Soul Cycle- West Village

If you’re following us on Facebook or Instagram, you’ve seen that I was recently in New York City! I went to celebrate my birthday with my 3 sisters and we had so much fun! Although I’ve been to NYC several times before, I made sure that this trip was different. I wanted to experience this trip like a real New Yorker and ex out all of the touristy trips. No Times Square or Statue of Liberty. I wanted this trip to be as if I was actually paying the crazy amount of rent that New Yorkers do to live in this city.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was visiting the spinning studio Soul Cycle in West Village.

As soon as you walk in people greet you and are so happy and excited and ready to ride! Much like my Cleveland riders, getting up in the AM to sweat on the bike is something these New Yorkers were quite accustomed to. When I walked in and told them I was visiting from the city they kind of lit up. Was it because they I’m from Ohio or because I specifically chose their studio to visit? Either way, they seemed really interested in knowing why I was there and showing me the ropes.

They helped me get signed in, provided me my shoes (you have to wear spinning shoes there but thankfully your first time they’re free!) and took me downstairs to the studio to get me set up on the bike. I loved how attentive they were and how they went through the whole experience (even though I’m familiar with spinning) and helped me set up my bike. At this point I started getting warmed and waited for the room to fill up with eager riders that were ready to sweat!

Let’s cut to the chase here! This was one of the best rides I’ve ever had. I love spinning with my Cleveland riders, you guys rock! But the energy in this room was mind blowing. The class was 45 minutes and I literally felt like I could go for another 45 minutes and still be on this high. The teacher, Andres, was amazing to say the least. His energy alone was enough to never have coffee again.

His playlist was awesome! It was fast d & slow at the perfect times. The part that made me love him the most was when he actually got OFF of his back and started dancing with the weights. I enjoy watching the instructor on the bike with high momentum because it keeps me going when my legs feel like rubber. But the fact that I saw him up there, dripping in sweat, dancing to the music and lifting weights. Made the burning in my triceps diminish. His energy was exactly what I needed.

I’m so happy I was able to go to that exact studio and take Andres class. Although I had no idea what I was getting myself into before I walked in, I left sweaty & smiling. And really, that’s the only way to be after soul cycling.

-Laura

Why I Counted Calories for 1 Week & Dont Recommend It

We live in this world where we are all trying to lose weight, be fit and live well. It can be a little crazy & overwhelming with all of the different diets & tricks out there! South Beach Diet, Atkins, Weight Watchers, etc., which do you choose?!
Last week I decided to try counting calories. I have never counted calories before and I honestly didn’t even know how many calories a woman with my weight & height should intake.
The week is over and here’s what I know:
-I did lose 3lbs last week. I think we all are excited when the scale is a lower number but, even I’m learning that the scale doesn’t define you.

-I was hungry. I found that because I was restricting myself so much that there were times that I was hungry. I think there are very few things worse than the feeling of hunger. Hence the term HANGRY.

-It affected every part of my day or conversation.
“Want to grab lunch?”
“No I’m counting calories.”

“Hey let’s go get a scoop of ice cream!”
“Okay, let me see how many calories it is first.”

I wasn’t living. I was counting.

-It’s not a long term lifestyle for me. I can’t see myself through my healthy lifestyle, counting calories forever.

–All calories are not created equally. I repeat, ALL CALORIES ARE NOT CREATED EQUALLY! Some foods that I know are good for you like healthy peanut butter, GREEN JUICE (come on y’all, I couldn’t believe this one!), avocado and eggs, are kind of higher in calories. A girl can’t survive on lettuce and water, I like to eat! And I noticed that I wasn’t getting all of the nutrition I knew I should have, because it didn’t fit in my calories for the day.

Lastly, what’s my next challenge? To let it all go. No, I’m not reverting back to being overweight and unhealthy! But I’m letting all of the pressure go. I’m going to stop comparing myself and stop pressuring myself to be this specific brand.

I’m Laura.

I’m 27 and 185lbs.

I feel amazing, I love all of my curves, I love to eat & cook, and sweating is some of the best therapy I know about.

I’m going to cook just like I have been. Getting back to the basics of nutrition with whole foods.

I’m going to keep dancing my Saturday mornings away with Zumba

And I’m going to keep loving myself, my body, and this journey.

THIS is the only thing that matters.

This may be my biggest challenge yet, but I’m ready! Are you?

Peace. Love. Green Juice.

-Laura

7 Day Vegan Challenge: Day 2

Hi there!

If you’re following us on Instagram (@ourjuiceology) or on Facebook (facebook.com/ourjuiceology), then you know that I’m leading a 7 day vegan challenge. Now, I just came off of a 3 day juice cleanse, so you know my energy is sky rocketing! I’m really loving where I’m at with my nutrition!

This challenge is easy! I posted a 7 day menu (breakfast, lunch & dinner) and posted it for all of our followers! If you were up for the challenge all you do is eat vegan for 7 days straight.

You’re more than welcome to use my exact menu, or build one of your own! If you build your own, post your photos on Facebook or tag us on Instagram with #ourjuiceology! I need inspiration & motivation too, so seeing your photos will be just the trick!

I want to fully be honest with all of you though. I’m literally and I mean LITERALLY not missing a thing with veganism. I am a cheese-a-holic! As in, I should have a gold medal for eatin’ cheese! You would’ve thought I was born in Wisconsin! Ok, ok you get the idea. But I’m not missing it at all! All of my meals have so much flavor and zest to it that I’m oozing with joy! Tasting the shepherd’s pie last night for dinner was like hearing the Hallelujah chorus. I’m not kidding!

The misconception about veganism is that it’s rabbit food. Or that it’s all Kashi. Or that it all tastes like cardboard. Back it up! Not true at all. At least not in my kitchen!

If you’re ready to try something new, get healthy & start loving it…finish out the next 5 days with me. ***If you follow my menu to the T and you actually HATE everything you’ve eaten…I will eat filet mignon, medium rare.*** AND I’M A VEGETARIAN! That’s how much I believe in what I’ve provided you. It’s delicious & nutritious. I would never steer you wrong.

Ready…get set…GO VEGAN!

-Laura

Recap: Laura’s 3 Day Juice Cleanse

Hey fellow juicers!

Laura here to talk about my 3 day New Year New You Juice Cleanse! I want to say that the support me and Kendra received from all of you was really great. If you haven’t check out our Instagram yet head on over to @OurJuiceology to take a look at our cleanses & recipes!

Okay, on to the good stuff!

Day 1: The first day was actually not too bad. The Polar Vortex kept at home working, so it was nice to not be around everyone eating cookies, delicious lunches, etc. I sailed through my juices all day & my water breaks. The tough point came when I started smelling my parents cook dinner! My mouth started watering and I felt like I wasn’t going to be able to resist. So I took my juice, and my gel nail kit and went to my room! I began distracting myself with doing my nails, taking a shower & watching tv. Sleep came quick and I was on to Day 2.

Day 2: This day was a struggle for me. For some reason I was feeling really nauseous as I was drinking the juices. All of my juices actually tasted amazing! But, I think since I was at work this day and around everyone else’s food, my body was like “um, I think I’ve had enough juice! I want real food!” I consulted with Kendra and she sent me a text that said “fat lasts longer than flavor”, told me to do what I could and to have some ginger tea when I got home. Absolutely helped! Once I got home the tea really helped settle my nausea and I was feeling fine. I did have a small salad with oil & vinegar on it because the hunger pain that evening was unreal. After some warm tea & my salad, it was smooth sailing in to Day 3!

Day 3: Easy, breezy! I mean, there was a point where I was sure if I had given myself a little push, I could easily float in to the air. My clarity was on a whole other level & I was bouncing off the walls with energy. Drinking my beet juice & mocktail was simple & didn’t make me nauseous at all. I was truly loving life. I continued with juice through the rest of the evening & really felt accomplished with my cleanse.

Overall results? Super great clarity, amazingly high energy, and…4lb loss! Now, for those of you new to juicing, you will lose a bit of weight after a cleanse. Don’t hold on too closely to that number because there is always a possibility that once you begin to add solid food back in, that you’ll gain that weight back. That is a normal process. But, use this time after the cleanse to begin evaluating your diet and see if there is anything you can change.

I’m on to the next challenge! 7 day vegan challenge beginning Monday January 13th! If you’re up for this challenge, let me know and I’ll share my menu with you!

How is your cleanse going? Me and Kendra want to hear about your successes, struggles & thoughts. We’re a family & remember, we stick together!

 

Peace. Love. Juice.

-Laura

Here come your 2014 New Year New You Recipes

Hey Juiceheads,

I have been working non-stop these past few days so that I could get out our recipe information to you in the easiest way possible. I think I have come up with the solution!

Check out your New Year Cleanse Menu for your New Year New You Cleanse!

Just a few things:

1. Feel free to modify for you tastes. After all you are the one who has to drink it.

2. Go easy on yourself. Now is not the time to take up that new boot camp class you have heard all about.

3. Get some extra rest. It’s the best thing you can add into your cleanse. It really gives the body a chance to deepen your detox.

4. Drink about 70-84 oz of juice per day of cleansing. Again switch it up. Drink seasonally and be creative!!

5. Try and drink a 14-16 oz juice every 2 hours.

6. Supplement with as much water and herbal teas in between juice courses try not to add sugar of any kind to teas

Laura and I will be with you the entire time. So as questions arise please comment or message us and we will swoop into help. 

Peace. Love. Juice

Kendra

 

 

The Grocery List

What’s up Juicers!

We are gearing up for the New Year New You juice cleanse 2014! This weekend will be crucial in setting yourself up for success for next week! Make sure to plan ahead, get your groceries & keep pre cleansing! For more on pre-cleansing and the details of the cleanse, click the link!

Okay, sometimes people get really excited about joining our juice cleanses but then are stumped when they walk in to the grocery store or local market. It can be tough to know where to start, what to buy and how much. But no worries, me and Kendra are here to help you build the perfect grocery list!

Just like any other meal you’d want to make, it’s best if you plan ahead.  It’s not helpful to buy for the entire 7 days at once because sometimes produce doesn’t last that long or your might decide the concoction you THOUGHT would be delicious ACTUALLY is terrible.

Kendra and I have thought of everything and have put together a Menu and Grocery List. All you have to do is pick up the ingredients, and on Monday start Juicing!

Here is a grocery list to help you get started Grocery List 2! Full recipes to follow tomorrow!

If that doesn’t fit your taste buds then follow along below to find out how to build your own power juices!

Decide which vegetables you’ll be using.

Some of my favorites are:

Carrots

Kale

Spinach

Cucumber

Next, choose which fruit you’re going to want.

Some of my favorites are:

• Green apple
• Pineapple
• Pear
• Orange

Will you be adding any liquids?

Some of my favorites are:

• Almond Milk
• Coconut Water

Feel free to mix and match any of the items you see above! Our favorites won’t always be your favorites and that is A-Okay! Think you can tackle the grocery store this weekend?  Check back on here or Facebook on Sunday for updates from our shopping trips!

-Your Juiceologists

Laura’s Juice Cleanse: Day 2 & 3

Happy Monday to you Juicers!

So lets talk about Day 2 & 3 of my cleanse. Day 2 was a bit easier to get in all my juice. The concoctions I made were delicious! I made them all in the morning that way, when I was ready to have my next juice I could just grab it and keep moving. The downfall to Day 2 was that I had consistent headaches all throughout the day. I couldn’t really pinpoint where they were coming from. Hunger pains? Withdrawals from something? I’m not quite sure. But the only thing that helped was sleep. So that’s what my Saturday consisted of, a lot of Netflix, my bed & me. I text Kendra and literally said “headaches galore” and she advised me to take a bath with Epsom salt. Which did relieve the headache for some time, but it definitely came back.

Day 3 was so much better! My hunger pains were mostly gone, and I didn’t have a headache for the majority of the day. I was able to kind of, become human again and get out of the house for a little bit too! Towards the end of the night I simply felt accomplished. It’s something about completing a juice cleanse that makes you just want to jump up and down in excitement.

Honestly, I’m not sure HOW I got through my 7 day cleanse. I felt that this 3 day cleanse was more of a struggle than I expected it to be. Maybe I didn’t prepare my body (food-wise) well enough before jumping in to the green land. Or maybe I had TOO much of the same juice. I’m not sure. But it’s something I’m definitely going to evaluate before doing my next cleanse. When will that be? I’m not sure, probably not for a couple of months.

 

What’s next for Laura?

I think it’s time to reduce or delete something out of my diet. As you may or may not know, I’m trying to lose some weight. And although I’ve been quite successful this far, I think it’ll help if I start truly changing my diet on top of keeping up with my exercising. I think I’m going to dramatically reduce my meat intake. I don’t want to necessarily say I’m going to be a vegetarian, because that’s not true. But, when I cook I tend to always feel like I need to have a meat, starch & a vegetable. And I know that that’s not always the case. So if I want a burger, sure I’ll have it! Or if I’d like to have a piece of chicken, sure I’ll grill some up. But it’s not going to be a necessary staple in my nutrition routing moving forward.

If you have any questions about my juice cleanse or nutrition plan, feel free to email me at ourjuiceology@gmail.com. I’d love to hear from you.

 

Until next time,

-Your Juiceologists

 

Laura’s Juice Cleanse: Day 1

Hey Juicers,

I wanted to take some time and tell you about my first day on the juice cleanse.

It wasn’t easy, I can tell you that much. I think the worst part about beginning a juice cleanse is the smell of food & the cravings. See, when you start your cleanse, your body kind of goes in to shock because it’s not getting solid food. My body did that around 3pm. I was at work and just started to get such a bad headache and I felt nauseous. Once I got home from work, the thought of drinking another juice was almost out of the question.

I knew I wasn’t going to give up and that the first day is always pretty rough. I made my last juice and decided that I would just relax, finish off my juices and go to bed. I don’t think you realize HOW many commercials about food really exist. Haha, i turned on Netflix and watched some shows before I drifted off to dreamland.

As I’m in the midst of Day 2, I’m feeling optimistic about finishing my cleanse off strong. I still have a bit of a headache now, but I know that the symptoms will subside soon, and it’s only up from here.

 

Until next time,

-Your Juiceologists

Laura’s Juice Cleanse: Prep

Hiya Juiceheads!

Hopefully you’ve all had a chance to read how Kendra’s juice cleanse went. If not check it out here & here! Well, it’s my turn to hit the reset button and this week that’s all that’s been on my mind! Here is how I’ve been preparing for my 3 day juice cleanse:

Clear My Calendar:

So, I know a lot of people like to try and keep up with their daily lives while cleansing. I am not one of those people. I like to have almost nothing to do so that I can really listen to my body and take the right measures to make sure I’m doing this correctly. I’m starting my cleanse on Friday, so I will have to work that day. But I don’t have anything planned for my weekend at all but cleansing, meditating and sleeping. It may sound boring but, I couldn’t imagine being out with friends, going bowling etc., during a juice cleanse. So I’m going to sit back, relax & enjoy some DVR & Netflix!

Stock The Fridge:

I truly don’t feel that a juice cleanse is the time to begin experimenting with what fruits and vegetables you like to mix. I mean, one time I had a beat, kale watermelon and pineapple juice during my cleanse, and let’s just say I was plugging my nose to get it down. It’s not fun that way. During my cleanses I like to make sure my fridge is stocked with my favorite fruits and vegetables that I know will be delicious. So Thursday evening I’m headed to the store to shop for my cleanse!

Eat Lighter:

Kendra is stickler on this the week of a juice cleanse & I agree. Originally I was going to start my juice cleanse on Thursday but I forgot about dinner plans I made Wednesday night. I do not want to wake up Thursday morning drinking only juice after going out to eat the night before. It’s completely doable, my body would just go in to a bigger shock than necessary. This is why I pushed my cleanse back to Friday. It’ll give me 1 extra day to fully prepare my body for the next 3 days.

I’m really excited about this cleanse. I have more knowledge going in to this one, and I have less to withdrawal from since taking my caffeine intake extremely down. I’ll make sure to let you guys know how my juice journey goes!

Until next time,

-Your Juiceologists

Everything In Moderation

Hey Juicers!

Laura here, and I’d like to talk to you about some of your favorite food items. You know, pizza, brownies, milkshakes, French fries. We all have our weakness when it comes to food, and maybe you’ve decided that you’re going to give it all up and throw it all away. Well, I’m here to tell you that drastic measures don’t necessarily have to be taken.

Listen, for me, my weakness is chocolate and onion rings. I used to indulge in those items frequently before I changed my life over to Juiceology. But that doesn’t mean I’ve completely restricted myself from those items. I truly believe everything in moderation. I would absolutely not recommend having your milkshakes & alfredo sauces every day. But if you wanted to have 1 small piece of Dove to get you through your day, I don’t see anything wrong with that. Or, if your weakness is French fries, treat yourself once a month to having some French fries. Eat them, enjoy them & move on.

See, my theory is that if we completely rid our lifestyles of some of our favorite things it will seem more like a diet than a lifestyle. We will feel that we’ve been treated unfairly, and that we can’t have anything but juice and salads. And when we feel we’ve been treated unfairly we will want to go against the grain and binge on everything we feel we can’t have. I recommend eating the greener foods and better nutrients for your body so that when it comes time to indulge you don’t feel nearly as bad. Plus, it’ll seem like a treat for us and something for us to look forward to.

This weekend I went to the Cuyahoga County Fair. Did I have some onion rings? I sure as heck did! And they were delicious. I had them, made sure to get some exercise in as well, and moved on. I don’t feel badly about having them because they aren’t a part of my nutritional regiment.

I just wanted to let all of you know that you can have your favorite treats from time to time as well. As long as we aren’t making those our main food items for our days/weeks/months, it’s completely okay to indulge.

What are some of your favorite foods to indulge in? Let us know on Facebook!

 

Until next time,

-Your Juiceologists