Green Juice, Anyone?

Let me just start out by sharing the news that I am no longer competing in bikini competitions, unless it's the kind where you ride a bull at a bar in a bikini and make 150 bucks.  My reasoning behind this decision (in no particular order):

• My hidden trophy shelf in my closet is full and has no more space.  (Wow, that sounded cocky.)
• I have decided that spending thousands of dollars on a single trip to St. Tropez and hanging out in my bikini on the beach is more appealing than spending thousands of dollars on several domestic trips and eating cold tilapia out of a sandwich baggie in my hotel room.
• I'm about to launch the coolest health/fitness website that will require me to constantly upload new fitness videos, which will keep me in shape while I actually EARN money.
• My muscles are tight and I miss yoga.

Did I have fun competing?  Absolutely!  Did I learn a lot?  Without a doubt!  I'm extremely disciplined and obsessive about health, and that will never change.  This is a great segway into the reason for this blog post.

An ex-competitor friend of mine suggested that I do a juice cleanse for 3 days to press the restart button on my metabolism.  I'm on day 3 now and I feel so awesome!  My wedding ring is extremely loose now since I'm not retaining as much water, but that's the ONLY downfall!  Here is my favorite out of the 5 different drinks that I have during the day:

3 large kale leaves

2 cups spinach leaves

2 large romaine lettuce leaves

3 stalks celery

1/2 medium cucumber

Handful of Italian parsley

1 small lemon

1/2 red apple

6 drops liquid Stevia

20 drops liquid Dandelion Root

What's the one thing that I couldn't give up while juicing?  My Octane!  It's one of my energy sources and my daily multivitamin, and I like the fact that it also has the muscle-building amino's that I need for recovering from my workouts.

In my opinion:

Day 3 isn't over yet, but I am loving the way I feel!  I'm actually excited to slowly add my eggs and fish back into my food plan tomorrow.  I would recommend a juice cleanse to everyone (with your doctor's approval, of course), whether you are about to start a new nutrition program or you have been on your same program for a while.  It will definitely shock your body's internal furnace!

The Almond vs. The Cow

As I was preparing my homemade almond milk this morning, it got me thinking about several things.

Let me just preface what I'm about to say with...In My Opinion...

One, I actually drank cow's milk up until several years ago, which made me consistently bloated on a daily basis.  Two, I finally figured out that my problem was not only with packaged, processed food, but also with something that I thought was completely natural, milk!  Three, I do realize that the pasteurization process in milk is to destroy harmful bacteria, but if you're going to destroy some of the remotely-possible-beneficial enzymes (that are typically present in cow's milk for her calf), then why drink it?  Not only that, some pathogens with negative effects (such as the pathogen linked to Crohn's Disease) are heat resistant.  If you must destroy the beneficial enzymes with no proof that you can destroy negative pathogens at the same time, why put it into your body?  You can find calcium in MANY other foods that are natural!  Eating a diet rich in nuts, seeds, fruit and dark leafy greens will give you plenty of calcium, along with all of the other benefits that come with these natural foods.

Or, you could just suck on a cow's teet.  Oh wait, what was that?  You're not a baby calf?  Riiiiggght, I rest my case.

Check out the video of "The Almond vs. The Cow" in the My Two Cents vlog on myFit5.com!

Post a comment or hit me up for my almond milk recipe.