Getting Into The Routine

This is a glass of a whole very fat cucumber and a small-to-medium navel orange. It was delicious and worthy of my novelty ShareBear Care Bear glass.

I'm still in the process of trying to get into the whole juicing routine. Juicing for meals that aren't breakfast just isn't an easy process for me right now. Every thing I read said to store the juice in over-filled mason jars but squat little jars aren't easy to drink out of and are definitely not easy to pour liquids out of. Also, I have a habit of forgetting to bring a mug or cup to drink out of and end up using one of the... not-so-eco-friendly cups on hand at my office.

 Also, it makes me kind of looks like the office vampire if I've added too many beets.

But I'd really like to get the whole bring-juice-to-work thing figured out so that by the time my work day is over, I'm not starving and also not so worn out. One day, I'd like to have the energy to go from work to a gym and then still be alive enough to go home safely.

There's also the whole issue of still having to adjust combinations and flavors until they're drinkable. I've got a wonderful gulp-and-grimace pattern down for most of my juice drinking (other than the above lovely cucumber and orange combo). I'm hoping that will get fixed with the package that I received today of some extra little goodies, but if not- I'll be playing with the sugar levels for a long time to come on these juices because beets and carrots? Not the right kind of sweet for me. Too much of one kind and not enough of the right kind.

But, in the mean-time, I've got a nice little morning routine building. Just before 6 AM every morning, Olive the Cat and I trot down to the kitchen and start assembling the juicer. I grab what items I'm thinking of putting in, and I put my headphones on and start listening to Pandora. The juicer is, in comparison to a blender or food processor, quiet. But when compared to, say, quietness? Really freakin' loud. So: music.

I juice enough to fill a small-to-medium sized glass for breakfast and, if there's time and means, I juice some more to hopefully try to gulp down at work. While this is going on, I have no idea what the hell my cat is doing. Every so often, she shows up and meows at me and then disappears some more. But she's super happy to not be in my room anymore, I know that.

After drinking the first glass, I'm now fast enough that there's also time to make a cup of tea to follow it up. I've got a lovely new IngenuiTEA loose tea pot/cup/filter/awesomething so I've been doing some loose brewed herbal tea first thing in the morning. It's kind of a big step for me to go back to herbal after being a straight-up green and white tea drinker for years. But now I get to enjoy a whole cup and to make googly eyes at my cat before I need to rush out the door.

Of course, I'm able to do this because, for some reason, traffic has yet to reach the horrible level it was at a month ago with making it so I had to be out of the house by 6:30 to be at work by 8 - but that time will come and for now I'm enjoying having some time to recover in the morning.

And... rambling. In conclusion: still trying to figure the juice thing out. Not quite ready to go all juice all the time total detox yet.

I Shot A Man In Reno, Just To Drink His Beets.

I might've over-extended myself yesterday with a whole pint of celery juice. And didn't get to the pint until it had started to lose that beautiful neon color. So, today, I've got two half-pints of beet, cucumber, and zucchini juice.

... and a pint of celery, cucumber, and beet juice.

Hopefully, I managed to get all that pesky beet juice off of everything in the kitchen before I left this morning. For a while, it looked like I had killed someone. Especially when I was peeling the beet.

Also? Zucchini? Not very juicy.

A few notes about my first day of juicing, though: I had a very difficult mid-morning. Possibly due to a blood sugar drop or just being tired.

Or maybe the half of a sleeping pill I took the night before.

Either way, I was really struggling to stay alert and awake from about 8:00-10:00 yesterday morning after having a glass of cabbage juice at 6:30 AM for breakfast. Even breaking out the emergency energy drink at my desk didn't help until I took a brisk walk around my building. And not getting to the celery juice until 3:30 pm did not go over well with my stomach when 5 pm rolled around.

But now I've gone through 80% of the veggies I bought to juice on Wednesday night. And I really wish I had started all this back in July when my house was buried in free cucumbers from our garden. Oh well, something to look forward to for this summer.

We shall see how today goes...

Morning Juicing

I gave myself about 40 minutes this morning to get some juicing done, to see how much I could accomplish before I needed to leave for work.

This adorable little vibrant green pint was the majority of what I got done. So... not much.

It's almost a whole bunch of celery with a few carrots and some lime thrown in with it. I packed it in an old soft lunch box with lots of ice packs and we'll see how it holds up until I'm reading to drink it.

After I filled the jar and refrigerated it, I made a small glass-worth of cabbage-based juice. And here's a lesson: cabbage is kind of difficult to juice. The rubbery leaves don't like to easily make it down the feeding shoot on my Omega. I had hoped to get another pint made, if not more, but it just took too long.

I ended up throwing in a few carrots to that as well and the rest of my lime- which I don't think I proper de-skinned enough. The juice felt like a punch in the face! I ended up watering it down significantly and chugging.

I really wanted to try cabbage juice after hearing that it has some unknown miracle vitamin in it that's super beneficial when juiced and drank immediately.

And then spent the next ten minutes sneezing.

I might've forgotten a minor allergy to cabbage in the process of wanting to test the benefits of its juice...

2012? It's going to be...

 JUICY!

That is 1 cucumber, 2 small whole carrots, half a lime, and a teeny bit of a too-soft apple.

I bought a juicer for myself after reaching one of those glorious/horrible end of my ropes. I have low energy, chronic pain (still), low focus, low memory, and it seems like everything I eat upsets my system no matter what.

I'm hoping to be able to get pretty obsessive about juice for a while and do a juice fast that involves intaking 1200-1500 calories a day in raw juice form (giving your digestive system a break).

*fingers crossed* that I get in the habit! Then I can go on and on about all the lore involving juicing and whatnot.

Juicy New Year, everybody!

5 Things To Do During A Very Short Return To Tucson:

 

Countdown...

5. Bring Chicago's rainy weather with you and be treated like a god.

4. See your friends' awesome hilarious zombie movie on the big screen.

(WARNING: R-Rated Trailer)

3. Go to Geeks Who Drink at Hotel Congress with these killer fools.

2. Go to Bookmans. Which was the best bookstore in AZ even before Borders died.

In comparison, Borders:

1. Food. El Charro Cafe.

The original El Charro Cafe. Where I got possibly the kindest and most openly helpful service at a restaurant EVER. I asked about vegetarian options and then found out that they even have vegan options and they had a gluten-free menu. Our waiter was so amazingly sweet and knowledgeable about which beans to put on the plate and which rice and... AWESOME MEAL.

Veggie Fajitas. Not actually on the menu, but amazing and look at that awesome display!

Meal-A-Palooza 14: Better than it looks!

This is a raw vegan burger.

It is actually tasty, despite the fact that it looks like, well, looking like it came from a certain fictional establishment I had managed to forget about for 20 years... (my apologies in advance to the over 35 demographic for linking to this)

But, really, it was oddly tasty. And the embodiment of how most of these meals have been better when making sure to combine the various elements rather than eating them separate.
The bread is two large flax chips, which are not fun when not combined with any other flavors. The patty is a mixture of nuts and seeds with a bit of miso and nutritional yeast for extra flavor. Then there's some nut cheese on top. And some funky looking sprouts. And some sundried tomatoes (a good step for tomatoes!).

No, really, it was pretty good. I would eat that again voluntarily.

Its side salad, however, I can not say the same about. Bland, dry, and blah. And this is from someone that usually orders my salads dry.


But the burger was good! And easy to eat at work (other than getting stuck in my teeth).








And, yes, it is pretty damn ugly looking. But... so are beef patties. Especially fast food ones that are all grey and look somewhat like faded asphalt. SO THERE.

I don't know why I'm now defensive about finally liking something. 

I'm on a weird emotional food journey, apparently.

Meal-A-Palooza 13: You Know What Fruit I Dislike More Than Banana?

MELONS!

So, take three guesses as to what the flavor of this shake was!

The weirdest part? The flavor started off melon-y, then became savory, and finally would feel like something was rotting in my mouth. Hurray! Yeah, I couldn't finish this one. Not even close.

It's like they somehow knew.