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Grocery shopping is a whole new game since I began a 60 day juice reboot, 30 days ago. I use to make weekly/bi-weekly trips to the grocery store but now I visit every two to three days to buy fresh produce. I use to load up on meat, potatoes, bread, cereal, butter, milk, yogurt, flour, sugar and ice cream.

Now I buy kale, swiss chard, celery, bell peppers, cilantro, mint, romaine hearts, beets, turnips, broccoli, carrots, parsley, parsnips, zucchini, cucumbers, lemons, limes, grapefruit, tangerines, green apples, pineapple and pears.

My biggest dilemma these days is whether to buy Organic. The answer would easily be yes but the price difference can give one pause. For example, a bundle of broccoli might be $1.99. An Organic bundle of similar size, $4.95. Yikes! That’s significant, for sure. But after all I’ve read about food production, I have to stop and think about this. My motivation and goal is health, wellness and fitness. I’m juicing to pour concentrated nutrients into my body that they can cleanse, replenish and restore, from the inside out. With that in mind, it’s clear that chemicals and pestisides  should be avoided. At all costs. Paying more for organic fruits and vegetables is still a lot less expensive than being sick. So it’s settled. It’s organic for me.

I can hardly wait until local organic farmers/gardeners start producing fresh vegetables. I recently talked to a nice guy named Marty, who lives in Rogers and grows and organic garden for his family and sells the rest. It’s called Sun Food Farm. He hopes to have produce by early March.

Lately, when I roll my shopping cart up to the cash register it looks like I dug up a garden and stuck it in my cart! Often I get asked about it. “ Are you making something special?” Of course I have to tell them about the juicing. People always ask, “Are you not eating?” So, just for the record, I am eating and drinking vegetables and fruit’s for 60 days. Juicing more than chewing but everyday or so I’ll eat a tangerine, steamed vegetable, celery and salsa w/ avocado & cilantro or blueberries.

Today, I actually drove thru Chikfila for the first time in a month and bought 3 Chargrilled chicken salads, no dressing and took them downtown to have lunch with two friends. I removed the chicken and cheese and enjoyed every bite. The first time I did this I kind of felt like I was cheating because I never saw Joe Cross eat a thing on his documentary, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. But a visit to his website www.jointhereboot.com set me straight. A juice reboot according to the site is defined by ‘Committing for a period of time to eat and drink vegetables and juice only.’ Hooray! Since I had already successfully ‘juiced only’ for a week this was great news! I was convinced more than ever, I could do this.

I’ve enjoyed creating juice combinations as well as salads like this one. Avocado, celery hearts, green onion, cherry tomatoes, cilantro and salsa. So delicious!

In 30 days, I will begin to eat more and juice less. The Crazy, Sexy Diet Book, suggests you juice twice until noon and then veggies/plant matter the rest of the day. Of course, that sounds great to me because that’s similar to what I’m doing, only more eating. Until then I’ll keep on going with the juice reboot. Why not? I’ve never felt better. I promise.