5 Day Juice Fast Review. Spoiler: I loved it!

Juice Fasting was extraordinary. 

I must admit, i don't have tons of experience with fad diet health stuff, so I don't have a lot to compare it to. But I have watched others go through those roller coasters, and this was amazing!

Me and Jesse only ate fresh fruits and vegetable juice for 5 days. 

WHY: Our friends were doing it, and we watched Fat, Sick and Nearly dead.(forks over knives is also fasinating) One thing the doctor said in the video stuck out to me. America's wealth and resources, we have the ability to be the healthiest and live the longest of anyone in millenniums. That was kind of convicting. I am a squanderer. God gave me all this awesome food, and I so often choose crap. So we wanted to flip our diet, instead of 10-15 % fruits and veggies, 85% bread, oil, dairy and meat. What if we could get fruits and veggies to 40-45%.

We thought the best way to start was a juice fast. I was interested in what it would do to our energy levels and what being nice to your body would feel like, instead of constantly eating things you expect your kidneys to filter, what if you ate raw nutrients for 5 days? I was curious. 

First, I honestly did not do it to loose weight...

 but in 5 days, i lost 10 pounds, and...I wasn't hungry! 

crazy! Don't get me wrong, I WANTED food, badly, but I was not hungry except for maybe 15 minutes the first day. In general i was more alert, I woke up quicker, and by the last day I felt really great. This was an awesome post-pregnancy/nursing health boost!

Understanding my emotional attachment to food was probably my favorite thing about the fast. When I was uncomfortable I wanted to chew, me and Jesse were also kind of snappy with each other. I just wanted bread and it had NOTHING to do with hunger. 

Side effects: These were minor, but if I did not drink a 12 onz. juice every 3 hours, i would feel a little lethargic, and 3 or 4 times I had a mild headache. I would get in this weird place, were I DID NOT want a juice, so I delayed making one, then I would feel terrible and lay down, I could not get out of these funks until I got off my butt and made a juice! 

Detox? i have no idea if this really cleanses you. I think maybe only God knows. I did experience the bad breath/slight muscle aches the second day they say accompanies your body dumping toxins. We did not experience the crazy ups and down that most 'juicing' sites talk about. Me and Jesse hypothesized it was because food here in Montenegro is fresher, generally less processed and contains less toxins. 

My other favorite thing, it was kind of easy. I was not hungry, I was not taking an hour a day away from my kids to exercise. doing it with Jesse was essential, we held each other back when Soren's cheese slice was making us salivate. This is day 6, we both ate a banana for breakfast. No bid deal. No drama. We could honestly do it longer. 

Sustainable? fad stuff sucks because it is unsustainable. I get that. But we don't feel deprived, we feel good.  we are eating only raw fruits and veggies for 5 days, then adding whole grains  for 5 days and so on. Hoping the end result is healthier more grateful family. I know we may gain some water weight back, but it doesn't have to be a  quick fix, what if is helps us further along on our path to honoring our bodies? If anything we appreciate God's goodness in his provision for fruits and veggies more.

Kale.

Kale is a leafy cool season crop (meaning you can plant it spring or fall. I planted some transplants back in November and the plants survived the winter well. They have been ready to harvest for a while, but i just got around to it. With Kale I made my favorite Olive Garden soup Zuppa Tuscana, or Italian Wedding soup. Recipe here.

 

Strawberries: training runners

Strawberries are the easiest fruit to plant in your home garden.
You can plant plugs (small transplants) in November from your regional fruit supplier- i recommend Ison's nursery, or you can buy larger transplants from your local garden center in march.  

Baby strawberry

 One strawberry plant only produces berries it's first year. Then they are unique in that they send out runners to make baby plants. Their babies will produce the next year and so the cycle of life continues on. For the gardener, this means that you only have to buy a plant once!

Because of this, it is up to the Gardener to dug up their old vines and 'train' the baby plants. Here is a video about training you strawberry runners the second year.

After I dug up parrent plant

Overgrown Bed

Plant baby plants and rebury drip tape

Baby Strawberries replanted and mulched

Preparing Backyard Garden Beds: Spring

For those of you who are just staring out on your new back yard garden and need step by step instructions

1. How to build a raised bed
2. Building good soil : fertilizer and texture
3. Installing Drip Irrigation and plasticulture (mulch)
4. Keeping deer and other pest out of your Garden
   Please see my blog post for March 2011 here 

Spring is here, it was 72 degrees yesterday and i got my first garden sun burn! It is time to begin preparing beds for this years garden season. Since I already have made my raised beds and built good soil with organic matter and top soil, all I need to do their years is maybe add a little more garden compost (bought or homemade:see Composting). I still have half a bag of 10-10-10 in storage so these are three steps to RE-preparing my plasticluture and drip irrigation raised beds.

1. Clean Up: clean out your old plans
   Most of my plants were chopped down in the fall of last year to prevent pest from finding them, now that the root systems are rotting and the soil is moist, I just ripped up the old plant root and stalks that remained. Because I use a basic grid square foot gardening layout, I need to make room for the new plants. Most of these plants and roots can be placed in the compost pile (not weeds). (for perennial herbs trim and cut back beds and for strawberries dig up mother plant and train runners)
2. Roll back plastic mulch

   

   raised beds after rolling back plastic

   One thing I love about plasticulture is that I can simply roll it back when needed. The straw I use on top can be removes easily (unlike pine bark) or simply refreshed with new straw. Although straw does insulate my bed when placed on top of plastic I simply use it because it make my garden LOOK pretty and is very cheap!
3. Pull out and replace drip lines if necessary- This is the one time a year you have access to your whole dip lines, so replace them if needed. You can replace them every year, but I only replaced the ones I had accidentally cut a hole in!
4. Break up your soil and add organic (natural- not 'organic') composted matter and fertilize.
   With my drip lines removed, I can spade my soil to my hearts content. My soil texture still looks great (8-10 inches of non clumpy semi black dirt!) so all I needed to do was add about 2-3 pounds of granular 10-10-10 fertilizer. Organic fertilizer is more expensive and this is one area I don't understand the benefit of 'going organic'. I can buy a enough fertilizer for my 800 square foot garden for $7.00. OR I could shovel in 150 pounds of pounds of blood meal and horse manure. If you have it use it- but all i have around here is baby and dog poop! Synthetic fertilizer is simply man putting natural minerals together in granular form. I'll take it!
5. Re-bury drip line- Now that my soil is ready for the new year. I can rebury my drip lines.
6. Cover back up with plastic mulch- You can use all new plastic much each year (it certainly is cheap enough) or you can reuse last years. Some beds (like corn) I left alone because I had very few holes in plastic, others I had to replace. The more holes you have in you plastic the more moisture escape AND the more weeds you will have.
   Your beds are ready to plant!
   * make sure you fertilize and treat soil for individual plant needs some plant needs more fertilizer or a higher PH. Like blueberries or tomatoes. http://www.caes.uga.edu/applications/publications/files/html/B1011/B1011tables.pdf

My First Asparagus

Asparagus take patience, and in the word of Inigo Montoya “i hate waiting”.

I planted asparagus because its a perennial ( comes back every year) that lives and produces for 16 years! The catch is the asparagus plant isn't ready to eat until it's three years old. Last year I planted a 2 year squid looking bulb like root. They make like a tall spindly bamboo like bush the first two years. This February I got my surprise! 2 thick shoots sticking out of the ground!

If you want to plant a veggie that will produce for 16 years. You can get an asparagus root at most garden stores. The variety jersey knight is recommended for Georgia. The root is places tentacles down. Then 1 year later, you will have your First Asparagus. 

12 Days od Craftmas # 11 The Cape

 For my darling Brittany, i made a Cape. It is reversible with green velvet on one side and a patterned faux suede velvet on the other, with the intent that it could be bother regal or taken for a hike. This is about a 1.5 hour project, so if you can get some velvet or other fabrics on sale, its a great present, one of a kind!

12 Days of Craftmas #10 The Quilt

So, for my mom I waned to do something special and practical. My parent have a cabin in the mountains so I thought maybe something for that, then I thought of a quilt. It is a very non-traditional quilt. I used microfiber just because it was SO soft and ended up being cheaper than buying fabric from a fabric store! I just bought a king sized blanket from wal-mart and cut it up, attached it to the quilt portion and WALLAH!

My mom loved it! So much in fact she for a while refused to take it to the mountain cabin.

FYI: Microfiber is not kind to mistakes, you cannot rip seams out of it without tearing a whole in the fabric! About $25 and 5 hours of work.