My Typical Veggie/Fruit Juice

Over the past 6 months, I have become obsessed with juicing and its amazing results.  Green juice is by far my favorite “go-to” food because it’s easy to digest and it makes me feel great afterward!   There are two different books* that I have read in regards to juicing that have sparked my interest in this healthy trend:

1.  The Ultimate pH Solution, by Michelle Schoffro Cook

2.  Crazy Sexy Diet: Eat Your Veggies, Ignite Your Spark, and Live Like You Mean It!, by Kris Carr

(*I am in not a medical professional and in no way represent or sponsor these authors)

Basically, what I learned from my reading is that a good dose of daily fresh green vegetable juice can be extremely beneficial for your body. The reasoning gets a little complicated but bear with me.

Throughout our day, our body is constantly trying to balance the pH of our blood.  This is when our body functions best.  Unfortunately, there are several outside factors that can cause our blood to become too acidic.  A primary factor that can effect the pH balance of our blood is the food that we consume.  For example, alcohol, caffeine, meat, dairy, processed food, and cheese all have a very acidic effect on our blood.  Why is this bad?  If our blood is too acidic, our body can become desperate to balance our pH.  This can include pulling nutrients from our bones in order to raise the pH.  Furthermore, diseases thrive in our body in a very acidic environment.  The reason a lot of people get sick around the holidays is because we consume a lot of acidic food during the holidays.  Acidic foods lower the pH of our blood, inviting flus and colds to come on in and make themselves at home.

And this is where these two books helped change my concept of how I can help my own health.  Acidic blood can lead to all sorts of problems, including chronic illnesses.  But the coolest part about this is that we can actually help out bodies balance our pH through what we eat.  This means that through what I eat, I can raise the pH balance of my blood and help decrease my chronic symptoms.  I can do this by eating alkaline foods.  (The Ultimate pH Solution has an excellent chart of alkaline and acidic foods).  Alkaline foods include leafy and green vegetables.  Thus, since green vegetable juice has a very alkalizing affect on our blood, it is extremely beneficial to consume daily.

Personally, I like to start the day with 16 ounces of green juice.

My “go-to” green juice (which makes 32 ounces) is:

6-10 dino kale leaves (dino kale is a very nutrient dense leafy green)

2 peeled cucumbers

2 apples- Fruit can be acidic, but I need a little sweetness in my life:)

Liquid Sunshine!

When I’m feeling fancy, I’ll sometimes add various other goodies: broccoli stems, celery, carrots, romaine, beets, ginger, lemon, watermelon, grapefruit.

Green juice in the morning is great because it is easy to digest (the machine did all the chewing for me), it’s full of nutrients (I’m drinking a salad!) and it instantly alkalizes my blood.  Because of the nutrients it also gives me a burst of energy.  Also, your blood is very acidic when you first wake up so consuming anything alkalizing in the morning really helps your body.

There are two cons to juicing: cost and time, but I have learned to work with these constraints.

Here is my cost breakdown:

Weekly Produce needed for Green Juice (For me, buying produce from the Los Angeles Farmer’s Market is significantly cheaper than buying produce from the grocery store):

14 cucumbers @ .79/each= $11

3 heads of kale @ $2/each= $6

14 apples @$5/bag= $10 (2 bags)

That means that for $27, my boyfriend and I can both have 16 ounces of green juice every day for a week.  That means it costs me around $2/day to make myself 16 ounces of green juice.  Pricey?  Yes.  But I forgo coffee at Starbucks, or a soda at lunch, and I make it work.  (Because of the benefits, I also never have to buy flu medicine or cough syrup.)

Including prep, juice time, and clean up, it usually takes me 30-40 minutes to make 32 ounces of juice.  The reason juicing takes so long is because the machine is doing the chewing for you.  I think it would take me all day to eat 10 dino kale leaves, but thanks to my fancy machine, I can just drink it.  In order to pass the time, I make my lunch for the day (usually a salad) while I juice.  By planning a little ahead and multi-tasking, the time constraint is also feasible.

Mason Jars are Convenient

So personally, after 6 months of juicing, do I feel the benefits?  YES!  It is so worth it.  When I am consistent in drinking a daily green juice, my energy level is higher, my skin looks better, my joints feel better, my stomach cramps less, and my nausea diminishes.  I rarely get colds or flus, and if I do, they are extremely mild.

In conclusion, 1 glass of fresh green vegetable juice a day will keep the doctor away. 

For the past couple of months, I have been so frozen with worry that I haven’t been able to do anything.  Career-wise, I know what I want to do with my life, and I know how to get what I want, but when it comes down to actually DOING what I need to do, I freeze like a deer in headlights.  I want to make it professionally as a full time comedic actress, and I’m so worried by the inevitability of it all, by the insurmountable and overwhelming amount of hard work that looms ahead, that I stop all action.

In so many ways, I’m so afraid of failure, I’m so afraid of being imperfect, that it stops me from following my dreams.  Getting sick and my continued struggle with my health has also helped contribute to this feeling of ineptitude and powerlessness.  I never used to second guess my actions.  I was Queen Know-It-All of Turd Mountain, and nothing could make me falter in my pursuit for success.

When I got really sick,  life pulled that security rug right out from underneath my feet, and I was left weak and flailing, trying to find my way back to that confident girl I used to be.  Due to my chronic digestive issues, I was forced to scrutinize my own lifestyle and eating choices, and I am still evolving my lifestyle so that my body and I can co-exist in harmony.   Because I do not have health insurance (more on that later),  I still have yet to get all of the answers I need regarding my health, and I believe that my continued pain and nausea has also led to my exacerbated fear of the unknown/future.

So where do I go from here?  Primarily, I need to love me for me.  I am beautiful and perfect, no matter what I do, and I need to remember that.  I need to stop beating myself up for being sick.  I need to stop worrying about the girl I used to be, and focus on the amazing woman I am.  Most of all, I need to take action.  I really am the only thing standing in the way of my dreams.  If I stopped wasting all of my energy on worrying, and took that energy and spent it on DOING, I’d be a success by now.  Don’t worry, Just Do!

It’s time for me to watch my calories!  I’m trying to put on weight, and in order to do so, I’m trying to eat at least 2,500 calories/day.  I want to start working out again (I had to take a break because of my low weight), so if I do so, I’m going to have to eat even more calories than that!  hahaha! But it’s 2011 and time for me to get my weight back on track!

I’ve never ever had to count my calories before, so it’s really weird for me to measure my food and plan it out.  I discovered this Calorie Calculator on iGoogle, and it pretty much does all the work for me!  It’s amazing!  I sometimes have to research and add certain foods I eat to the list, but that’s it!  Every day, I just add what I ate and the portions, and it adds up how many calories I’ve had.  YAYAYAY!

I’m super excited because my breakfast today was 1,015 calories, all in healthy fresh natural food!  Plus it was super YUMMY!

Here’s what I ate and the calorie breakdown:

• Agave Nectar 1 tbsp – 1 portion, 60 Cal
• Apples, Raw, With Skin – 1 cup, 65 Cal  (1/2 apple)
  
• Bananas, Raw – 1 cup, 133 Cal   (1 banana)
  
• Barley, Hulled – 1 cup, 651 Cal  (Cooked as Porridge)
  
• Pumpkin Seeds – 0.125 cup, 93 Cal
• Seeds, Flaxseed – 0.5 tbsp, 13 Cal

What’s even more awesome about counting my calories in this way is that I get encouraged!  If I can eat than many calories in 1 healthy meal, I can gain weight in no time.  As long as I plan and stay positive, I’ll be at my optimum weight in no time: 110-115 pounds!  YAY!

I made a delicious smoothie today.  It included:

The flesh and water of 1 young Thai coconut

1 banana

1 cup frozen mangos

1 cup frozen mixed berries

1 cup Mango-Passion Juice

1 cup water

2 spoonfuls sprouted quinoa

2 spoonfuls hemp seeds

1 handful almonds

1 handful of spinach

Blend it up and drink away!

So, the past week was pretty rough for me.  I’m not sure of the exact cause- did I not eat enough, did I stress out too much, did I not get enough rest?  The possibilities are endless, and they only serve as an overwhelming reminder of how helpless I feel when it comes to my own health.

Every morning I would wake up at 5 am from severe pain and nausea in my abdomen.  I would run to the bathroom and heave and cry over the toilet while my amazing boyfriend rubbed my back and soothed me with calming words.  I can’t wait until these mornings are over.  It’s hard for me when I get sick, because I don’t just bounce back.  It’s kind of a Catch 22 situation.  I throw up and can’t keep anything down, and then I lose weight, which makes me sicker, and then I lose more weight, and the cycle continues…

I’m tormented by so many emotions when I relapse and my symptoms return.  I’m nervous, ashamed, scared shitless, frustrated as all hell, I feel helpless, and I feel judged.  I’m sure the intensity in these emotions has a lot to do with the fact that my body is exhausted and running on very little calories, so my brain has a hard time dealing.

What’s going to happen to my body if I can’t figure out how to gain this weight?  How can I put this weight back on if I keep getting sick?  What’s really wrong with me?  I don’t have health insurance right now, so I can’t afford to go back to the doctor and have more tests done.

Sometimes I can’t help but feeling like it’s all my fault I’m sick in the first place.  How did I get so sick so fast, and how can I stop it?  Furthermore, when I get sick, I feel like I’ve let not only myself down, but my family.  I need to be healthy for me and for my family.  I need to drag myself out of bed when I’m too sick and force food down my throat until I get better.  But it’s so hard when I don’t have the energy to stand up, let alone the energy to fight for my body when it doesn’t want to function.  It’s also hard because I don’t know what’s making me so damn sick in the first place.

Some people assume I just have image issues, and am afraid to put on the weight.  Trust me, if I could put this weight on, I would do it in a heartbeat.  And I will.  I will do whatever it takes to get my health back, for I am the only one with the power to do so.

So currently, a typical day for me would be:

64 oz lukewarm water throughout the day (freaking hard but I try because it stops the stomach cramping)

Hot Green tea

Breakfast: 1 cup cooked quinoa with some honey (and maybe a cup of miso soup)

Snack: 16 oz veggie/fruit juice (my favorite is cucumber, kale, apple and sometimes I’ll throw in a beet and some carrots)

Lunch: Usually a large salad with cooked quinoa, some beans (protein), carrots, cucumbers, romaine lettuce, onions, and some olive oil.  Sometimes I’ll add a sweet potato or something too.

2nd snack: 16 oz smoothie (with yogurt or coconut milk, mangoes, almonds, sprouted quinoa, berries, banana, some veggie or fruit juice and some water)

Dinner:  All sorts of stuff.  I love veggie stir fry.  My boyfriend also sometimes makes Japanese Hot pots.  If I’m having a really rough week, he might throw in some fish too so I have more protein/calories.  Last night, I made a soup with azuki beans, kabocha squash,  onions, carrots, and rutabaga.

3rd snack:  I’m usually bad and don’t make it to a 3rd snack.  My stomach gets too full!  But I’ll try and have a small glass of smoothie or something so I have some calories in me while I sleep.  My metabolism is ridiculously fast so if I don’t eat enough before I go to bed, I definitely will wake up sick the next morning.

Ever since losing my health insurance, I have done a lot of research on how the correct diet and lifestyle can help diminish the symptoms of chronic illnesses.  Some resources that seriously changed my life were:

Russell Mariani’s book, Healing Digestive Illnesses: Root Causes and Solutions

Kris Carr’s Community website, my.crazysexylife.com.  It’s an online community for wellness warriors, and I’ve learned a lot about healthy eating through here, as well as good advice on how to gain weight!

Alicia Silverstone’s The Kind Diet- It really helps explain how to easily incorporate a balanced, healthy vegan diet in your life

Every night as I go to bed, I hope that the next morning will be a smooth morning.  Mornings are the worst time for me.  My stomach is my alarm clock, waking me up in the early hours of the morning with nausea and cramping.  That alone makes it hard to drag myself out of bed in the morning, not to mention that then I have to try and shove food down my throat before I start gagging and can’t get anything down.  Fortunately, as I have switched over to a more vegan lifestyle, my rough mornings have started to diminish.  I just need to stick with it! 

Hey guys!  Thanks for stopping by!  I wanted to give you more of a background about my condition.  For the past two years, I have been struggling with severe digestive issues.  Every day, I have struggled with severe nausea, vomiting, and stomach pain.  If I’m not careful with how I treat my body (i.e. eat enough healthy food and get enough sleep), my colon becomes rock hard, protrudes from my abdomen, and I can’t function. My health got so bad last year that I went from 104 pounds down to 84 pounds within the span of 4 months.  I got so sick that I was placed on temporary disability from work by my doctor.   Unfortunately, I lost my job because of this, and thus my medical insurance.  I had spent thousands on medical bills, and the doctors had ruled it as IBS  and Fybromyalgia, but they said only time and more tests will tell…  However, once I lost my insurance, I decided to approach my chronic illness with a more holistic approach. Because of IBS, I can’t handle heavy, high fatty foods.  Meat is hard to digest.  I took out meat, and I have taken out most dairy.  While my symptoms are slowly starting to lessen (I haven’t thrown up in a couple of months!) I am still struggling to gain weight.  I am 5′4″ and am currently at 87 pounds.  I try and eat 4-6 small meals a day but that can be hard when you are too nauseous to swallow.