Detox and Chew

I have made it through 3 days of Juice!  OK, confession, I have had a few celery and carrot sticks along the way.  Today I didn’t drink nearly as much juice as the 1^st and 2^nd days.  I really am not very hungry.  I have had lots of water and herbal tea.

I made this juice this morning:

Fruit Salad Juice

Fruit Salad Juice

¼ pineapple

1 orange, peeled

1 kiwi, peeled

1 apple

1 pear

10 mint leaves

1oz Aloe Vera juice

So what’s next?  I have to chew – and I am going to add some Carbs, Protein and Healthy Fat.  Tonight I am making a few salads to have for the week. I am basically going to eat veggie this week: veggies, salads, vegetable soups, whole grains, seeds, beans, eggs, and tofu with a smaller amount of fruit.  Maybe I will have some tuna?

I will have no refined flours, sugars, processed foods, red meat, or dairy.  I am also going to stay away from the caffeine and alcohol for a while: continuing to eat clean. 

These are the salads I am making tonight:

Kamut Salad

Quinoa Tabbouleh

Lemon-Dill White Bean Salad (I am using small red beans ~ cuz thats what I have).

It is my plan to top a large green salad with ½ cup of one of these grain-bean salads for lunch and dinner.

Breakfast will be a Fruit Juice and a Hard-boiled egg

I will also incorporate small quantities of nuts as snacks (10-15 nuts), along with more fresh vegetables and an afternoon Vegetable Juice. 

Stay tuned for menu plans and recipes. 

Find me on Facebook: Lara McNeil on Nutrition and Food

And Twitter@LaraMcNeil

Juice detox day 1 onto 2

I made it through the 1^st day of my 3-day detox.

Here’s a few notes for those who may want to try this:

1. Some of the recipes make quite a bit of juice, maybe even enough for 2.  However, I am reluctant to change the recipes because I believe that my new masticating juicer is much better at extracting juice then the centrifugal one (read the juicer post for more info).  I suggest following the recipes the first day and see how you do with your juicer.  You can always jar leftover juice for day-2.

2. I did add/alter a couple of the Recipes:

Morning "Orange"

         Morning “Orange” – I reduced the ginger a bit, the piece of ginger that I purchased was quite fresh and gave a very spicy flavor.  For day-2 I am going to include the Aloe Vera shot into this juice.  It wasn’t offensive in the water but I like to sip plain water.

Mean Green

         Mean Green – this juice is HARDCORE.  I have leftover from day-1 for today; I will most likely reduce the kale to 3 stalks tomorrow.  I added the spriulina to this today.

Purple Power

         Purple Power – I added fresh dill to this juice which I think really freshened it.  I tend to like beets and beet juice, so this was a good one.  I skipped adding the pear: the beet and carrot adds plenty of sweetness.  I had some radishes in the fridge so I added 4 of those.

         Almond Date Banana – I added 1 tablespoon of chia seeds to this drink, reduced the almond milk to 1 cup, and added 1 cup of coconut water.  This was pretty delicious.  While I was a little skeptical about the chia seeds they developed a tapioca-like texture that was not at all unappealing.  I later found a recipe for chia-seed pudding, I will try this next week and post.  I think this juice is paced at a perfect time of the day when you are looking for something sweet.

         Tomato Gazpacho – I loved this juice!  I even put it in a bowl and ate it like a cold soup.  I will be using this one frequently in the following weeks.

         Pineapple-Kiwi – Another delicious juice.  I ended up adding an apple at the end to clear the auger.  The harder products help to clear out the juicer from the pulpy/soft fruits.

*** Please see the original Juicer Recipes post for more about ingredients. ***

3. But what about all the pulp?  Well, I save mine and make stock with it.  If a juice recipe contains both fruits and vegetables, then juice your vegetables 1^st so you can start a freezer bag with the pulp from the vegetables.  In a future post I will give you some ideas for the stock.

4. At the end of day one I felt the need to chew so I did have some celery and carrot sticks.

So far I didn’t felt deprived at all, and haven’t had any major withdrawal symptoms…. but I am not a huge coffee drinker (only a cup ~ maybe 2 per day).  If you are going to try a detox you may want to wean down on your caffeine for a few days so you do not experience this withdrawal.

Find me on Facebook: Lara McNeil on Nutrition and Food

And Twitter@LaraMcNeil

          

Juicer Recipes

I have chosen the following recipes to provide a full spectrum of phytochemicals, vitamins and minerals for my own 3-day juice detox.  Nothing here is set in stone so feel free to substitute ingredients.  Some products are linked to backup information about their health properties - just click each one to read. 

A blog provided by WilliamsSonoma offers 30 days of juice recipes; like the recipes found here many are adapted from Reboot your Life (Fat Sick and Nearly Dead movie), if you would like to find some substitutions.

“Orange” Morning Juice

         3 Carrots

         2 Apples

         1” Ginger

Mean Green Mid-Morning Juice

         1 Cucumber


         4 Celery stalks


         2 Apples


         6-8 leaves Kale

         6 sprigs Parsley


         1/2 Lemon


Purple Power Lunch-time Juice

         1 pear

         1 beet

         1 carrot

         1/2 cup red cabbage, coarse chop

         3 sprigs chard with stems

Almond Date Banana Mid-afternoon Smoothie

         3-4 Dates

         1-1/2 cup Unsweetened almond milk

         1 Cubed frozen banana

         ½ teaspoon cinnamon

Note: cube your bananas when you get home from the store and freeze them on a cookie sheet before transferring to a baggie.  These will be your ice cubes and will thicken your smoothie.  

Incorporate the ingredients for this smoothie using a standard household blender. 

Tomato Gazpacho Dinnertime Juice

         4 Plum Tomatoes


         1 lg Cucumber


         2 Celery stalks


         1 Red Bell Pepper


         1⁄4 sm Red Onion


         2 cups Cilantro, leaves and stems (or Parsley)

         2 cups spinach

         1 Lime

         ½ Jalapeno (optional)

Delicious Pineapple-Kiwi-Mint Dessert Juice

         1/4 large pineapple, peeled, cored and cut into cubes

         1 orange, peeled

         1 kiwifruit

         1 pear

         20 mint leaves