Juice Mania

I am going to come right out and say it, I Juice!  I sometimes juice twice a day or more!  When I started juicing I was a little worried but I got hooked on the feeling.  That’s right folks; I am talking about fruit and vegetable juicing!

A couple months ago my roommate and I watched a movie that sparked a curiosity and sent me on a crazy and intense journey.  The movie was, “Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead”, and in this movie a fat Australian man came to America and filmed himself on a 60 day juice only fast.  During his adventure he met up with a truck driver that decided to join him and together the two of them became inspirations to hundreds. 

The Australian, Joe Cross, ended up losing 80 pounds and stopped taking all of his medication.  The truck driver, Phil Staples, lost an amazing 200 pounds!!  So I began thinking, “I could totally do a 10 day fast.” And that’s where the problem began. 

I went to work the next day and told everyone at work about this juice fast and my desire to do a simple 10 day fast, and they all wanted in.  I was shocked, we all were about to spend 10 days with no solid foods while being surrounded by food all day long!  This would become a horrible test of all of our will power.

These are the 5 people involved in this adventure, Catering Chef Chris, our Executive Chef Zelda, Event Specialists Jeff and Alisa, and Myself.  And what are all of those veggies and fruits in front of us?  Why they are what we will be feasting on for the next ten days.  You are looking at over 100# of veggies that will be turned into 25 gallons of juice. 

Day 1 and 2:  To say this was hard is an understatement.  I was watching the food network like starved wolf stares at an open chicken coop.  I kept a pen a paper next to my chair and for two hours I just jotted down food and beverage ideas, some awesome and some delusional. 

 

Day 3: I call this the “Oh no you didn’t” day.   Tempers were hot, kind words were in short supply and every one of us was on edge.  I do believe this day each of us snapped at least once at our fellow employees.  Also our pastry chef Ethel decided this day would be a fine day to make fried chicken and gravy…..

Day 5-6: And then there were four, one of ours dropped off the island and landed in a chicken sandwich.  Now it’s down to the four of us to complete this task. 

Day 7-10:   We finished, feeling much better, several pounds lighter and feeling goooood.  All together we lost an average of 9 pounds.  The girls lost around 4-5 pounds while the fellas lost an average of 11.5 pounds.  The ladies were not happy. 

I must say, I fell in love with this process.  The feeling you get from those pure veggies and fruit was unbelievable.  My favorite drink was my morning elixir of carrots, ginger, granny smith apples, beets and pineapple.  You could feel the beet giving you a straight shot of energy that pushed us through the worst morning drudges. 

I plan to incorporate juicing into my everyday life and I hope you give these drinks a chance, might just change your life!

Stay tuned for more inspired dishes from Lon Lane's Inspired Occasions Research and Development Department!