Day 8

It’s been a week since Tom & I started this adventure called Juicing. The first few days were tough. I found that I didn’t miss ice cream or potato chips but I would have killed for a nice piece of steak. The truth is that I feel better. I’ve lost fifteen pounds. I had lots of issues with swelling, especially in my legs. The swelling has gone down. These are all good things. You can’t really notice the weight loss but I know that will come also. When you’re this heavy it takes many pounds before a difference is seen on the inside. That’s okay because my insides are very happy with me right now.

There is this thinner, healthier woman in there and she’s screaming to come out. She wants to dance! She wants to run! She wants to live long enough to hold grandchildren in her arms. I’m afraid if I don’t let her soon she may never come out.

I started to walk this week. Funny thing about that is the first day I didn’t get very far. I walked about a block and a half and was sucking air from every pore of my body. My hip hurt. My back ached. My knees wanted to slap me. Tom was encouraging. He told me if I couldn’t walk any further he would walk back and get the car and drive me home. He’s my hero. But he didn’t need to put on his cape because I limped back to the house. The next day I went further and with less discomfort. On the third day I walked even further. It gets easier every time.

I found that after a week of juicing, I’ve developed a system. I still like to play with recipes and have come up with some that don’t taste like grass. I found that if I make all the juices for the day in the morning it only takes an hour (including clean up) and I’m done. I’ve gathered some tips that I found helpful.

Tips:

-If I clean my veggies when I buy them and store them in plastic bags or containers it saves time when I’m juicing. Example: kale & celery can be washed and left to dry on the counter, then stored.

-If I make my fruity drink first, then my carrot based drink and then the green drinks I only have to wash my juice machine once.

-If I store the drinks in  16 oz. (500 ml) mason jars it makes it easier to keep air out of the jar. Fresh juice keeps for a day or two if there isn't any air in the jar.

Some people have done juiced for as little as three days up to sixty days. I’m not sure when we’ll stop but one day at a time is my new motto.

© Nadine Zawacki 2013