So since I last blogged, I’ve gone all juice – exciting!
I start my day with a hot water and lemon and/or ginger, then a juice for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with additional mid morning and afternoon juice snacks. Luckily for me, some of the recipes make more than one serving, otherwise it would feel like I spend most of my time juicing and cleaning the juicer.
So far so good!
It’s been a bit disjointed today, I had to go out to buy some ingredients for my breakfast shake, by the time I got back it was almost lunch time – I’m not sure what has happened with my day today. So, I’m not really on schedule properly with my meal/snack/meal/snack regime.
I feel okay though. When I was making my juice this afternoon, I kept biting off bits of apple – almost anticpating the lack of chewing coming in a few days time, I really ought to get over that! The only tricky bit at the moment is sharing a meal with my boyfriend, it feels very unsociable commiting to this juicing program.
So the first day passed yesterday quietly without any drama’s.. As I’m in the early part of the program at the moment I’m mixing a few juices with solid foods, so I am enjoying ‘the chew’ whilst I still can. I think I start exclusively juicing on day 6.. I better make the most of solid foods whilst I can!
My afternoon snack today, lovely frothy juice; celery, cucumber and apple..
May Bank Holiday Monday. I am committing myself to this blog, as I juice myself to better health and vitality. Last summer I did the same Reboot 15 day juice plan (following Joe Cross’ amazing simple plans on www.rebootwithjoe.com) and whilst I found it hard at the start, I felt amazing. So, I’m doing it again, though I hope that once the 15 days is up, I will continue a variation of the juicing for a further 2 weeks.
The Reebot Plan is a structured juicing plan that is free to download from Joe’s website. There is a detailed timetable of meals, smoothies and juices with shopping lists too, which are all great for me as it means I really don’t have to think about it too much; except for where I might find enough Kale to sustain me!
Why am I juicing? As the plan suggests, this is my reboot. It is very easy to slip into unhealthy eating habits, and as a lifetime vegetarian and with a good knowledge of healthy eating and nutrition through my work as a Kinesiologist, I still am no different to anybody else out there. I love to comfort eat – when I am happy, sad or frustrated I will always open the fridge. My particular weakness (or fantasy food) is a simple cheese sandwich – love it. Full carbohydrate and dairy hit, perhaps with a little biscuit if there are any around. I am also quite fond of a Cadbury’s Cream Egg, I’m salivating just thinking about it. So, I am devoting myself to get back on track.
I am overweight, 40 and should probably know better. This is my public declaration that I am devoting more of my time to me, to my health, and to my future.
As I go though this journey I will be sharing my thoughts and experiences with you on this blog, and I will start here with my breakfast, a lovely apple berry cinnamon bake.
Get friendly with your body brush! Maybe you have one at home already, if not you can easily find one on the high street. Ideally it should be a natural fibre brush, perhaps on with a long handle so you can get to those hard to reach places! For the body use a brush with firm bristles, with maybe a lighter touch over senstive areas. Only brush on dry skin with dry brush bristles.
Why?
Body brushing is fantastic way of invigorating your circulation and lymphatic systems, and it may have healing properties too! Body brushing helps speed up the process of eliminating waste via lymph stimulation. Our lymphatic system is important for eliminating waste and dead cells from our body, by transferring them to the bloodstream ready for elimination. Since it doesn’t pump like our circulatory system, it uses our natural contraction of muscles, from body movement, breathing, excercise or manual stimulation to push the fluid along the lymph vessels which sit just below the skins surface up to the lymph nodes.
Not only does body brushing feel great, and helps with your lyphatic drainage, but you’re also exfoliating at the same time! Your skin is the largest waste eliminatin organ in the body, so brushing can remove dead skin cells that might be blocking pores – and can help if you have dry skin by stimulating sebum secretion from your sebaceous glands – giving us softer, smoother looking skin. Experts claim that it can even help with cellulite – which can’t be bad!
How?
Use long sweeping motions, towards the major lymph nodes inteh body, such as the groin, armpits and base of the neck. From your feet, brush from toes to the top of the thigh, towards your groin. From your hands, brush up towards your shoulders and down the front of your chest and to your armpits Don’t forget to include a pass over each side of the neck (lots of lymph glands here) but be gentle, where skin is thinner and avoid brusing diretly on breast tissue (see precautions). On your stomach use small circular strokes in a clockwise direction, following the movement of the gut. Aim for 3 to 5 minutes each day. I do mine before I jump in the shower.
Tips
Precautions
I came across Donna Eden whilst learning Kinesiology. She is an amazing and inspiring energy practitioner, and a pioneer in her field.
She has shared and demonstrated an easy technique of energy healing, that involves brushing your energy meridians from their start to end points, which will encourage positive energy flow. Whilst simple, it’s a really effective technique of improving your energy and is an exercise you can learn easily at home to practice each day. I encourage my clients to take a look at her you tube videos as its great homework!