What to Eat?

I'll soon be winding down my juice feast. The big question everyone's asking is what's the first food I'll want to eat when I've transitioned. There's no particular food that stands out, but I wouldn't turn down an heirloom tomato salad. What else? A nice green salad. Mango. Mango ice cream. I'm sure more ideas will flood in once I start eating, but it's hot outside and juice is more than satisfying these days.

The Fruits of Summer

I feel tremendously blessed to be able to enjoy the fruits of summer. We've stocked up on so many fruits and veggies, we've run out of room. The cases of grapefruits and oranges are stored in the basement. Greens fill the refrigerator, and the produce drawers are filled to bursting. I love it!

We do spend more than the average American family does on groceries, (especially while I'm juicing) but I'd guess we spend much less on health care, including doctor's visits, health insurance, prescriptions, over-the-counter medicines, and missed work due to illness.

In my juicing world, things are starting to get contagious.

What I Miss While I Juice Feast

I really miss being able to experiment in the kitchen. Sure I can make lots of different juice combinations, but that's not as much fun as really getting involved in creating a new recipe. I still prepare my family's meals--sometimes three meals a day--but I can't sample the food, so I stick pretty closely to the tried and true dishes I know they'll like.

I'm on Day 28 of my juice feast, and though I miss playing in the kitchen, I'm quite content on my feast. Everyone around me is eating, including some of my favorite dishes, but for now I don't feel drawn to the food. Surprisingly, I'm not tired of juice either. I'm always glad for a break from the process of making juice, but unless I'm feeling rushed, the prep is a fairly peaceful routine.

I have dozens of recipe ideas written down, as well as recipes from other blogs. Can't wait to try them. I may have to start posting the things I'm making for the fam.

A Season for Juicing

I don't think I would've been so enamored of a winter juice feast. Watermelon and canteloupe juice have made my feast more fun than it might otherwise be. Watermelon is my current favorite fruit juice! This is my 20th day. Visit Candice on Juice to see how it's going.

Composting Without the Worms

We've been doing a lot of juicing around here, and I expect we'll be doing more as the weather grows warmer. The grown-ups have been having wonderful juices for dinner, and as summer approaches, I'm planning a juice feast. What to do with all that leftover pulp? I thought of home composting, but the idea of one more project . . .well . . .no.

Our city doesn't offer compost pick-up, like some places. Heck, most of our neighbors don't even use their recycle bins. Fortunately, a quick internet search turned up several local places where I can schlep my compostables every week. If you've wanted to reduce your waste without doing your own compost, search online for a drop-off in your area. Specialty grocery stores and farmer's markets are a good place to start.

Even though those food scraps are biodegradable, once they're sealed in a plastic bag and buried in a landfill, they're not so easily broken down. Who needs the guilt? ;-)

Juice Feasting - What's the Deal?

Earlier this week there was an interesting discussion on Raw Food Rehab about juice feasting. A rehabber was concerned that her feast would result in a slowed metabolism and extra weight gain once it was over. If you're primarily doing a feast for weight loss, nothing is scarier than the idea of regaining all those pounds you saw melt away.

Matt Monarch has a clear explanation of how juice feasting resets the metabolism in this article. The bottom line, from his perspective, is that it can slow the metabolism, and that's a good thing because it means your body can run more efficiently, requiring less food, though this is a reality some people aren't prepared to handle. He recommends intense exercise as a means to kick start the metabolism. He also suggests that as we come out on the other side of a feast, we expect to consume fewer calories than we did before juice feasting.

As a culture, the goal has been to figure out how to consume more calories without increasing our waist size. (Loosening your belt under the table is acceptable though!) It challenges our thinking to consider purposely reseting the body to need less food to function optimally.

It's clear our bodies can be easily reset to require less food. The more important thing is to reset our minds and emotions to go along with the program.

Check out Heidi

If you're reading this blog, you've likely been to Raw Food, Right Now! at some point. If you haven't been there lately, pop over soon. Heidi, who's doing a 92-day juice feast, posted a gallery of photos that show her at various stages pre- and post- Raw foods.

So what's the big deal? There are lots of dazzling Before and After pictures on the Internet. They show dramatic weight loss, cleared skin, and enhanced glow--all the result of Raw Food. Here's the thing though. Heidi hasn't yet reached all of her physical goals. In one picture (from quite some time ago) she's clearly displeased with where she is on her journey to health.

Even though there's a glow about Heidi in all of those pictures (a glow from being the kind of person she seems to be--open-minded, generous, friendly, kind and eager to dive into what the world has to offer), and she's cute at every stage, it took some guts to share those pictures with the world. It's not always easy to reveal our struggles (though believe me, she was never what would qualify as fat!).

Yikes! I guess this means I'll have to eventually suck it up and do something similar. Seems only right.

Big Sigh

Why doesn't a juice feast appeal to me at all? Lots of Raw Foodies rave about the feasts they've done for upwards of 90 days, but I couldn't get through 3 days last fall. I don't juice. I prefer green smoothies (don't want to waste the pulp & fiber, don't have a juicer, like the slightly more satisfying feeling I get from smoothies), but I still couldn't go for a week on the blended concoctions.

My friend Terilynn is on her 34th day of her juice feast. Angela Stokes is famous for her 92 day excursion into a juice-only phase. I love the lightness of being that comes from being completely, or mostly, Raw. I missed it terribly as I ate more cooked food over the holidays, and I'm sure Raw juices would heighten the lovely light and clean feelings. I just can't do it.

Right now I have the perfect excuse: my not-so-high-powered blender blew up today, just as I was preparing to make a smoothie of spinach, peaches, banana and flax seeds. But I have to face facts--even if I owned the much coveted Vita-Mix, I wouldn't go very long without solid foods. I reason that there would've been no juicer in the Garden of Eden. Early man wouldn't waste the flesh of fruit, the fibrous substance of leafy greens, so why should I?

When it's all said and done, I may never enjoy a juice or smoothie feast. I'm okay with that. Still, just as with the certainty that I'll never voluntarily jump out of a plane, I'll sometimes wonder what I'm missing.