Would you do it?

Juicing. I'm not talking about just making fruit juice. I'm talking about REAL juicing. Juicing that the most hard-core juicers drink. Yes, I'm talking about green juice!

My DH and I watched "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" on Netflix. Actually, we watched it twice and I was interested in the idea of trying to implement vegetable juicing into my routine. Thankfully, my DH is not opposed to eating healthy and trying to improve in that arena so I got a small, entry level juicer made by Black & Decker for $30.00 and a bagful of produce. Here's my record of the start of the journey.

The Dreaded First Few Days
1/22/12
b'fast: 1/2 pineapple, 1 carrot, 1 orange
lunch: 2 stems kale, 2 apples, 1 carrot, 5 cherry tomatos, 4 celery stalks, small bunch of parsley, squirt of lime juice, small piece of ginger root. Made 2 glasses of juice, I drank half and put the rest in the fridge.
Dinner: steamed cauliflower, roasted beets and greens with onion, chicken strips.
Snack: popcorn with butter and salt, bottled oj
Didn't feel sleepy after our regular, early afternoon Sunday dinner. No nap today. Tongue feels metallic. Didn't feel hungry but did feel a bit foggy.

1/23/12
coffee with creamer
b'fast: 1 stem kale, handful of spinach, 2 celery stalks, 6 tomato, 1 carrot, 1 apple
water
lunch: same juice as b'fast, bowl of 3 bean salad
water
snack: nut/raisin/m&m trail mix (kinda saltier than I wanted), handful of blackberries and 3 strawberries
glass of pino grigio with 4 crackers, swiss cheese slices, and blue cheese
dinner: beef stew meat, potato
still feeling pretty good. a bit bound. a little foggy.

1/24/12
bfast: 1 stem kale, handful spinach, celery, tomato, carrot, apple, parsley
water and berries
lunch: veggie black bean soup, whole grain bread
snack: nut trail mix, 4 whole grain crackers with one baby bel garlic cheese wedge
dinner: chicken and steamed broccoli with al fredo sauce over rice, water
Bad day: very sleepy, headaches, eyes ache, neck ache, took an afternoon nap. still bound. irratable. Crass. Metallic taste on tongue but not as bad.

1/25/12
bfast: coffee with cream, kale, spinach, celery, tomato, carrot, apple, parsley
Bolthouse Farms green juice and water
lunch: banana, nut trail mix, crackers and baby bel garlic cheese
water, cup of tea, smoked cheddar cheese on crackers
dinner: pork chops, corn
carrot juice
Feeling MUCH better today. Slight headache, no longer bound, much better mood though still a bit crass. No more metallic taste in mouth. Feeling more energy at night.

Are you afraid to try juicing? It will not hurt you. It will not taste sweet or salty or oily or milky. I best describe it like this: you know that wonderful smell in the air right after someone mows grass? If you could bottle that smell and drink it, that is how green juice tastes. It's good and good for you!

Pass the limburger cheese please

Every May, usually around Mother's Day, I get a week long allergy attack. The sneezing, the runny nose, the watery eyes, the upgrading to softest tissues I can find. There were a number of years where my Mom and my sisters and I would go to a Mother's day brunch together. The food spread was always wonderful. As we would eat, I would hear everyone talk about how marvelous the food was, but I could not share that joy. My allergies were so bad that I couldn't smell or taste anything less toxic than limburger cheese.

Yes, you could almost set your calendar to it. In an effort to not take medicine unless it was absolutely necessary, I tried herbal supplements. I can't say if they did or didn't work; they probably did something.

There was a funny thing about my allergies this year. I hardly got them. There was one Saturday where it seemed like the bomb went off. My eyes got itchy. My nose started running to the point where I had to stuff tissues in the nostrils just to keep from having to use them so much. "Well", I thought, "here we go with the allergies this year". I stuck to my guns about no medicine, put a pile of tissues on my night stand and went to bed. By the next day, it was done, and I am sure that the pollen is still in the air. My friends are all complaining about their symptoms.

The biggest change in my life over the last year and a half is the limited intake of food with gluten. Could this have a connection? I think it does. The less offenses your body has to ward off within itself, the more strength you have to repair yourself. It seems like pretty easy logic to me. We'll see how I fare next Mother's Day and whether I can smell the limburger cheese or not.