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.
1 apple, 1 pear, a celery stick, some ginger and a huge pile of spinach. Very enjoyable.
Then we were off to Epsom to celebrate the 18th birthday of this lovely young lady, Alex.
The weather was good to us and we spent the day in the garden which was a real treat. We had a lovely lunch of coronation chicken, couscous, pesto pasta and a green salad which was delicious.
Followed by chocolate birthday cake and fresh pineapple. Quite a lot of wine and champagne was enjoyed too.
But mainly the day was about chatting to lots of lovely people.
We listened to some very loving and rather emotional speeches.
Then got back to chilling and chatting.
Such a wonderful day, spent in the company of these dear and treasured people.
Thank you Troy
and Sally for inviting us to share Alex’s special day. It was so lovely and we all really enjoyed it.
Happy birthday Alex.
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