Drink your juice, Shelby...

Kris Carr, filmmaker and author of Crazy Sexy Cancer, and Dr. Mehmet Oz were on Oprah last year and they both talked about the "green drinks" they make every morning. Basically, they just throw anything green from the fridge into the juicer - cucumber, kale, celery, broccoli, etc. Dr. Oz's book, You on a Diet, has been my health bible since I started reading it in September.

Since I'm not a fan of most raw, green veggies (except avocado, baby greens, and spinach), I thought juicing might be a good way to get more green nutrients (right now I get them in pill form with a whole food multi vitamin. After a little research (mostly on Kris's blog, reading what her readers recommend), I bought a Breville juicer. I used it a LOT at first. I felt great, had a ton of energy, my blood sugar was stable, and my skin looked so good I got carded. Then, as with many of my "magic" solutions (exercise bands, belly dancing DVDs, raw food diet), my juice obsession gradually waned.

My first excuse was that juicing takes time. I can buy somewhat "fresh" unpasteurized juice, grab a bottle, and take it with me in two seconds. Juicing (even with a juicer that eats apples whole) is at least a 20-minute affair, including cleanup. My second is that I was throwing away produce. Unless I juiced twice a day for the amount of organic produce I bought, I ended up with bad fruit and vegetables. So even though store-bought juice is more expensive and not "alive," I've justified myself out of juicing for almost three months now.

As a result, I think I look tired and older than my RealAge. I definitely lack energy. And my super bad habit of skipping meals was screwing with my blood sugar enough to make me worry that I'm being a very bad diabetic.

This weekend, I decided to break my own curse and return to juicing. I bought a cart full of fruits and veggies, not a single processed item, and even if I have to juice three times a day I'm not going to throw anything out this week. This morning I had tomato, celery, parsley, spinach and watercress. Yesterday I had carrot/ginger/apple - twice. And now I'm searching through my favorite healthy web sites for more juice recipes. I have a pile of cucumbers, but haven't yet found the right cucumber-something combo. And cucumber by itself is OK, but not delish. Any ideas? I thought about cucumber-chocolate, but besides grossing me out I think that defeats the purpose.