My good friend, Becca Sue, was asking me some specifics about juicing today and I realized that I should finally post more about the process we go through for juicing! So, here it is!
Step 1: Prep the produce!Washing the greens is fairly easy, I fill the sink with 2-3 inches of water toss each leaf in and essentially stir them in the water. This knocks most of the dirt and such off and conserves water because the faucet isn't running the whole time!
The apples and lemons we clean with a neat washing agent called Environne. (Washing instructions are on the bottles) Then each is cut into chunks that will fit into the juicer.
Step 2: Juice the produce!
We like to prep the juicer with a few leaves of Romain fist because, of all the ingredients, it is the cheapest. Then push two pieces of apple, one or two leaves of kale, one lemon wedge, and a few leaves of Romain. Repeat until you run out of produce but always try to end with Romain to push all the good stuff through!
Step 3: Strain out the pulp!
The reason a person juices is to get all the fantastic goodness that plants hold for us but there's so much fiber that it's hard to eat all of it. The juicer does a good job of removing most of the fiber, but there's still a lot left over. We use two different sizes of strainers. The first has a mesh with larger holes and the second has smaller holes. The first we only use once but the second we will use three or four times.
Step 4: Enjoy your Green Lemonade! Let me know if you have any questions!
Here's to your tomorrow!
Today was one of those mornings where the thought of waking up repulsed me. I was so incredibly tired and it's my own fault! Harry Potter really isn't THAT awesome; I shouldn't be giving it the precious hours I have to sleep. The lack of sleep is messing with the results of my experiment! *Sigh* Not to mention my interactions with my family. I was able to see with deafening clarity (yes, the sight was such that I could hear it) that dieting alone is not going to give me the results that I want as far as my mental & emotional health goes. I'm going to have to throw myself into all aspects of self -care if I'm going to beat out the Postpartum Depression without medication. A good night's sleep every night, a refreshing shower every evening, an early start to my day so I can have "me-time" before the kids wake up, and a healthy diet are all necessary for my health. So, I am now committing myself to taking my shower between 8:30p-9:00p, being in bed by 10:00p, and waking up at 6:00a.
Alright, now that I have that out of my system!
I stuck to my Green Lemonade for this morning! A whole 32 oz! It tasted much better this time--we put in more ginger and it helped even the flavor out a lot more. We ate a breakfast of Rainer Cherries, blueberries, and gooseberries. After our last midwife appointment, we swung by Chipotle and cheated on the properly combined lunch. My lunch time philosophy has become as such: If I have the drive to eat a properly combined meal, I will do so, if not, I will eat a healthy meal! And it's worked out okay so far. Of course it's only day two. Rose explains the "Quick Exit Combinations" on pages 34 and 35:
"The first thing you want to do is eat foods that are the easiest to digest and move out of the body. (Please refer to the Quick Exit Hierarchy of Food on page 27.) The second thing to do is eat these foods in "quick exit combinations." This means that when you make a meal out of high-quality, quick exit foods, the combinations of the foods in your meal should also be as easy as possible to digest. As you've learned, the quicker the food is digested, the less waste matter it will leave."
So the categories for foods that she lists are:
1) Starches
2) Fleshes
3) Nuts/Seeds/Dried Fruit
4) Fresh Fruit
Rose explains that none of these should mixed together because doing so causes putrefaction in the stomach leading to the body spending more time digesting and less time with waste management throughout the entire body. Raw veggies, however, can be mixed with any of these categories! However, mixing anything with fresh fruit isn't suggested. She shares that cooked veggies combine well with the first two categories to make a good solid meal. Some where else (regrettably I cannot remember exactly where) Rose explains that ideally we should wait 30 minute after consuming fresh fruit before continuing on to the next meal or snack and that approximately 3 hours should be given after eating a properly combined meal before having a snack.
All of this to briefly explain what I'm talking about when I say "properly combined meals." Alright! So now it's time for me to move on with the rest of my day! Here's to tomorrow!
Stats:
Weight - 185 (I got to use a scale today.... I wept inside!)
Green Lemonades: 2
Properly combined meals: 3
In January, I have the pleasure of standing next to a dear friend of mine on the day she gets married! I am so excited for her and her fiance but I'm nervous too because I REALLY don't want to be a frumpy matron of honor who has just let herself go. Therefore, I have decided to try a detox method that's safe for nursing mommies and their babies. It's called the Raw Food Detox Diet (the book is by Natalia Rose) and it's safe because it's a life style change rather than a traditional diet. My husband, Jairus, and I have decided to start off small. On page 48, Rose presents the Green Lemonade recipe and suggests drinking it on an empty stomach a half hour before eating a breakfast of fresh fruits. We have decided to try this for one week and see how we feel! Here's the recipe for those of you who are interested in trying it (as from The Raw Food Detox Diet--brackets [ ] are my addition):GREEN LEMONADEMakes one serving1 head of romaine lettuce or celery [we're sticking to romaine for this experiment]5 to 6 stalks of kale (any type)1 to 2 apples (as needed for sweetness--I recommend organic Fuji)1 whole organic lemon (you don't have to peel it)1 to 2 inches fresh ginger (optional)I know, it's a lot of lettuce! You should have seen the looks on people's faces when we bought 6 days worth for 2 people!This morning was our first day trying it out--well, Jairus has had it before, but that's besides the point. It really didn't taste too bad! Mine was about 24 oz and I drank all but 4! To get the most enzymes, we have to drink it within the first 15 minutes of juicing so I was gulping it down as fast as I could. I actually felt tingling in my extremities when I was about half way through, it was very strange. Half an hour later I had half a plum and about an hour after that I had about two cups of cherries. I'm really proud of myself! I was able to stick to the fresh fruit breakfast and wait the recommended 30 minutes before moving on to a lunch of yummy tofu and brown rice! It was an awesome experience and I'm sure I would have more to say about having more energy but I stayed up WAY too late last night watching Harry Potter. As a side note, I've noticed that my milk production has been doing better today after having the Green Lemonade!Stats:Weight - 170ish (I don't currently own a scale)Days of drinking Green Lemonade: 1Properly combined meals: 2
