Healthy Vending Machines!

What!?  Healthy Vending Machines?  Yes please!

Are you at work starving, again?  Do you dread the thought of going to the vending machine?  And when you get there, do you let out a stressful sigh at your choice of either cookies or a candy bar, knowing that you’ll have to stay at the gym and extra 2o minutes tonight to work off your mid-day snack?  I bet you are thinking your job is just enabling your unhealthy habits.  That’s about to change.

Sigh no more! Fresh Healthy Vending is a company that is taking the stress out of snacking choices.  They place vending machines carrying super healthy, organic and delicious snack items in businesses and schools all over the country.  Thankfully, this trend is now growing and it’s getting more popular by the day.

New Blog Layout

Hang tight everyone!  I am testing out new blog layouts today.  Sorry if you see it a little messy!

Learn How to Juice!!!

Want to juice but can't figure out where to start?  Learn the process of juicing fruits and vegetables below!

Disclaimer.  This will be a pretty long blog/article, but it's nothing compared reading a whole book or watching and hour and a half documentary (which I will site at the bottom). I will be breaking it up over the week to cover more related topics. 

Later this week I will go over:                                
Juicing in our everyday lives
Why we decided to juice.
Inspirations, problems.
Veggie vs. the Meat - Proteins
Juicing facts

 Since Tommy and I have been doing this new lifestyle, people are seeing our results and wondering how they too can do what we did.  And it's funny how this blog and everything related kind of accidentally happened.  Once we started juicing, everyone notices the change in us and began asking questions upon questions and we became almost like a walking billboard for HEY I'M JUICING VEGGIES!  I mean, everywhere we went, people stopped us and talked about it.  Even our hockey locker room discussions, which were usually sarcastic and perverted, were all about vegetables and the like.  So all that, lead to this.

I am trying to answer, in easy terms, HOW DO I JUICE!? And no, for those of you unfamiliar with juicing it is not the "performance enhancing" juicing we are talking about, however, I would have to say it does enhance your performance...  Tommy and I have gotten dozens of questions on how, what, when and so on, so I am going to do my best to put it into blog form.


THE EASY STEPS TO JUICING.

What the heck is Juicing?
Juicing is the art of taking fruits and vegetables and extracting the juices by putting them through a juicing machine.  Not to be confused with blending (like you here with a vitamix), as blending you are eating the whole fruit or veggie, pulp and all.  Juicing extracts all the juice from any fruit or veggie (except a banana - tried that a FAILED miserably).

OK OK...

SO the juicing blog post is turning out to be a really long one!  Hey, people wrote entire books and made documentaries on this and I am trying to compact it all into one blog.  I know many of you have been asking and I will get it up this weekend.  Plus, I am participating in the #shineonline blog contest - which is to blog at least 3 times a week for the next 100 days!!  GASP!  It's good if you like to read I suppose, not so good for my little fingers.  Anyways juicing will be up shortly with LOTS of information!  Sorry to keep you waiting!

Juicing!

For those of you who have been asking WHAT we juice and WHY we juice, by Friday, I will be posting our juicing story along with our current juice recipes.  Then as we go , we'll throw in a few more juice recipes that aren't as hard core as our starter juices.

HIKING!

OK, ok.  So we know not every body  has time or there's this or there's that.  But I can assure if you can get out just ONCE you'll be hooked.

We geared up at 7am, loading water, bananas and raw Spirulina bars in our backpack.  Of which I would like to mention, we got Columbia's backpack of the year (2 of them) at the Columbia Outlet for $30 a piece.  SUPER DEAL.  They are lightweight, bright colored, compactable tons of pockets and compartments - that all make sense with outdoor activity.  Even a handy water bottle holder at hands reach and a pocket inside to put a water bladder with hose.  Awesome.  But anyways...

Breakfast consisted of our veggie juice, mangos, cashews and bananas.  Oh and of course lots of water!

We Promote Hiking!

We hiked 2 miles near Phoenix, AZ on a pretty easy to moderate trail of hills and paths.  The fresh air was incredible and it was nice to have a good sweat.  MAKE TIME TO TRY AND HIKE!  Seriously folks.  There are tons of benefits of a good hike not to mention getting some sun and oxygen through your system.  We felt amazing after this hike and it only took us and hour and a half (with some water and picture breaks).  You will feel so good afterwards, it will inspire you to get up early and do it again the next week!

Recipe 1! His and Hers Lentil Salad.

RECIPE 1!
We named this His and Hers Lentil Salad.  Fast, easy and enough for a big portion for a boy and a medium portion for me.  

First let me talk about our recipes.  All of the recipes we will be putting up will be super healthy, have nutritional information and will THEY ALL WILL BE TESTED!  We find some recipes and tweak them or we just plain make them up.  We'll tell you how and where to get the ingredients and what works best for what and where.  We'll also give you the prices we paid - because we LOVE low cost!  We'd be happy to answer any questions you may have!

HIS AND HERS LENTIL SALAD:

What You'll Need:
Main Dish:

• 2 cups red lentils
• Cumin Powder
• Curry Powder
• Garlic Powder
• Garlic Salt
• Cinnamon
• Organic Spinach
• Organic Spring Mix
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Sweet Red Onions

Dressing:

• Roma Tomatoes
• 3 cloves Garlic (or crushed garlic)
• Organic Apple Cider Vinegar
• Curry
• Salt/Pepper

Recipes are coming!

Some AMAZING, easy and tested out (by us - and we're snobby about food) and approved raw and vegan recipes coming to you on Monday!  Make sure you check back.  You WILL be able to make these with ease and enjoy the taste.  If Tommy (Leo) like them, you'll like them!

January's Transition to Plant Predominance. JUICE FAST!

So, I have been a sodaholic since I can remember.  There is nothing better than a cold can of Pepsi.  Food-wise, I we never a "hungry" person.  I could get through the afternoon and realize I forgot to eat (however I would have have a couple sodas or coffees by this point - those I never forgot!)  When I ate, it was when I was hungry and it was usually cereal or something fast and easy - or a good 'ol trip to a restaurant.  I could take or leave meat (mostly take though if I had the opportunity) and I was legendary for my favorite dinner, which consisted of 2 Raspberry Toaster Strudels, with icing, a Pepsi and Pepperidge Farm Goldfish (my college favorite).

The past few years, there has been a lot of turkey sandwiches, salads, soda, pastas, restaurant food and convenient processed foods.  I play ice hockey very regularly, which I am sure has helped keep me fit and going, but I am really starting to feel the effects.  Even thought I don't classify my eating habits as "bad" (i.e. Ho Hos and McDoubles), it's definitely not good and my body is suffering.

 I decided I needed to change.  After watching Fat Sick and Nearly Dead with Tommy, we decided to go on juice fasts, for different reasons.  His, for mainly weight loss, mine, for detox and health.  Juicing, then switching to a plant predominant lifestyle was going to be the answer!  Finally a solution THAT MADE SENSE TO ME.  I decided to juice for a week straight then incorporate whole plant foods back into my diet.  Please watch the juicing video.  It just makes so much sense.  You can get EVERYTHING your body needs out of a glass of juice.  Juice - being fresh fruits and vegetables juiced into a concentrated form.  For example a lot of leafy greens, carrots, cucumbers, celery, tomatoes, beets, fruits etc.  This high powered drink packs a punch for sure.  Essentially you can eat 2 packages of spinach in one sitting by juicing it.  PLUS when you body is finally receiving the nutrients it is supposed to have, it starts reversing; any ailments you may have, the aging process and so on.  It has the power to rebuild all of your cells and prevent illness and even reverse some MAJOR illnesses.  I will get more into Juicing in our next blog - so make sure you check back as we will have a lot of information about it.

My new lifestyle:  Juicing regularly, after my 7-10 day detox and being plant predominant.  Myself and Tommy (Leo) will be reporting on changeover from the normal American diet and we will be testing out recipes, doing TONS of research, reading, writing watching and so much more. 

I am 5'5, 118 lbs., so weight is not an issue per se, but here is a list of some of the problems I have been having.  As the weeks go by, I will blog my results and what has changed from this list below.

• chronic fatigue - always tired, dark circles under my eyes
• skin problems - icky skin, dried out, psorisis, pimples, pale, non-radiant, wrinkles
• gall bladder issues - put me in the hospital once
• foggy mental being - forgetfulness, cloudiness, motivation issues
• weird vision things - one day I think I need glasses the next I don't
• back issues - muscle pain, cramping
• HEADACHES.  Holy cow, I get headaches almost daily as well as usual cluster headaches and migraines - the type that I can't even leave a dark room.
• Stamina and energy - overall, even though I exercise, I find recovery harder and I find it harder for me to expend energy (especially when playing hockey) and not get tired way too quick.

So there we go some of the physical reasons I am switching to vegan and juicing.  The above list, including the motivation I got to cut out meat by watching the documentary Forks Over Knives.  Amazing information on animal proteins and how bad they are for you if you are eating them more than 5-10% of the time.  It just makes sense.  Plus I'd much rather snuggle an animal than eat it.  And I'll get more into that later as well!

LET THE TEST BEGIN!  JUICE FAST AND VEGAN DIET TO CURE THE ABOVE LIST.

I will keep reporting back on my list as things get better and change.

***  Also!  We have influenced about 15 of our friends to change their lifestyle (with no forcing either, all we did was just talk about what we were doing!).  I have asked each of them to share their story on our blog as well.  You will get to hear those positive results too!

 

Welcome to our Blog!

We are January and Tommy  (also known as JJ and Mula).  After years of being active and what we thought was "healthy" we realized we just never felt very good.  We had chronic issues, we were always tired and had all sorts of silly problems that we shouldn't have in our early 30's.

Mula and I are turning to this blog to tell you about each of our stories of why we have completely changed our lifestyles.  We'll explain our issues and what results we are seeing.  Along the way we have also  influenced many we are close to and they too have agreed to share their stories.

We will also share our:

• tried and tasty recipes
• information we have learned
• people we follow
• links we love 
• books we read
• video and documentaries we watch
• illnesses we've cured
• personal results
• people we've recruited
• people who follow the same lifestyle
• alternative doctors, foods, products
• personal struggles
• traveling and trying to find the right foods
• activities and exercises
• products we use and recommend, like our juicer! 
• spirituality
• herbs we take
• pet health
• ice hockey and our cats (a special bonus!)
• and so much more!

We will try to keep everything as  organized as possible and would love to hear any and all tips, information, connections and so on that you may have.  We are excited to spread the word about our new healthy lifestyle and we hope we can entice you to try it out.  You will be astounded at how great you can feel by even just changing your diet over to a plant predominant one.

Thank you and we look forward to being friends with you all!