Pics of green and orange

So I got a bunch of groceries and here's what I came up with.

Start with this: Two heads of romaine lettuce, two apples, a lime and a half (I had a leftover), two cucumbers, a big bunch of cilantro, five stalks of celery. There's a bunch of spinach too, but it wouldn't fit in the bowl.

This was an unusually big batch, but that's fine. I usually don't make enough. Anyhow, that pile (without spinach) turned into this. Roughly 8-9 cups.

The problem with my juicer is it tends to shred spinach and spit it out in the pulp hopper instead of really juicing it. So for that I take the juice and mix it up in the blender with the spinach.

And when the spinach was sufficiently shredded, I ended up with this much juice/smoothie/whatever you wanna call it:

Those of you who follow this blog will know how crazy I am for carrot juice, so I couldn't deny myself a batch of that.

Underneath those carrots are two peeled oranges (here they are without the carrot canopy).

And that ended with this much carrot juice (with a tiny bit of ginger added).

On a side note, the green juice was the best I've ever made. I went through 2/3 of it tonight just because I couldn't get enough (the lime and cilantro made it irresistible). I've finally perfected that recipe and I'm going to keep using it, though I may alternate spinach with kale and bok choy. There's actually a danger of something bad happening (I forget what it is) if you just keep drinking the same green leafy stuff over and over and over, so I mix it up a bit. Never the less, I think the green juice is the hardest to get "just so" and now I think I've hit the perfect balance. I'm pleased. And full of juice.

On limes

In Canada, where I'm from, lemons don't taste that good. I can tell you this because I've been to the Caribbean where the lemons are sweet and you could eat them right off the tree. Not so up here in the Great White North. They're bitter and just plain harsh. I much prefer limes, which are also rather bitter but I like the taste more.

So tonight when I was making a big jar of carrot juice, I added three limes. I would normally add three oranges, but decided to try limes instead. I can tell you with certainty that three is too many. It was the limey-est carrot juice I've ever thought possible. Still tasty, but the only real flavor in it was lime.

That's what this blog is all about: Burning my tongue off with lime juice so you don't have to.

Chlorpropham can suck it

There and back again

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was called away suddenly and unexpectedly to Toronto for a few days. I had to leave in a hurry and it was completely impractical to take my juicer with me for a dozen reasons or more. It brought my juice fast to a rapid conclusion, but I thought I could at least survive on the standard fare you find in restaurants and whatever for a few days. Boy was I wrong.

This is a really interesting discovery for me, because you go into a juice fast with a lot of little voices in your head. Some of them lie to you and tell you that juicing will solve all your problems forever. Others tell you that you won't make it because you're weak and a slave to your cravings. And yet others tell you something that's even more disturbing: That this isn't real. That, despite that you logically piece together in your head from what you know about how food works, the whole juice fast is a stupid sham and you'll experience no real benefits or changes and you'll be embarrassed in front of all your friends when you don't drop a single pound and then go right back to eating pizza and root beer four times a day. Naturally, not all the voices you hear in your head can be telling you the truth... but there are some voices you hope are wrong more than others.

The voice which told me juicing isn't going to produce change is the really scary one. You don't want to drink carrots and beets and kale for weeks on end to find out that, when the playing field is level, your body slides right back into its old bad habits. And so, for me, it was a victory when (as I said) the absence of juice made me crave it... desperately. I found myself thinking about it constantly. I was imagining the taste of kale and cucumber in my mouth, even when I was trying to focus elsewhere. My brain was sending me constant signals telling me "I want more of what you were doing." It's not just that my body is covered in hives (it is) or that my fatigue levels are crippling (they are) or that my breath and body smell terrible (they do), but the part which makes this trip the hardest is, ironically, kind of an awesome thing to discover: I want to drink that juice. My entire body wants it. And so, as I return home today, I know that there will be no struggle when I re-enter the routine of juice fasting. Quite the contrary, in fact: My body and brain can't seem to wait.

Absence and the heart

So I had to make an unexpected and somewhat "emergency" trip to Toronto for a family matter. If there's one thing I know about this kind of trip, it's that juicing is nearly impossible. I hastily put together before I left: Two bottles of leafy green, two bottles of carrot juice, five avocados and a bunch of bananas.

And we were off.

Thing is, anyone who knows anything about juicing will tell you: This is about 12 hours' worth of nutrition. Tops. I went into this situation well aware that I was going to have to go off the wagon. But, as I mentioned elsewhere, juicing isn't like a "diet" in the typical sense of the word. It's an ongoing system of making sure you're getting nutrition. But I knew that, at some point, I'll be returning to "regular" eating (or some version of it) anyhow, so all this represented was a change in schedule. I suppose I could have brought my juicer with me, but that's asking my hosts to put up with a lot (I'm couch surfing for four nights). Keep in mind the massive amount of waste and noise and preparation and cleaning. I wouldn't ask anyone to deal with that.

So I've been "juice free" since Tuesday night. And I hate it.

My body craves juice so badly it's driving me insane. I keep eating, but I feel like what I'm eating isn't "feeding" me. The over-abundance of salt and sugar is repulsive. I also find that food is so poorly prepared: So overcooked, so stale, so burned, so much of its natural appeal whittled down to nothing by over-boiling, over-heating, sitting too long after being cooked, being frozen before cooking, or being left for hours before it ends up on a plate. 

Even the kale/green leafy concoction I whip up (which is my least favorite juice recipe) seems like it'd be a miracle elixir to me now. I can literally feel my body asking for it. I'm eating twice as much as I was (or, if you count fat/calories, way more) but I feel like only a fraction of what my body needs is entering my my mouth.

As you can imagine, this is affirming for me. You can spend a lot of time wondering if the juicing is having an effect or if there's any point to it. The changes come slowly and are subtle (especially at first) so it's hard to notice the effects. Sometimes you wonder if you're really changing anything.

And then there are times like this which stand as a very clear indicator of how just three weeks of juicing has changed what my body considers to be food. It's not just my mind anymore; my body demands something that's good for it and no longer ignores malnutrition in a sleepy, sugar/fat-induced haze.

I consider this a win.

Before and after

Here are the ingredients:

- One bunch of cilantro
- One lemon
- Two yaw pears
- Two heads of romaine lettuce
- One head of kale
- Two english cucumbers

I juiced everything but the cilantro and kale. Then, I put the juice in the blender and that's where I added the remaining ingredients. I also added roughly two cups of water, as it was pretty sludgy. I ended up with this:

Next time I'd use less lemon, as it sort of overpowers the taste. I only added it to help with digestion (a good idea when dealing with the green, leafy vegetables), but I could probably get away with 25%-20% of what I actually used.

I get asked a lot about how many vegetables I juice in a day. Considering I will likely drink down that jug in the next 24 hours, this should give you a good idea of how much I'm actually consuming. More importantly, it gives you a little bit of insight into how much nutrition is actually going into my body when I do. People ask "why not just eat the vegetables instead?" but I don't think they realize how many vegetables we're talking about (especially considering there's a jug of carrot juice that's probably also going to disappear before tomorrow). And that's the idea: You're consuming a massive amount of fruits and vegetables, and the juice form in which you're consuming it puts that stuff right in your blood stream. Plus, it tastes really great... but, in this case, could probably use a bit less lemon.

The real clincher, however, is that bowl of fruit and vegetables. I can tell you how many ingredients it takes to make a certain amount of juice but, I think, when you see that mouth-watering bowlfull you'll just want to do it.

Carrot juice in the a.m.

Before bed at night I fill my bottle with carrot juice, and I keep it right next to my bed. When I wake up, I drink it right away.

Not sure everyone would want to do that, but I find it really helps start my day the right way and gives me a sense of feeling good immediately.

Sense of scale

This is how much juice you get from three bags of carrots.

That's a two-cup measure on the left.

Three shirts

Check out these three shirts.

These are shirts I want to fit into. I want to wear the one in the middle when I an photographed this summer for my band's next album. Needless to say, I don't fit into any of these right now. But... I'm a believer in goals. And wearing these shirts is mine.

Other stuff they won't tell you

I recently posted a rundown of things that people won't tell you about juicing, and I've come up with a few more... so I thought I'd share those as well.

- The amount of garbage you make per week is going to skyrocket. Unless you've got a clever plan for your pulp (like composting), you're going to create a gigantic pile of pulp, rinds, stems, stalks, peels, and pits that will leave you speechless. Before juicing, two people in my house (my mother lives with me) created roughly one garbage bag of refuse per week. On my own (she's traveling right now), I produce twice that. And I'm talking full, heavy bags here. The quantity is astonishing. And that leads me to my next point...

- The smell of your garbage will get exponentially worse. Think about it: Warm, wet, organic matter packed densely in a dark place? It's like a Disneyworld for bacteria, and it's going to stink. One bag leaked into my plastic bin and I had to bleach the bin, the scent was so horrible. You may not be shocked by the increased raunch of your garbage... but I sure was.

- You're going to wash dishes. A lot of dishes. You'll be surprised how much you have to wash when you're not actually putting food on a plate most of the time. Glasses, cutting boards, jugs, jars, knives, bowls, etc. You can't leave your juicer just sitting there after use, either... so after every use you're washing the blades, the hopper, and several other internal parts to make sure the nasty mass of death that's stinking up your garbage bag isn't having the same effect on your juicer. And here's the cruel twist: The average dishwasher won't do a good enough job rinsing the pulp and silt off your glasses and cutlery... so make sure you're stocked up on rubber gloves.

- The mere fact that you're juicing is going to annoy some people, and some of those annoyed people are going to tell you how much they disapprove. Here's an excerpt from a conversation where I got dressed down for juicing.

In her defense: Though she was very aggressive and rude, she was genuinely trying to help... but not open to the idea that I knew what I was doing and had done the due diligence in preparing for it. Some people will attack you for less compassionate reasons. And many of them will make it sound as if science is on their side when they start talking about juicing as a stupid fad (which science is not).

This often happens because you are taking steps to do something that a lot of other people know they probably should do. Many people feel bad about being overweight, weak, and sick, and they know it's something they could control if they wanted to (did any of you who saw Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead notice how many of the people interviewed by Joe Cross said they were the blame for their condition and that they knew they should start doing better?). You changing your life for the better is rubbing salt in those wounds. Many people are a lot more comfortable with the idea that we're all failing together and they take some comfort in it. Seeing you taking control of your life embarrasses them, and that will be expressed as anger. How you deal with this is up to you. I don't have a "one size fits all" response. Generally, however, if someone's not in a receptive mindset then you're wasting your time trying to say anything. Most of the time I just say "Thanks for caring about me" and then I resume with life. After all; getting into juicing isn't the same as becoming an evangelist or fundamentalist. If you become someone who tries to shout dissenters down, that's got nothing to do with juicing. That's all you.

On cheating

The thing about juice fasting is that it's not a "diet" per se. Certain diets, such as the Atkins or South Beach diets, have strict rules about how foods can and should be combined. I know for a fact that if you break the rules with the Atkins diet, you can actually undo the benefits from weeks of strict adherence. It's like the diet puts you in the condition of fuel-soaked tinder and breaking the rules is like lighting a cigarette. This is why "cheating" is a word that comes up when you're on a diet: If you aren't following the strict rules, you're breaking them. I think it's a lousy word, myself. Who, exactly, am I cheating? Is it any wonder why we have such strange and guilt-ridden attitudes about food when we describe the act of eating something we enjoy with a word which means "dishonest" and "betray"?

The effects of juicing are a little different. You're not really tricking your body into ketosis the way the Atkins diet does. It's not a magic trick or a trigger for your body to function in a way it wouldn't naturally. All you're doing is loading lots and lots of nutrition into your body. That's it. You're clearing the path between you and the good stuff in the fruits and veg you eat. Nothing more. Your weight loss and alertness if your body just doing what it naturally does; you haven't "tricked" your body into doing those things. You've "allowed" it to. In other words, if you eat a chocolate bar, you aren't undoing the results of all your juicing discipline. Unlike Atkins or South Beach, nutrient intake isn't something you do "for a while" or as some kind of magic trick to drop a few pounds before a wedding. Nutrition is the central purpose of food. It's the key element in making sure everything in your body and mind works properly. And, as part of the long game, it's not like you're never going to eat another hamburger again for the rest of your life. It's about habits and moderation. It's about making sure the good things you're putting in your body vastly outnumber the bad.

Be aware, however: There are certain things that happen when you have been juicing for a while. Your body, no longer used to things like caffeine, wheat, sugar, dairy, will respond differently than it did when those things were a major part of your life. Your new over-sensitivity to these things is actually a sign of health. After all, you're not supposed to drink four cups of coffee a day and feel nothing. If that's what's happening, something is wrong with you. Anyhow, I mention this because if you do decide to cheat on your juice fast, you may feel way more like crap than you expect. You may once have been able to pound back two burgers and a large Coke in a sitting, but after a prolonged period of juicing your body will have changed. Your old eating habits may be unappealing and perhaps even impossible for the new you that you've created (I actually had a rather unpleasant surprise in that regard just last week).

Bottom line: If you're juicing and you really just have to have a donut, then just go for it. And enjoy the hell out of that donut. It won't undo the good work you've done. I once read a quote (the source of which I can't remember): "There is nothing wrong with what a man does, but there is something wrong with what he becomes. It is good to remember this." If you're a person who eats a donut now and then, there's nothing wrong with that. If you become someone who's all about donuts, then you have to worry.

And forget about guilt. It's pointless and does nothing for you, whether you're a glutton for junk or a juice-fasting purist. Instead, stick to reason and moderation. Hard to go wrong with that.

The quest for green

Getting the ingredients right for a juice that is both yummy but also delivers all that stuff you need from green leafy vegetables (which are the crown jewels of juicing) took me some time. I think I'm finally hitting a good mix: Four cucumbers, two hears of romaine lettuce, a head of kale, one bunch of broccoli, two pears, and some coriander. Many of my earlier "green" juices were not that appetizing. And that's fine: I can choke back a gallon of something that doesn't taste amazing just go get the health benefits. But to do it every day? That's tough. So I've been tinkering with various combinations, careful not to overwhelm the green with any sweet additives (like apples).  Just for the sake of mentioning it: I did all the ingredients in the juicer except the kale. I can't get the juicer to juice it effectively without putting 90% of the leaf in the pulp collector. So this recipe is a two-stager: Make the juice, pour it in the blender, add the kale.

This works. This is yummy.

It finally came

The hard part has finally come. After 18 days on this fast, I am beginning to have a hard time with it. I'm thinking about junk food a lot; donuts and cola and Doritos and so on. I think I'm probably safe (in other words, if my body was lacking a certain nutrient I wouldn't be craving full-on junk).

I'm not going to give in, but I have taken notice how much junk food is on my mind. It's funny because you'd think the cravings would be stronger at the beginning and taper off. Maybe 18 days is the expiry date for my will power. Who knows?

Just. So. Good.

My basic carrot juice recipe is three or four parts carrot, one part oranges, and roughly one tablespoon of fresh ginger per cup of juice.

This is honestly one of the best things I've ever tasted. I'm not even kidding. I've never purchased anything in a bottle that's so good.

I basically just drank an entire jug.

Stuff they don't tell you (warning: poop talk)

There are a lot of places to get a lot of information about juicing, from user forums to youtube videos to books and blogs of all kinds. To be fair, most of what you'll read is pretty solid, but I've noticed there's some data that's consistently left out. I say "data" but I mean more along the lines of "helpful tips and some common sense." Here's what I've discovered from juicing that nobody told me:

- Everyone's experience is different. Joe and Phil from Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead both had very realistic, predictable experiences with juicing... but your experience will not be like theirs (nor were theirs like each other's). You'll feel different than other people do (for better or worse). You'll lose weight at a different rate than other people do. It will affect you differently. Don't expect anything other than a gradual improvement of health overall. You can't be sure how you'll experience it until you do it.

- The other thing about Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead that needs mentioning: Both Joe and Phil were exercising constantly during their fast. To the movie's credit, they did attempt to depict this, but I feel they failed to give it the weight it deserved. I can see how people would walk away from that movie thinking "I want to lose nine bowling balls' worth of weight, and juicing is the way to do it" without realizing that also includes a lot of exercise. It's actually a very realistic goal, but you need both those factors for the maximum effect.

- Not everything is delicious. Some juice gurus post Youtube videos of themselves drinking their potions and making "mmmmm mmmm" noises, and it gives the impression that everything is yummy. It really isn't. Obviously, this is a matter of personal taste... but I don't find a juice with cabbage and broccoli in it to be all that yummy. There will be certain combinations you like more than others. The only juice I ever made that was downright disgusting was when I juiced an onion (never do that). All of it is at least palatable (and most of it is delicious). But when juice evangelists tell you a kale/turnip/brussel sprout smoothie is as yummy as a chocolate milkshake... they're either mentally ill or they're lying.

- All fruit and veg are good for you, but excesses can be harmful. Don't treat it like a free-for-all. Mainly: Sugar is a concern. The amount of sugar you take in from juicing a lot of fruits and drinking them down is ridiculously high. It's not refined sugar or high fructose corn syrup, so it's not bad for you in the same way as chugging back a Coke would be, but it can cause your blood sugar to spike. Use some care when juicing a lot of fruit. And make sure you're ingesting more leafy greens than fruit.

- You should aim for four parts vegetable, one part fruit. And try to only use apple if you're combining fruit with vegetable. Don't mix other vegetables and fruits. It's not dangerous, per se, but your stomach uses different enzymes to deal with fruits than it does with vegetables. Apples are the only fruit that cross over without giving you gas. You'll be putting unnecessary strain on your digestion.

- Nobody is going to really be blunt and tell you about how bad your farts and poop will smell for a while, so I will: For me, the farting tapered off (probably just my body adjusting), but the difference was shocking. The poop has a completely different composition. It's not weird, but the smell is quite different. Yes, obviously it's indelicate to discuss this but it's one of the details they don't talk about. And I suspect for some people it could have impact on their lives, and for others with a delicate gastrointestinal system it may even be painful (some people I know have said they had some mild pain in the early stages of their fast). All I'm saying is: What comes out your poop chute is gonna change... and that's part of the process, so be prepared for it. One additional thing: There is no consensus on whether poop should float or sink, even among experts. Yeah, everyone's going to say "scientific fact says this" but you can be sure someone else is showing data to prove the exact opposite. I think if you pay attention to your body for things like excess gas, cramps, diarrhea, consult your doctor and follow his/her instructions, and don't eat something stupid... you probably don't need to concern yourself with the buoyancy of your poop.

Not that you were concerned.