Happy Thanksgiving

Happy (almost) Thanksgiving to my wonderful readers! I hope everyone has fun Thanksgiving plans and perhaps I will be seeing some of your pretty faces tomorrow :)

Every Thanksgiving it is important to reflect on what we have to be thankful for. While I am very thankful for my family and friends,

I wanted to reflect on some other things I am thankful for.

(the people in these pics are not the only people I am thankful for of course:) )

• My health- Thank you to my whole body for staying healthy during the winter and thriving on the endless vitamins, fruits, veggies and general weird health food I feed you.
• My legs-Thank you for carrying me through the miserable, rainy 5k we completed on Halloween. And thank you in advance for carrying me through the hopefully beautiful 5k we will be running on Saturday (surprise!).
• My lungs-Thank you for becoming stronger than I could have ever asked you to be and thanks for getting over the exercised-induced asthma.
• Healthy-living blogs-Thank you for inspiring me to start my blog and giving me meal and workout ideas everyday.
• My juicer (you knew this was coming)-Thanks for adding more fruits and veggies to my life and inspiring me to eat healthier each day.

What are you thankful for this year?

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?

Surviving Thanksgiving

So yesterday was potentially the biggest eating day of the year. People go wild, eating everything they can get their hands on, filling their plates multiple times. I considered this to be the biggest test of my self-control and determination of sticking to eating healthy. We had all of the usual Thanksgiving sides; delicious stuffing, squash, corn, green beans, mashed potatoes, rolls, and cranberry sauce. I decided I only was going to have one plate of food with no seconds. I only ate a small amount of stuffing and squash and tried to fill up on the corn and green beans.

My mom and I cooked the stuffing so we took steps to make it a little healthier. We used only whole wheat bread and used eggs and milk to soften the stuffing. It turned out to be delicious and a little bit healthier. We also made a healthier chocolate pie. We used a whole wheat pie crust from Whole Foods and made sugar-free Jello Pudding. I had a small sliver just to ward off cravings for the other desserts, but I only had a few bites. While I was eating the pie, I realized I didn't even want it or any of the other desserts.

Originally, I was fully prepared to go all out and eat whatever I wanted yesterday. I was going to allow myself November 25th and December 25th to eat desserts, but I think I've gotten past that point. My cravings for sugar have basically disappeared, which has made situations like yesterday much easier to endure.

Did you make any healthy modifications to your Thanksgiving cooking? Share them in the comments section!