Three-Day Juice Reboot

With only 3.4 pounds left before reaching my 17.1-pound weight loss goal and after being recently inspired by my Mom's 41-day juice-only reboot, I was curious about going through my own three-day juice reboot in the Joe Cross style. I decided to try it over Labor Day weekend, before my life got busy again with grad school classes and homework. Here are some notes about my experience.

The Prep

Technically, the lat meal I ate was on Friday, 9/04, around 4:00pm. At the conclusion of a short road trip (around 8:45pm), I stopped at the grocery store to buy my juicing supplies. Luckily, I was able to find everything I needed relatively quickly with the help of the app, 101 Juice Recipes. Within the app, you can create your shopping list and mark items off as you put them in your cart/basket. If two different recipes require different amounts of the same vegetable, the app will do the math for you!!

I stayed up late to wash all the produce I purchased and I juiced enough Triple C ingredients (recipe below) to use the entire cabbage.

Day 1
Saturday morning, I had the recommended hot lemon water instead of coffee as soon as I woke up, and followed it with a 16-oz jar of Triple C juice. It surprised me how I didn't actually miss having my coffee!

Activities: 
- Juiced enough to fill a few more jars
- 13-mile bike ride
- Lunch with boyfriend's parents (I drank Kombucha while they ate)
- Quick trip into Whole Foods (where I found the all-natural coconut water)

How I felt:
- Surprisingly good
- Slight headache (possibly from no caffeine and/or allergy medicine)
- Tired (I went to bed at 6pm and slept till 6am on Sunday!)

What I learned:
- Bringing juice along in a cooler when doing exercise is a GREAT idea!
- Drink lots of water. It was really muggy for the bike ride and I sweated a lot. I didn't drink enough water throughout the day to make up for it.

Day 2
Activities: 

- Breakfast with boyfriend (I brought juice with me)
- Went shopping for bike shorts
- Sorted my books (KonMari style!)
- Took a 40-minute nap
- Helped boyfriend prepare macaroni and cheese dinner for our guests

How I felt:
- Tired (physically)
- A little weak (while running errands)
- Once people started to arrive for dinner, I felt close to giving in and having some macaroni and cheese. I texted my Mom and she said, "Drink a green juice and it will pass." It did.

What I learned:
- Take it easy (physically) while doing a juice reboot.
- It's okay to take a nap.
- I don't NEED coffee to function.

Day 3

Activities: 
- Sorted photos from Friday's road trip
- Lunch with boyfriend and his friends from college (I brought my coconut water and had hot lemon water)
- Tidied up the apartment
- Laundry
- Around 3pm had my first food since Friday afternoon

How I felt:
- Tired (physically)
- A little weak
- Awake
- In need of 'real' (aka 'solid') food to complete the laundry chore

What I learned:
- It's okay to conserve your energy.

Results
- Weight = -3.5 lbs from Saturday morning to Monday morning
- Non-Scale Victory = I was able to fit into some smaller-sized jeans I found in my closet, and a dress and shorts that I wore last summer!

What I Learned Overall:
- It really makes a different to drink plenty of water, coconut water, herbal tea, and Kombucha in between all the juices.
- When in doubt, "Drink a green juice and it will pass".
- Only juice enough for about 1 day at a time, otherwise the juice will go bad.
- I bought enough produce to give me juice for more than 3 days.
- I am capable of doing a juice reboot for (nearly) three days!

Afterwards
I notice that I am reacting to foods in a different way. My coffee doesn't seem to taste as good. I felt like crap after having crackers for a snack at work and I CRAVED vegetables (i.e., salad) for lunch like I never had before. After work on Tuesday, I did a quick 2-mile jog before class. I had a jar of juice and I could only finish part of the quinoa and lentils that I had prepared (i.e., I am eating less).

Cost
Total Cost = $68.67 + tax

Cost Breakdown
By Category

Vegetables - $18.13

Fruit - $13.82

Juice containers - $7.49

Additional fluids - $29.13

By Item

Apples, Gala - $0.95

Apples, Green - $3.89

Broccoli - $1.69

Cabbage - $1.50

Caffeine free herbal tea - $3.69

Carrots - $3.18

Celery - $5.07

Coconut water (pure) - $14.97

Cucumbers - $2.36

Ginger Root - $0.56

Fennel - $1.99
Kale - $1.78

Kombucha - $10.47

Lemons - $3.99

Mason jars - $7.49

Oranges - $3.99

Pears - $0.47

Tomatoes - $0.53

Recipes

I used recipes found in Joe Cross's app: 101 Juice Recipes. 

Caprese Salad

(makes 2 servings)
3 plum tomatoes
1 fennel
1 small handful basil
0.5 lemon
1 pinch sea salt
0.5 tsp olive oil

Go-To Green

(makes 2 servings)

2 handfuls spinach
2 carrots
2 apples
2 ribs celery
1 cucumber

Green Carrot Ginger

(makes 2 servings)

1 inch ginger
1 cucumber
4 carrots
3 leaves kale
0.5 pear

Oh, Sweet Broccoli

(makes 2 servings)

2 oranges
1.5 head broccoli
1 cucumber
1 carrot

Triple C

(makes 2 servings)

0.25 head cabbage
3 carrots
4 ribs celery
1 green apple
1 lemon

A Motivating Benchmark, Plus Healthy Snack Ideas

For the past three weeks, I've been trying to get back into a more regular workout schedule. I notice that when I skip workouts, my lower back and shoulders feel tight and uncomfortable, and I really have to watch what I eat. When I exercise, my muscles feel looser and I have a little wiggle room in terms of my calorie intake.

A discovery I've made this week is that I've found some time-saving healthy snacks to eat. Before, I would spend a lot of time preparing smoothie bags for the week - and I think I've found a time-saving alternative to throw into the mix (i.e., I plan to still find time to make smoothies for breakfast occasionally).

Here are a few healthy snack ideas:

• sliced cucumber and hummus
• sliced bell pepper (I prefer orange, red, or yellow)
• sliced or whole apples (I prefer Honey Crisp, Pink Lady, or Jazz)

Current goal: Lose ~15 lbs.

Current loss*: 10 lbs.

*For a more current amount, see the icon in the top right corner of this blog.

This step toward my weight-loss goal has earned me a badge on Fitbit.com!

On Track...!

The past few weeks have been unusual, in terms of my workout routine, but somehow I managed to lose my first 5 pounds!

Current goal: Lose ~15 lbs.

Current loss*: 5 lbs.

*For a more current amount, see the icon in the top right corner of this blog.

This step forward toward my weight-loss goal has earned me a badge on Fitbit.com!

More Attainable Goals

I've had a goal set in my trackers saying that I wanted to lose about 40 pounds. That seems so far out of reach, so I'm going to try something a little differently: I'm going to set smaller goals that can actually be attained, and then reset with another small goal.

Side note: I've restarted my breakfast smoothie routine this week - and I feel so much better getting all those nutrients in the morning!

Previous goal: Lose ~40 lbs.
Current goal: Lose ~15 lbs.

Today's body fat reading: 38.4%

Let's keep this downward trend going!

Quick update

As of this morning, I've dropped below 40% body fat! 

Update

I started the calorie-counting and exercising in February, but by March my schedule got out of whack again. I gained 10 pounds and now I'm working on getting back down to my 'original' starting weight. Once that happens, I am hoping it won't be long until I can start seeing more progress.

In other news, I signed up for summer workout classes. I'll be taking:
Saturdays: Sculpt & Stretch
Sundays: Cardio-Sculpt

Also done today:
Regular plank: 26 seconds

Determined

Determined to 'earn my shower' after a weekend away and the day spent in the car. Did my Workout #2 followed by my best attempt at planking. My sister inspired me to try the planking.

Today:

Regular plank: 20 seconds 

Left side plank: 15 seconds

Right side plank: 15 seconds

Back to -3 from -5

I just have to keep reminding myself that weight fluctuation is going to happen. Yesterday was a relatively good calorie day AND I worked out in the evening. :)

Found: New Tasty Food

Today, I re-discovered that it's not okay to go to the grocery store before a meal. I also discovered something in Kroger's sushi section called Vegetable Rolls. They are veggies wrapped in lettuce leaves and tapioca something-or-other instead of rice and seaweed. Therefore, less carbs and calories than the other "sushi" I usually get: California Rolls. They were super tasty and came with a packet of sweet chili sauce to dip them in. For a me-sized person, they were pretty filling, too. Although, I should have had a glass of water instead of 3/4 cup of Special K, Cinnamon Brown Sugar Crunch cereal. (But there are worse things I could have eaten!)

Photo from this website

Earn that shower!

I wanted to take a shower to 'freshen up', but I knew if I did, I would not do any exercise today. Instead, I made myself 'earn' the shower by doing this workout first.

Wish List: Aria Scale from Fitbit

I've been wearing a Fitbit pedometer for a few years now, and I love it. Especially now that they've added the challenges in the mobile app so you can compete with family and friends. I have my eye on the digital scale that Fitbit makes, too. It also syncs with your Fitbit account. (Plus, it shows a decimal point, unlike the old scale I'm currently using.) It's a little expensive, so I've created a 'wish list' item in my bank account so I can start saving up for it. Perhaps by this summer it will be mine! There's a link below for more information. 

Update: I acquired this scale in April 2015 - and I love it! It makes tracking my progress more fun and high-tech.

Fitbit and the Fitbit logo(s) are trademarks of Fitbit, Inc.

Extra Motivation

As another way to motivate myself in the weight-loss department, I created a digital 'vision board' that I will see while at my computer. Because I'm going to be in a friend's wedding this summer, wearing a strapless dress, I want to have toned arms and to be thinner around the middle. I also added some education-related photos because I've been struggling with being motivated to get my homework and studying done in a timely manner this semester. I'm hoping that seeing these images will make me want to get up and exercise more - - and, hopefully, I'll spend more time at my computer getting homework done, too!

Back to -4!

I had my doubts about this week because of the Girl Scout Cookies... But then, I was feeling under the weather and slept for 24 of 36 hours this Thursday night to Saturday morning. Even though I was over my Friday calorie limit by over 600, the last thing I ate was around 1pm. I napped for 4 hours before going to bed and sleeping another 11 hours. I woke up and weighed myself, and was 2 pounds less than the morning before. Yes, probably a fluke... but there is something motivating about seeing that lower number on the scale again.

At 3:30pm on Saturday, I'm 164 calories over my 1,200 daily limit. I'm planning on being sedentary for the rest of the day (at least between trips to the basement for laundry - down 2 flights of stairs and back up), but my desire to not let the number on the scale creep back up again, I'm going to make sure I only eat low-calorie fruits or veggies until bed time instead of the usual high-calorie snacks I crave. We'll see how it goes!

Temptation Wins This Week

It's the time of year for Girl Scout Cookies! Those tasty little cookies are so easy to snack on, and before you known it, you've eaten half the box. (Whoops...) Therefore, my calorie count has been higher than it's supposed to be for several days now. I've also not mastered the art of saving calories for dinner time. I end up having several snacks throughout the day (healthy, and not very many calories each) and they add up quickly. Dinner ends up being more than the calories I have left for the day. Something to work on...

Back-slide

I went backwards a bit the past few days. A combination of consuming too many calories and not being active due to not feeling well. I gained a few pounds back. It's incredible how quickly it can change.

1,200-Calorie Limit

It's tough - but I'm sticking to it! I've been under 1,200 calories (or very close to it) for 10 days now, and already lost 4 pounds. I guess that goes to show how much extra food I had been eating without realizing it!
My clothes already fit better than they have in months... I'm going to keep chugging along. :)