Today I hit a major obstacle in my juice fast. This probably won’t impact you as much as it impacted me but…I guess I’ll just come right out and say it…my local grocery stores ALL stop carrying fresh cranberries every year on 1 January! How messed up is that? Apparently, grocery stores are on a cycle for Holiday fruits and vegetables just like they are for those snow-white sugar cookies with crack in them, smothered in frosting (orange for Halloween and Thanksgiving, pink, green or red for Christmas, etc). Yep, I asked the produce guy after wandering around for 20 minutes looking like a lost child, searching in vain for my beloved bags of little red tart berries. He’s the one who filled me in on the secret: they stock cranberries for exactly 3 months and pull them off the shelf on New Year’s Day. So now you know.
Alright, I’ll stop my whining and learn to embrace the taste of green a little more than I have.
Day 6 Morning Stats
This morning I was 183.6 lbs, according to my Withings WiFi Body Scale
Today’s Juices
I started this morning with some green tea to try to get “get things moving” internally. Didn’t work. I know, probably TMI for most people but let’s face it, juice fasting does tend to cause a few bodily changes! Then, Vanessa and I tried a new “off the cuff” recipe that included apple, carrot, kale, bok choy, broccoli, my beloved (but now no longer available) cranberries, and persimmon. Never heard of persimmon before but they are a sweet, but slightly tangy fruit and look like a tomato. It was a really good mix and we enjoyed it. So here’s a snapshot of our ingredients:
Today’s Challenges
I don’t think I drank enough water or juice today. Usually, I’m pretty good about that but today I was at meetings with my business partner and the team and, no excuses, I just didn’t drink enough water. We met at Starbucks and I picked up a Tazo Green Tea (Passionfruit) and then we moved over to EZ’s Restaurant. Everyone ate at EZ’s but I just sipped my tea and should have ordered a water, too, but I didn’t. Lesson learned.
Good Stuff for New Juicers
I mentioned yesterday that I’ve been doing some exploring over at Dr. Fuhrman’s site. If you’ve seen Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead you’ll recall that he’s the doc who supervised Joe’s fast. There is a ton of great info there; specifically, more info on the food pyramid and chart he discusses in the movie and food density and micronutrient scores. If you’re familiar with Whole Foods stores, you may know that they adopted Dr. Fuhrman’s food density scores to develop the ANDI, short for Aggregate Nutrient Density Index, which he expanded from his earlier chart. You can find out more about the ANDI Chart here.
Final Thoughts
Both Vanessa and I really are realizing, and trying to understand, the power that food has over each of us. Good and bad. I think I’ve been pretty candid about my irresponsible eating habits in my previous posts and I’m learning so much as I go through this process. I’m feeling changes in my body already and know that all the fresh nutrients and live enzymes are working hard to repair years of damage I’ve caused. That’s good. But we’re also seeing the negative effects that eating habits have on us through this fast. For example, our daughter came over with a little baggie of Cheez-Its to sit on Vanessa’s lap. Vanessa told me she “just wanted just one of those Cheez-Its to sit on her tongue so she could savor the salty flavor and then crunching on it. She cooked pork loin for the kids and was tempted by that, too! And she’s vegetarian! I, on the other hand, almost put a Triscuit in my mouth as I closed up the box for our daughter. Not out of temptation or hunger (I wasn’t even hungry), but out of habit. Those are things we’re becoming more and more aware of.
Finally, as I’m no longer going to be able to indulge in my tart little berries, I’m open to suggestions. I was so used to those cute little round red bastards cutting into the flavor of the kale and spinach, leaving me with a little tart-induced smile on my tongue. They say it is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. We’ll see…
Resources/Links
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