All my life I always knew that eating healthy was key to a healthy life so I have experienced and tried many things to enhance my diet. I would buy expensive supplements believing in their efficacy because of their well known reputation. I had friends who would swear by this, that and the other thing so I would try it. I remember how excited I got when encapsulated juices came on the market but they just didn't do the trick for me. Not like I thought they should. At least not like real food. So after a year or so I would stop using them. The same thing with the supplements. I knew eating lots of veggies and fruits was the best but I just couldn't eat that much so I kept looking for things to supplement my diet. When I gave up on the capsules of dried juice, I bought the old juicer. Unfortunately, it wasn't user friendly so I didn't take juicing all that seriously. I also have to admit, I really didn't understand that I was limiting my juice combinations to those that were similar to what you buy in the store like grape juice, apple juice, orange juice or all the other processed juices. Yeah, juicing was good and I enjoyed the fresher flavors but it didn't seem to have any spectacular affects. Nothing life changing. Back then you really didn't hear that much about juicing and what you could really get from it. Mostly it was all about being vegetarian or vegan.
When I was diagnosed with RA, I spent a lot of time trying to learn about it, as I always did with other illnesses I've dealt with. But this time it was different. This time I had something that was not curable. I was scared and all the knowledge I had about healthy living seemed to be dashed against the rocks. It was as if everything I knew and did really made no difference and I ran into the arms of the rheumatologist. I knew the basics about RA but when I told the doctor I didn't want to do all the medication and pills and that I wanted to deal with this on a more holistic level, his response was "Well, neither I nor any other rheumatologist can help you then." I was crushed. He just told me it was his way or live in unbearable pain for the rest of my life. Oh, and by the way, I was going to be crippled in a couple of years because of the severity of my case. What could I do but surrender. They should put that one on Scare Tactics. Although I started on the various therapies prescribed, I still believed there had to be some other way to allow me to deal with this but I was just too sick to do anything, I thought. I was getting frustrated with all the tests and office appointments. I would spend a month or so feeling better but then I'd get sick. Bronchitis. Gingivitis. Steroids and thrush. Tendonitis. Trigger Finger. Finally I found the courage to make a change but it did take a while before I decided juicing might really help. I'm such a slow Nelly.
With a brand new juicer and my old faithful Vitamix sitting on the counter, all ready to do my bidding, I still had to figure out the best juice combination for my aches and pains. So where do I go? Surfing, of course. Although I had already seen lots of videos, read lots of articles and in my background I had knowledge of the benefits and nutritional values of different food, I simply wanted to make sure I was putting together the best foods for me. With all the information at our fingertips, it can be a bit overwhelming. I really wanted to ask these raw food guys what was best for me but so many of them, although very knowledgable, seemed unreachable. After all, most of them also had a business to run. So who was I to think I was going to get anything of value on a personal basis. Well, I took a step of faith and decided to email one of them that didn't seem to worship the dollar god as much as the others. You can imagine my surprise when I got a phone call. I almost didn't pick it up because I rarely answer phone calls when I don't recognize the name and who the heck was Dan McDonald and what is he trying to sell. Well, I decided to answer it since it was a name and not a business. Dan was really supportive and gave me some suggestions as well as a lot of the info I had already heard on his wacky videos.
So the magic elixir? Basically, it was celery, apple, lemon, ginger, kale, cucumber and spinach. He also suggested a tea of ginger, lemon, goji berries and honey. Well, I had all those things! This was going to be great because I could start right away. Let the juicing begin! And although I couldn't cross my fingers, I was doing it mentally.
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