Good Eats

Work & dieting

jen powell — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 23:06:19 +0000

It’s hard to do the 2. Beg. of the year we put in 12 hour days. It’s long & exhausting and when I’m exhausted I feel the need to treat myself. Got to break that habit!

My husband Drew has come to visit for the past 2 weekends!

The 1st time he came i had NO clue he was coming. It was SUCH an amazing surprise!! I miss him & probably won’t get to see him much, if at all, till he graduates from training on Dec. 22. SO sad!

I made him a couple of juices full of fruit & veggies the 1st time he was down. He seemed to like them!

After he left I snacked on lots of antipasto & bruschetta! mmmmm

Working out is on hold at the moment as school is WAY too busy AAAAAANNNND i managed to hurt my knee (only I could do that!) But I hope to start back next week! I’m trying to be as good as possible, but I’ve been REALLY bad lately Can’t be too hard on myself, just have to keep on keeping on! While school is busy I plan on juice for breakfast & lunch then have a snack at school & small dinner at home. I never sit at work so there’s no time to really eat any way! Here’s to being MUCH better on my “diet” !!!!!!

Beet Juice

jen powell — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 22:47:15 +0000

At lunch today Jana (Drew’s mom) Grandad and I headed out to a Greek restaurant near by called Tinos Greek Cafe. I ordered a gyro & chicken lemon soup

What a GREAT little place! The gyro meat was so flavorful & there was so much of it! Love this restaurant & I’m sad it took me so long to try it.

Yesterday I picked up some beet roots to try in juice. Tonights juice had:

Kale (most nutrient green on the planet!)
Carrots (benefits bone health & eyesight)
Celery (balances the body’s PH & full of B vitamins)
Lemon
Red apple (vitamin C & antioxidants)
Beet root (repairs blood cells & detoxifies liver, kidneys & bladder)

The end result was pretty

I could only drink about 2/3 of the juice. The overwhelming beet flavor was hard to get down at first but it got easier as I kept drinking. It was also a bit more work since you have to peel the root & chopping it is not the easiest of tasks, but beets have great health benefits so it is an ok dinner maybe once a week!

Trying new things

jen powell — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 18:27:32 +0000

I love, love, love juicing! I just loaded up on new fruits and veggies from Central Market. Picked up a few new fruits & veggies to try out so we will see how that goes. I bought mostly organic this time & it was more expensive, but its worth it.

My mean green for dinner is so good:

Last night I did an experiment…I always drink my juice right after I make it. Since school is starting soon I’m going to need to make my breakfast juice the night before. Last night I juiced:

Strawberries
Grapes
Celery
Lemon
Kale
Pink Lady apple
Carrots

It was still really good this morning so I’m glad that will work once I go back to school.

For lunches, I’ve been having Amy’s meals. They’re organic, mostly gluten free & portioned controlled so I don’t have to worry about it. Today I tried the cheese enchiladas:

These had REALLY good flavor! They had a lot of sauce & were a tiny greasy, but really good!

I’ll officially be DONE with my Masters program by tomorrow! I have 1 more assignment & a response and thats IT! So relieved to not have that stress anymore. Now I can just focus on getting Drew & I moved to Jersey in a few months. Drew got a new hair cut for training…he looks like a military boy ha!

2 Weeks Juicing

jen powell — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 17:54:11 +0000

I’ve had a lot of energy lately…I’m feeling “normal” again! For so many months I was just drained of all energy & had no motivation to do anything. SOOO happy to feel so good!

Morning juice always has more fruit in it. This morning I had:

Green apple
Pink Lady apple
2 carrots
1 c. purple grapes

I decided I would take a class today at the gym & this morning they had my favorite:

SO fun!!! I’ve been too intimidated at the gym to work out much or go to classes, but zumba was a great way to get back in the groove. In the valley Zumba = tejano music…which is still fun but this class was more dance club music. LOVED it! Which brings me to my challenge. For the next 21 days I am going to go to 1 class a day at the gym. They say it takes 21 to form a habit so today was day 1 of the workout challenge for myself. It’s going to be HARD since back to school is completely exhausting but I’m determined to stick to it.

Lunch was a yum Amy’s meal:

And dinner will be a Mean Green.

I told myself after each 10lbs loss I would let myself have a cheat day. I hit the 1st 10 two days ago. I have to say that the simple carbs & sugar I had as a cheat was not great. It made me feel horrible the next day and made me realize that juicing is much, much more than just losing weight for me..it’s something i have to do to feel GOOD.

Feeling GREAT!

jen powell — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 15:16:55 +0000

Still juicing 2 meals a day. I woke up this morning at 4 feeling great & wide awake! I went out last night with Anna. We went to Chuys. I had a margarita, soup & salad as my meal. The margarita did me in since I haven’t had any alcohol. I could barely eat my meal but I think that’s a good thing! Shows my juicing is working. I feel better than I have in 6 months and & am down 8lbs!

Today I’m going to start working out along with the diet so hopefully I’ll get to my goal by December 22!

1st week of juicing

jen powell — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 23:55:31 +0000

I can’t do a complete fast But I’m still juicing for breakfast & dinner with a light, healthy lunch. Gotta do with what I’m going to stick with for the long haul.

This is my every day breakfast. I LOVE it!

Celery
Pink lady apple
Green apple
Strawberries
Lemon

This is my every day dinner now:

Kale
Carrots
Celery
Pink lady apple
Green apple
Lemon
Pineapple

I wanted more veggies in my juice so I tried to make something that i HOPED tasted like V8

Tomato
Celery
Carrots
Lime
Cucumber
Hot sauce

This was an EPIC fail. Soooooooo gross!!!! I’ll just have to add veggies to my lunch meal.

I’ve lost about 6 lbs so far and I feel much better already! Nights are the hardest for me. Its hard to go to bed “hungry” but other than that I’ve really had no problems so far!

Less hunger

jen powell — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 18:19:26 +0000

I’ve noticed that when I’m home I tend to snack more…even so juicing has made me very aware of what I’m eating. I’ve noticed a marked decrease in what I’m able to eat as well. That’s a good thing!

Today for breakfast I had scrambled eggs on Udi’s Cinnamon toast

I’ve been following several gluten free blogs & they always mention Udis as an alternative. I was not impressed. The slices are tiny & are very dense. Perhaps next time I will toast it less & it will taste better? Ezekiel is so much better…but it has gluten.

At lunch I had an Amy’s meal:

This is also Gluten AND GMO free. I had no clue what GMOs were until I started researching health. I LOVE Amy’s meals. So good & easy. I was able to eat 2 bites of this before I was full!

Tonight I’m making myself another Mean Green

Tomorrow I start a complete juicing fast. Its so hard to socialize while on a diet much less a fast. I’m going out with my friend Anna tomorrow night. I find that if I take my juice with me I don’t feel so left out.. We will see how it goes!

Keep at it

jen powell — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 00:38:03 +0000

Yesterday I drove all day and because of it I didn’t juice at all. Because of it today has been hard to get back into the grove. Every time I really want to eat I just have to remember my end goal. What makes me mad is a friend commented on how this was a new fad diet of mine. Noooo i just want to be HEALTHY and try to feel better.

Breakfast was a fruit blend:

Grapefruit
Pink lady apple
Green apple
Strawberries
Banana

I added the grapefruit because of the health benefits. i hate grapefruit and the bitterness it gave the juice was hard to swallow. I had to chug this one

At lunch I had a can of tuna on these:

+ = YUM

Really good! They are gluten free and taste just like popcorn.

I didn’t take a picture of dinner but I made a true Mean Green:

Bunch of kale
Green apple
Lemon
Celery

This was actually good. The kale has a smoother flavor than the chard.

Today is Grandad’s 88th birthday! I got him a burger, fries & milkshake! He was so happy

juicing day 2

jen powell — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 00:22:14 +0000

Would it be crazy to say all these fruits, veggies & micronutrients have me feeling better already? I swear I do! I have energy, which for me is huge. It does feel good to put such healthy things into your body as opposed to the processed foods.

Breakfast this morning was:

Spinach
Green apple
Pink lady apple
Lemon
Pear
1 celery stalk

This was super light and refreshing. I was shocked at how 1 stalk of celery was enough to become the prominent flavor. I am NOT a fan of celery but the fruit mellowed it out just enough to tolerate.

Lunch was:

Spinach
Pineapple
Pink lady apple
Strawberries
Grapes
Carrot
Red chard

Its amazing how the chard gives it such deep earthy flavor. The large amount of fruit I used was perfect to help cut that flavor. I loved this one…it was so filling.

Juicing

jen powell — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:45:52 +0000

As I said before, the movie Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead motivated me to buy a juicer. The movie really explains the benefits of juicing. I’m hoping by replacing 2 meals a day with juice will help reset my system. For now I’m doing juice for breakfast & dinner. I plan on doing the 10 day juice fast as soon as I get my research paper done! The movie explains the first 3 days or so are horrible so I’ll do the complete fast soon, just not yet! I got this AMAZING juicer at Bed Bath & Beyond

I love, love, love this thing! It is so powerful & fun to use! The clean up takes a little bit but isn’t hard at all. I made a mean green last night for dinner which was the juice of:

The end result was tasty…very earthy tasting though. I’ll add a bit more fruit next time

The morning I made apple & strawberry juice

This juice turned out AMAZING! IT was really good!

The good thing about moving to my Mom’s new house? Her kitchen has AMAZING lighting and helps my pictures turn out better! It’s been a huge mess but here’s a cluttered look at her new kitchen