Juice Nashville

Juice Nashville Labels

"Did she just say juice cleanse?", you are asking your self, and indeed you read correctly.  A juice cleanse it was.  Nashville has a new company (Juice Nashville) from which you can buy a day's worth of juices with which to cleanse your body.  The important thing is that they are unpasteurized and you do not have to do any of the juicing work yourself.  Let me just tell you right now that juicing is a serious hassle.

In fact, I find juicing to be such a hassle that I gave my juicer to my neighbor.  Juicing is out of the realm of my time and talent.  I will say, though, that a freshly made juice is so delicious that you will not really want to hit your Minute Maid unless you just need a sugar high.

Also, I read this great blog post about pasteurization from Lauren Talbot.  The most common sense element of the idea of pasteurization is that while the juice is safe and will keep for a long time, it has been heated to a point that most of the benefits of a juice are lost.  It has become a sugar wasteland.  

Now that I have a Vitamix, I generally just throw everything in the  blender and drink it like a shake.  I am always sort of disturbed by the amount of pulp/fiber you lose when juicing, as I think the whole food is probably very important, thus my Vitamix.

Anyway, I got down a juicing rabbit hole, and I want to tell you all about Juice Nashville.  If you want to do a three day juice cleanse, like something that Gwynneth Paltrow would tell us to do on Goop, or if you want to order a week's worth of unpasteurized almond milk or carrot juice or what evers your heart may desire, you can order online at Juice Nashville.  Juice Nashville will deliver to your home or you can pick it up at the Nashville or Franklin Farmer's Market.  The Juice was great and packaged well.  I thoroughly enjoyed every juice.

Juices were as follows:
1) apple, kale, collard, lemon
2)apple, beet, kale, ginger
3) orange, grapefruit, apple, ginger
4) carrot
5) apple, carrot, ginger
6) almond milk

All the juices were a burst of fabulousness to my palate. Really delicious.  I will keep the labels forever so that I can create identical combinations in my Vitamix.  The most delicious and fascinating to me was the almond milk.  It was great.  I drink almond milk at home, and it is tasty.  BUT, the fresh unpasteurized almond milk was a whole unexpected experience in freshness.  It tasted like a liquified raw almond.  I have no interest in investing in an nut milker (is it me or does "nut milker" sound totally filthy like Cinemax after dark???!!!), so I can see investing in an almond milk a week for cereal and such.  HOWEVER, it is $6 dollars for each 16 oz bottle of juice; 2 cups of juice for $6!!!!!.  THAT IS A LOT, in case you are unversed in food pricing.  If I bought one almond milk a week, I could stretch in into one bowl of cereal and one of my oatmeal bakes.  I may try the almond milk for a few weeks and see how it goes.

In conclusion, Juice Nashville is amazing.  If I win the lottery, I am for sure having their juices delivered on a regular basis.  Until then, I will buy the almond milk and make my own concoctions in my Vitamix.  Womp Womp.  Would really like to win the lottery.

Boston Marathon and Everything Else

On the bus to Hopkinton

Boston Athlete's Village

Oh Hello There.  I am just swanning back into the blog world with profuse apologies for my absence.  My work picked up and the baby stopped sleeping through the night and everything sort of went to pot.  I continued training for the Boston Marathon successfully, but I had to let the blog go for a while.  I really miss blogging when I stop doing it, so I am hoping that I am back on for good.  I will skip everything that went down since I ran the Tom King half marathon and just tell you how the Boston Marathon went down.

The Boston Marathon was really the worst. It was 89 degrees at the start, I ran an hour slower than anticipated.  It did not ruin my life, BUT I have to say that it hurt my pride and just demoralized me.  It was a rugged run and honestly, I did not run a lot of it. I killed my first eight miles and then just phoned it in for the next eighteen.  It was ugly.

On the breast feeding front, I really thought that I would be so dehydrated from running in such warm temperatures that my breasts would not be able to fill up with milk.  I was sorely mistaken however.  I became more and more dehydrated and my boobs got bigger and bigger.  In fact, the only sunburn I really got that day was when my full boobs pushed up over my sports bra, exposing skin that should never have been exposed.  Honestly, I peed at 9:30 AM in the morning and then did not pee again until 6:30 that night.  It was a color like I have ever seen.

Post marathon, I was supposed to meet my husband and Baby G at the Boston Four Seasons for drinks with my running group.  When I showed up at the Four Sesaons, my husband had forgotten my Hooter Hider (breast feeding smock) and I had no choice but to feed Baby G out in the open at the Four Seasons bar like a dirty hippie.  All in all, the whole marathon sort of went downhill.  I will say that it was a lovely trip.  We had great dinners.

On the way home, however, our flight from Newark to Nashville was cancelled twice.  We sat in the Newark food court for 5 hours and did not touch down in Nashville until 1:30 AM with a 6 month old.  It was all just brutal.  However, it is over, and I live to fight another day.

Post marathon, I have taken two weeks off of everything but yoga and pilates.  I met with a personal trainer to determine that I have a split transverse muscle.  I have a whole regimen of things to do to improve what the ills of pregnancy have done to my abdominals.  I have done a good bit of cooking and embarked on a one day juice cleanse from Juice Nashville.    There is a lot to tell.

More tomorrow.

Sunday: Swim

I have done no yoga, stretching anything since Thursday.  THURSDAY.  I actually did not feel as poorly as I expected to upon crawling out of bed this morning.  My body recovered from the Tom King half marathon better than I thought under the circumstances.

This morning, though it was daylight savings time, I heroically dragged myself out of bed and readied the children for church.  I put Little G in a frilly church suit, my oldest son in a john john with knee socks, raked a comb through my hair and made it to service with only minimal tardiness.  Of course, up on getting to the church nursery to drop off my children, there was only one nursery worker.  Nervous Pervous that I am, it felt a little scary for me to leave both infant and toddler in a room with one nursery worker and other children.

I had two options here, and they were:  1) stay in the nursery with the nursery worker and help care for my children and others.  However, did I really get all of us gussied up so that we could sit on the nursery floor and squash Pepperidge Farms Goldfish into the carpet.  I really, honestly do not know what Jesus wanted me to do in this situation and the decision I made was my second option.  2) I leave my three year old with the nursery worker and tote the baby with me to the sanctuary and try my luck.

Trying my luck was not so bad.  The baby was pretty good, and when he really got the fuss, the service was nearing communion time.  I was able to hoof it out of the sanctuary to pick up my older son so that he could participate in communion.  The baby held it together and we made it through communion with only the minimal infraction of my older son dragging his toy robot up to communion with him and dandling it over the kneeling rail.  Compared to other church incidents in the past, everything ran pretty well.

Once home, I forced everyone into bed for a nap whether they liked it or not and sat on the couch until it was time to head to swim.  At swim we swam:

• 12 x 50
• 15 x 100 
• 800 pull

This morning, I was pleased to stay in bed an extra half hour before getting downtown to run the Tom King Half Marathon.  I have run the Tom King multiple times in my athletic career and I have always found it be one of the most deceptive races that I have ever run.  It is mostly flat and for whatever reason, I generally think it is an easy race, but I always try to run it too fast AND I barely make it to the end AND  I am then sick and miserable for the rest of the day.

I was hoping that this year, I would have it under control, but no.  I did at least go out rather moderately, so I did not start hurting until the end.  I ran around 7:40's until around the half, then picked it up from there.  I actually ran a sub seven minute mile towards the end.  Today actually made me think that Boston would not be as enjoyable and easy as that last time I ran it.

I ran it two minutes slower than when I ran it two years ago in preparation for my first Boston marathon. I ran that Tom King all out, and I am pretty sure that I spent the rest of that day in pain as well.  Today was worse because I two children instead of one.

I parked it on the couch, held the baby and tried to run interference with my three year old all from a supine position.  It did not work.  When the baby finally went down for a nap, I was able to face plant in my bed and spend further time pondering the wisdom of my Saturdays.  I dragged myself out of bed to run, my husband used almost all my pumped breast milk, and my day was pretty well sacked.

Bleh.  I sort of enjoy it though.

Thursday: Better than Yesterday

So last night, in an effort to retake some control of my life, I planned my day.  I thought I would run my older son to nursery school, then run with the baby in the jog stroller for seven miles.  Then, I would shower and arrive at the YMCA for pilates looking like a clean pilates maven in spandex and lululemon.

It was, of course, not to be.  The baby napped forever, I took my older son to nursery school late in an effort to let the baby finish his nap.  Then it started raining in a horizontal typhoon type deluge.  Whatevers.  I at least got to take my pilates class and run on the treadmill for six miles.  I looked hideous.  My hair was honestly beyond oily.  I was at 48 hours of no face wash.  It was rugged.

Anyway, the silver lining in all this was that the baby fell asleep in the car on the way home from the gym nursery and I was able to set his car seat carrier on the floor of the bathroom and take a luxurious shower complete with shaving, lotioning, and extra conditioner.

It was lovely!!

Something I make every week: Kale, Sweet Potato, Sausage Saute'

MOLLY FITZPATRICK / THE TURNIP TRUCK

2-3 cups sweet potato, peeled, cut into cubes & roasted or boiled until just tender

1/2 lb ground pork sausage (such as Blackbird Heritage; hot sausage works great too!)

1 bunch lacinato kale (6-8 leaves), center rib removed, cut into 1/2 inch strips

Kosher Salt

Pepper

Crushed Red Pepper (optional) 

Cook sweet potatoes using desired method (roasting tends to produce a more flavorful end product, boiling is quicker). If boiling, make sure the water is well salted. They should be just tender or will get mashed up as they are sauteed with the other ingredients. Place a medium sized, heavy skillet over medium high heat. Brown the sausage and allow fat to render -- you can pour some off as desired, but leave at least 2 T in the pan. When the sausage is all cooked through and browned on the outside, put your kale in the same pan and cover for about 1-2 minutes to wilt. When the kale has reduced in size by about half, add the cooked sweet potato and toss together, being careful not to break up potatoes.  

This dish can easily be made vegetarian or vegan with the following adjustments: omit sausage, and saute kale and cooked sweet potatoes in olive oil over medium high heat. Add a big squeeze of fresh lemon juice & crushed red pepper, and salt to taste. Some tasty additions include sliced almonds, fresh parmesan, pecorino, or chevre cheese. Serve over quinoa or brown rice. Season to taste with salt & pepper (& crushed red pepper, if you like a little spice). Serves 4

Wednesday: Nothing

Oh my goodness.  Today, I put on my swimsuit at 7:30 AM, and I did not take it off until 1:00 PM and I never got in the pool.  Baby G fell asleep before we left for the pool, so overwhelmed with mom guilt, I stayed at home to let him nap.  The nap stretched out into two hours which meant that we missed swim class.

SO, when the baby woke up, I took my older son to his swim class.  Then we all went home in hopes of naps for all and then hitting the pool in the afternoon.  However, my older son slept for 5 hours.  Five hours.

Can I sleep for five hours sometime?  Anyway, there was no going to the pool or running or any of it.  So whatever, day off.  I did a lot of cooking, ironing, housewifery if you will.

I have not washed my face.

Bleh