Day 12 Juicy is Delicious

all the fruits on my table this morning- at least two days worth of morning juices:)

Food is pretty awesome, and by that I'm including juices.  A glass of juice can be such a simple and satisfying treat.  Have you ever just grapped a jug of orange juice out of the fridge and guzzled the cool sweet treat as though you hadn't drank in weeks?  Perhaps you did one morning after a night when you drank enough of something else for weeks?  Anyway, juice is yummy food, and it's a total delight to own a juicer and to be able to make so many fresh juices.

It really matters that we like our food, whether it be juiced or solid.  And I've realized that I've done very little sharing about the flavors of the juice I'm making.  A lot of it might seem downright disgusting if you're not familiar with juicing, (like brussel sprouts in a juice-sounds gross to me anyway) so I'm going to try and share a little bit here.

Years and years ago, you could hardly pay me to drink any juice other than the fruit juices I was familiar with.  I knew I liked fresh oj better than that in a bottle, and not from concentrate plz, but that was about as exotic as I was willing to get.  And then one day I was in a juice bar in Ann Arbor, and a friend convinced me (she had to convince me) to try an apple, carrot, celery juice.  I remember tasting it with hesitation, and not feeling too happy about the flavors in my mouth.  I don't think I even finished that drink, and I felt kind of inadequate next to my friend who was happily slurping hers down.

It wasn't until a few years later that I was living in Austin and getting ridiculously healthy that I decided to try fresh vegetable juices again. I started slowly, with simple combinations like carrot apple, carrot apple beet, carrot apple beet parsley, and on it went.  I developed a taste for these juices pretty quickly. I also found a few that I hate with no remorse.  I love asparagus, but put it through a juicer and it's  rank.  Cabbage- I tried a cabbage apple juice once for the skin and I had to plug my nose.  I couldn't get it down, and gave up.

But now I've developed quite a palette for juices of all kinds.  I can handle cabbage in my juice now, (but not asparagus, never asparagus) it just has to be in combination with things that I already know I like.  I can start with a small bit to see what the taste is like, and then add more next time to experiment with determining what amount is acceptable, and what flavors combine well together.  For instance, grapefruit and mango are both delicious juices, but maybe not the best combination.  I have used that combination a few times on this fast, and I'm doing so more for the calories than for the flavor- I wouln't recommend that one.  However, spinach and pinapple is soooo yummy, you'd never guess how sweet spinach tastes when it's juiced.

So, in short, I'm just trying to say that while these juices are kind of entering and leaving me quickly, it is important that they are enjoyed, and I am enjoying them.  When I am not fasting I make these juices and share them with friends.  A friend of mine tasted my juice this evening, and he said it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be, but that he couldn't see himself drinking a lot of it.  And I think that's how you start.

The next frontier for me is garlic.  Juiced garlic.  I've heard that juiced garlic is a very aquired taste, and by that I mean it makes a lot of people want to barf.  I'm still holding myself back on that one.  Maybe one of these days.....

Weight: dunno
Energy:  really high and feeling good

JUICES

15 oz grape- 300
12 oz cucumber- 105
8 oz apple- 120
ginger

35 oz at 525 calories

1 oz lemon- none
2 oz beet- 11
9 oz pinapple- 148
12 oz carrot- 141
ginger

24 oz at 300 calories

1 oz spinach- 2
4 oz papaya- 70
27 oz carrot- 317
ginger

32 oz at 389 calories

Total:  91 ounces at 1214 calories