Organize Your Juice Cleanse in 4 Easy Steps

Juice cleanse! Yup I am going there again! I had plans on doing another one after Mexico but that kind of fell by the wayside. Technically though, this IS after Mexico so I wasn’t totally lying to myself, I am just a procrastinator, no surprise there.

I had tried starting one about a month ago but I just wasn’t motivated enough and ended up just eating all of the produce I had bought for it instead of juicing it. At least it didn’t go rotten in my fridge! There is nothing I hate more than the forgotten brussle sprouts in the back corner that go rotten, I can literally see money being tossed away and a good meal being wasted.

I found the last time I did a juice cleanse it was kind of hard to get my proportions right and figure out if I had enough food in my fridge to last the rest of the cleanse. I found myself running to the grocery store more times than needed, which can be a bit of a hassle. So this time I thought I would plan out what juices I wanted to drink and make out a list of what I will need. Sounds good right? That should alleviate things a bit and make it easier to get back on the juicing train. BUT! What if I take it to the next organizational level?!
Below I have outlined four simple steps to help guide you in starting your juice cleanse, which is always the hardest part. So here are my tips and tricks to start a successful juice cleanse:

1)    Make a list Do some research and figure out which juices you would love to drink and make out a grocery list of everything you will need.  If you are doing a longer cleanse like 10 days, you can break it up into 2 grocery trips to avoid not having enough room in your fridge. I have listed below some of the juices I am drinking, which are great basic ones that are sweet and delicious.

2)    Wash your produce

This may seem like a no brainer, but it really helps you out in the long run. Fill your sink up with cold water and a cup of vinegar and throw in all of your fruit, veggies and leafy greens. Let them sit for 10 mins giving them a scrub to get off all of the dirt. Aslo you should de stem any fruit or veggies that need to be broken down (not the fruit!). Now when you go and juice its all ready to just throw in.

3)    Pre Package your meals

I don’t know about you but I buy all of my leafy greens from Super Store and they always come in these plastic containers that are a bitch to deal with. So why not use them to pre portion out all of my juices in the fridge so all I have to do is grab a container and bam! Its already washed, chopped and portioned for me to just throw in and juice away!? AND I know that I have enough produce to do my whole cleanse (or half of it) without having to go to the grocery store. Don’t forget to label which one is which, or you can leave them unlabeled and live dangerously! Ooo the possibilities!

4)    Cut down on cleaning

Take a bag – I use the thin vegetable bags you get at the grocery store - and line the container that the pulp goes into. You can then dump out the pulp and reuse the bag for the next meal and save you time cleaning it out. And always, always clean out your juicer right after you are done, if not she will be hard to clean out and you will get frustrated!

 

These are some of the juices that I am going to be drinking throughout the 10 days:

2 apples

4 stalks celery

2 big handfuls spinach

1 cucumber

1 lemon

2 pears

3 stalks kale, de stemmed

3 stalks celery

1 cucumber

1 lemon

10 oranges

2 grapefruit

12 oranges

I am already on day four and I feel great. Other than feeling a little tired during the day and having food cravings (not hunger pains) I feel pretty normal. I am trying to do 10 days but I am not putting any pressure on myself if I don't feel like finishing. I hope my tips and tricks help you out on your journey because I know they helped me!

Juice Cleanse Day 3.... What? Day 3?

...what it’s already day three? Holy that went by really fast! I actually catch myself thinking about the next couple days and what I will be juicing and I have to stop myself because tomorrow I am introducing solids back into my diet. I would really love to continue on this juice cleanse but because I am traveling I wont be able to juice, so I need to introduce solids back in to make it easier on my digestive system.

Day three is like day one and two, I have energy, I feel good, yet a little tired. I woke up this morning and felt the better than normal, still hitting my snooze button 5 times, but still really well. I was super thirsty this morning and ended up drinking over a liter of water, plus my hot lemon water. I walked on the treadmill for half an hour and danced around the gym by myself for a couple songs. So a really great start to my day! 

For breakfast I made my apple juice but instead of kale I used spinach and for lunch I made my pear-ific. I decided not to go with orange juice again because of what happened yesterday, but I think I will try it for breakfast on Saturday morning!

I slept really well last night, going to bed at 9:00 and falling asleep by 9:45, which felt great. I think the sauna helped with that, it relaxed me and helped me wind down from my day. So I planned on going for a sauna again tonight, but it was so snowy out today that indoors seemed like a better idea!

For supper I did a mango, cucumber and coconut water juice, I was not worried about this one because anything with coconut water in it will be delicious. I also drank another liter of water before I went to bed because I was feeling a little dehydrated and tired, which means its time for bed soon. By the looks of the last three days I am thinking day four should go well, but I am excited to introduce some solids back in. Ashley suggested making a juice and blending an apple into it, so maybe I will make my Green Apple juice for breakfast again and just not juice the apple. I only have two more sleeps until Mexico so the next couple days will be a whirl win of getting things together, luckily this juice diet hasn't slowed me down. 

Thanks for reading!

xoxo - N

Day Two of Juice Cleanse - Pear and Sweet Potato Juices!

*** Update on Day One***

Last night I started to get ready for bed at 8:30, my stomach started to rumble so that’s when I knew that it was time to go to sleep and I was in bed around 9:00.. The truth about hunger pains at night is that you aren’t actually hungry, you are tired. So next time you think you want that popcorn at 9:00 at night, grab for your toothbrush instead and go to bed early!

I unfortunately tossed and turned for about an hour, partially because my stomach hurt and partially because I am not used to going to bed that early. If I would have actually gone to bed at 8:30 I don’t think I would have had that bad of stomach pain because I would be asleep. So to remedy the pain I drank some water which really helped!

Day Two!

This day was a lot easier that I imagined! I had such a terrible time with day two of my mono fruit cleanse that I thought it was going to be the same experience and to my surprise it wasn't. I had energy, I was alert, my skin feels a lot smoother and not once did I think that I was going to die. As of right now I don't think I would do another mono fruit cleanse again, I think I will stick with the juicing instead! 

So, I woke up this morning like any other morning… hitting snooze on my three alarms 2 times each and finally getting up at 5:30am (Devon really loves that, especially since two of my alarms are the Harry Potter theme song). I got up and felt really good except I really, really had to pee. I took my liter of water to work along with my Contigo mug full of hot water and lemon. I feel that the lemon water really helps calm my stomach in the morning since I am used to eating fruit at work. And since its kept cold in there it helps me warm up :)

For breakfast I made 1 liter the most delicious juice, I call it Pear-ific and so far its my favourite one!  

For lunch I did 1.5 liters of orange juice again, but after drinking about a cup I got really bad stomach pains, possibly because I drank it too fast. So I called Ashley and she suggested that I stop drinking it and just drink water until the pain goes away. Thankfully it did, but after the pain went away I tried to drink it again and it still was not agreeing with me, so I guess no Oj for me. But when I got home I was craving something so I opened up a delicious coconut water, which luckily didn't  hurt my stomach. 

As for how I felt this afternoon, other than feeling a little unfocused at work, I felt great. However towards 4:00 I was feeling really tired. When Devon got home he said that I was not looking so good, but I assured him that I was only tired and other than that I felt normal. For supper I made a sweet potato cocktail, that I threw together on a whim. I was a little apprehensive of how it was going to turn out because I have never used a sweet potato before, but I was pleasantly surprised.  

Tonight I also went and did a far-infrared sauna session at the gym I work at (Ladies Workout Express) and one of the perks of working there is I get free sauna's anytime I want. So while talking to Ashley tonight she suggested that I go for a session to help rid my body of toxins, what a brilliant idea Ashley! I went in for 45 mins and at 145 F. and boy did it feel amazing! I was pouring sweat out of my body like a waterfall. Okay, so think of the most you have ever sweated, say after a run, or a basketball game, now dump a bucket of water over your head and thats how soaked I was.... I know really sexy image. While in there I laid down and just tried to relax and shut off my brain. But of course, that didn't work out to well, I have a lot on my mind right now because our Mexico trip is coming up and I still have a lot to do. I even started singing the Chumbawamba song, Drip Drip Drip goes the water... there is a slight chance I have ADD. I feel more relaxed and calm after that and I am now thinking I should do one again tomorrow!

As I type this I realize its 8:40 and I should really start getting ready for bed.  I am trying to drink about 1/2 liter of water (for a total of 3 liters of water today) before I go to bed because of all of the sweating I did and I hope to avoid those stomach pains that I encountered last night. I am crossing my fingers that tomorrow will be as easy as today, but I am not getting my hopes up! I will keep you posted!

Thanks for reading,

xoxo Nikki

Juice Cleanse Day One!

I think it might have been me telling my sister I was feeling sick that prompted her to ask me to do a juice cleanse, not that it matters because I said yes. Why, you might ask? Because I am crazy. Just kidding, I am trying to reset my digestive system before I head to Cancun on Saturday, and Ashley thought that this would be a great way to do it. I was so nervous going into this that I really didn't think I would make it past day one, even though Ashley insisted that I could. Well here I am drinking my supper juice thinking, holy shit she was right, I can do this. 

THEN I think about my fruit fast and how day one was SO EASY! I was shocked that it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. Then day two hit and I was all like, ohhhh this is how it's supposed to feel. Like I am detoxing, so basically tired, sluggish, with bits of energy through the day. 

Today I felt normal with no real differences in my day to day routine. I had lots of energy, felt great and at 6:30pm I just started to feel tired. I plan on finishing my juice and this post then winding down to go to bed early. Devon isn't juice cleansing but he is fast asleep beside me, maybe he is secretly doing it too....?!?!

So, this is how my day one went:

I started out my day with a liter of water and 1/2 liter of hot lemon water. I also did 50 mins of walking on the treadmill followed by stretching.

All of my juices were made by my Magic Bullet Juicer.

Breakfast juice - 9am

4 stalks of kale

3 stalks of celery

2 apples

1 lemon

½ cucumber

1 cup of water

Lunch Juice - 12:00 pm

12 oranges 

Snack - 3:00 pm

1/2 liter of coconut water

Supper Juice - 6:00 pm

2 tomatoes

2 carrots

2 stalks of celery

1 red pepper

1 lemon

1/2 cucumber

Handful of cilantro

1 cup of water

I am, again, a little nervous for what tomorrow has in store for me but I just have to keep reminding myself that its only two more days. Also, without Ashley here to help me I know I wouldn't have done this on my own, so thanks Ash for pushing me to do this! To be honest, day one went by quite fast and I like the fact that I only had one appliance to clean! 
I will keep you posted on how day two goes so stay tuned!

Thanks for Reading!
Xoxo, Nikki

One Hot Salad feat. Sauteed Mushrooms, Onion and Corn on Kale and Quinoa

We just had a lot of snow here in Moose Jaw, like A LOT. So naturally, on Friday night I felt like staying in because a) it was too cold outside and b) my car was buried under a huge pile of snow. 

Devon was going to the Alice Cooper concert so I was by myself for supper, which meant I could do some experimenting.  I love mixing textures and temperatures with my food. I can eat almost anything hot or cold. I would say that Chili is my favourite food to mix temperatures with, hot chili with fresh zucchini and tomatoes on top. Or topping it with more cold quinoa is really good, becuase you can never have too much quinoa. I also love doing this with salad, yes Salad. Some people (like my husband) do not like doing so, they find the temperature differences a little weird. 

With him being out, I decided to do a warm salad. When I was at work on Friday I was thinking that I could really go for something comforting for supper that night, yet I was craving a kale salad. So my mind got to work on what would taste good for a warm salad. My first thought was sautéed mushrooms, these are one of my favorite things to eat. Back when I was a meat eater, Devon and I would sauté mushrooms and onions to put on top of our steak. These would most likely be done before the steak, so I would just stand by the stove eating them from the pan. Which meant of course there would be barely any left for supper!

So I had my first ingredient, mushrooms. Then of course I would add onions and garlic to the mix because, because to me the dish would have not been complete. But, I didn't just want those three, it need more color and I wanted to add something sweet to the mix. Corn! Perfect! I had some frozen organic in the freezer that would be a great addition to my salad. 
Next I thought, what about quinoa? It would be another hot element to the salad and would be great texture to add to the mix. Finally, I thought to top it off with zucchini, tomatoes, and sprouts and a garlic lemon dressing to finish it off. 

When I was taking the pictures of this dish I actually hadn't tried it yet and I thought to myself..."you might be taking these pictures for no reason because you don't know if its going to work out..." But let me tell you! It was one of the best salads I had ever eaten. There is the perfect balance of hot and cold in this mix as well as sweet and savory. I really hope you like it as much as I do. I told Devon that the next time I make this, he had to try it even though he was a skeptic. And surprisingly he agreed. Looks like I get to make this again sometime really soon!























One Hot Salad
Ingredients

• Kale
• Quinoa
• 1 tsp of Coconut Oil
• Mushrooms
• Corn
• Tomatoes
• Zucchini
• Sprouts

Dressing

• 1/4 cup Olive Oil
• 1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar
• 1 clove of Garlic, minced
• 1 Lemon, juiced

Strain and cook your quinoa, then set aside. Saute, mushrooms, onions, corn and garlic just unitl they are browned. Dice up your tomatoes and zucchini. For the dressing I always make more than I need so I can store it in the fridge for later. Just put all of the ingredients in a jar with a lid and shake until well mixed. Then layer your dish like so:

• kale
• sauteed mushrooms, corn, and onions
• quinoa
• tomatoes 
• zucchini 
• sprouts
• top it off with the dressing

There you are done! Enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

xoxo -N

Confession of a Salad Eater...

I'm not going to lie to you guys, my confession is I LOVE FOOD. Oh right I already stated that... crap. Well I will say it again. I love food. I love the different combinations, flavours, colors, textures, ect ect ect. It really is something I am constantly thinking about during the day. What can I make for lunch, or supper, or my second supper?? I take a lot of joy in creating great tasting meals for me and Devon, and even greater joy when they turn out.

Some days however my stomach has ADSHD (Attention Defecate Super Hyperactive Disorder). I literally cannot decide what to eat for supper, I want too many things!

Last night was one of those nights...

I started out during the day with cantaloupe for breakfast, a great salad for lunch, a couple apples for a snack at work, then a second snack when I got home of blended apples, grapes, dates and a little bit of spinach, just to tie me over until supper. I guess I should just clarify that my breakfast is at 7am, my ‘lunch’ is at 9:30am my snacks are between noon and 1pm and my second snack is at 3:00pm. It’s a really messed eating schedule, but I have found a way to work around it (‘It’ being my angry, hungry stomach.)

The Raw Vegan Wraps I picked
 up at Alternate Roots

So last night we ended up going to the mall to pick up the new HALO for my husband and we stopped to get some things at Zellers. Unfortunately one of those things was a bag of plain, ripple Ruffles chips. I can see all of your heads shaking, I know I know, chips are bad, but honestly, to me, they taste so good. They are my one craving that will be very hard to crack. I originally thought dairy was going to be the hardest, but sadly no, chips are.  So I sneak them home, from whom, not too sure, but I feel like I should hide them or something. I set them on the table and start to make supper. I have decided I am going to make Raw Vegan Wraps, using these new Coconut Curry wraps I picked up on Tuesday from Alternate Roots. I sliced up tomato, cucumber, zucchini and added some leafy greens, wrapped them up and gave her a try. They were really good!! Unfortunately my ADSHD stomach was like, nope you want something more... so I opened the chips! Yup I did it, eating my super healthy wraps with a side of potato chips. I should have felt the irony, but I just couldn’t muster it up. Maybe it was all the crunching....  After a couple of trips to the bag of chips, I sit down at the computer and get to work on my Harry Potter post. After 20 mins, my stomach literally shouts at me, YOU WANT A GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICH!! Damn, I thought she was asleep. I already gave her something healthy and something greasy, What more does she want? Apparently she wants a grilled cheese.

So off to the kitchen I go to make myself a vegan grilled cheese. Basically it’s the same thing as a regular grilled chhese, you just use coconut spread, like Earth Balance in place for your butter, Daiya Cheese in place for the cheese and make sure your bread is Vegan. BAM. Grilled Cheese. Which of course turned out quite yummy.

So now I have given my stomach 1 healthy and 2 unhealthy things tonight. She MUST be done now.... NOPE. Not done just yet. Because of the 2 to 1 ratio, she thought it was time to end on a good note. She wants a salad now (recipe at the bottom of the page). One of the really good ones with tomatoes and dates on it.  Fine! FINE! I will make one last meal but that is it! No more..... Haha who am I kidding.

So that is my confession. Yes, I really do love my healthy food, I think it tastes amazing, its satisfying and is better than most junk food out there. But sometimes your crazy ADSHD stomach just won’t shut up and so you give in. And that’s okay. Now, right now is where I would probably say, “as long as its in moderation its okay!” but I won’t. Why? Because my mother in law brought it to my attention that NO not everything is good in moderation “Heroine isn’t good in moderation, Crack isn’t good in moderation, killing people isn’t good in moderation.”
There is one thing that I do believe. If I can continue on this path of eating more Raw food, I know my cravings for the other junk will subside. It’s just a matter of wanting to get there, because if you don’t truly want to do something you will never fully follow through.  

My Go To Meal #3

"The Salad"

6-8 cups of leafy greens, I used Kale and Romanie

2 medium tomatoes, diced

1/2 of a cucumber, shredded

1 small zucchini, shredded

1 yellow pepper, shredded

5 dates, diced

1 lemon, juiced

If you wanted to put other ingredients in it like mushrooms, carrots, beans or even QUINOA (which I do when ever there is left overs) by all means do that. These are just my staples that I always have on hand. Throw it all together and you got yourself a great meal. Yes this is one meal, not to be shared between four people! Enjoy!

Thanks for reading!
xoxo - N