Video of the month: Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead

If you haven't had an opportunity to watch this documentary yet, then get on it! Seriously it is well worth your time. Here's a quick plot summary:

"100 pounds overweight, loaded up on steroids and suffering from a debilitating autoimmune disease, Joe Cross is at the end of his rope and the end of his hope. In the mirror he saw a 310lb man whose gut was bigger than a beach ball and a path laid out before him that wouldn't end well- with one foot already in the grave, the other wasn't far behind. FAT, SICK & NEARLY DEAD is an inspiring film that chronicles Joe's personal mission to regain his health. With doctors and conventional medicines unable to help long-term, Joe turns to the only option left, the body's ability to heal itself. He trades in the junk food and hits the road with juicer and generator in tow, vowing only to drink fresh fruit and vegetable juice for the next 60 days. Across 3,000 miles Joe has one goal in mind: To get off his pills and achieve a balanced lifestyle."- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1227378/plotsummary

You can rent/buy this film on Amazon. Just check out the Amazon Finds box to the right of this post for more info:)

Juicing, Raw Food and Cooked. And Allergies.

So for the last 3 weeks I have been eating/drinking very clean foods. Juicing 2-3 times a day and having a smoothie for lunch. My energy is great, I am craving raw food like no other and I am down 10 pounds... Not so bad;)

So about a week ago I started having some soup for my dinner instead of a juice. It was a nice change as one side effect of raw food/juicing is that your core temperature drops making it much harder in the winter months. Just so cold... Anyway, I had a few different events going on this week and one of them was my anniversary. My partner and I celebrated our 7th year together with a night out to a show and dinner. We decided to try this Tunisian/French restaurant and I ordered the couscous with fish. It was not good. The fish was fishy, yuk. So I ate around the fish as the couscous was good and we had some wine. Well the next morning I woke up and my hands were covered in hives! I know that I have been eating super clean food but I must say that it was eye opening. I have to be careful what I put into my body these days. My body is changing. I really just want to eat clean raw foods but you know it's nice to go out and have whatever sometimes to.... I guess I just have to be choosy now. That meal was 4 days ago and yes I still have the hives. They are almost gone now, as I have been juicing lots of parsley and celery juice. Both Celery and Parsley naturally help with histamines in the body. And I will say that I notice a difference after I drink them.

Here is my anti-histamine juice recipe:

2 apples
4 stalks celery
1/2 bunch of parsley
1 lemon

hmmmm I just LOVE this juice, it's super refreshing and full of vitamins, minerals, and enzymes:)

Juicing for Health and Weight Loss!

So over the years I have juiced for cleansing. I have gone on juice cleanses maybe 4 times before now always lasting around one week. Unlike fasting or the Master Cleanse where you are only consuming lemon, maple sugar, cayenne and water on a juice cleanse/fast/feast you are juicing wholesome fresh nutrient rich juices. So after my trip to Nevada a few weeks ago I started juicing. Unlike other cleanses I have done I wanted to keep some fiber in my system to help flush things out. (sorry but it's true and VERY important) So instead of only juicing I have been having a green smoothie for lunch and 1 tbs. of pshylium husk in my morning juice.

Green Super Lunch Smoothie

1-2 cups spinach leaves
1 banana
1/2 cup blueberries
2 tbs. hemp seeds
1 tsp. maca powder -optional
1/2 tsp. chlorella
1 tbs ground flax seeds
Unsweetened Almond Milk

400 calories
High in Omega Oils, Vitamins A, B6, C, High in manganese, magnesium, potassium, high in Fiber and contains around 13grams of protein. Not to mention all the greens and chlorella help to remove heavy metals from the system.

Now you may be thinking that sounds gross, drinking greens! But I can assure you that it does not taste like spinach in fact it is delicious!

So my daily routine for the first week was some kind of fruit juice for breakfast like cantaloupe juice (my personal fav)or a nice apple, fennel, ginger or a carrot, apple, beet juice. Really the sky's the limit depending on your personal likes. For lunch I would have my Super Smoothie then I would have a light afternoon juice usually something like apple, cucumber, celery, kale or apple, lemon, red cabbage (pink lemonade:). And for dinner a nice vegetable juice like parsnip, tomato, cucumber, celery, red pepper, garlic/ginger. An important thing to remember with juicing is that you want to limit your intake of sweet root vegetables and fruits in the afternoon evening as the sugar found in these foods will keep you up. And drinking lots of water and tea in between. You may be surprised but you do not feel starved and after a few days you are quite use to "eating" this way.

Once I had finished about 10 days of this I started adding in a raw meal for dinner instead of juice. I would have my favorite raw zucchini pasta with a raw marinara sauce or a big vegetable salad. Two days ago I had my first "cooked food" eating a nice bowl of vegetable soup. So far I am down 10 pounds, and feeling fabulous! When you add juicing into your life you are adding soo many vitamins and nutrients that you are brimming with energy! To make my point last week my partner had the flu everyone at work had the flu and I just sailed on by without getting ill:) I plan to stay on my course having a juice for breakfast, a smoothie for lunch and either a raw or cooked meal for dinner.

As I sit here writing this I have been thoroughly enjoying a glass of fresh papaya, guava, apple juice. I can say it is amazing!! High in Vitamins and contains around 8 grams of protein. Now that's good breakfast.

My summer of indulgence

Well I had good intentions. Don't we all. But this summer I fell off the weight loss wagon and indulged. I think I was too embarrassed to blog about it, I had let myself go. It all started with a trip to Burning Man this summer. Burning Man is a wild and crazy place! Love it just love it. You see the most unbelievable things there and you have to survive in an extreme environment. By extreme I mean a high altitude (coming from sea level this was hard on me) high heat and dust. Oh the dust, it's actually drywall silt if you can imagine. And it finds it's way into everything, not to mention the dust storms.

So with all of this you end up eating whatever you want and I ate. Salt, Sugar, Spice reined surpreme and I ate tons. You would never know just how good those things are until you are in that kind of environment. So I indulged, cookies, chips, snowcones you name it! The only issue is it didn't stop there. After I got home my old eating patterns kicked in and it wasn't to long until I was having a muffin a day and grabbing for those cinnamon buns. Soon enough I had put on weight and was back up to 160 pounds... My face was round again, clothes were feeling tight, it was awful.

So after a work trip to Nevada a few weeks ago I knew I had to make some changes. I knew it was time to stop these bad habits before it got really out of hand. I wasn't going to go back on the Bernstein diet. It does work but I feel the cost is too high. It shouldn't be so traumatizing to lose weight. Having to have shots 3 times a week and having to take soo many suppliments becuase your body's in shock. No thank you not again.

Years ago I use to juice and this is where I went. I will fill in what I'm doing now in my next post.