctor.  Turns out my crazy cold turned into Bronchitis, but it wasn't TOO bad yet.  They gave me a breathing treatment and a script for an inhaler so I can function at work until it gets better.  Relaxed in a HOT bath when I got home, fell asleep in savasana, but there will be no exertion with yoga until I can breathe,

Hopefully I can avoid antibiotics!  I'm still pretty weak right now, but I am definitely interested in trying for a 10 day, once I am healthy again and finally feeling strong.  I feel like it would be a bad idea if I rush into it before I am WELL, so I think I'll give myself a week to settle down and will see about it then.

Going to play with the juicer tomorrow on my day off, and get back into it some, though.  And I'm really interested in the way the Rebooters like to suggest going about this:  juice PLUS fruits and veggies for 10 days, then just juice for 10, then juice PLUS fruits and veggies for 10 days.  Seems like a smart way to ease in and out of the thing.  :)

Anyway!  So!  My after-the-fact does it work?!

I can say now, yeah, definitely.

The idea was to get the toxic stuff out of my organs, cleanse, clear, and start over. It is not comfy while that happens, and it's not uncommon to want to give up on day 3, the day you switch from starvation mode to detox mode. You feel tired, sluggish, emotional, cranky, irritable, short tempered, and hungrier than any other day on day 3. It is really not fun.

BUT afterward, everything tastes brand new. Colors are brighter. It almost seems like my glasses script is too strong right now. I know it probably won't last and it is barely noticeable, honestly... but I noticed.

Also, coffee afterward? Makes me jittery! I can have maybe one cup now and it HAS to be balanced with food. Or shaky hands jittery. Not awesome. I like coffee! I just have to learn to moderate it.

AND! My stomach shrank awful fast in those 3 days. I didn't eat large portions before this... but I definitely eat less right now than I did then. I'm much closer to the fist sized stomach now.


Overall, definitely a positive thing and I plan to do it again!  :)  And I can't wait to get back into a regular yoga practice again.  But I CAN wait since breathing is a slightly important part of yoga.  ;)

Day three!

Started the morning off with the last of my apple-ginger-lemon-cayenne pepper juice from yesterday.  Light, refreshing, nice burst of energy!  I really think if you are used to starting your day off with something like coffee, and NEED or just really like the effects from it, doing something like this at the beginning of the day is really helpful.  Apples are a lovely sugary fruit, but they won't weigh you down or make you crash later!

Followed that one up with the leftover berry juice from last night.  I ended up doing three handfuls each blueberries and raspberries, and four strawberry, and I added in two pink lady apples and one lemon without the rind.   Let me tell you, the lemons juice SO much better this way!!!  The machine got a little gunked up and I had to hand press though my sieve some of the pulp because it just didn't expel it.  But I'll be damned if I let that produce go to waste!!

This morning I made half a gallon of the fresh green juice.  I used the mean green recipe featured on Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, which says to use 2 green apples, 5 stalks kale, 5 stalks celery, 1" (small piece) ginger, 1/2 lemon.  I doubled this and added in a pineapple (rind and center removed), a bunch of black grapes that were getting a little withered-looking, but still had juice...  4 handfuls of spinach leaves, 3 large kiwi, a couple tablespoons fresh wheat grass (found by the sprouts at my favorite farmer's market-like health food store, Sunflower!), and I *think* that's it.  There was a lot going into it today.  It made a TON.  I plan to save a little for tomorrow but make this today's main juice.

Waiting for the juicer to finish spinning out ALL the juice (this takes forever some days!!), and then I'm going to go enjoy a little Skyrim with my juice before work.  I already put in a little yoga this morning, plan on doing some simple poses while I play my game, and might throw in a restorative twisty practice tonight to help my organs release all the yucky stuff they've been storing!  :)

That being said, I feel a nasty cold/cough coming on.  I'm pretty sure this is NOT detox, as Tara's been sick and her kiddos have too.  She was sick on day one, and of course the littles are not joining the cleanse (they could have juice in addition to their normal diets, but not all by itself!  Growing bodies can't function off just juice, even the amazing green ones!).  So I hope I'm not getting truly sick, but we'll see.

I wonder how much my juicing before the official cleanse and all my detox yoga will come into play when it comes to my fun new cold!  :)  Might even add a little vitamin C tablet or two in, just to give myself a bit of an edge.  Sounds good to me.

Anyway!  Off I go to my crazy busy day!  Day 3 is well underway!  :)

Day two!

One more day down!

I started this morning off with an apple ginger lemon juice and added some cayenne pepper to it for a bit of a kick!  This reminded me of gingerbread cookies with red hots on top.  It was fun and different, though I wouldn't add as much lemon or ginger in the future, and I think the cayenne will be an occasional add in.

Worked today, had green juice and cashew milk at lunch, then followed that up with some of the watermelon mint.  Refreshing and amazing, even next day!  Most of my juices lose a bit of their flavor if I let them sit too long, but the watermelon sure holds up well!

Felt my tension rising this afternoon when I went to get the kids.  Maybe I'm sensitive to noise, or maybe they were really noisy today, but I didn't handle it well.  I snapped a bit more than I'd like to admit.  Big hugs and apologies for being short tempered later, they're both in bed now.

Dinner was the salad juice followed by the pesto juice, again.  Both savory.  I liked these both better fresh.  I think they're alright next day, but I did have to push through them both a bit more than I have to convince myself on the mean green juice.

After kids went to bed, I knocked out the hour practice on the Detox Flow disc, Seane Corn again.  I love her!  I'll admit to feeling a little more sluggish than usual, but I pushed through it!  The combination of juicing and yoga seems to suit me, I'll admit!

Following up the yoga right now with a little apple raspberry blueberry strawberry juice.  It seemed fitting for dessert.

Overall, other than the slight crankiness and wanting to eat the kids' dinner (whole wheat banana pancakes, vegan), I think today went pretty well!

Today make day 2 for the juice cleanse, and day 15 for yoga!  On and on I go!  :)

Day one recap.

So yesterday was day one.  I posted in the middle of the day, but I didn't tell you how the rest of the day went!

Morning:  sampling juices as they came out.  Added up to 1 cup juice I think?  Close enough anyway.  Made and sampled the cashew and almond milks, and ended up blending them together.  Pretty tasty!

Afternoon:  yoga, 30 min.  I planned to do more later, but never got around to it.  After yoga, had green juice, then some berry tea.  I took frozen berries, rinsed them to get the freezer burn fun stuff off, then steeped like tea.  Added a little agave.  Pretty good, really.  Made myself finish a cup of the not-so-great apple beet grapefruit debacle.  It's almost gone now.

Night:  Salad in a Cup, then Pesto juices for dinner.  Had watermelon to follow that up.  Was refreshing and tasty.  Made me think of dessert!  :)

While drinking my juices in the evening, I watched a couple food documentaries.  They're streaming on Netflix right now if you're interested in watching now too.

Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead is an amazing juice fast documentary.  It follows Joe as he goes on a 60 day fast in an attempt to reign in his weight, change his eating habits, and hopefully get off some of his medications.  He meets Phil, a man with the same immune disorder, and helps him get started on his own cleanse.  Really good stuff, inspirational.  Shows just how much this cleanse thing can hep someone, can change their life.

I'm not up for 60 days myself, but I started off thinking I'd do 3 days.  I'm debating aiming for 10 and seeing how far I can get.

Anyway, after that was over, I still had some time to kill, so I watched Food Matters too!  Another good one, talks about the importance of raw fresh produce, and suggests juicing as a way to incorporate them.

Both are good watches.  I'd recommend finding time for them!  That, and Food Inc, though that's got more of a political twist to it.  ;)

Day one: Three day juice cleanse.

I choose to think of this as a cleanse, rather than a fast.  Thinking of it as a fast is telling my mind that I am missing something.  In reality, I am giving my body all it needs to function.  I am giving it fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats.  It is in a form that I can more easily digest, though.  That's really the only difference.  The delivery vehicle.

Right now I'm about half a day into it, and I'll admit to being somewhat hungry.  I had a grapefruit beet apple lemon juice earlier, and have tasted a little bit of each of the juices as they were made.  (List and recipes here)

I just finished a 30 minute yoga practice following Seane Corn's Detox Flow disc.  (It's on sale right now!  Or maybe you can find it at Walmart like I did.  I don't usually love Walmart, but they're handy for some stuff!)

I did the fast one because I'm hungry and you're not supposed to have food before yoga.  I know why, and it's a valid reason I discovered the hard way:  If you have food in your belly, or have eaten more recently ago than 1 hour, (ie, you have food in your belly), doing some of the twists and forward bends can induce nausea.

It is better to yoga on an empty stomach and follow it with something nourishing.  I figured the Detox Flow was an apt thing to follow right about now, because it goes with the mindset I'm trying to cultivate for this cleanse.

Get the bad stuff out.  Put good stuff in.  It's like your car...  if you put crap fuel into it, you can't really complain too hard when it runs like crap as a result.

Our bodies are not meant to run on crap.  They can survive, they can handle it, but I want more than just to "handle" my food.  I want my food to be a positive thing for my body.  I want my body to be able to take each and every nutrient and put it directly to use.  I need an oil change, for lack of a better analogy.

It's time to start over.  It might be a little hard, and I'm prepared for that.  I'm using yoga to help maintain mental balance and physical strength while I do this.  And I'm using cashew-almond milk to help ease me through the lower amounts of solid food.  I need something that will sit heavy and help me feel full, at least a little bit.

So!  Time for some green juice and a little raw nut milk!  Will keep you guys posted!

Day 1, cleanse.  Saying no to going out for lunch with my husband was the hardest thing so far today.  Dinner for kids will be a challenge, too...  But I'll get through it.

Day 14, back to back yoga practice.  30 minutes or more every day.  Doing great!  And in the last 22 days, I've managed to find time on 20 of those days.

Really, if you go by the article I read yesterday, even doing one downward facing dog per day is a practice.  I always am doing little things like that, like forward folding when I need to put my shoes on, or doing balances while setting the table.  But I'm currently counting my practices I've made a bit of time for in my list or I'd have to start over.  ;)

Anyway!  One day at a time.  We'll see how this goes!

Juice Recipe reviews!

Hey guys!  Had a bit of a hectic weekend!  We ran up to Denver and had fun and some veggie lunch at the Denver Science & Natural History museum, and have been having some fresh juice every day!

The juices so far and what we think of them!

Green fun!  (not its real name, just kinda made this one up!)

1/2 pineapple
2 apples (gala)
1" knuckle fresh ginger
1/2 lemon (smallish)
4 small carrots + greens
5 stalks kale
5 stalks celery

This one was bright and cheery, and mostly green.  Slight variation from a recipe I found on wholefigured.  Pretty good!  Kids liked it too!

Then we actually followed the lean and green juice recipe over on Whole Figured, and added a few grapes that were about to die too.  Pretty tasty!  The addition of cucumber made this one strangely banana-ish in flavor.  The kids liked it, even the veg-hater, little E!  :)

And there was a bit of a failure, I'll admit!  This next one was not super awesome, but I think I figured out WHY.

Just Beet It, from Whole Figured (again!  These are good ones!)

2 apples (gala)
1 bunch carrots + greens
1 beet + greens
grapefruit (2c, used yellow skin, pink flesh type)
1" ginger knuckle

First of all, this is GORGEOUS.  Seriously beautiful in color.  But the addition of the greens should not have happened.  I added them because I'm used to adding them, but it was a BAD call this time.

To fix the crazy bitter taste, I had to add 1 whole pineapple (rind cut off, center removed), and 2 more apples.  And a little agave nectar.  It was not good.  It still has the sour taste from the grapefruit going, but it's drinkable now.  (I should have some while making dinner, come to think of it.)

These are the ones we've actually tried out and had something to say about.  From my last adventure in juicing, I remember liking the following as well.  If it has banana, remember you add that to the juice in the blender.  You don't add that into your juicer!  Talk about gumming up the machine!!  And any citrus fruits with a thick rind, remove the skin before adding!  That means lemon, orange, tangerine, lime, and grapefruit.  Probably a good idea with kiwi too.

1 Apple, 1/2 Pineapple, 2 Oranges, 1 banana.

1 apple, 2c strawberry, 1 banana.

1 apple, 1 mango, 1 banana.

4 oranges, 1 apple, 1/2 pineapple.

Okay, so we're also going to be making a few tomorrow!  And a couple nut milks.  The almond will be made in the soy milk maker, the cashew we're going to try putting through the blender and straining.  And the juices will all go through the lovely juicer!

Going to make the green juice from Whole Figured again, a "salad in a cup" juice we're inventing, the watermelon lime mojito, and a pasta sauce juice.  We wanted to try our hand at savory juices for dinner-time, so we'll see how they turn out.

Salad in a Cup

1 head Romaine
1 Tomato
1 Cucumber
1-2 handfuls Spinach
2-5 stalks Kale (maybe)
1 stalk Broccoli
Scallions (1 small bunch)
2-4 carrots (smallish)
garlic (fresh, 1-2 cloves)
oregano (fresh, 1-2 T)
basil (fresh, 4-5 large leaves)

Watermelon Mint Mojito

1 small watermelon, chunked, rind removed
1/2 lime
handful fresh mint
1 small cucumber

Pasta Sauce Juice

4-6 tomatoes
1-2 cloves garlic
basil (handful)
oregano (handful)
cucumber
carrot (2-4)
zucchini (1-2)
mushroom (not sure how these will juice but we can try!)
celery (2-4 stalks)
scallions (1 bunch, small)

So!  We shall see!  Will try and get pics and update soon!  :)

Friday, Feb 17th, 2012

Hey guys!  Today I managed to get an hour work out in between organizing the game closet and work.  Was definitely more intense than yesterday's was, but the light days are still good days!

The way I figure it, it's better to do a gentle restorative yoga practice rather than skipping a day entirely (unless in bed sick).  It's just as restful, and keeps the body moving.  Makes it a little easier to get up and move the next day.  :)

It's getting late and I have to get up early if I want a good practice in before work tomorrow!  So really fast, for today:

Yoga:  65m, vinyasa style, heavy on the twists
Food!   Organic Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal with soymilk, 2 cups coffee, banana, blueberry soy yogurt with almond vanilla granola, and a couple slices of pizza.

I planned to make some food when I got home, but  the hubby'd picked up pizza for dinner.  I decided I've been so good all week, one little night of naughty isn't so bad.  :)

Anyway!  To bed with me.  Don't forget to make time to move tomorrow!  :)

Thurs, Feb 16th, 2012

This morning after getting my kids (7 and 9) off to school, I did my ritual cleaning before yoga, and set up the coffee maker for after.  (I'm trying to like hot tea more, I swear!)  This morning I followed the short form program on Seane Corn's Vinyasa Flow, Session II.  It's an hour of beginner into intermediate yoga, so it's shorter than the other program by half an hour, but it's not *exactly* short.

Today I was feeling a little tired, so I took more breaks than I have the rest of the week.  If you're tired, still find ways to move, but don't overdo it!  You'll make the next day harder on yourself than you have to!

So, rather than push, I tried to nurture my poor tired limbs.  And after I was done with yoga, I made some breakfast sandwiches, went to work, and made dinner.  So here I am.

Work out:  65 minutes yoga, vinyasa

Food in:

• Whole wheat toast with 1/2 avocado, 2 scrambled eggs, spinach, & tomato
• 3 cups coffee with a little sugar and some peppermint mocha creamer
• Fresh juice made with:  apple, pineapple, kale, spinach, celery, carrot, lemon, and ginger (8oz)
• 2 enormous vegan pumpkin pancakes made with whole wheat pastry flour

All in all, today was a good day.  Hopefully, tomorrow, I have more energy for a full yoga session up and moving.  Fewer restorative poses, more active ones.  

Current Goals

So!  The point of this here thing!  I'm wanting to have a place to keep track of progress, offer what little bits of encouragement come to me, and share helpful links, videos, etc.

Right now, I am in the middle of trying to do 30 solid days of yoga, at least 30 minutes per day.

I always liked yoga, from the stretching to the breathing, a little meditation and centering one's self.  It has helped me be a more calm and present mother, and helps with difficult things that are faced every day.  As Seane Corn says, "this is my pose."  I stop, breathe, and make my choices.  It's a very good thing.

Today is 8 consecutive days, and out of the last 16, I have practiced 14 of those.  One day I was in bed with a cold and another day I just woke up too late to practice before work, and after work the day got away from me.

Also, I'm trying to do more vegetarian and vegan meals.  I always loved meatless meals, and have been rather strict at times.  I'll admit it was something that I allowed to feed into unhealthy habits ("Oh well, no vegetarian food, I'll just skip eating!")...  so I choose not to label myself or my food choices.  Right now, I am trying to cook more.  Get away from processed foods.  Get back to real food.

And I'm trying to get back into juicing!  I have a lovely juicer, an Omega 3000 my father in law has graciously lent me.  When I used it last, all I really did with it was make fruit juices.  I want to move beyond those and make more veggie-centric and green juices too!  Expand my palate.  Feed what I need, not just what I want.

But most of all, I'm trying to remain positive with all this and make a good change for myself and my family.

One day at a time.  One pose at a time.  One meal at a time.

Namaste.

Welcome!

Hi!  I'm Becca!  I'm just an average mom hanging out in Colorado with her family, working, trying to keep up on my house and find time to be healthy.  I'm working on bettering my food choices and making time every day for at least a little yoga, my preferred form of fitness.

My friend Tara and I wanted to make a little blog to keep track of our own successes and trials, show what we're doing, how it's working for us, and offer encouragement to those out there who are trying to do better for themselves too!

One little change at a time and we truly CAN change our attitudes, habits, and ultimately, our bodies.

It is time to be at home in my own skin.  It is time to nourish not only my body but my mind.  It is time to make a change.  Join me!