Back on the Juice!

I couldn't resist sharing this photo of my kittens, who I think I should rename Yin and Yang after seeing this pose. 

I also wanted to share a couple of cute pictures of vegetable juice.  Did you know green juice tastes better in a crystal glass?  For some reason I think anything in a fancy glass tastes good, even when it's made of spinach juice!   

This pretty green and pink frothy top came about when I poured some carrot/beet/orange/apple juice into a glass after I finished drinking the apple/celery/kale/lime juice that I started with.  It actually tasted as good as looked, even without the fancy glass.  

I'm back on the juice, man, back on the juice, and loving it!  Since I'm a firm believer in New Year resolutions, and I resolved years ago to never give myself another one, I can't claim that the increase in my vegetable and fruit juice consumption is the result of after holiday binge guilt.  This is a motivation even more powerful than guilt.  Survival.  Brandon and I are planning a hiking trip this summer with some friends, that will be like no other hiking trip we've ever attempted.  Hiking at high altitude!  I really don't want to die, but I also don't want to invest all my vacation time and all our hopes for the success of this trip only to find out that I'm not in good enough shape to enjoy the hike.  Since I love oxygen, and have a hard enough time hiking up a steep hill when there is plenty of oxygen to be had, anything I can do to make hiking easier will greatly benefit me when it comes to hiking in lower oxygen conditions.  

Keeping in mind that I want to enjoy this hike and not die encourages me to attempt building stamina and losing some excess pounds.  I have five months to get ready, and nothing helps me feel energized for exercise like ingesting large quantities of fresh vegetable juices.  

Every week day last week, I ate or drank nothing but fresh vegetable and fruit juice.  It was hard at first.  I felt tired.  When people ate food around me I felt like I truly understood what the dog feels when he stares at me while I'm eating and uncontrollably drools.  I caught myself researching recipes on the interweb and fantasizing about pizza dough.  Fasting like this really makes me understand the addiction of food, particularly bread.  But, because I've done this before, I knew it was temporary, and sure enough, after taking the weekend off the fast, I was back on the juice this week and already feeling the benefits.  I've already lost that bloated feeling that comes from too much winter indulgence, and the scales are reflecting the change.

I don't think it's a coincidence that after four days on the juice fast, I found myself deep cleaning my bedroom.  I mean, I cleaned like I never clean unless my mom is there to make me.  I even turned my furniture upside down and used furniture polish on the underside.  Who does this?  Not me, which I guess is why I found so many spider egg sacks under my night stand.  I wiped the walls.  I don't even care if my walls are dirty, and I wiped all of the walls.  I actually organized the contents of the toy baskets I keep handy for the kids so the toys were displayed to their best advantage.  The clothes in my closet is now organized by use, and I had the will power to get rid of an entire box of shoes.  I'm telling you, this juice is like crack for housework.   If the mountain hike defeats me, at least my house will be clean!