What I ate today- Before Dinner

For the past three days I have started my day by cuddling with baby Lex and drinking water with freshly squeezed lemon. After I drink one to two glasses of water, I make fresh pressed juice.

I bought a Breville Juicer about a year in a half ago with the intention of doing a 3 day juice fast and then juice semi regularly after that. I have not completed any of the fasts I have tried and then I only used my juicer once or twice a month. How foolish I was because now I am in love with my morning juice.

This morning I juiced beet greens and kale, celery, cucumber, fresh pineapple cores, ginger, and an orange. I

Recipe:
12 leaves of kale, beet greens
2 celery stalks
2 inches of fresh ginger root
1/2 large cucumber
1 Cara orange
1 core of pineapple

This juice is slightly sweet despite the pineapple and orange I used. I am not overly fond of sweet juices so when juiced a lot of greens.

Starting my day with fresh juice I am finding has helped me continue making healthy food choices throughout the day. So far so good. I have also stopped eating foods containing wheat these past three days. I made muffins and pancakes and was able to eat one or two during the entire day as opposed to eating six, or seven during the day. The mouthfeel of gluten free and mostly grain free (still using oatmeal) is different and not so addicting for me. I will keep this two habits up after these three days. If i do eat wheat containing foods or not start my day with fresh press juice I notice differences if I feel differently or eat differently afterwards.

After my fresh juice I made 8 coconut-pumpkin pancakes using shredded coconut, pumpkin, almond milk, oatmeal. At this moment I am not going to give you the recipe because it is not my own but I will update the link soon.

For lunch I made a black bean soup that tasted like Paneras- google "panera black bean soup recipe" and you will find it! i made a corn, avocado, cilantro-lime, and tomato salsa. I didn't really measure it, but it turned out as a perfect compliment to the black bean soup. To add some crunch , I added gluten-free multigrain seed crackers.

Post workout- I guzzled down my plant protein powder with soy milk and water. Plant Fusion is the brand and chocolate is the flavor. Like chocolate milk but better!

Dinner will be broccoli, asparagus, and tofu sautéed in a little grapeseed oil and Braggs Amino Acids- like soy sauce, over a bed of lettuce. And two fresh spring rolls made with jicama, carrot, and red pepper. I will do another post with that recipe soon.

Okay that is about it. If I am hungry after dinner I will made a chia pudding and eat!

Eating like this feels much better than my previous over eating.

Next post will be a post-partum weight loss update and maybe a cute picture of Baby Lex and Rocket :-)

Run Today and Then Some

Today started out with good intentions: a gentle detox for my body and my mind.  The goal was to do a water, juice, and herbal tea fast today not for weight loss but to give my body a day off from using so much engery to digest food.  I read an article last night in one of the free mini-magazines that I get from my local health food store that discussed how much engery the body uses to digest cooked foods so last night I decided that I would give my body the rest it needed by drinking lots of fresh pressed juice with my Breville Juicer and lots of herbal tea and water.  Those good intentions lasted until 10am when I decided what I really wanted was homemade hot chocolate and toast with earth balance.  Staying vegan, I used non-dairy chocolate chips melted in soy milk but regardless my good intentions were waylaid completely for my desire for sugar and fat.  After finishing said hot chocolate and toast I felt pretty crappy and for the next 2 hours watched National Geographic's "Wild China" and reading my almost completed fiction novel of the month: Under Fishbone Clouds by Sam Meekings- which by the way is written like an extended and mythic poem.  When Rocket awoke from his nap ready to play and eventually eat. I still felt sluggish and foolish for giving in so easily to the lure of hot chocolate and toast, and it was pretty difficult to be my usual "run around the house and play with my son' kind of mom.  Regardless I did my best to muster up some sort of enthusiasm when I took him outside for some sunlight and fresh air.  The combination of the two had a rejuivenating effect on me because within 10 minutes or so I was stretching out my body and playing with Rocket with gusto.  After a while I felt ready to take Rocket for a little walk in the jogger.  Well that short walk turned into a nearly 4 miles jog/run/speed walk/recovery walk.  Happy to say that afterwards I feel pretty awesome and ready to get all the little things I had planned today completed sans fasting.  

Right after running. Rocket fell asleep on mile 2.

A little bit about my run:
     I ran the first 2.25 miles at about a 12 minute per mile pace. Slow and steady as I really had not run the last week as I focused more on strength training and besides it was rainy and cold.  After I had returned running back to my cul de sac I felt really limber and ready to run faster so I picked up the pace for the next 0.1 miles and alternated sprinting that and walking the next 0.1 miles two more times. After that I increased the sprint to 0.15 miles with same distance recovery speed walk two more times. Finally I finished up with a 0.2 mile sprint and a slow jog until I had completed 3.5 miles.  

 

As always after I am done I do a recovery cool-down walk and stretch out my lower body doind static stretches.