TGIF:)

Hello All~
Time to start thinking about gardening:) Yay! I've been doing some reading on designing a garden (mapping it out), planting- which veggies to start indoors or sow directly into the ground, also harvesting, and freezing vs. canning. It's been fun. (The only dilemma is that we are trying to buy a house and it may interfere with getting our vegetation in the ground the first week of May.. we are diligently working on this..)
Also, since Spring has nearly Sprung..it is time to be thinking about juicing again:) Dottie is wanting to start back juicing, this time with the initial goal being 50 days. Since I am interested in doing the same, I will be joining her as well. We start in two days.. This Sunday!! So I will be monitoring my weight loss, try to keep track of my inches.. and perhaps my hair growth again. So this will be interesting to see where my body takes me after another juice fast/feast. I think back to the fact that you go "back in time" with your body and illnesses so many years for each day of juicing. That is exciting, I can't wait to be an embryo again:) hahah.. Well issues I was dealing with 6 months ago are either healed or healing and it is great to continue on the path to health. I will be including Psyllium and Bentonite in my regimine to help continue to cleanse my intestinal track and too several liver/gallblader cleanses. (Thanks Red:) Ok, I will keep you posted.. Happy Juicing~

The WonderMill is here!!!

Here it is... the WonderMill grinder, and it is much better than grinding in a VitaMix (sorry VitaMix, you're made for blending delicious smoothies).

Love it!

Is this Red Juice or what???

Fred and I have been dealing with some ongoing health issues: his is a giant kidney stone, mine are anxiety and hormonal issues. We borrowed 'The Juicing Book' from Sherry's library and found a few things that can help us both. So this morning, we took the plunge and made the juice with all the goodies.

Yes, we were a little scared, but we did it anyway, and it's delicious. What's in this beautiful red juice: a large beet, 4 stocks of asparagus, 2 stocks of celery, a bunch of Russian kale, 1 cucumber, 4 carrots and 2 Fuji apples, all organic of course.

Turns out asparagus and celery juice are especially good for nervous disorders and kidney disorders... so now you know.

You really can 'drink' to your health! ♥

Can you say WOW!!

Here is a picture I came across recently (the one on the left). It was taken at Red Lobster in Johnson City, TN last June (2009). Embarrassing!!! Look at me trying to hide my big belly behind my little arm (comparatively little). Oh yeah, I'm the one in the pink..

But wait..there's more:) The picture of a thinner girl in white, yeah, that's me too!! Taken laste week and 45lbs lighter from the last pic. From where I was to where I am now, WOW!! I am very pleased with the results. Hope you are excited too!

~So if you don't know how to go from the SAD diet to Vegan/Vegetarian lifestyle, start small (if you're that kind of person), take baby steps. A wonderful book that has been recommended several times on this blog is the "The RAVE Diet" by Mike Anderson (along with any video of his that you can get your hands on! Especially "Eating"- all available for cheap through Amazon.com). You will find his advice very practical for anyone to do. Also, GreenSmoothieGirl (.com) does rock (as Kendra recently mentioned on here). GreenSmoothieGirl too is very practical and whatever you can do to add in Green Smoothies (as she shows you step-by-step online-for FREE) you will do nothing but help yourself and your family... Okay, stepping off my soap-box.. Well, I hope you can see the difference that changing my eating lifestyle has done for me in merely 6 months!!

I take it back! Get a good grain mill...

OK, so in a post shown below, I stated that you can use your VitaMix to grind wheat berries and grains, which you can, however, I've since discovered that the way the blades are oriented in the VitaMix, it pushes the grains down instead of up and away from the blades, creating a lot of heat and compacting the flour. I've heard on the 'residential' line of VitaMix machines that they do have a 'dry' container that can be used for grinding dry grains, etc., that works fine, but they don't have one for the 'commercial' line of drink mixers, which is what I have...

So, we've decided that we are going to get the WonderMill grinder, so I will keep you posted on how well we like it.

We've made muffin tops and whole grain pasta by grinding wheat berries with the VitaMix, however, the grain is not quite fine enough for my liking, and it was really difficult to get the pasta to work, so we're making the change.