June Juice Fast – Day 22

First of all, my apologies for not posting anything in the last few days. I wasn’t feeling very well so I didn’t feel like sitting at my laptop much.. I am much better now tonight though and just finished juicing up two litres of juice for work tomorrow. 1 litre of the green juice, half a litre of carrot/beetroot and half a litre of apple/lime juice.

I hate to be sick so I am glad that this is over now. The last 10 days of my juice fast are starting tomorrow and I’m looking forward to them! 

Sorry about the short note only tonight but I am quite tired.. At least you know that I’m still alive 😉

June Juice Fast – Day 18

Yesterday morning, I did weigh myself; purely because I wanted to have before and after figures (before and after the colon cleanse). I did loose 1.5lbs/700g which I guess is pretty good.

Today was a great day! It was very sunny here in Cork and so I decided to go for a walk. I was gonna meet a friend in town anyways and I had to go to the tax office so I combined all this and walked into town (it’s about 5k/3m). Before I left, I made some delicious orange and blood orange juice for breakfast and also another batch of my green juice. This time I only added one apple and I also didn’t forget to add ginger! It did take me a good while to get used to this green juice, as it is quite intense, but I really love it and that’s why it’s the only juice that I make every day. The other juices vary.

Since my next appointment for a colon cleanse is on July 2nd, I will prolong my juice cleanse for a few days into July and then ease out of the juice fast after the colon cleanse.

So, my day went pretty well; I met with a friend for some iced tea for me and coffee for her and we sat in the sun for a while. There was a friend of hers coming later as well and as they were hungry we all went to the Sushi place where they got some Sushi and I got a bottle of water. I stopped at the juice bar as well for some juice and then off to the park we went for some more sun. It was great but I shouldn’t forget about how strong the sun gets even here 😀 I’m a nice shade of red, it doesn’t burn though so it shouldn’t be too bad.

I also decided to walk home and I had my workout app running both ways.. one way is actually 5.5km, so I walked 11km and burned 1176 kcal (YAY!). The way into/from town goes by the river for a while and on my way back I had to sit down at the river and enjoy the sun a bit more .

summer feeling

The next two days are going to be sunny as well, so I might get some sun lotion after all 😀 I really don’t have any.. Usually when I wear some, I just stay white and I hate that!

Anyway, I’m really happy about how today went; I was totally fine with the others having food while I was sitting there watching them and also walking into and from town was really great. My plan is for tomorrow to either cycle to work so that on the way back I can stop at the river again, or to take the bus and then walk home. I find walking more effective now (when comparing my workouts in the app). I’ll just see how I feel in the morning.

June Juice Fast – Day 17 and the Colon Cleanse

It’s Day 17 and juicing is in full swing.

After my early night yesterday (and also because it’s my day off today) I made today’s juice today. In the morning I chugged down almost 1250ml of green juice. I used a head of celery, half a bad of kale (about 2.5lbs), half a bag of chard (no idea how much it weight when I got it), 1 pak choi, 2 apples (granny smith) and about 2/3 of cucumber (I used the other 1/3 in the salad the other day) and one lemon (not pictured).

greens – before

I had chard for the first time in juice yesterday and I can’t say that I liked it much, but it was much better today!

the juice

It was delicious!

Right now, I am having an apple/lime juice as I got some new apples earlier (I believe they are Gala apples). I have also had about 750 ml of juice from the juice bar when I made my way to my colon cleanse appointment earlier. They were two juices, both a different kind of green juice.

apple and lime juice

So, my colon cleanse. I really didn’t know what to expect but I really was excited about the whole procedure and really looking forward to it! Mimi, who is a nurse and what not (she has a long title), was absolutely fantastic. She talked to me for just over an hour, about my stress levels and problems I might have as well as medical conditions and lots more. She really took her time with me, explaining how the whole body, all of the organs work together and what role the colon plays which I loved! I have learned so much today!! Then we started the cleanse itself and I found it to be really interesting, to lie on this bed/table and to feel what was going on there. At the same time I was astonished about the ‘outcome’. It went really well according to Mimi and I can only confirm that. Although I didn’t have a look at what came out. What shocked me a bit though was that the last thing that did leave my body was friday nights meal! I really didn’t think that it would be in my body this long!

I will be going back for another session in two weeks time. I will be adding a probiotic supplement to my ‘diet’ and I’m looking forward to how things have changed until then!

Apart from that, I felt pretty much good today; I didn’t have any cravings or anything but it was my day off (so no smelly food in sight from co-workers) and my flatmate being gone on holidays I’m pretty ‘safe’ at home as well. That is probably the one and only good thing about being on my own. I hate it usually!!

So, that’s Day 17 wrapped up for you 🙂 feel free to comment if you have any questions about the cleanse!

June Juice Fast – Day 16

After being out on friday night and an early morning on saturday and then again yesterday I was quite shattered when I came home from work yesterday. I had planned to have a short nap because I had planned to FaceTime with a friend in the evening. That nap turned out to become a full-on sleep for four hours and by then it was too late to chat with my friend. So I just turned over and went back to sleep. I slept for a whopping 13 hrs last night!!

I’m feeling much better today at least, but going to bed at 5pm meant no blog post and no squat challenge yesterday. I will continue with the squats tonight though (with Day 7; yesterday was Day 6)..

Juice-like was a pretty good day yesterday; I had a litre of green juice; half a litre of carrot/beet juice and half a litre of apple/lime juice. The apple/lime combo was great but I would use different apples next time (I used Granny Smiths this time). I also had about two litres of juice.

After my dinner out with work on friday night, I guess it left my body craving food. I felt so hungry yesterday. And being on work on sundays means that the canteen is closed and everyone is getting burgers or pizzas and eats them at their desks.. It doesn’t help when feeling hungry, at all!! But I just chugged down my juice and tried to block out the smells of the fast food. Blocking out the outside world with music also works 😀

So, today is Day 17 and I’m super excited about getting my colon cleanse later today… 😀 A new post will follow tonight!

June Juice Fast Day 14 & 15

First of all, a warm welcome to all of my new followers! I’m very happy to see that there are actually people out there who read what I got to say 🙂 Please feel free to comment on my posts or send me a Tweet! I would love to hear from you!

Today, I’m gonna wrap up yesterday and today. Having been out yesterday for dinner and a farewell for a colleague, I did decide to break my fast temporarily. I can’t say that it was the best idea as I didn’t feel too well this morning, but I did have a lovely time! We went to a Japanese restaurant and I was glad to see that they do have quite a lot of vegan options or vegetarian dishes that they can ‘veganise’. I did thoroughly enjoy the food when I had it, but surely not during the night!

Needless to say that I did not weigh myself today, on Day 15 after breaking the fast. I will leave it until the end now to see the total result. I was back on the juice today; I actually had to juice this morning before work because last night of course, it was too late by the time I got home. And considering that I was gonna have a short night to ensure that my flatmate won’t miss his early-morning flight, there was simply no time to even consider juicing when we got home. So it was straight to bed only to get up 3 1/2 hrs later to check on my flatmate and say my Good-Byes! I am going to hate the next two weeks! I went back to bed for another two hrs, and then juiced before heading to work. I had a total of 2 litres of juice today and about the same amount in water, but probably more. Also I had my green tea at work to wake up (with loads of added matcha powder!).

In one of my breaks, I went to the farmer’s market in town, which is around the corner from work. I’m gonna admit and say that for purely this reason, I love to work on Saturdays! I am not the person to get up early on my days off so I would never get to go to the farmer’s market if I had saturdays off. But of course there are other reasons to not work on saturdays (football for one). Glad it’s summer and there are no matches on! Win-Win!

The farmer’s market is the one place here in town where I get decent Kale, actually. Today I got my usual supply of Kale (20 lbs) but also got two bags of chard as well. I read that it’s great for juicing but actually never had chard before (not even ate it before). So I was very excited this evening when I juiced up my juice for tomorrow. I juiced celery, cucumber, apples, lemon, pak choi, kale and chard and it’s good!! (there is always some more juice then fits in my thermos so I always get to try my juice 🙂 )!! I made 1 litre/2 pints of the green juice. I also juiced carrots and a beet to make about a pint (500ml) and the same amount of apple/lime juice.

This evening, being on my own and not in the mood for TV (because of the adverts) I watched “Food Fight” on Netflix. I really liked it and it made me think about shopping even more produce on the farmer’s market. Whilst I do go for organic produce in the supermarket, almost non of the veg are ‘home grown’. Funnily enough, the Pak Choi that I have is the only veg that was grown in Ireland!! All the other stuff comes from other places in Europe or South America even. How much ‘Organic’ is really left in these vegetables??

So, this will be one of my new objectives now, to do more shopping from local growers who are also offering organic produce!

June Juice Fast – Day 13

Today I decided to actually eat something. And this, for several reasons. Whilst setting up my appointment for the colon cleanse, I talked to the therapist about my juice fast and she recommended to eat at least something to give your colon fibre that it can work with. Since I have issues/concerns about my bowel movement situation, it made sense to me. She also suggested that I could take “Psyllium” which is a soluble fibre (if I remember correctly) that will also help with my issue. Since I am planning to continue the juice cleanse, taking the Psyllium is definitely the better option for me so I went to the health shop and got some. But then I did decide to eat because I am going to a work dinner tomorrow. My immediate colleagues know about my cleanse and that’s fine, but I don’t want it to spread around. We are going to an Japanese place so I will get away with a vegetable soup!

I had went to the health shop earlier in the day to buy some more flaxseed oil. I got to talk to the guy who works there and he recommended a book to me, “Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill”. It supposedly explains a lot about good and bad fats (which I never really got the point of anyway) and I am glad that I found a secondhand copy in a bookshop later!

Fats That Heal
Fats That Kill
– Udo Erasmus

So, next to my 2 litres of juice and even more water than that, I had some salad (iceberg lettuce, cucumber, tomato) with a bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dinner. I can’t say that I am feeling great right now, but I thought it was best to have some solid food today before having hot noodle soup tomorrow.

On a happier note, I found these two beauties today:

vegan red and green curry paste

None of them contain fish sauce (*insert biggest smile you could think of here*)!! I am soooo happy!! Now all I need is for July to come so that I can give these a try!! I love asian supermarkets!!

So tomorrow, it will be juice, water, tea plus the noodle soup and then I will go straight into the juice cleanse again!

June Juice Fast – Day 12

Day 12 already and still no major detox symptoms.. I keep wondering if continuing the juice cleanse itself makes sense for me at all at this point. After the struggle I had during the past days I haven’t lost much weight also (yes, I stepped on the scale!) but I have a plan to loose some more weight and so I will stick with it. I am feeling good, apart from feeling hungry at times. My flat mate cooking after work doesn’t help much either.. But my flat mate will be on vacation soon so it will just be me in the apartment and no nice smelling food around! 🙂

I have just looked into clinics around where I  live where I can go for a colon cleanse. I think it will be a good idea for me to have one.. Speaking of (non-existent) detox symptoms, this includes bowel movements. I rarely have them and that was also the reason I gave up my initial juice fast earlier this year. I went days without and I thought that this couldn’t be healthy so I went back to food. I don’t want this to happen this badly this time so I am hoping that a colon cleanse will help me with that!

Today again, I had about 2.5 litres of juice as well as about the same amount in water. Although it was so much, I still felt a little hungry. I hope tomorrow goes better and I also hope that I can get an appointment for a colon cleanse next week!

June Juice Day – Day 11

Finally, today finally has been better yet again. I drank about 2.5 litres of juice and about the same in water. After the last couple of days, I’m very happy about that! I had a litre of green juice with celery, cucumber, spinach, lemon and apples as well as half a litre of carrot juice. I also had about half a litre each of different fruit juice at the mall where I did my grocery shopping. The shopping itself got a bit out of hand. I usually never have a wander around and just go for the things that I plan to buy and then pay and leave.. So today, I wanted to get this:

but then got all of these things:

The food pots as well as the vegan sausages and the burgers were on offer so they went straight to the freezer. I had the food from Dee’s before and I love it! Dee is from Co. Cork, that is where I live as well and started from selling her healthy, vegan food on farmer’s markets to now have the biggest supermarket in the country also stock her products (you can check out her website too)!

I’ve also got some baking stuff like food colouring and almond essence as well as mini Oreo’s. I saw an Oreo cupcake recipe somewhere that I would love to try! Also, I love bakewell slices; so I will have to try and make a vegan version of them! Most of the stuff that I bake ends up at work, so once I eat again, my team will hopefully be a happier bunch! It definitely makes me happy even to think about it!! 🙂

Also, I came across a girl called Carly Rowena on youtube today.. So, I have found a few new challenges for me. She has videos for a squat challenge, an arms challenge and an abs challenge.. I have no idea how putting them all together will actually work for me during the juice fast, but I will give them a try.. I also want to walk more.. So there’s loads on my plate for the next couple of weeks and I will let you all know how it goes!

June Juice Fast – Day 10

Today, finally went better again. I had more juice again, although still not as much as I should have. But I’m getting there. The weather forecast was right for once and it’s been raining all day. I hope tomorrow will be a bit friendlier so that I can get my shopping done!

This morning I had beautiful red blood orange juice! As promised, I took some pictures:

For the rest of the day, I had green juice:

 

This batch is with loads of kale, one head of celery, one cucumber, a couple of radishes, 2 apples, 1 lemon and parsley. I love the colour of it!! I’m having this green one, in different variations, everyday. Considering that, I will have to get groceries tomorrow no matter what the weather as I need some new produce!