Duffy's Juice

I haven't written about juicing for awhile, so I need to draw my little non-sacrifice to close so there will likely only be a few more posts. I should say though, that I will continue my juicing and in fact, I really think it can change your life and would strongly urge everyone to try it. It might be a little costly, but I honestly don't think I can go back to drinking store-bought juice. The juice just tastes that much better... apple juice that tastes like apples, orange juice that tastes like oranges. The shnozberries taste like shnozberries.

I like it so much, that as I'm confident that I will win the current $270 million, I hope to start a juice bar. Similar to a coffee shop, my juice bar would be a place where folks could come in and sit for a while, talk to friends, read a paper, write a report, surf the internet, or even stand awkwardly in the corner, all the while enjoying the greatness of juice. All-natural juice. The future is not milkbars and weirdos, the future is juicebars and happy, successful, virile winners.

I'm only half kidding here. People are so accustomed to the flavors that they buy in the store that they have no idea what freshly made juice actually tastes like. I think that if people tried it, they would love it. Fresh apple juice, yummers. And then, you can start adding all the weird stuff like carrots, mango, broccoli, and spinach.

Back in the Saddle

So I don't like it, but the truth is I'm failing. I've worked-out seven times. This is the fifth week of the year and I've only worked out seven times. I should be nearing twenty. And... I missed almost a week of juicing.

In my defense, I did get sick, and then I got sicker, and I wasn't sure what could have caused it. Juice seemed like a likely suspect to the case of the terrible hives, so I stopped juicing for day after scratching day. The doctor dismissed it quicker than I could explain what we were juicing. He also dismissed exercise, although it is a possibility. Then, he called himself an idiot and admitted that likely he'll never be able to tell me anything about my hives... other than they can be defined as chronic idiosatum something-or-other (Tiff help me out.).

So with the idiot doctor's okay, I plan to restart my challenges - er, um... sacrifices - in full starting today. Juicing and exercising. They almost go hand-in-hand! Wish me luck.

More Juicing

Here's a video that I meant to post a while ago, but there's not much to say about it.

I'm posting it now because I put it up on youtube along with my previous juicing video on January 25th and it already has 14 views without me doing anything to it, which is a lot for me. I guess juicing is becoming pretty popular.

In fact, Tiff and I were at the doctor's recently and in conversation, Tiff mentioned the juicer. The receptionist got very excited. "Do you have the Jack LaLanne Power Juicer!?!" To which Tiff replied, "We have the Power Juicer Pro." As she told of her friend who has one and loves it, I kept waiting for her to say, "It will change your life!" but she never did. I didn't say anything as I was too focused on the pain in my butt from the giant needle.

Meanwhile, last night, we noticed that our enormous bag of carrots was begining to show signs of age - a few tips started turning brown. So we cranked up the juicer, juiced seven carrots, two apples, and an inch of ginger. Carrots are great because they give quite a bit of juice, as do apples. Ginger doesn't give hardly any juice, in fact, I didn't see any come out when it went in. I sure did smell it though. And the taste is a bit overwhelming. Ginger is powerful stuff.

I enjoyed the taste for a few sips, but an entire glass is asking quite a bit. Thinking of my victory over veggie dogs, I finished my glass. I tried to help Tiff with her last half, but in the end, the ginger got the best of us. I'm sure it has amazing nutritious value, but we will likely veer away from the ginger aisle of the grocery in the future... which is a shame because that inch cost all of 14 cents.

Oh Yeah!

As a kid, I don't think I ever had fresh juice. In fact, I grew up on an entirely different kind of juice, Kool-Aid.
Yep, straight from the generation that brought you ADHD. I looked through a bunch of vaguely familiar Kool-Aid commercials on YouTube, and when I found this one it was a sudden flashback of Saturday mornings as a kid. Anyways, I have fond memories of waiting to see what color Kool-Aid was in the brown Kool-Aid pitcher. Would it be red, or would it be purple? I always rooted for purple, even though thinking back on it, I think I liked the red better.

Soon though, new flavors came out and the purple and red lost out to another color... yellow. Of the 28 flavors sold today only one has the iconic "Oh Yeah!" in it's name. Oh Yeah! Orange-Pineapple is by far the best Kool-Aid ever made, hands-down, no contest. It has just the right blend of, well, flavored sugar that makes you say, "Oh, Yeah!" Just to note, I stopped drinking Oh Yeah Orange-Pineapple rather abruptlyafter a friend pointed out that the Yellow #5 at the bottom of the list of ingredients could have some adverse effects on my man parts.

Today Tiff and I tried our own orange-pineapple juice. We only had two oranges left so we used them and half a pineapple. Oh, yeah, it was good. It was even better than the original! And while I love the idea of stirring water until you can't hear the sugar grinding under the spoon anymore, I think this might be a little better for me. -Yikes, I sound old.

Fresh Fruit

We knew going into it that we were going to go through quite a bit of fruit, so we (re)joined CostCo, the local membership buy-in-bulk store. We bought a box of apples, a box of blood oranges - we chose the blood ones because it has no associations with band fruit - a big ole thing of grapes, and the biggest bag of carrots I've ever seen. I saw the carrots and I said Yes! All in all, the four fruit items cost somewhere around $35. Each juicing we use a lot of fruit, so of that original purchase, last Tuesday, we're down to a couple of grapes and a whole bunch of carrots. And that all goes to one glass of juice a day each. Our second trip was to the grocery store for some more exotic fruits and vegetables, adding up close to another $35.

It adds up quick, but as Jack says, "You can change your life!" for about as much as a dinner out a week.

Juicing - Take One

So we've been juicing for a little while now, I was slow posting the first one. I'm going to be kind of playing catch-up with the next few days of Juicing posting, so bear with me, and enjoy.

Here's from the first time we used it, we carelessly turned up the TV so we could hear it over the soft hum of the professional juicer and forgot to turn it off for the video, so you can enjoy a bit of the Biggest Loser while you watch it.

The Mighty Jack LaLanne

As Tiff said, I haven't been working out as I've been a little under the weather lately. I just haven't been able to sleep much. I think this only reinforces my theory on exercise "correcting" my sleep pattern. A week later, I'm finally feeling a little better but I'm breaking out in hives for the first time in a couple of years.

So in the meantime, yes, we've begun juicing. We saw an infomercial in Jamaica, if I'm not mistaken, on the night before we got married, that was for Jack LaLanne's PowerJuicer Pro. Maybe it was just the romance in the air, but this infomercial spoke to me and I knew that I must start juicing. As Jack says, "You can change your life!"

It's kind of funny because in the 30 minute TV spot, that's about all he said. Jack LaLanne, the original fitness guru, may have an impressive website, but I think his wife, Elaine LaLanne is the new guru of fitness. She took over the infomercial, sharing all her great recipes, while Jack LaLanne made grand superlatives. "This is the greatest!" "You can't find fresher juice!" "You can change your life!" The clincher for me was, "Take the Juicer Challenge, and you won't regret it!"

Later, in my excitement for the juicer, I looked up Jack LaLanne on Wikipedia and learned that he's also said his two keys to nutrition are "if man made it, don't eat it," which I can somewhat agree with, and "if it tastes good, spit it out." If it tastes good... spit it out. This juicer bearing his name suddenly became much more intriguing. So Tiff got the sleek new PowerJuicer Pro as a birthday gift from her family. It went well with my gift of Yes to Carrots. Tiff was immediately enchanted by its shiny chrome, while I scoured the material looking for what there was to this Juicer Challenge as defined by Jack LaLanne. I couldn't find anything so the juicer challenge is simply to juice, everyday for ... let's say two months. The recommended four to five servings of fruits and vegetables is a lot of juice, but I would be happy getting three to four.

This may make a dent on my wallet, but on first judgement, I must say that juicing is the miracle I've been looking for.

Man Down!

Well, we've hit our first speed bump of the challenge - illness. John's been a sniffling mess for months now - we blame it on working the nightshift and never getting any quality sleep. We went to the doc before our Jamaica trip only to be given antibiotics for a sinus infection, which we both knew it was not. And sure enough after finishing the medicine, John was still going through tissues like a madman.

Last weekend he starting feeling a lot worse, fever and all. So we went to the doctor (again) and he was told to take claratin for allergies, which we both know it's not (again) and to come back in 2 weeks (because the last 2 months have not been long enough...) if he's not better.

So, dear readers, while exercising is on hold we have a new and (more) exciting challenge for you! I got ...drumroll.... Jack LeLane's Power Juicer Pro! for my birthday! John will be writing a real blog about it, but in short - it is an amazing juicer and we plan to stay with the health theme of exercising by drinking our daily servings of fruits and veggies. We did our first juicing last night - AppleCarrot Juice - and man was it orange. Details to come... stay tuned.