Atwood-Family of FIVE: Juicing Power!

John and I watched a documentary the other night called "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead". We are suckers for these kinds of movies. This movie, was just like countless other documentaries we've watched before it. Someone starts out to change his healthy by eating uber healthy. This guy was pretty extreme. He drank/ate nothing but juice (fresh from actual vegetables juiced in a juicer) for 60 days! Wow! And then he continued on healthy eating-eating a huge percentage of his diet from plants and the rest from whole grains and nuts and seeds, very very little animal product. In the end he lost about a 100 lbs. He met someone who joined him on his journey and this man lost 200 lbs. Wow! In addition, these men were able to get off all medication, some of it for chronic autoimmune diseases, simply by eating super healthy and letting the amazing nutrients in plants and veggies cure them. It was inspiring nonetheless.

I am not to that level. Perhaps if I didn't have a family I could dedicate the time it takes to juice all the time. But even though John and I were excited by this film, we know that any change we make right now is temporary. The logistics of having a young family dictate that some days we just survive. And survival very often means doing the best we can-fast food hamburger with a side salad or pasta with red sauce or soup. And while we strive to feed ourselves and our kids healthy, we just cannot be up to the level of the movie right now. And that's okay.

Nonetheless, this morning, inspired by the movie and by John's determination, we made juice. I did this a lot while I was pregnant. It helped to...ugh...stave off a not so fun pregnancy symptom....you know the one where I get to visit with my friend....named "John", the short white guy...many hours were spent sitting on...err...with him...you get the point. Anyway, when I juiced my visits to the John were a lot more pleasant so I did it. Since she's been born we haven't juiced much at all. But this week our fridge is loaded with produce and we're ready to juice every single day! This morning we made ABC Juice from the reboot program website, the website the man in the documentary set up explaining how you can "reboot" your nutrition.

ABC Juice
2 pears
2 apples
2 beets
3 carrots
1 cup cabbage
3 cups chard (I used 4 large leaves and hoped that was enough)

Juice up in your juicer and enjoy! This is a pretty high calorie drink. It makes at least 24oz and the entire thing is 430 calories. If this was your breakfast or lunch-great! Down it! But for me, knowing I'll eat something else, I split this with John.