More About My First Juicer

Ok, so a little while ago I posted about how I am now the excited new owner of a juice extractor. It was purchased so I could juice celery. In the few short weeks that I have had this juicer, things have changed a lot for me. Initially when I began juicing I was drinking boxed fruit juice before meals and home squeezed celery juice after meals.

*Incidentally – as it turns out, the reason I thought the celery juice had a funny taste to it was because it was made from small yellow stalks close to the centre of the plant. Since then I have made the celery juice with the lush, thick, green stalks farthest from the centre and boy oh boy is that tasty!

Now I know this sounds crazy, but I hate boxed fruit juice. And I don’t like fruit either – with the exception of pineapple, bananas, and blueberries. But even those are fruits I rarely consume. At any rate, I can’t stand boxed fruit juice and I knew I had to keep drinking the fruit juice as per the acupuncturists’ instructions. But I was practically gagging just to get this stuff down. So, I figured since I had the juicer, I may as well try juicing my own fruit to see what happens.

When I was growing up, my mom was always pleased that I didn’t like fruit because it was so expensive. As I mentioned, I am not a fan of fruit so I don’t really know what prices to expect, only to expect that it would be costly. Anticipating that I was not going to like the juice any more than I like fruit itself, I decided to cheap out. Instead of buying an array of fruits, I bought a small deli container of pre cleaned/cut fruits. In the mix: kiwi, red grapes, watermelon, cantaloupe, honey-dew, blueberries, and strawberries. Small quantities of each.

Eagerly, before dinner that night I fired up the juicer and dumped my fruit down the shoot. After the extractor was done its process, I shut down the machine and eyed up the juice that had collected in the reservoir. Not sure what to expect, but trying to keep an open mind, I poured it into a glass and took a mouthful. OMG! I mean it. OMG! It was simply one of the best things I had ever tasted in my whole life. I need to know what is wrong with boxed juice that it would taste so awful. Nothing like the product I had just made. Drinking my homemade fruit juices has become a highlight in my day. I look forward to it like crazy.

And here is the best part – as a result of drinking the sweet nectars produced by my extractor, I have found that my craving for sweets has decreased significantly. I no longer feel compelled to eat a whole birthday cake. I can turn down desert now. Incredible. I feel better too. I have become regular, and and and… my body swelling has significantly decreased as well. It is wonderful.

The sodium in the celery juice is natural and healthy and has managed to get my salt cravings in check. I now find I very rarely add salt to anything during or after cooking. The sugars in the fruit juice are natural and healthy and are keeping my sugar cravings in check. What an amazing feat. This juicer has been the best kitchen investment for me. I can’t stress enough how much I recommend it. How ever did I live without it???

Depression Weight

I am stressed out. I am bummed out. I am not sleeping well and as a result I am doing the worst thing possible: I am making a habit out of comfort eating.

I am still getting in lots of exercise daily, and I try to get a lot of fresh air (weather permitting). I am still eating my Atkins foods, I am juicing like a mad woman – 6oz fruit juice before meals, 2oz of celery juice after meals. And I am having 4oz of black coffee in the mornings and 4oz of green tea in the afternoons. I am still drinking plenty of water. But I seem to be having a high carb snack every afternoon. White Cheddar Popcorn. 50 grams. I know I shouldn’t be, but I need something to make me feel better. Until all is right in my world again, I fear I will continue this habit. This negative trend. This indulgence. And I fear that in doing so, my weight will be adversely affected. But I am so bummed right now, I really don’t care enough to stop it. Ugh, I need to find my inspiration, I need to get out of this funk!

Any thoughts or suggestions?

White Kidney Beans – the new fad carb blockers

So I have recently read that white kidney beans are the source of an extract called “Phaseolamine” which is essentially used to block carbs. Now I am not going to get into the science of it all, there are a million sites out there with all the research info you could need. What I want to talk about is how they have put it into pill form and why.

While I understand that consuming pills is a more user-friendly way of ingesting multitudes of things, I also know that the more processed things are and the further they are from the natural state, the less healthy they are for our bodies. For example, if I buy a carton of juice at the store it is full of added vitamins vs. squeezing the juice myself and having only the natural vitamins – which we all know are the best kind for us. So that leads me to ask the question that nobody else seems to be asking:

1. Can’t I just consume more white kidney beans in my diet to have the benefits of the phaseolamine?

2. And how many white kidney beans would I need to consume in a day/meal for them to work as a carb blocker?

3. In what form should I consume white kidney beans or how should they be prepared in order to most effectively gain the benefits of this enzyme?

4. What are the negative side effects of consuming an abundance of phaseolamine and what can be done to counter this?

I have spent the better part of the morning doing online research of the white kidney bean. I have yet to have my questions answered. If you know the answers, please, fill me in! I want to reap the benefits of this wonderful food, but I don’t want to buy/take pills. I am finding the natural way of consuming my nutrients seems to be working better for me.

My First Juicer

Yesterday I got my very first juice extractor! I have wanted one for some time now, but have never really been able to justify the money. Over the weekend I went for an acupuncture session where I learned that my body is not “strong enough” to endure acupuncture. As a result, the practitioner suggested that we try herbs and acupressure. Part of my regime is juice therapy.

Essentially, 30 minutes before every meal I have to consume a 4-6 oz of fruit juice. Then 30 minutes after every meal I have to consume 50 ml of celery juice. Fruit juice you can buy in the stores, celery juice you cannot – which means you have to make it by hand. So I went to the grocery store and bought some “no sugar added” fruit juice boxes and a few bunches of celery. As normal, I can’t stand the fruit juice boxes. They taste like pure sugar, it’s disgusting. As for the celery juice, my process to extract the liquid from the celery has been nothing short of difficult. First, I throw the stalks into my food processor. Then, I pour the pulp into a large Ziploc. Next, my boyfriend (using his large manly muscles) squeezes and pushes all the liquid up from the pulp and out into a cup. The whole thing takes about half an hour. Good times. But the juice is green and rich, clear and soooo tasty. At any rate, knowing that I hate store-bought fruit juice, and knowing that we are spending a crazy amount of time every night making celery juice I decided that now was the time to finally break down and buy that juice extractor. Trouble is, I don’t get paid til Friday and only had about $40.00 to my name! So onto Kijiji I went.

There were several second-hand juicers available, but the one I went for was the Hamilton Beach 67650C Big Mouth™ Pro Juice Extractor. Upon picking it up I noted that it looked like a middle of the road priced piece of equipment; like a decent machine. I paid $20.00 for it. Which seemed fair. I could tell it was either hardly used, or very well taken care of. Now I admit, I was really excited to get it home and give it a whirl. And when I finally got the chance to do so, I was impressed. It was unbelievably quick. And extracted way more juice than my bf and I were able to do by hand. The left over pulp was not dry like sawdust, but it also did not have obvious liquid. It was as dry as I expected it to be. Cleaning the machine took me about 10 minutes. And that was that. I was instantly addicted to juicing. I have a shopping list for fruits I am going to pick up today

The only issue I have, is the taste of the juice. Perhaps something was funky with my celery? Perhaps the process of metal extracting juice somehow affects the juice? All I know is that the juice is not nearly as tasty from the juicer as it is when we make it by hand. It isn’t as clear either. And the colour is a darker shade of green. If you know anything about this, please do send me a message. I would love to know if I lost some of the health benefits by using a juicer.

Either way, I love this juicer so far. For the price I paid, I think it was a heck of a deal. I can say this though, if I were to go and buy a new one, I would spend a lot of money. Before I did this, I would not just research to find out which ones are the best, but I would also do what I could to see if I could try one out or sample the juice from one before buying it. I know that is a tall order, but who wants to pay a bunch of money for something they don’t use right? And if you don’t like the juice it is producing, are you really going to use it?

All in all, I give my new juicer a 4 out of 5.

Spelt Flour Pizza Crust

This recipe can be found on my Phase 2 Recipes page on this site.

For those of you who are regular readers of my site, you know that I have been looking for a South Beach friendly pizza crust recipe. My first attempt was using a cauliflower pizza crust recipe I found online. That was a disaster. But it was completely South Beach friendly – even for phase 1. Be that as it may, I was still remiss to consider making it again. I choked it down the first time, trying not to gag. I didn’t want/need to subject myself to that again. So I gave up on the hope of finding a phase 1 compatible crust realizing that phase 1 is only two weeks long. So I went online in search of a pizza crust recipe that would be appropriate for phase 2. In my research I learned that spelt flour is a generally acceptable flour to use in phase 2 and 3. Yes, it has gluten, and yes it has carbs, but it is also remarkably high in the protein department. Armed with this new knowledge I targeted only pizza dough/crust recipes made with spelt flour. I found a few recipes, and was eager to try them out.

This weekend my bf and I went forward with this plan. I reviewed all the recipes I had collected and decided upon the one that contained products that were already in my kitchen cupboards and was easy and fast to make. I gotta say, I was not disappointed! This crust was so easy to make, and was in the pan and ready to have the toppings put on it before I even had all the toppings chopped and ready to go. I was skeptical as to how it would turn out because the whole process was so simple and went so well – you know the old adage “if it seems to good to be true…”. None the less I piled on my toppings and put it in the oven, fearful, but hopeful.

When the buzzer rang to notify me that the pizza had reached its 20 minute bake time, I excitedly pulled it from the oven. It smelled amazing. It looked perfect. I was scared. Again I felt that it had all gone too well. I had this feeling that when I went to cut into it the dough would be raw where the toppings were heavy, or that it would crumble and fall apart, or that I would go to take a slice off the pizza pan and it would droop and flop around. I was nervous. I grabbed my pizza cutter and slowly and deliberately cut the pizza in half. I then spun the pan and cut one of the halves in half. I did this once more so that I had two pieces of pizza that were each 1/8 of the whole. Gently, I placed a butter knife under the lip of one of the slices. It held firm. But that I expected because it was the edge and as such had no toppings on it. With creeping precision, I continued to slide the knife under the piece of pizza to lift it away from the pan. To my surprise, the entire pice stood firm. I now began to worry that I had created a piece of concrete instead of pizza crust. But I knew that until I bit in to it, I would not know just how bad it was.

Armed with a knife and fork for each of us, I took our slices of pizza to the table and presented it to my bf. I waited while he acted as the guinea pig. He picked it up and took a bite. So far so good. He chewed thoroughly, then swallowed. The whole time I waited, staring, holding my breath. At long last, he looked up and said it was good. I wanted to sigh and feel relieved, but his response was not very convincing. Then a moment later he informed me that it was too soft/crumbly to eat without a fork and knife. I felt a tad defeated. I sat down and proceeded to cut a piece of my own, I put it in my mouth, and I could not believe how good it was. I was floored. I couldn’t belive my bf didn’t think it was as good as I thought it was. As I was in heaven humming and hawing about how good it was, he turned to me and told me he thought it could have been cooked longer! I thought “is he out of his mind?! This is perfect!!!”. Clearly, we didn not feel the same way about this crust. He did admit that it was far better than the cauliflower concoction, and that this crust was pretty good. But I think he may have been expecting it to be like a white flour pizza crust. And with spelt flour, that will never happen.

As the crust cooled a bit I noticed that I was able to hold it and eat it like a regular piece of pizza. While I am sorry that my bf didn’t enjoy it as much as I did, I have to say I am sold on it. If I have my way, I will make this crust time and again. The link to the original recipe is below.

http://www.food.com/recipe/pizza-crust-all-purpose-flour-or-spelt-flour-213262

Bikini Babes

DISCLAIMER: The following is controversial in nature. It may be considered offensive. If you are unprepared, unwilling, or unable to be confronted by reality with an objective view, please do not read the following.

In a month and a week my bf and I will be going on holidays. Heading for the sun, sand, and excitement of Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Knowing that we are going to be hitting the beach and lounging around the pool I figured it was time for a new swimsuit. So online I went to visit some of my favorite places to buy original clothing. I admit, I am not a fan of the cookie cutter clothing shops in town. There I am online and I notice something that left me speechless. I mean, mind-boggling. The brain actually reels at the confusion caused by what I kept coming across. What was it? Swimwear for the heavy gals that was made for the little gals.

These two swimsuits are being displayed on petite sized mannequins. Yet the size listed in the advertisements were for extra-large. Extra Large! I’m sorry, but if you don’t have the figure to wear a swimsuit made from that little material, you shouldn’t! And how do you know if you have the figure to wear a swimsuit like that? Look at the pictures above. Would you look like that in one of those swimsuits? If you answered yes, then you should buy one and strut your stuff. But if you said no, then you should try a swimsuit that is considerably more modest that the above. Hell, I am about 3 dress sizes bigger than those mannequins and I would never be caught in public dressed like that! Nobody wants to see that.

In April 2008, my dad and I took a trip to Mexico. We were staying at a secluded resort in the Mayan. It was amazing. But while we were there we made some interesting observations. And today my memory was refreshed. About 90% of the women on the beach were wearing two piece swimsuits. About 5% of the women on the beach had the figure for a two piece. Just because you like the swimsuit, does not mean you should be wearing it. Stick to your diet, exercise regularly, and at some point you will be able to wear a skimpy teeny-weeny bikini.

The worst part is, there are probably a whole bunch of women who are going to read this post and be offended by it. The society we live in today is one of apathy. Stifled in our opinions, too liberated for our own good, and terrified to say what is right and what is wrong. Well, I am entitled to my opinion. So here it is: I don’t want to see your muffin top because you want to fit into size 8 jeans when you are clearly a size 12!

I don’t want to see your cascading rolls because you want to look good in a bikini but don’t!

And black is only flattering if the cut of the cloth is right for your figure. Again, you can’t put yourself in a size small when you are a large!

These are not sexy looks. They look bad. Really really bad. And I know that you may think I am a b*tch. Or you may think that I am being too hard on heavy gals, but here is the thing, if I looked like any of these gals, I would want someone to stop me from going out in public looking like that. We must have a sense of reality to accompany our self-esteem. That’s all I am saying. And if I hurt your feelings or ticked you off, I am sorry. But sometimes a good kick in the butt is what we need to open our eyes.

Grazing Habits of the Common Male Homo Sapien

It is 9:30am on Monday morning. I am at work eagerly awaiting my breakfast. What is on the menu today?? Atkins Advantage Mocha Latte Shake. I have never before tried this shake but am quite curious how it will taste. For the past month and a half or so I have been having Atkins Shakes for my breakfast. Typically I will have the milk chocolate, vanilla, or dark chocolate variety. Last week I tried a strawberry banana Atkins DayBreak Shake. I didn’t like it. I truly hope that this Mocha Latte one is tasty.

So here I sit, at my desk, doing my work and going about my business when what do I hear? Crinkle crinkle, followed by loud munch munch crunch. I look over to see one of the typical men in my office chowing down on a bag of  Frito’s B-B-Q Hoops. Mmmm, that’s a healthy breakfast. He leaves my vicinity, but for some reason I am still hearing crispy crunchy sounds. So I look down the hall and see another typical male co-worker enjoying a bag of Ruffles All Dressed chips. For breakfast! Oh, and did I mention that I keep a bowl of community candy on my desk? Currently, because it is Easter, I have a bowl of Cadbury Mini Eggs on my desk. So far this morning, I have had at least 3 men stop at my desk to consume a handful of mini eggs. Some of these men making return trips for a second, and even a third handful of mini eggs. Hmmmm. I must say, I am perplexed by the grazing habits of the common male North American Great White Homo Sapien. Of all the animals I have seen in my kingdom recently, they are by far the least concerned with their health or appearance. But I suppose that society really hasn’t applied the same pressure to them as they have to the female of the species. Lucky gals. In fact, virtually every girl in my office is dieting right now. Why? Bikini season is upon us. And with all the news stands at the markets filled with swimsuit shots of sexy female celebrities that we can’t possibly look like without massive dieting and exercise, and in some cases surgery, we really have no choice but to take whatever steps are necessary in order to look our best. Is it healthy to diet once a year to shed the winter weight? No, not really, but it is better than eating like pigs year round. And at least a few months of dieting every year can help in reducing issues such as obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, and other negative issues surrounding poor eating and higher than healthy weight.

And yet the majority of the male species that I know seem oblivious to this. Lucky for me, my male homo sapien cares just as much about his figure as I care about mine

Here is some advice guys: just for a couple of months out of the year, have an apple for breakfast instead of a doughnut. Try an omlet instead of a bag of chips. Not only will you look better, you will feel better too. In every way.

Cinnamon Pill Review

So about 2 months ago I read an article in Women’s World magazine about a British University Breakthrough that claimed it could help people to lose up to 10lbs of belly fat in as little as a week! I know what you are thinking. I thought the same thing, but still… So I will distill what I learned so that you can take the benefit of my experience.

The product to use to achieve such weight loss: cinnamon pills. Gel capsules filled with cinnamon products: ie. ground cinnamon, cinnamon bark, and any other cinnamon thing you could think of or find if you research the word cinnamon. There are other ingredients in cinnamon pills as well, but that will vary depending on the brand you look at. The claim in the article I read is that if you ingest 500 mg at breakfast, 1000 mg at lunch, and another 500 mg at dinner this would cause you to burn more fat specifically targeting tummy fat. So of course I ran out and bought some.

First things first, selection and price. I found a huge variety of cinnamon pills on American sites, and all of them ranged from $5.00 a bottle to$15.00 a bottle, 50-100 capsules per bottle, 250 mg (on average) cinnamon pills. Here in Canada however… different story. I have found that the selection here is the pits. As for price, try $24.00 a bottle and up for the same quantities - yet the mg’s are far less! try 60 mg to 125 mg pills. So, in Canada we are paying a lot more money for allot less product. Typical lol.

Now that we got that out-of-the-way, lets move on to the health benefits. Remember, this is my own personal experience. Other people could have different results. I can honestly say I don’t believe I have lost any fat as a result of taking these pills. I do continue to take them though. And here is why: they seem to help me control my temper. In Jr. High school I was diagnosed as hypo glycemic. When my blood sugar level drops I get woozy/dizzy, intolerant, anger easy, and get down right mean. One of the things that cinnamon is supposed to do is level off blood sugar levels. I didn’t know this before I started taking them, but for me it rings true. So much so that when I went off of them for a couple of weeks, I felt it. I am glad to be back on them, even though they aren’t helping me lose weight.

Perhaps they arent’ helping me to lose fat because I don’t have much fat on my tummy to lose? Like when you are 300 lbs it is easy to lose 6 lbs in a week, but when you are 100 lbs it is almost impossible to lose 6 lbs in a week. Or maybe the whole concept is a load junk. I can’t say either way. What I do know is that the article I read claimed that every single person, regardless of age, weight, work out habits, or eating habits lost lbs per week with these pills.

So here’s the skinny, if you have the money to blow, where is the harm? If you don’t have the money to blow, add a tsp of ground cinnamon to as many meals/beverages as you can in a day, increase your walking by 2000 steps a day, and so long as you don’t eat more food (intake more calories, fats, or carbs than usual), that could help at least a little.

Fresh New Look

I hope you all enjoy the fresh new look my site now has. It took me a while but I think it is vegtastic!

Spring is here, the trees are going to begin budding with leafs, the flowers will soon shoot up tall, and the grass will soon start to turn green and lush. As well are the transformations which my bf and I are undergoing. The South Beach lifestyle has definetly helped out with freshening up our appeareacens too. So why not freshen up my site?! Sometimes it is all that is needed to feel a spring in your step.

More Benefits of The South Beach Diet

If you will indulge me, I would like to get a little personal with my post today. I want to write about some positive benefits of The South Beach Diet that are gender specific. And if that weren’t clear enough, I am talking about PMS.

So I have been living the South Beach lifestyle for a while. True, I lost my way for a bit, but I have been back on the horse and going strong for the past 5 weeks or so. I can honestly say I notice the perks and benefits on a daily basis. One of my favorite things about South Beach is that I really have gained an appreciation for good tasting food. I don’t take food for granted anymore, I don’t abuse food anymore if you will lol. I love that I feel fuller sooner and really listen to what my body is telling me. I am more conscientious about my health - even in areas that don’t pertain to the diet itself. My clothes fit nicer, I have more energy, I sleep better at night, my hair and nails and skin are nicer, and in general I feel better. But something is going on that I didn’t expect and I gotta say, I am really loving this part of it.

I am a PMS sufferer. And when I say I suffer, I mean it. All my symptoms begin at least a week before my flow starts. About a week before my monthly visitor arrives my breasts begin to swell. They swell to over a full cup size larger than they normally are, and it kills. They become so sensitive that even grazing them is agony. I also take on water everywhere else. They say that drinking lots of water helps to relieve water retention, for me that does not ring true. It has always been the more water I drink, the more I retain. And the closer I get to my time of the month, the worse it is. Generally speaking, I retain so much water during that week prior to my monthly that ALL my jeans are so tight it feels as though I am cutting off circulation to my body. The swelling in my legs so bad that my calves end up filling the extra space in my boot cut jeans – no joke! Aside from those symptoms I also get headaches, become erratic and short-tempered – yes, for the whole week up to my visitors arrival. I get emotional, wanna cry or yell all the time, it’s awful and I pity my poor boyfriend who has come to expect that every time my monthly rolls around I am going to break up with him over something stupid like the misplacement of a coffee mug! Oy. Not fun for either of us.

So in the 5 weeks since I have been hard-core with South Beach I have endured PMS twice. The first time at the very beginning, and right at this very moment. This go round began on this past Monday. So far, there is some minor swelling in my bust (which does have me wearing sports bras all day everyday vs. my regular underwire with cup bras). Sensitivity in that area… yes, but they are nowhere as swollen as they usually get. As for the rest of my body, I can feel slight water retention however my clothes are not fitting differently at all. My calves haven’t really swollen up this week yet. My mood, my temper, my emotional status – cool, calm, steady, even, wonderful! And aside from a red wine induced headache, I haven’t had a single PMS related headache at all. I am loving this!

Ladies, if you suffer from PMS like I have, perhaps a lifestyle change is required. I can’t express how much better I feel. The South Beach Diet has really become a great way of life for me and I am sure that anyone who would go on this plan would recognize the benefits – probably in 5 weeks or less