The beginning of the Journey

Our journey to a better us, begins with the news of Amber's engagement. A special wedding sometime in the next year or so....we definitely want to feel and look our best.  Time to lose some weight. Around the same time, we were inspired by a documentary called, "Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead" (thanks Brenda and Renee) and an infomercial by Montel Williams about his Health Master - Living Well Blender.  Next, Dr. Oz announced his Transformation Nation Challenge, http://doctoroz.sharecare.com/ , where you can win a million dollars just by losing 10% of your body weight, so now we had a goal and we new we could win a million bucks, and feel like a million bucks also. The universe gave us much information right at the right time, so we took it as a sign that we could make the changes we have been wanting to. We are determined to live a healthier lifestyle. 

But it hasn't been easy. We started about 3 weeks juicing and blending fresh fruits and vegetables. Angee has lost 9 pounds and DD has lost  8 pounds. Pretty amazing since we have not exercised at all during this time, and we have not been very strict. We have started feeling the benefits of eating healthy but it has been hard to stay completely on fruits and vegetables all the time. For us, every weekend is a challenge, when we get around family or friends, invites to dinner, football games, going to the river, etc..all have ended with us eating out and eating meat and breads in some way...whether it has been a sandwich or pizza, or a huge salad with fried chicken on it....we have not followed a strict diet and we both still lost weight. What we have found is that when we do eat fast food, the food is now making us feel sick....stomach cramps, restroom visits, gas, indigestion and general intestinal discomfort. It really is amazing that once you pay attention to your body you really can tell that it does not like to be fed crappy food....I just wish my mind didn't think the fast food tastes so good.

So, we are starting over. Yesterday we had fast food, paid the price, and are ready to stay focused.  This time we plan to drink and eat fresh fruits and vegetables, also exercise, and increase the amount of water we intake. We are real people, who have no desire to be fanatics, we know will eat "other" foods at some point, but we want to live a healthier lifestyle. After looking into many different weight loss choices and doing this for 3 weeks, we feel the best plan for us, is a plan that incorporates everything. We believe that just juicing is too difficult and would be hardest for us to maintain long term....we like food and like to eat it. Just blending would be a bit easier, as it does give you the fiber and you do feel fuller, but not everything tastes good blended. So we are combining juicing, blending, and eating cooked and raw fresh foods. 

We have found that we eat the majority of our fruits in the morning in a blended drink. They are delicious smoothie like drinks. We also juice some things, for instance today we juiced a beet and a carrot, and added that juice to our breakfast blender drink. Mid morning, we then juice primarily vegetables, some days a little fruit also. For lunch, we eat. Typically a large raw foods salad. And then our dinner usually consists of some sort of cooked vegetables. We also start and end the day with organic tea. In between all of that, we also drink water. Seriously, we are eating way more food then we ever did before. We do not feel hungry throughout the day and we are already starting to feel the benefits.

This is what we are doing:  

Day 1 Breakfast:

Juice in your juicer one beet and one carrot...add the juice to your blender

Add to your blender: a banana, 1 tomato, 2 kiwis, 1/2 cup raspberries, 1/2 cup blueberries., 1 cup strawberries, 1 large piece of papaya, 1 apple (skin on), and about 6 ounces coconut water, then about 1 cup of cold water, and a squirt of flax seed oil.  

This is so good. It makes us 2 glasses each...if its a little thick just add more water.

 

 

 

 Mid-Morning Juice

Juice in your juicer: 1 whole fennel, 2 pears, 1 stalk/piece of bok choy.  This drink is much better without the bok choy but its drinkable with it. I figure if you can hide the bok choy and other vegetables you wouldn't usually eat into a drink then that's probably the only way I would eat it, so it's good a thing.

Lunch is a nice salad and a Morning Star Chipotle Black Bean Burger. These are so good!

Dinner will be steamed Artichokes and a spinach salad.

Yummy!