Juice, Juice and More Juice

Hello everyone! I hope you all are having a great day! 

Juicing has always been a hobby of mine. My mom got me started on the idea of it when I was in junior high. She would try to explain to me the health benefits of drinking fresh juice. As I have gotten older and researched on my own, I am now glad she introduced it to me. 

Over the past few months, my husband and I have been juicing quite a bit. Fresh organic juice a long with my smoothies keep us quite full; Full of nutrients, energy and pure goodness :)

I found a company in California, Suja Juice, who offer cold-pressed organic juices. At first, I did not notice they shipped them overnight. I thought it was a only local deal along with being offered in Whole Food stores, which we do not have, sadly.

You hear about how the body needs to be "cleansed" at least once a year. I have always wanted to try it, and now is my chance. I have committed myself to doing a three day cleanse with my freshly shipped Suja Juice! I will start tomorrow and go through Monday. Of course, I will be keeping you guys updated on the process. 

Suja's states:
"The body's internal system is a hardworking machine and just like us, it needs a break from time to time.That's where Suja’s cold-pressed, organic juices come in handy. Allow your digestive system to rest and repair while old toxins are escorted out of the tissues and eliminated from the body. Our unique certified organic blends combine the most delicious flavors to make the experience a treat from start to finish!"

JUICE!!

My meals for the next three Days plus extra!

The 3 Day Cleanse

We opened one of the Vanilla Cloud drinks to taste and oh my goodness it was amazing!! Even Zoie, my 11 year-old niece loved it. 

Anyways, I will keep you guys updated! As I am sure I am not the only one who has been intrigued by cleanses!

Have a blessed day!!

JP 

Sorry So Late...

Hello everyone! I hope you all are having a great day! So, I have been having major issues with my blog. For some reason I could not sign in for the longest time. Thus, I have been unable to post the results of my 28 day Eat Clean Challenge.

Also, I have gone back and forth on if I actually wanted to post the results. This is a HUGE step for me because my entire life I have been made fun of for my weight. Even when I was not overweight. To this day I could tell you every name of every person who constantly made fun of me. So please be kind!

Since I have transformed myself into a healthier me, I have decided to also step out of my comfort zone and post them. I am very proud of the progress I have made over 2 years. I met my goal of losing 75 lbs. I still can't believe I did it all by myself. I am proof that anyone can do this!

 At the end of the 28 days, I lost a total of 7 lbs. I can tell a difference in my back, buttocks :) and upper chest. I am happy with the results and will continue my journey of living healthy. One day at a time is all we can do.

Right is before--Left is After

 Before----------- After

 Before -------------- After

Current Weight 150 lbs. I was just over 140 in high school.

Anyways, there it is. There I am laying it out there for all you to see :) Imperfections and all!

Did I mention I got my boot off and can now slowly start to run again! I am one happy girl!!

Until next time, I hope you have a blessed day!!

JP

Fruits and Veggies Kind of Day

Hello everyone! I hope you all are having a great day! It is a beautiful day here in Arkansas! The sun is shining bright and it feels great!

This morning I went to the gym and completed my workout. I did some lower body weights, the rower, and the bike. The rowing machine is great cardio. I have worked myself up to 45 minutes on it and by the end of that I am spent!

The other day I bought a bunch of veggies and fruit in order to juice them. This afternoon, my husband and I got to work and filled four mason jars!

Photo by JP

Here are the apples, pears, kiwi, celery, lemon, and cucumber used in todays juicing. The strawberries and spinach used are not pictured (all organic). 

Photo by JP

From left to right:

1.) Apple, lemon (amazing lemonade)

2.) Apple, lemon, strawberries (heavenly lemonade)

3.) Spinach, cucumber, kiwi and pear

4.) Spinach, celery, cucumber, pear and apple

Juicing can get messy, but the juice deliciousness is so worth it. Also, the health benefits. :)

This afternoon, we were all craving a snack. I decided to try a new smoothie recipe and it turned out perfect.

The smoothie is called "Strawberry Shortcake." The name had me from the get go.

Ingredients:

-2 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk

-1 and 1/4 cup organic strawberries

-2 medjool dates (pitted)

-1/2 teaspoon organic lemon rind

-1/2 teaspoon organic vanilla extract

-1 cup ice

This makes 2 servings.

Blend well and enjoy! 

Photo by JP

Smoothies are so quick and simple. You should give them a try! 

Until next time, I hope you have a blessed day!

JP 

Keeping it Up

Hello everyone! I hope you all are having a great day so far! This week was somewhat stressful. Life will definitely do that to you! On the bright side, I did very good on my Clean Eating Challenge.

My wonderful brother came up to visit this weekend and brought me a few of my favorite things from Whole Foods. He also brought several GiGi Cupcakes (Oh my!) I am only human and I am going to be completely honest--I ate one! I savored every bite of it. It was insanely delicious!

Tomorrow I will be back on track 100%. Tomorrow will mark the end of the 2nd week of my 28 day challenge.

This morning, I had a VERY good workout. By the end of my upper body weight session, my arms were jello. I finished with a great cardio session.

I wanted to share a few pins I came across on pinterest:

Over the past several days, I have received several sweet messages about how I am inspiring people to become healthier. I absolutely had no idea I was inspiring others like that. It sincerely touched my heart in more ways than they will ever know.

Make sure to look for my posts this coming week. I am trying out some new clean recipes and will be sharing them!

Until next time, I hope you have a blessed day!! Remember, you can do it, just take it one day at a time.
JP

Clean Eating Cookies

Hello everyone! I hope you all are having a great day! Today, I was craving something sweet and decided to make some clean eating peanut butter and chocolate cookies. 

So, I am sure you are asking," how can a cookie be clean?" Well they are with this easy recipe.

Healthier Peanut Butter Cookies

1 1/4 cups chickpeas
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup + 2.5 tablespoons natural peanut butter
1/4 cup natural honey
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup cacao nibs

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Combine all the ingredients, except for the cacao nibs, in a food processor and pulse until extremely smooth. It took about 30 seconds for me. Next, fold in the cacao nibs.  Roll into balls. The resulting mixture will be thick and sticky. Place cookies onto a non-stick baking sheet.  Bake for about 14 minutes. Mine made 14 cookies.

(Recipe based off of http://mywholefoodlife.com/)

Photo by JP

Cacao Nibs

You can replace cacao nibs with regular chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, nuts, etc. I chose Cacao Nibs because of their health benefits. 

Did you know that Cacao is one of the MOST antioxidant-rich foods on the planet? The Navitas Naturals website states that, "Research has shown that antioxidants like those found in our cacao nibs offer immune-boosting properties as well as the ability to prevent serious health conditions including heart disease and cancer. One of nature's richest dietary sources of magnesium, cacao nibs are also an excellent source of iron and dietary fiber. You'll feel really great about eating cacao nibs, due to the alkaloids theobromine, phenylethylamine and anandamine, which boost your mood and can make you feel like you're in love!"

Besides being used in baked goods, you can also sprinkle these bad boys on your cereal, yogurt, ice cream, oatmeal or whatever you wish. 

I definitely recommend giving them a shot! 

I paired them with a glass of unsweetened almond milk to which I added a dash of cinnamon--delicious and my sweet tooth is satisfied. 

Until next time, have a blessed day!

JP

1st Week of Challenge Completed

Hello everyone! I hope you all are having a great day! Well, the first week of my Eat Clean challenge is complete! Clean eating combined with my normal cardio and training, I lost a little over 4 lbs just this week. Yay! I am a little less than a pound away from reaching my initial goal I set a year ago--75 lbs! I know, I will have it accomplished by next week!

Last night, we went out to eat with family. This was my first time to eat out on the challenge and I was able to stick to it just fine.  Ordering off the light menu, I got grilled rainbow trout, a plain sweet potato, and garden salad. The trout was delicious and the sweet potato was even better. The only topping I might add to my sweet potatoes is cinnamon. I find no need to add brown sugar or butter because they are already so naturally sweet.

www.positivemed.com

Last night, I was unable sleep, not even a minute! I have no idea why, but I was wide awake. By the time 4:15 am rolled around, I decided just to head off to the gym. My plan was to go at 6, but I was all ready wide awake. I completed some upper weights and an hour of cardio. It was a very good workout!

Did you get your workout in today? Did you eat healthy clean food today?

Over the past 2 years I have became a smoothie maniac. I am curious, what is your favorite smoothie ingredients? Please share them with me!!

Until next time, I hope you have a blessed day!

JP

Relaxing Friday

Hello everyone! I hope you all are having a great day!

Last night, I could not go to sleep whatsoever. I am hoping tonight will be much better!

For breakfast this morning, I had greek yogurt with blueberries and a few slices of pineapple. I will confess after I ate my breakfast, I went back to bed. When I got up, I completed my hour of spinning! My love for spinning and the bike is growing everyday.

My midmorning snack consisted of an apple and some almonds. For lunch I had tuna with red onion, spinach, mustard, broccoli, and sweet potato. Mid-afternoon snack, was more greek yogurt and blueberries.

For dinner, I made a DELICIOUS spicy tofu sandwich with some raspberries on the side. I was at the health food store the other day (imagine that) and stumbled upon this spicy tofu.

This is a ready to eat tofu. It can be eaten straight out of the package, crumbled on salads, or mixed in a stir-fry.  I put mine on toasted Ezekiel bread, topped with red onion, tomato, spinach, vegan cheese, and Sriracha. It was amazing!!

Photo by JP

 I scored a sweet deal on these organic raspberries today! They are usually $4.99 per carton and I got them on sale for 2 for $4.99!! You can't pass that up. I got a few extra to freeze for my smoothies.

Photo by JP

Day 6 is now completed of my Clean Eating challenge.  Have you started your challenge yet? There is no better time to start than now. 

The Eat Clean Diet

Until next time, I hope you have a blessed day!
JP

Clean Eating Challenge Day 5

Hello everyone! I hope you all are having a great day! Today has been a somewhat lazy day due to the cloudy, misty, and cooler weather. Day 4 of my eat clean challenge went great! I ate my 5 meals throughout the day and am going strong.

This challenge has really opened my eyes to how I was eating before. It was not that I was necessarily eating bad, it was that I was not eating enough. Being able to eat a lean protein and complex carbohydrate at every meal keeps you full all day long.

Eat Clean Diet

These were my meals for today: 

1.) 1/4 cup oatmeal with unsweetened almond milk, cinnamon and half an organic apple. For protein, I had 1/2 a cup of fat free greek yogurt.

2.) Apple and almonds

3.) Organic turkey burger, spinach, broccoli, red onion, mustard

4.) greek yogurt, watermelon

5.) Organic chicken apple sausage, broccoli and sweet potato with cinnamon

Breakfast is by far my favorite meal of the day. I am slightly obsessed with oatmeal :) I will let you in on one of my secrets. The night before, I measure out my 1/4 cup of oatmeal, mixing it with 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk, 1 tablespoon ground flax and cinnamon, cover and put it in the refrigerator. When I wake up in the morning it looks like double the amount from what I had before. Then, I simply add my other 1/2 cup almond milk and heat in the microwave. If you choose, add a chopped apple (or whatever fruit you like) and tad-uh! Easy and filling! Soaking the oats allows them to be more easily digested.
Another thing, I noticed I was not doing was eating enough greens. Now, my plate is always half filled with them! 

Eat Clean Diet

This week I ate a lot of broccoli. 

Who knew Broccoli had so many health benefits along with being so simple to make. For this week, I bought a few bags from the health food store and steamed them in the microwave. 

Next time, I am going to try roasting some in the oven with some garlic and chili flakes!

Until next time, I hope you have a blessed day!

JP

Makeovers All Around

Hello everyone, I hope you are all having a great day! Today is day 3 of my 28 day challenge and it is going great!

Today, I did some makeover work in my kitchen--food wise. I threw away everything I had bought for myself in the past that was not healthy. For the past few years, I would say that 80% of the food we buy is organic. I am really striving towards completely organic, but it's a challenge when a good store like Whole Foods or Trader Joe's is not available. I sent recommendations to Trader Joe's hoping they will place a store here. I really believe it would do well in our community as we have many health conscious people.

Anyway, I threw away a protein powder as I was surprised it contained so many unnecessary ingredients. Some of which I could not even pronounce. This led me to sit down and do some major research in order to find the cleanest whey protein powder available. This is the one I was led to, it has no artificial flavors or sweeteners.

About Time

One scoop of this has only 101 calories, 0 grams of fat, 0 carbs and 24 grams of protein!

I made a delicious afternoon smoothie with the new powder combined with unsweetened vanilla almond milk, spinach and half a frozen banana, Delicious!!

Garden of Life Raw Protein  is still my number one, but it will be nice to interchange the two.

Yesterday, I made a quick trip to the grocery store. I needed spinach, fruit and almond milk. As I was checking out, the cashier, on the next lane, noticed I had 2 huge bins of spinach. She said, "Wow! That is a lot of spinach, what are you going to do with all that?" I then proceeded to tell her about my smoothies. She was intrigued and without customers waiting to checkout, we got to chat for a few minutes. I could tell she was genuinely interested and I told her she definitely needed to give it a shot!  I hope she does!


I love fresh fruit and spinach! :) I am ready for all the delicious fruits and vegetables spring and summer bring! 

Until next time, I hope you have a blessed day!
JP

The Eat Clean DIET Stripped

Hello everyone, I hope you are all having a great day! I recently finished reading Tosca Reno's "Eat Clean" and am so excited to start the 28 day challenge. Today is day one! 

I have great faith in this 28 day challenge. Here are the simple guidelines: 


1. Eat more. Eat six small meals each day. Space out two-and-a half to three-hour intervals.

2. Eat breakfast everyday, within an hour of rising.
3. Make your last meal 3 hours before bed.
4. Eat a combination of lean protein and complex carbohydrates at each meal.
5. Eat sufficient healthy fats every day.
6. Drink two to three liters of water each day..
7. Carry a cooler packed with Clean foods each day.
8. Depend on fresh fruit and vegetables for fiber, vitamins, nutrients and enzymes.
9. Adhere to proper portion sizes.
10. Eat only foods that have not been overly processed or doused in chemicals, saturated and trans fats and/or toxins.


This challenge is to help strip off the last 10 lbs you may be wanting to lose. I have taken "before" pictures, weighed in, and measured my BMI. At the end of the challenge I will be posting the results! 

My clean eating journey will continue far far beyond these next 28 days. It is a life style-- a healthy one.
  
Like Mrs. Reno says herself, "If you eat a lot of greasy, processed, "anti" food you will look greasy, gray and dead. On the other hand if you eat wholesome, Clean foods you will look vibrant, radiant and slim." 

Another memorable quote, "When you feed your body Clean nutrient-rich food and create new cells from superior building materials, you will notice improvements in every area of your body."

Eat Clean Diet

Eat Clean Diet

Until next time, have a blessed day!!!!
JP

A Little Bit of Everything

Hello everyone! I hope you all are having a great day so far!

Last night, I went to bed super early! I was beat! This morning, there was no snooze button hitting, I was up at 4:50 and ready to get started. With my cinnamon protein swirl bread heated and the water bottle full I headed to the gym. Again, today was upper body weights finished with 16.5 miles on the bike.

Tomorrow I will do the leg work I can, while my foot is still healing. This week, I was cleared to stop wearing my boot, but still have many weeks of healing ahead. The ability to again run long distance is farther out than I would like, but I will get there!

After my workout, I enjoyed a staple of my diet spinach, kale, pineapple and banana smoothie. It is absolutely delicious and insanely healthy.

For lunch, I used a little bit of everything we had in our fridge. A little sweet potato, salsa chicken, radish, red onion, lettuce, greek yogurt, and Sriracha all came together to form a burrito on an Ezekiel Sprouted Whole Grain Tortilla. You can check this product out here: Ezekiel Tortillas

YUM!!

Well, until tomorrow, I hope you all have a great night!!!

JP

Greens Make Me Happy

Hello everyone! I hope you are all having a great day so far. It is rather warm and muggy here due to a cold front and storm that will be moving in later this evening.

Last night, I was exhausted. I had been up since 4am and it had been a long and emotionally tiring day. As I mentioned in a previous post, my mom was diagnosed with a neurological disease called Huntington's Chorea. This disease affects her balance among many many other things. Over the weekend she fell and yesterday we found out she has a broken wrist. As of now, she does not have to have surgery (Thank you Lord), but if it moves she will have to. She is a strong woman who has to endure more than anyone ever should. Unfortunately, this disease will keep progressing and her (our) journey of fighting has only just begun. Please say a prayer for protection and healing of my mom. I would be forever grateful.

Today was a two snooze button morning. When the third round went off, I really had to convince myself to get up, get dressed, and go sweat! So I simultaneously got out bed and caught my girl dachshund in midair and got my day started. I ate a piece of the Cinnamon Swirl protein bread (heaven!!) and headed out the door.

Today was upper body weight day, finished with 12.5 miles on the bike. Once home, I made a kale, spinach, banana and pineapple smoothie. It was so good!

For lunch, I prepared an organic spinach salad, topped with broccoli, radish, cucumbers, and a grilled chicken & apple sausage. In place of dressing, I used yellow mustard and Sriracha for added flavor. For a side, I had some butternut squash. I did eat a few raw almonds for my healthy fat, not pictured. 

Check them Out

Photo by JP

This chicken apple sausage is FANTASTIC! I highly recommend it. 

"Salsa Chicken" is cooking in the crock pot at this very moment for dinner.  I followed this recipe: 

Ingredients: 
3-4 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 large diced tomatoes
1.5 cups (roughly) of your favorite salsa
2 tbsp granulated garlic
2 tbsp red pepper flakes
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tsp cayenne pepper (if you want to make it spicy)


Directions:
1.  Mix all ingredients in crock pot and cook on low for at least 7 hours.
2.  After 7 hours, shred the chicken in the crock pot and let it cool before placing it in a container.

You can find it here: Salsa Chicken

I am going to add red onion, jalapenos and a dollop of greek yogurt on top of a bed of organic spinach.

My husband bought these for me today and I am so excited to read and learn all about Clean Eating from Tosca Reno! 

I will leave you with some advice from the famous Tosca Reno :)

So true! I hope everyone has a blessed day!  Make sure you eat your greens! :)
JP