Day 1 of Juicing!

 Let the juicing begin!  :)

I went to Walmart last night and purchased a GE juice extractor.  It was around 55 dollars, and got pretty good reviews on Amazon as well as a good consumer report.  Its super easy to take apart, which also makes it pretty easy to clean as well.  (All the reviews said the clean-ability of your machine was a make or break attribute.)

I had a made a list before I left the apartment of enough fruits and vegetables for a couple of recipes.  I went to Times Supermarket, since they generally have the best produce prices, and I didn't really want to shop at Foodland, Times, and Safeway last night to save a couple of dollars.  All of their prices were great--except green apples.  Green apples are pricy here in general, but Foodland did have them beat by .70 cent a pound.  (I paid $2.99/lb at Times).

For all the stuff in the picture on the left, I spent $30 bucks.  (The 4 apples was $6.50!  eek!)  Not too bad, but not fantastic either. 

The first drink I tried was very simple.  Just carrots and oranges.  The recipe called for 6 large carrots and 3 full oranges.  I prepped all the stuff and made the juice last night.  You're supposed to drink your juice as fresh as possible, but I had to work this morning, and I didn't want to be fumbling around with the machine at 6 AM.  So I made the juice last night and stored it in the fridge for the morning.



It was actually really good!  I had an 8 ounce glass when I woke up to get me going (I usually eat a banana before work), and then took the remaining 16 ounces to drink during my break.  Not having a coffee was more of a mental fight than anything else, because I was at work, and that's what I do when I'm at work!  I drink coffee!  Several of them!

My first juice!  Orange Carrot.

I felt okay through my shift--I was pretty hungry by the time my 9:30 break rolled around.  But after drinking the juice, I could feel that my stomach was full.  I was a bit light headed, but my appetite was satiated.

I got home and made one of the Mean Green juices, which were what the guy from Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead drank.  First off, I put WAYYYY too much ginger root in mine.  Apparently you're only supposed to put half a thumbs amount in.  I put 3 times that much!  Oops!  So my juice was VERY spicy.  I chilled it for a bit, and then was able to drink it.  Second, I accidentally bought collar greens instead of kale, but whatever--they look the same anyways.  Haha. 

I drank half the batch, and then went and crashed for a 2 hour nap.  Justin woke me up when he got home from work.  He had stopped at the farmers market, which was a FABULOUS idea.  He got just as much produce as I did at Times (plus REAL kale...lol) for $20.  Definitely need to be using markets here!  :)

Oh, and before I left work Cindy gave me a bag of homegrown baby tomatoes, and I took a big bag of watercress from the sandwich training session I had.   

All in all, its been an okay first day.  I haven't gotten a full blown headache yet (knock on wood) from the caffeine withdraws.  I didn't eat anything, though I almost popped a piece of orange in my mouth while I was cutting it up for juicing (obviously not the end of the world or anything, but I'm only supposed to drink!)  I did get a little weepy when we went on a walk.  lol.  But I'm not starving, I know I'm not, and after I drink my tummy is actually full for awhile.  It's a completely psychological need to put food in my mouth.  (Or drink coffee, as well.)  It may be nice to actually break that need.

I made a "fruit salad" for dinner, and am currently enjoying it.  It's super good!  The recipe includes 1 kiwi, 6 strawberries, 1 orange, 1/2 mango, and 1 cup pineapple.  The recipe yielded nearly 20 ounces of juice, and I've been slowly sipping it over the past half hour.  I definitely think sipping is the way to go for me.  Definitely don't need a straw!

I'm still keeping in the habit of doing my Weight Watchers tracking, though I haven't used any of my points!  (All the fruits and veggies are free.)  I wonder if I'll get a warning message from them about not eating any real food...haha.  I'll weigh in on my normal Friday morning day.  I figure it will be a good indicator of how all this is going, with 3 full juicing days under my belt.

See you tomorrow!