Juice, juice, and more juice...

Christmas has been a great time for us this year.  It has been a blessing to have Chris, Candy, and the kids right here with us and to once again experience Christmas with little ones around - their excitement is so contagious!  Our shopping was long done so we were just chillaxin' most of this week - the kids were on holiday swim schedule so I was on my own from about 3 - 5 every day...that is when I would do my "chores".  We had started back on Weight Watchers and I was just rockin' along with that too...(actually had lost about two and a half pounds!)  Then it was Christmas Eve... Rick and I went shopping for Christmas goodies for lunch (just in case Cotton and Angel came over) and we weren't sure what the plans were for meals during the day)... We came home and made our healthy dinner and waited for the kids to get back from their Christmas Eve trip.

Christmas morning started early - but not as early for us as in the past 11 years when we would get up at 5:00 am or so and race to Lewisville so we could see the kids wake up and see their Santa presents.  This year we were able to sleep until about 7:30...ahhhhhhhhh....

We opened gifts amidst exclamations and cries of joy.  Everyone got what he/she wanted and more...again we are blessed.  That afternoon Cotton and Angel slipped away for a few hours and came to see us as well.  We had sandwiches and chips and cookies and talked and laughed and all was good...except for my diet of course, LOL.

The day after Christmas Chris had to travel for work so the rest of us went over to Cotton and Angel's to see their new house and their tree.  Cotton was very excited to show off the new remote control we had given him for Christmas.  They ordered pizza for us and we sat down to watch the movie "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead".  Cotton had been telling us all about it for a couple of weeks and we were all excited to see the movie.  It is very inspirational!  In fact we all felt guilty eating the pizza! We had to laugh about that after the movie was over...After the show, we all talked about what happened in the movie.  Cotton and Angel had ordered a juicer and they were going to try to start eating healthier to see if that would help Cotton's migranes.  Rick, Candy, and I thought we'd like to give it a try too.  Sooooo.....

Tuesday morning I got up early with Rick and we went to the store to get some breakfast for us and lunch for him.  Now those who know us know this is pretty much our routine every day...the difference was in what we bought!  This day we bought some Naked juice.  I got enough for me and Candy. Then Rick also got some vegetable juice for his lunch and snacks. 

Candy and I tried the juice for breakfast - it was quite tasty!  Then we got the kids up and went to exchange some gifts and then we were off to Costco where we bought a Jack La Lane Power Juicer and LOTS of fruits and veggies.  When we got home we created our own lunch juices.  They were REALLY good!  The kids tried them and they kept asking for more!  Then it was off to Kroger to pick up the rest of the fruits and veggies we would need for the next couple of days.  You see....we are going to try the juice fast for about 10 days, then try to incorporate juicing into our normal routines...replacing some of the fast foods with good healthy fruits, nuts, and beans. Before we left to take the girls to swim practice, where we were going to meet Rick so Memaw and Pepaw could watch, we mixed up our first juices from the menu. Let me just say I'm so very glad this wasn't the first juice we tried!  It had beets and radishes in it and it smelled bad and didn't taste wonderful, but it was palatable and we all finished it.  Just part of the learning curve I guess.  Finding healthy combinations you like and weeding out those you don't.

I think my biggest surprise is how full you feel after a big glass of juice - and how long you feel full.  This isn't at all like the 3 day fast I did with our church several years ago!  The only problem so far has been caffine withdrawl headaches for all of us.  I have supplemented some green tea (which does have some caffine) but I'm cutting back a little each day to help with that.  In truth yesterday was a bit difficult with being quite tired at the end of the day too, but they say the first 3 days are pretty rough while all the junk you've been eating is removed from your body.  I'm hoping this is what I was feeling, and that it gets better.  I'll let you know how this journey goes, as well as how it incorporates in with my 100 day challenge!