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whereiskatrina · 10 years ago

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The past few weeks I've been experimenting with drugs.

Not the kind that I could get from the pharmacist at CVS... nor the kind that the exotic-pharmacist sells on the corner outside of said CVS (the one in Chinatown). This high doesn't come with lows. There is no "chasing the first high" (I get sky high every time) although, one could make a good argument that I'm totally addicted to ...fresh pressed juice.

Life before juicing.

For years, I had very unhealthy sleep patterns. I tried following the sleep rules that WebMD told me I should do: make myself go to sleep at the same time each night, place my alarm clock across the room, two hours before bed turn down all the lights and avoid TV and surfing the internet so my brain can "power down," avoid afternoon naps, wake up around the same time each day, first thing in the morning have my boyfriend feed me coffee through a straw while I lay there still half asleep and hopefully the caffeine will wake me up. Oh wait... nevermind that last one. And still... the struggle continued.

Despite how many hours I got the night before, even imminent danger couldn't get me to wake up before my body told me I was ready. I would rather be killed in an oncoming tornado than have to wake up to take shelter. If someone did manage to awaken this sleeping giant... they got one hell of a World War.

At times, I'd chalk it up to "just being a night owl" or an "insomniac." Other times, I was at some extremes, going 24-36 hours at a time without sleep. No matter what time I did finally tire out and need to crash (7am? 10am? 9:30pm?) waking up before 3pm just did not happen. Period.

Some weeks, I would somehow force myself to fall asleep at a reasonable hour multiple nights in a row, set multiple alarms to try to force myself out of bed even just a little earlier... no luck. I'd either sleep right through all of my alarms, or I'd wake up just enough to turn each one off one at a time. When I did finally peel myself out of bed, I was groggy, despite the 10, 12, 14 hours of sleep that I got. Then, having wasted the bulk of my day, I was back to being an insomniac all night.

I was a zombie.

Enter, the veggies.

I had watched the documentary: "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" early in 2014 sometime, but being skeptical, I wasn't ready to shell out the $300 for a new quality juicer. And, all those damn parts to clean, too! I settled for a cheap alternative: blended smoothies. I looked up recipes, bought the ingredients, and a bottom of the line blender, and gave it a whirl. It was... ok, but I didn't stick with it.

I can't knock smoothies. They're healthy. They have nutrients. But they're bulky. They retain all of the insoluble fiber of the original vegetable. With a smoothie, you are still eating your veggies except the blender chews the food for you, then you still have that much mass to swallow and digest. I found myself working really hard to guzzle down each smoothie, as ultimately the bulk of the vegetable was still involved. I remember feeling full, but no beneficial effects really stand out to me as far as my energy levels or other health 'indicators.' After a few days, I abandoned my smoothie project. It was too much to stick with.

The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree...

...But it still breaks off of the tree.

One day last fall, in a completely unrelated train of thought, my mom bought herself a juicer. She wanted to start thinking more about her health. I had given up on the juice craze, but was happy to hear that she wanted to give it a try. A part of me was waiting for her to tell me about her results, but I wasn't holding my breath. I didn't give juicing, or even my health for that matter, a second thought as I hit the road for Boston, and my zombielike ways continued through my first two months here.

At the end of January my baby brother was turning 17, and I'd promised I would be home around his birthday. So, I booked my flight and headed back down south for a week of quality time with the fam. The first three days of my 6 day stay down south, I didn't migrate much from the couch. Min-pins snuggled around me, I was taking cat naps throughout the day, and just binging on Netflix. I was feeling like crap, as usual, but now, I was getting fed up with my lack of energy.

I had flown 900 miles to my hometown for six days only, after being gone for two months, only to veg out on the couch watching Netflix like I had been doing in Boston!? While scrolling along on the AppleTV, "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" came up on the recommendations. Oh... ohh yeahhh.... I forgot about THAT movie! Hmmm... there's mom's new juicer looking mighty lonely over there on the countertop. I asked mom what she thought about it, and, as suspected, she hadn't used it yet. (rolls eyes... no wonder it was so shiny still)

I scraped up the energy to hit the grocery store and shelled out for some produce. Then, I came back home to watch "Fat, Sick..." for a little re-motivating (it worked). And of course, the allure of playing with a new toy was double-motivating to this big kid.

I gave it a try, and the process was fun. Kale, carrots, pineapple, cucumber, apple, spinach, tomato, orange, whizzzzzzz--Juice! The resulting product: de-lish. After drinking a nice tall glass, it didn't take long for the magic to happen... Unlike with my fruit/veggie smoothies of last year, this time I felt instantly awake! It wasn't all fruits and rainbows though.

One thing I didn't call for: Backup.

I'll try to keep this section as classy as possible, considering... the subject matter.

Despite my hangups, one thing that has always been "regular" is... my... "regularity." If there was an olympic race for speed-digestion, I would be a multiple gold-medalist. I eat. Then I go within 30 minutes. 3 times a day at minimum for me. And based on the testimonies I'd read, juicing makes the average bear hit the stall more often than usual. But what about an all-star like myself?

Well, as it seems, sometimes too much of a good thing can backfire. (While we're on the sports champion theme, think, of all the trouble athletes get into for steroids) Or in my case, rather than backfire, it backed up. My typical 3-a-days, went 3 whole days without moving along at my regular pace. Day two, I was feeling pretty un-shitty ...in a bad way. Groggy, bloated, and sloth-like. Mentally awake and alert, but physically feeling like I didn't have it in me to move around much.

So, I hit Google to do my research: It turns out, for most people, starting a juice habit has them instantly running for the nearest bathroom. But for some of us, our bodies need a few days to adjust to the mega-blast of fiber it's not used to taking in.

Well that moment finally came for me, 3 long days later... And the sluggishness finally subsided! I was sold and knew that when I got back to Boston, my first order of business would be to do my research and cop my very own juicer: the Omega 8006 Nutrition Center HD. It's a beast! And ever since I've been putting this bad boy to work every day, at least twice a day for my natural high.

Maybe the proof is in the pulp.

With fresh juice, you are removing the majority of the insoluble fiber (the part of the veggie that pushes things along in your digestive tract), but still retaining much of the other nutrients & bad-cholesterol-zapping soluble fiber, yielding more vitamins in much less bulk than a smoothie. It's like nature's version of a 5-hour-energy shot.

It's an often-stated fact that nearly every blog, video, speech, etc. about juicing, and I'll even re-state it here for you: There's no damn way I could eat all those vegetables, 3 times a day too? And as I learned from my short-lived smoothie-trip, there was no way I could drink all those vegetables in smoothie form either. But with juicing, I've been getting all the good stuff, minus the bulk. So score one for efficiency.

Take that, Night of the Living Dead.

So, two weeks of juicing on the daily, where am I now? I'll be waiting for my Nobel Peace Prize. I've discovered the cure for zombies. (I don't have to be the first to discover something to win a Nobel, do I?)

I am back to my rather stellar digestive abilities, for starters. I have been getting to sleep perfectly at night, and waking up early, before my alarm, feeling fully energized! One fresh juice first thing in the morning every day, another juice mid-day or early evening, and my alertness and energy has not been an issue since. If I want to go to sleep early, it's no problem for me.

Retoxicated.

But no experiment has meaning without practical application, right? I've got to fully test it with my lifestyle, after all. We all know I love many activities that are better enjoyed late-night. So, what about those nights that I've wanted to turn all the way up & perhaps even break off the knob? I had no problem finding an opportunity to get pretty wasted here in Boston to test how my juicing might affect a hangover. Last Friday, for my homegirl Bibi's birthday, the waitress at Social on High definitely kept the alcohol coming my way. The night was a blast, and at the end, I plopped my drunk ass in bed around 3am. I didn't bother to set an alarm, because after a night like that I should have surely woken up later than noon to death by hangover.

I don't remember the exact time, but I do know it was before 8:30am when my eyes opened to the faint light peeking around my blinds. I sat up, then felt like standing up to turn the lights on. I felt about $1 short of a million bucks! Wow. If I haven't discovered the cure for zombies, I've definitely discovered the cure for hangovers! Any of the night's drunken indulgences only faintly lingered. And squeezing a fresh glass of juice washed that away without a hitch. Later on in the day, I didn't feel groggy in the least, and even went to lunch with a friend, Ashley, and had it in me to head out in the blizzard for dinner later on.

I'm sold! I'm soooo sold. If you want in on this...

Green Monstah

Kale: My recipe is never exactly the same every morning, but I try to never skimp on the kale. I'm talking at least two large handfuls chopped. Kale is the workhorse of my Green Monstah elixir. So those two large handfuls like you're digging your palms into a pot of gold (aka pot of energizing Vitamin C in leaf form) and trying to grab as much as you can in those mitts. It looks like a lot, but very little juice comes out of a kale leaf, so be generous with the solid product to get your share in liquid form.

Yes, there are other greens, and feel free to add spinach, chard, romaine, (iceberg if you like wasting your time), but kale is where the energy boost is at, so don't leave it out. The best is Tuscan kale (super dark green), but if you're in a bind, that other curly kale is alright. Just by the look of it, you can tell it's less nutrient-dense. With veggies, more vibrant colors = more vibrant nutrients. Besides the Vitamin C (energy & immune system support), kale has cancer-fighting properties.

Taking a bite into a kale leaf is a lot like a grassier tasting grass. Yes, I've tasted grass, so I know. I don't like the taste of grass, so I have a few things I add to help my homie, kale, out a little.

Cucumber: One whole large english cucumber. You know... those cucumbers that are like over a foot long and are usually sold wrapped in plastic. The cucumber is for taste, but also for its hydrating and de-bloating properties.

Celery: 5-7 stalks of celery. With its high water content, celery also has big hydrating and anti-inflammatory properties as well as antioxidants.

Mint: A pretty good sized sprig of mint. I'm not talking like what you'd use to garnish a cocktail, I'm talking like a full branch of mint and all the side-stems that come with it. This is for flavor as well, but mint also is very high in antioxidants and may help fend off allergies. Also, the taste of mint is mentally energizing. Toss this in the juicer first to release the flavors into the vegetables that follow as they make their way through. You'll see just how little juice mint actually produces on its own, so the order makes a difference.

Lemon: One whole lemon, peeled. Peeling a lemon isn't quite the breeze that peeling a mandarin orange is, so what I usually do is slice off both of the pointy ends to form a flat edge to set the lemon on. Then, I slice the peel off of the sides near the top, sort of in an octagonal-ish shape, being careful not to shear off too much of the fruit. Then, flip the lemon to rest on the other "flat" edge and repeat with the bottom edges. Lemon (and all citrus) packs a Vitamin C punch, plus lemon gives a nice fresh flavor to your Green Monstah along with the mint.

The result is fresh tasting, hydrating, and oh so invigorating.

Just like Fenway's big green legend, my Monstah has me feeling like an undefeatable tower of power every single day.

<3.k

#juice #health #juicejourney #WhereIsKatrinaDotCom #energy #GreenMonstah #fresh #Fenway #Boston

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