Day 5

I think we're all going to be just fine. This morning I made us some so delicious juice. I didnt follow a recipe but it was something like this: 

1 banana

2 apples

1 orange

1 kiwi

1 pear

30ish mint leaves

1 C Italian parsley

2-3 C coconut water

1 Tbsp honey

2 Tbsp Flax seed oil

It was green and SO yummy! I took it to work and everyone was asking what was with the juice. Pretty sure my boss thinks I'm nuts. She gave me this "why the hell would you do that?" look and then said exactly that. I told her I was up for the challenge. 

People keep asking me how it's going. It's such a great conversation starter (for me) into all the healthy benefits of fruits and veggies. I still dont feel like I have a solid reason "why" I'm juicing. Mostly because I know it's good for me. I'm not hurting myself, or depriving myself of protein. In fact, short of the not-getting-enough-sleep syndrome, I actually feel pretty great!!! Today was probably the first day I felt 100% normal all day. 

I need to work out better options for lunch. Today I was supposed to go to the gym with a coworker at lunch, and neither of us had a car (we both carpool from time to time), so that fell through. And with it my plan to swing by Jamba Juice for lunch. I tapped into the Hubs for lunch and he was busy again today as well....meetings meetings meetings......

I brought lots of carrots, avocado and a pear with me, so I didnt really starve, but I should be eating more throughout the day. I did however get in about 60 ounces of water before I even left the office! YAY ME! 

As it is Tuesday, it's typically our weekly trip to the movies. I hit up my sister (because she usually goes with us) to ask her what she wanted to see. As it was her birthday yesterday and she's been celebrating since Friday night, she opted to stay home. Rob and I decided we were going to go to Whole Foods for dinner and then head home ourselves. Try for a movie another night and see what happens. 

Whole Foods is such an amazing store. I love the layout, the feel, everything about it except 2 things:

1. they gave in to Montsanto (SUPER FAIL) Want to know more about what is going on with Montsanto and GMO's? Check this out here. 
2. their prices are pretty spendy

Because of these 2 things I dont typically spend a lot of time there, but tonight, it was so nice to not have to prepare food. I know that sounds so lazy, but coming from someone who has spent the better part of the last 7 months eating out for almost every meal, it's saying something. 

We grabbed some more groceries and started to head home. About half way home I started developing a headache. It's still in the developing stages...hurts for a minute and then gone again. I could be just over tired. Both of us are pretty wiped out. 

I could also still be detoxing....probably just tired. 

Today Reboot reminded me of the problems of constipation and diarrhea. I dont like to make a habit of talking about shit outside of dinner, mixed company, family, etc, so I'm going to spare you most of it. The short version is stay hydrated and move around. 

Time to watch some Six Feet Under and head to bed! Until tomorrow :)

Day 4

Didnt get enough sleep last night. Needed about another 2 hours. But that's what I get for sleeping till noon or later for 3 days in a row. Ran through my normal routine...had to sacrifice washing my hair today in order to have time to juice my breakfast. Luckily, my hair didnt look like it needed to be washed, even though it really does. I'll have to wash it tonight.

Made up some delicious juice and packed some snacks to get through the day. Rob and I never made it back to the kitchen after X-Files last night to figure out our lunch plan.

Out the door about 15 minutes later than I'd prefer, but not too shabby considering all that was "new" today.

My daily dose of encouragement from Reboot is about "The Dirty Dozen". This is somewhat sad, since I already know about the damn dirty dozen and would love for it to be an email about how this is so fucking hard sometimes and I'm a champ and a half for sticking to it. Maybe tomorrow. For those of you not in the know...here is the scoop on the dozen:

Here are some guidelines to help you choose which organic foods you should be buying, when possible. The USDA, Consumer Reports and The Environmental Working Group have compiled a list they call, “The Dirty Dozen,” which shows the 12 fruits and vegetables with the highest amount of pesticides, or the ones you should try to get as organic.

Produce with the highest levels of pesticide:

• Peach

• Apples

• Bell Pepper (Green and Red)

• Celery 

• Nectarine

• Strawberries

• Cherries

• Kale 

• Lettuce

• Grapes (Imported)

• Carrot

• Pear 

• Potato

Produce with the lowest levels of pesticide:

• Onion

• Avocado

• Sweet Corn

• Pineapple

• Mango

• Asparagus

• Sweet Peas

• Kiwi

• Cabbage

• Eggplant

• Papaya

• Watermelon

• Broccoli

Well 1pm rolled around and as Rob and I carpooled I had no car at work today. I texted him and asked "lunch?" and he said "cant. meetings." I wanted to cry a little. I had been thinking about how amazing a salad was going to be from Whole Foods. But then I remembered all my snacky snacks, and was over it and fine. I had a bunch of shit to do anyway, and not really any time to leave for lunch. Power on!!

Around 6:30pm we both finally left work and headed home. Rob's doing a little worse today than I am. I've actually felt pretty great most of the day! YAHOO!!! He's noticeably cranky, and is telling me he's cranky. I can take a hint, so when we get home, I get to work feeding this man. I started on some delicious Tortilla Soup and he started cooking up some SWEET POTATO FRIES! HELL YES!

As suspected, dinner was fucking amazing. Pardon my french, but it just was. The soup was perfect (although some chicken, tortilla chips and black beans wouldve been alright too). And the fries are AMAZING!!!!!

And now....back to the X-Files!

"I am stronger than this challenge and this challenge is making me stronger!"

Day 3

Finally woke up without a headache!!!! YIPPEE!!


Today, Reboot is reminding me to eat the rainbow. I'm finding this easier and easier as the days go by. Today I feel better, still a little sluggish, but not afraid to leave the house. Here's what Reboot had to say:

Many of the health benefits of micronutrients are concentrated in the pigment of fruits and vegetables. Essentially, the properties that give each fruit or vegetable its rich color are the same elements that help protect our immune systems and keep our bodies strong. Each color family is rich in unique and important micronutrients. The American Cancer Society recommends choosing at least one representative from each color family per day – do this and you’ll quickly get the recommended 5+ servings. 

I try to do this anyway, it's not something new to me, but it seems much easier when all I'm not counting beef as something red :) 

Here is what we got to eat for breakfast today:

Minty-Fresh Berry

2 cups Blueberries

2 Kiwi Fruit

16 Strawberries

2 cups Mint Leaves, packed into the measuring cup

Calories: 319 kcal

Protein: 5 g

Fiber: 4 g

It was pretty yummy! Today we'll have to venture out to the store to pick up more fruit. We're running low, which seems surprising considering how much we bought. I didnt really think it'd be so soon for us to be running out. 

I neglected to mention the hell that showed up at my door yesterday. Remember yesterday, when I was ready to kill someone? Sitting here minding our own business, dreaming of a cheese pizza and post-meltdown...someone pulls into our driveway. I look and see it's the Dominoes pizza guy. Two things instantly run through my head at the same time:

1. IM SAVED!!!!!

2. THIS IS BULLSHIT!!!!!

I open the door, and the smell wafts right into my face. It was like the universe wanted me to have it. And I very quickly, said "you have the wrong house". And then he started to argue with me. "No this is the right house, this is the address I have." And he proceeds to read me my address. I tell him he has the right address but we didnt order the pizza. He swears and walks off. Not sure what the fuck that was about, but Universe, if youre listening: 

I AM STRONGER THAN YOU THINK! 

TAKE YOUR PIZZA AND SHOVE IT!

So back to today.....lets see where was I? Oh breakfast. Okay, so we dined on breakfast, again at like 2:30pm, but it's Sunday and I'm suffering (sorta). 

We make the venture out of the house. Sitting at a red light, Dairy Queen wafts into the truck. I start breathing out of my mouth to get away from smelling the deliciousness that is a juicy cheeseburger. But that failed me too, because believe it or not, I could taste the grease. So again, I say to the Universe:

I AM STRONGER THAN YOU THINK! 

TAKE YOUR DAIRY QUEEN AND SHOVE IT!

We make it home all in one piece. Unpack, and make up another gigantic salad! Bigger than the night before. I couldnt even finish it all it was so much. It's so great to finally start feeling full and satisfied with the food I'm eating!

Tomorrow is our first day back to work, and we've prepared everything we need for breakfast. We're going to watch an episode of X-Files first, and then worry about lunch for tomorrow. 

I hope work is not to scary. 

Day 2

Woke up with a headache this morning. Not starving but slightly hungry. Looking forward to the yummy Blackberry Kiwi Blend smoothie I get to have for breakfast today. 

Blackberry Kiwi Blend
1/4 large Pineapple, core removed and roughly cubed
1 cup Blackberries
1 Kiwi Fruit
1 Banana
1/2 cup Coconut Water
30 Mint leaves
1 Tbsp. Flax seed oil, optional
Add all ingredients to blender and liquefy!
Calories: 458 kcal
Protein: 6 g
Fiber: 18 g

But before that, I'm going to have some yummy coconut herbal tea and check out my list of Oscar nomination movies on my list to watch still. Here's what Join the Reboot sent me over this morning. May daily dose of encouragement:

During the first few days of the Reboot, it’s not unusual to feel off - dizzy, lethargic, or even nauseous. These symptoms can be due to a number of factors including hydration, amount of calories, eating frequency and rest. Hopefully you’ve been following the fluid guidelines outlined in yesterday’s email. 

I dont have to count calories. This is always something that makes me happy. And I dont have to document the hell out of what I'm eating. This also makes me happy. I can eat as much as I want. Another total bonus. Because i'm eating just fruits and vegetables, that are packed with fiber and nutrients, I can eat a lot more volume of food with a lot less caloric impact. But they've also warned me that not eating enough leads to the above symptoms. Maybe that was  my problem last night??


I'm supposed to be eating 5-6 times a day. Definitely didnt do that yesterday. Need to try to be better at that today. 

Breakfast was DELICIOUS!!! Rob and I were both convinced we could easily drink that juice all day long. 


Expecting today to be more difficult than yesterday we decided to stay home for the day, watch movies, juice and just be in the moment as much as possible. Which is exactly what we did. 


As I have a goal to watch at least all of the movies nominated for Best Picture, and have already seen 3 of them, we opted to watch The Descendants. Decent movie, not great though. Mid-movie we had to make up our mid morning snack: V28.

V28
3 large Red Beets
2 medium Carrots
2 stalks Celery
4 Plum Tomatoes
4 cups Parsley, leaves and stems, roughly chopped and packed into
the measuring cup
1 Jalapeno, ribs and seeds removed
12 Red Radishes
Calories: 340 kcal
Protein: 17 g
Fiber: 2 g

Let me just say this about that: beets are gross. I have never liked them, I didnt like them in this juice and still managed to suck it all down. I thought it tasted like dirt. And no I dont typically run around eating dirt. Started to have a small meltdown of wanting to eat something familiar.....went back to making some herbal tea and drinking some water and finished my movie. 

I feel like I'm eating all the time and am never satisfied. The hunger, or craving, or something is always there. And it's pissing me off. It's one thing to be trying new foods, taking care of my body and the environment...it's another to be doing that and still never feel full. So standing in the kitchen, trying to come up with something other than cooked squash for dinner, I let the tears flow. It's silly really. It's just food, right? Who cries over crackers?!!!? So, I made myself quite possibly the largest salad I had ever had. MAKE IT BIG! Is what Reboot is always saying to us in their emails. So that's what I did. And I ate the whole thing and FINALLY was full and happy :)


For some inspiration Rob and I watched "The Beautiful Truth" on Netflix. A movie about a teenager in Alaska doing a massive report on Dr. Max Gerson. If you dont know who he is...he cured cancer. Totally crazy. But it doesnt fit with the drug companies model of cure, so it's heavily poo-pooed and shunned. I'm telling you this man is a genius. And the best part of it all? He did it in 1923. The full movie is available on YouTube. Check it out: 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvzDHGLEUyw


And during the time watching this movie, not only did I feel better about my decision to juice, I started really thinking about my own personal connections to food. Why is this hard? It's not like I'm not chewing. I'm not missing the chewing sensation. I've had a headache all day. I'm emotional, irritable and just plain bitchy. All because I'm detoxing from refined sugar, flour, etc. 


I must continue to push through, allow my body to detox and live in the moment. It's been a really hard day. It has to get better. Tomorrow will be better. 

Day 1

Lovely shot of all the non-refrigerated produce in the afternoon sun.

GOOD MORNING!!!

Well when you go to bed at 1am (because you took the next day off of work!) it's really easy to sleep in late. I woke up around 8:30am and took the dogs out, went pee myself, crawled back in bed and ran through the usual stuff on my iphone (email, Facebook, and Words with Friends). Priorities I know....then I rolled over and went back to sleep. 

Had some totally fucked up crazy ass dreams...somehow Bernie turned into some form of dog mixed with a seal or something crazy. He was diving for oysters on the ocean floor in the middle of a storm. Because all that is totally normal, then he turned back into a dog and drowned. I was devastated. Duh. Woke up and loved on him for a bit, then went back to sleep again. 

Finally around 12:30pm decided I was hungry and my dog was still alive so I was going to get up and see what I'm having for breakfast. 

Herbal tea and Cherry Cinnamon Apple Bake. Yum. 

I've never pitted cherries before. It was interesting and I couldnt help but think of "The Witches of Eastwick". Cooked myself up some tea and waited for it to cook. 

It was pretty yummy, although there was too much cinnamon. Rob juiced all of his and I cooked mine as the recipe called for. I liked it better out of the Vitamix. C'est la vie. 

Me, Day 1. Curious to see how my complexion may change over the course of this experiment.

We also got an email from Join the Reboot this morning reminding us to take in lots and lots of fluids. 

Fluids will help your body incorporate vital nutrients and remove waste products or potential toxins. Fluids will also manage natural shifts in energy levels while on the Reboot. 

Good to know as I am very much missing my daily cup of coffee at the moment. How much fluid? 64-72 ounces a day! Yeah, I'm just going to move into the bathroom. The good news is about half of that (16-32oz) is from fresh juice which is about 1-2 juices a day, in addition to all the fruits and veggies we're eating.

The other good news is anything without caffeine or alcohol counts as a hydrating fluid. Score! Maybe I wont need to move into the bathroom after all. The recommendation is an additional 32-40 ounces of fluid beyond the fresh juice. Should be doable. 

I'm fairly full already just from breakfast and maybe from the late night binging I did last night. We'll see. 

Next up on my list of yummy things to eat is what they call Green Juice and what I call Dinosaur Juice. Why? Because it's made with vegetables I'm quite certain are only ever eaten by actual dinosaurs. Starting with Kale. 

Green Juice

6 leaves Kale

2 cups Spinach

1/2 Cucumber

4 stalks Celery

2 Apples

1" Ginger root

Calories: 180

Protein: 12 g

Fiber: 1 g

I've never had Kale before and I'm here to tell you, I could probably go the rest of my life never drinking that juice again. It's not "horrible". I didnt gag or anything. But it's just very very grassy. And thick. I diluted it with water and that helped get it down faster but didnt  help with the taste. 

I learned from our friends Jonas and Mary to add a little bit of lemon to it. I guess it helps cut the Kale. We'll try that the next time and see what happens. I think it also needs more apples. The goal is to be eating primarily vegetables. 

While they were here we cut open the jicama. None of us had had it before and were all curious. Turns out jicama is pretty damn delicious! It tastes like snow peas almost. Sweet and juicy. We all really liked it!

After a rousing game of Catan, they headed home to enjoy either some cereal or a wonderfully delicious Dick's burger. And I headed to the kitchen and made myself a giant salad with spinach, arugula, romaine, avacado, jicama and tomatos. It was good, but the arugula has a strong veggie taste to it. I dont know how else to describe it. But I found myself searching my plate for avacado and romaine. 

And then I got really cranky. Probably because I was tired, but I think also because I just had massive cravings for something that not only tasted good, but tasted familiar. I kept feeling like I was hungry. I still maintain that is what that feeling was, but I could be wrong. Maybe I just need more fluids. 

Prep Time

Last week we were snowed in an pretty much bored with the internet and most of what was available on Netflix. That is until we came across Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. As we had been stuck at home for a week, not really eating poorly, but not great either, and just returning from a 3 mile hike to the store, and about to dive into a box of cookies, it wasnt my top choice of movies to watch. But it had come highly recommended so we did it. 

At the end of the movie, as with any movie of it's type, we were fully on board with this idea to drink just juice for 10 days. We logged onto Join the Reboot and got going on our quest. We both took the assessment and assessed into the Reboot Entry Program. This should make it a little easier, as we will both be eating the same thing. Here's a little more about this program:

"Our entry plan is a 15 day journey to wellness. In this plan, you can juice and blend produce as well as eat raw and cooked vegetables and fruits in any order or combination that suits your life. This program is intended for those who are brand new to eating a plant-based diet, those who have recently completed a juice fast or those who would like to participate in a Reboot, but don’t want to exclusively juice, for 5 days. In this program you can juice with eating for the entire time."

They recommend you wait a week before starting the reboot in order to clean out your fridge and prepare. During that week we continued to talk about how we were still feeling about it, told our friends and family what was coming for us and just mentally prepared ourselves as best we could. Most everyone thinks we're nuts. But we're used to that anyway. Mostly what I heard from people was "yeah, there's no way I could do that." Then I started to think, "Eh, you can do almost anything for 15 days." Then I started to compile a list of things you can't do in 15 days. For example: go without food, run a marathon, continually be ass raped in prison...you know, things like that. But drink juice and eat just fruits and veggies for 15 days? Yeah, I think I got that covered. 

Last night before I left the office I made up our grocery list of things we'd need to buy just based on the first 3 days of recipes. It was more things than I think I may have ever bought in a trip to the store before ever. There are 66 individual things on it. Rob said "um, WHAT?!??!"

We made the decision years ago, to buy as much organic as possible. And after watching Food, Inc. I decided all fresh produce with skin that is going into my body must be organic. Yes, it's that scary. That said, we decided to go to Central Market over Whole Foods. Hoping the price would be cheaper. Maybe, maybe not. It was going to be expensive no matter how we sliced it. But Central Market was on the way home and we know that store pretty well, so off we went. 

We got to the store and grabbed one of the smaller half carts. Stupid. 

About 1/4 of the way through the list, Rob went and got another normal sized cart. We filled it too. 

We bought things I'd never bought before, didn't even know what it looked like. Do you know what a Comice Pear is? Yeah, me either. Turns out it's just a pear. How about Arame Seaweed? Nope, no idea. Found it though. It's sold dried. You have to soak it. Also didn't know what Jicama was. I thought it looked similar to a zucchini. Nope, looks more like the love child of an apple and a white potato. 

Jicama Ladies and Gentlemen

The strangest, perhaps most comedic part is there we are standing in the grocery store, in front of the produce section, with the signs above saying things like "Jicama $2.49/lb" etc, and looking below that still had no idea what the hell we were looking at. So we Googled it. 

Then we picked up the remainder of our items and headed to the check out line. It was about 3 items in when the checker and the bagger started asking "so??? what's with all the produce?" We told them we were going on a juice fast. The girl bagging our groceries asked if we just watched "Fat, Sick.." and I told her we did. She said she had watched it last week during the snow on Netflix too. They asked us to let them know how it goes, so when we are out of food, we'll go back with an update. 

Rob and I always play this little "guess how much everything will cost" game as we check out with large purchases like this....We both thought somewhere around $200. That wouldve been lovely. Nope. Brace yourself people: $360. 

And remember, we only bought groceries to fulfill the recipes for the FIRST 3 DAYS! Driving home we just kept saying, "this will have to last more than 3 days.....it just has too." 

After we got it all home and cleaned out the fridge (oldest thing in there? expired in 2007!) reloaded the fridge, and then again said, "there is no way were eating all this food in 3 days!" The fridge is so full we cant fit anything else in it. 

The only thing left to do last night was finish off the box of cookies, drink the rest of my coffee, eat the buffalo meat we bought the week before, and polish off any leftovers that were going to be tempting. Sounds like a lot, but it really wasnt. 

Then we watched a few episodes of The X-Files and went to bed.