Day 12: 

Juice: Apple Cleanser

Apple Cleanser:
2 Apples
2 Kale Leaves
1 Stick of Celery
1/3 Long Cucumber
1/2 Beet


I love this juice. I have had it before, when I was on my eight day juice fast. It is refreshing, a little sweat and crammed with goodness.

A lot of new ingredients today, but I am not going to talk about any of them. My blog went public yesterday (aka on facebook and a couple of emails I sent out) and I've already got a lot of comments and suggestions. Thank you! But, I did see a theme in a lot of the comments/ questions. A lot of people wanted to know about my juicing equipment. I covered this a bit in first entry, but I thought I'd go over it again and get a little more into it.

Juicing is when the liquid (juice) is extracted from plant tissues (fruits and vegetables). In order to do this you need a juicer - not a Magic Bullet, Vitamix, or blender. If it doesn't separate juice from pulp than is not a juicer.

*Please note: I will get to smoothie recipes later in the book, but right now it is juice.*

Juicers range in price from thirty dollars to thousands of dollars. Be careful with the low end ones - not only can they be shotty - but they can be small and you'll have to dice all of you vegetables before putting them in. And who wants to do that?

I use a Hamilton "Big Mouth" Juicer. About $50.00 on Amazon.

I researched juicer models extensively before...well putting it on my Christmas list and letting my mother buy it for me...and I encourage you to do the same. I found the Hamilton "Big Mouth" Juicer to be the best on the market for a price I could afford. I have had it for almost a year and I have no complaints so far. As long as you are diligent at cleaning your juicer, it will last.

However, one day I am hoping to get my hands on a Breville Juicer (Breville Juicers On Amazon.com). Breville's are (according to many juice blogs and websites) the best on the market.

Most fruits and vegetables can be juiced with the skin on, but alas the skins are often waxed and carrying a lot of the pesticides used to farm them. So. buy organically whenever possible. If you cannot, which happens (I get it) then be sure to buy a vegetable scrubber  and produce wash before juicing. This is a brand I like: http://www.vermontsoap.com/vegwash.shtml.

               Produce Wash & Produce Scrubber



Now, most people recommend preparing, cutting, washing everything before storing it in your fridge or cupboards. Apparently, people are less likely to juice if everything isn't ready to go. However, I have not found this to be true, but if you suspect you might be one of these people try prepping it all right after you buy it.

I just pull out what I need and prep it right before it.

*Note: I peeled my cucumber since it was not organic and I am out of Produce Wash.

I then chuck it all into the juicer - usually greens and celery (the fibrous stuff) go in between  the apples and cucumber, so they don't clog up the juicer.

 *Note: The Key Foods bag is in the pulp catcher because I'm lazy and don't want to wash it. So, instead, I just tie it up and throw it all away.

Foam/ froth on the top of juice is normal. Separation (which you can't really see here) within juice is normal.








I usually just give it a little stir and voila! Yum.

Any other questions? Too many pictures? Comments?

Extras:
Good Books: The Juiceman's Power of Juicing (Known as the bible of juicing), Juicing for Life  and The Juicing Bible
Good Movies: Food Matters and Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead (Both are on instant Netflix)
Websites: All About Juicing (http://www.all-about-juicing.com/) and The Worlds Healthiest Foods (http://www.whfoods.com/)

Emotional Lifestyle: 

I know this has been making the rounds all over town, but I wanted to interject some thoughts.

Firstly, they keep calling The Guy who wrote the letter a bully...but I don't think he is. I think he is a normal judgmental human who has his priorities all messed up. He probably thought his letter was going to be news to her. He probably thought he was 'helping', so I don't think it can be called 'bullying'. At least in my mind, bullying is something hurtful one does just for the sake of being hurtful...I hope that makes sense.

Secondly, this doesn't surprise me in the least, especially that it came from a man. I wonder if this email would have been written to a male anchor, probably not. Working at the museum, giving tours, I show images of families - both fathers and mothers - and an interesting thing that I have seen is the willingness and the freedom people have when commenting on females bodies. Both Men and Women are guilty in this, but Older Men are the most frequent. I show pictures of the fathers and mothers, who were poor. Father is shown - nothing. Mother is shown - everyone is twittering and commenting: "Well, she doesn't look like she's starving"
Yeah, well, thank god for that. These women weren't allowed to work outside the home, they weren't allowed to vote, they watched their children die of diseases, they died themselves in childbirth and yet....the only thing people can conjure up is THAT.

It used to infuriate me to no end, especially being a woman standing there in front of their judgmental eyes, until a colleague (who is the best) told me to fire back asking: "Interesting. Does that make them less sympathetic to you know that you see she wasn't 'starving'?" BAM! I know.
Except what I realized, sadly, as I asked people this is...they didn't even realizing they were making a huge judgement based on physical appearance until I said something. It was habitual.
So, to me this says, this is so rooted in our culture that people haven't really thought about it in a while.

It is so rooted, that a clearly, well-spoken, intelligent woman, who is a successful television anchor (which is no small potatoes for anyone, let alone being outside the Hollywood body type) somehow in the realm of our culture could be considered a 'bad influence' because she is 'fat'.  Somehow all of the skills, which she so clearly possesses, are void because of her external appearance. 

Thirdly, I read this fantastic article in the New York Times the other day.
Title: In ‘Obesity Paradox,’ Thinner May Mean Sicker