Day 3 - $100 in Veggies and My First Juice !!!!

My first juice!  It was great!

Today I met my friend Jamie for lunch.  I had a salad with turkey, crisp apples, and lots of leafy greens.  I hated to go back to turkey after two days of just veggies, but I felt like I needed some protein and I haven't gotten any spinach, kale or swiss chard yet.  That shopping trip is tomorrow.   I'm also out of raw milk, so I couldn't make a protein shake.  However, that salad, as naughty as it is, is WORLD'S ahead of where I've been.  I wasn't even tempted to get the fried chicken or meatloaf or BLT on sourdough (my favorite).  It didn't even pass my mind to cheat.  That alone is a stinkin' miracle.  What's more, I enjoyed that salad.  It was very satisfying itself, and equally satisfying was the psychological pleasure of sitting in a restaurant and eating well without feeling deprived.

Afterwards, Jamie and I went to Sam's Club.  I needed to get as many veggies as I could in quantity to save some money.  I hit the jackpot.  For under $100, I got four GIANT bags of apples, a large bag of lemons, a large bag of sweet potatoes (anxious to see how they juice up), two big bags of carrots, two big bags of celery hearts, a large package of spinach leaves (I'm afraid my juicer is just going to sling them out into the pulp bucket, but we'll see), a package of pineapple, seven comice pears, a large package of orange tomatoes (never seen those itty, bitty ones before, Jamie said, "Do they taste like pumpkin?", and no they don't), a large package of blueberries, and a bag of avocadoes (for fat from a vegetable source since fat is very important for brain function).  Tomorrow we will journey to our local Wal-mart or grocery store and acquire plenty of kale, swiss chard, and ginger.  I love ginger in any form, and it's supposed to make the juices much more pleasing.

One of the things I got at Sam's was a tiny "lemon drop melon".  I had never heard of it before, but I love cantaloupe and honeydew, and it was only $2, so I figured I might as well try it since I'm still eating veggies and haven't started just juicing yet.  I got home all excited and wouldn't you know, it was about two weeks from being ripe.  I got maybe eight small bites out of it right next to the seeds, but the rest was hard as a rock.  I thought, "Hmmmm... wonder if I could juice it?"  I was afraid it wouldn't turn out well because its predominant flavor was extremely tart.  However, I skinned it, juiced those hard melon slices, and whaddya know, it was delicious!  And oh my gosh, SO much juice!  Two 16 oz. glasses.  I had downed most of it before I thought to memorialize it in the pic above.  Sorry.

I then looked at the produce spread out on my table and said, "What can I juice next?!!!"  I had heard that celery was the worst juice to stomach, so I juiced one celery stick and one carrot.  I thought, "if I can drink straight celery juice right off the bat, I oughtta be home free."  The celery is not sweet at all, of course, but to me it tasted fresh.  [cheese alert]  It didn't just taste fresh, it tasted alive, wholesome, and nourishing.  More importantly, it tasted like freedom.  Freedom from the addiction to sugar, carbs, and processed foods.  Freedom that will lead to me being a somewhat normal size.  Freedom that will lead to shedding these chains of self-doubt and embarrassment that keep me away from the world, people, and things I desperately want to do.

By the way, three pounds down, and I am happily munching on blueberries as I write this, thinking they're a rare treat.

What $100 will buy you at Sam's.  Those are GIANT bags of apples, carrots, and celery.