The story of how a 30-something carnivorous daughter-of-a-trapper ventured into a bold new vegan world.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Our Journey into Juicing

Hey!  Long time, no write.  Remember when you were reading this last?  We were all vegan and amazing (at least, that's how I remember it!).  Then, life happened.  It all got too hard.  Slowly (or not so slowly), meat and cheese found its way back into our daily plans.  Fast forward a year, and where are we now?  Sitting in our recliners, thirty pounds heavier than we were at this time last year, feeling our age and then some. 

We decided to go back to a plant-based diet (not committing to anything permanent, just taking life day by day).  It's been just a couple of weeks now, and I'm down 13 pounds (hooray!).  Then, as if vegan wasn't enough, we embarked on a juice fast.  We got ourselves a well-reviewed Breville (Juice Fountain; on sale for $149 at Macy's, with free shipping on orders of $99 or more all year), more produce than we've ever bought in our lives and watched "Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead" to give us focus.  We're going to juice for 7 days and then decide to go to 10 days or to incorporate chewing into our daily routine again. 

Yesterday was day 1 of the juice fast.  The day went pretty quickly, as we alternated talking about how excited we were to be juicing with sharing recipes we found on the internet.  Pretty easy. 

Day 2 was harder.  John struggled because he was home and bored.  I had moments of severe mouth-watering jealousy as I watched our kitchen put out plate after plate of crispy breakfast potatoes, well done corned beef hash, perfectly poached eggs, even oatmeal with berries.  I also found myself feeling a little crappy for the first half of the day, which I attributed to the fact that I hadn't had my morning cup of coffee.  Ugh.  I slowly sipped on the 32 ounces of juice I made for breakfast/lunch and counted down the hours until I could get home and juice some dinner. 

Tonight's dinner (juice) was a fun experiment.  I've never used ginger in cooking, but I discovered I LOVE it in juice.  It makes things so zesty!  We juiced 4 medium sized apples, 8 carrots, 5 beets (including the greens), mustard greens, a can of pineapple in juice, a couple cups of fresh berries and an inch of ginger.  I estimated this to be 800 total calories, so about 400 calories for each of us.  Drinking 400 calories 3x/day works out to 1,200 calories, which is definitely less than normal for me, but not unreasonable for a week. 

After drinking my dinner, I felt good and full.  Not just "oh, that took the edge off!" but actual contentment.  It makes me aware of how often I eat until I feel full.  How often I overeat.  It feels like a lightness inside of me, which I know is hard to understand. 

As an aside, it turns out John HATES beets.  He couldn't remember the last time he ate a beet, and he didn't think he could drink it at first.  I chugged my glass straight from the juicer, but John had to get his good and cold before he could drink it down.  I couldn't laugh too much, though...Tomorrow we're juicing my old nemesis, cucumbers.  Just thinking about eating a cucumber makes me cringe, but I'm going to give it the ol' college try and hope I can mask its flavor with a bunch of other stuff. 

Happy drinking!