Onward to the juice fast!
Yesterday I decided to go ahead and fall into a juice fast since I got paid.
I purchased all organic fruit and all organic vegetables. My grocery bill was higher than it usually is on getting enough food to hopefully make it through 2 weeks. My rationalization is, this is for my health, and how do we put a price on that?
Right now, I desperately need to be saving money for my future and retirement because it's going to be rough, but I have to trust God to provide for me as needed. My health is much more important and I could die tomorrow, who knows? If I do, then yay! I'm ready!
Juicing is interesting. I hate to waste anything, so the juice that I make creates the pulp that grinds out of the juicer. With vegetable pulp, I make a vegetable broth and I do end up having to throw out all the pulp that was in the broth, but that broth is what I use in the evening that I heat up. I drink the vegetable JUICE in the afternoon or early evening when I feel hungry. I really try to test it when I feel hungry. If I drink a glass of water and it goes away then it's good. If it still seems that I'm hungry after a short time, then I do something about it with juice. I don't just drink juice all day long. I have to make what I have last. Lots of water in between and iced or hot tea.
The vegetable broth that I make gets seasoned heavily because I am a flavor freak. Definitely lots of garlic, some onion and it seems like everything vegetable related needs salt which I probably shouldn't be using, but I got clean pure Himalayan pink salt and it's a much stronger flavored salt than regular white table salt and it's better for you. I have never heavily salted anything. I'm trying really hard to be wise, but I can't just do bland unless I absolutely must. So far, I don't see a problem with the spices. In the big scheme of life One of my mottos is: spices are my friend!
I drink the fruit juice in the mornings. The pulp gets put in a pitcher with filtered water to leach off whatever it will into the water and then I strain it before pouring it into a glass. In the mornings, until afternoon, I will have some of that in place of water if I want to. If you're doing this for weight loss this will add extra calories so keep that in mind.
Weight loss isn't my main goal, but it's a concern that I need to lose. My focus is on my health.
Juicing is messy. You just have to focus that it is, and you have to wash the parts to your juicer, your knives, your glass and your cutting board every single time, along with wiping everything down.
I have never been into fast food much (although it was a nice, but super unhealthy treat - especially when I had kids to feed) and I've always cooked more than anything. So I don't see that it's that big of a chore when I think if I wasn't juicing I would be cleaning up my cooking mess and washing dishes anyway. I don't do paper or plastic anything If I can possibly keep from it. Even when it comes to paper towel use, most of the time I use rags to clean, wipe down counters and things and a dry cloth towel to dry. Paper towels cost money and I can throw these items I use in the wash and use them again in with a full load and it's no big deal. No styrofoam either. Glass is from nature. That's what I use. I use jars to store things in as much as I can. Occasionally I won't have what I need to store food so I do resort to plastic if I must, but I always try to find a different way.
I think paper plates and plastic utensils are lazy. If you're going to cook and you're going to do dishes, are plates and glasses and silverware really that big of an issue? Using plastic utensils feels weird and I definitely do not like it. I can't say I haven't been thankful to have it now and then though! In a pinch is one thing, but all the time is lazy. And I don't have that attitude just with guests, I have it with just me too. I guess I'm old school. I also dislike the thought of anything I discard filling up a landfill when I could have used something else that would have lessened the load on mother earth.
Anyway, juicing isn't as messy as I can get things when I actually cook! So I'm happy to be able to say that.
You should juice fresh every single day with each glass and I don't do that. I juice fresh and then what's left After I fill my first glass, I put in a jar to drink later. They say that it loses nutrients when you do that, but I suppose I'm still getting nutrients and like I said, I'm not rich - I have to make it last as long as I can. This is a challenge, but I'm up for it.
In all of this, I'm praising God for every drop, for my ability to be able to make what I make, for every utensil I have, for glasses, jars, lids, dishes and a dishwasher (One day I will have to blog about what you use in your dishwasher to clean your dishes because it's not all good!), for a sink, dish soap, gloves and all the things it takes to do the dishes... because I don't put the parts from my juicer in the dishwasher... and every piece of machinery that helps me create what I need for sustenance.
As a bonus, I have lost 4 lb. That's not the focus or the goal, but I'm just sayin'... Lol
"That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God."
– Ecclesiastes 3:13