Winner

 I just received word that I'm a winner of a Cookbook! The book is called "Spice Up Your Life," by Bindu Grandhi, and the site that I won this book on is health site that I read daily called Live Lighter.

I read the following review of the cookbook and was very interested in purchasing the book. So when Stephanie, at LiveLighter.org, announced a draw for this cookbook, I made sure to put my name in the draw. Lucky for me, I was chosen.

Now I will await the book and once I try a few recipes, I will gladly put up my thoughts and comments on them.

A juice full of vegetables and fruits

I haven't blogged recently about the juice's I've been drinking so I thought I would write out the list of ingredients in today's 2 juices.

Vegetable juice
Romain Lettuce (2 heads)
3 Carrots
4 Celery stalks
1 Parsnip
1 Green Pepper
2 cloves of Garlic
1 English Cucumber
1 Zucchini
1 Tomato
1 Jalapeno pepper
3 Green Onions
1 head of Broccoli
Handful of Parsley
Handful of Spinach
Handful of Cilantro
1 inch piece of Gingeroot

Fruit Juice
1 Apple
1 Pear
1 Orange
1 Peach
1 Plum
1 Mango
1 Kiwi

My vegetable juice made 2 liters, which I'm splitting between today and tomorrow, while my fruit juice made just under 1 liter. Both of them taste very good and I am enjoying them.

Overall, I'd say I'm getting my daily requirements for fruits and vegetables.

Update of my numbers

So I took my measurements on the weekend and I was quite surprised. Since I started drinking these juices each day (over 3 weeks ago), I've managed to lose 7 lbs. That is a little more than 2 lbs per week, which fits nicely within a healthy way of losing weight. You always hear about people who can drop 5-10lbs per week, the first couple of weeks they started dieting, but then gain it back shortly after stopping the diet. I really don't want to be one of those people, and it is not healthy to lose large amounts of weight all at once. It is better to let your body re-adjust to its new weight gradually so that your metabolism works with the weight you currently have. I really don't consider what I'm doing to be a diet, as I had some "bad" food for me this weekend, but I still drank my juices. I'm looking at this juicing as a way to control my hunger, add healthy nutrients to my body, and lose some weight without starving myself.

For my other measurements, I did lose 0.5 inches off my waist, I lowered my upper blood pressure number, but my lower number and heart rate were a little higher than usual. Not sure why, but I will continue to monitor it over the next couple of weeks.

On a side note, today's vegetable juice, called Red Devil, consists of Tomatoes, Radishes, Red Pepper, Beets, Parsley and Cayenne Pepper, while my fruit juice, called Creamy Pineapple, consists of Pineapples, Mangoes, Blueberries and Yogurt.

Cayenne Pepper

That is some HOT stuff. Now don't get me wrong, I love hot food, but when you put too much, it definitely takes away from the flavour. And that is where I am right now. Today's vegetable juice is called Spiced Carrot and consists of Broccoli, Carrots, Ginger, Cinnamon, and Cayenne Pepper. It was suppose to also include Spinach but I was out, so I didn't add it. The recipe called for 1/8 tsp of Cayenne pepper, but since I more than double my ingredients I decided to add 1/4 tsp and then another 1/8 tsp. Well, right now my mouth and throat are on fire! I like it, but my juice doesn't have any other taste to it and that I don't like that. I do have a hint of ginger, but the heat over powers that pretty quickly. So be careful when adding spicy herbs to a juice as they might just affect how you enjoy it.

Bottoms up.