Wellness Group

I have decided to start a health and environmental wellness, or Green Group, at my work. Myself and another lady I work with started talking about it and I put it into motion and have been working hard on it for the past 3 weeks. I am very excited and I cannot wait to start giving people the knowledge and resources they need to start treating themselves and the planet better. I just hope they start becoming as excited about it as I am, and actually implement it into their daily lives.

I have created a group of 5 people so far, and we call ourselves The Greenovators. We are launching our group on Earth Day, the 22nd. I have made new recycling signs for all of our bins that actually have lists of what can go inside since everyone I've spoke to have no idea what can be recycled and what bin it needs to go into. (It was slightly shocking to me to learn that some people really just have no idea how to recycle, I pull stuff out of the garbage all the time that can be recycled.) I have made signs for all of our employee bathrooms and conference rooms to remind people to turn out the lights, and I have set up a location for people to drop off all of their plastic bags, to either be reused or I will take to recycle when it gets full. On friday the 26th, it is Arbor Day and we have had a local resource company called Green Diamond donate 50 packets of Douglas Fir Tree seeds to us, that we will be passing out to employees with a little note about ourselves and the importance of planting trees. 

We have a central cite on our employee portal dedicated to us that we will use to post articles and links for people to  learn more. Along with posting articles about health, exercise, and also recipes and information about nutritional facts. The list goes on and we are all very excited to get this started.

We have many plans for fundraisers and events to do throughout the year. I would love to get people to do a 5k!! That is one goal for the year. We are planning on working together with our Relay for Life team and maybe doing a Zumba night fundraiser. The ideas are endless :)

So that is what I have been working on for the past three weeks, and I am very excited to get this group started and I just hope all the work pays off and that people receive it well and get involved! 

And So It Begins

My first day of eating solid food again after juicing for three days was much less monumental than I thought it would be. I thought it would upset  my stomach, but it didn't. Score. Also, I thought that I would be wanting to eat everything and anything, but I didn't. Score again. I was so excited to start my clean eating meal plan that I stuck to it and felt really good. Then came the weekend, I had a really boring weekend and didnt feel very good throughout most of it. I had a really bad headache that I just couldnt kick. So although I didnt eat crappily, I didnt quite eat enough either. I was bummed I didnt stick completely to my meal plan but also proud that I still ate healthy foods. I had one square of a chocolate bar that husband got me for my birthday but that was all! I wish he liked mint, he would eat it all for me. :) I also didnt work out over the weekend which I wish I would have. But I didn't let my partial failure this weekend turn into complete failure. I started this week off right.

I prepared food this morning for my whole day and stuck with it, I drank a ton of water at work, and I went straight to the gym after work before I came home. I get off early this week so it is really nice to get to the gym early and not feel like I don't have any time afterwards for anything else. That is one of my biggest issues with going to the gym after I get off so late from work, I don't have any time at home or to myself. Its for a good reason though! And I didn't do a very hard workout today, and as I was walking out of the locker room a young girl was walking in with a beat red face and her hair and face and shirt were all covered in sweat, and I thought to myself...that's what I need to be doing.  PUSHING MYSELF harder. So I am excited to go back tomorrow after work and get more sweaty!

I am not yet stuck to an exact meal plan to eat every day, just because I'm still mixing it up a little to find something I love enough to commit to eating every day. Ill get there though. And I want to start lifting again, so I need to plan out workouts. Its going to be tough, and it will take some experimenting before I get a perfect schedule down that works for me. But I am excited to be starting and actually doing it!

Juice Cleanse: Final Day, 3

       I MADE IT!!! 

Emotions: I was in such a good mood today!! I woke up not feeling NEARLY as sick as yesterday, I had a bit of nausea when I woke up, but I drank some water and had a cup of green tea right away and felt better quickly. Juicing was much smoother and easier today, third day's a charm right?? I tried four new recipes and they all sounded delicious and they were! So overall today was the  best day of them all and I felt really good and everything tasted really good too :)

Hunger: It was no issue for me today, there were times when I felt hungry of course, but it wasnt bad, and I knew I had more juice or tea to hold me over.

The recipes I used today were: (Again, all from Rabbit Food For My Bunny Teeth)

 For the love of Kale
(1 serving)

5 carrots
2 red apples
6 kale leafs

From A to P
(1 serving)

1 apple
8 carrots
6 parsley sprigs

Sherbert Lemonade
(1 serving)

2 golden delicious apples (I used 3)
1/2 lemon

Candied Carrot
(1 serving)

5 carrots
2 apples
1 orange

Green Machine
(2 servings)

2 green apples
10 kale leaves
2 cups spinach
1 cucumber
2 stalk celery
10 sprigs parsley

Taste Test: By far my favorite day!! Everything tasted so yummy, good way to end it :)

For the Love of Kale was really good, very basic and kinda sweet, it was nice and tasty and easy to drink.

From A to P was really really yummy! It was nice and sweet :)

Sherbert Lemonade was the best!!! It was so sweet and kinda tart from the lemon, I let a couple coworkers taste it and they kept asking for more. They even asked me to juice it for them if they bought me the ingredients!! :)

Candied Carrot was again very delish. I love carrot juice and the orange and apple made it nice and sweet, the orange is pretty strong though.

Green Machine I have had before, and it is good..although after all the delicious other juices I had today it was the hardest to get down.

I have about 1 and a half juices left for the day but I know it will be no problem, I am very excited to be able to start my healthy clean meal plan tomorrow, but juicing wasn't too bad. I am very proud of myself for COMMITTING to it, and surpassing my goal. Its really nice to know that I can do it if i try and put my mind to it, and I'm so excited to start meeting more fitness goals and become a lot healthier. :)

Juice Cleanse: Day 2

I made it through the rest of Day 1!


Emotions: I felt really good the rest of the night, I went to bed feeling full and proud, I even thought "I can do a third day no problem, this is easy." Then the next day came. Today started out rough, I really wanted to quit. I didn't sleep very well last night, I was up at about 2 am with terrible nausea and stomach pains. After getting up to go to the bathroom a couple times and try to get the sick feeling to go away, I finally went back to sleep. I woke up early again so I would have time to juice and I still felt very sick. I drank some water and got ready, juicing took longer than expected AGAIN. Two of my recipes said they were 3 servings and they only produced two, so I had to scrounge up some ingredients to make another recipe I had already had yesterday to produce enough for my whole day. Stressing in the kitchen first thing in the morning is not how I like to start my day! I finished getting ready and headed off to work, I felt extremely lethargic on my way and I didn't think I was going to be able to keep my eyes open. My arms felt too heavy to hold up and I just felt awful overall. I drank a juice on the drive and was having a hard time getting it down...and once i got to work I just sat on the floor for about 10 minutes during a meeting and kept my eyes closed. Everyone said I looked awful. :( But then once i got more juice into my system and I had some water and a cup of green tea I started feeling so much better. Yay!!

The recipes I used today are: (Also from, Rabbit Food For My Bunny Teeth)

Shocking Green
makes 3 servings (not quite 3 for me)

3 green apples
10 stalks celery
1 large cucumber
14 sprigs of Italian parsley
10 dinosaur kale leaves
1 in knob of ginger (It was a bit smaller, and I cut a bit off the end as well)

Lean 'N' Green
makes 3 servings (again, not quite 3 for me)

1 head romaine
8 dinosaur kale leaves
6 stalks celery
1 large cucumber
8 carrots
1 lemon (I used about half)

Rise & Shine
makes 2 servings

1 grapefruit (I used about 3/4 of one)
2 fuji apples
2 granny smith apples
2 cups green seedless grapes
10 sprigs of Italian parsley

Taste Test:
Shocking Green tastes pretty good..im definitely glad I didnt use as much ginger as it calls for, it originally called for a 2in. knob. It has a very strong taste, but it was a nice addition.

Lean 'N' Green is also pretty good, it was kind of bland, but I sort of like that better than something being too strong, you can definitely taste the lemon and celery, I love the addition of carrots though, always makes them better.

Rise & Shine I had yesterday as well and I tried adding less grapefruit since it was too bitter, and it still was too strong! Grapefruits are very strong. It was better though, and I still liked it.


Hunger: Once I started getting something into my system and I started feeling better, I actually felt really good all day, I wasn't ever starving, I would get hungry and start wishing I could eat something, but i kept myself busy and would drink a glass of green tea or down some water and it really helps. My lunch was occupied by a nap so that was nice so I didnt think about wanting to eat.

Annnnnd, I decided to do a third day!! Woo hoo, now that I know that even if i feel crappy again in the morning it is going to get better, and it isn't hard during the day, I'm very excited to do a third day. I am proud of myself and how well I have stuck with it, three days may not seem like a lot, but knowing I didnt even make it an entire day last time I tried makes me really proud that I am adding on an extra day to my goal. :)

Juice Cleanse: Day 1

So far so good!! Day one isn't entirely finished yet but I will update on you how its been so far and you can hear the rest of the day included in Day 2.

I woke up really hungry and was so not excited to not eat any substantial food all day. But I wasnt giving up before I started! I tried waking up extra early to get my juice on before I had to leave for work...and it took me so much longer than I thought it would!! It would be really helpful if we had a really awesome juicer, it kept getting full and would stop working so I had to take it all apart and empty/clean it out like 3 or 4 times. But I finished it all with about 5 minutes to spare!

I made 2 recipes today: (Both were taken from rabbitfoodformybunnyteeth.com)

Rise & Shine
Makes 2 servings

1 grapefruit
2 fuji apples
2 granny smith apples
2 cups of green seedless grapes
10 sprigs of Italian parsley

Green Machine (I doubled this one)
Makes 2 servings

2 green apples
10 carrots
10 leaves kale
2 cups spinach (packed)
1 cucumber (I didn't double the cucumber, I don;t like strong cucumber juice)
2 stalk celery
10 sprigs Italian parsley

Taste Test:
Rise & Shine has way too much grapefruit, i would halve it next time...its really bitter, but if you drink it pretty quickly the shock starts to fade and it starts to taste really good..Not terrible but i would put less grapefruit next time.

Green Machine was the better of the two. I actually like it! Wasn't bad at all..i love carrot juice and since i doubled it, this juice had 20 whole carrots!! So it passed my taste test, hopefully the others i try tomorrow will be just as good!

Emotions: Surprisingly I didnt feel as grumpy as I thought I would! Maybe we should ask everyone I was around all day though. ;-) I wasn't in the best mood all day, but I kept my mind off of the fact I couldnt eat whole foods and I kept myself busy at work and I think I held up a pretty good mood.

Hunger: I did feel pretty hungry at times, but I wasnt by any means starving. I drank a juice for breakfast (way too late though, I need to start earlier), and I had one at my normal lunch and snack time. In between I drank a couple glasses of green tea and drank water to keep me going. Its about 7pm and I am working on serving number 4, so I still have 2 left after this. I was saving up so I wouldnt run out and be starving all night, but now I know I can add one more serving during the day to keep me full. I have had a pretty bad headache all day, and have been having to go to the bathroom nonstop but I think that's pretty normal.

Here's to Day 2!!

I AM BACK!!!

Boy has it been forever!! I am gonna try to start blogging again, and stick to it. I need to focus and start making some changes in my life to find more happiness and satisfaction with myself. One of my main problems...i cant commit to anything!!! (Husband not included) I have terrible self motivation and drive, I tend to want want want, and not work work work. Nothing I want is ever going to happen if I dont WORK FOR IT!! So here is to trying to COMMIT to this blog, and its going to take a different turn, its going to become my place to write about my struggles and the things i want to change, and my journey on getting there!! Starting off with fitness! Yay. I may do a post soon about what my struggles are and how I feel at the moment about myself, but not quite yet. For now...I am starting this week with a new eating and workout plan, but first I am going to start out with a cleanse. I am going to do a juice cleanse for AT LEAST 2 days, 3 if I dont die. ;-) I tried doing a juice cleanse once before, my goal was 5 days, did I make it an entire day? NO, of course not, I wasnt committed. Shocker! I have read a blog called Rabbit Food For My Bunny Teeth periodically for a while now, she has a lot of struggles sticking with her diet and exercise routine and I found an old post about a juice cleanse she did for 4-5 days, I read her reviews of the taste of the juices and wrote down the ones I think I will actually be able to stand. I am going to go shopping for produce only tonight, get out my juicer and mason jars and get it all ready for the morning. I will update you all on how it goes and what the recipes are tomorrow!!