Drill Down: Juicing Part 2

A little over a month ago I drilled down into juicing, but an article entitled, "Kale? Juicing? Trouble Ahead" popped up recently that caught my attention and thought deserved a full think-through. It was a piece supposedly about the dark side of juicing...

Imagine my shock, then, at my last physical, when my doctor told me I had hypothyroidism, common in women over 40. When I got home I looked up the condition on the Internet and found a list of foods to avoid. Kale, which I juiced every morning, tops the list, followed by broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and collard greens — the cruciferous vegetables I consumed in large quantities because they are thought to prevent cancer, which runs in my family. And flax — as in the seeds — high in omega 3’s, that I sprinkled on cereal and blended in strawberry almond milk smoothies. Also forbidden: almonds and strawberries, not to mention soy, peaches, peanuts, corn, radishes, rutabaga and spinach.

First of all, this is an opinion piece, not backed up by any research or citations. This lady is consulting Jenny McCarthy's University of Stupid: the internet. I did my own internet thinkin' and didn't find any reference to dietary recommendations in the treatment of a serious condition that will literally make you fat and stupid regardless of what you eat because of a lack of certain hormones. There is a an effective treatment for this condition: synthetic hormones, not cutting out friggin' broccoli and cabbage.

I do believe (and act upon) a diet that is more vegetables then not and as little grain and sugar as I can tolerate will lead to optimal health in general - the past year and a half has demonstrated that to me in real terms. That's in general: specifically, I do not believe diet will cure cancer or, say, reverse a friggin' thyroid condition. Though I juice kale every day and despise both it's taste and it's aura of saintliness (kale chips, FTW!), I don't think my hypothalamus is in any danger because this nutty lady says so.

Cure cancer? Fix my endocrine system? Fneh! I just want beeeutiful hair!

And then, as if my world was not sufficiently rocked, I went to the dentist, who said I had five cavities and asked if I snacked on candy and sodas all day long. I was insulted. Indignant. What did he take me for? No, I answered. I don’t eat sugar and drink only fresh vegetable juices — no longer kale, of course, but carrot and celery, which I’m still allowed. And filtered water with lemon.
“You’d be better off with chocolate and cola,” he said. Apparently the natural sugars in fruit and vegetable juices can cause decay, and lemon, though high in vitamin C and bioflavonoids which may prevent cancer, had eroded the enamel that protected my teeth.
I argued that I always brushed afterward. “Worst thing you can do,” he said. “That’s when the teeth are most vulnerable. Always wait half an hour after eating or drinking anything before brushing your teeth. And don’t brush more than twice daily. You’re destroying what little enamel you have left.”

If you scrub and beat up any material, then grind it in corrosive liquids and acids on a regular basis, of course it's gonna wear out. Though I haven't posted about it yet, my dental routine has become as disciplined as my diet -- and I knew instinctively to brush either way before meals or an hour or so after, it just feels right....and doesn't interfere with taste.

I just joyously ate a salad, now I will joyously brush my teeth.

Her fear of fluoride, however, urrrg, sorry, she's an idiot Jenny McCarthyite. My dad taught college chemistry most of his career, but he started as a researcher, and was involved in a lot of fluoride trials as a young chemist. Whenever he'd hear about people protesting fluoridation, he'd just shake his head and get sad. When asked what he was thinking, he'd usually mutter some variation of, "you can't cure stupid" or "just because you believe something, doesn't make it factual."

I considered my dilemma as I opened the fridge and took out the milk my husband puts in his coffee. Not soy, rice or almond milk — but dairy, from a cow. 

Soy is just "unnatural" as dairy, but she rightly surmises that soy is known to mess with hormones when taken in large quantities. I believe the author doesn't really understand moderation and balance, and assumes anything that is harmful in huge amounts must be harmful in minuscule amounts, too. I'm sure her dairy is reduced fat-free awful tasting chalk-water. Compared to full-fat dairy in moderation, fat-free dairy in large quantities is said to be poison by comparison, which would both make this author's head explode and perhaps will make for a future blog post.

It's your right to filter your own water, home school your kids, isolate yourself in a shack in the wilderness, but it is NOT your right to dictate public health issues based on pseudo-science, religion or "feelings".

When I was preparing for my first and only (so far) cross country bike ride in 2006, there was part of me that questioned, "Is this too much? Am I in over my head? Is this really necessary? Is this weird?" I don't remember how I came upon it, but I encountered the concept of "lagom". It's a Swedish word that cuts to the heart of perhaps why those of the Nordic peninsula seem happier than us, even when they're chronically depressed. There is no single equivalent English word, but it means "just the right amount", "in moderation", "in balance", "perfect-simple", "optimal" and "suitable."

The one translation that really rang my bell was: "Enough is as good as a feast." With that, my questions about my bike ride was settled. I'd take it day by day, and when I had enough, I'd come home." In yellow reflective tape, I put the word "LAGOM" in big capitals on my rear trailer. It took a month and I only made it from San Francisco to Carbondale, Illinois, but it was enough, and I was happy ending it then, and I have no regrets now. This lady, with her unyielding quest for health through diet, is seriously lacking in lagom, in balance, in knowing the limitations of what can and can not be done through diet.

My Intercontinental Hooptie, how I miss thee...

As I was juicing my fruit & veg this morning, Betsy asked me if I read the piece about how unhealthy juicing kale is. Ugg, in the media cloud, if you don't drill down, everything is both wonderfully healthy and horrible for you, too. How did this nitwit get published in the opinion pages of the NY Times? Or perhaps the proper question is, when am I gonna get MY New York Times opinion piece? There needs to be balance!

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If you read through my food diaries addended to these posts, you know I partake in the Evil Clown, aka McDonalds, or as my daughter calls it, "Egg McDonalds" as it is of no interest to her unless its an Egg McMuffin. Though I stopped eating a Quarter Pounder as a weekly treat a while ago, I'm still quite fond of the food....in very limited quantities.

While the Supersize Me doc showed what McDonalds would do to you if you ate it for every meal for a month (hint: you get fat), recently a high school science teacher ate nothing but McDonalds for THREE months.....but the twist was he and his students did the numbers on the food, and balanced his diet in terms of calories and macro nutrients. So he actually lost weight and reduced his cholesterol.

In reality, Morgan Spurlock did as many Americans do when they eat fast food: he gorged on whatever struck his fancy, free of thought or mindfulness. It is this teacher who is the out-lier, not Spurlock. Moral of the story: if your going to eat nothing but McDonalds and survive, you need the education of a professional scientist, the free labor of students under your wing, start exercising on a regular basis from nil, and the serious willpower of a hardcore dieter. Still, free McD's for three months...

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WEEKLY AVERAGE (4 day): 2011

On one hand, this is the first stretch of 4 days I kept to a strict budget without bending the edges anywhere. On the other hand, Friday afternoon through Sunday morning was a food-gorgefest of the likes I have not committed since the first days of trying to limit my bottomless eating. I know why and what's happening, this is a transitionary period and don't fear for the numbers on the scale in a few weeks.

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MONDAY COUNT: 2110

SLEPT: 9:30pm-3:45am, 6.25 hr
Didn't feel like it, but got a lift in this morning -- due to weather complications, couldn't do a 2nd lift last week, so I was due.

AM SNACK: 4 am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 7:45am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10am, steel cut oatmeal, 410

LUNCH: 1pm, falafel, tomato soup sauce, health salad, +/-540 cal
Ugg. I think I may be out of tomato soup. Which begs the question -- what soup next? I did butternut squash and tomato. Think I want another smoooove one....

PM SNACK: 3:15 pm, momma salad, hummus, 150 cal

PM SNACK: 4 pm, poppa salad with bottled organic ranch dressing, 150 cal

DINNER: 6:45pm, chicken breast, asparagus, israel cous cous, 700 cal

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TUESDAY COUNT: 2050

SLEPT: 8pm-3am, 7 hrs
It doesn't happen too often, but at the end of the day when doing the math, found myself 250 cal below my minimum -- even with inaccuracies of the "science" of calorie counting, I probably ate too little. Plus riding to and from work in significantly sub-freezing weather didn't help, either. Cheetos to the rescue!

And unsurprisingly, after munching through those cheetos, I had the urge and desire to eat another bowl, or something sweet. I found myself looking through the cupboards while finishing up the dishes and had to consciously put myself to bed, giving myself permission to come back to the kitchen if I'm still hungry in 10 minutes. Of course, once I got into bed, I didn't even think about food again...

AM SNACK: 3:30 am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 6:45am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 9:45am,  fage whole yogurt with agave, vanilla and almonds, 310 cal

LUNCH: 12:30pm, chicken meatballs, steamed string beans, sofrito black beans, 460 cal


PM SNACK: 1pm, mumbai masala crackers, 120 cal
From graze box. Interesting curry flavored mix of crispy chickpeas, cashews, peanuts and rice crackers.

PM SNACK: 3:15 pm, momma salad, hummus, 150 cal

PM SNACK: 4:15 pm, poppa salad with bottled organic ranch dressing, 150 cal

DINNER: 6:45pm, grilled pork tenderloin, roasted brussel sprouts, kimchi,  400 cal

EVENING SNACK: 7:45pm, cheetos, 300 cal

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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 1905

SLEPT: 8:45pm-3:45am, 7 hrs
Huh, third day in a row of keeping it high n' tight. Guess that rather than letting the stress of my life drive me to eat, I'm leveraging it to be more mindful of what I'm eating.

AM SNACK: 4 am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 6:45am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 9:45am,  steel cut oatmeal, 410

NOON SNACK: 12pm, oat crackers with onion marmalade, 115 cal
From graze box. Holy crap, this was delicious. Short-bread (in texture, without sweetness in a good way) like crackers and a properly sweet onion spread, kinda like the caramelized onions I make for my knishes but more jammy.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, grilled pork tenderloin, roasted brussel sprouts, kimchi,  400 cal

PM SNACK: 3pm, momma salad, hummus, 150 cal

PM SNACK: 4:30 pm, poppa salad with bottled organic ranch dressing, 150 cal

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, roasted salted cashews, 160 cal

DINNER: 8:15pm, shirataki stir fry with shrimp, shitaki mushrooms and oyster sauce, 360 cal 

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THURSDAY COUNT: 1980

SLEPT: 9pm-4am, 7 hrs

Woke up with pleasantly sore arms and midsection, so I didn't feel bad about just doing food prep and chores around the house at a relaxed pace while everyone slept. 

AM SNACK: 4:15 am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 6:45am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 9:45am,  fage whole yogurt with agave, vanilla and almonds, 310 cal

AM SNACK: 11:30am, poppyseed pretzels & cinnamon honey almonds, 135 cal

From graze box. Impressively good, really well matched flavors of poppy and cinnamon, well balanced between sweet and savory and salty. That's 3 for 4 this week. I may have to switch from every other week to every week...

LUNCH: 12:45pm, 2 slices streetza

PM SNACK: 3:15pm, momma salad, hummus, 150 cal

PM SNACK: 4:30 pm, poppa salad with bottled organic ranch dressing, 150 cal

DINNER: 7:15pm, Subway 6" veggie burger sub, chips, diet coke, 675

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BIKE CREDIT: 530
FRIDAY COUNT: x

SLEPT: 11pm-2:45am, 3.75 hrs

Though I did not get enough sleep, I had both pushes and pulls that got me to ride. Push, in that tomorrow at 3am it'll be raining, and pull, I really needed to ride after not riding properly in more than a week and my stress levels at home not decreasing. Under control and productive, but a release is needed.

AM SNACK: 3 am, iced green tea, homemade granola bar, 100mg caffeine, 425 cal

BREAKFAST: 7am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 9:45am,   steel cut oatmeal, 410

AM SNACK: 11:15am, herby bread basket mix, 90 cal

From graze box. 4 out 4, really good. Little crackers, savory, flavors of garlic, basil and oregano intermingling, pizza-like enough to be enjoyable, but not too much to be cloying. Impressive.

PM SNACK: 12pm, momma salad, hummus, 150 cal

PM SNACK: 12:45pm, bowl of dry frosted flakes and honey nut cheerios, +/- 400 cal

LUNCH: 1:30 pm, individual wood fired buffalo mozz pizza, water, +/- 800 cal

DINNER: 6pm, off the reservation....

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WEEKEND REPORT

I ate hard and heavy Friday afternoon through Saturday night, and my digestive system issued warnings Sunday morning which made the last day of the weekend much more reasonable. Major life events happened, the kind that usually don't happen more than once in a lifetime (twice if your unlucky), so for comfort I let my mouth do the leading. I'm writing this Monday morning, and am very happy to be eating to schedule again, so I'm not worried that this is the new regular or anything. You may notice the elements of reflection in the last few weeks, and that's about to be more pronounced for a bit.

As for what the hell I'm talking about, if I know you in meatspace, feel free to reach out to me. If our only contact is virtual, well, it's none of yo bidnezz.

Drill Down: Juicing

Mmmm, nothing like a pint of MILF juice in the morning.... 

I drink a pint of freshly "masticated" vegetable juice five days a week, with a little fruit to help ease it down. It's extreme for three reasons:

1. It's probably the healthiest thing I eat in a relatively vegetable-rich healthy diet. 
2. It's also one of the least tasty things I eat all week.
3. However, of all the foods I eat, it's the one where I can mostly draw a direct line between eating and the corporeal, physical level - within minutes, it makes me feel good. Not la-la-la I'm such a friend of the earth and my bunny friends because I'm such a good-person-feel good, but in a holy shit I'm more awake and feel stronger and am ready to get on my bike and ride 2 miles to work to git-r-dun-feel good way.

Larry the Cable Guy, juice head?

I had juiced years before, with a messy centrifugal juicer, mostly 100% fruit juices. It tasted great but didn't really do anything for me, and I got bored of it and it got put away. I wrote about juicing in this forum about a year ago, around the time I was thinking about trying juicing due to watching a rather good documentary.

A week later I pulled out my old centrifugal juicer and attempted to juice some spinach. BZZZZZT, it came to a grinding halt and I instantly had a dead juicer on my hands. So I sucked in my gut and contemplated throwing down for a proper masticating juicer. Juicing has been around as long as there has been fruit, but it was the Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead doc that kicked off the fad for green juice, according to most internet thinkin'.

There are two main kind of juicers, excluding specialized unitaskers like citrus presses.

• Centrifugal - utilizes a spinning blade that resembles a grated basket; faster operation; quickly grinds items and discards pulp in a receptacle

This is the kind I used to have. It's ok for fruit, but for proper healthy juice? No. You can score one for under $100, but you get what you pay for. There are arguments that it's method uses too much friction and "cooks" the juice, but I suspect that is BS. However, the pulp it ejects is a lot moister than the dry pulp spit out by juicers that are...

• Masticating - utilizes a single gear driven by a motor; slower operation; kneads and grinds items placed in a chute

The real deal. Kinda like a meat grinder for vegetables. After doing research, I decided I couldn't afford the model I should get and...got my mother-in-law to gift it to me for Hanukkah!

Thanks, gramma!

This machine can juice the hardest of fruit or vegetable, make smooth nut butters from any nut you can imagine (hello homemade nutella!), extrude pasta in a blink, is incredibly easy to clean and....hard to acquire for less than $275. But you get what you pay for. This is not some miracle machine being hawked on late night TV for several "easy payments", this is the real deal.

It was last November I was at a restaurant with my wife, a place she likes, that has a stress on healthy food and seasonal vegetables. I had already blown out my centrifugal juicer, and noticed "green juice" on the drinks menu. Why not, what was there to lose? So I ordered the juice and when it came, it had the most wonderful light green opalescent color. I was surprised to find how drinkable it was -- it was like apple juice with a slight funky twist! I soon found, once starting to juice at home, that's all it was -- mostly apple juice with a few fig leaves of healthy produce to make the drinker feel good about themselves.

In the past few years, juicing has become "juicing", bent to the needs of entrepreneurs to extract maximum profit to the detriment of the actual juice and the health of their patrons. There are a few big brands that have popped up in the past few years, namely BluePrint and Organic Avenue, and the NY Times has published a few entertaining articles, one where they snipe at each other as to who is the most "healthy" and "real", another in the fashion section where, umm, where....

Did you know, for example, that mixing kale with peaches and blueberries results in a drink that is a rather unpleasant shade of brown?

Or...

“Juice is expensive, but juicers are really messy and then you realize why juice is so expensive,” said Erin Flaherty, the beauty and health director of Marie Claire, who bought a professional-grade juicer that wound up taking up too much space in her kitchen. “You feed it so many fruits and vegetables and it never tastes as good.”

Oy. Just Oy.

Oh Mz. Flaherty. I know the wimmin's mag industry makes it's money by telling the lies it's readers want to hear, so they stay unhappy with themselves, but really? Maroons who spend $12 on a fashionable bottle of juice that contains about $1 worth of produce for the convenience is retarded in itself -- other than the expense and the false sense of esteem that the expense grants, no bottled juice will be as healthy or deliver as much useful nutrition as freshly squeezed, period.

My Mz. Flaherty, my "professional-grade" juicer is a snap to dissemble and clean, but I guess that's a matter of perspective? Or do you just not like having to clean up after yourself, when spending an extra $10 for a "cute" plastic bottle is so much easier?

Dear Mz. Flaherty, I found my first (and last) glass of restaurant juice to be quite delicious because it was mostly apples, very sweet, appropriate for kids (and according to your industry, women) but like soda pop, not particularly healthy. Sugar is sugar is sugar, whether it comes from an apple, an Oreo or an ice cream. My restaurant juice, and all those $11 bottles of juice, no matter how many claims their marketing makes, all are guaranteed to be formulated with enough sugar to make it more palatable to as many people (with $11) as possible.

I think this stock photography model thought she signed up for "ecstasy while holding a salad" pics. Instead, she entered the bukakke side of the biz....

Mz. Flaherty, it doesn't taste good because it's not supposed to. That's not the point. (I guess if your committed to the consumer culture where "the customer is always right", even if their choices kill themselves and the environment, then I can't argue, but let's try to stay on topic.) We are not children whose only reward from eating is the sweetness that pleases our tongue in the morning. We are men, and we are women, and we can delay gratification for a few minutes to appreciate the benefits of what real green juice can do. This is my recipe for one 16oz glass of juice, approximately 160 calories:

• 1 small apple or 3oz of seedless grapes.
• 1 medium whole carrot
• 1 medium stalk of celery
• 1/5 of a large cucumber
• 1/5 of a medium red beet
• 1/4 oz of fresh ginger root
• 1/5 of a large bunch of kale
• 1 pinch of cayenne pepper

Wash any dirt off. Cut to fit juicer chute. Juice everything except cayenne, including all skins, cores, stems and roots, in order of things you find most palatable to least. Add cayenne to taste. Deposit into pint glass, fill to top with cold water.

When I say large bunch of kale, I mean the kind that practically takes 2 hands to take from shelf to cart. The juice itself is dark, dark forest green. The apple and carrot's sweetness is small, but it is enough to take a large note of bitterness off the later vegetables.The spice of the ginger and the cayenne are loud enough to also mask a host of bitter flavors that would otherwise turn my head away. The celery and cucumber add a weird slickness and salinity that add interest.  I absolutely despise beet and kale for their flavor, but through juicing I've learned to appreciate the metallic sweetness of the beet and the bright vegetal screech of kale. I have to be honest -- it tastes kinda horrible, but like your first shot of liquor when your a teen, the first taste is the worst, and every sip after is smoother, and before you know it, gulping the bottom of the glass is not such a chore.

It was a chore a year ago, and I juiced 2x a week, it was all I could handle. Slowly but surely, I found when I did the juice thing, i felt good that morning. So I upped it to three times a week, and found myself missing it on the days I skipped. Sometime over the summer I said to myself, well, I think I'm falling into a habit, but unlike Fritos or chocolate chips, this habit may help me feel good in the long run rather than make me maintain all da fatty fatness.

I've been juicing every weekday, and while my produce bill is larger than ever, when I get that hit of juice on a Monday morning, I really do feel what it does for me. The apple and apple/ginger juice from my centrifugal juicer was a nice treat back in the day, but I might have well been drinking Coca Cola or pasteurized juice from a bottle -- it was all just sugar flooding my system and keeping myself fat and satiated. Green juicing has made me hungry for a lot more than just satisfying the childlike side of my palate.

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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2291

I'm not going to say this was a bad eating week, but perhaps a transitional one. Getting to the new lower budget and subtracting the fritos & cheetos is proving harder than expected. Add in Thanksgiving eating and I suspect next week will be difficult too. 

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MONDAY COUNT: 2065

SLEPT: 8pm-5am, 9 hr
Sunday was an early morning 60 mile ride then pushing a stroller all over downtown to visit friends and do food shopping for the week. "Slept in" until 5am, felt great, good way to start the week.

AM SNACK: 5:15 am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 6:45am,grape/beet/celery/carrot/ginger/cayenne/cucumber juice, 160 cal
Swapped out apple for grape this week, equivalent amount of calories, but less juice and a much sweeter taste, huh.

BREAKFAST 2: 10:30am, steel cut oatmeal, 415

LUNCH: 12:45pm, falafel, butternut squash soup, health salad, pickles, 790

PM SNACK: 3:30 pm, momma salad, hummus, 150 cal

PM SNACK: 5pm, poppa salad with homemade Italian dressing, 150 cal

DINNER: 7:30pm, hake loins, asparagus, kimchi, 400 cal
Kimchi kicked this meal up a notch. Also used a little Worcestershire on the asparagus, definitely an improvement.

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TUESDAY COUNT: 2540

SLEPT: 8:45pm-4am, 7.25 hr
Excellent weight lifting session in the morning. During my dinner, my daughter asked for Cheetos while watching TV, and I got her a bowl. As I was pouring it, I said to myself, "uh oh". My cravings shot through the roof, and I hoped they'd pass as I sat back down to finish dinner. They did not. Hmmm, hope I can take a lesson from this.

AM SNACK: 4:15 am, iced green tea, 0 cal

BREAKFAST: 7:15am,grape/beet/celery/carrot/ginger/cayenne/cucumber juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 9:45am, whole fage with agave, vanilla and almonds, 310 cal

LUNCH: 12:45pm, chicken meatballs, steamed string beans, Madras lentils, pickles, 650 cal

PM SNACK: 3:30 pm, momma salad, hummus, 150 cal

PM SNACK: 5pm, poppa salad with homemade Italian dressing, 150 cal

DINNER: 7:30pm, sauteed chicken breast, roasted brussel sprouts, kimchi, 520 cal

EVENING SNACK: 7:45pm, double cheetos, 600 cal

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WEDNEDAY COUNT: 2585

SLEPT: 8:30pm-3am, 6.5 hr
Woke up, ate a granola bar, put on every layer of warm weather bike clothes I have, got out the food at 3:45, was home by 4. Low 30s, just too cold, I hit my limit. In those brief minutes, I could feel the chill coming to my finger tips and toes, despite my warmest gloves, wool socks and shoe covers. I have warmer biking gloves and "arctic" wool socks coming, so will try again, but I think I'm gonna go get rollers soon, too. Sucks sitting at home at 4am without a way of doing cardio, and my muscles still a little sore from yesterday's lift.

In the evening, the siren song of the chips got me again, damn. Think I'm going to temporarily not have them in the house, and see how that goes. Though I'll be denying my eldest chippy goodness, I don't think it'll hurt her in the long run. And I'll get a bag on Fridays to share with her through the weekend...

AM SNACK: 3:15 am, iced green tea, granola bar, 575

BREAKFAST: 7:15am,grape/beet/celery/carrot/ginger/cayenne/cucumber juice, 160 cal

LUNCH: noon, chicken, ground lamb thing, falafel, 2 stuffed grape leaves, salad with olives, hummus, +/-750 cal
Was very hungry as I skipped breakfast 2 due to the unearned AM snack. Work lunch provided as a 'thank you' for a team I was on, on a big project. Would look bad if I didn't participate. Avoided the rice and the pita, and after one full plate, avoided eating a second plate. The hot sauce on the salad actually helped, he he. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but making it spicy made it easier to stop.

PM SNACK: 3:30 pm, momma salad, hummus, 150 cal

DINNER: 8:30pm, shiritaki noodle stir fry with shrimp, shitakes and oyster sauce, 350 cal

EVENING SNACK: 8:45pm, double fritos & cheetos, 600 cal

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THURSDAY COUNT: 1975

SLEPT: 9:30pm-4am, 6.5 hr
Woke up hungry, so I guess the chip binge didn't totally destroy me -- it was measured, after all. Regardless, I leveraged that guilt into my morning weights, increased the reps by 1, felt good and right, and hopefully I'l feel it tomorrow morning. Calculating my day's eating after packing my food for the day, I discovered if I was going to fit into the new budget, the thing I'd have to cut is….the chips I eat with my Subway sandwich on Thursdays. Damn, chips, you be a problem. You sit down before I smack you.

Postmortem: I did it! I resisted the chips and came in slightly under budget! Woooo!

AM SNACK: 4:15 am, iced green tea, 

BREAKFAST: 7:15am,grape/beet/celery/carrot/ginger/cayenne/cucumber juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 9:45am, steel cut oatmeal, 415

LUNCH: 12:30pm, chicken sausage, sofrito black beans roasted brussel sprouts, kimchi, 665 cal

PM SNACK: 3:30 pm, momma salad, hummus, 150 cal

PM SNACK: 5pm, poppa salad with homemade Italian dressing, 150 cal

DINNER: 7:30pm, Subway 6" veggie burger sub, diet coke, 435

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BIKE CREDIT: 535 cal
FRIDAY COUNT: Ugh.

SLEPT: 10:15pm-3am, 4.75 hr
Over 50 degrees at 3am, had to take advantage after the freezeout on Wednesday. Measured out a very small bump of caffeine on my new microscale, the dose was pretty good.

Between lack of sleep and free and flowing food at work, this was not a good day. The weekend started early, so to speak.

AM SNACK: 3:15 am, granola bar, iced green tea, 100mg caffeine, 575 cal

BREAKFAST: 7:15am,grape/beet/celery/carrot/ginger/cayenne/cucumber juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 9:45am, whole fage with agave, vanilla and almonds, 310 cal

LUNCH 1: 11:30am, almond butter and grape jelly on whole wheat, 510 cal

LUNCH 2: 1pm, work potluck, including turkey, sides, desserts, +/- 1000 cal

DINNER: 7:30pm, 2 slices of streetza, ice cream, +/- 1000 cal

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WEEKEND REPORT

Starting to suspect I'll be gaining weight this month. Hit the food hard starting on Friday and didn't let up until Sunday night, ugg. No riding, as the weather stayed stubbornly in the 20s. Let's hope for a better week next week.

I Was Fat, Sick, Nearly Dead and Juicing Before It Was Cool

Juicing, man. People treat it like religion. Over the weekend, I caught the documentary, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead on streaming Netflix. At first I almost walked away from it, since it seemed like an ego-driven vehicle for some rich guy to share his wondrous views for a few hours. But I couldn't stop watching. He goes on a 60-day juice-fast and loses close to 100 lbs while ruminating on what led him (and other fat Americans & Australians) to such a crazy obese place.

The lead guy doesn't go too much into the magical thinking that juicing inspires (toxicity cleansing! mental clarity! never get sick ever again!) but there is a bit of a cultish, this-is-the-answer-you've-been-looking-for vibe going on. Did some internet thinkin' looking for skeptics and, lo and behold, no one in the science world seems to think juicing is a bad thing, just not a magic bullet. Found a nice short piece on the PBS website which nicely summarized the current nutritional science around juicing. Italics mine:

1. There’s room for debate.

Fans of green juicing, or juicing raw vegetables, say that you can drink more vegetables than you can eat, and that juicing allows your body to more easily absorb the vitamins and antioxidants extracted from fresh produce. Juicing has been credited with alleviating everything from skin diseases and immune disorders to cancer and high blood pressure.

But skeptics claim that the detox and cleansing benefits attributed to juicing may be more psychological than physical. There’s also a lack of scientific evidence that proves that juicing your vegetables is significantly healthier than just eating them. If you’re not eating enough vegetables, drinking them might be one way to up your intake. The bottom line is, juicing certainly can’t hurt. 

2. Your digestive system will thank you.

Juicing proponents believe that your digestive system can function more efficiently when drinking raw vegetables. Although you lose the benefits of consuming fiber when drinking your produce, it takes less energy to digest food in liquid form. Heating and cooking vegetables also reduces or destroys some of their enzyme content, which some say can impede digestion. With juicing, it’s believed that these food enzymes are not only preserved, but your digestive system also gets a “rest.” If you juice for enzymes, you might also believe that the right food combinations can help with digestion. Food combiners believe that eating a protein like meat or cheese, which requires one type of enzyme to be digested, with a carbohydrate, which requires another kind of digestive enzyme, can result in bloating and indigestion. When you juice, you only eat one type of food at a time, so digestion is speedier. 

3. Moderation is key.

Despite what some raw foodists and “juicearians” might say, it’s probably not best to live on juice alone. A juice fast, in which one consumes only juice and no solid food for a day or more, can have healthy benefits, but it’s not entirely necessary. Drinking green juice can still have healing effects when combined with a regular, healthy diet.

For best results, drink green juice on an empty stomach, and make sure it’s as fresh as possible. More extreme measures, like the lemonade-and maple syrup-only Master Cleanse, or juice fasting as a quick-and-easy weight loss method, are not recommended. 

4. Not all juices are created equal.

You can get your green juice at a juice bar, health food store, or through a delivery service, but be wary of bottled and pasteurized juices. And read the labels carefully: Too much fruit or fruit concentrate can increase the sugar level, and heating and processing can lessen nutritional value. Buying a home juicer and doing it yourself can pay off in the long run, although the juicer you buy might also make a difference. Centrifugal juicers, which grind and strain produce at high speeds, are the most affordable machines, but also less efficient – some say the high speed generates heat, and decreases the amount of enzymes in the resulting juice. Masticating juicers “chew” produce and can make more juice out of the same amount of vegetables, while triturating juicers, the most expensive and efficient option, “press” produce and retain more nutrients.While juicers extract only juice from produce and remove the fiber, blenders retain all of the content by simply mashing everything together. Fiber aside, the blender versus juicer debate might come down to a matter of taste: drinking celery juice mixed with carrot juice will probably taste better than drinking a celery and carrot smoothie. 

5. The possibilities are endless.

If you make your own juice, experiment with combining different kinds of fruits and vegetables for taste and nutrition. Popular combinations include mixing leafy vegetables like spinach or kale with celery or cucumber, and adding beet, carrot, or apple for sweetness. 

Just like bariatric surgery, juicing will turn you into a fetching white woman in her early 20s!

As it turns out, I have an old, high-end centrifugal juicer sitting in the back of the shelves in my kitchen, last used before I had a dishwasher machine, before I had children, before I had a wife -- I know because I put it away dirty, something my wife would never do! I did some juicing for a year, mostly apple and apple-ginger juice, and I got bored of it and the hassle of cleaning the machine. I also didn't see any magical results -- this was before I was food-conscious, before I went to culinary school, before I seriously figured I really needed to lose weight if I'm going to live well.

I'm fat, but I'm not morbidly obese like the people in the movie. I've been sick from poor diet, as recently as last week, but that's getting better, and I'm not on any medications. I'm far from nearly dead, so I don't think I need to get all starry-eyed and dedicate myself to a juice fast. I see adding one or two juicing sessions a week to increase the amount of vegetables in my diet, in addition to the amount I'm taking in now. Unlike when I first juiced it will not be just fruit, but enough fruit to make the drinks palatable. Perhaps taking in sugar this way will help me control the sugar-lust that has been having me consume sweets on a daily basis for the last few weeks.

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Actual scene from my childhood Thanksgiving. I watched the hell out of Peanuts every holiday, so yes, an actual scene, actually. Gen X in the HOUSE!

Thanksgiving has been depressing me every year for almost a decade now. Growing up it was the holiday that belonged to my family -- different aunts and uncles had Hanukkah, Passover, New Year's, the 4th of July, etc. But Thanksgiving was OURS. In our big, warm house on Staten Island, my mom would set the table days in advance, so much so that on the day-of it would need to be dusted. Dad would always make his vegetable crudite with onion-soup sour cream dip, roast chestnuts in the toaster oven, have a big turkey. I'd be "in charge of the stuffing," which was made from a damn box of Stouffer's, but even when I was well into my 20s my mom would would still boast about my making it. Steamed string beans with garlic, baked sweet potatoes that I never ate, cranberry sauce from a can presented in the shape of the can. Different families would bring wine, salad, desserts. It was a big, big to-do, and my mom would always get upset when people would gather in the kitchen and wash most of the dishes for her. By the time the last family would leave, I'd be exhausted and happy and loved.

The tradition continued when my parents moved to an apartment on the LES when I went to college, but every year it would get smaller. The kids were now adults starting families, the older folks either moved too far away or passed. I guess the last real Thanksgiving was in 2004, because the next year my father passed away a few days before the holiday after an extended illness. I now join my wife's family for their Thanksgiving tradition but that seems to be on the edge of flux for the same reasons my family's was. I really hope Thanksgiving comes back to my home someday, and that I can help start a new tradition where my kids can feel exhausted, happy, and loved as well.

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Saw this poster in the window of a restaurant near my mother-in-law's home, on the edge of Harlem. Save Half for Later is a government-backed, hospital-sponsored outreach program in this historically poor, black, unhealthy neighborhood. The gist is if the restaurant is participating in the program, you tell your server that you'd like to "save half for later,"and half of your meal will be placed in a branded, reusable container that is delivered with your check at the end of the meal, and the other half is served to you, plated like a whole meal. The materials stress the healthfulness, as well as the economic advantage of getting two meals for the price of one.

I guess there is no harm in this, but it's such a timid public-health measure that I think it's a contradiction in terms -- the restaurant industry's own thrust is to sell more regardless of the effect it has on its customers, and that is a root cause, not people's laziness in saving food for later. There should be a law that says any one can order a half portion of any dish for half the price, or half the price + a dollar or percent. Or the program should officially advertise that any one meal can be purchased and then split in two servings, Florida early-bird style. The fact that this initiative has to pussyfoot around the economic interests of the restaurants involved is so compromised.

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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2532

Took Friday off from counting, as Thursday was Thanksgiving and I ate relatively well. I didn't treat Friday as a weekend, I ate carrots and limited my eating, felt good. Average is too high, but not unreasonable. Eating too much sugar.

I ate horrendously last weekend, really indulged my cravings for fat and sugar -- mini cheesecakes and three deserts a day were involved. And Sunday night and Monday morning I paid for it in a way that is inappropriate to discuss on this blog, he he. A similar, more extreme version of these symptoms knocked me out for 2 weeks around Xmas time last year, and up until now I thought it was the result of a long and progressive pattern of poor eating. Now I see all it takes is a couple of days of self abuse to bring me right back there, wow.

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MONDAY COUNT: 2570

Lifted weights this morning, felt good. Left wrist fine, right wrist still twinges when turned. While doing standing curls with 35lb weights, had to modify to prevent pain, but all other activities were fine.

AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea, 25 cal

BREAKFAST: 10am, steel cut oatmeal, 375 cal

AM SNACK: 11:45am, momma salad, 100 cal

LUNCH: 1pm, Shake shack burger, half an order of fries, 20oz diet coke, 700 cal

Not my idea of a healthy lunch, but me n' Milli were meeting a friend who had jury duty, and I don't get to see her often enough. Fortunately, Shake Shack has their nutritional info online and my friend was willing to split an order of fries.

DINNER: 6:30pm, chicken sausage, steamed string beans, plain quinoa, a pickle, 7oz diet sprite, 670 cal

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, dark chocolate chops & almonds, 400 cal

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, 2 slices wholewheat potato bread with hummus, 300 cal

Surprisingly hungry, an honest hunger, so I satiated it despite going over budget.

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TUESDAY COUNT: 2365

Cooked Thanksgiving lunch with the kids, a lot of work, felt really worn down at the end. Passed out when I got home a little after 9, which prevented me from eating more, he he.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea, 25 cal

BREAKFAST: 9am, kolon bloe with whole milk, 300 cal

PM SNACK: 12:15pm, momma salad, 100 cal

LUNCH: 12:30pm, Stouffer's Frenchbread pizzas, 740 cal

SCHOOL SNACK: 2:30PM, slice of birthday cake, +/- 500 cal

SCHOOL DINNER: 7:30pm, 1 slice of streetza, 2 cups of soda, +/-700 cal

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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 2870

Thanksgiving eating in effect -- got to school at 7am to get turkeys in the oven, nibbled through lunch. Not sure exactly how many cal I took in, but rather than throwing my hands up and eating like its a weekend, kept it pretty conservative for dinner. This past weekend's eating already threw me for a wobbly, another wobble too soon and I could get sick-sick.

Felt really hungry in the evening, unfortunately I had brought some brownies home from school, -sigh-. Did the math the next morning to figure out how many calories were in them. I hope I over-estimated my lunch calories!

BREAKFAST: 5:30am, iced green tea, chocolate covered espresso beans, rice crispies with whole milk. +/- 400 cal

SCHOOL AM SNACK: 7:30am, birthday cake, +/- 200 cal

SCHOOL LUNCH: 1pm, roasted turkey, cornbread stuffing, brownie, lemonade, sweet tea, +/- 800 cal

Didn't sit down and eat, but nibbled a lot.

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, baby carrots, 80 cal

DINNER: 6:45pm, chicken sausage, whole wheat couscous, roasted broccoli with chili powder, 7oz diet sprite, 830 cal

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, 2 wedges of school-made brownies, 560 cal

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THURSDAY COUNT: 2325

Blurg, Thanksgiving. Kept it tight in the morning, with a good fruit smoothie and a round of weight lifting. Right wrist still hurts, starting to concern me. Ate heavily at the family meal, which was early by T-day standards, and when I got home to put the baby to sleep, hunger never came back. Fell asleep at 9:30, which helped as I would have eaten again if I was up late.

AM SNACK: 7am, iced green tea, 25 cal

BREAKFAST: 9am, fruit smoothie, 350 cal

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, whole wheat bagel with cream cheese, 7oz diet coke, +/-350 cal

THANKSGIVING LUNCH: 2:30pm,  sliced turkey breast, sweet stuffing, overcooked string beans, a little salad, mashed potatoes, pumpkin knish, half a glass of wine, ginger ale, birthday cake & 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream, +/- 1300 cal

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, chocolate chips & almonds, +/- 300 cal