This has been ingrained in me ever since I was little.  It has helped me accomplish a lot of things in life, simply because…I believed I could do that.  Some of that was because I couldn’t afford to pay someone else to do what I wanted, but once you have that mindset, I truly believe anything is possible… It’s so important to me, that I actually have it tattooed on the inside of my arm.  What better message could I have Maya see on the daily?

I’ve been debating how personal I wanted to make this post.  I try and keep things pretty light and fun, mainly because I want Maya to look back on this, and have a reminder of how much fun we had.  Well…the last 6 months or so have not been light and fun.  It’s been one major thing after another stresswise.  I remember one night, my husband and I were sitting on the couch having a glass of wine and we started laughing at the absurdity of it all.  Like….is THIS it??!!  Have we turned the corner YET??  Well, on a few things, yes.  On some others, not quite yet.

ALL THAT TO SAY…I have not been as healthy as I normally like to be.  Some people don’t eat in times of stress, but that is NOT me!!  I still have been working out 4-5 days a week (hello, stress reliever!!), but if I wasn’t…I’d for sure be 15-20 lbs heavier vs only 5.  I’ve been eating a lot more junk, snacking way more than normal, and drinking more than I should…

Well, I’ve had it.  It’s not the weight so much, because really…I go up and down 5 lbs even when I’m not stressed 🙂  I’m so tired of being exhausted all the time, my stomach not feeling so great, and waking up puffy and bloated… I started thinking about doing a juice cleanse.  I’m not even sure I’d have the willpower to do a full cleanse, but I thought maybe I’d sub in some healthy juice for all the crappy snacking I was doing!  I looked into a few different companies, but started getting overwhelmed with options.

I kid you not.  A few weeks later I was contacted by Suja Juice!  They asked if I’d be interested in trying some of their juices!!  Um, hello universe!!  You sure do work in mysterious ways.  I couldn’t believe the timing!  They were ridiculously generous, and sent me a lot of YUMMY juices to try.  Previously, I’ve always been against drinking juice, because it seemed like empty calories.  I’d rather just eat the fruit!!  BUT…there are so many delicious fruits, vegetables, and nutrients packed into these, that I didn’t feel guilty at all.

SO…I’m determined.  I am going to get my diet and health back on track.  And I don’t mean I’m going on a diet.  I just want to feel good again!  I want to have energy!  I can totally do that!! 🙂

This one, Uber Greens has Uber Greens– cucumber, celery, grapefruit, green chard, green leaf lettuce, lemon, kale, spinach, parsley, peppermint tea & spearmint tea!!  And…it’s only 50 calories!  It was totally refreshing, and I felt great after drinking it. This one was one of my favorites!!  Twilight Protein.  It’s more like yummy smoothie!!  The added protein is great if you work out, or even if you don’t! 😉I’m not going to list them all…  Truth be told, there was one “Greens” drink that I had to make myself choke down.  Hey…all in the name of honesty, right??  BUT…this Berry Goodness, was just that.  YUM! SO…. I thought I might hold myself more accountable if I put this out there.  I’m determined to get back on track, and I can’t thank Suja Juice enough for giving me some tools to make that happen!!  They didn’t ask me to write this post, and if all the juices had been horrible or gave me a stomach ache, I absolutely wouldn’t be singing their praise!!

I’m still totally new to working juices into my diet, so I’d love to hear from anyone who has done it successfully!!

(all pictures taken with a tripod and remote shutter release by me :))