I did it, I survived day 1!

After eating like everyday is my birthday for the past few weeks… well, months… Having a solid day of juice felt really nice!

Before I get into juicing, I wanted to say thank you to everyone who read, commented, emailed, facebooked, or tweeted me about my post yesterday. Sometimes it’s really hard to write posts like that, but since my blog is about honesty and developing a healthy relationship with food, I felt it was necessary to let you guys know how I was feeling. Body image is such a universal issue, yet so personal at the same time, and I know that a lot of people struggle with similar issues and I want everyone to know that they are not alone. Thank you so much for all of your comments, you have no idea how much they mean to me.

Last night I went to my friends Jason and Erica’s house and we got our juice on. I compiled a list of fruits and veggies that I wanted to experiment with, and then we were off to Whole Foods to get the goods. Whole Foods was probably not the best place to buy my produce price wise, but it’s easy for me to navigate and they always have kale! I am going to start by saying that even though juicing may be pricey (I will figure out how to get the cost down!) it sure makes grocery trips easy and stress free! No more roaming through the aisles, only the produce section! I did leave Whole Foods with a bag of chocolate chip cookies since I probably won’t be seeing those again for a while! We got back to the house and started juicing. Jason is a chef, so he definitely helped us to cut down our prep time! He was chopping apples like there was no tomorrow! I ended up with 6 bottles of 3 different fresh juices for the next day (May 1).

Rise & Shine
Makes 2 servings

1 large grapefruit
2 fuji apples
2 granny smith apples
2 cups of green seedless grapes
10 sprigs of Italian parsley

Beet It
makes 3 servings

10 carrots
2 red apples
1 large cucumber
1 large beet
2 stalks celery
1 inch fresh ginger

Green Machine
makes 1 serving

1 green apple
5 carrots
5 leafs dinosaur kale
1 cup spinach (packed)
½ cucumber
1 stalk celery
5 sprigs Italian parsley

Emotions: Day 1 was really exciting for me. I didn’t try any of my juices last night when I was preparing them so that I would be excited to drink them the next day. I woke up pumped to start the juice challenge and couldn’t wit to try each juice.

Hunger: I was busy all day today because my family and I went to watch our friend Javier perform on The Voice at WB. We were gone a majority of the day, so I didn’t have time to think about food or eat out of boredom. After the taping ended around 7 I started to get mildly hungry. We stopped by Panini for dinner but I stayed strong and sipped on green tea and a fresh juice.

Juice Critique:
Rise & Shine: Loved this juice. It was super energizing and the grapefruit gave it a nice punch. I’m thinking about adding some water to dilute the grapefruit next round, or maybe use a bit less.

Beet It: I’m obsessed with the color of this juice! I loved the first few sips, but had a hard time finishing the bottle near the end. It has a rather earthy taste to it from the beet. I think that next time I will use a smaller beet (mine was HUGE!) or add extra ginger. This one definitely needs some tweaking. Not my fav.

Green Machine: I surprisingly loved this juice. It smelled like straight up grass when I made it, but it tasted really fresh with a hint of sweet fro the apple! I may try adding some lemon next round. I will definitely be making more of this juice. Maybe I’ll swap it for the 3 Beet Its.

Throughout the day I also finished off 5 water bottles (so thirsty today!) and as we speak, I am sipping on a cup of organic Senna Leaf Tea to help with digestion, since juice contains no fiber.

So far, the juice challenge is a success! I’m taking it one day at a time, but I am feeling great and also very proud of myself for making it through dinner out with my family and not giving in. I’m excited for day 2, hopefully I will still be this pumped in the morning!