Day 24.....Could you eat all that?

Can you eat all of that?

The other day, our oldest daughter watched me prepare for a juicing feast. She said, "Mom I am so proud of you for doing this. Your will power is amazing. But what is the difference between juicing and eating? Can't you just eat that and be done?"

That was a good question; one that had been on my mind at one time or other as well. The answer is this.
If you are wanting to focus on packing in the nutrients without all the bulk then juicing is the answer. Look at the volume of food needed for 1 drink. I could never eat that much in a sitting.....and then be ready in a couple hours to do it over again.

As I look at this cutting board full of amazing produce, an important rule of thumb comes to mind. That rule is the 80/20 rule. I have been seeing it in every corner of the web that I go to for research. It means that we should strive for 80% veggies and 20% fruits while juicing. Using this rule helps to get the incredible array of nutrients from the veggies while balancing out the sweet of the fruit. Fruits are power packed too. But it is better to have sustaining energy instead of a sugar spike.

By keeping that rule in mind and having fun with colors, you can create all kinds of fun and inventive drinks that are eye catchy, pleasing to your palette and packed with life. So have fun! Create and enjoy!

Celebrating God's goodness!

Day 23......Celebrate

Today I am sitting here enjoying another recipe I found. It is so interesting how as my taste buds change to embrace real food I find I am loving it more and more.

Today is called Green Elixir by Claire Georiou at Reboot.
One of the things I love about the Reboot recipes is that they encourage and list out things you can use as substitute. Her recipe calls for pears but I used apple instead.
Here is what I am drinking in my beautiful celebration glass.

Elixir
4 kale leaves
1 large cucumber
1/2 fennel bulb
1 large granny apple
2 celery stalks 

A word of advice: Have fun and celebrate yourself!
Get out those one wine goblets that sat in the back shelf because you were worried about calories. Nutrient rich juices taste good in anything from a plastic tumbler to sparkling crystal. But why not give yourself the added joy of celebrating you. You are most certainly worth it!

Celebrating God's goodness!

Day 21....Stay Focused and Motivated

I started using a new scale today. Our old scale had been purchased years ago at a thrift store. It worked well enough for the time but I was ready for having something more accurate. I found that this new scale is better than the old and shows that the old scale was off by 3 lbs. That means that when I started this 21 days ago, I weighed 203 lbs. As of this morning I weigh 185 lbs.

I have a dawning excitement growing in me. I have lost 18 lbs. in 21 days! That is so very encouraging. The last couple of days I had been discouraged. I had seen a picture of myself from a couple of months ago and for some weird reason I had this thought of, "yuck! Look at all that. It is going to take me absolutely forever to get healthy."

Seeing the reading on my brand new scale was just the pick me up I needed. Then this afternoon I stopped by the grocery store for a specific reason. I walked to the baking isle and stacked two 10 lb. bags of flour together and picked then up just to hold for a minute and impress on myself an example of what I have lost so far.

I know over these last 3 weeks I have listed so many changes for the good that I am recognizing. And the numbers aren't the bottom line to being healthy. But they sure are nice.
Thank you God!

Celebrating God's goodness!

Day 18

Today has been a busy day to say the least. Taking care of loved ones, cleaning for weekend company, impromptu errands for way more time than I allotted.  I didn't plan my juicing out to accommodate my events. So while we were out today I ordered a fresh mango fruit smoothie from a local coffee shop.

Tonight I am feeling irritable, tired, having a hard time focusing and munchy cravings are hitting me hard. Why? Probably a combination of not having my usual 4-5 juices in a day and I wonder if I should have asked more questions about the ingredients of that smoothie.

Positive side: I never gave in to anything. The pastries at the coffee shop didn't call to me. Nor did I have a hard time baking chicken for my family tonight.  Eventually I will eat chicken. For now, I am not ready to start introducing anything more into my system aside from 'plants'.

We are heading into quite the eventful weekend. I proved to myself with preparing for jury duty those two days that I can own my choices and prep a day full of healthy nutrition. So I need to keep that in mind and not lose all the control I have gained.

Thanking God and celebrating His goodness!

Day 17....Trying New Things

So nice to have a home day today.
I decided to experiment today. I made a big batch of my current favorite juice: 4 carrots, 1 granny apple, 1 orange, 1 cup fresh pineapple and 4 handfuls of spinach.  Then I took about half of the fiber and mixed it with the extracted juice in my blender and threw in some frozen strawberries for a chill factor.

The texture was a bit thick for me but I think I will try it again and purpose to leave out the carrot pulp. Maybe that will be better. It really wasn't bad and it is a viable way to get the mega nutrients as well as the fiber content.

I have been seeing recipes that call for fennel bulb. That was totally new to me. I know I have baked with it from a spice jar. But aside from that, I had to google it to know what it looked like. I bought one this morning and decided to be brave.

I used a recipe from Brenna Ryan at the Reboot website.

Orange Fennel Juice
1 cucumber
1/4 purple cabbage
1/2 fennel bulb
1 apple
2 oranges
4 kale

Wow was I pleasantly surprised! My husband was really pleased with it too. Interesting since he doesn't like the taste of cabbage.

That brings up a really good point. As we clean out our bodies and learn new habits, our taste buds are changing. Not only are we learning the emotional side of food but our bodies are learning how to crave real food and enjoy real taste instead of variations of synthesized chemicals.

Celebrating God's goodness!

Day 16

I am so excited that I am over half way through my proposed fasting. I feel proud and accomplished.
These last two days were a test that I passed with flying colors. Being downtown around all the smells, aromas and flavors of our unique city could have easily been a daunting challenge in the past but not now. I enjoyed opening my bottles of cold fresh phyto-nutrient rich drinks and not having to spend money on eating out. I even had the energy to do the 1.75 mile walk home from public transit in the 90 degree afternoons.

And then to be able to stand in the kitchen and not think about turning on the stove or cooking 5 different things to create a plate.

Here is my dinner tonight before putting it thru the juicer. It is a granny apple, 3 carrots, a golden beet, ginger and 3 handfuls of spinach.

It was good. Beets are a little strong on the sweet side for my palette. I keep telling myself I am going to use half a beet instead of a whole one. But then I cut it to pieces and ....voila!

Celebrating God's goodness!

Day 14....Being Prepared

It is late in the evening over here and we are winding down. Before I call it a night I want to touch base about our progress.

Today is Day 14 and I have lost 14 lbs. It is Day 10 for my husband and he has also lost 14 lbs. He did the complete 10 days with juicing only.....Amazing! Tomorrow he plans to cut back to 2-3 juices per day and introduce veggies and fruits back into his system. His food for the day is already packed with a veggie salad and also things in a separate container like cut up apple, celery, carrot and some grapes. He is incredible.

I am so excited for us. Not only are we gaining victory in the realm of losing extra weight, but we are having more fun doing it all together. Making our juice meals in the kitchen and shopping for produce is like we are constantly on a date.It is amazing the boost we get in will power from each other.  And to add to that, we are learning about our emotional habit patterns with food.

It was a busy weekend for us but we did it together.
It was actually pretty easy to turn down food at a luau simply because we had our juice bottles in hand. Then we went to the movies and I was concerned the smell of popcorn would torture me. Once we got there though it wasn't such a big deal. We had made our drinks ahead of time and stashed them in my big purse (criminal I know). I had an emotional panic thought when we walked passed the snack bar of, "but we always buy popcorn." We both agree that the popcorn smell was soon forgotten and we enjoyed our movie. Actually I think we enjoyed it even more because we weren't chewing away on stuff and creating that stimulating energy that salty sweet stuff brings on.

The next two days are long for me (actually the whole week is crazy but let's focus). I will be downtown the next two days. So I have already made my stuff for the day and it is all waiting safely in the fridge for me to grab in the morning.  I even found an adorable insulated bag at the store today to keep everything fresh and cold in.


Celebrating God's goodness!

Day 12....Get Rid of Those Fruit Flies

This morning's ingredients

This morning I chose a super easy recipe and did the volume for 2 drinks. They say that juicing and drinking right away is best to maximize the nutrients offered. Things break down over time. But really, the nutrients start changing in produce as soon as it is removed from growing in its original life source state.  There was a time in my life where that thought made me feel defeated.

Why bother at all then? Here is why....despite the fact that I don't have my own garden or even buy a majority of my produce organically (shocking I know); I am experiencing change and my body is loving every bit of it.

When I am making 4-6 juices in a day for myself (and double that for my husband), I don't want to assemble and then clean my juicer each time. The solution is to make a few juices at once and then immediately cover them and put them in the fridge where they are in a cold dark environment. This limits exposure to atmosphere elements and slows down change.

Yesterday my daughter spied a huge loaf of sweet raisin bread that she wanted while we were at the produce market. She toasted two slices as soon as we got home. While it is true that the first smell of toasting bread made me sigh and desire; that lasted less than a minute. Instead I enjoyed and actually preferred a tasty sweet plum. Before juicing, I would have helped myself to that bread, lathered butter on it and probably eaten half the loaf before the end of the night.

This morning's juice is: 2 grannys, 2 oranges, 6 big handfuls of spinach

Looking at these pictures, you may wonder what that little dish of liquid is next to my platter of limes. It is an easy solution to combat fruit flies. I read somewhere that fruit flies lay their eggs in the skin of produce. As the food ripens, the eggs hatch and they have a buffet to live on. I don't know if it is 100% true but it makes sense to me and those little flies seem to materialize out of thin air. So I make up a fresh dish ever few days and leave it on my counter always. Whether I see flies in the air or not, within a half hour I am sure to have 4-6 drowned flies in the bowl.

Fruit Fly Riddence Recipe
a little bit of apple cider vinegar in a small bowl. (I use a custard dish.)
a dash of liquid dish soap on the top of the vinegar
No need to stir. Just change it out when it gets cloudy in a couple of days.

The smell of the vinegar is highly attractive to their taste buds even when fresh produce is around. The dish soap makes them slippery so they can't get out. Ugh sounds inhumane to describe it but I don't want flies all over my food. My husband teases that I am cruel. But those little things are too hard to catch and release out doors and really he doesn't like flies either. I guess I can be the bad guy. :-)

Day 11....My Blood Pressure is Dropping

Watermelon Crush in the perfect glass

The day got away from me and I never posted yesterday.
But it was a good day. I stayed on track all day. I even made my parents lunch. It was stuff that they like to eat....tuna sandwiches, chips, watermelon and cookies.

None of it went into my mouth! I had packed my juice and snacks and was very content.  My parents watched me with a mixed display of curiosity, awe and self proclamation that they could never have the will power to eat in such a fashion.

I did notice that learned pattern urge to toss chips in my mouth while I was chopping veggies for the tuna. But I thought about the greasy feel and pointless ingredients that would coat my body and cause me to crave more......no thank you.

I checked my blood pressure. I should have thought to check it when I started this journey. I do know that it was getting normal for my systolic to be almost 130 and my diastolic was always upper 80s low 90s.
This time it was 118 / 76. Wow! I checked my blood sugar too and it was sitting nice at 109. That is encouraging. Diabetes runs in my family so I have had a small concern over having so many carrots, apples and oranges.

This morning as I made my drinks for the daytime, I had extra of the Watermelon Crush so I put it in a special glass for my daughter. She is enjoying it now.

Time to get started on my chores.

Celebrating God's goodness!

Day 9...The Financial Cost of Eating Healthy

It is Tuesday, my 'be organized and timely or chase myself' day.   :-)

I weighed myself this morning. I know weight numbers are not the goal but it is an obvious outcome as I progress in a healthy lifestyle. I noticed that I have been the same weight for the past 4 days. In the past I have been at this 9-12 lb. line many times so my body must be in shut down mode; trying to wait out my will power. While I am certainly not educated in all things nutrition, I have read enough to know that our bodies do that. It is a survival mechanism as our bodies regulate storage. Eventually it will give in and I will be the victor!

I have 3 juices in the fridge for me this morning that I just prepared. My juicing time is getting less as a develop rhythm and confidence.

I am starting to diversify my ingredients now.
Breakfast today is 4 carrots, 1 apple, 1 orange, 1/2 large lemon
Lunch is 1 cucumber, 2 celery stalks, 4 handfuls spinach, 1 apple
Afternoon snack will be watermelon, lime, basil  (YUM!)

A couple of evenings ago my husband asked me how we are doing with the cost of produce. That is such a good question. It most definitely costs more to fill the shopping cart with produce instead of processed stuff. But when I figure it all out, I think we are either equal or a little ahead.  Here is why....

I am not buying the processed stuff.
We aren't buying the daytime work sandwiches and snacks.
There are no pitstops for mega big sodas.
We aren't going out 2 times a week and spending upwards of $40 at a restaurant.
We aren't using vitamins, tylenol or ibuprophen at all.
I am not drinking coffee!

That last statement is a miracle! I would have 2-4 mugs of coffee every day AND put creamer and hot cocoa mix in it. Yeah really.....  Not only is that mega doses of unhealthy, it is costly.

Now I am really enjoying my morning hot lemon water. For real!


Celebrating God's goodness!

Day 8....The Benefits

Wow it has been a whole week!
I have gone from feeling scared, flu-sickly, pacing the house, feeling sorry for myself all the way to feeling good and proud.

 I have now lost 9 lbs which is a good start.
What other things am I noticing?

my face is soft and clear
no snoring
no congestion
no swelling or water retention
no indigestion
no gas
cravings are less
in general I feel more happy and content

Over the last few weeks as I was preparing for this adventure, I bought myself a pair of summer sandals and a couple of maxi dresses. Doesn't sound like a big deal I know. But whenever I would see a nice pair of shoes or clothing before, I would punish myself by saying I could have it after I got healthy and skinny. Then I would get depressed.  Then.......eat in futility.

Boy talk about being my own worst enemy.

Today is a new day and I am making positive choices that affect me for a good future and a prosperous now.

Celebrating God's goodness!

Day 6....The Will Power

My husband and I got up and had fun in the kitchen working together to make our morning and afternoon juices. Things went by so quickly and it was actually fun to be in the kitchen together. :-)

Thank You Jesus for my food processor!
Things were so much easier today!  I cut up carrots and an apple to fit in the food barrel and with one quick push of the button this came out.

Today was an outing day with my mom and cousin. Originally when I first started this juicing thing, I feared how things would go for me. But I am here to say that it has been a good day for me.

I drank my morning juice and packed my afternoon juice along with a coconut water and a container with a 1/4 cup each of almonds, cherry tomatoes and blueberries.

Truthfully, my mom's taco salad smelled good at first but I made a quick decision that said, "What do I want? Tons of grease, fatty dairy and empty pale veggies or the good nutrition in my purse that will make me feel good emotionally and physically?"  Putting it that way made it a happy no brainer.

Again Thank You Jesus!


Post note........it is late in the night and i feel starved. I had missed one of the 5 juices today but didnt think it a big deal since i packed my healthy snacks. I feel like my stomach is running a tin can along my spine.  Goodness this is something to remember.....dont be too busy to think healthy.

Day 5

It has been a long day but I feel quite proud of myself.

Made all my drinks, all hubby's drinks, made a huge pot of spaghetti for my brother and sis-in-law and ran a bunch of personal errands.

It is now after 10 pm. My feet and legs are so sore from standing so long in the kitchen. Sigh.....
I had a brilliant idea come to me at the end of the day as I was making the last of 10 juices total. The idea was this.....do my prep work in my food processor. Haa haa It was as if I could hear an angel choir sing and everything got brighter.

Because the food chute for my juicer is so narrow, I really have to cut things up in prep before I can juice. It takes maybe 15 minutes of prep for me for each drink. Gosh if I just use my food processor maybe life would be more simple.

Now to find the counter top room......

Day 4

I woke this morning feeling quite jazzed and excited about food choices. I have had a mental shift of sorts. I think instead of feeling like "I have to do these 3 days" now I feel like "I choose to do more". Weird!

I jumped up this morning to run to the store and get more produce for the upcoming busy weekend. Before leaving I drank my hot lemon water and made a morning orange juice with 4 carrots, 2 grannys and a whole lemon. I felt liberated carrying my juice in my pretty sports bottle around the store. Felt like I knew what I was doing. haa haa  And the food cravings stayed away. I could actually walk right past all the things that are normal temptations and think "yuck that isn't real food".

Now I have chicken going in the oven for tonight. Gotta admit that the smell is extreme. Would it be wrong for me to eat it tonight......no. But I am not ready to open the gate of other flavored foods yet. I justify too many things as okay and don't think thru the day.

Later.......

Note to self: substituting red chard instead of kale is not always a tasty thing.
I made a green lemonade for lunch. It consisted of 2 apples, 1 lemon, 1 romaine heart and 5 chard. The recipe actually called for kale. I don't know if it is because I did the substitution or because I did the whole chard stalk instead of just the leaf, but it tasted sort of like spilled lemonade on dirty wood. I tried to stomach it all and not be wasteful but honestly some of it went down the sink.

I had a revelation today. I was totally going to try and add a bit of fiber back in to my juice like Ronda suggests. Then it dawned on me that I had juiced my apples with core seeds and all. Maybe I am wrong but that motherly voice inside my head said, "Don't eat the seeds! That is where arsenic comes from!" I need to think this thru a bit more and set aside some of the pulp as I juice. hmmmmm......


11pm......

Hubby's food for work

Our dinner visit was lovely tonight. I made them all a chicken pot pie and big bowl of salad while I enjoyed a green drink. No one questioned and I felt free.

My husband is starting this juice fast tomorrow. He really wanted to participate and make everything tonight in preparation for his work day tomorrow. But with visiting, there wasn't any time left in the evening. So I did it for him and have everything labeled. He is going to do really good. He is so dedicated at whatever he sets his mind to do.

When he gets home tomorrow I will have dinner and dessert juices ready for us.
This is fun!

Re-Boot Day 3

This morning my husband told me I slept so quiet during the night that he felt the need to watch me and make sure I was breathing.

That is nice to hear.

Favorite Red after sitting
in the fridge.

Today so far I have done

Orange: 4 carrots, 2 oranges, 1 beet
Green: 2 granny apples, 1 big cucumber, 4 handfuls of spinach, handful parsley
Red: 1/2 watermelon, 1 lime, a bit of fresh basil

The red is my favorite! I could drink it all day long. Too bad there is no green nutrition in it.

My head is more clear and the tension has calmed down. Praise God! The churning in my stomach is less too.

Papa God, I want to be healthy and feel good. It blows my mind how many times a day I have thought to grab food. Help me know and choose.


Later......

I made the rest of my drinks for the evening.

Green: 2 granny apples, 1 big cucumber, 4 handfuls of spinach, handful parsley (trying to use up some produce so I did the same as earlier)
Purple: basket of blueberries, 30 red grapes, 1 granny apple, 1 celery stalk

The purple recipe didn't call for the apple and celery but I found that volume of berry really gummed up my juicer. I needed the crispy texture to clear out the basket. It also called for a handful of mint but I don't have any right now.

I am trying to figure out how I want to proceed from here out. I had mentally committed to 3 days. My husband wants to start this juicing on Friday. That will be fun to both be working in the kitchen and cheering one another on.
Am I committed? Yes Most Definitely. I still want to focus on produce. I just don't know about doing only juice. I am wondering about adding a little bit of fiber tomorrow.

I recently heard a very "in the know" speaker talk about the benefits of juicing but also the importance of fiber....which gets pulled out when we juice. She said that juicing is awesome for the micro-nutrients and suggests that after juicing we can pour it into the blender and add back some of the pulp fiber to a reasonable consistency so we aren't missing that important bulk.

Makes total sense to me and I trust her knowledge base.
Then I think about Joe Cross and how he and so many others are walking success stories on 60 days of just juice.
I don't think I have the stamina for that. I don't want to do that. But I would like to get in control of my cravings.

And I am nervous for the weekend. I am making dinner for my brother and his family on Friday and then Saturday I will be out all day with my mom and cousin. I can pack my juice and be prepared. But I am scared of the questions. Scared of the "steering away" conversations with everyone's "knowledge".

Focus on good choices and ask God for guidance with each one.

Papa help me with these fears. I feel silly in saying I have an addiction. But that silly feeling is rooted in shame and shame has no ground in You.

Re-Boot Day 2

I slept really good last night. I was worried I would be hungry or fitful. But I feel like I had solid sleep. And I didn't wake up congested! I wonder if I snored.......

Yesterday when I started my morning orange drink I felt shaky and foggy in my brain. I had to sip it over time or it was too much of a jolt. Today I don't feel that.

Tuesdays are a busy day for me so I decided to dig in and make my day of juices ahead of time. It is best of course to drink as soon as your juice is made. But I have them covered and in my fridge so they are safe and will still yield me a mega day of nutrition.

I laugh looking at my line up of color. I can hear the Skittles candy mantra in my head

"Taste The Rainbow"

 I have one more drink to make for today but I have run out of apples and need to run to the store.

Interested in what I am drinking today?

Red: 1 personal seedless watermelon, 1 lime, handful of fresh basil
Green: 6 kale and romaine leaves, 1 cucumber, 2 celery stalks, 1 granny apple, 1/2 lemon, 1" ginger root
Purple: 1/4 red cabbage, 1 carrot, 3 celery stalks, 1/2 lemon, 1 orange, 1 handful basil
Orange: 3 carrots, 2 granny apples, 1" ginger root

As I look this over with a clear head instead of a "wake up head" I am realizing that the "purple" drink recipe I pulled from the wrong column. Oops! Oh well. I am still getting in tons of produce and micro-nutrients. It is not a fail. I just need to make one more green for today.

And how long did it take me? Well... 1 1/2 hours seems a daunting amount of time. But the factors of the morning were phone calls and a visit. And while I have an amazing juicer, the food chute is narrow so it takes time to cut up food small enough. Plus my learning curve is that I keep stopping to refer to my papers. The plus side.....once I make that last juice I will be done in the kitchen for the whole day! There are good foods in the fridge for my family to eat and they take care of themselves well.

Now to get to my tasks....


Later.....

Here I am at the office doing my evening work. It has been a usual eventful day, a typical Tuesday.
I feel a little achy in my head, been a little queazy and tension in my neck and shoulders. It is interesting how many times I thought about grabbing something to chew on......because I deserve it......because when I am busy who knows when I will have opportunity......because because because.

Apparently I get more wound up than I have given credit to.

I did get to the store and make my other green drink.
It is: 2 fuji apples, 1 lemon with peel, 1 romaine heart, 5 bunches of spinach

It tastes REALLY good. It is like a cool lemonaide.

Ok back to work......

Re-boot, Cleanse and Re-focus

Today I am weighing in at 199 lbs. I wear a size 14 pant and some days it is only because I refuse to buy the next size up.

Here I am. This was taken a little over a month ago at our daughter's wedding rehearsal. I had been doing the usual preparation that you hear most women talk about leading up to a wedding.....you know the I want to get into my dress talk. The problem was it was all talk. Yes I got into my dress but it was not the size I wanted to buy. Since my husband tells me every day that I am beautiful and he loves me (he is so amazing) I really had the confidence to think I look and feel better than I actually do.

Ugh! Ok granted I had no make up on and I was in a state of high stress at that moment.....still the resounding view is that my clothes look melted on to me and if I am honest with myself I can remember that I wrestled with those clothes all day constantly trying to re-situate myself in them as I rolled around.

I have focused so many times on being healthy, dropping weight, reading articles, being obsessive about one aspect of it or another and then utterly burning out and giving up. I give myself permission to give up usually because of time schedules.  Things happen like someone comes into town for a visit or a special gathering happens.....and it all revolves around food. Food stimulates those happy feelings and makes everything more memorable.

But I want to learn how to have those happy feelings about foods that God made. He made them for a reason.

My husband and I recently watched Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. It was inspiring and motivating.
I have so many learned schools of thought in my head on how to eat and be healthy. Raw, juice, smoothie, healthy choices, 80/20 rule, how to balance it all......

Every one has a different opinion. It makes me wish someone would just put food in front of me and tell me it is the best choice. But then I remember I can ask God and He will tell me.....there is a novel concept.

Today I am starting a 3 day cleanse to get me going. I know long term juicing as an only source of food is not optimal. It keeps away the important fiber bulk that our bodies need. But a fast is a different story. A fast is a good thing.

Last night I stocked my fridge with beautiful produce and get everything ready to follow a 3 day reboot. I am excited.

Here I go..........



Later at the end of my first day...

It has been fun and interesting.
Fun: exploring God made flavors, nice to not have to think about what and how to cook
Interesting: I didn't realize how emotional my eating has become. Wow I found myself pacing and wanting to throw something crunchy in my mouth.

What did today look like?
I had 2 cups of hot lemon water first thing in the morning. I chased that down with an "orange" juice. Mid morning was a coconut water and then a "green" juice for lunch. Afternoon snack was a "red" juice which really looked more like super dark and alarming had I not known what was in it. Dinner was another "green" juice and now I am enjoying a "purple" juice.

Are all the colors odd? They say we are supposed to have a rainbow every day and these color combos help be do just that. Here is what I chose today....

Orange: 2 granny apples, 4 carrots and a whole lemon with peel
Green: 2 granny apples, 2 cucumbers, 6 kale leaves, handful parsley
Red: 1 granny apple, 1/4 red cabbage, 3 carrots, 3 cups leafy greens (oops forgot the ginger)
Green: 6 kale/romaine, 3 handfuls spinach, 1 granny apple, 1 cucumber, 2 celery stalks, 1 lemon with peel
Purple: 2 peaches, handful blueberries, 1 sweet potato

Timing is important. I let my afternoon get too long in between drinks and my stomach was grumbling.
But then again, that hungry feeling is nice. It has become such a foreign feeling to me.

I am so grateful my husband is supporting and encouraging me.