REINTRODUCING FOOD

TEN DAYS DOWN

I recently completed a ten day juice fast (fruits and vegetables) with a birthday weekend/road trip thrown in at the eighth day. I am wishing I kept it strictly veggies and fruit the whole time BUT. . . much better than if I had never undertaken it all!

Things I supplemented with:

• An occasional banana (unless in a smoothie, it’s a waste to put one in a juicer as there is nothing to juice).
• Nuts and garbanzo beans (as my doctor asked me to include some protein). I even juiced some of the garbanzos into a green drink. Not bad, but I like them better whole.

ROAD TRIP: 

Nobody said taking a road trip while juicing is easy, but I took a crack at it. Knowing I was staying in a hotel, it would have been difficult to take along enough vegetables. 

• I did take my blender and made a fruit smoothie in the hotel.
• I did juice before I left home  -- taking a jar with me. 
• I did buy big bottles of organic juice at the health food store before leaving. R.W. Knudsen low sodium Very Veggie is delicious. I drank it straight down!!

• I did buy freshly made juice from  Jamba Juice while at my destination.

When my family went to a Chinese buffet, I walked around stores, shopped, munched on some nuts, and drank my juice. I was fine. 

I did choose to go out to dinner for my birthday. We went to an Italian restaurant, and I did partake of a partial meal. My son took the leftovers. I did not feel guilty, but went back to the hotel and drank more juice.

I also had a cup of hot soup on the road, and a bit of breakfast on the way back. The food did not make me feel better, so I looked forward to returning to only juice at home -- which I did for another two days. 

BENEFITS OF THE FAST:

• Increased energy; I am not kidding! Before the fast I was sick and dragging in my tracks.
• Looser clothing, and down a couple of pounds.
• Clearer thinking when I’m concentrating at work.
• Clear sinuses for the first time in memory. I can breathe out of both nostrils.

THE BIGGEST SHOCKER OF ALL:

My nine year old grandson likes to take my free hand in his while I am driving. He’s fascinated by the overly large blood veins sticking up on the back of my hand. He thinks it’s gross and scary and has made me promise to “drink more water, Grandma, so your veins will go down.” He was poking them to see if they would go down. I had long since accepted that this is the cost of getting older.

I looked down at my hand the other night and was amazed to see the veins were not prominent – my hand looked much younger. I called my daughter in law to come over and look; she agreed my hands looked better.  Whoohoo!

DAYS TO COME:

In the days to come, since reintroducing food into my diet, I am eliminating fat, like butter and mayonnaise; meats, cheeses, yogurt, and milk. Don’t forget sugar. When I think that I’ve done well without all those artery clogging, blood pressure raising things the past two weeks, I think, “why not continue?” I also went without coffee the whole time (except getting some on my trip because I was too sleepy to drive safely. 

WILL I KEEP JUICING?

You bet! I've grown fond of feeling better. I've enjoyed the juices, the variety possible, the feeling of knowing I was doing something GOOD for my body for a change, and who doesn't like more attractive, youthful hands? 

• I am going to drink at least one to two glasses of juice a day along with vegetarian  meals. 

AM I DISAPPOINTED?

I am disappointed in not losing more weight immediately, but the benefits outweigh that. If one takes in micro-nutrients and eliminates fat,  added salt, and sugar, more weight loss and better health is inevitable. 

I threw away the can for storing bacon grease

This is a better use for a coffee can

ROAD TRIP

I was away for my birthday weekend -- blog will continue.

But first, I want to share the birthday cake my daughter made for me -- along with sprucing up my house and giving it a makeover as a surprise when I was gone. I know! Do you believe it?


"The red peppers are the candles," she said, making me what? 12

Tomorrow -- Juice Machines.

Here's mine

Hamilton Beach

ORGANIC OR NOT?

"The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life..." Proverbs 11:30

One might think, with all the media hype, that the only way to do a healthful juice fast, is to use only organic fruits and veggies. One might – but I don't. I can’t afford organic prices. And, in my small town, I can’t always get the different vegetables I might want for variety, let alone the same versions with organic ribbons and bows.

None of us, except maybe the chemical companies, would prefer to have food treated with pesticides, nor am I arguing for them. In a perfect world we would want all our food organic and easily affordable. But as far as vitamins and nutrients go, they are virtually equal.

Crystal Smith-Spangler, who led a team of researchers from Stanford University and the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care, examined more than two hundred studies with her colleagues and found, “There was no difference in the amount of vitamins in plant or animal products produced organically and conventionally. The only nutrient difference was slightly more phosphorous in the organic products,” they stated.

I won’t use the fact that I can’t afford organic produce as an excuse to substitute greasy food. Organic or not, which would your body (not your mind) rather have?

I don't know if I will eat hamburgers after this fast, but I plan on a  vegetarian diet for the next six months. I'll let my body decide. I will be using fresh juices along with my food because of how good I feel right now. I have greater energy, as witnessed by my family, and I have been free of the usual pain in ankles and knees. I feel lighter, walking is easier, and for moments at a time feel youthful. Can't wait to see the end results, though it 's only the beginning of a better lifestyle. (Oops, there's that yuppie word!)

Yesterday I promised to show the results of my purchases from the store and my newfound desire to store it better. Here goes: These are my F&V's, washed, prepped, put into containers, and ready to slide into the refrigerator. With the exception of the onions, carrots, squash, and beets (which I already had), this produce cost $45.70 and will last several days. 

For breakfast, toddler and I had glasses of this lovely juice (1 whole pineapple, 1 kiwi, 2 bananas, 2 oranges. "More juice pease, Ga'ma."

CLEAN UP & STORAGE

“Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.” Deuteronomy  28:5

CLEAN UP:

Ironically, I’m watching Snow White with my 2 ½ year old grandson.

Snow is trilling and warbling “Whistle while you work” in an annoying fashion. She, of course, has an army of rodents, hopping things, and flying things helping her clean the cottage. Raccoons are washing clothes on scrub boards as we speak. They’ve never shown up at MY house to help I can assure you.

Let’s face it, buying, washing, cutting up, and storing vegetables is a chore. However, last night my DIL spent about three hours making homemade pot pies and mini-dessert pies for her family –a labor intensive work of love. God bless her.  So, I guess chopping a few vegetables is nothing compared to that. But, as I do this daily task, I am learning there are better ways to do things. Good ol’ trial and error. The steel mesh basket that extracts the juice is tough to clean. Its fine pores hold the vegetable fibers.

• Steel wool pads work well to clean it, but they rust quickly and only last a day or so.
• A bottle brush, for baby bottles, works well to clean most parts of the juicer.
• One of the top juicer manufacturers ships a nylon bristle scrub brush with theirs. Sounds ideal, but we will discuss juicers later.
• A small 5” rubber spatula works best for scraping pulp out of the juicer. I’ve tried larger ones, but they don’t get in there as handily as the baby one. (I grew up calling these "child cheaters" because they robbed a child from licking the  frosting bowl.)

STORAGE: 

Let’s talk about storage. Behold, my plastic bags of vegetables and fruit (V&F) in the refrigerator. I thought this was clever storage.

 

I could grab 2-3 sacks and then I’d dig through the bags to find what I wanted to juice.

Then I spotted this picture on the web and thought Duh! How nice is that? So, my project today is to shop for and put my (V&F) in the refrigerator in a pretty and handy fashion. I'll let you know how that works out.

D-I-L had, yet, another good idea: she suggested plastic tubs for convenience and freshness. One can slide them in and out of the refrigerator for use.  

FLASH! I already have several plastic bins I'm not using. Life gets better and better.

JUICE HAPPENS

“See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop …” James 5:7

Dang it! I did it again,

Last night I juiced two, huge Granny Smith apples –  you got it –  right onto my counter top. When will I learn to put a container under the spout?

This morning, when I assembled the juicer, I put the glass with it as part of the whole kit. No more wasted juice! I had to laugh, though, when I found another online juice head sipped hers off the counter with a straw. Remember, we are foregoing coffee, maybe for the first time in years. This expensive, hard earned, labor intensive juice is precious.

I've discovered a juice machine that has a built-in juice catcher, and even better, an external pulp catcher. We will discuss the finer aspects of juice machines on DAY SEVEN. Wait for it. . .

Here's an interesting link I found:

Naked Juice

WISDOM OF THE DAY: Have patience with yourself and the process. 

YAY ME!

“And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground - trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.” Genesis 2:9

Hello: What you see before you is my breakfast – and what I took to work. I enjoyed a glass of green drink made from green, seedless grapes, apples, and some carrot juice. 

To make it through work, I juiced an extra lot this morning: carrots, kale, lots of broccoli, apples, cranberries and cucumbers.

I put it in the refrigerator at work, because my morning juice filled me up. I drank some of it for lunch – finished it off in the afternoon. I didn’t forget to drink water too.

In my family, I am known as “Miss Sahara Desert” attributed to me lovingly for the amount of water I consume, or do not consume, more precisely. Though I have been consciously trying to consume more water since summer, it has never been a strong suit for me. Point 1, goes to juicing – think of all the extra liquid the body is getting. I even had some tea and boullon today to keep me warm. What could be prettier than unwrapping a tiny little, gold wrapped package of bouillon? 

The day went well, as long as one’s mind is not on food, one feels great. Therein, lies the kicker. It’s hard not to think about what you’re going to have for lunch and dinner, and then you’re caught up short thinking – oh yeah, I’m juicing. The trick for me is, go ahead and do it anyway. Sure I’d rather have food, but not really, I’d rather be successful in this weight loss and revitalization thing that I’ve undertaken. Yay me!

Yay you! (You've decided to give it a try and feel better haven’t you?) 

When I came home this evening, on the first day of having to scrape my windows of frost, I was chilled and wanted something warm and thick. I cut an acorn squash in two, popped it in the microwave for several minutes, and nothing ever smelled so good. I made a cup of broth and added them both in the blender, together with onion and garlic flavoring and the tiniest bit of salt & pepper. Blended and enjoyed. Hey, it’s a vegetable, and I made it into a liquid – what’s wrong with that?

FUNNY OF THE DAY: When I come home, I usually kick my shoes off and unbutton my pants (that have been too tight all day). As I photographed this evening’s picture, my pants fell off around my ankles. (giggle)

P.S. I watched the movie: "Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead" again last night for
inspiration. And it did just THAT! You can download this off of Netflix. 

SUNDAY MORNING TREAT

“Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love.” Song of Solomon 2:5

The dollies in my room greet you

The world isn’t perfect; I am not perfect. But I knew that already, or I wouldn’t be in this place. So, to get this out of the way, I took a couple of bites of my son’s pizza the other day, and my grandson popped two olives in my mouth. I was at my kids’ and the lady of the house made homemade pesto and put it on homemade pizza – with mild Italian sausage and tomatoes from her garden. Well, I’m only human. I did not indulge in a meal, but I admit to a taste.

And, on I go into the world of juices. It’s Sunday morning, and I am a little cold and hungry. I didn’t feel like going out in the kitchen to make juice AGAIN, so I resorted to a treat bottle I had in the refrigerator. I was going to save it for work on Monday, but now seems a better time.  

The drink is from Bolthouse Farms and called Blue Goodness with 25 blueberries and 21 blackberries; 1 2/3 banana, and 7 ¼ apples. It will amaze you how much fruit or vegetables goes into making one drink; which is another reason a juice diet is so nutritious. One could not possibly eat that much fruit or veggies. This is a 32 oz. bottle and cost $5. Ouch! Hard to believe one bottle of juice could be so costly. But it takes a lot of ingredients to make it (and I live in a town where a jar of mayonaise costs $6). It probably explains why one can buy a soda for under a buck. It is thicker and creamier than what I’m making at home – more like a smoothie. I'm pretty sure the juices I make at home don't have "xanthan gum" and coloring in them. Just sayin.

 Not a bad way to start a Sunday morning on day three.

Enough of the mood lighting, I'll brighten this so you can see the label.

Orange, banana, pomegranate smoothie this afternoon

TIP OF THE DAY: Have something on hand for backup in case you can't, or don't want to make juice.