Reboot: Ending Thoughts

Now that it's over and I've eaten a decent eh, terrible for you, but oh so delish, meal here are my thoughts on the week of Body Reboot...

1. Food is overrated. Don't eat too much. Don't eat too little. Don't live to eat, eat to live.

2. On that note, I realized that I just love food. It's not about eating as much as I can but it's the social aspect; going to dinner with friends, chatting over drinks, going to a cookout, making a wonderful meal for your family, etc. I love the texture of (most) food. I really like to enjoy my meals and the flavor of each ingredient.

3. Our society has a severe disadvantage when trying or wanting to eat healthy. Healthier food is much more expensive. We spent over $200 on fruits and veggies for this week. Our normal grocery bill averages about $80 a week. No wonder we have an obesity problem in this country.

4. Juicing veggies is disgusting.

5. Juicing period requires a lot of work.

6. Juicing can be extremely messy.

7. You really have to have a good attitude to do this. If you let negativity take over you will be miserable. And therefore you'll make those around you miserable. Just ask Travis!

8. It's nice to slow down when I get home from work and not go right into "What's for dinner? Let's get it done with." mode.

9. I do like vegetables, just not juiced.

10. Condiments are awesome.

11. You will poop a lot if you do this. TMI?

12. Don't just eat fruit. You won't get all the health benefits. And you'll starve. I learned this early on in the week and just had to suck down those veggies in juice form.

Travis and I did a fairly good job at this. If I ever do it again (and that's a big if!) I think I'd just do the juice. I relied way too much on eating fruit whenever I wanted and would get full and not take in as many veggies as I needed to. I will admit that Travis did a much better job and therefore saw more results (and more side effects) than I did. With that being said though, here are our results...

T total weight loss: 14 lbs.

A total weight loss: 8 lbs.

Travis said he felt a difference in his overall mood. He saw improvements with his skin and bruises from work cleared up much quicker.

I saw a vast improvement with my arthritis in my ankles and overall my joints just felt better. I also say a difference in my skin. I broke out less this week and the red undertones in my skin were not as prevalent.

Some of the downsides were the irritability, headaches (early on in the week) and some digestive issues once we started eating normal foods again. I was a raging witch for the first three days of the week and we both just felt like lying in bed all day. But the movie was right, day four completely turned everything around.

We both decided that if we ever do it again, it won't be for a whole week. While we saw some results and ended up feeling much better, the irritability and digestive complications (TMI again?) weren't worth it. I think 3 days at most but I do think that juicing will become a part of our daily lives. I really did enjoy some of the juices we made and it's a great way to get the awesome nutrients from fruits and veggies that I wouldn't be able to get otherwise.

I would encourage others to do this but only if they know exactly what they're getting in to. You have to be committed and dedicated. It was really satisfying knowing that I could do it and lasted the whole week.

Reboot: Day 7

Source: weheartit.com via Ashley on Pinterest

well, my friends, we made it to the end!

i won't lie and say i'm sad to see the reboot end. it takes a lot of discipline and personal strength to get through this.

i'm glad to be going back to normal eating but i won't be going back to bad eating.

i'll be going back to ww and eating lots of fruits and veggies. to be honest the thing i'm most excited about is eating meat. i'm definitely a meatatarian!

i'll be celebrating the end of body reboot at a happy hour tonight (after 10 pm, so technically i met my seven day goal!) with barclay. i'll have to take it easy though, i'm a little terrified of what might happen if i just go at all that food/drinks with no reservation. slow and steady wins the race, right?

Reboot: Day 6

One day left people!

I can't believe we've actually made it this far and it makes it seem like tomorrow is no big deal at all.

I will say that I'm still feeling hungry but I'm also feeling better. Much better.

Today's meals included all juice! Yay for me. I was starting to wonder if I really could do just the juice thing.

Tonight I combined all the fruits and all the veggies that were left. We have about 2 gallons of juice left. I'm sure we'll go through it though because these two batched actually turned out great!

I figured out that if you add lemon or lime to the veggies it gives it that zest of sweetness that you need to get over the green, puke looking mixture. Pretty good.

Our fridge is finally bare and I'm sure when we restock this weekend we'll be more conscious of what we're buying and what ingredients we want to put back in our bodies. Should be an adventure all on it's own!

Reboot: Day 5

It get a little bit easier each day.

Before bed last night we juiced a whole bunch of stuff. I actually liked the fruit concoction. Strawberry, kiwi, orange, pear and spinach. I had to add water because the strawberries turn into a syrup once they're juiced. I drank it this morning for breakfast and for dinner.

Lunch was a fruit salad with spinach also. I actually like the combo of spinach with fruit much more than I thought I would. I'd like to make a strawberry chicken salad with spinach as the base when we get done with this.

Two days left and thank goodness. I'm tired of eating the same old thing. I want a real meal. I feel good but I miss cooking and sitting down to a nice meal and taking my time. I'm so hungry all the time now that I drink it down so quickly.

Source: hotfornewzealand.tumblr.com via Ashley on Pinterest

Reboot: Day 4

i want to eat these...

Source: kingarthurflour.com via Amanda on Pinterest

moral of today's story:

ashley is a mega b when she's hungry. watch out.

Reboot: Day 3

the worst day ever....

not really but they did say day three would be the hardest.

i've had a headache most of the day and am starving as well.

breakfast was disgusting. some green monster juice, whatever that is.

lunch was a bowl of grapes, strawberries and raspberries. better than breakfast but i'm pretty sure dog crap would've been better than that stuff.

dinner was sauteed veggies.

nothing super awesome. nothing dramatic.

wanna hear something dramatic?

i cheated last night. totally did. and on day two. who am i?

so you're probably wondering what i hate. corn. yes, CORN. a whole can of it. i couldn't even cheat right. corn is a no no because of the starch. but seriously, i looked in the cupboards and wanted nothing else but that sweet delish yellow stuff. you would've thought it was crack. delicious corn crack.

and i ate the whole can.

Reboot: Day 2

i'm not gonna lie, i woke up starving around 5 am this morning. of course i went right back to sleep but my stomach kept making noises all morning.

we slept in pretty late today since travis worked all night. so breakfast was somewhat skipped. shame on us!

after we finally got up we ate some fruit (grapes mostly since we were feeling too lazy to cut anything up!) and went for a little family walk. dallas was so happy to get out of the house but it was pretty warm out there. we came back and started juicing!

funny thing that juicer is. you have to be really careful about how much you put in at a time. otherwise, it'll spill out the sides and you'll have a big old mess on your hands. not that this happened to us. and it def didn't go all over our kitchen floor. and we def didn't laugh about it for 45 minutes while cleaning it up. but juice we finally had. it was a mixture of a whole bunch of fruits and veggies i don't even remember. leave it trav to concoct something totally disgusting! but we drank it and there's even more for tomorrow, yipee!

can you spot my sarcasm? i think it might be one of the side effects of no sugar, no carbs, no nothing. don't worry though, i'll try not to go off on you if i see you in person. unless you're drinking a diet dr. pepper or eating, well, anything besides fruits or vegetables. just kidding. maybe.

Reboot: Day 1

here's the low down on day one...

grocery cart full of produce. it's the only section we went to in kroger, that was a new one for me!

our cart was full. ALL the way to the top.

people kept looking at our cart. it must be weird to see a cart full of veggies and fruit!

so here's what we got:

kale, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, parsley, ginger, cilantro, pineapple, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, sweet potatoes, red onions, apples, pears, oranges, grapefruit, lemons, limes, grapes, mangos, papaya, cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, garlic and i'm sure there are a few more that i'm missing!

here's the first juice we tried out today.

we have a whole bunch of recipes. i will admit that it's a little intimidating trying to make new things with foods you don't eat a lot of. i've always been a big fruit eater but veggies scare me a bit. i love them in soups and casseroles but i don't eat a lot of them plain. that's one thing i'm hoping to change this next week.

so here's the bowl of fruit. i don't have a pick of the actual juice because i drank it down so fast! it was pretty good but not at all what i thought. since this is all fresh with nothing added it tastes a lot different than juice you buy at the grocery.

i haven't tried any of the veggies juiced but travis did and he liked his concoction of carrots, spinach and strawberries.

right now i'm sitting here blogging and watching the fighter on netflix trying to decide what to cook for dinner. i'm thinking a veggie stir fry. maybe with zucchini, broccoli, peppers, eggplant and spinach. or maybe something fruity in the blender with ice on this hot and humid evening.

i'll let you know tomorrow!

friday's fabulousness

i've only got one today.

this baby...

Source: williams-sonoma.com via R on Pinterest

trav and i are investing in a juicer today. wanna know why?

well, i'll tell you. but you're probably going to think we're nuts. just wanted to put that out there!

it all started a couple nights ago when we watched this movie.

we've both been feeling a little tired, sluggish and just generally run down. and while we don't have anything near the debilitating diseases this guy has, we do have a few issues; skin issues, arthritis in my ankles and we'd really just like to recharge.

after researching this online and reading A LOT about juice fasting, actually we're going to call it a body reboot, this is what we have decided to do...

only fruits, vegetables and water for 7 days. we'll be starting saturday morning bright and early!

we'll buy all our food from the local farmer's market saturday morning. (putting our money in to the local economy. another plus!!!)

we won't just drink juice for every meal.

we'll be eating raw or cooked (with no additives) fruits and veggies, blending them or juicing them.

we'll still be exercising regularly.

we will probably eat or drink 5 to 6 times a day instead of the normal 3. although, we don't want to stuff ourselves so we'll be sensitive to over eating/drinking.

we'll weigh in before and after the 7 days.

i'll be blogging every day during the reboot to let you know how it's going and how we're feeling.

we hope to reboot our bodies and retrain our taste buds and brains to enjoy the rich nutrients from natural foods.

basically we'll be going vegan for a whole week!

i can't wait to get started and even though i know it's going to be difficult, i'm hoping that we can learn more about the food we eat and how it makes us feel and how it fuels our body. this isn't about weight lose. it's about eating what's good and right, feeling better and making a lifestyle change.

i hope you'll follow along for the whole 7 days.

wish us luck!

p.s. i'm in no way saying you should do this. i am not a registered dietician. we will not be doing this for a prolonged amount of time and are not putting ourselves in any danger. we have no serious health problems that would get worse from doing this. it's simply an experiment that we're willing to try, that's it. we have not been brainwashed!

that's for all my grandmas, whom i'm sure will worry that i've truly lost it :)