Total foodgasm

Potatoes that were boiled, slightly mashed, then baked. Soft yet crispy!

I’ve struggled in the realm of blogging for years in the sense that I feel like a blog should have a specific purpose. Is it to talk about writing? Share recipes? Work out ideas? Fashion tips? That’s what I started this blog out as, a blog for professional things related to my career (writing, social media, public relations). But  that’s just not working for me. So you know what the new specific purpose of this blog is? Things that interest me. That may be social media, or juicing, or, hey, new recipes! Have I mentioned I’m eating solid food again? *g*

The honey/balsamic/garlic topic for the chicken. YUM!

If you follow me on Pinterest, you’re probably tired of seeing me pinning recipes. But I have just been super excited to cook healthy. And I came to a realization that it’s okay to use a bit of cheese or butter or carb, as long as it’s manageable to your eating plan. I like Weight Watchers so I’m counting points on these things (yay for the filling foods list!) I’ve been pouring over recipes for days, trying to figure out what the first meal I wanted to make would be.

Finished chicken! These yummy tenderloins will last me several dinners.

After much internal debate, I settled on honey balsamic garlic chicken and boiled/mashed/baked potatoes. First of all, make this food. Second of all, you’re welcome. As I was cooking, it just seemed like the food had to be unhealthy. It just looked too good. But you know what, it’s okay to use a little butter or olive oil. And a yukon gold potato here and there. If splurging a bit on those things will help you stay away from boxed mac ‘n’ cheese or a donut, frickin’ do it! That’s what I’m telling myself anyway and I think it will work. Your eating plan has to be manageable and sustainable.

Dinner! NOM NOM NOM

I can’t even describe how amazing this food was. And it wasn’t just because I was coming off of a juice fast, I’ll be making this food regularly, especially the chicken. It is incredible. I bought a bulk pack of fresh chicken tenders as opposed to chicken breasts because the serving size was more fitting for my stomach shrinkage. And it worked great. I can’t wait for leftovers tonight These pictures aren’t the best, they were taken on my cell phone. But my mouth is watering just looking at them. I wanted to bring it for lunch today, but I still have my vegetable stew from Sunday to eat. And I might go to Subway for lunch and get a kids meal! Yes, friends. These are the things I splurge on that make me happy post-juice fast. Loving life!

Costco samples

Why yes I would like a sample! And this image was pulled from Google images, I did not creepily take a pic of a sample lady for my blog.

My breaking of the fast has been going extremely well. I haven’t had any reactions to food. I transitioned from fruits to raw veg to cooked veg to…Costco samples. I went there last night with my friend Dana and her kiddos. I hadn’t had any animal products yet, but I was ready to try something. The first sample was sausage. I love sausage (that’s what she said). I took a little bite and didn’t want any more. It was too rich. However, if they were passing out samples of cheese filled Oscar Mayer hot dogs, I probably would have grabbed the sample tray and ran. I passed on all the seafood samples and some salami. I passed on the green beans because they weren’t the kind I liked.

But don’t worry, folks. I didn’t pass on them all. No, way. I am nothing if not curious so why not throw a mixture of flavors and food products in my belly at once and see what happens? I had a little bit of several things: enchilada, chimichanga, salsa, hummus, corn and bbq chicken. Any guesses on what happened? Not a damn thing except getting super full off of a few samples. I had no desire to eat anything the rest of the night. It was comforting to know I could listen to my body when it was full, still be happy because I had a little protein, a little cheese, a little veg, and not worry about going overboard.

I’ll admit, I was worried that it would unleash the beast hidden inside of me and I’d be nomming on all sorts of crap. But you know how I know that won’t happen? I didn’t get the $2 polish dog at Costco. I never pass up on the polish dog. Come on, a sausage and drink for $2? I was full and didn’t desire any discomfort or to mess up my progress.

Talk about progress! I really think I’m changing habits and attitudes for the better, and permanently. Woohoo! *pats self on back*

Anyone else out there juicing? How’s it going so far?

Days 13-14: juice fast

Mood: Chock full of BAMFitude and awesomeness
Weight loss: 21.2 lbs over 14 days, say whaaaa?! According to my measuring, I didn’t lose inches this week. That’s bollocks. My clothes are looser.
Cravings: I should just give you a link to my Pinterest account because it’s been nothing but Weight Watchers friendly recipes for days. I can’t wait to start cooking healthy!

My last meal on the fast.

I feel like an infomercial. “Hey! I lost 21 lbs in two weeks doing a juice fast. You can too!” Oy. But hot diggity dog I did it, folks! No cheating. No fudging. No excuses. I feel so great right now. I don’t even know how to properly express how I feel physically and mentally. I accomplished something that I didn’t think would be a big deal, but it turns out it has.

Every person that told me they can’t imagine doing this for two weeks, you helped. That made me feel like I was doing something that is challenging and if I could complete it then I did something important. I’m also flabbergasted that this has inspired people. I have a few friends who are juicing regularly now or planning to embark on a juice fast. My friends and family have been so incredibly supportive. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world. Thank you all!!!

The last two days of the fast were great because I knew I had done it. I thought about breaking a bit early to eat an apple on Friday, to get my body prepared for drinking beer on Saturday. But I didn’t. I decided whatever happened with the beer would happen. I wasn’t home Friday night so I splurged and bought an Odwalla for dinner. I figured that would do in a pinch and it was the end of the fast anyway so it wouldn’t hurt things.

My body handled the beer like a rockstar. I’ve always metabolized liquor extremely well. Some call me Frank the

My first non-juice item after the fast. I'm nothing if not classy.

Tank. People were taking bets on how much of a lightweight I’d become. Turns out, not at all. The juice fast barely impacted my alcohol intake/metabolization. It was odd. The only issue that came up was a wicked case of hiccups at the end of the night. I took it slow, drank a lot of water and had some apple slices while drinking, just to be safe.

Yesterday I had solid food! I focused on fruits and veggies, mostly raw ones to get my digestive system woken back up in a safe way. I had half an apple for breakfast, my stomach was full after that. Lunch was a mix of spinach, broccoli slaw and carrot shreds. I squeezed half a lemon on top. I munched on that over a couple of hours, making sure to chew slowly and thoroughly. I rewarded my fasting success by renting Skyrim so this made a yummy video game snack. Dinner was…you probably guessed it…a can of green beans! Man that can filled me up, it was too much. But so good! I also made soup that I’ll eat on this week. I bought organic vegetable broth (wanted to give myself another day or two before any animal products), carrots, celery, onion, tomato, yukon gold potato, fresh basil, oregano, cayenne pepper, salt, pepper. I let that baby simmer for a couple of hours. It’s now much more of a stew like consistency, but should be pretty easy to digest.

Grocery shopping yesterday was fun. I didn’t have to just think about ingredients for juicing (I bought just supplies for fruit juice with spinach BTW, might as well drink my favorites). I got to think about healthy meals. I bought squash. I’ve never bought squash other than zucchini! I bought spaghetti and butternut squashes. I thought I’d try cutting up the butternut and baking it with rosemary and olive oil. Someone told me they treat butternut like potatoes to make french fries. I think it will be much easier to make healthy food choices now. I really do.

I haven’t had any issues transitioning to solid food. I really can’t believe how well my body has handled all of this. When people I’ve talked to say they want to start a fast, and I’ll say this to you, don’t expect the same experience. All other articles and blogs I’ve read recount experiences of feeling sick, tired, major hunger pangs, soreness, flu like symptoms, nausea, etc. Please do a lot of reading so you’re prepared. I’d hate for someone to think they won’t have any issues then be surprised. It’s sort of like going in to a movie you’re unsure about by thinking it will be terrible, then you’re usually pleasantly surprised, right? Do that.

I just finished munching on the other half of yesterday’s apple. Stomach is full. Energy is good. Mind is happy. I’m so damn proud of myself right now. Next step? Tackling exercise and maintaining healthy eating. Thanks for tagging along on my journey! I hope it helped those of you out there.

Day 12: juice fast

Mood: robot dancing all over the place
Weight loss: 19.8lbs!
Cravings: sandwiches. Lots and lots of sandwiches. And chicken. And beef. I printed off a bunch of healthy recipes yesterday getting ready for the post-breaking of the fast period. I’m stoked! I blew up my Pinterest with recipes.

Today I’m going to write about a lesson I’ve learned. It’s okay to feel hungry. It’s not that I’ve ever thought it was bad to feel hunger, I just always rectified that feeling out of habit. Right now, I’m on a several hour water fast. I had my morning juice and went to have my broth for lunch, but just didn’t like the taste. So water for me until dinner. My stomach has grumbled a bit and I feel hungry, but it’s no where near debilitating. It’s just a feeling that I know I’ll fix later when I attempt to make broth again, but this time with better flavor.

I’m still surprised that I made it this far without cheating or giving up. Just have to get through tomorrow and I’m done! Well, mostly. The few days after that will still feel like a fast since I’m slowly getting my digestion going. I’m still planning on breaking my fast with beer tomorrow night, but I’m not too worried about it. I already know that my tolerance will be much lower (which will be hilarious because I’ve been Frank the Tank since I drank for the first time). But since it’s still liquid, I don’t expect my digestive system to freak out. I’m also planning on bringing an apple to eat, just in case.

Man I feel like a BAMF right now! I’m sure people are tired of me talking about it, but honestly, I don’t care too much. I’m proud of myself. I’m proud of my willpower, my dedication, and my weight loss. It doesn’t even bother me anymore when people respond to my weight loss with “you know, it’s just water weight.” Actually, you know, it’s not just water weight. I’ve never held a lot of water weight. The first few pounds, sure. But the rest is from healing my body, a major calorie reduction and exercise. So, yeah, I’m not worried about “gaining it all back the first week.”

Happy Friday!

Day 11: juice fast

Mood: stoked because a shirt I’ve never worn fits me so I can wear it, woot!
Weight loss: 18lbs
Cravings: curried deviled eggs on celery (see more below)

Turkey patties

Wow, three full days left. So awesome! I’m happy with the little victories I’m still making. Yesterday I went over to Burgerville (the best fast food join in the west with real products, not pink slime for burgers) to get some paperwork to do a fundraiser. A group from work was doing a fundraiser at the time and I wanted to buy something to support them, but I’m fasting! The smell of the food was so damn tempting. I wanted protein. And french fries with the special Burgerville sauce. Mmmmmm. A colleague I was chatting with said she ordered a couple of turkey patties for her dogs. Yes! Perfect! I could support the fundraiser, while maintaining my fast. And Rufus would be pretty stoked too. It was tough putting up with the tantalizing aroma of protein in my car, but I suffered through the pain and am stronger for it.

I made it out of there alive and still on the fast.

Last night I tried making a batch of broth. It wasn’t nearly as good as Dana’s and I’m not sure what about it was so lackluster. Sigh. But it’s still better than the cold veg-heavy juice I had been drinking for lunch and dinner. Only three more days! Then I can have broth with chicken or beef stock

Graph showing the last four weekly weigh-ins on Weight Watchers and the large weight loss of the last two weeks. I'm 5 lbs away from the 10% weight loss goal!

I also updated my online Weight Watchers tracker yesterday and was stoked to see the downward curve showing my weight loss on the fast. That’s a downward tilt I like to see! While on the site I began perusing some recipes. I’m going to transition into using the Power Foods list for Weight Watchers (thanks to my friend Karen for showing it to me!), which will work well with a modified paleo. There was one recipe in particular that looked amazing and I can’t wait to make it. I’m a sucker for deviled eggs. This is a modified version of deviled eggs. You

Curried deviled eggs on celery

mash up the whole egg, not just yolk. You add a bit of mayo and curry powder instead of mustard. Spread that on a celery stalk. YUM! I’m going to nom the hell out of some eggs when I can have protein again. Scrambled egg whites with a ridiculous amount of pepper. mmmmm.

 

Day 10: juice fast

Mood: bubbly
Weight loss: 17.4 lbs! HOLLA AT YA BOI!
Cravings: At this very moment, a burger topped with pulled pork from the Chupacabra Cantina in Austin, TX. Also, any Mexican food. Also, any burger. Also, broth!

Wow, I sit here now on day 11. Four more days of the fast. I have not consumed anything other than water or fresh fruit and veggie juice. I know I’ve said it before, and I’m sure I’ll say it again – WHERE DID THIS WILLPOWER COME FROM?!?!?!? Yowza.

Yesterday was pretty damn easy. I had a yummy grapefruit, orange and spinach breakfast then broth for lunch and dinner. I went to the pub for the usual Taco Tuesday and avoided all things but water. Although I would have nommed the shit out of a taco with sriracha. We had a good laugh about my breaking of the fast with beer at a birthday party on Saturday.

I really can’t think of a more fitting way to break a fast. I know it will hit me way harder, but I’m curious to see if I will feel sick. *knocks on wood* The fast so far has been incredibly mild, I hope that having a couple of beers won’t through me into a tailspin. We shall see!

I look forward to trying to make more broth tonight with carrot, celery, onion, tomato, bell pepper and cilantro. Yumm! And the rest of the work week’s breakfast juices feature strawberries. $2 a pack at the grocery store for fresh ones. Hell yeah!

Day 9: juice fast

Mood: Thankful
Weight loss: 16.2 lbs HOLLA!
Cravings: sated. No, that’s a lie, I fought like hell not to snatch a bowl of mac n cheese from a 5-year-old last night. My willpower won. Barely.

Veggie pulp and broth. Yum!

I dedicate this post to my dear friend Dana who literally saved my fast last night. No exaggeration. I talked about her a bit yesterday in my update post about getting to eat broth. When I arrived at her place for our usual Monday night hangout, she surprised me with a plethora of vegetables ready to juice. She’s an amazing cook and took this challenge quite seriously. It wasn’t just the celery, carrot, onion concoction I was expecting. No, she also had fresh green beans, zucchini, tomatoes, kale, parsley and more. She juiced the veg then threw the pulp with some of the juice in a pan. She cooked and stirred it for a while, letting the flavor come out. Then when she felt good about that, she added a bunch of water and the rest of the juice, letting it simmer a long time. She added a healthy dose of cayenne pepper, regular pepper and a smidge of salt. I strained it and had a mouthgasm upon my first spoonful. Yes, a spoonful! I wasn’t drinking this out of a cup! It was a civilized bowl and silverware for me.

Friends, let me tell you. This was amazing. It was savory and hearty and warm! And tasted like sriracha (I love sriracha) because of all the cayenne pepper. My mouth throat burned and my stomach calmed. I was so happy. So happy!

So, thank you my dear Dana, you saved my fast with your generosity and stellar cooking. I’m going to put some of it in an ice cube tray to save for the breaking of the fast next week. I’m going to throw that shiz on a potato since I can’t have butter. Huzzah!

The rest of the week will be fruit heavy juice (with lots of spinach and chard) and veggie broth. Can’t wait! I’m going to stomp the rest of this fast.

Important update.

I CAN HAVE VEGETABLE BROTH! You guys, I am mentally doing cartwheels on a table right now. I mentioned to my friend Dana that I’ve been craving broth (among a million other things), but that I couldn’t wait for that part of the breaking of the fast. She suggested I juice carrots, celery and onion tonight then heat up the juice. Hmmm. Yeah. Maybe something warm would make all the difference.

So I googled veg broth and juice fasting and found several places that talked about vegetable broth being perfectly safe on a juice fast. Basically, what you do is pulp the veg you want in the broth. Transfer the pulp to a pan and cover it with water. Simmer for a while. Drain. DRINK THE BROTH! BROTH! YAAAAAAAAY! Can you tell I’m excited?

Now we all know what I’m having instead of blargh blechy ugh veg juice tonight (trying to choke down my lunch juice, I can’t pinpoint what in it is bugging me. Maybe it’s the apples?). And according to my calculations, I have: five more fruit juices, five more vegetable juices (or fruit juice replacements once or twice) and dah-dah-dah-daaaaaaah! six more vegetable broths. This week is looking up! I may actually be able to pull off this fast thing without cheating or stopping early for a non-medical reason!

Days 6-8: juice fast

Mood: A bit sleepy
Weight loss: 14.6 lbs (so close to 15, so close!) and dropped 7.75″ around my body
Cravings: Luckily the green bean cravings have left, but they’ve been replaced by naughtier cravings for protein and salty things. I’m glad I don’t have sweet cravings or feel the need for a Diet Coke anymore.

I couldn’t be arsed to open my computer all weekend, so today is a 3-day summary post. I’ll break it down day-by-day for you. Let’s just say that the entire weekend was about cravings, dealing with cravings, trying to convince myself that I should break my fast early, and did I mention cravings?

Friday

Tea party = evil temptation.

The day started off great because I had my delicious pomelo-strawberry-orange juice. Mmmmm! I was proud of myself for making it through creation of a bath of oreo balls without any of it passing my lips. But that was the easy part. Before I left to go to an afternoon meeting, I saw all the other goodies people in the office had made for our tea party fundraiser. Check out the photo. I walked by without grazing. Woot! Another check for the win column.

But the challenges didn’t end there. I had to drive by La Perla for the second time that week, my absolute favorite Mexican restaurant. Then the afternoon meeting had temptation: three giant bowls filled with pretzels, skittles and M&Ms. Peanut M&Ms. My favorite. Alas, I resisted temptation again! Who the hell am I?! Where did this willpower come from?!

I spent Friday night at my friend Dana’s house, armed with a bottle of juice. She’s the one who got me juicing in the first place so I knew should I need some sort of emergency juice to combat a craving, I’d be safe. In addition to playing with her freakishly adorable baby (the freakishly adorable 5-year-old was at his grandparents, dang!), we went to Fred Meyer for some grocery shopping. I had a bit of a list going and know they have great produce. I got some blackberries, ginger root (kept forgetting to pick that one up), chard, kiwi and beets. I had already been dealing with the toughest bout of cravings so far on the fast and the store wasn’t helping. The bakery section smelled amazing. Their hot food deli area has sausages on a stick. On a stick! Why yes, I would like a box of corn dogs. Oh! How about that salad kit! I could use a nice salad with nuts and dressing. Not juiced salad. Please, no more juiced salad. You get the idea. I survived the store. Barely.

I spent the rest of the evening at Dana’s, trying to choke down the veggie-heavy juice I had. It was so tough to drink. I don’t know if it was the cabbage flavor starting to get to me or the sickeningly sweet flavor of grapes, but it was really hard to drink. I’m getting tired of the veg heavy juices. Real tired.

Saturday
I slept way too long on Friday night and decided to be lazy all weekend. My justification was that I’d been hard on

Kiwi and strawberry juice ingredients. Sure couldn't find anything so simple in most grocery stores!

my body with the fast and wanted to let it rest and do it’s thang. Yeah, that’s it. Okay, it is a bit logical and I got to read a lot and play video games. Win-win! I treated myself to another delicious fruit recipe of strawberries and kiwi once my dog, Rufus, and I finally crawled out of bed. It was nice and tart because the kiwis weren’t fully ripe. I liked it. For lunch I decided to eff the veg juice and have more fruit. Hey, it’s the weekend and I knew cravings would be even tougher to deal with because I wouldn’t have the structure or distraction of my daily work schedule. I had a frozen berry medley bag from Trader Joe’s that I had thrown into the fridge in a bowl to thaw the day before. I juiced that shiz up and it was so good! I loved the heavy berry flavor.

I probably could have went the rest of the day without juice, my hunger has diminished and stomach is shrinking like crazy. But I needed some veg and to keep my metabolism going. I added some ginger root this time and that really helped, I could choke it down. I also left out the grapes. Saturday evening evolved into a marathon of chick flicks and playing Fallout 3. Which I pwned, in case you were wondering.

Sunday
I stayed in bed for about 12 hours, sleeping a majority of it. I finally got out of bed when my back and ass were tired of being horizontal. Breakfast juice was blackberries, blueberries (which I froze fresh from a crate I picked over the summer and had thawed in the fridge), and strawberries. It was pretty good, but I preferred the taste of the berry medley from the day before.

I did a lot of reading on how to break the fast. And I feel quite intimidated by it. I’ll definitely continue this blog through that process, hoping it will be helpful for those of you following along or who stumble upon this adventure. If I do it right, the breaking of the fast (I feel like I should capitalize that because it sounds so ominous, but the AP Style nut in me REFUSES to overcapitalize things. I refuse, dammit!) will take about another week. I probably should have read more about this phase before I started the fast, but I’m not very patient. The whole idea of doing it super slow is that your digestive system has been pretty dormant during the fast. If you introduce too much food or too many kinds at a quick rate, it will freak the eff out. Also, you’ll probably gain a lot of the weight back. So you have to be very slow and intentional about it. I’m determined not to get sick, harm my body or gain the weight back so I’m going to do it right.

And if I’m being honest to you, dear reader, (and to myself), the fear of breaking the fast wrong and throwing my body in to turmoil has helped me fight cravings. Start reading about it now, you’ll see what I mean. Reminded me of watching a live birth video in middle school, scaring me away from even the thought of having sex. I promise I won’t eat a burger! I PROMISE!

I felt kinda yucky yesterday. My upper stomach/below the chest felt weird. Almost a bit distended and my hunger was different than usual. I was a bit nervous, but just kept an eye on it. I didn’t have much juice yesterday (really hard to choke down the veg), hoping that would calm it. I feel a lot better today.

The weekend’s challenges came to a head on Sunday evening. I had to make a bunch of stuff for a bake sale happening on Tuesday. My kitchen was a war zone filled with oreo balls (yes, I had to suffer through that again), sugar cookies (my Christmas-time kryptonite), and I baked two loaves of break – cinnamon sugar and also rosemary. Oy.

Well folks, I made it through without sampling anything! I went to bite my fingernail and there was a piece of oreo underneath and I freaking, got up and washed my hands. I guess I’m taking this fast thing a bit seriously.

This sort of reminds me of a truffle. A pulpy pomelo-strawberry-orange-spinach truffle

I then made my juice for Monday. I made the pomelo – strawberry – orange combo again, with a handful of spinach this time. And for lunch I have apple, celery, ginger, lemon and chard. I need a break from the cabbage and I want to try the chard. Oh, and a couple of carrots too.

Here I sit, writing this post on Monday morning, drinking my yummy juice and realizing that I only have six more days. On the downhill slope! I’ve been thinking a lot about what I’m going to eat after the fast and how I’m going to get my fruit/veg servings and maintain healthy eating. I think I’m going to stick to juicing for breakfast with mostly fruit and a big hunk of spinach to get most of my servings. I think I’ll need a break from the veg-heavy juice for a while. But I plan to keep juicing daily, it’s such an efficient way to get nutrients! And much cheaper than I’d anticipated.

Day 5: juice fest

I fought the law, and...I won!

Mood: a bit sleepy
Weight loss: 11.6 lbs
Cravings: Oh, a whole lot of things.

Yesterday was tough on the cravings front. There was delicious looking and smelling food everywhere. Everywhere. Cupcakes, sandwiches, veggies not in juice form. The hardest was the lunch my friend Denise brought that she had made the night before. I got a whiff of something in my office and followed the delectable scent. Stuffed bell peppers with all sorts of amazing things that I wanted in my belly. They smelled so so so so good. Let’s just say that after I’m weaned off the fast, I’m gonna make me some stuffed bell peppers. Mmmm.

The challenges continued. Today we’re having a fundraiser at work, selling seatings at a tea party. My contribution was to make oreo cream cheese balls dipped in chocolate. That meant I had to suffer through the food processing of oreos, which meant filling my kitchen with the smell of fluffy oreos. I teased my friend Jo who was hanging out with me (or I’d like to think, being a bodyguard to stand between me and the sweet stuff), that now I knew what Edward felt like being around the smell of Bella’s blood. Yeah, I went there. Deal with it.

So then I had to mix the oreo dirt with cream cheese. Next step was to roll those in to balls. This meant getting the evil oreo mixture under my fingernails. I became a compulsive handwasher. I did not want the chocolate on my body. No temptation. NO TEMPTATION! Then I had to melt chocolate and dip the oreo balls in it. Jo was kind enough to lick the utensils clean to keep the temptation from me.

I succeeded in avoiding all temptation all day. So I decided to treat myself in two phases. Phase 1: juice a can of green beans. It had to happen. It helped my craving a bit because the juiced green beans were not good. Really thick like baby food and super salty. Phase 2: Make an amazing breakfast juice using the strawberries and pomelo I’d been saving for Mel and I. I made a veg-free juice of strawberries, pomelo (tastes tart like grapefruit, but a bit sweeter), and orange. I’m drinking it now and holy bologna it is amazing. Definitely a nice treat on my sixth day of the fast.