Vegetarian's Near Death with Juicing

Dramatic title...yeah, well maybe. 

But yesterday was a little dramatic. 

 Let me share...

My friend Becky has lost 40 something pounds of unneeded weight.  She looks like 15 years younger and is full of energy now.  How did she do it?  Well, it began with a book called Clean.  As I've watched her transformation over the past 6 months, I decided to borrow her book and see what it had to say.  I am not looking to lose a lot of weight, but having more energy is something that I'd love, so read I did.  She also passed me a very interesting DVD called Hungry for Change, which was really eye opening to our bad American diet. A lot of common sense really, but you know how little we use common sense any more, especially when it comes to what we put into our bodies and the bodies of our children.

So a few weeks back we dug out our old juicer (which had not wanted to come back to life, but with a handy Knight she came to life again with a few twists and turns of the screwdriver).  We've been juicing once a day (Clean recommends twice a day-breakfast and dinner, with your meal at lunch).  Trying all kinds of combinations-50% veggies and 50% fruits.  I have been making a lot of breads, muffins and such with the left over pulp too (waste not want not, right?)  The Clean diet is basically a detox diet, it cleans you out and reestablishes better eating habits and rids you of toxicity.

Yesterday something went terribly wrong. 

 I bought a crate of kale and decided to go with a green juice.  I made half a pitcher for the Knight and I to drink. I slugged down a glass mid-morning of pulpish-foamy-ish juice, as I cleaned out the juicer. The foamy stuff I think you are supposed to filter out, but I figured I'd just drink it.  I put kale, a lemon, apples, a plum, a peach, a bunch of carrots it was pretty yummy.  I'd never tried kale before, but saw many recipes that included it and called it a wonder worker of sorts.

About 30 minutes after drinking it, as I was walking around the track with a friend at the gym, my stomach began to feel grumbly. I stopped for the bathroom.  I thought I felt better, but upon another lap and needing to sit down, I knew I was in big trouble.  My friend Betty laid hands on me and began to pray. 

 At prayers end I ran back to the bathroom and began to vomit. 

 Yup. not. fun. 

 Especially since I don't love public bathrooms and that this gym of mine is also hosting day camp for at least 100 children; i.e. condition of said bathroom is not too high.  

I managed to leave the bathroom and sit leaning on the wall of the track.  Two of my friends now surfaced and said my face was as white as my new t-shirt.  I told them I needed to gather my kids and go, because the kale wasn't working on my otherwise empty stomach.  (go figure I am a vegetarian and I eat kale all the time cooked!)

 I began to imagine reports of how a vegetarian mother was killed~ death by kale.

One friend offered to keep my kids and bring them to me later.  I convinced the baby to come and we managed to find home.  Well, I found the floor which seemed like the perfect place to recover. My 17 year old daughter who was at home working on math,  kept trying to convince me to lie on the couch or my bed.  As having been the victim of food poisoning a few times too many, I have learned that there is no place like the floor whilst in this condition.  

However soon the bathroom began to call and again I wondered why this kale was trying to kill me. Didn't I bring it home for good health?

So once it got out- and I laid down for a bit more I began to come back to life.  A rebound that needed to occur as I was having a book club at my house in the evening.

Will I try kale juice again...hmmm, as I bought a crate of it and it is in need of being made into either juice or food, well yeah.  A tricky road sometimes to good health and energy. Perhaps it takes a bit of a fighting spirit to find the new better place of health that I want.  Guess today is a new day and that I just need to forget about yesterdays kale juice and move on to what can we juice today!

I am pondering buying a Vita-mix

...and maybe a better juicer..

any suggestions friends?