Juicing up a new practice

our new Omega juicer

While I was in Congo in July, my husband bought a juicer. This was not just any juicer; it represented the latest technology and was rather pricey, a real boy toy.

Vic has been reading for a while about the benefits of juicing for weight control and health and he has sporadically tried to interest me in it. But I am a cook. I like the taste of good food. I like to prepare and serve meals. Juicing represented an entirely different approach to food, a new practice that would require some investment of time and money. I wasn’t interested.

But now the juicer was sitting on the countertop. The money had been spent and, as Vic demonstrated, this model worked easily and cleaned up in a whiz. He showed me a sheaf of recipes and said that while I was away he had gone on a juice fast over a weekend, lost five pounds, and kept them off at least until that moment. He made some of his mean green juice: kale, cucumber, green apples, pear, lemon, ginger.

I took a sip and became a believer. It tasted a little grassy but it was good. I could see drinking it for pleasure as well as health. This had the quality I required of food: I have to like it. (Some of Vic’s previous health food purchases did not meet that requirement.) This is also a requirement of any new practice: it must bring some immediate enjoyment. I need early rewards to keep me going until longer-term benefits kick in.

Still, the juicer languished on our countertop for a few weeks, mostly unused. Now that I was back in the kitchen Vic was happily eating my meals and wasn’t volunteering to exercise his new juicing expertise.

And then last week, while he was away for a few days, I watched the documentary that had inspired him to buy the juicer: Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. The adjectives do not apply to us and I didn’t necessarily believe all the claims but it added another quality I need in order to adopt a new practice: desire. I have to want to do it. It must not be a “should” or carry any hint of self-punishment. I really wanted to try regular juicing after watching that movie. I suppose it was no coincidence that I watched it after eating nothing but pizza and popcorn for nearly two days. I was 100 percent ready to try something new.

A third element I need to start a new practice is creativity. I have to be able to make it my own.

Where food is concerned I am not a recipe follower. Instead I apply principles I find in recipes, and my own taste, to preparing what is in season or on hand. So for the last few days I have been playing creatively with the juicer. By experimenting I quickly learned three principles of juicing:

1.     Put fruit like apples or pears in every mix. Along with carrots, beets, and certain other vegetables, they add sweetness to the grassier greens.

2.     Add half a peeled lemon and a small chunk of fresh ginger to every mix. These wake up the best flavors of almost anything.

3.     Taste before you finish and add what’s missing or what you think it could tolerate.

Last night I made a watermelon-carrot juice that was pretty as well as yummy. I hated to mess up the color so added just one large leaf of Chinese cabbage for the green.

The juice was my supper last night and my breakfast this morning. I am thinking of substituting juice for one meal a day. Or maybe going on a 3-day juice cleanse. Or maybe a 10-day one, depending on how I feel.

That’s another requirement for a new practice. I have to be able to take it a step at a time.

I just made this pretty green juice and decided to have it for lunch.