I was really looking forward to breakfast today because it would have been the first thing I ate since Tuesday (apart from yesterdays permitted avocado SOS) !  Yes, I managed to stick rigidly to the 5 day juice detox.

I began preparing breakfast the day before – I have had a lot of time to think about food during the last 5 days.  I put 1 tbsp of Goji berries to soak in ….

about 200ml of freshly squeezed strawberry juice.  I popped it in the fridge overnight.

I also prepared the oats last night.  I put 1/3 of a cup of oats, 2/3 cup of coconut water, 1/4 tsp vanilla and 1 tbsp chia seeds in to my new serving glass and left it overnight.

This morning I put the strawberry juice and goji berries in to the blender with 1 tbsp cashew nut butter and 1 heaped tsp coconut flakes and blended until smooth.  I added about half the strawberry sauce to the glass with the oats which had gone firm overnight and left the rest in the blender.  I added 1 frozen banana and 1/2 a cup of frozen blueberries to the strawberry sauce in the blender and blended until smooth.  I put the Banana and blueberry ‘ice-cream’ on top of the strawberry sauce.Topped with fresh strawberries and a few goji berries.
It was wonderful.  When you blend frozen banana, with or without another frozen fruit, it eventually turns in to an ice-cream like consistency.  But it is just fruit so guilt free yumminess!  You do need a really good blender and a little liquid to get it going.  It was fabulous.  The entire breakfast was delicious and all very nutritious and natural. For lunch I just had some vegetables.  The weather was dreadful today but despite the torrential rain I went outside anyway and picked lettuce, a huge spring onion and lots of runner beans from the garden.

I made a salad with lettuce, tomato and spring onion dressed with just 1 tbsp of the lovely olive oil we brought back from Italy.  That was it, just a bowl of raw veggies.

Followed by a bowl of runner beans.  To me, runner beans (and all the berries) are the taste of summer.  I love their fresh clean taste and the bright green and pink colours. I popped a bagful of blanched beans in the freezer too for another day. I ate them on their own, adorned simply with 1 tsp of butter and black pepper.  Deeelicious. In case you haven’t seen one before, this is a Trombetti.  An Italian type of courgette.  Like the courgettes you will be more familiar with, when left alone they keep growing to make a marrow.  I am not sure what the marrow equivalent name is for a Trombetti but this is it.  Look at the size of it compared to the spring onions and my phone! I ‘stir fried’ chopped up carrots, fennel, broccoli, trombetti and spring onions in water for about 4 – 5 minutes until the water had dissolved and the veggies were al dente.  I then added some chopped up chicken which I had marinated all afternoon in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and ginger.  Served with raw fresh pineapple and coriander.  I cooked wholewheat noodles for the others but I just had the chicken and veggies.

I consider this to be a new beginning.  I have yo-yo’d up and down in weight during the past year.  I have probably lost and gained my body weight in the three years since I started my blog.  I have always managed to be 2 and a half stone or more less than my starting weight but at one point I had lost 4 stone which I find really annoying.  So rather than be annoyed, I have done the 5 day juice detox and am starting afresh.

Today I felt more energetic than I have for a long time and when I looked in the mirror I did think my skin looked healthier.  That is partly due to more exercise too but I do put a lot of faith in the nutritional value of a juice fast.

The main difference is that although I was craving food today, for the first time in ages I was not craving sweet and high fatty food such as cookies, cakes or toast.  I really wanted fresh fruits and veggies and that is mainly what I ate today.

So I feel pleased with my new beginning.  The only disappointment  was that the local leisure centre was closed so I couldn’t weigh myself this evening to see what I lost during the juice fast.  Never mind, I will go tomorrow instead.