I have made a commitment on getting healthier which means changing my eating habits, exercising and taking care of my body. I am on a journey for a Fresh Start in Life. Let the Journey Begin!!
I know I skipped a day writing my journal but not my diet. I had enough juice left over for the next day so I took care of shores that needed to be done. I did go out to dinner and I had a salad. Sometimes days like this will come more often than not so I need to be prepared. I did not lose any weight since Day 4 but I am not worried. I did not start on my walking exercise yet or go to the gym. That will come this week but with Thanksgiving in a few days, I will have alot to prepare.
This morning I finally made my green drink. I had made this once before and I had forgotten how good this green drink tastes. So, here is what I made which will last me until tomorrow.
INGREDIENTS
20 leaves Romaine lettuce
2 bunches of carrots
3 celery stalks, whole
1 bunch spinach
3 zucchinis
1 large apple
3 green onions
small amount of ginger
small amount of lime
When using romaine lettuce keep in mind that it does not make alot of juice so I had to use that many leaves just to get barely 2 oz. Zucchini makes alot of juice including celery and carrots. Here is how much it extracted
This is a 4 oz glass..maybe a little more. It is so good for you. Once I am off the juice diet I plan to add this recipe among a few as a regular drink in the mornings. Here are some benefits that I have posted last year of leafy greens like Romaine lettuce and Swiss Chard. Click on the link
I am always looking for anyone who would like to comment on any of the blogs I have posted. I welcome anyone who is struggling with GERD to share your story.
I am now in Day 4 and really doing good. I am proud to say I lost another pound. It is not much but as I mentioned before it is to my goal of eating healthier and staying on it this time. I will be making changes but geared more to my recipes and not straying off of it. Yesterday I posted what I had for breakfast and along with the juice I had a small bowl of fruits and water. I need to stress that with any diet...drink LOTS and LOTS of water. This was one of my problems I did not drink enough water. Some people don't even drink water and some only need a little bit of water. In my case, I need to drink 32 oz if not more a day which is pretty hard to do. If I drank as much water as I drink coffee I may not have some of these issues concerning acid reflux. Being that I was still home for lunch I decided to make myself a salad along with my drink and water. Below is what I had for lunch. All of this can be made ahead and packed up to take to where ever to work, etc.
This is a deep dish salad. I had alot of greens to go with my carrot juice with a twist. I will be having this again. You can add more to the salad like green peppers, various salad greens. It is the most healthiest salad to eat. This filled me up for lunch and for snack I took along a little more juice and an apple and water..very important!
And for dinner, I had 1/2 of a stuffed acorn squash which I had made before and it is so delicious. If you have a little bit of leftover you can have maybe another spoonful or 2. I suggest to limit it to 2 because it is so easy to overeat.
Holiday Recipe: Stuffed Acorn Squash
This recipe was inspired by a video for Thanksgiving recipe that would either be a side dish or for some vegetarians be the main dish along with vegetables. I tweaked the recipe as far as using a little olive oil and omitted the nus. I used black beans and/or kidney beans, green pepper. I liked the recipe so much I have this a lot Here is the recipe. For this Thanksgiving I will be adding nuts and cranberries even though it is not quite on my diet.
The recipe I made for the first time is on my site from "Day 47" when I had added other recipes..click on the link DAY 47 - I MADE SOME CHANGES
Since I have enough juice from yesterday I will not be making another juice recipe but will spend some time on Gastroesophagea Reflux Disease. When I was a little girl I had a lot of problems with my stomach. I always ate what my mother served and at that age I would not have to worry about what I should eat or shouldn't eat....everything was DELICIOUS!! But as I got older, I would have stomach pains and I would just wait until it went away. It really affected me physically that I had to lay down at times. I never went to the doctor for it so I did not know that this could be serious. The symptoms would come and go and I just dealt with it. Until I was pregnant with my first child. One day I had this pain of hunger and I had breakfast so I should have been full. The pain got stronger and my mouth was getting dry. I NEVER had this happen before. I took a piece of bread and ate it so fast hoping that it would stop...no..it just got worse to the point that I was bending over in pain. It lasted about 10 minutes (although it seemed longer) and the pain gradually decreased. After that I felt very tired and had to lie down. This happened a few more times during the pregnancy. My doctor told me that he cannot do any tests on me until after the baby was born.
So, my first born came into the world on June 12, 1974 and that month, my doctor gave me a GI series, now it would be called Ultrasound. I had to drink this caucky pink stuff, ugh!!..it was awful tasting but that pink stuff would determine what the problem was. Ofcourse as usual, the test came out that, well, should I say when they really don't know what the issue is they called it Hiatus Hernia . The doctor said that it was a problem between the esophagus and the stomach and suggested a diet for me. That was really my first onset of this disease as they called it then. I realized that the pregnancy aggravated that area of my stomach since it was being pushed up with the baby.
Now as I am getting older, I noticed more problems occurring and I tried different diets. When I tried this diet for life, I thought that I would have no problems staying on it since I love vegetables. I did really good for 6 months or so until I started getting my taste back for the foods that are really a problem for me..especially coffee. I also stopped drinking so much water. Now I am back with the same issues but I realize that being on this diet has helped me tremendously...it works!!. This time I am staying on this plan and making it a day by day program for me. Here is an article on GERD
Understanding Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) -- Diagnosis and Treatment
GERD is a chronic disease, and the goal of treatment is to manage it; that means reducing the amount of acid in the stomach and the amount of reflux that occurs. For mild GERD, this can sometimes be accomplished by using over-the-counter antacids and making certain lifestyle changes. If more treatment is needed, other types of drugs, either over-the-counter or prescription, are available. Treatments are also available that can be done using the endoscope. Very rarely, surgery will be needed. Read More
Keep Symptoms in Check When Dining Out With GERD
Every once and a while, it feels good to take a break from cooking at home and dine out with friends and family at one of your favorite restaurants. However, if you suffer from severe symptoms of acid reflux or symptoms associated with GERD, dining out may be more trouble than it’s worth. Don’t confine yourself to your kitchen just yet! Read More
I am not used to talking about myself and any health issues. I have been dealing with this for a long time but never been diagnosed until now. Although there are many different types of Acid Reflux, these changes are to help eleviate the symptoms that come with this disease and keep it under control. This information is for anyone with this disease. Information and educating ourselves will help us in the long run. It can be kept under control.
Thanks for reading my blog. If you are having GERD or similar acid reflux, please share your comments with us..:)
Goodmorning, and it definitely is a good morning!!. Wow!!..I made it through my first day but not without some difficulties. I had some juice and a nice size salad. I took my snack of juice, water and an apple to work with me. I had a little headache most likely because I only had the one cup of coffee in the morning. I decided not to have my second cup at work but have green tea instead...and that went very well. If you open up my desk drawer there are wrappers of Tootsie rolls and pecans that I keep for snacks. That was VERY difficult to keep my hands out of there. All in all, it was a good first day.
As I mentioned before, I am not dieting as per say to loose weight ofcourse that is a big factor, but also to change my thinking on food. What I put in my body seems to affect me tremendously. I have noticed since I got off this lifestyle of eating, I have not been feeling very good. I am very tired and even though I take my vitamins, I have no energy to last me through the day. Also having Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease is a big part of the reason why I need to learn more about the foods I eat and what causes this to happen to me. I am still learning on it and if ANYONE has this problem, read the article and start making changes that will help you. I will mention more on this later.
I am happy to say that I lost 2 lbs. It may not mean much but it is a start for me. I still have some juice left from yesterday and will have that for lunch with my salad. Here is what I made -
Carrot Juice with a twist
Ingredients
10 carrots
6 celery stalks
1/2 bunch spinach
1 large apple
2-3 green onions
a pinch of ginger
a small piece of lime
This gave me a whole container of juice as you can see. The flavor is sweet but you can taste the lime and ginger which gives it that added twist. Yesterday's juice was a bit greener and today it is a bit more on the orange side. I have not made a green drink yet, but will in the coming days.
I do not want to call this a "Diet" but more of a "Lifestyle", Watching what we eat and making better choices on what we are consuming will reward us later on as we begin to age. If you can start this path early in life you will be ahead of the game...but seriously any age is a good age to start and keep your health at a maximum to continue to enjoy life at its best. Here is an article about the difference between a "Diet" and a "Lifestyle"..good reading. I will be posting other articles as I learn about the disease that seems to afflict many and I am just learning about.
Good Morning!! This is my first day of "Fit For Life" Juicing diet. First let me tell you that juicing is actually a good beginning of any diet. It cleanses out all the toxins that have invaded your body and makes you feel icky (nice choice of word). What juicing does it flushes all those toxins out of your body which has accumulated from eating foods that are not good for our body.
This morning is my first day and I have gone on the scale already. NO!!..NO PEEKING!!...you will not find me posting that, BUT I will tell you tomorrow how much I lost if any. So this is what I prepared this morning. Looks yummy right?????..well maybe not for breakfast. We like to think that breakfast is more like having eggs, bacon, home fries, grits, etc...but believe it or not this does taste good.
After you have made your choice on what you want to have in your drink, in this case I chose, carrots, celery, etc, wash all the carrots (you do not have to peel them or cut ends off) and the the celery. You can leave them whole since the juicer will take care of the rest. Wash the spinach, apples and tomatoes. Cut the iceberg lettuce in half and wash that half you are using. Put the rest away.
Ingredients
6-8 Celery Stalks
6 Carrots (which I already juiced)
2 Tomatoes
1/2 Iceberg lettuce
1/2 bunch of Spinach
2 Apples
small amount of ginger
small amount of lime
This will give me enough for the whole day and maybe even tomorrow for lunch. It all depends if I drink 3 glasses or 4.
You can check out the rest of my blog and see what I have made before. I also started to list what each food item is and why they are good for us. If you have any questions about any of the recipes I have posted you can leave a comment below and I will respond to them. Thank you for reading my blog!!
We all fall sometimes...some more than others!!. I can't speak for anyone else, I can only speak for me. I have fallen more than I can count. I love food and food loves me and I LOVE COFFEE..(notice how I capitalized coffee) I do!! How can I make the change gradually? --- that will be the challenge. First time I stopped drinking coffee just like that..never had coffee again for 6 months. Infact, coffee did not even taste good to me even after 6 months. After having a sip, I had some more and then some more and before I knew it I liked a whole cup of coffee and so on and so on!!. So, I decided that I will have a cup in the morning and one cup in the afternoon until I know I can stop completely.
Another mistake I made was to go strictly on a juice diet for 3 weeks. Now I will only juice for 1 week and gradually add rice, beans, etc. I will be watching Fork Over Knives again to get me in that mode that I should be in, not because I have to but because I want to. It is really a good video to watch if you are deciding to go on a juice diet. The first time I watch the video it gave me the drive I needed to begin my journey on juicing. I am sure that drive is inside me to start again.
I also joined the gym. I went to see what the gym was like. Both my daughters joined in their area and thankfully I have 2 in my area. YouFit Health Club is the fitness place I chose.
But before I start my YouFit program, my first goal is to start walking and get back into doing that. I have gone to a fitness place once before and started exercising on these machines and started getting bad headaches. So warming up will be a priority and then by the end of the week I will start If you are looking for a fitness place I would suggest for you to look into YouFit because of their prices. I am only paying $20 plus tax for one month. No money down and I can go any day or everyday. The hours are very convenient for me since they are open till midnight. So planning my day will be very important.
MY GOAL is to lose 50 lbs. I know it sounds a lot right now, but that is the goal I have chosen and it will take me a while to reach that goal. That will be my biggest challenge!!
So this is the day before I start my diet. I am not going to weigh myself until tomorrow morning. If you think I will be telling you my weight...your WRONG!!..That I will not share with the world. I will post what I lost in weight as I did before. I have to say I am excited to start. Writing my journal will keep me on track and hopefully will help someone out there who may be having a hard time starting again or feels they have tried so many times and cannot start again. Believe me...I felt that at first, but I will not allow this to defeat me. All we need to remember if we make a mistake and fall off the wagon..just pick yourself up, dust yourself off and BEGIN AGAIN!!! Thanks for reading my post.
