Adventures In Juicing: I Must Be Doing Something Right

So I have returned to the idea of juicing. It's not the first time I've tried this. I'm just trying to get more consistent with these better habits. It's a hard battle, but something happened to me recently that made me seriously rethink my lifestyle and eating patterns.

Aside from this incident, I've been seeing some information lately that also has had a dramatic affect on my way of thinking. Certain confirmations have been coming to me lately, and so I decided that it was time to really get serious, and really focus on consistency; because I already know what needs to be done.

The other major issue that influenced this change is time. I have always struggled with organization and structural issues, but particularly with time. We creative types tend to be a little more free spirited, a good description for unorganized. For me personally, the battle is always time. I have often said that I long to live in God's time frame and not in earth's. For God, there is no time.

Subsequently, I have learned to pace myself and not stress over perfectionistic issues, because in all honesty, I'll never make it there. None of us will. The thing is will I worry and fret over it, be critical over it, or just accept it and move on. I choose acceptance. I know who I am.

But let me just tell you that this shift, though paradoxical for me; has finally touched upon my son somewhat. I told him that I would let him taste one of my juicing shakes, and that they were really quite good. He originally looked at me with disdain. He was not willing to give up his junk food, but as I have been explaining much of the information I have been receiving to him, he is starting to get the big picture, especially since I told him that I could not stick with this and be healthy, if he did not do it with me. I need him to get into the mix, because otherwise, if he brings home junk food, I will want junk food.

Tonight was a perfect example. His friend was over visiting, and asked me to take him to his job so he could pick up his check. He said he would give me gas money, and buy us all pizza, so I agreed, figuring that this simplified my life. I didn't have to cook for them.

When we finally got home with the pizza, I took several slices on a plate to my room, but as I was eating them, I discovered that they had no flavor. It was so bland and tasteless, that I was surprised. You see, normally, we grab pizza and, using my mom's term, "gump it down" pretty fast. So fast, in fact, that I don't think we have ever really gotten a good taste of it. Other than the first momentary taste of tomato sauce and cheese, I don't think we really stopped to taste it. It's pizza for cryin' out loud! Pizza! We love pizza...or at least we used to.

I had already slowed down on my "love" of pizza, especially the pizza my son typically wants, which is Little Caesar's. So I rarely suggest going for pizza, in fact, I hardly bring up going for foods like that any more. It's my son that usually suggests it.Then I end up going along for the ride, figuratively and physically, as I drive the car; and end up eating it, but it's not something I really want anymore.

So now that I'm juicing daily, at least 1 8 oz bottle per day, and I usually shoot for 2 of those; my tastebuds are drastically changing their preferences. Suddenly tonight, I slowed myself a bit on the usual pizza gumping, and realized that it was tasteless. I wondered why, when I threw a piece of sausage to Baby Girl, my only female cat; she played with it but didn't want to eat it.

Then I remembered all the info I had learned about sausage, and cringed. I shouldn't be eating this crap. I got completely turned off, and took the remaining uneaten slices back to the boys. But I was stunned that all this time, I had been eating something that was so flavorless. It was pathetic. My taste buds apparently had been so accustomed to the toxic chemicals in the junk food that I thought this food had flavor!

Now, this morning, I had a breakthrough. My son actually had some of my juice, without any added sugar substitutes or direct sugar, and he actually found it "acceptable." You should have seen his face. He's 17, so you know this is a real break though, because he is a certified junk food junkie, and I've been trying for years to get him more on the health track.

I explained to him that it took me a while of experimentation, for all the times previously that I tried to do juicing, to get it right. I explained that I didn't have to use the kitchen sink full of vegetables just to get a good juice. In fact, the problem previously was that I was trying to do too much.

You see, when you are accustomed to a more toxic lifestyle, and you attempt to make the change over to a more organic lifestyle, you are going to come up against quite a bit that will put you off. That being said, your tastebuds will recover, but it will be quite a while until you retrain them, and get them acclimated to new and healthier tastes. Then suddenly you realize that what you previously thought was so good tasting is really the worse, most tasteless garbage there is.

So I explained my newly discovered secret to my son. The way to get him acclimated as well as myself, is to do a little at a time. He never liked my juicing mixes before, because I was using too much of each vegetable or fruit. Some of the mixtures, just didn't go well together. I'm hearing Sesame street in the background in my head, and Ernie is singing, "One of these things just doesn't belong here..." Well, that was the definite conclusion the day I attempted to mix Brussel sprouts with mango. A horrible combination!

However, as I explained to my son, not only do you save time in not having to prepare a lot of food, but there is relatively no dishes to wash! He hates doing the dishes. Since time is an issue for me all the time, not having to blow 2-3 hours preparing meals is a real blessing for me!

In getting to a good mix that is workable for the sceptics in your household, the key is in limiting yourself to about 4 items per mix, not including the standards. The standards would be your choice of liquid, and any other standard item that you always include, like coconut oil, or Chia. Outside of that, 4 items should be your basic and no more than 6, not including the standards.

This way, there is not too many weird flavors mixing, and for someone not accustomed to juicing, you can acclimate them easier this way. As your taste buds get more and more accustomed to the flavors, you can then add a little more if you choose, but honestly, I think less is more.

You need to make sure that at least one of these items is either an apple, banana, pineapple, mango, or pear for sweetness. You might also be able to use cantaloupe, but I haven't tried that yet, so I can't say. Be careful when mixing with a citrus fruit, because too much citrus can make it sour and unappealing. Plus, it is hard to compensate for excessive sour tastes from citrus, so use them sparingly. I opted for cutting up limes or lemon in my water bottles, and leaving them out of my juice mixes.

Take a look below at the mix I gave my son to sample this morning. You should have seen the perplexed look on his face with a slight smirk. He came into the kitchen as I was starting to do the mix, to find out what was going into it, so that he could "brace himself for the taste." After I had mixed everything and gave him a cup, he gave me a strange look with this little smirk that he was trying hard to hide.

I looked at him, pointing my finger and laughing. "It's good, isn't it? That look on your face is because you wanted to hate it, but you can't. It's actually not nearly as bad as you thought it would be and you hate admitting that "vegetables" taste good! Ha!" He couldn't help it. He started to smile, because I had hit the nail right on the head. He actually drank it all without complaint. I think I'm on to something here.

Aside from this success, I lost 10 pounds in the first week! Ya!