jueves, 3 de diciembre de 2009

Day 1/500 Vita-Mix: Let the games begin!

The internet convinced me that the first step to health is a blender, but not just any blender, no, it had to be either a Blendtec or a Vita-mix. I settled on the Vita-mix because it is larger and not as noisy, so is the information I've found on other blogs and Youtube. Although the Blendtec is powerful enough to blend a can of Coke, I just don't plan on blending cans of Coke.

I've just received my vita-mix and I used it for the first time, today. Here is my experience:

Vita-Mix: Getting to know you

The vita-mix arrived in two boxes. One box had a market bag, the box that is the same size as the vita-mix itself had a bag. I understand their reason of such packaging: they just pre-package different "packages" so that when an order comes in they simply ship the vita-mix and "package" (as there are many "$700 packages"), instead of individually custom-packaging each order. This method of shipping seperate boxes of blender and "package" conserves time and energy BUT not it is not very eco-friendly of the vita-mix company. I guess there in it for the money just as much as their in it for the health. The packaging did not interfere with my overall rating of the product, per se, but opening a package and understanding how the company of such a highly rated product is part of my shopping experience.

The vita-mix is a beastly machine. Even though I've seen it before, I do not know what I was thinking but the vita-mix was much bigger than I anticipated. It doesn't fit on my small apartment kitchen counter. Its large and bulky and generally industrialized piece of equipment. Then again, I am able to make more beverage and I do end up drinking much more than I thought I would, this will come in handy when I experiment with juice/smoothie fasting. On the other hand, it works just marvelously. My first smoothie was pineapple and mango. The process was easy and painless. I did not have to mess with clean up and I did not have to fidget with the smoothie as it was in the process of being made. Whereas with my outdated home blender I'd have to turn the machine off and use a spoon to push the ingredients into the blade, at least once.

In order to rationalize the $500 expense and also to add detail to my health mission, I plan to use my blender at least once a day for 500 days. I hope blogging will keep me honest.

So, today is day 1. Quick and painless. Here's the recipe

a pineapple
a mango
6 ounces of water.

I juiced for breakfast at around 8a and I drank about six 0unces. I felt satisfied, but I was hungry by 10a. I was hoping I'd be able to drink a smoothie for breakfast and be set until lunch. I still think it is possible, if I drink 12 ounces instead of six ounces. We'll see how that works out tomorrow. For now, I'm going to the market to load up on veggies, fruits, and yogurt.

domingo, 29 de noviembre de 2009

Start Here

I create this blog to establish a sense of liability to myself and to the global conscious.

I ground this blog in the following infomercial-esque statement: "Tired of being tired? Need more energy to get you through the day? Feeling down? Do you want to look better? Feel better? Then try x for and if your not satisfied, your money back!"

Yup, that is me. I love cheese and bread, biscuits and gravy, meat stews, pies, PIZZA and most anything else. I love to eat. This is how I realized that maybe this is a one way love affair with food. I generally maintain a healthy life style (i.e. excercise, smoke-free, generally alcohol-free, sleep well, laugh), but I always feel a little hungry and tired.

I've recently began exploring healthier lifestyles and I've found that individuals that lend themselves to vegetarian and or raw food living cannot stop bragging about how great they feel and look. Let me just clarify, the idea of not eating meat or pizza or a sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit intimidates me. On the other hand, diabete and cancer send me into days of anxiety, and weeks if I let myself go there. So I'm hoping that instead of a going on a "raw food diet", I can go on a journey towards better living and a healthier life style. I feel that if I can change the way I live, then I can reasonably maintain healthier eating patterns. I know if will not be easy and that is why I am creating this blog: because I want to make myself responsible for my actions.

Here is a story about myself regarding withdrawal that inspires me to push forward and helps me believe that I can actualize transition to healthier life: April 4, 2009, I learned I was pregnant. (Note: The details of how I felt are just too much to detail in this blog, but if anyone reading this blog is pregnant or thinking of becoming pregnant, I would love to share my story with you) The first thing I did was stop drinking alcohol and caffeine, smoking pot and tobacco, and doing drugs. At first it was easy. A few months into it, I began CRAVING tobacco and coffee, nothing to serious but it was a craving nonetheless. Then, a few months after that I thought about coffee and cigarettes periodically through the day. I thought about cigs and coffee, talked about it, watched other people do it, and even considered just one cup of coffee or just one tiny puff of someones cig. Being pregnant made quitting easy because I constantly reminded myself of, you know, being pregnant. Fast forward, had the baby and some other serious life stuff and then things became routine.

What happened? Yes, the cravings; it was intense desires for cigs and coffee. There were times when I just could not shake the feeling of wanting coffee and or cigs. I was still breast feeding and I constantly had to consider how tobacco and coffee would effect my breast milk. I had to go so far as to research how much coffee and cigs actually effected my breast milk. Anyway, it has been a little over a year and a half since I first took the vow. I drink a glass of wine or a shot of jack about once a week, but not to the previous extent. I am still breast feeding, but I hope this trend of less-booze follows into post-breast feeding. I do not smoke pot or do any sort of drugs, although I have taken tylenol and motrin. I drink coffee and tea. I do not smoke cigs!!! So, to make a super long story short: I can make serious life style changes if I just put in a lot of effort.

Herein, I hope to document my journey to healthier living, I look to inspire others, and I am eager to start conversation about food and healthy living. In the effort to attempt to make this about food, living, and spirituality, I just want to state a few symptoms: fatigue, low energy/mood, sluggishness, digestive problems.