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Sunday, July 20, 2014

Juicing for 60: days nineteen and twenty

Yesterday was good, kale and fruit juice, and I worked in the backyard. We had a small incident with the new umbrella not being tightened down to the stand (all me) and the wind lifted it up and banged it back down on the glass table top smashing it to smithereens all over the brick patio. We swept, then I vacuumed and finally hosed off trying to get all the tiniest pieces of glass up - which we all know is physically impossible - so that the dog's paws would be safe.

Today after the usual backyard chores I spent some time and sweat working some more out front. I have very little left to do out there before the baby shower next weekend so that makes me happy. No juice today, but also no fast food. Fruit for breakfast, veggie patty sandwich on sourdough for lunch, and lentil soup for dinner after a starter of corn on the cob and kale salad. Lots of real food, which makes me happy.

My goal tonight is to leave the kitchen clean so there are no obstacles to juicing in the morning. There are all of the usual suspects ready to sacrifice their goodness to my morning juice; cukes, celery, ginger & apple. Maybe some more of the costco kale fruit juice blend if it's not sweet enough for a Monday morning.

Another weekend gone, but not wasted. I also picked up material to sew a baby blanket this week, I think I will leave work early one day to have some peace and quiet to work.

Friday, July 18, 2014

Juicing for 60: days thirteen - eighteen

Well a week just disappeared. Vanished. I have not been juicing regularly, have been more tired than usual, and watching more TV; then early this morning I had a vertigo attack. I am wondering if the tiredness was a precursor to the spinning. I did manage to make it swimming with A yesterday and work on a small art project with her afterwards.

It's Friday, thank heavens, and I have a Shape shake mixed, packed and ready to go with me to work IF I am stable over the next half hour as I have been since waking the 2nd time today.

Plan:
NO Salt or Sugar
PLENTY of water
JUICE all weekend
EXTRA Immune

Cucumber, baby kale leaves, green apple and a small lemon juiced then added 3/4 scoop chocolate Shape. YUM!

I WILL take care of myself, I WILL feel better.

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Juicing for 60: days eleven & twelve

Friday: Worked all day, then home to veg in front of the tv. Eventually I ended up with popcorn, a movie, and a squiggly five year old. At one point R and I had all the animals (4) and the child on our one little couch, but everyone except A was too tired to care if we were crowded.

Saturday: This morning A and I cuddled on  my bed in front of the  tv while I sipped hot tea and she told me all about how we were going to go out and water the tomatoes. Welcome to the weekend.

But first we watched the end of the movie, and then we juiced.

Cucumber, asparagus stalks, green apple, baby kale, lemon, kale stalks, and five little strawberries. TART ALERT! I always taste the juice before filling my bottles. This morning we added a little freshly squeezed pineapple juice and some of the fruit/kale blend I had purchased at Costco. Now it was tart but also delicious. It is important to keep the ratio in favor of the greens, but it must also be drinkable or what's the point.

Out the to brick  patio where we settled on the chaise lounge and read first about a loathsome dragon and then the adventure of a tiny mouse.  Watering was next and with a little help A did the tomatoes and flowers, also filling her small watering can so it was ready for her small flower pot.

Today I hope to finish the work I began outside earlier this week so that the front of the house is welcoming and clean (no spiderwebs or spilled dirt.) At some point I need to pick up a miniature rose bush for the planter, but I will be sure to NOT do that when I am hungry to avoid temptation. The weather is cooperating, only 85 today is projected, and tonight there will be gazing to be done at the full moon. It is especially close this month and should be gorgeous. See Super Moon.

Laundry, dishes, bathroom - necessary evils to battle for the greater good. (A and I share a bathroom.)

Sounds like a busy day, but tomorrow....tomorrow I am being treated to a massage and very much looking forward to it. Thank you Miss C.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Juicing for 60: days eight, nine & ten

I am so laughing at myself. I haven't juiced in almost a week, or had any to drink in almost as long. Today I bought a fruit and Kale juice blend at the store to try since my sleep pattern is messed up from vacation and I'm not waking up early enough to juice before work. After work I am tired and there are too many other demands on my attention.

For instance, tonight we had to paint a wooden pirate ship. It's important stuff!

I have 50 days left and I suspect they will be closer to what I originally intended; sort of juicing everyday for two meals and eating one crunchy big salad each day for the third.

The tomatoes we are eating off the plants out back are divinely sweet and dense, such a delight after the grocery store fare.

I also brought home baby romaine heads (mostly dark leaves), a big bag of baby power greens, raw sprouted sunflower seeds, a large bag of frozen blueberries, and black bean burger patties to throw in my salads to change them up.

I am calm, focused, and on my way out to the front of the house to work on cleaning it up. There is a party planned next door for the 26th and I would like it to look nicer than it currently does, which is not at all. Spilled broken pieces of chalk, a broken flower pot with dirt everywhere, an old discarded hose...sigh, I came from better. I need to try harder. In all things.

With The Golden Compass in my ears for company, I am a force of one with which to be reckoned. See, I can end a sentence without a preposition.

Monday, July 7, 2014

Juicing for 60: days five, six & seven

Saturday & Sunday were quiet days spent with Mom. Her AC was out and the temps were over 95 each day. There was no juicing done, nor shopping for juice. I think I wore her out Friday so we laid low trying to ignore the ever rising temperature of the house,watching TV - with commercials - and eating Waffle Cone Ice Cream.  Sunday she goes to McD's for an iced coffee and a sausage muffin, and of course I didn't say no. Did you know Orlando Bloom was in an episode of Midsomer Murders in 2000? What a hoot.

I did manage to get in the pool a few times; after two days sans the bright blue bubbly blanket it had been sporting when I arrived, the water cooled off to under 90° and I decided that it was finally worth changing into my extra large suit and taking a dip. God it felt good to be back in the water stretching my hips and enjoying a floating bosom that weights NOTHING!

Other than the ice cream we ate fairly light both days. I sauteed some Brussels sprouts to add to the spicy homemade lentil soup I had ferried south for dinner one night, and we had the last half of our tiny seedless watermelon and a nuked sweet potato each the next. Salads rounded out each day; romaine & butter lettuce, cress, cabbage, thinly sliced Brussels sprouts and cucumber tossed with Parmesan and Italian dressing one day and lite Ranch the next. 

This morning, Monday, I was terribly bad at breakfast driving through Jimmy Deans for a grilled breakfast sandwich and then stopping for an Arizona Green Tea\Ginseng tea with honey and a smallish bag of Cheetos while I filled my tank at the gas station. I will say that when I stopped to give little Kaylee a break I did not get anything else to eat, but did splurge on a coke knowing I had much to do once home.

There was a spattering of rain that persaged my arrival, but after lugging everything into the house from the car (what a happy dog!) I headed out to Splashes and had the car scrubbed in and out down to steaming the carpets. A full tank of gas and a large can of coconut water later I was once again home to do laundry.

After the splurge this morning I thought I would never be hungry again, but at 4 pm my stomach growled and upon looking in the fridge discovered CAKE. Yum. Which of course prompted my pitiful memory of how I was supposed to be juicing and blogging and had done neither for two days. So here is my catch up entry, and should I desire any other dinner than the piece of cake already consumed I will make it juice at best, or a green smoothie at worst since there are ripe bananas on the counter begging to be twirled with the kale I just took on a round trip to Saugus and back. Is that redundant?

Tired is setting in, and it's about time to go get Miss A from daycare. Lord give me the strength.


Saturday, July 5, 2014

Juicing for 60: day four - or- Happy Fourth of July!!

Never go shopping for ice cream with someone who is more interested in price than ingredients.

I come by my 'micro management' genes honestly, resulting in a few small squabbles yesterday with my remaining parental unit, one of them almost ending in a car accident as I attempted to turn left into oncoming traffic; seeing a man's face where non should be I swerved in the nick of time. Maybe I was not the better choice of driver after all. But mostly it disconcerts me that at my age just being with my Mother can for brief moments of time strip away my calm and maturity. Assuming I had any in the first place.

This is not going as I anticipated. Without laying out the tedious details, just let me say that we went to IHOP for lunch, had our potato salad and watermelon for dinner, and cups of a commercial brand ice cream for dessert.  It was too hot to BBQ the hot dogs, and they had never been taken out of the freezer any way so that was pretty much a moot point.

We did get more steps in, a visit to Home Depot looking for a sun shade took care of that. If nothing else, I accomplished getting her interested in the free pedometer I found sitting in a box on her coffee table and she has a goal to work towards. Should she desire such.

Drinking my cuppa decaf and wandering the cool morning I found a leak in the drip system, so replacing that line will be my good deed for the day. I'll have my shake for breakfast if it's still any good, keep moving, have veggies all day, and not be drawn out into the world of fast food if I can help it.

Millions would trade places with me in a heartbeat, I am not complaining. Much.

PS the fireworks from the patio were very pretty and I went to bed content.

Friday, July 4, 2014

Juicing (barely) for 60: day three

This should be day 3 of 60 for juicing. And here I am at my Mother's without my juicer. I did think about packing it up to bring, but not wanting to disrupt her too much I instead packed cucumbers for the trip to tide me over until we went shopping. Right now juicing is something I do in addition to eating, not a replacement, so I decided to just make healthy choices as much as possible while I am here.

Make plans to see God laugh!

We went to Tommy's yesterday for Tamales - YUM. This is a childhood memory; standing in line with the family, carrying our trays of food. I can even remember where we parked and walking down to what was then a window behind which the flurry of a kitchen beat out a rhythm we all wanted to dance to in anticipation.

Of course I was up several times last night, my body in full rebellion; luckily they currently have no NorCal locations to tempt me while I am at home.

Last night we had salads for a light dinner, and graham crackers with sharp cheddar just because.  So much for healthy choices! I will say the salad was full of cucumber...

Today is July 4th, and we have a traditional dinner of  hot dogs to BBQ, watermelon chilling in the fridge and a relatively small container of TJ's Potato Salad to share. I am hoping to find a place to park the car and watch the fireworks display at Magic Mountain tonight, but will not be devastated if we cannot. 

This morning's fare was a toasted British Muffin with PB, sliced bananas and a light drizzle of honey. Not THAT's a healthy choice! I have my left over beet juice shaken with some Shake (I know, prosaic) for lunch that will have to be my juice for the day. I plan on dragging Mom out to Jamba Juice tomorrow so I can splurge on one of their green drinks, or maybe just to the grocery store for some bottles of Green Machine or something similar.

I'm definitely moving more, puttering in the back yard as I always do when visiting here, and the pool is a sauna, measuring temps in the 90's, so I uncovered it this morning and added some cold water. A swim each day is definitely in the works.

I've made my bed, watered, scooped all of the leaves out of the pool, plus I'm now all clean and shiny (lmao - I first typed green and shiny, what a hoot!) and ready to 'start' the day. 

I do love my mornings.


'!*~*!~ Happy Independence Day America ~!*~*!'

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Juicing for 60: day two

Up early; dishes, prep, juicing, more dishes, water the tomatoes, dress, out the door to work.

Long day, worked through lunch to make sure everything was in order at my desk before leaving for a few days off. It was nice and quiet and much was accomplished.

Home late; picked up food for the cat and dogs, plus new bins to keep it in. SOMEthing has been gnawing on the bags in the garage. Ewwwww.

I leave tomorrow to visit Mom, hopefully the traffic won't be too horrible yet leading into the holiday weekend. I rarely travel over a holiday, but I will go prepared with a new audio book loaded up on my shuffle and a determined patience to go with the flow down highway five towards southern California. I could probably make that drive in my sleep, I've been doing it for ...omg... over 40 years. What does it say about me that almost every vacation has been going home to visit my Mom. My whole life, despite the fact she often makes me nuts, I do love her.

I am thinking to take Kaylee with me poor thing, she does not travel well. I won't feed her in the morning which should help, and I have spray for her bedding that is calming. Mostly she will sleep and be pissed off at me.

Laundry is in, I'll pack in the morning. I've just hit my wall - at seventeen hours - not bad for an old gal.

cucumber, lemon, ginger, beet, beet greens, strawberries, apple - the reddest juice Ever!


Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Checking in

Yesterday at the pool: "Sweetie, they're a lot older than you" I explained as I trod water next to my little five year old granddaughter in the soft chlorinated pool water. "So?"  Pouty face notwithstanding, she has a backbone to be envious of. Then as I drift away I watch her tilt her chin up, and fierceness pouring out of her every pour, face the three t'weens who are roughhousing half way across the width of the pool and yell,'I want to play with you!" And they welcome her into the fray. Face shining she is astride one of them, whooping and hollering along with the rest she has evened out their number to four and now the races can really begin in earnest.

I am so proud of her; of how fearless she is in the water, of how she stands up for what she wants. With a few notable exceptions, I was in my thirties before I could do that. I see great things coming for this child.

We had a quick trip to the library after work, fast food for dinner ( I need to work on saying no) and now that we are home from today's relatively quiet swim and we have had our snacks it's time to enjoy a quiet evening. She is curled up on my bed watching Coraline, her mother is in the living room watching My Best Friends Wedding, and I am catching up here. I am standing at my computer, have been on the go since leaving work, and feel like with the exception of the fries have had an admirable day.

That being said I have just remembered the groceries that have been sitting in the car since lunchtime, and I need to go rescue some cucumbers and beets.

That's me all over.

Juicing for 60; day one

I would like to pay attention to each and every day for the next 60. I will do everything I can to stay focused on the objectives; feel better and wear something pretty to the wedding in September.

Plan: juice frequently, move often, no eating after 7pm, drink water to break my fast, supplement my days with CBS. Simple. For me the hard part is remembering that I have a goal, that it is possible to achieve that goal, and that I will be SUPER happy in doing so. One might think that would be the easy part, but for me, not so much. In an effort to succeed I will make it a daily practice to write, to find online support - PEERTrainer maybe - and begin and end every day with a positive affirmation. That is my chore for this first day - write the affirmation.

I will do everything I can today to feel lighter and healthier. I will find something to wear to the wedding the last week of August.

Something like that.

I realize that I have just one page turn on the calendar, that I don't have a single day to say Fuck It. And it's not so much the wedding - I have no one to impress but myself - it's more a definitive piece of time I am setting aside in which to build a platform off of which I can jump forward into a sustained pattern of healthier living.

I am putting H behind me. I am remembering Joey with only positive thoughts. I am putting me first as if I truly deserve to be there. Because don't we all. It's such a short time we spend in these bodies, and I so regret that I have ruined so much of mine being fat and discontent.

I remember thinking I would have it together at 30, then it was 40 and certainly by 50; now 60 is looming on the horizon and it has only become worse. Thirty years of making myself crazy, talk about a waste of time.

I will do everything I can today to feel lighter and healthier.

cucumber, celery, power greens, asparagus stalks, green apple, red grapes, ginger & lemon