Juicing Fanatics

I hope everyone is having a great weekend! I’m cooking a mini-Thanksgiving feast this afternoon as well as Irish Soda Bread for a work party tomorrow. So much cooking!

If you’ve seen me in the past 2 weeks, you know I bought a juicer. I was probably way too excited for this juicer to come in, but what can I say, I couldn’t wait to get my juice on! It arrived Wednesday night and I immediately started juicing and haven’t stopped since.  I am only using the juicer now to supplement meals and get more nutrients but I definitely want to do a weekend-long juice fast at some point.

The first juice I made, which is my favorite so far was earthy and sweet.

-1 apple

-1 large carrot

-1 cucumber

The juice is so refreshing and it definitely fills you up! I’ve been trying to replace breakfast with juice but it is taking a little while to get used to.

Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead

Last night after much persuasion from me, we sat down and finally watched the documentary “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.” 

(Source)

In this film, Joe Cross is overweight, unhealthy and on tons of prescription medicines to treat a chronic skin condition. Fed up with the way he looks and feels, he comes to America for a 60 day juice fast. He spends the first 30 days in New York City and then drives around the US for the remaining 30 days.  His intention is to help his body fix itself from the inside out.  He hopes to get off the prescription medicines and cure his chronic disease.  Along the way, he loses a ton of weight and inspires many people to join him on his quest for health. 

Needless to say, this film only furthered my obsession with juicing.  It’s amazing to see that something as simple as fruits and vegetables can correct the years of damage to your body.  Weight is the cause of so many illnesses, even if they are not directly related to being overweight.  Doctors didn’t think that Joe’s skin condition was related to his weight, but as soon as he started treating his body right, it self-corrected and cured him of the disease. 

This film definitely inspired me to stay on the path to health I have been on.  I plan on doing a juice fast in the future (probably between Thanksgiving and Christmas) to treat my body to the nutrients it craves.

After finishing the film last night, we immediately juiced up the blend Joe calls "Mean Green",” which he drinks every morning. Here is the recipe if you are interested in adding some fruits and veggies to your life.

Ingredients (2 Servings)

• 6 leaves of kale
• 4 stalks of celery
• 1 cucumber
• 2 apples
• 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 in of ginger

We didn’t have a lemon, so we used a lime and it worked just as well. For more information about the film, check out the website.

Food for thought:

• If you want to read something that really upset me, take a look at how Congress ruled pizza is a vegetable. Pizza is a vegetable? Let me know if you have any strong feelings about this either way.

I’m off to go for a run outside! I am loving this weather and want to take advantage of every last ray of sun.

Have you tried juicing? Would you ever try a juice fast of any length?

Super Easy Turkey Chili

 

Hi all! I hope everyone had a great weekend :)

While the weekends are always fun, this one was particularly fun! Saturday we went to the ING New York City Marathon Race Expo at the Javits Center then some friends from school came to Hoboken for a night out! It was so great to see them. Sunday was a lazy day filled with marathon and football watching and some great eats! Dan made delicious egg sandwiches for breakfast and we ordered Indian for dinner. I tested out some recipes and ended up making chili and granola. I have the recipe for the chili below and will post the granola recipe this week. They are both easy to make and good for you, too.

Chili is the perfect fall dish because it is hearty and good for you.  It's a low maintenance dish to prep and let sit for as long as you’d like.

Crock Pot Turkey Chili

Print this!

Ingredients (6 servings)

• 1 pound ground turkey (can use beef, chicken or more beans instead)
• 1 red onion
• 1 red bell pepper
• Olive oil
• 1 (16 oz) can pinto beans
• 1 (16 oz) can kidney beans
• 1 (29 oz) can crushed tomatoes
• 1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
• 1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
• 1 tbsp Chili powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1-2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• Italian seasonings to your taste
• Fat-free sour cream
• Shredded cheese

Instructions

• Heat up a drizzle of olive oil in a large pan on medium heat. Turn crock pot on low.
• Brown the meat in the pan. Half way through browning, add the chopped red onion and red pepper to the meat.
• Add ingredients from pan into the crock pot. Add all other ingredients and mix everything together.
• Let the crock pot heat the chili on low for 7-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours.
• Serve with sour cream and shredded cheese.

Let me know what you think if you make it! I can cross off “create a crock pot recipe” from my November goals now.

Workout

Today’s workout was a sweaty one! It was a 5 mile treadmill interval workout that took me about 70 minutes and torched over 500 calories.

0.0 mile-0.5 mile: Walk @ 3.5 mph

0.5 mile-2.0 mile: Run @ 5.5 mph

2.0 mile-3.0 mile: Walk @ 3.5 mph

3.0 mile-4.5 mile: Run @ 5.5 mph

4.5 mile-5.0 mile: Walk @ 3.0 mph

Have a great Monday and I’ll see you tomorrow with the granola recipe!