Best Lunch.

So I just wanted to post really quick about the awesome lunch I just had -- not just to rub it in your face but to also show you how yummy it can be to eat healthy! I use to love going to Wendy's for lunch and getting a spicy chicken combo and when I decided to cut meat out of my diet, I thought for sure I'd never have an 'alternative' to one of my all time favorites. Until now!

Lunch: Boca brand Spicy Chik'n Meatless Patty (Whole Foods) with a boat load of Wild Cow's hot sauce -- I like my stuff spicy. Also, some Jalapeno Cilantro Hummus (made fresh daily at Whole Foods) with some crunchy multigrain crackers. Definitely made me excited to start eating at home during the day. I personally am cutting out bread and flour from my diet, but you could add a thin bagel like sandwich round and some lettuce/tomato + condiments to the sandwich to 'bulk' it out a little and make this more filling. For me, it was the perfect size.

What are some of your favorite foods that you can switch over and make healthy?

Grasshopper Cake!

So I've decided that I'm not going to post my weight/entire eating schedule for every day since I'm sure most of you aren't exactly interested in my every waking move. So I'll continue to just post new stuff I tried, new things in Nashville and cooking/canning experiments that I've recently tried. I have a couple up my sleeve that I'm working on as we speak :)

I introduced a girlfriend of mine tonight to Wild Cow. It wasn't her first time hearing about them though, she'd gone to a meeting there once, but was put off by what she saw passing her on the plates and chickened out on ever trying anything. After reading my blog though and seeing my Lentil Bowl post, she decided to give it a shot. Food was good as always, quick (and very hot) take out as usual! I've never tried any of their desserts though and something on the counter caught my eye while I was paying -- Grasshopper Cake. OMGosh! I wish I would've taken a picture, but we consumed it so fast I forgot. It will definitely be in my future again, so I'll make sure I get one + the ingredients.

I want to take the time as well to tell you about a program that some East Nashville merchants (and a few others) are participating in. It's called 3funding and you may have seen some fliers up at the Wild Cow and the Green Wagon. Basically you register on their website (http://www.areyou3funding.com/) and enter in your phone number, it's how you're tracked. Then you pick from several different charities that you want part of your sale(s) to go to. I personally picked East C.A.N. for mine. Once you've done that, then you're ready to start saving money for you AND your charity. For example, every time I dine at the Wild Cow, I get a point for every $1 I spend -- 100 points earns me a $10 credit there. And 5% of every purchase I make goes to my charity. How great is that? It's a win/win for everyone and I enjoy doing my part while eating some yummy food!

What's your favorite dessert?

Today's Finds.

So this weekend I didn't show very good restraint. I started off pretty good, but sometimes it's hard to eat good when you come unprepared food wise and even more unprepared self control wise. (haha) Sunday we went out to Lake Normandy with the family and I did pretty good with eating a veggie burger and some healthy crackers I picked up at Costco, would've been great with some hummus though. Later that night though after being in the sun all day, no one really felt all that great (my beau got food poisoning we think from some sunflower seeds) and we all decided to have canned soup. It was the first pasta I've had in over a month, but there's just something comforting about canned chunky soup :) Yesterday was his birthday and despite how sick he was, we still had a filet mignon and baked potato lunch with asparagus -- I opted for a sweet potato, but succumbed to the filet and finished half his baked potato for him.

Scale: 131.4 -- It didn't go up as much as I thought it would and it has renewed my desire to eat good again after getting all the 'splurging' out of my system for a while.

Breakfast: I unfortunately was out of most of my staples this morning, so I swung by the store and grabbed a banana for a quick snack and headed off to Whole Foods to resupply.

I was AMAZED that Whole Foods had not a single granny smith apple in the produce section. They did have tons of great deals on berries though, but I have so much other stuff I have to juice before I can add anything else to the fridge. Blueberries were in the giant packages for $7.99 and cherries were down to $7.99/lb as well.  I noticed that the strawberry packages were a much larger size than last time and seemed to be priced fairly low. Perhaps I'll pick some up and can some jelly in the next week or two! Other than that, the produce section looked to be about the same as usual. I did peruse the pasta aisle this time around though and bought some quinoa based spaghetti noodles and some organic spicy pasta sauce -- I'm hoping that it will taste good so I can incorporate some healthy 'pasta' back into my eating. I miss pasta so much! I also grabbed some various meat substitutions in the fresh cooler section to put in the pasta and also to try to make some vegetarian tacos this week for dinner! I didn't think to look for vegan sour cream or cheese though until I was already in the car, so I'll have to check around this side of town before making them.

I headed over to the Nashville Farmer's Market next and much to my dismay, my regular apple source was *gasp* out of every single type of apple. I did find one vendor though that had GS's left and they were 2 for a buck. Ended up getting 20 apples (in case I couldn't find any again haha) for $10 bucks, versus what I use to pay -- 18 apples for $12 bucks. So I was pretty happy about the whole ordeal and made a new friend that said they'd sell them to me by the box if I wanted. Maybe I'll split a box with someone in the near future.

Lunch: Juice -- 2 GS Apples, 1 Pear, 1 Lemon, 2 Oranges (I added another after the picture), 1 Parsnip, 1 Zucchini and 4 Carrots. Was so great to get some juice back in my system after such a large break! I feel like a million bucks again.

Dinner: I lightly sauteed up some Asparagus tips (saved the tough bottoms for future juicing) with some grapeseed oil and a little lemon pepper blend. The Portabello Mushrooms were sauteed slightly in some butter (I don't have an alternative one yet) with a splash of Worcestershire sauce as well. They were still crunchy and not soggy like most cooked mushrooms are when you go to a restaurant!

Had a great eating day -- what did everyone else have?

Last Day + Eating!

So today marks the last day of the juice 'fast' -- I'm quite happy with the results that I've gotten and I can't wait to see where the months ahead take me now that I've truly jump started some new eating habits. I feel like I have a better appreciation for what my weight loss goal is and how easy it is to obtain if I just keeping making the right eating choices.

Scale: 129.2 -- Still. haha

AM: 2 Bananas (about to go bad) + small Juice -- last 2 GS Apples, last lemon, 1 Pear, 5 Carrots, 1 Parsnip, last of the Chard + Kale and 1 Beet. Again, not really my style of juice, but I have to clean out the fridge some. I'll be going out of town for a couple days starting tomorrow morning and don't want to waste anything!

Lunch: Met up with the FIL's in Franklin and we had lunch at Chili's and they scooped up the kiddo for the night. I had the Quesadilla Explosion salad, thinking that it was something that I had eaten before. It wasn't. And it wasn't good at all. I had them substitute the meat with a "ton" of avocado and that was pretty much the only good part of the salad. The lettuce was soggy and not very fresh and they drowned it in dressing, which has been a first. I truly was disappointed and didn't eat much of it.

Late Snack: Lightly sauteed Zucchini in Grapeseed Oil and added a little seasoning to it to make it spicy. Yummy!!

Dinner: I kind of splurged a little tonight. I was suppose to meet a girlfriend of mine for GNO and have dinner at Wild Cow, but when I got there around 8ish, they were slammed (and she was running late). So I parked and walked down to Pomodoro East and got one of their little 'pizzas' if you will. They don't have a true pizza crust and their not really a flat bread kind of pizza (hard to explain really) but I had it with goat cheese, artichoke and garlic. Very tasty and I ate a very small portion of what they brought out and washed it down with a glass of wine. Or two.

Where does everyone else 'splurge' in East Nashville?

Day Nine + Eating.

I can't even begin to tell you guys how busy I have been the last few days between work and my little one. I'm looking forward to this nice long weekend to have some down time and relax with family. I've fallen off the wagon a little with my juicing as a result, I'm still sticking to the new plan, I just haven't had 'time' to juice or even felt hungry for that matter. I know skipping meals isn't a good thing though, so I'm getting back on track today and pushing thru the busy holiday weekend.

Scale: 129.2!!! Honestly didn't know if I'd ever hit the 120's again at the rate I was going several months ago. This is truly an encouraging feat for me! I know I will be 120 before I know it!!

AM: Banana + Juice -- 2 GS Apples, 1 Lemon, 1 Zucchini, 1 mini Cucumber, 5 pieces of Kale, 1 Pear, 1 Orange, 1 Easter Egg Radish, 4 Carrots. (camera is dead, so no pictures today)

Lunch: Lightly sauteed Asparagus + Juice -- 1 GS Apple, 1 Pear, 1 Lime, 4 Carrots, 2 pieces Rainbow Chard,  1 small piece Burdock, 2 Parsnips, bottom half of Asparagus. This juice was personally a little funky. Trying to clean out the fridge of certain things before being gone for part of the weekend.

Dinner: Lentil Bowl from Wild Cow. I know I said I was only going to eat raw for the rest of the cleanse, but the beau is out of town and it's Friday night. It's been so long since I've had the pleasure of eating at Wild Cow and take out just seemed like a perfect solution tonight. Lentil Bowl = seasoned lentil stew with carrots, onions, and garlic over quinoa, with their very yummy garlic aioli drizzled over the top. Plus, I had them add avocado and I loaded it up with some of the hot sauce they sell there!

What's everyone going to do this weekend to help themselves stay on track?

Day Eight + Eating.

So I'm feeling great after putting some solid fiber back into my diet. I have noticed though that the last two nights that I haven't juiced with dinner, my sleep patterns are a little off base. I'm starting to have restless, insomnia pretty bad again. So I guess I'll have to change my routine up a little bit again.

Scale: 130.1 -- unfortunately the scale didn't change for me. I honestly can't wait to see numbers in the 120's!

AM: Banana + Juice -- 4 Carrots, 1 Parsnip, 2 GS Apples, 1 Pear, 1 Lemon, 1 Orange and 1 Zucchini. For some reason, I didn't get very much juice from this combo today. I got about 3 little glasses (1.5 of my usual size cups) and then gave the kiddo a little less than half a glass in her sippy cup with some water. She absolutely goes insane any time the juicer gets put together and starts grunting and pointing until I give her some juice too!

Lunch: Banana + large GS Apple.

Early Dinner: 2 large Zucchinis -- sliced them, slightly sauteed them with a little grape seed oil and then put a small amount of cayenne pepper and other 'hot' spices on top of them. Super yummy. And I was stuffed afterwards. Didn't get around to juicing since I wasn't hungry. Didn't want to overdue it.

What's everyone's plans for this holiday weekend?

Day Seven + Eating.

So after stepping on the scale this morning, I feel much better about my decision to 'break fast' and include fruits/veggies in raw form for the remainder of my 10 days, and possibly a little longer now. I will say though that I feel a little defeated. It's not that I wasn't satisfied from the juicing alone. And I certainly wasn't being tempted to eat solid meals again or chew. I just knew that for me to get back to where I want to be, juicing was not going to be enough. I've struggled with digestive issues and constipation for most of my adult life. After having a baby too, the issues have gotten more severe and I attribute it a lot to my previous diet and lack of water intake. Ever since I started juicing though, this problem has mostly been a thing of the past and I attribute this with my steady weight loss. That is, until I went on the juice fast.

I've done much research on my issue and have found that I'm lacking two things to make a juice fast successful. (1) You MUST be willing to include tons of veggies and greens into your juices. I unfortunately am not strong minded enough to get over the taste and texture. And (2) You must consume tons of water (more than you're normal 8-8oz glasses a day) to help flush out your system. Again, just not something I can seem to wrap my head around. I will say that since I started juicing, I have increased my water intake quite a bit, but I still can't seem to get on board with that much. I even took some advice from my mom about setting an alarm on my phone for every couple of hours to remind myself to drink a glass of water, but that hasn't gotten me completely up to speed.

So for those of you that can jump those two hurdles, you're golden. And I encourage you to do a juice fast. I don't regret setting a huge goal of 10 days for my fast because at least I got further than if I'd only set my mind to 3 days :)

Scale: 130.1 (a total of 15lbs gone in the month that I've been juicing!)

Breakfast: Banana + Juice -- 1 Zucchini, 5 Carrots, 1 Parsnip, 1 Orange, 1 Lemon, 1 Pear and 2 GS Apples. This is pretty much my morning staple so to speak. I feel like the veggies that are in it, balance out the sweetness of the fruits. Plus it uses up a good amount of the stuff that tends to go bad quickly since I buy it in such large amounts.

Late Lunch: Leftover Broccoli from yesterday + Juice. I was in a hurry, so I didn't take a picture. It's amazing how much busier my days are getting as it gets closer to summer. Looking forward to a long three day weekend!

Dinner: Lightly steamed Green Beans + Banana. Remember guys, when you steam things or cook your veggies, the 'greener' and crispier they are, the more nutrients they have in them. I surprisingly wasn't very hungry tonight and crashed pretty early.

What are some of your current challenges with maintaining your healthy lifestyle?

Day Six.

So last night was in fact a doozy and it was my own fault. I ended up not going to bed till late and just drank water all night to curb my hunger. Once I finally laid down though, my stomach started growling so hard that I almost couldn't fall asleep. Won't be doing that to myself again! Woke up this morning very excited that I had started to lose wait again. Hopefully it continues to 'melt off'.

Scale: 131

AM: 2 GS Apples, 1 Orange, 1 Lemon, 7 Carrots, 1 Parsnip, 1 Zucchini, and a good size chunk of Red Cabbage (cut in half for picture and staked on top of each other). A tad bit spicy, but very pleasant tasting for a morning juice.

Lunch: So I flaked and didn't take a picture of my ingredients this time -- 2 GS Apples, 1 Pear, 1 Lemon, 4 Carrots, 1 Zucchini, chunk of Red Cabbage, mini Cucumber, 1 Celery and the last of the Rainbow Chard. Again, I'm not big on the greens in my juices, so this was a little rough for me to get down. I wish I could just muster up the gut to drink the green ones more, but I just can't do it presently. 

So I'm contemplating 'breaking the fast' and incorporating some roughage into my diet. I don't have any problem drinking the heavily fruit based juices, but I'm missing out on my veggies and the extra fiber that comes with raw foods. I know that having BM's is also the fastest way to shed pounds. 

Dinner: Big ole bowl of barely steamed broccoli (nothing added) and an avocado. I can't tell you how great it feels to have something hot in my stomach. I ate slowly since I haven't had anything solid in a week and got full a lot faster than I thought I would. Saved the rest of the broccoli for a snack tomorrow. It's important to note that the longer you cook your vegetables, the more nutrients you're losing from the heat. Best way to tell if they're still packed with goodness is by the crunch. No crunch, no good. Granted, it might still taste good, but it's not as good for you. 

My new focus is to juice my fruits and eat my veggies for the remainder of the 10 days. I'm hoping that this will get me over the hump with my digestion issues. My end weight goal is 120lbs and I'm determined to get there thru my diet choices and then start a membership at the downtown Y and tone up from there. 

Any advice on my new strategy?

Day Five.

Despite having to get up several times last night for my little one, I had a nice peaceful sleep. I woke up this morning and laid in bed for several minutes thinking about the last couple of days and what lays ahead of me still. Although I'm frustrated with the standstill in weight loss, I have gotten over the initial hump of feeling 'blah' that happens in the first few days of a fast. So I decided that this in itself is a mini victory despite my current woes. I sprung out of bed thinking surely I couldn't have had another day of no weight loss and stepped on the scale...

Scale: 132.7

Yep, you read that correctly. I somehow gained .2 lbs since yesterday morning. Now I'm even more frustrated and slightly concerned that it seems like things are reversing themselves? I know it has something to do with lack of a BM and when I researched the Reboot sites's FAQ's about the topic  they didn't really have too much that would help me, since I'm only doing the juice fast, not the eating plan as well. I guess today I will increase my water intake and try to take a couple walks with the kiddo in the neighborhood today. Worse case scenario, I'll go get some papayas for tomorrow if things don't start looking up.

AM: "Endocrine Elixer" -- 1 Grapefruit, 1 Orange, 1 Lime, 3 Kiwis. This was pretty tasty, if you like grapefruit. I on the other hand, absolutely detest the taste of it, so this one was a struggle for me.

Mid Afternoon: "Orange Pom" -- 2 Oranges, 1 GS Apple, 1 Lemon, 2 small Carrots and only half the Pomegranate. The recipe called for the whole one, but I didn't know how it would taste, so I only did half of it. This was a super pleasant juice and exactly what I needed to jump start the rest of my afternoon. Today was a typical Monday for me and I was drained and feeling frazzled, plus I hadn't juiced all day since I never stopped moving.

Dinner: I wouldn't recommend doing this, but I don't feel the slightest bit hungry at the moment and though I know I need to juice and put something in my stomach, I'm going to pass the notion and finish cleaning the house. I'll probably go to bed within the next few hours, so it shouldn't be a problem.

How's everyone else's Monday going?

Day Four.

So I went to bed quite early like the night(s) before and again, slept quite beautifully. It's amazing to think that I dealt with insomnia and night sweats my whole life and now it's just 'POOF' gone! Yesterday I did feel much better about juicing all day -- last night was the first evening where I didn't feel hungry which is surprising since I didn't really juice as much as I had hoped yesterday. I did step on the scale this morning though and feel quite defeated again and am wondering what I can do differently today to maybe see some progress again.

Scale: 132.5

AM: 2 GS Apples, 1 Orange, 1 Pear, 1 Lemon, 5 Carrots, 1 chunk of Purple Cabbage. I wanted a little spice in my morning juice and wanted to add a little cabbage. I will add a much bigger chunk to tomorrow morning's, but didn't want to overdo it today. I went and grabbed some lemons too before juicing this morning at the Turnip Truck over here in East Nashville -- they were nice and big, only $1.99/lb. Kinda steep since Whole Foods has them organic for $4.99/5 lb bag, but I like that these are much bigger, so I can get away with using only one each juice. After running out of these little guys, I've realized that I don't like to juice without them!

So after breakfast, I decided that we needed to go to Whole Foods and Costco again to stock up on a few daily staples for the fast. Like I said before, I am out of lemons, have two gs apples left and no pears, almost out of oranges and most of my greens have been capped out. So off we went.

Costco: 10# bag of Carrots for $6.99. 4# Kiwis for $5.79. 2# mini Peppers for $4.29. 13# Oranges for $11.99. Today they had TONS of samples in the club, including chocolate and cheese. My two favorites. Of course my lovely beau indulged and enjoyed each one while I just silently pushed the cart. *sigh*

Whole Foods: Tomato Cluster $2.99/lb -- Red Grapefruit $1.69/lb -- Parsnips $2.49/lb -- Zucchini $2.49/lb -- GS Apples $2.49/lb -- Mangoes $1.99/each -- Lemons $.50/each -- Limes $.50/each -- Pears $2.49/lb -- Collard Greens $2.50/bunch. There were some other things I thought about getting to try, but decided to keep it simple and only add a few new ingredients in the mix. Hopefully I can follow some recipes that I have in a few books and make some good combinations over the next few days.

Lunch: 2 GS Apples, handful of Kale, 1 Zucchini, 1 mini Cucumber, 1 Tomato, 1 Lemon, 1 piece of Celery, 4 Carrots and 2 Sweet Peppers. The peppers made it kind of sweet but adding the tomato and celery gave it a little bit of an after taste. Definitely had to chug these two glasses down quickly as I'm not really a fan of V8 and this kind of reminded me of that.

Dinner: 1 GS Apple, 1 Pear, 1 Orange, 1 Lemon, 1 Zucchini, slice of Red Cabbage, 5 Carrots and 1 Parsnip. It was early enough in the night and I was trying to give myself a pep of energy and also trying to stir things up maybe for a BM. Again, the red cabbage gave it a little bit of a spiced flavor, so use sparingly until you know how you're taste buds like it. I used a decent size chunk here, cut it in two and then stacked it on top of itself for the picture.

Feeling slightly discouraged again tonight. Encouragement would be great!

Day Three.

So I'm not going to lie, last night was the biggest struggle I've had so far during the juice fast. Juicing didn't go so well with me all day yesterday -- my combinations were not enjoyable entirely and I was starting to feel slightly defeated. I logged onto http://www.jointhereboot.com and was looking at their "Reboot Plans" and actually joked that maybe I should do the 15 day juice fast + eating plan (some days are eating certain things and other days are just juicing) instead of just a 10 day juice fast. I wanted something slightly heavy and hot in my stomach, but decided that I couldn't let myself compromise. I went to bed early again with a slightly hungry stomach because I was being stubborn and didn't want to 'deal with it' anymore for the day. I was more than happy and commited though when I stepped on the scale this morning.

Scale: 132.8 -- I skipped 133 all together :)


AM: 2 GS Apples, 1 Pear, 1 Orange, 1/2 piece of Burdock, 5 Carrots, 1 stalk of Celery, 1 mini Cucumber and a couple handfuls of Blueberries. I forgot to take a picture of the after product. It definitely tasted a lot better than some of the combinations that I juiced yesterday and was a pleasant breakfast burst.

Lunch: 2 GS Apples, 1 Pear, 1 Easter Egg Radish, 1 large Beet, 1 Orange, 5 Carrots. The beet made this one quite strong. Would've been maybe better with a lemon and something else. Not quite sure.

Dinner: 2 GS Apples, 1 Pear, 1 mini Cucumber, 1 Orange, 1 Zucchini, 4 Carrots, 1 Parsnip and a handful of Kale. I had to make tonight's meal to go -- we were headed down to Murfreesboro to go to a double church service. So we camped out in the parking lot between them and had some juice. I put it on ice in a cooler so that it wouldn't turn on me -- I'm not a fan of ice cold juice. Was a struggle to get down.

Thoughts: Kinda bummed that my weight loss seems like it might be at a standstill which I was fearing. I haven't had a BM all day and know that is key to shedding pounds. Maybe I'm not drinking enough water or maybe a fiber supplement would be good to add on? Hmmm

Day Two.

So the first day of the juice fast wasn't really all that bad. Since my body has already gotten use to juicing several times a day, it didn't seem to mind the usual schedule. It did however hate me yesterday evening as it was expecting a 'chewing' meal and all it got was some strong earthy/leafy juice in it's place. It also didn't help that my lovely supportive (I can think of some more sarcastic adjectives) boyfriend was eating chicken pad thai right next to me on the couch. *sigh* Such is life though.

Today marks day number two and I'm surprisingly chipper and alert this morning. I did also go to bed at 930 last night which is unheard of. I've had horrible insomnia as long as I can remember and nothing has ever seemed to help with the problem. I've found when I juice in the evenings, even if it's with a meal, I can go to sleep almost right away and I have very vivid dreams again (which I haven't had since I was pregnant). Plus, getting a good night's sleep is a big part of weight loss since you're body does a lot of work while you're asleep. I always like to get on the scale at night and look at the 'damage' of the day and then give a sigh of relief in the morning that it's dropped back down.

Scale: 134.0 (lowest I've been since I was pregnant)

AM: 1 GS Apple, 1 Lemon, 1 Orange, 1 Pear, couple handfuls of Grapes and Blueberries, 4 Carrots. I've decided today that I'm going to juice more than 3.5 times and in order to reach that goal, I'm juicing less at each 'meal' so to speak. This will make about 1.5 to 2 glasses for me this morning.

Lunch: 1 GS Apple, 1 Pear, 1 Lemon, 1 Zucchini, 1 mini Cucumber, 5 Carrots, 1 Easter Egg Radish and 1 mini Bok Choy. The picture on the right shows how much juice this turned up. Quite a bit more than I was expecting with such little produce here. I encourage you as it gets later in the day, to juice more veggies than fruits. Especially in the evenings, juicing too much fruit will have you a lot of energy right before you try to go to bed. 

Dinner: 2 GS Apples, 2 Pears, 1 Orange, 4 Carrots, 2 Parsnip, 1 mini Cucumber, handful of Blueberries, 3 pieces of Kale. Ok, I know I just got done saying that the later you juice in the evening, the more veggies you should have vs fruit. I did buy a mediocre batch of pears though that are already starting to turn, so I wanted to breeze through those real quick AND my day has been kind of blah so I did want a little more energy to get me thru the rest of my day/evening.

What kind of juicing combinations are you guys doing at the moment?

Day One.

First day of the juice fast and I'm off to a pretty late start. I got so wrapped up in playing catch up on work since the kiddo was sleeping in later than normal this morning. For my breakfast juice, I usually like to do fruit since it has natural sugar in it to give you a boost vs drinking coffee or energy drinks. You definitely don't "crash" later on in the day and it's tasty, so you tend to drink it down quicker which doesn't hurt when you're rushing out the door. Also know that fruit juices tend to be a natural laxative, so until you're use to how you're body is going to handle them in the AM, I recommend doing this before you start your morning routine vs drinking it in the car. When you gotta go, you gotta go (haha)

Scale: 135.8

AM: 2 GS Apples, Orange, Lemon, Pear, 3 Carrots, big chunk of Pineapple. This makes quite a bit of juice by itself since most of these produce a lot of liquid. I work from home, so I can usually chug down 2-3 glasses in the morning and don't have to rush. If you don't have time though, juice a few less ingredients and you'll get 1-2 glasses from it.

Lunch: 1 GS Apple, Lemon, 2 Parsnips, 3 Carrots, 1 mini Bok Choy, last chunk of Pineapple, Stalk of Celery, 1 Zucchini. Again, later than normal since my day's schedule is so off. Have so many 'new' ingredients that I haven't juiced before. The flavor of this one is a little stronger than I normally like -- you can taste the celery. Would suggest adding something else to this, but not sure what.

Dinner: 1 GS Apple, 1 Lemon, 3 Stalks of Celery, 1 piece of Burdock, 1 mini Bok Choy, 1 Beet + Greens, 4 pieces of Kale, 3 pieces Rainbow Shard, handful of Grapes. So my friend that got me into juicing wanted to try out my juicer again, so he stopped by on his way home from work. He's more into 'leafy/earthy' juices and I let him pick out tonight's ensemble. A lot of this stuff I hadn't juiced before, so the taste was quite shocking for me. I drank almost all of one glass and then decided to put the rest in the fridge and doctor it up when I was hungry again. About an hour later, I took the remaining juice and added some of my usual stuff in it -- 1 orange, another lemon, 6 carrots and another GS apple. It was a little more bearable, but still very earthy. Guess I need to take baby steps when it comes to juicing a bunch of ingredients that I'm not familiar with :) 

Anyone have an recipe idea they'd like me to try?

Pre-Juice Fast.

So this morning I got the bug. I've decided I'm going to do it. A 10 Day Juice Fast. And I'm slightly terrified.

We had dinner last night with our friend that opened our eyes to juicing. We made a juice to go with our vegetarian burritos (from Drifters, so good!) so we could show off our new juicer. The whole night centered around the topic and a challenge of sorts came out thru conversation to do a juice fast. We all talked about 'scheduling one' in the not so near future when it was convenient for everyone to do it together. And I just knew that if I personally kept putting it off, I'd always come up with some excuse to stop myself from taking the next step.

So I woke up this morning -- made a list of things I wanted to try and off I went. Costco was my first stop, they have 10# bags of organic carrots for pretty cheap along with a few other misc things. Then over to Whole Foods (in Green Hills) to do the bulk of my shopping. It's only the second or third time I've been in one before and each time, I feel like a little kid in a candy store. If you've never been inside one, it's truly a mecca of yumminess and contrary to my previous personal belief, it's not that expensive for organic produce there. After almost an hour in the produce section, I made my way to the checkout and was blown away that it only cost $58 and that was with a $6 bag of nuts and a $6 magazine! Lastly, I went to one of my favorite places in town, the Nashville Farmer's Market and rounded out my juice fast list with some zucchini, granny smith apples and a some purple cabbage.

Here's my bounty for the day -- for only $78 bucks and everything is organic minus the stuff from the Farmer's Market.

Click to make it bigger.

(L to R) Bunch of Beets. Bunch of Kale. Bunch of Celery. 18 Granny Smith Apples. 1.5 lbs of Grapes. 6 lbs Pears. Bunch of Easter Egg Radishes. 1 pint Blueberries. 2 lbs mini Cucumbers. 2 lbs Parsnips. 4 pieces of Burdock. 1 lb mini Bok Choy. 3 lbs Lemons. 10 lbs Carrots. 2 Pomegranates. 2 heads Purple Cabbage. 2.5 lbs Zucchini. Bunch of Rainbow Chard. (not pictured) I had about 4.5 lbs left of some oranges from the beginning of the week. This probably won't get me thru the full 10 days of juicing since I'll be doing it 4-6 times a day, but it's definitely a good jump start on what I'll need.

Looking forward to sharing with everyone my progress.