Last week Josh and I did a "Reboot." A Reboot is a way of attaining a healthier life by eating more fruits and vegetables. The idea began with the documentary "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead." In this film, Joe Cross loses 80 pounds and cures his chronic illness by only consuming fresh fruit and vegetable juice for 60 days. I had heard of the movie but never watched it, but we had friends who had done this and thought it was great (if you want to learn more about it, you can go to the Reboot Your Life website). I always thought it was strange to just drink juice, so never had any desire to do it.
So I heard everyone's stories of weight loss and healthful, produce-loving lives, and just continued in my downward spiral of eating a diet that was mostly meat, dairy, and processed foods, with a very small amount of fruits and veggies sprinkled in. That was, until Josh got some sort of stomach bug and I started thinking more about all the junk we consume. Then I read my friend Charissa's blog where she mentioned doing a reboot that included not only drinking fresh juice but eating fruits and veggies too. This idea intrigued me. So I began doing more research and discovered I could cook the fruits and vegetables and use spices as well. This reboot thing began to sound better and better!
We committed to a five day reboot. We planned it around events that we knew would be coming up, things like a friend's birthday party, where we knew we would want to enjoy the good food. We did it during the week so that it would not interfere with that and other activities. The weekend before we started we went to Costco and loaded up on fruits and veggies. It was a great place to stock up because not only do they have large quantities of produce, but they also have a good selection, including many varieties of organic produce. There were only a few things I could not find there, so I went to Trader Joe's and Albertsons to buy the rest.
In addition to our plethora of produce, we also needed a juice maker in order to do the reboot. So I asked around and did some research online. We decided to go with the Breville Juice Fountain Multi-Speed from Williams-Sonoma. This juicer had great reviews, and seemed like a good machine at a moderate price (juicers can cost anywhere from $40-500+). Once we brought it home, we tested it before we started the reboot, and it was great! It's easy to use, easy to clean, and most importantly, makes great juice!
Overall, we felt really good during the reboot. I didn't miss my normal food like I thought I would, and I never felt hungry. The thing I liked about it was that you do not stop eating, or turn away from food all the time. You can eat as much as you would like (as long as it's fruits or vegetables), so you don't go hungry. We usually did a juice for breakfast, then later in the morning I would have some fruit for a snack. One thing I enjoyed for lunch a couple of the days was a salad of roasted asparagus, tomatoes, and avocado. I cut the asparagus into pieces about 2 inches each, and cut cherry tomatoes in half. Then I drizzled olive oil and salt and pepper on them and roasted them in the oven at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes. Then I mixed them with chopped avocado and squeezed fresh lemon juice over it. This is definitely something I will make again and was very filling and tasty!
As I mentioned before, I like the idea of the reboot because I could still cook and eat good meals using fresh fruits and vegetables. You can also use small amounts of olive oil and spices (and I used a little canola). However, I knew this would be a challenge since I could not use dairy, rice, wheat, etc. So I looked through one of my favorite new cookbooks, The Indian Slow Cooker by Anupy Singla. Using a slow cooker is something I do often. It makes my life much easier. A friend recommend this book to me awhile back, and I have enjoyed testing some recipes. I thought it would be a good resource for our reboot because it has so many vegetarian dishes. So, I looked through it ahead of time and found some good recipes that would fit within the parameters of the reboot and put those on the menu for the week.
I also tried her Spicy Butternut Squash (paitha). This was tasty, but I don't think I will ever cut a butternut squash again in my life. It was not an easy task. And my hands looked as if I had contracted some strange skin disease for the next 24 hours. Next time I will pay a little more and get pre-cubed butternut squash.
All in all, the reboot was a good experience. I stuck with it from Monday morning to Friday morning, and Josh did it as well except for about a 24 hour break (Monday night through Tuesday afternoon) when he had to travel out of town for work, in which he ate junk and drank loads of caffeine on the road. He resumed the reboot when he got home, and by Thursday he had a bad headache. We are assuming it was the lack of caffeine. I never had any issues like that, and the only time I really wanted to quit was Thursday night. Josh and I both just wanted to eat junk and watch TV, but we didn't, amazingly. We are not very determined people, so this was big!
The results of the reboot included both of us losing exactly 3.5 pounds (kind of funny that we were so in sync), we loved the juice, and have been having it for breakfast almost every morning this week, and now I crave fruits and veggies much more than before. Which is the most important result to me, because I was not a big fan of veggies before all this.
Now Josh is talking about doing another 5 day reboot next week. I am warming up to the idea as well. Might be a good pre-Thanksgiving move...
Fun to find you out here in the blogosphere. I loved that avocado, asparagus, and tomato salad.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Carrie!
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