Ode to Jack Lalanne

I want to lose a few pounds.

By "a few," I mean 10 or 15. I don't want to try and be model skinny, because I'd like to enjoy a brownie from time to time without feeling too terribly guilty. But I'm a little chunkier than I'd like to be, and I'm definitely not happy with the way I feel in most of my clothes. Also, and this is my main motivation, I want to have another baby! We're really in no hurry to start trying, but it is on the to-do list in the (sort of) not so distant future, and I don't want a repeat of what happened when I was pregnant with E. By that I mean, I want to be in decent shape prior to getting pregnant, and I don't really want to weigh 200 pounds the day I give birth. So my plan is to lose a few pounds pre-pregnancy and then try to not to eat my body weight in Chicken McNuggets like I did the last time.

A few weeks back I took up juicing. A friend gave me a juicer, and I juiced until the centrifugal mechanism died and it went to small kitchen appliance heaven. So I hopped on Ebay and found a Jack Lalanne Power Juicer for about $65. I was determined to keep up this new little hobby for a couple of reasons:

1. Juicing is really healthy. It gives you the bulk of the nutrients in the vegetables and less of the bulky fiber that is difficult to digest. It also detoxes your body and establishes a healthy pH balance. You can read all about it here. Also, I kind of feel like I'm being an advocate for my body when I do it. Coming from the girl that ate ice cream for breakfast for 8 years of her life, I would say that's progress.

2. And this is REALLY my motivation: it makes me poop like a mother effin champion! Some of you probably take easy pooping for granted. Shame on you. I could go days at a time without the slightest little hint of a rabbit turd, but the day I started juicing, I also started pooping! Daily! Sometimes multiple times! So when Juicer #1 broke, HELL NO I wasn't going to give up juicing! My bowels were counting on me.

So here's my favorite recipe:

2 tomatoes on the vine

1 red bell pepper

2 stalks celery

a handful of baby carrots

a handful of fresh spinach

It tastes like really fresh v8. Unfortunately, when you combine red things and green things, it makes brown things. So don't look at it. Just put it in a colored glass and make Jack proud!