A Little Spice to my Day

This afternoon I was on my second juice, and I felt that it needed something. So I added cinnamon to it. Tasted great, looked weird. Cold liquid doesn't separate cinnamon like warm liquid does.
Looking on Google has provided me inconclusive answers for "what are the health benefits of cinnamon?"
Some say it can lower cholesterol, other say it eases arthritis, and another says it can fight the e. coli bacteria found in unpasteurized juices! However, they want to make sure you aren't buying cassia, which is sold in stores as cinnamon. True cinnamon is what you need. 
Whatever the benefits, I'm just happy adding a dash here or there for the taste value!

Today's Juice

Today's juice is brought to you by the following sponsers:
2 red apples
1 green apple
1 mandarin orange
1 orange
1 pear
1 beet
2 celery stalks
6 carrots

My Candy Weakness

I was totally able to walk into the store, buy what I needed, and walk right past this display without a second thought of purchasing any. I love peanut M&M's. I can't resist them...like hardly ever. And the bags even said something like "buy two, get one free". I didn't even reach out for them.
The big huge bags are my favorites! They last longer than 45 seconds. Halloween size is just a workout...opening all those tiny bags. But the COSTCO SIZE! Oh gosh, I just felt a little rush of excitement there.
I like them because they melt AND crunch depending on how you eat them. I usually start off shoving a handful in my face hole, then the second round goes to the upper cheeks for a full melty routine: two in each upper cheek, one on the tongue. Then crunch. Drop down one from each side, then crunch. Repeat.
To get super technical, the cheek candies should be the same colors on each side. The tongue one should be a different color. Example: Left cheek- green and yellow, right cheek- yellow and green (in the same placement), tongue- blue.
Yes, I've had serious practice to make this into a habit.
In high school, I can remember them getting rid of the baby poo brown color. I voted like a million times by phone (corded, creamy white-colored, push button, phone) to have blue as the replacement. I'd like to think that I, personally, had something to do with blue winning. You're welcome.
A few years back, I wasn't able to resist that candy display. Not only did I end up buying the huge bag, I also bought a 4 pack of plastic M&M's plates. Yes, you read that correctly, freakin' PLATES WITH THE M&M's FACES IN THEM!!!
SOOO...It's kinda a big deal that I walked out of there with bags of apples, beets, mushrooms, asparagus, bananas, and chicken thighs...and no M&M's.

Proof

Here is proof that I did what I said I was going to do.
I also had enough juice left over to fill almost two ice cube trays. These I use for smoothies for my two year old and me. Add a banana, 1 cup of yogurt, and a bit of milk in the blender and you're good to go!
This recipe:
9 carrots
1 red apple
1 green apple
1 pear
3 slices of pineapple
3 handfuls of blueberries

Juicing Update

I haven't posted on this blog for a while. And for a few reasons. Not necessarily good ones, but reasons nonetheless.

A little bit of guilt mixed in with a little bit of stress, and a lot of "I don't feel like doing anythings".

I've been off the juice for about a week now. I've thought about juicing. I've wanted to juice. But something takes over my brain. Not sure what is going on here. When I analyze it, I'm thinking the longer I'm away from juicing, the harder it is to get back into it. I FULLY plan on juicing tomorrow morning. Freals.

So almost two weeks ago was our first day back from our winter break. I juiced the second day back and made a huge amount so I could take some to work with me. It went quite well. I even mentioned to my inquisitive students that there were fruits and vegetables in my juice. They didn't seem too weirded out by it. Hopefully when I bring the juicer to school in a few months, they will all want to try it.

After my Jack in the Box incident, it seems like juicing hasn't been as important. I've been consumed with work. I am always worried that I'll be unprepared and top brass will walk in and I'll look like a fool. Our superintendent came to my class and was actually quite impressed. Either stressing pays off, or I really don't have anything to worry about. Either way, it made me feel good knowing I'm doing something right.

The other thing is...I'm having withdrawals from the iPad. I no longer have access to an iPad at home. I used to use it almost nightly for drawing and relaxing, or drawing to post pictures on my blogs and TPT store. And so I'm having to think of more creative ways to make things to sell in my store. My ultimate goal is to purchase an iPad using only the money earned from selling items in my store. As frustrating as it is not having the iPad, it's slightly refreshing to not have the "addiction" sitting in front of me daily.

Back to juicing. I plan on juicing tomorrow and giving some to my son. I'll need to restock on my supplies soon since I haven't bought any in over a week. I still have a whole bag of carrots and about 7 or 8 apples, some pineapple, but I'm out of spinach, kale, and beets (my favorite!). I may throw some blueberries in there too.

Full of Food!

Growing up, we all liked to dog pile on my dad. He's a big guy, but having three kids pile up on you, probably gets old after a few minutes. And boy did we love to torture him! Sometimes, we would just all go over and squeeze the crud out of him with hugs all at the same time. This usually happened while he was sitting in his chair at the kitchen counter.

And his reaction was always the same if he had just eaten.

"FULL OF FOOD!" He would moan. This meant that he was too full to be any fun.

I've realized that when I'm "full of food," I too become a grumpy, lazy bear. I had an amazing pot roast from my crock pot this evening. And yes, I'm "full of food." What have I accomplished since eating dinner? Well, I bargained with my husband that he'd do bath time and snuggle our son if I cleared the table and did the dishes. I'm so glad I got that duty. It allowed me to sit and digest all this pot roast and do some blogging as a lazy bear.

My fridge is also "full of food". So much so, that I couldn't put in the leftovers from the pot roast. As the week goes on, I know it will be less full, so I'm not too worried. It just means I need to juice MORE!

Tuesday Confession

I Juiced. I mean a BIG glass of juice and enough to fill my travel cup too for work. It didn't wake the kid either! Let's see how this goes.

Blood Red Surprise

There are few foods I don't like. My number one nemesis is a tomato. I can't handle the acidic smell, the slimy feel, or the nasty taste. Devil's apples. I thought I didn't like them because I was in a huge tomato fight at my uncle's farm when I was really young. But when I was pregnant with my son, and we found out he LOVES tomatoes, my mom informed me that I never had liked them. It made me feel better. It also made me happy that he likes them because it is a pain in the rear picking tomatoes (especially sliced or diced ones) out of just about every Italian dish. I do love salsa though. Don't ask. Seriously, don't.

Another lesser liked food is kiwi. I've grown to tolerate them in fruit salads, but that's pretty much it. They, like tomatoes, are pretty slimy on the inside, but they have something that tomatoes don't. Crunchy seeds. It gives me flashbacks to finding sand in my food when visiting the beach. By the way, I love ocean themed things (in fact, my favorite animal is a dolphin), but not a huge fan of the beach due to all the sand. Pretty to look at, not much fun to eat.

My favorite new addition to my juice is something I never thought I'd ever eat let alone drink. I can remember my mom putting these on our tuna salads when I was growing up. We'd have crisp delicious iceberg lettuce, with a huge glob of tuna, chunks of cheddar cheese, hard-boiled egg slices, and then...beets.

EWWW! I love love LOVE brussel sprouts, but beets are not my thing. But juiced. Oh my! They not only turn my drink into the most gorgeous shade of red, but they actually sweeten it up too. The most tricky part of juicing beets is the aftermath. I have to make complete sure I don't spill a drop on my clothes when I clean out the juicer. I also need to make sure I don't give myself a beet mustache. And going to the bathroom the next day is quite entertaining. I won't spoil your surprise should you choose to juice with beets.

My latest beet recipe:

• 2 oranges
• 4 carrots
• 2 handfuls of kale
• 1 granny smith apple
• 1 washington red apple
• 1 beet 

The Monetary Cost of Juicing

The cost of juicing in the movie Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead stuck in my head days after watching it. Phil went to Walmart and bought his supply of juicing and it averaged about $14 a day. When he went to a local health food store, his average skyrocketed to $28 a day. Not wanting to get into that trap, I decided that I would be as frugal as possible with this.

Since I haven't have good experiences with my local Walmart's produce section (everything else is fine), I decided to rethink where to purchase my fruits and veggies for juicing on a budget. I remembered that Costco has a produce section (yes, they sell things other than $1.50 hot dog & soda combos). When I visited their store on Thursday, here's what I bought:

• 2 bags of carrots
• 1 bag of red apples
• 1 flat of granny smith apples
• 1 box of blueberries
• 1 pineapple
• 1 box of tomatoes (yuck)
• 1 package of cucumbers
• 1 large bag of spinach
• 1 bag of Cuties
• 1 bag of mini bell peppers

Total cost per person (2 people) for one week 1-2 juices each per day: $5

I think we can swing that. I rarely drink coffee, but that's about the cost of a coffee from Starbuck's! 

Fat Girl Crack

This is not juice.

And yet, it is sitting in front of me. 

I found it quite interesting that I juiced this morning, ate three crackers while dropping off my son at my mom's, and then went straight to my old stomping ground: Jack in the Crack (as we like to call it, or Crack in the Box). Only the best fast food restaurant ever created! You get a little bit of everything...for reasonable prices.

I was also astonished that no one stopped me. Not even me. I was thinking clearly too! I analyzed which side of town I should go to and remembered the other Crack in the Box is closed for remodel (OH GOODIE, IT'S CLOSER TO MY HOUSE!). I was also amazed at how few people were out on the road this time of day on a Sunday. Got to my addiction even faster!

I started out on the quest for junk food with a headache. By the time I got there, my adrenaline was flowing and my headache was nearly gone. With drink and fry in hand before even pulling around the corner from the drive-thru, I felt that pang of guilt.

Oh well! It's my lunch now!....right?....am I still thinking clearly? Did I mention I gobbled up an entire See's candy bar I found in my desk yesterday from the last day of school before winter break? It was dark chocolate. With almonds. It NEEDED to go in my mouth.

So now that I've sat here staring at the screen and my bag of guilt, I think I just realized what is going on here. I'm stressed out.

Am I a stress eater? When I wasn't thinking about work, I was thinking clearly. When I didn't have to worry about waking up early to get my son ready so I could go to work, I could drink a fat glass of juice and be okay for hours.

I'm only on the bottom step of my journey and I feel like I just walked through an open door.

I haven't started on that bag of guilt yet, but I think I'm going to. And it will certainly be the last visit to Crack in the Bag for a long time.

Back To Work Tomorrow!

Tomorrow I go back to work. I'm not sure how this is going to affect my juicing. Okay...let me rephrase that. I'm not sure how that is going to affect my hunger between my 6am juice and 9:45am recess. I'm either going to bring a big juice cup and sip on it all morning, or bring some serious snacking to shove in my face before the kids arrive.

*Yes I know I drew my hand backwards. Oh well.

No Juice "Experiment"

So today I haven't had a single drop of juice. This morning, so as not to wake my husband, I opted to eat leftover chicken, brussel sprouts, and rice. I felt tired within a half hour. Hmmm....maybe all those carbs aren't a good idea after all? Especially since it was white rice?

Knowing that I had to go to my classroom today, I packed a snack of a pear, two Cuties, and two small bell peppers. I ate one pepper and a cutie during my five hour stay at work. Yeah, five hours. And I don't feel like I got hardly anything done!!! I think classrooms are a time warp. When alone, the time flies by unnoticed. When kids are around, the minutes drag on for hours.

When I got home, I cooked a semi-healthy dinner of chicken apple sausages, and a spinach and strawberry salad with almonds and goat cheese topped with raspberry pomegranate vinaigrette. As an appetizer, we had carrots, bell peppers, and tomatoes with ranch dressing. It was quite tasty. But a little while later, I was craving juice! Since we had company over, I wasn't about to start juicing. Now here it is ten at night and I'm still craving juice! But my son is asleep.

I think overall it was a good experiment to see how my body would react to not having juice. Tomorrow though, I'll be juicing away!

Juice Juice Juice Juice Juice!

The other day my sister texted me asking if I'm "still using the juicer." I told her yes and asked if she was coming to town to pick it up. She told me no and then gave me the best news. She said "It's yours. Think of it as an early birthday present. I've been wanting an excuse to buy a new juicer I've been eyeballing. And now I have a juicing buddy!"

I couldn't be more happy! I immediately juiced.

I haven't been following any recipe so far. I've just been juicing what I want, tasting it, and adding more.

My most recent "recipe":

• 4 carrots
• 1 granny smith apple
• 1 red apple (Washington?)
• 1 handful of spinach
• 2 handfuls of blueberries
• 1/2 a red bell pepper

It was a perfect pick-me-up after shopping for this week's juicing supplies! 

Concentrating on the Inside

One thing I've noticed about juicing, is that I have these sudden moments of clarity. It's really a strange feeling. Out of nowhere, I feel like everything is as it should be. I've never done drugs, but I imagine this is the "high" people talk about.

And in one moment of clarity, I decided to just sit and think about what ails me. What are my "problem areas" as a beauty consultant might ask?

1. I'm fat. Yeah, pretty obvious. I haven't weighed myself since my last doctor's visit a few months ago, but I know I'm at least a hundred pounds overweight.
2. I have high blood pressure. I was diagnosed a week shy of my 21st birthday with hypertension. I'll be 34 next month. I've been on several different meds. I'm always stressed out. I was considered a high risk pregnancy while pregnant with my son. That was NOT fun. 
3. I'm at risk for diabetes. My father is Type II diabetic, as was his father. My dad takes pills. My grandfather had to use insulin. Although I was heavily monitored during my pregnancy, I was lucky enough not to get gestational diabetes. Yeah, that would've been torture, because I was sick for 7 months and would only eat fruit, chocolate milk, Arby's sandwiches, and peanut butter and crackers. Everything else made me sick.
4. My back always hurts. Always. I have scoliosis. It may be TMI, but my husband calls my back "Wednesday" because it has a big hump (and Wednesday is what people refer to as "hump day"). This is due to all the weight from my fat belly.
5. My ankle hurts. When I worked in retail standing on my feet for 8 hours, it would hurt a lot. Back then, the doctor said I have tendonitis. Recently it's been starting up again. It's so bad that I have a really hard time walking, especially in the morning. I can't turn my ankle certain way as easily as I once could. I'm pretty sure it's the major weight I seemed to have gained in the past year.
6. I'm always feeling like I could cry. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's called depression? And I'm pretty sure it's because I'm sad about my weight. My weight seems to be a running theme here. It's causing me to not want to do things I used to like to do. Or even not allowing me to do things I used to be able to do.
7. I'm tired all the time. Like too tired to even make dinner, play with my son, get my work done, or even smile. I'm just wanting a nap, like, all the time.
8. I crave crappy food. I like all types of food. Sushi is my favorite. But being pricey, I rarely get to eat it...unless it's from Costco or I make it myself. But besides that, I have a soft spot for peanut butter and crackers with a huge glass of milk (1% or fat free, of course). Maybe it was the holidays? Oh who am I kidding? It all sounds good!

As of right now, I'm thinking I'll keep a mind on these 8 issues and see if there's any improvement during my juicing. I feel better already just having written that down.

Ever see a rabbit wearing glasses?

A few weeks ago, I called the doctor's office to make an appointment to have my eyes checked. It's been YEARS (like four or five) since I got new glasses....and for several reasons:

1. I'm frugal, so to fork over hundreds of dollars when I don't have any extra lying around the house, is a HUGE step.
2. I never feel like I have the time to go to the doctor.
3. My insurance doesn't cover glasses (thanks to my employer).
4. My last experience was horrific. I do NOT recommend Lenscrafters. I drove an hour to get there, waited 45 minutes to talk to someone, spent $700 on glasses and a pair of sunglasses, and an eye exam, only to have to go back the next day because they got my lenses on the wrong side, had my glasses fall off my face when I looked down and therefore had to return again, had the wire holding my lenses in place snap against my face popping out the lens, called another Lenscrafters to ask if I could bring them in and they told me I had to go to the original place of purchase (not true by the way), went in anyway and had them fix it within five minutes. WHEW! Glad to have vented.

So imagine my excitement when I see a message from Groupon saying that for a mere $20, I can get $150 off of a pair of glasses plus a FREE pair of glasses from Site for Sore Eyes. I immediately bought it.

When I went to my doctor for the exam, he asked about my current glasses and my old contact prescription (again, not covered) and proceeded to have me read the letters blah blah blah. After all was said and done, he wrote the prescription and then told me that my prescription had changed. I kinda figured. That's why I was there. Things were getting blurry again, and driving at night is a little scary.

"No, actually, your eyesight has improved."

Huh? Hold the phone. Every time I go to the doctor, I get a stronger prescription. "Wait, my eyesight has improved?"

"Yeah," he chuckled. "Must be eating all your carrots!"

"Well...actually. I've been drinking them," I retorted.

"Keep doing it then. And don't read with your glasses on."

"Umm...I'll try and remember that one."

Juicing in the New Year

I spent New Year's Eve with my family playing games and laughing until my cheeks and stomach hurt. Laughing is my favorite. Seriously.

I borrowed my sister's juicer about a week ago. Since then, I've traveled to Costco, bought some large quantitates of fruits and veggies and then was scared of the juicer.

It has so many parts to it, but my husband was able to figure it all out and patiently teach me how to use it.

My first juice consisted of two red apples, two carrots, and two handfuls of spinach. It wasn't bad. But it was warm. If you don't know this about me already, I have temperature issues. Even as a kid I can remember not wanting to eat my string cheese if was even slightly warmer than fridge temp.

So I put ice in my juice. SOOOoooo much better!

But I think I put too much ice. So next time I only put two cubes in. Tasted perfect!

This was my breakfast for the day. And within an hour or so, I was hungry. So I ate like I normally did. I don't want to rush into anything. I'm not good with sudden change, so I'm planning on easing my way into this.