Days 33 & 34: Two days worth of juicing goodness in one post

Hi all,

Before I write anything about yesterday and today, I just wanted to take a moment to mention again that everyone in Boston is in my thoughts.  I loved living in Boston for six years and I think of it as a home, no matter where I live.  To see such tragedy befall the people of the city and its visitors is heart wrenching.  May peace, safety, and civility be restored soon to the city, the victims, and the families affected.

Onto to juice...

Well, as you all saw on Saturday, I ended up eating solids for the first time in 32 days.  I think my body needed additional calories with all the walking I've been doing.  I plan to continue the walking pace with a goal of walking at least 5-10 miles a day, so I have decided to do what I was planning to do when the cleanse was over: slowly incorporate solid foods back into my diet.  I will eat one solid meal per day and then increase that to two.  In addition to solid foods, which will for the most part be vegan (except sushi), I will also have 1-3 juices a day.  I definitely want to keep juicing as part of my everyday nutrition.

I have to admit that Sunday I was very tired, and I ended up sleeping a lot longer than usual.  This was made possible by two cancellations.  The first was a lunch I had scheduled with the fabulous women from Job Club 1.0.  Sadly, illness befell one of the lovely ladies, and we decided to reschedule for later in the week.  Afterward, I had another friend, who was scheduled to walk around Green Lake with me that afternoon, also cancel due to illness.  Yucky bugs!  I hope both Kelsey and Emilie get better very soon!

That being the case, I took my time and made my first juice of the day: Lemon Aid.

Lemon Aid:*

• 2 lemons (I would suggest using Meyer lemons if you'd like a sweeter, less tart juice)
• 2-inch slice watermelon (I used a bit more than that)
• 1/2 cucumber
• 1 tsp liquid honey, optional (I omitted this ingredient)

This was an extremely tart juice that really made my mouth pucker.  However, it did the job and woke me up pretty quickly.  I think next time I'll use Meyer lemons for a more mellow juice. 

Although my friend Kelsey was sick, I decided to go for a walk around Green Lake anyway.  The sunshine was just so nice (and most likely fleeting this week) that I couldn't waste it.  Late in the afternoon, I walked from Campus to Green Lake, did two loops around the lake, and then walked home.  All in all, I think I clocked in around 9 miles.  Yay!

I also ran into a friend from the Evans School, David and his wife Michelle.  It was so nice to see a familiar face as I walked!  Plus, I was also able to multi-task and have a phone conversation with a new friend, Lori.  She's very interested in the same professional opportunities I am, so it was nice to share ideas for finding jobs.  It was nice to walk around the lake, even if it was just with a phone buddy.

When I returned home, I had some water and started to feel a little sick to my stomach.  I tried to drink my second juice, but my tummy really objected.  That being the case, I decided to head to bed so that I didn't come down with anything.

When I woke up on Monday, I made a new juice that was delicious: Raspberry Juice.**

Raspberry Juice:

• 1 cup raspberries
• 1 apple
• 2 oranges (I used mandarins)

This is by far one of my new favorite juices.  It was sweet, mellow, and really nice.  I typically drink my juices slowly, but this one was so good I drank it rather quickly.

Which might explain why I was hungry so early in the afternoon.  My morning was pretty busy with appointments, but by 12:30pm, I was able to go for a walk down 45th, down Montlake, and then Pacific Ave (2.7 miles) to head toward the Health Sciences Library.  Once there, I sat with Jason and Angel to work on job hunting and downed my second juice of the day: The Chiller.***

The Chiller:
* 1 carrot
* 2 stalks celery
* 1 apple
* 1/2 cucumber
* 1/2 zucchini (I used the whole thing, since it was pretty small)
* 1/2 red bell pepper (I used 1/2 a green pepper, since I needed to use it pretty soon or else it would go bad)

I liked the way the juice turned out.  It was pretty refreshing and had a nice taste. I would definitely make this again, especially if I needed to incorporate more veggies into my diet.

The one thing that I'm finding with juice is that I'm not nearly full enough after finishing the juice to consider myself satisfied.  This is a really new development, since for the first 31 days I was very satisfied after drinking juice. Again, I think this increase in appetite is due to the increase in physical activity.

While I was disappointed I didn't make it 60 days on the cleanse, the purpose of the process was to get better at listening to my body and do what was best for it.  Well, on Saturday my body was screaming at me to get some solid food in my belly.  So I listened and obeyed.  Today was pretty much the same situation.  I drank my juice and my body let me know that it wasn't enough, so I have a gluten-free tofu and veggie sandwich from Chaco Canyon. 

If you haven't been to Chaco Canyon yet, I definitely suggest you check it out.  It's amazing!

To reward myself for being productive at the library and having some really yummy juices, I went for another walk.  This time, I walked from the Health Sciences building by the UW Medical Center to Green Lake (my new hangout, apparently) to walk with my friend Emily.  Unfortunately, within the first 5 minutes of our walk around the lake a storm blew in and some freezing cold rain started pelting us.  We decided we would escape from the path and walk from Green Lake to Wallingford.  Although that wasn't our original plan, it was still nice to hang out and catch up with Emily.  Overall, I think I walked 7.1 miles today.  Not too shabby.

I hope I'll be able to do as well tomorrow!

I have some interesting juices on the menu for tomorrow, so be sure to check those out!