Fully Juiced!

Fully Juiced!

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Day 6 of 12...It's All About the Kale :)

Until I started juicing I had heard about the incredible "super-food" status kale has, but didn't really know how to prepare it, other than steaming and eating it like cooked spinach.  Chopping it up in little pieces for salads worked too, but eaten like that it tends to have a bitter flavor (at least on my taste buds).  It is so high in protein, calcium and anti-oxidants (apparently off-the-scale high compared to most other veggies) that I wanted to eat more of it..but just couldn't stomach it.

The answer, of course, is juicing it!  Rather than bitter, it has more of an earthy taste when juiced, not bad at all..and with the lemon, ginger, stevia and apple added into the green juice, it is down right refreshing and yummy!  I also read online today that veggies in the cruciferous group are more healthful for us when they are chopped or bent (as in juicing) because it releases their anti cancer micro nutrients more efficiently. In other words, it is better to juice Kale and the others than to simply steam and eat it.  Good to know!    (read about it here):   cruciferous anti-cancer-foods

Blueberries/blackberries, tomatos, almonds and a few other foods are also in that "super food" category...so, juicing them (and eating raw almonds) is a great way to get what your body craves for it's immune system/anti cancer fighting strength, etc.  So, now I'm tossing them all in to my juice.

 They say to strive for 80% veggies and 20% fruit. The ginger is kinda hiding under the carrots there... I put both  kale and chard in today!  Jake wanted some too, so at the last minute, to add volume (more liquid) I threw in a few chunks of watermelon to make enough to share.  It was wonderful.


I like to add some veggies to my fruit juice to bump up the nutrients.  Seriously, you don't even taste the veggies...this tastes like ultra sweet fruit juice! I only use 1 leaf of Kale in my fruit juice...carrots just make it sweeter, celery and cucumber don't add much flavor, just liquid volume.  I just picked the blackberries down my street yesterday evening :)  Mmmmmm, this is so good.

Now, to address the messiness issue, I've devised a ghetto-way to keep pulp from flying on the cupboards and me...this is what I did:  draped a dish towel over the pulp-catcher in the back, and a clear plastic bag over the spout where the juice comes out in the front.  This completely solved the splattering problem...now, if I could just figure out a way to make it self-cleaning after juicing! :)



So, I'm down about a 1/2 pound today...which is totally great.....That's 7.5 pounds in 6 days. Can't complain.  Oh, and I also just realized (duh) why I feel so positive, energetic and happy probably:  I have been basically sleep-deprived for a decade with my insomnia issues before juicing.  Just sleeping 7-8 hours a night every night goes a long way to restoring sanity!!  Coupled with the flooding of micronutrients my body and mind are now getting, of course I would think more clearly, and be happier!  Makes total sense.

Carpe Deim!

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