I wish it was easy to be GREEN!

Green juice makes a HUGE difference!

I stopped doing so much juice and was eating more raw. I was feeling pretty tired and I was getting REALLY haggard looking. I was looking like I was 50 (about to turn 40).

The whites of my eyes were not bright, more of a gray. My skin was looking pretty saggy and dull. The glow was absolutely gone.

I've been reading "Beautiful on Raw" by Tonya Zavasta. In that book she has testimonials from women who have seen huge changes in their appearance. All of them juiced and one of them said she felt green juice was her beauty secret.

So I decided I would try to juice daily. I would either make myself juice or I would go down to Robek's juice bar and buy some juice. I have figured it costs me up to 6-7 dollars to make a quart of juice from 1 English cucumber ($1.99), 1 bunch of celery (up to $2.50), and a head of dark leafy greens (up to $2.50) - unless I can find good organic bargains. I can go to Robek's and get a Large green juice with 2 oz shot of wheatgrass on the side for 7.99. So I've been doing either or.

I know I would save more if I bought regular produce...but in the long run I end up saving with organic. I don't think people realize how much nutrition our food has lost over the years with modern farming methods and soil that has been depleted of nutrients. I think there was a study done in the 50's that showed commercial produce had already lost 20-30% of it's nutrition and it was estimated to get worse. Don't quote me, I can't find the book that was in. I think it was one of Dr. Norman Walker's books. I can eat less organic food and get more nutrition. I can get away with a juice and a salad along with some nuts and seeds and seaweed for the day.

The people at Robek's think I'm crazy. The "greenest" drink they offer is called a Green-V, and it has tons of carrots with celery and some spinach. It comes out orange from the carrots and very sweet. Not very good for diabetics. I don't think they realize what little options they offer for diabetics.

I ask for a large juice with 1/2 of one carrot, regular celery, and tons of spinach. I used to deplete their spinach supply, so now I bring in my own cucumber for them to add. They are really nice and try to give me what I ask, and they add the cucumber I bring in. Although it does feel a little funny walking past everyone at Starbucks and the people sitting at the tables outside the juice bar holding a long cucumber lol.

I go in and get my green juice, and have done it pretty regularly. Because I bring in the cucumber, there is often extra and they'll give it to me in a little cup. One day I saw the extra, but they didn't give it to me. I just figured they didn't feel generous that day and left. The next day I was there bright and early with my cucumber and the same two girls where at the counter from the day before. I ordered my juice and then they went about making it. Then one of the girls kind of timidly asks...do you really like this juice? I said, "Huh?" and she said, "Well do you order it because you like it or for health reasons?" I said, I guess health reasons and also I can't have all the sweet stuff because I have diabetes. They go, "OH." Then went on to explain that they had tried the extra juice from the day before and they thought it tasted horrible, haha. Oh well, hehe.

ANYWAY, long story short, within a couple days of starting up the green juice regularly, the glow was back and my skin was feeling more elastic again. I feel so much better too. Happier. The whites of my eyes are white again and little spots I was starting to get on my face are gone.

Juicing is a pain in the arse. There I said it. And it's expensive. But actually if I'm really only drinking a quart of juice (celery, cucumber, lettuce) and then having a big salad (avocado, greens, sprouts, tomato, onions, lemon, garlic, ginger, peppers, and something extra like beets, broccoli, corn, cabbage, carrots, etc.) along with an apple a day and some nuts/seeds...and pretty much skipping dinner then it's not THAT BAD. I think the problem is the three diets going on in our house - hubby vegetarian (who doesn't really like veggies), son a "normal" diet, and then me mostly raw. If it were just me, that'd be a different story. And it's a pain because I don't want to eat dinner but I gotta make dinner for them.

I'll say it again, juicing is apain in the ARSE. I hate having to buy fresh veggies every couple days. I hate all the looks from people who see my cart full of veggies. I hate when the supermarket cashiers seem to pray that I don't go into their lines with my cart full of produce - half of it they can't identify let alone remember the codes and prices for. I hate having a fridge CRAMMED with veggies. Literally, I open the door and something falls out. I hate constantly having to clean out the fridge. I hate how dealing with fresh live foods means your kitchen looks like youve been sacrificing it to the Gods for eons, with little bits of veggies here and there. I hate how it attracts all the little no-see-ums and flies. I hate prepping the veggies and juicing them. I hate straining the stuff. I hate cleaning up afterwards. I hate all the veggie garbage and pulp I have to be either creative or wasteful with. (I recently began raising earthworms to eat some of that stuff) BUT....it's worth it! REALLY!

(I don't hate the taste though. I did at first, but now I crave it. )

Why I started this

As the editor of DiabeticMommy.com, I try to keep up on all the latest treatments, products, discoveries on the diabetes landscape.

I do what I'm told - follow a diabetes diet, take my medications, check my levels, and try to keep my blood sugar values in the accepted range. I have had diabetes for 15 years and for 15 years have had no serious complications from diabetes (knock on wood).

However, as I've been getting closer to 40, it seems like I've been really feeling my age (feeling OLDER actually) and new health issues are popping up. I know I have to get my weight down and optimally reduce or eliminate my medications, but that has been easier said than done. I've tried all sorts of diets - Adkins, South Beach, grapefruit diet, cabbage soup diet, zone diet, Slim Fast, Weight Watchers, diet pills, hypnotism, nutritionists, etc. I've done all sorts of exercise - gym memberships, personal training, jogging, training for and completing a 5K, training for a half-marathon (halted by injury), etc.I usually notice health improvements. And my body composition changes. However, I don't really lose a lot of weight - especially none of my visceral intra-abdominal fat.

I have no doubt that I have willpower - because I have always given these things a really good try and have been very good. However, I stop out of frustration when months pass and I see no results on the scale at all. Or I get injured or sick from overdoing it, and have to stop with a loss of motivation.

The past few years, I have been in a cycle - I try really hard but when nothing happens, I give up and figure why try at all. This year, I had pretty much given up. I drive a carpool, and the father of the girls I drive home often tries to give me diabetes advice. If you are a diabetic, you know how this is. Often the advice you get from non-diabetics is cockamamie. Or they will say things like, "You know, you JUST gotta lose weight and your diabetes will go away." I won't go into that now.

Basically a type 2 diabetes body has been modified into a fat-storing machine, it is streamlined for times of famine. We can make due on less. Well, I can't remember the last time we had a good famine here, but my body is busy storing away. Our hormonal system sends out chemical messages to the rest of the body - Don't release the fat! I want carbs! It's the same as if we took a pill, we are drugged by our own bodies.

ANYWAY....my friend kept giving me advice, and I'd smile and say, I'll look into that, and drive away. One day he came out with a flyer for a talk about diabetes. He told me he knew the speaker personally, and that he has "cured diabetes by giving people a bunch of green juices - made diabetics lose weight and all beautiful and everything." I asked myself, "Is he not only saying I'm fat but ugly too?" I smiled and said thanks, I'll check it out.

Not too long after, my online gaming friend Kurt decided to do some research for me after hearing me complain about diabetes. He's not a doctor, but he's a smart guy. He told me he read that I should be eating vegan, and mostly raw, and cut out cheese. Hmmmm, was it a sign to at least give it a try?

So I looked at that ad again. It was for a seminar by Gabriel Cousens, M.D., and it looked like he was promoting his book "There Is a Cure for Diabetes: The Tree of Life 21-Day+Program

I looked up that book online. I discovered the book explained how diabetics could "cure" diabetes with a raw vegan diet...WHAT? Raw Vegan diet - F THAT! So I forgot about it for a couple days.

I also didn't like that they used the word "cure." To me "cure" means that it's gone and you don't have to worry about it anymore. This program is more about gaining control - and managing with diet and exercise. To it's credit, it's not easy at all to control diabetes with diet and exercise, and often you aren't successful and then have to add in medications, but this is a way of life that almost guarantees you will get control.

In spite of my doubts, I began to wonder if I might benefit from just a vegetarian diet. So I started to surf around the net and somehow ended up watching some videos by Philip McCluskey of LovingRaw.com.

For some reason I really related to him in this video. He had lost a lot of weight, was happy and healthy. He was eating a raw vegan diet and was loving it. I wanted to be there too.

So I surfed around some more and was amazed and flabbergasted by some of the blogs, testimonials, and before/after pics I was coming across. Everyone seemed so happy, so energized. It was like you see in movies and read in books when someone becomes a vampire - they are transformed into an extraordinarily beautiful person. I'm serious, many of the blogs I found showed pictures like that. Google "raw food before and after" or "juice feast before and after."

I bought a couple books - Ani's Raw Food Kitchen: Easy, Delectable Living Foods Recipes by Ani Phyo and Raw Food Life Force Energy: Enter a Totally New Stratosphere of Weight Loss, Beauty, and Health by Natalia Rose. These were great books and got me excited about raw/living foods. I tried a couple recipes from Ani's book - and even got my son to eat one of her oatmeal recipes - very willingly.

Since then I've bought a LOT more books and will share my favorites later.

Anyway, this inspired me to at least give it a try. I never intended, and will never force myself to go 100% raw, but I try to aim for around 80% - so I still get to have my favorites once in a while.