I call this my liver stimulator.

It's got beets, dandelion greens, honey dew, papaya, celery, lime and carrots

Carrot apple cantaloupe ginger

My latest. Too sweet. Had to squeeze some lime into it. 

My new favorite. Day 26

Yesterday I was down in Miami. The Ritz there had these fruit infused waters. Strawberry or lemon. Delicious. I stopped at Trader Joe's on my way home and picked up some raspberries.

Just the best light pink color after soaking the berries overnight

Fruity vegetably

Beets (gave it the purple color) oranges, 1/2 a fennel bulb, dandelion greens, greens, ginger and a large chard leaf. 😜

Sweet, savory and green

So. To mix it up. I made savory (tomato, greens, onion, garlic, horseradish, cukes and celery)  that's the brown one. 

The green is a greener mean green that I added dandelion, chard, sunflower sprouts. 

For my fruity. I made pineapple, mango, peppers, grapes and greens.

Did my harvest yesterday!

Wheatgrass and sunflower sprouts. 

By far the sweetest wheatgrass I've ever had. 

Feeling really happy. 😊

Dandelion greens and rosemary

Decided to try some "healing" juices.   

Made my juice. Pears, carrots, ginger, chard, beet, dandelion greens, rosemary. Bitter. But good. 

Incorporating "other stuff"

Saw this chart. 

Also want to get my stuff harvested. 

Sunflower sprouts and wheat grass

How much??? How much is it worth to you?

Americans (in particular) are addicted to cheap goods.  Unfortunately, that includes our food. Instead of buying the best food we can afford, marketers know things like "a dollar menu" entices us. When I hear "it's too expensive to juice" -- I wonder "is good health reserved for the rich?"  And if so wouldn't the wealthy never suffer from any ills nor would they ever have to take medication.  Certainly, they would never be obese.  But this is not the case. So how much is your health worth?

It's not cheap to juice.  You need a juicer.  In addition there are variable costs.  Coconut water (stuff isn't cheap) and vegetables.  I buy organic (definitely not cheap).  I go to farmers markets and try to stock up on seasonal stuff, but I have to have my mean green.  I have that 2x a day -- every day.

So, what is the cost of just my mean green.  Here's a breakdown.

Kale (16 leaves)      $2.99

Cukes 2                   $3.00

8 celery sticks         $1.00

4 apples                   $1.00

1 lemon                   $0.40

2" ginger                 $0.30

I add a head of romaine 

Romaine                 $1.00

This makes 64 oz. of juice for me.  That is 2 servings each for my husband and I.

So, let's round to $10 for the ingredients.  I divide that by 4 so that's $2.50 per meal.  I have four 16 oz. servings a day, so that's about $10 a day.  Is it cheap, no.  Is it worth it yes!

Kitchen sink. Don't usually do this

Yesterday I had a lot of fruit I wanted to use up

Cantaloupe 

 orange honey dew (it's a fruit not 2)

papaya 

mango

Lemon 

orange

 kiwi

Ginger 

turmeric

Spinach

 grapes

 beets

Carrots

I think they cross a cantaloupe and a honeydew to get the orange honeydew. 

More of the same.... Gets you more of the same

It's day 16... YAY.

I belong to a juice fasting support group.  That said, I get so many "I don't like celery",  "I can't eat that"...  I'm starting over from day one because I decided to eat this or that....

I think to myself.  This just isn't logical.  I want to say "Are you at your optimum health/goal weight?" -- because if you are then more power to you.  Eat whatever you want... Juice only fruit and sweet stuff all day... "Oh you're not..."  Well then more of the same only gets you more of the same... If you want a change, you'll have to change.  People resist change... The further "off the path" they are; the more resistance you see.  "I need to just eat nuts or something for protein."  I have headaches, I'm dizzy, I'm really hungry...

I had a coach in college.  His motto was "suck it up" -- I used to think he was kind of harsh, but as I get older, I'm beginning to be as cantankerous.    It's not easy.  I never said it was.  It's very hard.  But if their life depended on it, they'd do it.  The funny thing is for most of them, their life does depend on it.

Some times a simple typo can make me laugh til I cry

My daughter sent me this from NYC. I guess they have bowls also. 

60 day juice cleanse. Taking every day one day at a time.

I just have my mind set on 60 days....  Someone said to me "Oh 60 days is so long" -- Well, yes and no.  It is a matter of prospective.  As I told my husband, if someone told you you had 60 left to live, your first thought would be "Oh no, that's so short"...  So again, it's just a matter of prospective.  

Gets down to the cellular level -- centrifugal vs. masticating juicers

So, there's a TON of hype with masticating juicers.  Especially the vertical ones.  There biggest claim is that the juice is more nutrition dense.  You can taste the difference.  I'm here to call BULL.  There is absolutely not one iota of evidence that even if the juice is more nutrition dense that the body uses up the "extra nutrition" -- we would naturally expel the extra nutrients once the body used all it could.  (very expensive pee!)

So, why the claim.  Well as my daughter (the chemical engineer) always says.  Marketing.  If you tell someone it gets "down to the cellular level" -- how would the average consumer refute that claim.  So when they compare masticating juicers and centrifugal juicers.  -- Masticating juicers are NOT faster (so they make a claim that the juice is not oxidized if it is slowly extracted),  there's a lot more work (cut everything in 2" pieces or smaller)-- Juice is more full bodied and nutrition dense, and finally the price (cost more so you must be getting more).  If the juice is more nutrition dense, only stands to reason that it would be more CALORIE dense also....

If, the machine costs more, takes more time to juice, and doesn't even yield more juice really the only thing they can say is that it is more nutrition dense.  Good luck with that.  If you have all day and you prefer the juice taste, then by all means -- go for it.  But to say the juice is better or used more by the body, I'm just not buying it....

Day 12 -- feeling, well, great

I feel much more alert.  The fog is lifting.  On Friday, I ordered a new juicer off of Amazon.  They had next day delivery offered, so I jumped at it.  It was an extra $16...  Standard shipping was free, so I went for it.

Yesterday, Saturday, my juicer arrived!  Don't know how they do that.  Used it last night to make a modified stars & stripes juice.  Mine had plums, blueberries, ginger, romaine lettuce, (I added:cantaloupe, zucchini, and red grapes).  It was pretty good.  The grapes made it a tad sweet so I upped the ginger.

I realize the challenge for me it to get more veggies in (even in the fruit juices) hence the zucchini...

Mean Green

Still one of my all time favorites. Day 9. Yoo yoo!

Using my daughter's juicer until I can get a replacement.  Spoke with the company and they are sending FedEx ground to pick it up today!!!

Worse thing ever broken juicer

This is what it looked like last night in my kitchen.  The housing unseated and shredded the plastic into my juice and pulp. I was so panicked as to what I'll do for a juicer!  

New recipe. Debuted this yesterday on a Facebook group

It is Mango, oranges, fennel and sweet yellow pepper

2 mangoes

2 oranges

1/2 fennel bulb

1/2 yellow pepper

I took the photo before I decided to add the pepper. 

Loving the colors and combos

It's day seven. Yippee. Feeling more energetic. Love the combos.  I had this yesterday.  Carrots, strawberries, tomato, orange, sweet peppers

This is day six

Made it through the weekend.  I was worried about that.  Weekends are a big time for eating for us.  Eating out. Eating socially.  Food is a very big part of my life.   Happy to have survived the mall. Enjoyed walking a lot!

So proud I made up my own juice and it was good!

I'll call it Mango mayhem.

Mango (2)
Cantaloupe 1/2
red pepper 1/2
turmeric 1"

Day 4

People say don't juice just eat the fruits and veggies.  I'm here to tell you you probably can't (or won't). This makes three 16 oz servings.  Probably enough in the whole state to feed a family of 4!

Breakfast and lunch

Made mean green for breakfast.  And a carrot cantaloupe for lunch. 

Snore no more, Gerson miracle and red worms

My red worms arrived yesterday.  With all this juicing I've decided to compost.  I modified a garbage can by cutting a trap door in the side. I ordered red worms on line. You can see them on the top as I just dumped them in. 

Last night I watches the Gerson Miracle.  She tauts only organic.  Interesting. 

Last but not least. I read on a Facebook group about "pulling" -- the concept was simple. Bacteria enters the body by the mouth. So you rinse and gargle with coconut oil before bed. Sounded simple. It is supposed to cure sinus problems.  Having nothing to lose I thought I'd try it. The inadvertent result is it has almost cured my husband's snoring. It's a miracle. 

  

Day 1 of reboot

Yesterday  I finally got my juicer. It had been on back order. I got up early today. Took my before photo.  Weighed on the scale. -- gained 4 pounds waiting for the juicer!

I started with the Joe Cross mean Green. Kale, cucumber, celery, green apple, lemon and ginger

I bought my ticket for Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead 2.  Wrote out a list (long) of my current ills.  Everything from aches and pains to dry heels...

Learnt a few things already.  Better to plan out by juice than buy a variety.  Realize I need more stuff at the market.  Didn't buy the right "mix".  Need more cukes, apples, oranges....

Juicers are really messy (mine is at any rate.  It is rated as one of the easiest to clean -- wouldn't want to see the others!)