Success

We did it!  We lived for 7 days on NOTHING but the juice of fresh fruits and vegetables.  It was tough at times but we couldn't be happier with our results.  Between the two of us we have lost 9.1 kilos, thats 20 lbs for you Americans reading. My skin is beginning to clear up and we can honestly say we have more energy than before.

I think the most impressive thing is simply our will power to complete a task such as this.  Food is a very big part of our lives that provides pleasure and entertainment.  Despite this we have completely excluded some of our favourite things from our diet (tea and biscuits for a start).  What is nice to know is that we CAN survive without these habits.

As for my review of the 7 lbs in 7 Days app.  I thought it was very organised, informative and motivational.  You could watch every juice being prepared and there was a fantastic shopping list that could cater to how ever many days you were shopping for.  I did find reading the book, whilst listening to the motivational dialogue to be quite repetitive. I enjoy reading though I couldn't finish the book.  Besides being repetitive I felt like he never stopped "selling" juicing.  As I was reading the book, I was already "sold," I was hoping to read more about the specific juice combinations and the positive effect they would have on our bodies and why.

All in all I am very glad we gave it a go and accomplished this big task.  I don't doubt we will do another cleanse in the future and I know we will be juicing for life.

Up next:  we reintroduce ourselves to food, slowly but surely.  We have decided to continue with the Juice Masters recommended 14 day follow up, which consists of juice/smoothies, soups and meals of lean protein and lots of veg as well as exercising twice a day.  My hopes for the next two weeks are to continue to cleanse my body by eating very healthy food, to get in the habit of daily exercise and most importantly to really break some food habits.

Above all the challenge will be (as I find with most things in life) finding the balance between extreme health in juicing and living and eating in the real world.

-Vivian 

Day 6 in pictures

Early Friday morning on the Gulf Road

After a lovely morning walk we sat by the sea to enjoy a smoothie of apple, pineapple, banana, yogurt and spirulina.

One more day to go....

-Vivian

3 days down, not hungry but...

craving food!!!

Firstly I have to say the juices have been DELICIOUS!  They have been easy to make, and really quite filling.  Some days we have even only had 4 instead of 5 juices.

The hard bits have been the steady headache we have both had since the first day, and just really missing 'the act' of eating.  It is so ingrained in our lifestyle to come home and have a cup of tea and some biscuits or snack on a handful of cashews.  So breaking the habit of 'eating' has been the biggest challenge.  Not to mention that being teachers we are constantly faced with temptation, this week has been no exception.  Over the last 3 days we have watched our colleagues eat: cup cakes, pizza, Doritos, chocolates, fatayer, soda, cheese, biscuits, coffee, tea...the list is endless, but we are proud to say neither of us have given in.

One final positive note is that the weight is coming off!  We will wait till the full seven days to reveal, but so far so good.

Day 1 in pictures

Preparation for super chute juice

Hence the name, all the food is in the chute!

End result, the beetroot gave it the most amazing colour!

Ready for the day, juices for 8, 11 and 2 o'clock

A quick rinse and everything is clean.
From start to finish to make six juices and clean up 40 minutes.

5 o'clock juice, pineapple, apple, spinach, celery, cucumber and lime.

I learned the hard why to use the tap attachment when pouring straight into the glass!

8 o'clock juice carrots, apples, lemon and ginger.  So delicious.

Final juice of the day still to come, hot apple with cinnamon.

-Viv 

Our new Juicy adventure

We are back and about to embark on a 7 day juice cleanse.  It all started when a friend of ours blogged about their experience with 7 lbs in 7 days, you can read about it here.  I was quite impressed with what they wrote and even more impressed with the iPad app.  We are always looking for something to keep us entertained and busy whilst here in Kuwait and this fit the bill perfectly.  Not only will we be busy juicing but we may just lose a bit of weight and get healthier.  We've spent this long weekend reading up about Jason Vale the Juice Master, searching for the best juicer, stocking our fridge with fresh fruits and veg and searching for healthy supplements.  Have a look at the website, download the app and watch this space for daily updates on our juicy experience!

Juicer: Phillips Avance, 800w, purchased from Xcite at The Avenues (it was on sale and came with a copy of Jason's book The Funky Fresh Juice Book!)

Juicer and bottles ready for Sunday morning when we will need
to make three juices each to get through the school day.

Fresh fruit and veg: The app has a great shopping list feature which made shopping super easy.  We paid our first visit to Lulu Hypermarket first thing this morning and loaded our trolley with fruit and veg which totalled double our usual weekly shopping budget!  (We were expecting it to be a big expense, and are ok with it as we will spend zero on eating out this week, and we will be filling ourselves with truly good food.)

That bottom drawer of apples is only HALF of what we both need for the week.  Shopping list included: apples, pineapples, oranges, lemons, limes, cucumbers, beetroot, ginger, zucchini, broccoli, kale, spinach, celery, parsley, cress, avocado, carrots and probiotic yogurt.

Supplements: The juice recipes call for wheat grass, spirulina and friendly (good) bacteria.  We really thought this was going to be tough here and Kuwait and we didn't get it on our first try, but luckily we were familiar with a great healthy resource here in Kuwait, Natureland.  It was our 4th try to find these items after Lulu, GNC, and an Arabic vitamin shop.  We are still on the look out for some friendly bacteria, though we have been told we can find them at Results Vitamin Shop, Marina Mall location.

So that is it for the preparation.  We'll be up early tomorrow to prepare our juices for the day, and we will be here tomorrow night to catch you up on our experience!

Viv & Andy

Amazing lightning shot!

Amazing picture taken a few weeks ago by Thomas 'EDGEPIECE' Edge. 

Please note that we did run inside like screaming girls 5 seconds later!

Hello again!

Its been a while since we have been actively working to find that recipe for living in Kuwait.  After a long summer in the States and the UK it was tough to get back into life in the Middle East.  A busy start to the school year and job hunting for next year has put the blog in the back seat.  

I found myself inspired today to get back to it.  A stroke of luck found us with a day off thanks to the Amir calling today a national holiday, not quite used to decisions like that being made hours before work is canceled.  But no matter the method we will take and enjoy a day off!!

This gave me a bit of extra time to think through my dinner plans.  I had some mince leftover from last nights Italian meatballs, tomato sauce and whole wheat pasta.  A quick google of meatballs and I decided to give BBC's Good Food Swedish meatballs a try.  I have enjoyed a meatball or two from Ikea but have never tried it on my own, and wasn't quite sure what to expect the result to be.

We have recently trying extra hard to eat well.  Mostly working to eliminate sugar.  As hard as it sounds we have really enjoyed it and been surprised how easily we can get by without it.  The best part of going sugar free is that you can count on our fridge being filled with loads of fruits and veggies.  Because of this I just happened to have fresh dill on hand, which I had no idea was an flavour in Swedish meatballs!  I had also picked up a big box of fresh green beans this weekend and decided to try them out with this yummy looking recipe.

As the cooking neared the finish I started getting quite excited.  It was actually looking and tasting delicious.  Some homemade sweet potato mash would round out this hearty and tasty meal.

The finished product was colourful, filling and tasty.  (Not the most photogenic of meals but I'm too excited to not share it!)

Maybe it is just my age but I feel like I have learned so much about cooking in the last few years, especially here in Kuwait.  One of the biggest lessons I have learned is to be creative.  Most things are available here in Kuwait but not everything, and sometimes a trip to the right store can be more daunting than rewarding for that one ingredient.  Today that occurred with the need for cranberry/lingonberry sauce.  Its not something we keep on hand nor were we up for venturing out for it.  We did however have some dried cranberries on had.  I soaked them for a few hours in water, heated them in a small saucepan and then added them to the gravy for a sweet accompaniment to the savoury meatballs.  A few years ago I would never have trusted myself to experiment so much with dishes, but today I love it!

Tonight we will go to bed relaxed with full bellies, just what we need to get through the 3-day week that lies ahead.

-Viv