Thursday, July 16, 2009

Feeding the Elephant

I was serious about my last post. Juicing has taken up all my free time and money. It is amazing how much produce I go through in a week. It's like feeding an elephant!!

This will be a quickie post because my life has been completely taken over by work this week, and I have 10 minutes (better type fast).

After drinking fresh vegetable juice twice a day for a week, I had the best CBC blood test ever. For once, my protein levels were normal instead of elevated. My cholesterol rocked at 154. I've also noticed some other improvements. My cycle was 25 days long! Those of you who have been following my blog know that this is one day longer than my average. I thought this past cycle would be a bust with the hot flashes and high FSH, and surely AF would have come earlier. Also, I had no spotting before my period this time. I still have hot flashes, but not as much or severe as the beginning of my last cycle. The down side is that my period was pretty scant. Ah well, Rome wasn't built in a day!

I've also gotten a lot of questions, like, does you juice taste good? Why yes, it does! Here is one of my favorite recipes:

3-4 kale leaves
4 sprigs of parsley
3 carrots
1/2 apple

Juice the greens first up to 1/4 cup. In general, don't drink more than a 1/4 of greens or anything from the broccoli family, like cabbage, at a time or it could upset your stomach. For me, drinking juice from kale is like drinking a glass of milk. Since I don't do dairy, I have to get my calcium from somewhere! Next, juice the carrots and 1/2 apple up to 1 cup of juice. Add more carrot if you have less than 1 cup. Stir well. Mmmmm!

Also, thanks to Jill for turning me on to frozen wheatgrass juice. I found a brand called Evergreen Juices that is carried at my local health food store. The taste is much better because this wheatgrass is grown outside for a longer period of time than inside for short periods of time in trays that can have problems with mold. It's like drinking lawn clippings, which to me tastes better than icky sweet fresh wheatgrass grown in trays. I have a lot more energy since combining both juices, sometimes too much energy!!

12 comments:

Sue said...

That recipe actually sounds great. I used to work at a juice bar in college and I love the stuff...but it gets pricey and time consuming to do at home...and add that to the GF bread baking and stuff and I'm overwhelmed. I'm glad it is working out though..and wish you could ship some up here!

Jill M. said...

You're so welcome! =)

Wow, you're starting to inspire me to get into juicing, thanks for providing a recipe. I have a juicer I can borrow so I may just have to try it out!

Best of luck to you in your upcoming adventures!

Mad Hatter said...

Yay for your CBC! Yay for lots of energy and feeling great! And yay for feeding elephants because they are a fertility symbol (apparently putting elephant statues outside your bedroom door is good fertility feng shui). Your juicing is inspiring me to make pureed soupd for my yang...thank you!

Nadine said...

Thanks for the Jucing recipes - I so want to know more - what kind of juicer do you have? AND do you think it is worth investing if I have until the end of August?

Sky said...

I would LOVE the juice but I have done it and know the amount of work involved - it's practically a part-time job. Ugh!

Beautiful Mess said...

You just made me crave a juice I had at a Whole Foods type store YEARS ago! I might try to make a trip down to the one we have here locally.

Glad you're feeling energized and the juice seems to be doing the trick!
*HUGS*

DAVs said...

I had no idea it takes so much effort! You deserve an award.
Glad you are feeling better on it though.
I enjoy making my fruit and whey smoothies..but I have one of this little Magic Bullet-type individual blenders so it's really fast.

PS My blog no longer updates on your blogroll since it went private. Sorry it's just a pain.

kayjay said...

I'm so glad that you feel better with the juicing. Half the time you take these supplements, make lifestyle changes and kind of just hope for the best but to see results...now that's encouraging! Awesome!

Denver Laura said...

Best feedback I've ever heard on actual results from jucing! Way to go!

Anonymous said...

Wow this sounds amazing wish I had the time but work a 12 to 14 hour day so I dont think it is an option. Good Luck though!

Anonymous said...

awesome!! I'm feeling your buzz!

so glad you're getting such good results :)

Petrucia said...

you crack me up!!! "feeding an elephant" LOL!!!!
juices totally rock. I agree with you completely. Fruit too is just an awesome source of nutrients. Now when I'm sick because of the pill I can only eat fruit and it's great.