Juicing Tid Bits

Greetings Everyone,
As always I hope all is well. I plan on making this entry a quick one. 

If you plan to juice please allow for time to research your juicers. I have read a lot and still am not versed on the terminology well enough to relay it to you all. When I figure it out I will bring you abreast on my findings. At the moment I have the Jack LaLanne juicer, which was purchased 2 years ago from Walmart. It is holding up very well, although there are times when I have to hold the shoot part of the juicer in place to keep the assembly from vibrating. I experience this mostly when I juice whole apples. 

So far in my research I am leaning towards purchasing the Omega 8006 juicer. It is a bit pricey depending on your perspective but worth it if you plan to stick to it for a lifetime as I am. After watching youtube videos I find it extracts the juice leaving the pulp 60% drier than the pulp from the Jack LaLanne. Since produce can be expensive it is wise to "squeeze" the most out of if by purchasing a product that yields the most juice.

It is important to note that juicing is not bad for anyone. It can be time consuming but in my opinion it is worth it. If you are a beginner to juicing and is doing so for whatever reasons, please take the time to search the internet to determine which types of juices you want to start with. I started juicing oranges for breakfast.  Then I started juicing carrots and apples because they were my favorite produces and when combined with a little ginger juice the final product is heavenly.

This will counter my other post on storing and consuming juices. But, after juicing if possible drink your juice immediately but dont wait more than 30 minutes. I have learnt that the enzymes found in vegetables are most beneficial within 30 minutes of juicing.

Also when you are juicing do not allow the sunlight to touch the juices, as it will break down the product faster. In addition, try to juice more vegetables than fruits or if at all possible juice 90% vegetables and 10% serving of fruit.  I say that because fruits are high in sugar if you drink them versus eat them whole, your insulin can temporarily go up. However, when eating fruit whole the pulp slows down the absorption of the fruit juice.  Additionally if you juice more fruit than vegetables it can cause you to gain weight over the long run which is not benefical to your health if you are overweight or even obese.

More-so, if you are keeping a food diary to track your meals and count calories as I do then you may wonder, "Does juice yield the same amount of calories as whole produce"?  The answer is yes, because the pulp is the fiber of the produce, the calories are primarily in the juice and that is what the juicer extracts predominately juice.  The amount of juice you yield will depending upon what type of juicer you purchase.

In case you are wondering, I am use my Iphone app "Lose It" to track my progess.  What type of apps do you all use to track your daily food intake? As many of you may know the Lose It app does not have produce calories in the form of juice in ounces. That is because the calories do not change when juicing.  Juicing only removes the fiber which makes us feel fuller. However, the calories are still extracted by the juicer in the form of the juice.  Therefore, the calories are the same whether juicing or eat the product whole.

I hope this helps. I do not know everything about juicing; however, I am learning. Nutrition is my passion now and I hope to become a nutritionist within 2 years. My advice to everyone is find something you are passionate about and learn and live all while doing it as much as you can. 

If any of you have questions on insight please comment below or email me. Have a wonderful day and may God Bless you all. 

-GP  

Surprise!

Good evening everyone!

What's up? lol I am just playing you guys! I hope your day is going well. I will try to make a daily update on how my day went or is going.

To be totally honest, last night I felt like I was starving! Yes starving :-( instead of starting the lifestyle change today I began it after the Mother's Day post. Why would I do that?  In keeping honest, every-time I opened the refrigerator I wanted to eat whatever was in sight whether good, bad, or in between smh! When I glanced at the juices I thought oh no, yuck, not you not you yet! No! Then I began to bargain and reached for the cake and that's it! But I stopped myself, so I saw the juice and I said ok since I am starving and stomach is growling like no other, I should give that strange looking juice a try! It was brown instead of green, because of the carrots I added.  I figured since I was starving it wouldn't matter the taste. As any of you know when you are starving you will practically eat anything..

I retrieved a straw and closed my eyes tightly and made the sour face as I drank it-- but surprise! I even enjoyed it unlike the true ingredients used in the mean green. Joe used 1/2 cucumber, 4 or 5 stalks, thumb-sized ginger, 2 green apples, bunch of kale, and 1 lemon. When I made my juice I used 4 green apples instead of 2. I also omitted the kale. So I used a whole cucumber instead.  Be forewarned that, if you used a whole cucumber be ready to go to the rest room often :-).

Great news! Today was easy I only drank 20 oz so far and 2 glasses of water.  As you all know this is not nearly enough fluids or nutrients for the day; however, since I am taking Master courses to be a Nutritionist I decided to modify this diet to make it a lifestyle change. Ask many of you know juicing for life can be done healthy over a lifetime by incorporating other healthy foods. It is important to understand that juicing alone is not sustainable over a lifetime, because you would be putting your health and life in jeopardy. 

My plan:
1. I ride my bike or stationary bike 20 miles 5- 6 days a week for the last couple months. I will continue to do that and it takes 90 minutes.

2. I will juice every night and drink my juices throughout the day if I drink all the juice which I will only be making 36oz a day. I do this to ensure nothing goes to waste and  I will supplement the juice with cooked kale or greens. I prefer that over putting kale in the juicer.

3.  Often times than not I will continue to make smoothies and add flaxseeds to them. I will also eat a fish each night so I can get my 1000 calories per day and ensure I have a source of omega in my diet. Besides that I can not lie I love baked fish! Anyone with me on this?

4. Modifying is better for me because I want it to be a lifestyle change rather than doing another fade diet. Although I am using juices, cooking veggies, and eating fish at night this is best for me.  I am sure I can yield the same results. Why? Because since last night I lost 3lbs but that is without the fish for dinner. So, yes this modification is working. But its not about losing weight it is about clearing up my severe allergies and when I do the smoothie and juice feast they cleared up dramatically.

Ok I will let you guys go and sorry for being long winded again I will keep you all posted. Please let me know if you are going on this journey with me. Much love and many hugs!

-GP

WHAT TIME IS IT?

Greetings All,

I know, I know everyone is doing some form of lifestyle change or dieting. Of them all I believe vegan before 6 to be one of the best plans; however, I felt I needed to jump right in. So what time is it?  IT'S JUICE FEAST TIME!  Yes,  I am juice fasting again after nearly 15 months since my last feast. I said I wouldn't do this again but here I go. Key is to never say never ;-). My feast officially begins tomorrow.

So far I juiced--  5 celery stalks, 4 green apples, 1 lemon, 1 cucumber, 1 thumb sized ginger, and 4 carrots.

I stored the juices in glass containers-- 2- 8oz glass jars and 1- 20oz jar to store the juice in. Totaling 36oz of juice per day. I may have to modify as needed after each day. But, I believe this is sufficient because I will make an effort to drink 6- 8oz glasses of water per day.


I will be juicing from 13 May 2013 to 28 June 2013, if any of you would like to join please comment below.  I look forward to you taking the journey with me :-) For some of you this is the 2 or 3 time.  This time I hope to go the entire way, God Willing of course.

One thing I am not excited about and that is juicing lol. Totally weird right? I am praying the juice can be stored for 24 hours like Jeff Cross says. If not I will be drinking some unpalatable juice tomorrow lol! I will let you all know how that goes! Pray for me on this one! The goal is to ease up these allergies and stop taking so many allergy medications. If this work then I will consider going 60 or even 100 days it all depends on the results.

Well, have a wonderful day everyone. Happy Mother's day to all the wonderful mothers and father's who are in those roles. God Bless.

-GP

Boy Time Flies!

Hello everyone! How have you all been?

As some of you may know, I once used this channel to blog my experiences in dieting, detoxing, and taking you along on road trips while detoxing. Well I am back and I will continue to share dieting tips, meals, and some life experiences with you all.

It has been approximately 14 months since I have been away from youtube and blogging. I have not forgotten any of you my friends, I miss you all and I watch your YT videos :-) For everyone else,  I pray all is well and I will return to blogging and vlogging soon! Until then I will post updates here on where I am in my life and what I have been up to. Until then be safe and take care of one another. May God Bless you all ((hugs))

-GP

Chew This NOT That!

Who almost broke their juice fast? You are reading her blog! Yes me :'( I so wanted to throw the juicer out the window hard enough for it to reach the street and get run over by a huge truck!


What are we without friends? Today the virtual ladies of teamcutie helped me and understood me like no other friend or family member could. I had the overwhelming urge to chew! What? Anything? I posted in teamcutie I needed to chew. I was informed not to be so hard on myself and that Joe in FSND movie had an apple for breakfast. Now that I was told that I do remember him eating an apple! So he was eating whatever he juiced on days he didnt have his juicer? I have to watch it again.

My husband is very supportive but he told me to eat. Then said, "If you do not chew your teeth will fall out"! For real? Oh ok I asked members of teamcutie and no one could confirm. For now I chewed an orange but did not eat it. Tomorrow I pray things get better. Because after I post this I will be making spaghetti for my family! Here we go. Pray for me y'all! Not because I want to eat it, but because it will take hours to get this done. OCD! That is why I do slide shows when it comes to my dishes instead of video footage for YT. OOps another secret! lol Have a good one talk to you all soon. **hugs**

I Got My Groove!

Day 14 of 60 Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead Juice Fast/ Feast

Hello my friends! How is the day treating you all so far? Well, mine is off to a pretty good start. Thanks for asking haha! 


I woke up early this morning thanking God for another day. My grandma use to say, "I woke up early this morning thanking God that he woke me in my right mind"! I love my Grandma. I worked out first thing again on the wii! Loving it!


But I know today like most others will be filled with challenges. What challenges you ask? Oh the usual internal fighting with: Should I exercise, how can I make juicing faster, how can I make a healthy meal for my family without sampling it, and praying I don't push back starting my Graduate degree in Nutrition. Those things. Things that take effort. lol at least for me they do. 

Perhaps so you understand more clearly, the reason I stated that is because it has come time for you all to know my secret. Well, I have a Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). As a child I thought it was that I didn't like sharing, or maybe it was because I wanted to be neat. I would line the shampoo, chips, shoes, clothes, and anything else up and count them, place them just so. Then I would take inventory that happened from elementary til I joined the Air Force. But it got worse while in the Air Force that is another story for a later day. But those examples are just the tip of the iceberg. Bottom line is I needed and wanted control over everything in "my world". Everything was my and mine. That is it! 


I love my family so much. My daughter I believe was sent straight from Heaven, I just love her to pieces. We share the same Birthday and will always be the best Birthday present I ever received. She is now 15 and she obtained her learners almost 2 weeks ago. Which is 2 days after I began my FSND juice fast. Anyway, as she grew up I was so concerned about germs, ensuring she was overly clean, kind to others, and protected at all times. 

After almost 17 years of marriage, I have eased up with my husbands help. But he says one small task is still sometimes too much. So that leads me to the reason why I told you all that. One act might not seem like a big deal to someone else, but to me it has to be done correctly and often times than not over and over until I am satisfied. As you can tell in my videos I hate editing so I redo the video until I get it "right".


So anything involving food is a chore for me. I love to cook; however, when I do I use gloves when I have to touch meat for my family. Touching meat makes me ill and I want to run away. But I do it for my family and it has been that way since I was a young girl. My Mother says, "I never liked meat, but I loved fish but not seeing the bones." So, some ask, "why are you juicing so on so forth." Well, all I can say is "eating meat, juicing, detoxing, and/or fasting is not for everyone. I want to be healthier."

So one would think, juicing is a cinch for me right? Well, no... I love my jack lalanne juicer though, but you know that already. Here is my steps for juicing. First and foremost there must be order. What is order? Juice like vegetables and fruits at one time, categorized, and in order by texture. 

Carrots, apples, celery, tomato, ginger are the ingredients I juiced for today. First, put everything on the counter. Next take each item out and soak them in water for 5 minutes. Take the easiest items that require  less preparation and move them to the next bowl. Next, take the carrots, celeray, and apples to the side. Rub them down while water is running over each separate group for 5 minutes. While I do this I tell myself, "Gloria make sure the water is ice cold". 

Why ice old? Some might think hot. Nope not me I am worried about Germs multiplying under heat. So in my mind cold water makes the germs and dirt slide off when it comes to my food. Weird I know, again I have OCD. Next take the slicer and peel all the skin of the apples and decore the apple. Why? Because I dont want bugs to be in the core to be juiced with my ingredients. Some would say you would know if bugs were in there if you inspect the apple. Well, I would say, " I cant see the core til its in my hands". Next wipe down the carrots and celery to get them free of water. Oh look how squeaky clean they are! Next, I chop the head and tail of the carrots off, then take the skin off with the peeler. I do the same with the celery.  Then begin to juice. 

Now you see why this is a challenge. Instead of taking 15 minutes to juice, drink, and clean up. It takes me just minutes shy of an hour. Why? Because of the meticulous cleaning I do every step? So each day I have to say to myself I can do it. I love juice, I just hate juicing! Now you all know why I wrote that in an earlier post. If I could have purchased those "naked juices" from walmart I would have. But, I will continue this the rest of my life, but I have grown to know there are worse things in life I can have. So OCD is alright, because it is not as debilitating as some other peoples that I know of.

So this day I am thankful for it and all the challenges it holds. I am very happy to have let you all in on my secret and I pray you wont judge me for speaking my truth. Please give yourselves a hug for me and know that I care about you all and I pray you all are having a nice day. **hugs**

Smooth Sailing in the Beginning

Recap of Day 8 of 60 which was 1 Feb 2012

Good evening Happy People! I made up a rhyme for you all. Here it goes... Time is clicking and the weight is dipping! lol Now its not nice to throw tomatoes! If you guessed that I can't Rap a lick, you would be correct!

OK, I know you all didn't come here for that! I am getting to it.... Yesterday was awesome! I had loads of energy. Enough to be able to work out for 2+ hours. Again, I used the wii the Free Step and Free Run games. I can't believe so many calories can be burned in your very own home; all while watching your favorite television show or movie. If you try it, ensure you turn up the volume on your controller. This will allow you to hear the step count. Additionally it will allow you to keep pace, thus staying on track/step with your wii avatar/mii. 

How many calories do I burn on the wii each day, you ask? At least 700+. That is not bad considering, I consume 1200 calories a day when I am not juicing. You maybe wondering if the wii workout actually allows you to loose "real weight" the answer is ,yes! I lost 5lbs this week and it is only Wednesday. 


Boring day so far right? Right... Would you know that later in the afternoon my day got interesting in a not so good way? I did something adventurous! Guess what I did. I will give you 2 seconds to guess... Ok you give up right? So, yesterday while talking with team cutie members I learned more information about Salt Water Flushing. Yes, it is exactly what is sounds like. The flush is an oral ex-lax so to speak. I was informed to gather up the following ingredients-- 1 tablespoon of sea salt, 1 lemon, and 1 quart of water that is room temperature. I ran out of lemons from juicing the Mean Green, all I had left were limes and oranges. Which one would you pick? The sweet right one right? Of course the orange wins. Yippy! Talking to myself in my mind I say, I better use a straw so this crap can hit the back of my throat and go down smoothly. 


I began to think of all the things I hate to eat, which include things that would probably taste worse than this concoction. For example, dirt pies, moss, and tide washing powder! Yes, tide washing powder! Don't ask I might tell you later. I am so very ashamed! 

Ok I am psyched out enough now. The timer is set for 10 minutes. I grasped the liter of mess and took a big slurp while holding my breath! I stopped and eww the taste was indescribable! I take a hit of the orange and squeeze the juice in my mouth. That worked for a second. Time is ticking I slam another .25 liters down my throat! I need to think of something to make me get this down! What is that show where they eat bugs and stuff? I have no idea, but at this point I rather eat them than this. So this is not working. So, here is goes the next .25 liters down. Ok now I am on the last .25 liters and I am gagging and my tummy feels like it going to explode! Its taking sheer willpower to keep this down. 


I hear that you can drown from taking in so much water at once! Is it possible? I call my husband and tell him I am awfully ill! Exaggerating of course. But I feel like the blob! I can't wait to expel this crap. No pun intended! 40 minutes later its sheer madness. Please take the morning off when doing this. Make sure you dont have to leave the house for at least 4 hours or you will have espresso everywhere and a snitch to match! 

Will I do it again perhaps? Do I want to NO! Why do it? It aids at getting more toxins our of our bodies and what better time to do it than while juicing? Because the nutrients from the juice get added back to our bodies. Thanks Carla! Yes, I summed up Carla's explanation from team cutie. 


Now you have it my day wasnt so eventful after all. You wonder what Day 9 brings? You will find out shortly. As always have a wonderful evening. Much love to you and yours. *hugs*