AuburnChick's Adventures

I apologize for the delay in posts, but I’m still under the weather. This bug is doing a number on me, I tell you.

Unfortunately, Monday came upon me and duty called. Must work or I can’t pay the bills. With Tuesday on it’s way out the door, I’m starting to feel a teeny bit better, so I thought I would take a few minutes to blog.

I’m on Day 5 of my juice fast. I had not experienced many hunger pangs until this afternoon when I left work. For some reason, I felt extremely hungry. I hope that’s a good sign that a) I’m starting to get better and b) that detoxing is happening.

Two years ago when I did this, I went through about three days of hunger pangs, and then they subsided. This go-round has been a lot different. I think that the difference is that I am fighting a virus. It’s the kind where you don’t feel like eating much anyway. The other thing I’ve noticed is that my tongue doesn’t feel nasty and isn’t all white, like before. These are signs of detox. My breath was slightly bad this morning, but was probably just my normal self.

So, I’ve got a ways to go. I truly believe I’m going to be on this fast much longer than I originally planned.

I thought I would post my recipes for carrot juice and fruit juice. I took some pictures during the process today.

What you see pictured below is all the fixin’s for two 8oz glasses of juice. When making this juice, always make sure that carrots are your base. Carrots have so much nutritional value…beta carotene, vitamin C…the list goes on and on. The other ingredients are totally optional, but they are the things that, over the years, I’ve found are tried and true (and satisfy the palette of picky children).

Now, remember that these ingredients are for TWO glasses. Adjust your numbers accordingly.

You see ten carrots, one slice of cantaloupe, 1/4 cucumber, 1/2 red apple, one celery stalk, and a handful of spinach. Make sure you peel and de-rind the produce.

Now, let’s start juicing!

The pulp will be deposited in one location while the juice comes out of another. I will usually feed some of the pulp back into the juicer to extract the remaining juice. This stuff costs money, and I don’t want to waste a penny!

When you’re done, you’ll have this…

I like to think of it as Liquid Gold. The stuff at the top is foam. It will get caught in your strainer. Why use a strainer after? Because there is a little bit of pulp that will escape into the juice. For a smoother juice, always strain.

I use the Ball canning jars to measure out 8oz. Many years ago, I went to the grocery store and bought a box of them for a really good price. Why 8oz, though? In the book, Recipes for Life from God’s Garden (Rhonda Malkmus), I read that a body can only efficiently use 8oz at a time, so why waste the effort on more? Did you know that for every 8oz of carrot juice, you’re getting the equivalent of one pound of carrots? Wow! We would never eat that during the course of a day. Allow at least one hour between glasses of juice.

Now, on to the fruit juice. You’re really supposed to “drink your veggies and eat your fruits,” but I like to do fruit juices to clean out the breathing apparatus. I’ve often given it to Soccer Chick when she’s been sick (she’s had a lot of croup and allergy problems over the years), and she’s always gotten better within two days of drinking it.

My recipe for apple/orange juice is 1/2 to 1 whole red apple, two oranges (or one large), one slice of pineapple, and 1/2 lemon. Remember to peel all items.

Feel free to throw in other items, such as grapes. I’ve done this, and it tastes terrific! When done, you’ll have the following:

Strain it to remove the remaining pulp, and you’re good to go.

So, that’s how I’m surviving right now. I’m actually thinking of laying off of the fruit juice and sticking mainly to the carrot juice. Fruit contains a lot of natural sugar, and I don’t want to inhibit my body further.

Oh, and a side benefit to all of this is that I am losing weight. Now, I’m already a small gal, but I do have some flab, and I’ve recently noticed things not fitting like they usually do. Don’t hate me…small bodies are in my genes. I don’t know how much I weighed before I started, but I know that there’s no way I weighed what the scale proudly declared today. The thing about juice fasting is that your body levels out at its optimal weight, given enough time.

Enough about juicing.

I didn’t knit yesterday, but I did the day before, completing Rainbow Joy II, an Oddball Baby Blanket that’s part of the KnittingHelp.com project. This blanket is being done in all garter stitch. I knit the green portion.

I’m going to start on Racecar Alley next. I got a pattern for a car from a knitter who worked on a similar blanket (heavier weight project). You know I’ll post pictures when I’m done.

Filed under: Knitting, This-n-That | Tagged: carrot juice, hallelujah acres, juicing, Knitting, knittinghelp.com, Oddball Baby Blankets, recipes for life from God's garden |