chipotle raspberry black bean dip

I survived my first juice fast! I have to be honest though… I ate on my last day. I was running late between work and a networking event so I didn’t have time to juice. At the event they had appetizers so I helped myself to a plate of fruit… and cheese and crackers! Oh the shame! It felt so good to eat again though. Since I had ended my fast, I felt more inclined to eat for dinner, so I went out with friends for some Mongolian BBQ. I feel pretty satisfied with myself for lasting most of the fast. And I’ve still been having one juice per day!

Results:

I was feeling pretty good on it once I got my schedule down and wasn’t allowing myself to get hungry. My lowest weight was 124 lbs. That was awesome to lose 4.5 pounds in 5 days! However, now that I’m back to eating solids again, my weight is back up to 126.5 lbs. I haven’t been eating that great since getting off of the fast. I’ve had some salads and stir fry, but Daniel and I made that pizza I spoke of the other night for our Friday night feast!

We each made our own personal pizza. We bought the crust to save on time and added our favorite toppings.

Mine has pineapple, orange bell pepper, black olives, and spinach on it.

I put my toppings on the sauce first and then clumps of cheese so that I ended up putting less cheese on.

Daniel on the other hand, cover his pizza in cheese and then put pepperoni, spinach, orange bell pepper, and black olives on his.

Excuse the minced olives. We bought chopped olives thinking they’d be chunks but they look more like caviar. Still tasty though! We each ate half our pizzas and then had the rest for saturday’s lunch.

For dessert, we made that revered Chipotle Raspberry Black Bean Dip… but with a twist! We bought thin pizza crust, baked it in the oven for some crispiness, then topped it with the bean dip!

It was good but I actually think it would have been better if we had baked the bean dip on top of the crust. Either way, I still prefer salty tortilla chips with it. Nothing beats the combination of salty and sweet!

Ok, back to the topic of juice.

Advice for juicing:

Juice doesn’t last long after you make it because the nutrients start to oxidize immediately. It’s better to drink it fresh, but that’s not always possible to make every two-ish hours. I started making my breakfast juice at night and putting it in an airtight container filled to the brim with little room for air to be in there and placing it in the fridge over night. That saved a lot of time. My dad has recently started juicing and he makes most of his juice for the day the night before. For those limited on time throughout the day, I would recommend that. Nothing is worse than being hungry and not having time to juice. You’re more likely to break your fast if you get too hungry.

I think juicing would also be a lot easier if you prepared for it. They recommend starting to introduce juice into your diet and start eating more fruits and veggies a few days before the fast. Getting your body acclimated with less processed foods in your diet will make the switch to juicing easier. I went in without any preparation except a couple juices the day before. It was definitely a hard transition.

Here’s a video of Joe talking about starting a reboot and what steps to take to prepare for it.

On a side note, Daniel and I never got around to carving our pumpkins. After making our pizzas we settled down for a night of movies: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Cloud Atlas. Daniel hasn’t seen many HP movies, or even read the books! So I’m educating him. Cloud Atlas was really good but really confusing! I need to read the book! I love movies like that where actors play several characters. Austin Powers anyone? haha.

We plan to carve our pumpkins today and we’re going with a Disney theme! The masterpieces will be revealed tomorrow!

Questions:

Do you like pineapple on your pizza? Some people hate it but I love the sweetness of it with cheese and sauce.

Are you carving pumpkins or dressing up for Halloween this year?

I owe all of you an update on my juicing experiences. I’ve decided to shorten it to just a 5 day juice fast, which means I’m almost halfway done (I ended up starting on Sunday instead of Saturday). It is much hard than I expected. I feel tempted all the time to just go eat something, but it is getting easier. Daniel was doing the juice fast with me but I allowed him to eat since he needs significantly more calories than I do, and he wasn’t getting enough from the juice. However, he is keeping me motivated! Definitely have a juice buddy to help you stay on track!

Here’s a little Q & A of how it is going so far:

What kind of juicer do you use?
I use the Breville Juice Fountain Plus. I bought it off Amazon. It’s really easy to use! And the clean up isn’t so bad. A plastic bag to catch the pulp makes it faster. And the brush provided does a great job of getting things clean.

How hard is it?
Juicing simplifies things in a sense because you don’t have to worry about making a meal, you know exactly what you’re going to have. And once you get the hang of it, it doesn’t take that long to make. Just prep everything and send it through the juicer. It’s actually kind of fun to make different concoctions. My favorite are the sweeter ones, obviously =)

What recipes do you use?
I first followed Joe’s reboot recipes at rebootwithjoe.com but now I mix it up. Daniel and I even made pumpkin juice! Warning: nothing like pumpkin pie. I was a little disappointed. We added an orange and apple and I believe some ginger to it. I can’t really remember. But man that pumpkin flavor is strong!

My favorite recipe was with an orange, pear, peach, strawberries, carrot, and a handful or two of spinach. Reminded me of a smoothie!