Welcome to The Juice Diaries

Welcome to The Juice Diaries!

Today marks the first day of a new personal project - sharing my new found love for "clean eating" and juicing. I have been blogging for years, but mostly focusing on education. I continue to blog about all things education at www.teachingandelearning.com

Over the years I have discovered the value of blogging - as a form of catharsis, a way of sharing, reflecting and also a means for keeping myself on track!

So what made me want to start The Juice Diaries? It all began with doing a thing called  Reveal Yourself. Firstly, credit where credit is due! My first thanks has to go to Michelle Zaloum who shared her experience with a woman called Christina who had set up a service called Reveal Yourself. Looking up the company on Facebook I was soon convinced I wanted to meet the lovely Christina Leon - the woman behind company. The first thing that hooked me was her story - one which many women can relate to - having gained weight after having her daughter, Christina discovered clean eating and went on to lose 15kgs and gain a huge amount of knowledge about eating clean and living well. The second thing that really appealed about Christina was her unerring positivity,  I mean, I have always been a glass half full girl myself, but honestly, this girl is a full glass - at all times!

On signing up with Christina I was treated to three weeks (actually it was more like five weeks, and I sense I will be in touch with Chrissie for years!) of her undivided attention. We had an initial meeting where goals were established, body measurements were taken and a food diary was handed over. During the meeting Christina took me through the guidelines, gave me a tonne of tips and a great folder of advice, recipes and the tools for planning healthy clean eating. The key to making the first couple of weeks was preparation! The initial shop, and planning each week well in advance, made keeping on track easy. The thing I loved was how limitless the choices were and the fact that no calorie counting took place. It was simply about choices - if you choose good, clean, lean food you could happily fill a plate and feel absolutely satisfied.

Juicing is also a big part of the Reveal Yourself plan - and I admit it, I am now a juicing junkie! Starting every morning with a fruit and vegetable juice and ending every afternoon with a super green juice. Without scaring you with the details, I have suffered from digestive issues as long as I can remember. For the first time EVER this has disappeared, completely. I now also drink at least two litres of water a day and limit myself to a morning coffee. Other than that its green/herbal/fruit tea all the way. Red wine still makes an occasional appearance, although now one glass (on occasion) rather than one or two a night.

The real key for making this whole thing work (for me anyway) was Christina. Weekly online meetings to check in, share eating plans and monitor progress kept me on track. Daily texts and photos continued to provide inspiration. Christina was only ever a text away, coaching me through more than one moment of frustration when results seemed to slow or stop along the way. Christina's encouragement was gold and her advice was always on the money - thanks to Christina I am now getting much better at NOT seeing the scales as a measure of success and accepting that the fit of my pants and how I actually feel is the sign that things are working.

So what was the outcome for me? Well, it has been nearly two months since I first met up with Christina. I have lost 4kgs (with another 5-6 to go). I have lost nearly 10cm around my waist, 8cm around my bum and gained a whole lot of health. I sleep better, I (um) 'digest' better, I have more energy and I think even my skin has improved.

I began the journey telling Christina that I needed to 'reset' after months of eating, drinking and sitting on my bum way too much. I was fed up of feeling like a slug. I can genuinely say that that mission is completed. But what is really nice is that I feel like I have only just begun. As I said to Christina this morning - today marks the beginning of Phase Two! Turning this thing into a life long habit, and sharing my journey along the way.

Thank you Christina, I definitely would not be feeling this good without you!