I thought a little wrap up post may be in order… A few things we learned, things we’d do again, things we won’t do again.
AmyJ was quite serious about not getting a UTI next time.
Ja and I think our first few days of having dinner may have made it harder to keep going.
We used some recipes, some we liked, some we didn’t. But by far, both of our favourites was basically when I just threw a bunch of stuff in a juicer, and a lemon. Always a lemon!
The results for Ja and I are that he lost 17 pounds. I lost about 9 1/2. I also lost about 2 inches off of all my measurements. That’s with no exercise at all. Just doing the juicing.
Ja said he is still amazed that he lost 17 pounds. In a week! Even though he was still taking in calories every single meal (some of the juices were 500 calories a quart). He also said that he did have times where he was hungry during the week, but when he got so sick of all juice all the time, and knowing that only juice was an option, he just went without and ignored being hungry.
What I learned, I need to space out my juice, not drink it all at once. I did the best when I sipped my breakfast juice, interspersed with herbal tea, and didn’t finish it until about 11am. I made each meal about a quart at a time. Drinking half, then having tea, then drinking the other half seemed to work the best for me.
Also, having a “treat” did a world of good for our morale. We had Organic Kombucha as a treat one night, and it really helped the too much juice blahs. I think I would make sure to have Kombucha in the house the next time we do it.
((yes, I really said “the next time we do it!” Ja really really wants to do it again in November. He’s just that CRAZY!))
As far as cost goes, it was a bit expensive, but I think it balanced out a bit because we weren’t eating big meals with the kids. And, I didn’t really make a lot of huge meals for the kids either. Next time around, I think the hooligans will do a lot more of their own meal prep to make it easier. It’s amazing, the temptation to nibble as you’re cooking. Even watching them eat was really difficult. Especially at dinner.
I couldn’t have done this and been in the house if Ja weren’t doing it too. Being able to whine constantly to AmyJ made a huge difference too, because she was going through the same kinds of things. I also purposefully didn’t make any plans for the week. I think I could do that differently next time as long as we weren’t at someone’s house for a meal.
Going forward from here? We’re all attempting to stay off caffeine. Ja took Teeccino to work this morning, I had peppermint tea. Amy is having decaf coffee. We figure we’ve all been off caffeine for at least a week, why jump back on that wagon now?
I am disappointed that I didn’t have a huge rush of energy. Ja felt slightly more energetic, but I didn’t. I hit a point where I felt normal, but not with that huge rush a lot of people talk about. Now, that being said, it was definitely easier to get out of bed the last few days. That was good. Anyone that knows me knows I am not a morning person at all.
Were there points when I would have given almost anything to just have something to eat? Oh you bet there were. There were a lot of them. For most of yesterday, Ja and I were talking about what our first meals would be. I will say that those were the best eggs I’ve ever had this morning! Ja thoroughly enjoyed his oatmeal too.
For the juice recipes, what amounted to our favourite was really just when I threw a bunch of vegetables in the juicer, added an apple, a pear, and a lemon, and called it good.
But, for those specifics of you out there, here are another few we liked. Each makes approximately three – four cups.
Wolters’ Surprise (You can easily sub in and out with whatever you have in this one. Just keep the apple/pear/lemon/sweetpotato combo)
1 sweet potato
2 carrots
2 stalks of celery
1/2 cucumber
chunk of ginger
chunk of red cabbage
1 apple
1 pear
1 lemon
Sunset Blend
1 sweet potato
1 large carrot
1 red bell pepper
2 large beets
2 apples
1 orange
V28 (Ja really liked this one…. I hate tomato juice, so I didn’t try it.)
3 large red beets
2 medium carrots
2 stalks celery
4 plum tomatoes
4 cups parsley (packed)
12 red radishes
Green Lemonade
1 green apple
2 cups spinach (3 handfuls)
2 cups kale leaves (6-8 leaves)
1/2 cucumber
4 celery stalks
1 lemon
There you have it! And we are all hoping to give it another go as a Christmas prep in Early November.
Honestly, I’m super proud that we stuck with it. We have such a history of starting things and then never finishing them. We set the goal of 7 days, and we made it 7 days. Could we have continued? Sure. But I think that we’ll take this one as a win, and call it a day.
Hooligan Zoo 