I did get a new juicer and it works like a charm.  But, I am not doing the gazpacho soup drink again.  Yesterday it really bothered my stomach with the red onions in it.  I have esophagitis (or so they say) so things like that tend to irritate my stomach.  When I bought the juicer, I also bought a book, something like The Juicing Bible or something like that.  In it, they had a lunch juice.  It has apples, red beets and a few other things.  Tastes yummy and it did not make me sick!  Yesterday I also ran 3 miles and I did some things on the Wii like the free run and I also went on the elliptical.  In all I burned about 300+ calories and I am finally starting to re-see a difference in my weight.  If you read my previous post about the original 3 day detox, you would know I lost some weight, but not a ton.  But, with the Joe Cross juice diet, I am starting to feel better, sleep better (or maybe it’s that $70 pillow lol) and I am losing weight.  If I can reach my ten pound goal some time soon I am definitely going to continue. However, if I plateau, well, Ill have to do something else!

After finishing my other “warm up” juice diet for three days and losing a few pounds, I decided to go a little further with it and try Joe Cross’ 3 Day Juice Cleanse.  You can see that guide/diet here.  Mind you, I’m not obese by any means, but I could stand to lose some weight, feel more energetic and get healthier and that is what the juice is supposed to do for you.  Today is the first day for.  If you want me to be honest – keep reading.  If you want me to lie, click the X on the page now!

There are five juices a day plus a dinner.  The dinner can only be fruit and veggies.  No butter, no salt, no meat or protein.  The reason I am doing this besides the above mentioned reasons, is because people, LOTS of people have claimed this helped them lose weight quickly and easily.

The Breakfast Juice:  Is alright.  I heard and read a lot of people saying it was the best one.  So I figured if they thought THAT was the best one, I was probably screwed the rest of the day haha.  It’s a mixture of carrots, apples and ginger.  If you like carrot juice – this is a good mixture for you.  I like mine raw, so I had a little trouble glugging this down, but I did it.

The Mid Morning Juice:  Really hard to get down for me.  It has a bunch of ingredients like cucumber, celery, apple, kale, lemon and ginger.  It looked somewhat like slime from GhostBusters which screwed with my head the second I put it in the glass.  It tasted really lemony and smelled like, well, celery lol.

I have lunch in a few minutes.  I can’t WAIT!  *sarcasm*.  But, I am going to do it.  If nothing else, I have strong will power and in knowing this will help me lose weight and be healthier, Ill drink the damn things. One thing I should mention before I go forward with the rest of my meals (come back to this page and I will update it when I can today) is that this is not cheap.  I went to the store for TWO portions of 5 drinks for today (for me and my mom) and wow.  It really ate a whole in my pocket.

One thing I would suggest is that if you cannot do this one exactly like Joe says, do juicing, but try other foods.  For example, red peppers is in the lunch and pre-dinner juices.  Well, red bell peppers were not on sale this week so I had to buy them regularly priced and it was expensive!

There are a TON of juicing books out there so surely there is one you can find that you like, will help you lose weight and one that you can afford.  That is probably what we are going to do after today.  Ill be back later with an update!

***Update:  Yesterdays lunch did not go well at all.  It was the “gazpacho” soup drink.  It might have been okay IF I made it with a juicer.  But, my juicer broke and I was incredibly frustrated as to what to do.  So I did what any person would do lol I used my damn blender.  DO NOT do this.  Its bad enough these are fruits and veggies via juice without any salt or seasoning.  But add the texture of chunky applesauce that a blender gives you and chances are you will really hate this juicing “diet”, I know I did.  For the rest of the day I decided to just eat the veggies and fruits without blending or juicing them.  I was desperate.  I hope to go out today and buy a new juicer.   Ill keep this updated to let everyone know how that went lol and if this gets any easier for me!

I mentioned in a post earlier, that I am trying to stop smoking.  By doing this I am still smoking cigarettes, but I am also smoking e-cigs or electronic cigarettes for those of you not familiar.  It sounds all New Age when you first hear about these cigarettes.  But, Ill give you the low down on the pros and cons and you can make up your mind whether its for you or not.  Deal?  Okay.

Pro’s:

• Doesn’t make me smell like an ashtray!
• Doesn’t make me out of breath like regular cigarettes
• Costs Less
• No more damn lighters (or losing them!)
• I can smoke just about anywhere, even in my house!
• It’s healthier.  Don’t let the FDA fool you folks.

Con’s

• You can buy e-cigs in a local store, but I am really picky about mine.  I would say the biggest con about THESE specific cigarettes is that they have to be shipped.  But, if I take into consideration the price, I’m okay with having to wait a few days.
• It looks like you are smoking a pen lol.  It really does.
• Since this is an electronic cigarette it is a tad heavier than a regular cigarette.  I wish it was a little lighter, but I know they are almost ALL like this.

Obviously there are WAY more Pros than Con’s, but you were kind of expecting that anyway weren’t you?  I know I was before I got them.  I got to talking to one of the people over at the site I get these cigarettes and I talked them into giving me a little coupon code thing.  I can use it, but you can as well.  The nice thing is that you can use it, as they told me, on anything in these stores:

http://www.v2cigs.com/    (this is the one I shop at).

http://www.vaporcouture.com/

http://www.ecigs.com/

The coupon code is: krambrose

Just use it when you are checking out and you will get 10% off ANYTHING you purchase from them.  Kind of cool of them to do that!

The first few days of that cleanse really were horrible.  I mean not being able to sleep just really took it out of me.  Thankfully throughout the cleanse I did lose 6lbs.  In three days.  That’s always a nice little “push” to want to keep going further!  Today I feel pretty damn good.  I had my cup of coffee though, I missed it too much!  Then I continued on with my morning pre-biotic shake with pro-biotic capsule.  I am still going to do the shake in the morning along with the other supplements (minus the berberine), exercise and I have a few other purchases that Dr Oz suggested to help burn fat away.   If anyone is curious about these specific supplements, let me know.  But, you still have to exercise people!  Keep your metabolism going

FYI I have been sleeping really good now and when I wake up I actually feel good and I have energy.  I have also been taking a shot of this Whole 5 Puree in the morning which I think is helping to give me a little boost.  Unlike AMP and other BAD energy drinks, Whole 5 is full of good stuff.  It is a tad expensive though (I think).  I bought a big jug of it on sale at our local grocery store for $20.  A little summary:

“Whole 5 is sold in a 32-oz bottle which includes a one month supply of 1 oz. daily servings.^[1] It is advertised as containing no added sugars or preservatives, and no sweeteners, glutens, or yeast.^[4][1] An analysis performed by Brunswick Labs reported that Whole 5 has an equivalent level of antioxidants to five servings of fruits and vegetables in each one ounce serving.^[4]“

The first day I had it I was like woah, what the hell is this.  It tastes like… salty grape juice!  But, in that one ounce there are a ton of veggies and fruits, minerals and herbs.  Which is 5 servings — in one ounce.  Pretty fantastic.  Ah found it:  15 fruits and vegetables, 2 herbs and 13 minerals.  Yes please!  I’m not sure if you can buy this online, but I am sure with a little search on Google you can find out more.  Or you can check their website for distribution centers: http://www.whole5.com/index.php

Anyway, off I go to enjoy my Sunday.  Ill be back later on this week to give an update to weight loss and how I have been feeling.

P.S:  As of right now, the only exercise I have been doing is walking briskly around my neighborhood.  BUT I want to also incorporate my P90X which I looooove and Wii.  Yes.  I said Wii lol.  Love the tennis on there!

Yesterday was harsh.  Not having coffee or soda or even hot tea was killer.  But, I still made myself go to bed at 1000 and… I woke up 20 minutes later WIDE AWAKE!  I still went for a walk, I still exercised and I still ate what I was supposed to even though I was a walking zombie all day long.  I guess that’s what happens when you are detoxing.  Today is day three officially.  I was so tired last night I went to bed at 945 (the earliest ever!) and woke up at 200am wide awake again even though I took some Valerian to help me sleep.

Needless to say I am still a zombie lol.  I need a good solid 8 hours (wow, I just typed out years!) of sleep and I think I will feel a lot better.    I let myself have a cup of earl grey when I woke up at 2 just because I needed something to make me happy.  Even if it was just a small hot cup of tea with Stevia.  I ache, my head hurts and I am tired.

This is not to say that the cleanse is a bad thing.  I think I am having a bad reaction because I eat bad, I don’t exercise, I smoke (though I am trying to quit!), etc.  So now that I am doing the cleanse its really just kicking my butt and making me realize how bad I have really been.

It’s so easy to just live life ya know?  And forget all those things that are really important like cutting out sugar and making sure you exercise and making sure you don’t work through lunch.  So yes.  This sucks.  I am achy and I am tired.  But, it also made me wake up, even if only internally, and realize “Kristi, you need to start taking care of yourself better.”  So… I shall.

FYI I have been a smoker since I was a teenager.  I have tried to stop several times via the cold turkey method, but let’s be honest for a second:  I don’t have good will power lol.  I just don’t!  So I am trying these V2 Cigs.  Groupon had a really great deal.  It was 10 cartridges (which is a carton of regular cigarettes), a manual and an automatic battery, a carrying case, etc.  for $25.  A carton of real cigarettes costs me $62 in the state of PA.  So that right there was reason enough.  I really like the cigarettes and they are easy to use and easy to “put together.”  When I got mine from the V2 website and the Groupon package, you only had a choice of two options: red or menthol.  I never liked menthol so I got reds and you can also choose between 3 different nicotine levels.  I picked the middle one since I smoke Marlboro Lights, but they also have a cigarette with ZERO nicotine as well.

Also, from what I understand, one cartridge is one pack of cigarettes.  And with the V2 cigs you can get a give pack, which is five packs of cigarettes for $10.  Yea um.  If I were to buy 5 packs of real cigarettes from the store that would be almost $30.  Crazzzy difference!

I actually wrote that post ^^^ Early in the AM and finally got tired enough to shut my eyes and oh, I don’t know, SLEEP.  So I am awake now and I feel much better.  It just goes to show HOW important sleep really is.  Today is the last day of my cleanse, but that does not mean I am going to stop eating good.  In fact, quite the opposite.  I am either going to continue on doing this “diet” by Dr. Alejandro or I am going to do a new one.  Ill be back tomorrow

Over the last few months I have really let myself go. Between the winter time (when I just want to sleep and hibernate) to just making excuses about not exercising, I have been really unhealthy. I know most of us do that, but I am actually going to do something about it lol. And because of that, I want to journal it, even though this was never really meant to be a journal site. I somehow think it’s going to help keep me on track. And perhaps it will help someone out there realize they too can and are able to take the steps to become healthier. I am going to try “Clean Gut: The Breakthrough Plan for Eliminating the Root Cause of Disease and Revolutionizing Your Health.” It was on Doctor OZ yesterday.

I know that a lot of people go on diets and they do trend diets and fad diets and blah blah blah. I mainly just need something I can do on a schedule that will help organize when I eat and what I eat so I can get on the track of getting healthier and then being healthier. Some people think diets are starving yourself. They are and they arent – depending on what type of diet you are doing. A healthy GOOD diet will not ask you to starve yourself.

The first three days of the Clean Gut: The Breakthrough Plan for Eliminating the Root Cause of Disease and Revolutionizing Your Health are going to be the hardest. This is the cleanse part of the diet. To read more about cleansing, what it is and why you should do it, you can read this link: http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/get-skinny-cleanses. No coffee, no wine, no sugar, no preservatives, etc. I would really suggest getting the Clean Gut: The Breakthrough Plan for Eliminating the Root Cause of Disease and Revolutionizing Your Health book. I will not be adding affiliate links and all that crap. I just want to be healthy

—
Last night I went to bed at 11 and woke up at 800. I had a fitful night of sleep even though I took Valerian Root and Poppy to settle my mind down. Maybe tonight it will work better. Sleep is such an important aspect. It’s really important that you get at least 8 hours as an adult. In about 30 min I am going to take a brisk walk, come home to do the Clean Gut: The Breakthrough Plan for Eliminating the Root Cause of Disease and Revolutionizing Your Health morning shake and then I will start to do my P90X. I loooove P90X. A few years ago when I was doing it routinely, I lost weight, looked great and felt awesome. (then I fell off the wagon lol). Damn you wagon!

FYI the Shake I am doing is this one:

http://www.doctoroz.com/episode/dr-ozs-3-day-energy-boosting-cleanse

It’s the Breakfast Shake and it sounds pretty good. For those that think spinach in a drink is going to taste nasty, guess again! All of the other items sort of drown out the greens. It’s mainly there for vitamin sake.

10 oz almond milk
1/2 cup blueberries
1 medium banana
1 handful baby spinach
1 scoop plant-based protein powder
2 tsp apple cider vinegar

I think tomorrow morning I am going to do the shake first then exercise. I am one of those ‘HAVE TO EAT WHEN I WAKE UP!” people. Or else my tummy starts growling at me for not feeding it.

Going “green” is not a term that is uncommon these days. We have been going green for years when it comes to the food we buy, the electronics we use and the household items we buy. But, you might be wondering what going green and buying wine have in common and what it means for both you and the companies that produce these “green wines”. Instead of bother you with a bunch of mumbo jumbo that might make all of this even more confusing than it really is, I have found this really cool infographic online to show you in detail, what going green and green wine means to you, the companies that produce the wine, and the people that love wine.







Presented By Wine.com, Purveyors of fine green Wine

Guest post written by my buddy Fidel Hernandez

Being a stay at home mom has made me pursue a lot of passions that I didn’t really have otherwise and that’s fun. I’ve started painting and doing yoga in the mornings which is really nice but my favorite hobby of all now is cooking. I love being able to have a hot, home-cooked meal on the table when my kids and husband get home and if I do say so myself, I’ve actually gotten quite good at cooking! I got http://www.direc4u.com/satellite so I could leave the Food Network on in the background while I cleaned up the house and that’s actually been great.

It’s amazing how much of what they’re saying just absorbs in your mind – I learned how to properly cut an onion without once ever watching someone do it on TV! Anyway, I’m no Martha Stewart or anything but I’m better than I’ve ever been at getting things done in the kitchen and that’s a success story if you ask me. I love my new life as a home chef!

I know I haven’t updated in quite awhile. Ive been really busy with Kristi Ambrose Marketing & Content Solutions. But, I did make a fantastic pasta the other day and now I am addicted. Pasta usually isn’t good for you, however, you can use other types of noodles if you want to make it a little healthier. I have made it with both Penne (it coats well with sauce) and I have also made it with Gluten Pasta since regular noodles upset my stomach at times. The recipe is really yummy, flavorful and VERY easy!

Ingredients:
1/4c Zucchini – Half Moons – Sliced Thinly
1/4c Portobello Mushrooms – Small Dice
2 Cloves of Garlic – Chopped Finely
1T Green Onion – Sliced, you can also use onion bulbs, regular onions, etc
1/2c Spinach – Chopped Roughly
8 Grape Tomato’s – Cut in Fours
1 1/2T Mascarpone Cheese
1/2T Parmesan (fresh)
3T Whipped Cream (heavy cream)
1T Fresh Basil – Chiffonade
2T Fresh Mozzarella – Small Dice (optional)
1T Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2c Pasta – Or However much or little you want!
S&P

So as you can see most of the ingredients in this are pretty simple and pretty healthy. You can use the whipped heavy cream and the mozzarella optionally. I like adding the heavy cream because it makes a thick sauce to coat the pasta with. The mozzarella cheese was just something extra because I was feeling naughty that day and wanted something bad to add to it! It does give it a nice velvety texture and flavor though. If you use a lot more pasta than suggested, up the ingredients as well so everything mixes nicely.

Directions:
Pretty simple. Take the onion, oil (about 1T) and garlic and sautee. Then, take the zucchini, mushrooms, spinach, & tomato’s and place those in with the garlic and onion mixture. The pan, I guarantee you, will look a little scary. But, I promise that once the spinach cooks down, it will look less scary! Once you let that cook down you will start to see some residual water, that’s okay! Don’t strain that out, it will start to become your sauce base. Take the mascarpone cheese, parm cheese and the whipped heavy cream and add it into the mixture, mix thoroughly. Add your S&P to taste.

At the last second add in the optional mozzarella, the pasta, and the basil and mix around so that the cheese melts and the basil melds with the mixture.

Serve!

I know some of you are scared already. But don’t be! This will be the easiest and tastiest pizza you will ever make. And remember, you don’t have to use the ingredients I tell you to – use whatever your hearts desire! Sometimes I like using roasted red peppers, or an assortment of mushrooms, or olives. Maybe you like ham and pineapple or meat lovers – well go for it! Its your pizza! First and foremost the home-made was in quotes. About a year ago I started using Pillsbury Pizza Crust. The crust on its own tastes like those dinner rolls they have. But add some sauce and a touch of flavor and its a nice little treat for you.

1 “can” of Pillsbury Pizza Crust (I use thin)
1/2 – 1 jar of Delallo Pizza Sauce
1 whole Mozzarella ball
1/2 cup Shitake mushrooms
1/2 cup Vidalia Onions
4 Pieces Turkey Bacon
Grape Seed Oil
4 medium pieces of Sun Dried Tomato’s
S&P
1 Tab of butter

This is also a good recipe if you want to take it easy on the greasy foods for once. I used grape seed oil because its a terrific oil to cook with but I also used a tab of butter (smart balance) because I like the flavor mixed with the onions and mushrooms. Again, you can do whatever you want.

Before you cut everything up go ahead and get your crust and your oven ready. Set your oven to preheat at 350 degrees. I suggest oiling the baking sheet before you put down the crust – it just makes it easier later on after everything is baked! Unroll the crust onto your baking sheet (you might need to kneed/stretch the dough a wee bit) and add a few spoonfuls of your pizza sauce. You don’t really want to cook the pizza through all the way. Just enough so its not soggy. Put it in the oven along with your timer.

You will want to cut up your onions, mushrooms, bacon and tomatoes up in small-ish pieces. Next I put the butter and oil in a frying pan and heat it up a little bit – once it gets a little warm add in your aforementioned ingredients along with about a teaspoon of salt and a dash of pepper. You will want to cook ALL of this together so all the flavors will mix nicely. As for if its done enough or not? Check your onions. Since they are the densest/hardest thing in this mix — if they are breakable with a spoon then the whole thing is done!

You are also going to want to take your mozzarella or whatever cheese you want to use and prepare that as well. For the mozzarella if you don’t want it to keep sticking to the knife and you want nice thin pieces I would suggest keeping your knife wet. Mozzarella is a really dense and somewhat “dry” cheese. So if you keep a knife near by and just wet it every so often before slicing the cheese then you should get through it quite easily.

Once your pizza is done baking for those 5-8 minutes you can take it out and place your sauteed ingredients on the pizza spreading it out evenly – this is also the perfect time to add your cheese as well. Put it back in the oven for about 15 – 20 minutes. If you are using a fresh cheese like mozzarella AND mushrooms you will probably find that a lot of the water from these two items will come pouring out. Don’t worry! Bake it for a few minutes more if this happens. Also, once you get it out of the oven – let it sit for a few minutes and all that liquid will start to evaporate away!

Slice and serve. Yummy!

Tags: dinner, easy recipes, lunch, meat lovers, Pizza, veggie