Let the Juicing Begin

During my conversation with Dan, he suggested a lot of green juice in the morning.  I think it was about 32 ounces or more.  WHAT?  I was lucky to drink a glassful of anything, yet alone that much but I kept an open mind.  I could build up to it and drink what I could handle.  After all, this was a change.  For lunch he suggested melons and since I had them on hand that would be easy enough to munch on.  I was using melons, especially watermelon to cool my body whenever I was thirsty and/or hot.  Something about an ice cold piece of watermelon was not only refreshing but comforting.  There were many times I would be awakened by the discomfort of the inflammation and go to the fridge, pull out the watermelon and just start scooping the cool juicy meat straight into my mouth.  No bowl.  Heck the melon is a bowl in itself.  So here we are.  Lots of green juice, mostly.  Lots of melons and fruit.  Oh, and don't forget the tea.  

Now came the big change suggestion.  Stay off the meat , dairy, wheat, grains, nuts and processed foods.  I had no problem with the processed foods because we rarely did that any more and meat wasn't a big issue for me.  Years ago I was a vegetarian for quite a while.  One of my sons even wrote a paper in grade school about not eating meat.  The funny part about it was having his friends spend the night.  They were never sure what they were going to get to eat. Luckily most of them liked fruits and vegetables and I'm a pretty good cook.  Later on, when I married the best husband in the world, I had to re-learn how to cook meat.  Now my problem is how to feed him what he likes and eat my celery stick.  Well, it's not that bad but you get the picture.  Oh, and did I mention I'm a pretty good cook.  Yes, I like my cooking and I cook a lot of different foods.  You never know what's for dinner.  It could be ethnic, vegetarian, southern or something I just make up but all of it very tasty.  You name it and I can cook it.  But that's beside the point.  I'll have to figure out something to make some changes here.

Giving up dairy and grains was a bit of an issue.  I love cheese and milk.  I love yogurt and kefir.  I love most anything with dairy in it.  Bread is a tough one.  I bake and there's something comforting about warm bread and melted butter.  Toast.  Sandwiches.  I could think of a million things including crackers.  Now I didn't stuff myself with it and I didn't over indulge in any of the stuff I might have to give up but breaking old habits isn't easy.  How in the world am I going to manage this?

Dan also suggested staying on this juice fast, as he called it, for a while because I would be detoxifying my body.  Well, I knew I needed that.  I had allergies, mucus, OTC pain medication, prescription pain medication and a few other un-natural products in my system.  I also read that some of the RA medication stays in your body for years and I would be happy to get that all out.  But wait!  What about having a nice meal?  After all, I'm still cooking for my husband and he likes meat as well as a lot of other things.  Oh, my.  I just got to stay focused here.

With everything on hand, I started my promising quest with juicing.  My very first glass of juice was better than I thought it would be.  It was refreshing and I really did like the taste.  I remember after drinking it my breathing seemed better.  It was like I was breathing fresh air.  All that freshness from the food gave me a wonderful surprise.  Oh, I think I'm going to like this.  

Oh my!  I think we have a problem.  Houston???  Drinking a meal is not something I have ever gotten used to.  Remember those meal replacements?  My Mom did those and I even tried to do them with her but that's just not a meal to me.  Chewing something is a meal.  Drat, now what do I do?  I'm really full from the green juice.  I could only drink one glass and it's a good thing I only made one glass.  I didn't want to make too much just in case it wasn't palatable.  Now what do I do?  My mind became fixated on chewing and crunching something.  Well, I wasn't going to make myself miserable worrying because the stress wasn't going to help.  You know stress is bad for you.  Well, I decided to have a couple of crackers with cheese.  OH NO!  All the raw foodies said you shouldn't do that!  Here's where I had to be realistic.  The people on raw food and juices and such have been living the lifestyle for years.  I truly believe some of them have forgotten what it was like in the beginning, although I did see info from one that said he made the change over night.  I applaud him for doing that but he was in his 20's when he made the decision and I've got at least 40+ years on him.  There's something about being more open minded when you are younger.  That's not to say more mature people are closed minded but we do get set in our ways.  It just happens.

The tiny munch was enough to calm my mind and I could focus again.  Now something else was happening too.  I noticed I hadn't made coffee this morning.  That's unusual because our morning ritual is to grind fresh coffee for our french press then spend the rest of the day drinking it down.  This day I really wasn't interested.  I started the day juicing.  I was alert, feeling good about myself and my choice and I just noticed something else.  I didn't turn on the TV.  Oh my, now I'm grinning because I just realized I've got some energy and I'm focused.  I'm not missing the coffee and the background noise. Not everyone would notice much of a change on the first day and I think it's partly because they don't listen to their bodies.  I have learned to do that over the years and especially when it's screaming at me with pain.  I always try to observe what is going on and I was enjoying what my body was telling me.  Oh, I think I'm going to like this.