Friday, June 15, 2012

Bait and switch

Photobucket Poop from elk and poop from cows 
Live together in peace - I don't know hows! 
Side-by-side underneath the pine trees, oh geez! Why can't we?
[Ebony and Ivory]

I started with poop, McCartney and Jackson, because if I told you I was going to talk about our green juice fast...well, how fast can a surfer click? Move your cursor away from the hyperlink. It's going to be fun. You'll love it. It might even get back to poop, who knows?

I blame Tessa, Evelyn, and Lynne. The gurus of good eating. The trio of try it! you'll like it! The Vegan Vagabonds. They linked to Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, and who can resist a good love story? By the way, that link takes you to Hulu where you can watch for free.

We're easily the most suggestible people living in a pine forest, so we made a plan to do it. Here we are, doing it. A vegetable/fruit juice "reboot."

   Photobucket

We've been at it about 24 hours now, so here's our accumulated wisdom. Think of it as Alexandria before the fire:
  1. a little beet goes a long way
  2. cherry tomatoes are the garden's Houdini
  3. broccoli is more easy-going than you'd expect
The movie predicted that a conventional juice diet (that is, made from conventionally-grown produce) would cost ~$14/person/day, and organically-grown, double that. That seems high, but reboots don't come cheap.

Our first batch of produce = $53, a mixture of organic and conventional. It looks like we'll come in way under the projected cost for this purchase, since we'll still be working on this produce tomorrow, but it also turns out we can't drink as much juice as those guys did, either. 

Photobucket
Half the smoothie
Photobucket     
The other half


The juicy experts suggest we put the caffeine away, which explains today's 2.5 hour nap. Look how much cats sleep! It's because they don't drink coffee.

I'm not doing a daily progress report, because that implies I will talk about juice every day for ten days. It can't happen. There won't be enough waking hours to blog.

We were talking about this project with my cousin, Lori, and I reminisced about how we did juice fasts when I lived with her.  

... you lived with us??

Yeah! For three months! You don't remember?

... you lived with us??

Right! It was 1979. You were vegetarian then.

... you lived with us??

Definitely! Jen was three, and Jon was a baby.

I remember I cleaned the whole apartment, and then a roach strolled out of the closet.

No, that was me.


And then she lent us her juicer.

This is all mostly an experiment, with the guidelines being 80% vegetables (mostly leafy)/20% fruits. After the initial juice batch (we call it the "beet batch"), we got comments:
  • "not horrible!"
  • "I don't want to vomit!"
What we've read indicates it gets even better than that, and so it did.

37 comments:

Kimbopolo said...

Oooooh! I got a week's worth of beta-carotene just looking at the photo!

It's OK if you talk about juice for the next ten days. I, for one, would like to know how the new diet comes out. You know what I mean.

The Good Luck Duck said...

You went there! Someone needed to.

Harriet said...

Ducklings, good job on the Almost dead guy's method of getting good food into you. I juice carrot, apples, celery, and oranges every morning. My green smoothie drink consist of kale, grapes, advacdo, and pear, delish! I use a mix of regular and organic. It does keep the cost down. Just a side note. When you follow this program for a few days that sleepy thing will go away and you will have so much energy--not like caffine induced energy-but real, let's go do something fun kind of energy. Good luck, good ducks! PS. A pinch of Stevia does help with bitter veggies.

The Good Luck Duck said...

Ooh, stevia!

Ahhvocado!

These are good tips, Harriet - thanks! Do you do a green smoothie every day, too? I'm heartened to hear that our energy level will pick up.

stillhowlyn said...

How very appropriate using poop as the segue, or should I say "a smooth transition"! And so colorful...

Rubye Jack said...

Coffee is good for you now. So they say. I can't remember why though. I just remember what's good or bad and figure I don't need to know why. Ha.

The Good Luck Duck said...

Colorful -you mean the produce ... right?

The Good Luck Duck said...

I read that, too, RJ. I didn't know until this morning that I would abstain for this experiment. I'm not promising forever.

Donna K said...

Hmmm... I'll be following along. Sounds like a juicy story to be sure.

The Good Luck Duck said...

Heh! I hope to produce more posts.

Russ Krecklow said...

Did you hear the one about the frog in a blender? (Just kidding...I know you're old enough to remember that one) LOL FYI...I watched that very same video...and we have a juicer...and I haven't been able to catch a frog yet...(no,no,no...just kidding)...I haven't used the juicer because I don't want to clean the darn thing afterward! And, by the way...I thought you guys were "no poo"...so what's with that lead in pic?? LOL

The Good Luck Duck said...

Oh boy, good thing you have that juicer, though! I've placed PSA around Oregon warning frogs to stay away from you. Plus, we just don't do that SHAM poo - we like the real thing just fine.

Michael Ultra said...

Wow!...you got me both times. I thought it was going to be about fishing bait and rv switches.
ps~a little pinch of hydrocodone would probably help, too. (not sure what stevia is)

Spotted Dog Ranch: said...

Hey, I just got the book, Eat to Live today but haven't been able to read it yet. I hope to do the juice thing soon, when I can get around enough to make it. I would love to hear how it's going, since I'm on the same path soon.

Teri said...

I've been making green smoothies for about 5 years. I don't make them as often as I should, and I do not drink a quart a day, like I have read about. When I sold my house, I gave my large Vita Mix blender to my daughter and bought a small Tribest single serving size blender so I can still make the smoothies while traveling in the RV. I don't spend anywhere near that amount on fruits and veges and I try to buy organic when possible. I had a juicer, but I think it wastes the produce. Google "raw foods" and you will come up with lots and lots of ideas and recipes.

Lynne (WinnieViews) said...

Thanks for the shout out to Vegan Vagabonds! Good heavens though, you ducks are much further ahead on the vegan guru meter than we are!! Will be eager to see how your juicing goes-- I've just done the breakfast green smoothie route so far, and laughed that yes, my first impression of a green smoothie was indeed "I don't want to vomit!". But after 6 weeks of eating real whole foods (after 50 years of eating pure junk), I'm feeing nearly as energized as a cat on a caffeine high! Cheers, clink-clink, to your health!!!

Gaelyn said...

What happens after 10 days of juice?

Brenda A. said...

We eat sorta like you...except that we do meat. A lot of meat. But zero processed foods. Zero grains. Zero sugar. Let's see. Zero something else but I can't remember what. Cause it's late and I'm tired. Cause we just got back from a drag show. Did I veer off the subject? Hmmmm....

Anyway. I don't really juice. But I do green smoothies! Love them. We're doing really well eating this way. Been at it two and a half months. Sooooo much produce! Getting good at actually eating it all and not letting it rot in the fridge. :) We've both lost weight even though that's not our foremost goal. I don't lose weight. Typically when trying. So this is pretty amazing for me. :)

Love seeing people ditch the processed CRAPOLA!!!!!! :)

Bob said...

"Drag show"? What? Like guys dressed up all perdy like? Or NHRA?
My preference would be NHRA. Just sayin'.
Although, I'm sure I could do a passable Count Frankenfurter.

Anyway. What was I gonna say?
Right.

Skipped passed all that food business. Just the same, never hurts to have a "flush and fill" once every 10,000 miles or two years. Whichever comes first.
Now...I'm sure Michael Jackson no longer cares, but in the interest of the feelings of Sir Paul, which poop was he? Cow or Elk?
Looked more like rabbit, but you didn't put any kind of measuring device down there for reference. Probably didn't want to get that close. Mind you, it would have been no rabbit I'd ever want to meet on the trail. He'd be a wee bit large methinks.

The Odd Essay said...

We stopped in NY to visit my daughter on our way here... they were having green smoothies for breakfast (the green was from kale... I think). Now I'm reading your post... hmmm.... Just one question though... do you drink (eat? slurp? guzzle?) your smoothie 3 times a day like a meal? Or is it kept in the fridge to enjoy (?) throughout the day?

VtChris said...

you have such a long way from when we met in Texas.....remember that brisket??? am i being mean or what....

Anonymous said...

Adding a pinch of Kosher Salt livens the flavors even more. I also sometimes add a squeeze of lemon.

If i have some veg/fruit that is going bad, i either just put it in the freezer or blend up some extra smoothies and freeze them in a Ball glass canning jar (fill just up to 1/2 below where the neck starts. This keeps the mess down. When i get ready to use them, i let them thaw on the counter or in the fridge. not quite a good as fresh but convenient

Harriet said...

The green shakes I do 2-3 times a week. I should do them daily because it is so good for you but some days I just want regular food. The jucing I do every morning. In my thinking, eating healthy some of the time is better than not at all.

Barb said...

I, too, would like 10 days of info. I guess I'm going to have to check out the video. I love fruit and veggies, and my Vita Mix is one of the things I insisted on bringing along in The Palms. It's been put away for a year under the couch. Maybe it's time to get it out. I could make a batch and keep some for the next day?

And really, with all the food I buy and have to store, sometimes it seems like less of that stuff and more fresh would be easier.

Let us know how it goes. :)

Scottie said...

I watched the video and bought the juicer. And used it once. I even blogged about it: http://www.scottiewanders.com/2011/08/dr-ozs-green-drink.html

But what a pain to clean the thing!

And then I didn't like throwing away all that pulp (fiber)!

So I sold the juicer, and I'm now happily following the Happy Herbovore (http://happyherbivore.com/) on Facebook.

I'm getting rid of all my other cookbooks because this one's for life!

Scottie said...

And they say you shouldn't discuss religion and politics, but they should add "or diets" because have you noticed how rabidly followers of almost any diet defend theirs as the one true path? guilty i am

The Good Luck Duck said...

I agree, Harriet. The perfect is the enemy of the good.

Good idea, Anon. I do find them sort of blah as they are. Good tip about using up the produce, too.

Chris, OMG! That brisket was delicious. It's too bad meat doesn't gross me out. Actually, dairy is grosser than meat inside my head.

Sharon, kale is supposed to be the WonderGreen. We've been including it, too. For the purposes of this ten-day "reboot," we're drinking our juice exclusively, so whenever we're hungry. Actually, that's not true - we sometimes eat the same veggies we'd juice. But, mostly juice.

But, as Gaelyn asks - what about after the fast? I don't know! Depends on how we feel, I imagine, but I'd like to see some power juice remain a daily thing along with our regular food.

Bob, drag can be girls dressed up like pretty boys, too! If I'm going to watch one or the other, it's going to be the drag kings. I imagine, traditionally, Sir Paul would be the cow poop. You probably already know that deer poop is a little rabbity, only bigger. Elk is bigger than deer.

Brenda, we've been varying degrees of -eterian for several years, excluding our trip through Texas. I do like meat very much, unfortunately. We started losing weight, too, when we dropped the dairy and processed stuff.

Lynne, credit where credit is due! Wouldn't have watched that movie if you guys hadn't recommended it. I'm glad to hear you're so energized, although a caffeinated cat frightens me even in imagination.

Teri, the juicing and throwing away the pulp is against my nature, too. I think the deal is just to concentrate the veggie goodness for a little while. You eat almost entirely raw, don't you?

Chinle, is that Fuhrman's book? I hear it's the book to read on such matters.

Michael, that's the sneaky nature of the Duck.

The Good Luck Duck said...

Barbara, I think we would develop a better system if we did this long-term, because we're kind of scattered all over the kitchen with the fruit, and the refrigerator is crammed with leaves. But, we do make a double batch, which cuts down the number of washings. Do watch the video, though.

Scottie, ain't it the truth? I'll check out the Happy Herbivore. I imagine we'll be vegan no matter what we do with the juicing, but I don't think we naturally include enough greenery in our diets without a little external prodding.

O.B. Sirius said...

3 questions:
1. How much juice is a "meal"?
2. Do I really need a juicer, or can I just puree the hell out of fruits and veggies in a food processor, and
3. Why are Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, and "music" tagged in this post? They all aren't green, dead, or crunchy (well, maybe Paul is kinda crunchy)?
Zoe

Russ Krecklow said...

We often see ducks eating green stuff in water...so I know you are on the right track! Ducks always eat healthy stuff. Good for you. Hope Annie is doing better now.

Contessa said...

I have juiced for up to 30 days. Great cleanser. Be careful adding food after your 10 days. Small amounts over time.

Anonymous said...

I love juice cleanses. Are you two working on being vegan or already there? We are working on it and may as well be, for as many animal products that we eat (very very little). I recently read Food Revolution by John Robbins and am just starting to read The China Study by T. Colin Campbell. I figure that will push me over the top. Thanks for the tip on Vegan Vagabonds.

The Good Luck Duck said...

Zoe, officially it's 16 ounces, which we find excessive. My opinion is that you use whatever you've got. Pureeing the veggies is going to make it easier to drink a bunch than trying to chew it, so that's a good way to go. And, don't tell me you didn't sing the Poo Song, even in your head!

Russ, ducks got it goin' on. Except when they try to mooch white bread off someone's sandwich. Thanks for asking about Annie. She continues to be mostly just a little bit not okay, from one cause or another. I'm beginning to suspect it's because she can't get away from me.

Good tip, Contessa. I must confess we're eating with our teeth right now, although it's just vegetables and fruits, but we'll be careful about eating other types of foods. I'd like to be observant, too, to see what does or doesn't set well after the juicing is over.

The Good Luck Duck said...

Paint, we're already vegan, but I think our dietary choices were slipping away from the veggies. I love The China Study - read it after Sherry from In The Direction of Our Dreams recommended it. Yes, if it doesn't do it, I'm not sure what will!

Tammy said...

Ducks, what kind of juicer did you use that runs well off of your battery power?

Tammy said...

Ducks, what kind of juicer did you use that worked off of your battery pack?

The Good Luck Duck said...

Tammy, we happen to use a LaLanne Express, or something like that, but we use a whole-house inverter, so we're not limited to 12-volt appliances.