Day 2: Light on the Ginger

I got the news tonight when I got home from work that my Aunt back in Michigan is dying. She has lived with Parkinson's Disease for years and it seems the God is ready to bring her home. So understandably my mind found it hard to focus on doing our first test juicing tonight, but I felt I needed to do it. I told myself that my aunt would be proud of me for taking these steps to get healthy, and she wouldn't want anything to get in my way. So I got together the ingredients, fired up the juicer, and away we went!

So the recipe called for two organic apples, four organic carrots, and about 1" of ginger root.  Well ginger root is kinda freaky looking and oddly shaped, but I did my best with what I had.  Since it was my first time juicing I knew I'd make mistakes, and I did.  I tried putting too much in the shoot at once and jammed it.  I cleaned it out and started over, and this time there was success.  The ginger smelled so good when it hit the blades that I even added a little extra.  And once I was done, I had a glass of juicy orange frothiness.

And left over in the pulp catcher thingy was, well, pulp.  Shreds of carrot mostly, and sadly one big chunk of carrot that must have got thrown out b the blade when it got jammed.  Yet still, looking at the mess that was collected, I feel kind of proud.

So just to document the experience I had my girlfriend take a before and after shot of my drinking the juice.

Before Drinking the Juice

After Drinking the Juice

It actually was not too bad.  There was too much ginger though.  I'm not sure if it was because of the little extra I added, or if it's because of the big chunk of carrot that didn't get juiced.  Or maybe a combo of both.  I didn't think to pull out the chunk of carrot and try again until I'd already thrown it away.  All I know is that the initial drink was really good, but then the ginger kicked in and really worked up some heat in my mouth.  Wow!  We actually couldn't even finish the glass because it was too much for either of us.  Good thing this was just a test run.  It's good to work these things out before we actually are depending on these drinks for our nutritional needs for days or even weeks. :-)

So we have enough ingredients to try again tomorrow night, but tonight I'm just a bit emotionally drained.  I may also stop at the store again tomorrow night and get the stuff for a green drink.  We'll have to see how things go in my personal life.  I'm proud to say though that no matter what, despite the roadblocks in my way, I'm still pushing through.  I made a lot of good choices today about limiting the food I was eating, and though I wasn't perfect I know I did well.  I know it's only day 2, but I'm feeling good about how I'm handling things so far.