Ruby Jewel

I love to make this beautiful creation in the fall/winter when pomegranates and ruby red grapefruits are in season. 

Ruby Jewel

5-6 Ruby red grapefruits, juiced
1 pomegranate, seeded

Put the grapefruit juice in a high speed blender with the pomegranate arils.   Blend.   Pour into pitcher through a strainer, while scraping the bottom of the strainer with a spoon in a circular motion.  

Day 7

I am down 9 pounds!  

I feel lighter and my appetite is reset.

Excited to continue this journey with more juices, smoothies and eating whole plant foods .  

I want to continue normalizing my weight and healing aches and pains I've been experiencing over the recent years.

I'm also looking forward to the next 3 day juice "feast" with my husband.   He has been on his own health journey, he went from drinking his morning coffee and iced tea all day long - to drinking lots of water, starting out first thing in the morning with water and drinking it throughout the day.   I love that he is making little changes in his eating.

Day 6

I woke up about 2-3 AM not feeling well at all, felt extremely weak, nauseous and short of breath.  Nothing I've ever felt before.  I'm sure the tea didn't directly do that but maybe something in it triggered a series of things.     I've been on 2 week and 30 day cleanses before and this has never happened.  

I had some ice water, didn't feel much better, so had a little spoon of honey.   DH woke up around 6 and we talked about what was going on with me.  He said maybe I needed to have a smoothie or modify the cleanse with some fiber or something.  I agreed that was fine, I don't like feeling this way - even though I wasn't experiencing any kind of hunger at the time.

I got up and made some OJ this time with conventional valencias.   They hardly have any flavor compared to the organic ones.   Walking around in the kitchen I started feeling very short of breath and as if an elephant was sitting on my chest.     I laid down on the sofa.  DH made me a little banana smoothie with some of the OJ, I only had a few sips.  After a while I experienced some mild cramping and had 1 little BM.

In the late afternoon I had a few dates.   I felt a lot better, but still a bit weak.   I decided to continue rebooting and continuing to juice while introducing healthy foods.   I would like to continue this blog to share some of the recipes I make and my progression.

Day 5

My sense of smell is really heightened right now and I keep smelling garlic on other family members and even someone who worked at the health food store.   The smell was positively revolting, and it is hard to imagine that I could stand the smell on myself.   The family had some salsa that we made with a whole head of roasted garlic so I believe that was the main culprit, but I can smell it through toothpaste and mouthwash it's that strong.

Also my sense of taste is heightened to where I'm imagining the taste of healthy plant based food.   I've been putting recipes in my recipe box at Fat Free Vegan - everything looks so very tempting to me.  Last time I was on a 30 day cleanse of juices, tea, etc...I had my dehydrator and made a ton of gourmet raw food and froze it for when I came off the cleanse.   This time I will wait until I'm off this cleanse before I start cooking things!

This morning had fresh OJ, and some of the veggie juice I made.   I went to the store and got lots of produce,  so I am going to play around with some new combinations.  Looking forward to that!

In the evening I had some more broth, and at night I had some laxative tea.  Shortly after I wasn't feeling too well,  and went to bed early.   Not sure what was in the tea, will read the label.

Day 4

I woke up around 4:30 and couldn't go back to sleep so stayed awake.  I had some nausea but it went away after a while.

I had an early appointment and brought my fresh oj, veg juice I made last night and water with me.

Felt pretty good throughout the day, a few cravings when I didn't drink enough.

Last night my son said to me "Mom you are going to finish before Christmas, right?" I said "No, I'm doing this through January."

Well, at least that is the plan.   My target is 20 days.

I wanted to do this as some things definitely needed to heal in my body and especially to reset my appetite.   I did have a lot of second thoughts about doing this - but it was only for "missing out" on eating, really, and no other reason.

Our attraction to food is very interesting and changing what we consume or if we consume can be very challenging for a lot of people.

I knew I needed to do something and it just so happens that my friend had already planned to do one herself. So the opportunity really presented itself to join her as an accountability partner, and everything seemed to line up perfectly!

Day 3

Started off with lovely organic red grapefruit juice this morning.   This is my favorite juice.  I love the sweet-tart flavor, so refreshing and sweet & sour.  

Aside from yesterdays "salt" craving I really haven't craved anything, especially chocolate which is my biggest challenge.

The above picture is the grapefruit juice I made this morning.  In the evening I made a juice from carrots, apples, celery, cucumbers, lemon and ginger.    This will be my drink for day 4.    I have to leave early for an appointment so this will save time. 

Day 2

Started off the morning with fresh OJ, made with organic Valencias, so sweet and delicious.    

Worked 3 hours cleaning.  Then had a veggie juice with celery, carrots, apples, parsley and lemon.    Really yummy juice.  

Had plenty of energy, just a few hunger pangs.  

Later in the afternoon felt pretty edgy with some salt cravings.   I made potatoes for the family and had the broth I boiled the potatoes in.  That took care of the salt cravings but me thinks my body was detoxing the salt.    The juice I made was naturally salty from the celery, I will make something with more celery tomorrow.

Reboot Day 1 - Water

I am used to water fasting on Sundays so this wasn't terribly difficult.  I did get cold in the middle of the day so had some hot water.   Did have a few hunger "pangs" but they were manageable.

Tomorrow will be the real test - I picked up some citrus to juice, plus lots of veggies and apples.   I will be juicing all next week.    I have 3 appointments this week and will need energy as the appointments are 3, 2 and 4+ hours long.   So I will be juicing up with sweet juice and then have veggie juice with me.   I also have some dates in my bag for back up.