Day 5: Taste Test of Mean Green pt. 2 and a Few Thoughts about Weight

Status Day 5:

Starting Weight: 470   Today’s Weight: 447.2    Total Loss:  22.8 lbs    Lbs to Goal: 222.2

First let me begin by talking about my weight. It clearly says that I have lost 22.8 pounds. I know some may be dubious, or even envious.  Do not be.  First, this is my journey.  My body may handle things differently that yours does.  I expect a plateau to begin shortly and I will level off. Secondly, I am beginning my journey form a different place than you may be. If we both are to travel two miles, but I get to run downhill and you have to run up a steep incline, would it be a surprise if I reach my goal at a more rapid pace?

I have so, so long to go. 

Additionally, I am not bragging about my weight loss, in fact, I am dubious of it.  I have lost weight too many times before to be too impressed. I know that these first dozen pounds or so are a combination of water weight and other wastes.  Trust me I have been to the bathroom enough over the past 4.5 days to know that. These “waste weight” pounds are the easy ones; the fight lies ahead.

The fact is, I cannot even tell that I have lost anything save for my Taylor Scale glowing the numbers in red for me in the morning.  My clothes are not any looser, I am not moving any easier, and honestly with all fo the detox symptoms, I still feel like crap. So I will not get too excited over this.

I will not ignore it, and I will acknowledge it for what it is: it is the beginning of a very long journey for me.  I’m on day 5 of 75 for Pete’s sake. Too much road ahead of me to get confident or satisfied now.

For those of you who are fellow traveler’s, take what your body gives you.  Accept the successes you have along the way. But don’t let anything, even successes, distract you.

Now, to the subject of Mean Green.

The last two days have been a whirlwind.  My wife was hospitalized and I was doing my best to stay as close to plan as possible, knowing it would not be perfect. My weight loss slowed dramatically, showing the results of the skipped meals and the cans of V8 as a substitute for my veg juicing. She is now out of ICU.  In fact, she is sleeping now which is what she needs.

What I needed on the other hand was to get back on track. To get some energy and vitality in me.  So I decided to turn to the panacea of rebooters everywhere “Mean Green.” 

Joe Cross created it, Phil Swears by it.  So I thought it might be just the answer.  The only problem is my first trial of the drink left me less than impressed and dreading the next 73 days.

My dissatisfaction is likely my fault.  I am using a blender, not a juicer.  My problems, after all were more based on texture than on taste. So, undaunted, I decided to tweak the recipe and try again.

My recipe for Mean Green is customized for my VitaMix 5200 blender.  If you have some other variety, I cannot guarantee you success, but I hope you will like the results.

Basically, I halved the recipe and added about 3 oz. of coconut water and 3 oz. of tap water.  This diluted the juice and decreased the bulk that blenders leave in.  This may be a trick I try again with other recipes High-cellulose, high-fiber vegs like carrots, kale, and celery do not fare as well in the VitaMix as do the softer fleshed varieties and fruits.  Here’s the recipe in case you are blending, rather than juicing.

My Journey Juice

• 3 leaves Kale
  1 cups Spinach
  1/2 Cucumber
  2 stalks Celery
  2 Apples
  1” Ginger root                       
• 3 oz. Coconut water
• 3 oz. Filtered tap water
• juice of 1/2 lime (optional)

If you notice, I halved the more fibrous ingredients from the original recipe but left the amounts the same on the softer fleshed items.

Place the Celery, Kale, Cucumber and Spinach along with the waters in the blender first. Let them blend on high for about 30 seconds. This should give you about enough time to quarter the apple (core it if you want to, with a VitaMix it is not necessary). Place the apple in. While apple is blending remove skin from the ginger and add.  Blend an extra 15 seconds or so.  Add ice if you desire.  I find it is better cold.

The results.  Far better texture.  While not perfect, I can accept this.  It is a bit sweeter due to the decrease in the bitter greens which elevates the ratio of cucumber and apple.  However, I find it has a much lighter taste that I like.  I know I may be loosing a bit of nutrition, but I can’t help but think that the juicer leaves some of the nutrition in the strainer and the collection bucket. So I’ll take my chances, for now.  I still plan on buying a true juicer once I get the money, but for now this will do.

The drink itself taste a bit “herby” (read that grassy), but the apple and cucumber really freshen it up and add a note of sweetness to it. The lime helps with palatability immensely. 

Let’s face it, it ain’t a steak so don’t expect it to taste like one, but this is probably not going to end up sending me to the ER looking at ticker tape of an EKG either. I’m buying back my health; if this is the price I pay, then so be it.

If you have a juicer, definitely go with that.  If you don’t, then try this recipe.  You may find that it will work for you and keep you on track.  Either way, juice on and join the journey.

14 Jan This entry was published on January 14, 2012 at 11:58 pm. It’s filed under Food Tips, Juicing, Recipe and tagged 60-Day Juice Program, David Robinson, detox symptoms, food detox, joe cross, juicing, mean green, mean green juice, morbid obesity, my juicing journey, obesity, raw food, vegetables, weight loss, weightloss. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.