Friday, January 27, 2012

The Juicing Chronicles

The Mr. and I watched the documentary Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead one evening while flipping through Netflix.



Wow. What an inspiring film. I'm serious! The director and main guy, Joe Cross, lost something crazy like 70 lbs and then he meets some trucker who's 400-something pounds and goes on to cut that weight in half! Basically, all they do is drink plain juicified (is that even a word?) fruits and vegetables for two months. And that's it. No extra fancy supplements or extreme exercise routine (though some exercise is done of course- very moderately since a diet of only fruits and vegetables is not quite the recipe for a great workout). On top of that, the diet program that is linked with the film, Reboot Your Life is completely free. No catches, no fees, nada. I was surprised! They have less extreme programs advertised than the one used in the film, but much more fit for the average joe.

When I say inspiring, I mean it. The Mr. has been wanting to shed a few pounds since before we were married. We are fairly healthy and active people (well he is. I'm just healthy, not so much active these pregnant days), so we never actually gained the "extra marriage love" when we first got married almost four years ago, but this is something he has wanted for a long long time. We didn't really have much to start this juice diet, so we basically started from nothing. Here is what we did (and are doing) and what may help you get started:

1. Of course watch the documentary first. Click the link above to watch it for free on Hulu.com if you do not have access to the film.

2. Get a juicer! So, we are not in the money market right now. Price was a major factor. However, through a credit card we use (go discover!), we've had gift cards racking up and happened to be able to get a $40-gets-you-$50 gift card at Cooking.com (I'll have to write up a post about credit cards one of these days. I love rewards!). On top of that, we got a $100 Visa gift card from AT&T U-Verse when we signed up for their Internet promotion upon moving into our apartment (always ask about promotions when getting Internet. Or anything really..). We had used the gift card to fill up on gas once or twice, but still had $60 left on it. So now we had $110 to spend. Well, like I was saying earlier, the Money Gods are not shedding their blessings upon us currently (I'm kidding. We believe in one God only), so while it was tempting to buy the $160 Breville used in the documentary, we decided to go with the FREE option of ordering the smaller $99 juicer (side note: Breville has some sort of lame contract with cooking.com that excludes them from all the offers like free shipping or 10-20% off your total purchase. BOO). Woot!

The Mr. posing with his new juicer
3. Come up with a menu idea for meals and a schedule for how long you want to do this. The Mr. wants to try for 10 days and we decided to just juice for breakfast and lunch only and continue with healthy dinners. I highly recommend going with challenging but achievable goals. Unlike the documentary, the Mr. still has to work and be around his family (who are not participating). No 10 day vacations by the lake.

4. Buy ingredients that are on sale, in season, and something you can eat without gagging. We calculated that 5 days of produce would be about $40- we ended up at about $50, but I'm pretty sure it will last at least 7-8 days with the amount we brought home.


That all being said, check out the Mr.'s breakfast this morning:

Looks like it's a drink from outerspace!

We will be documenting his experience and reporting half way and then once the 10 days are over. Enjoy!

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