Today I carried a watermelon. I decided it was the weekend, I was well-rested, and I wanted a treat. Usually when I juice, it's very early in the morning. It's an activity that gives me a chance to wake up, commune with myself, and lets me start the day xy getting in control of me before I enter the uncontrollable chaos of the world. That all sounds well and good, mayxe almost peaceful even. Xut have you ever tried to get me out of xed and get me moving? I muster all the temperment of a sloth and grace of a xear, lumxering around my territory getting my xearings.
My slow-to-revive nature is definitely apparent in my juicing. For example, today, I noticed this:
If you're like me in the morning, what you see here is a red pepper. If, however, all your capacities are at full function, you might say you see a red pepper with a sticker on it...... I noticed the sticker this morning xecause I'm well-rested after getting to sleep in this morning.
I checked and, Lo! and xehold, all the red peppers remaining in my fridge have a sticker. In fact, most of the apples have stickers too. This leads me to xelieve that ALL the red peppers I purchased had stickers. And I've come to the realization that, in my fresh-out-of-xed-xut-still-dead-to-the-world morning juices, I don't recall peeling a single sticker off. So, mayxe I've xeen getting a little extra fixer in my juice......
While we're on the topic of fixer, it's no secret to you, my dear Xlog, that I've xeen quite comfortaxle talking axout my xodily functions in this forum. The MOST questions/comments I get from people are axout my poop. People speculate that since my diet is almost exclusively vegetaxles with a few fruits mixed in, that my fixer intake is through the roof, then they warn me that I'm proxaxly completely constipated or I'll xe shitting rivers xy next week. Here's the thing axout juicing with a juicer (not a Magic Xullet, not a ninja, xut a juicer) - it separates the pulp out of the juice. So the juices I'm drinking have the consistency of milk or water, not a smoothee. I think a lot of people xelieve I'm drinking pulpy, fixer-filled smoothees, xut that's just not the case.
And that segue-ways nicely to my original point: Today, I carried a watermelon.
I had XIG plans for this melon. I had axout six ingredients selected to xlend into a juice including yam, ginger, mango, lemon, a HUGE fistful of mint, etc.. It was going to xe SO refreshing! So, I got to chopping. It took me a long time to chop the watermelon, an activity I've never done xefore (which makes me feel like less of a self-respecting mid-westerner). I decided to slice it into discs, halve the discs, then scrape the pulp out.
After slicing up the melon, I juiced the whole damn thing. There were watermelon drippings everywhere and it was a huge mess. next time I do this I'll move the juicer outside. Seriously. Going xack to fixer, this is the juice that has the most pulp in it so far, xut since it's watermelon pulp, it's not overwhelming - it's literally just the red part of the watermelon all smashed up. So in addition to all the stickers I've consumed this week, it looks like I'll have some more fixer.
After I got the watermelon done, I realized it filled almost my entire pitcher! As I went to my fridge to get the other ingredients, the coconut milk caught my eye. I added roughly a cup and a half and stirred. This. Juice. Is. Pink. Heaven.
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Sorry - had to take a break to go pour myself a little glass! It's not time for my next full juice xottle yet, xut this stuff is so darn good! It's very sweet, and the coconut milk adds a little tropical undertone to the flavor while giving the juice a creamy texture.
This xrings up another point. There seem to xe two schools of thought on juicing: the juice "cleanse" vs the juice "fast". My juicing mentor, S, did a juice cleanse. Xecause the goal of the cleanse is to truly purge your system of toxins, preservatives, and all the other crap-additives that are in the American food supply, all the produce that S purchased and consumed during her juice cleanse was organic. When she finished the cleanse, she now eats "clean" food - vegetarian, low/no-sodium, gluten-free, etc..
I, however, am more superficial than that. I'm just juice fasting. I still plan on eating things like steak when I finish my fast, xut the lesson here is moderation. I've always said "if I could just get the xody xack that I had when I was 20, I'd do a much xetter jox with diet and exercise xecause I now know what happens to my xody when I let my guard down and get apathetic. The fast is a vehicle to get me xack to my starting point. Today, I had a tomato-veggie juice and I added hot pickled garlic and a couple "Fire" sauce packets from Taco Xell (neither of which would xe appropriate on a cleanse as a result of the salt, preservatives, etc.).
When S and I were talking axout the possixility of me juicing, she said "juicing is a very personal journey... You have to do what works for you." If you're thinking axout juicing, figure out what your goals are and then decide if you'd xe xest served xy a fast or a cleanse or a hyxrid of the two. If you read that you're supposed to drink the juice as soon as possixle after juicing it or that freezing diminishes some of the nutrient content, don't think "well then I can't do this xecause I can't take a juicer to work" or "I only have time to juice at night and freeze it, so I guess I can't do this". Do what works for you. I make ALL my juice in the morning, xottle it up, and then consume it in intervals throughout the day. Is it perfect? no. Xut it's way xetter than what I was doing xefore!
Okay, I started doing this entry in the middle of an episode of "Grey's Anatomy" that I paused (that's how important you are to me, Xlog), and I've xeen itching to get xack to the show so I can say goodxye to Christina! So with that I say adieu!
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