Thoughts on juicing

The results are amazing, either that or I am suddenly, coincidentally, miraculously transformed.

I have been lacking in energy and enthusiasm for years - most of my life I would say.  I'm overweight, sluggish, generally under par, groan when I sit down, groan louder when I stand up.  I was starting to think that it's just a matter of getting older and having parts - mainly joints - that simply aren;t up to the job any more. 

But this juicing lark has really made a difference.  Within literally a day or two of starting, my achey knees are fine, I don't feel the need to grizzle every time I stand up, or collapse with a sigh onto the sofa.  I'm trotting up the stairs with no complaints at all, I'm sleeping far better than of late, and I have energy for everything that I want to do.  It's wonderful, really it is.  Little short of miraculous.

I'm juicing at least once a day, usually twice.  I always start with a couple of organic carrots, and usually at least one apple.  After that it's a matter of whatever I have and fancy at the time.  I have successfully used watermelon, ginger, celery, cucumber, pineapple, pears, broccoli, fennel, kiwi, red and golden beetroot and grapes.  I have tried and rejected cauliflower and spring greens  My thoughts on that (after "yuck") are that it's probably best not to juice anything that you'd not be happy to eat raw. 

There are still so many fruits and veggies waiting to be explored!

Washing up the juicer is a nuisance, and isn't doing my hands too many favours, but overall the benefits are far more numerous and obvious than the trifling down side.  I started a cold on Friday; by Wednesday I was symptomless, and I was able to walk the dogs on all days between except for one.  Normally a cold floors me completely, and my husband, who started his 4 days before me, is still suffering 10 days later.  I did make him one juice but he's really not keen.  His loss!

I'll be keeping this up as long as the juicer and my ability to buy good-quality and mainly organic fruit and veg last.

The results are in and ......

...... I'm allergic to cobalt (strongly), Balsam of Peru (strongly) and Carba mix (weakly).

Cobalt is bad news, partly because I've no way of knowing what I'm touching that contains it, and partly because if I succumb to pernicious anaemia (and I may - vitamin B12 deficiency is quite common in older people) I can't be treated for it as the treatment is cobalt!  So I'm kind of ignoring this one, except that I'll be asking for regular blood tests to check my B12 level.

Carba mix I'm less concerned about.  I should probably not touch anything rubber such as elastic bands, latex gloves and - help - knicker elastic, but it's fairly easy to avoid.

The big problem is Balsam of Peru.  It's everywhere, in cleaning products and personal care products and if that were not bad enough, if one is allergic to it then one is also likely to be allergic to a host of things that form a large part of my diet.  Tomatoes, citrus fruit, the sweet spices (cinnamon, cloves, vanilla etc. Christmas will be very bleak) pickles, chutneys, sauces, anything with "flavouring" as an ingredient is suspect, beer, wine, gin, ice-cream and - chocolate.  Of course they jest.  A future without curry, gin or chocolate?  Shoot me now.

I'm due to go back for a follow-up appointment towards the end of this month, and I'm going to ask for what used to be called a RAST test (no idea what they call it now).  They take your blood and test it for reaction to various foodstuffs so they can give you a list of what you are *definitely* allergic to.

I have my fingers crossed that I'm not allergic to eating any of these things, and that my reactions are purely contact allergies.  It's possible.

My hands are still very fragile and will break out at the slightest provocation.  I am careful with them but probably not careful enough.  You've got to live thought haven't you, and there are many things one cannot accomplish with hands swaddled in cotton wool.

My other plan of attack is to start drinking fresh fruit and vegetable juices, made at home, to boost my immunity and nutritional status.  I've made a start, and jolly tasty it was too.

Apples, red beetroot, golden beetroot, celery, fennel bulb and carrots. 
Very, very good!  Gave me wind though.

I've also ordered some turmeric and will be trying the famous "golden paste" that seems to bring such well-being to the human organism.

If none of that works, I'm stuffed!

Self-help

It's been a while.  I wish I could say I was better but frankly if I am it's not better enough to make me dance with joy.

I've been back to the doctor - an actual doctor this time, the previous two consultations were with nurse practitioners - with infected hands that were oozing clear brown fluid.  I'd already had 2 lots of antibiotics since October and I really didn't want more, so she prescribed me a combined antibiotic/steroid cream to rub into them.  It was supposed to be twice a day, and I did do that for a couple of days, but then I switched to just once at night, because with it on during the day I was terrified to touch anything, especially my animals.  I'd get up each morning and wash them before I could contaminate anyone or anything with the dreaded steroids!  I'm probably a bit anal about it, but I have no idea where the safe limit is, so feel compelled to practice zero tolerance of the vile stuff.

It worked, the infection cleared and eventually I was able to stop using it.  But my skin is so fragile.  The slightest thing tears it or causes it to split.  I dare not crochet, holding a book is something I have to do very carefully - all those sharp edges! - and even typing has to be done gently because my finger ends are shredded.  My nails are starting to distort, and the skin flaking is happening under them, so I am fearful that I may lose them at some point.

I saw a dermatologist at my local hospital, and asked for a referral for patch testing.,  That will happen starting the 23rd of this month.  It's a 5-day process with 3 visits total, then back to my little local hospital to decide where we go from here based on the results.  The doctor I saw was keen to prescribe more steroid cream, but I said no.  I've had 2 lots, it's not a cure and it's damaging to the skin.  I'll try to manage without.

I'm still buying as much organic food as I can afford, but money's getting tight.  My income is under £350 a month now that I've had to give up cleaning, and just my monthly standing orders total £400.  That's before buying any food, petrol, dog food and everything else one needs to live.  I've also been spending money trying to help myself to heal.  Probiotics to last 2 months was nearly £30; I also bought vitamin D because someone said it helped their son, and Citricdial grapefruit seed extract as an immunity-strengthener.

It's been suggested that I may be reacting to a common preservative used in personal care and cleaning products, Methylisothiazolinone or MI for short.  It's causing the most unpleasant damage in some people and should be banned, but it's cheap and popular with manufacturers, so it won't be.  Anyway, I am working to eliminate it from my life just in case.  As it seems likely that exposure to cleaning products and antibac hand wash started this whole ghastly business off, this strikes me as a prudent step.

To that end I've bought Eco-balls to replace washing liquid/powder in my washing machine.  I stopped using fabric softener ages ago, using white vinegar instead, which works fine.  In theory at least I shouldn't even need to use that with the eco-balls.  We'll see.  I've also bought spray bottles and am making a general purpose cleaning fluid with water, white vinegar and a couple of drops of essential oil (lavender, lemon or mint).  It's supposed to have a squirt of safe washing up liquid in it too, but I only have the unsafe kind, so I'll wait until I can get some.  It will probably have to be by post, because hey this is Bognor, we have no truck with such hippyish items as wu liquid that doesn't strip the skin from your bones here!

I've also bought safe shampoo (and wear vinyl gloves while I use even that) and the ingredients to make my own body wash and skin lotion.  No chemicals, just plant extracts.

It's costing a fortune.  And it may not make any difference anyway.  But once the swelling goes down, I'll be crossing my fingers that it does.

Happy New Year

Christmas is a joyful but chaotic time in this house.  Neither of us is in the slightest religious, but we (mainly me) love everything about Christmas.  Yes I could rail about the rampant consumerism, and if I let it affect me then no doubt I would.  But I am an expert at ignoring the parts I don't like and celebrating the parts that I do, so I always (so far, touch wood!) have a wonderful time.

This includes eating things unrestrainedly that I normally either avoid or restrict the rest of the year, particularly since I've been going a bit organic.  As I'm vegan and Dear Husband is not the best at reading labels, I didn't have any crisps this year (one of my weaknesses) because all the varieties he bought (and ended up eating) had lactose in the ingredients list.  Probably just as well, they're one of the worst things for you as far as I can make out, even being ruinous to your teeth!

As well as not eating crisps, I am pleased to report that I ate a lot of fresh fruit and veg, mostly organic as I did a huge shop at the organic farm place I get my regular supply from, up to and including fresh dates.

Of course I also ate a lot of things that ideally I wouldn't.  Bread sauce made with white bread, for example.  We only ever have this at Christmas and I *love* it!  I pick bay leaves from our tree in the garden and make it properly with clove-spiked onion and soya milk.  But yes, it has the dreaded white bread, so not great but as it is only once a year I'm going to let myself off.  We also wrap our nut loaf in pastry - JusRoll puff, again made with white flour.  Mea culpa.

Anyway, enough about Christmas.  I've been muddling along since, eating fairly chaotically and with some days being more like my old diet than my new.  But today has brought my first organic box of the year (the farm closes for an extended winter break) and this is going to get me back on track.

It is a wonderful box, and I've taken the trouble to weigh everything to document just what I got for my £9:

A huge 415g frilly lettuce
586g large tomatoes still on the vine
549g brussels sprouts
784g onions
615g spring greens
1197g potatoes
784g parsnips
1144g carrots

I make that over 6kgs of veg, which must equate to a conservative estimate of 1.5-2lbs per day once the inedible bits are discounted.  That has to easily be my 5 a day, right?  Especially as I'll be eating fruit as well.  I do know that ideally one should be eating twice as much "above ground" veg as "below ground" veg, but I'm not going to be that fussy.  Maybe later I will, but for now I am still happy to be eating lots of good foods and avoiding most of the bad ones.

The box is wonderfully economical, averaging 70p per pound for organic veg, delivered.  I think that would be hard to beat and I'm not even going to try.

I've  not been keeping a food diary, but I have taken photos of some of my meals as the mood has taken me, so here they are just to prove that I've not lost the plot totally over the last few weeks.

Out with the old!

Have you ever noticed how cheap, crap, rubbish foods tend to come in bright, colourful, attractive packs?  Whereas the organic non-perishable stuff I've been buying is very muted - Sainsbury's is all dark, mossy green, shy and retiring, almost as though they didn't want to sell it.

I was made aware of this yesterday when I decided to clear out one of my food cupboards.  This was the one in which I kept all my easily-made food - instant noodles,  sachets of pasta spirals in chemical-laden powder that with the addition of water made a bright-red sauce,  instant coucous.  I don't even like couscous ffs, but put the word "instant" anywhere on the pack and I was there.  I hate waiting for food to cook, I pathologically *loathe* being hungry.

If you don't believe me, compare and contrast the following photographs:

See what I mean?  Purple, yellow, red, blue in the bottom photo, hardly anything other than green and neutrals in the top two.  I wonder how many people buy the prettiest packs, just because they are pretty?

Anyway, that wasn't the purpose of this blog entry.  I wanted to record and report that I have cleared three full carrier bags of undesirable foodstuffs from my cupboard and given them to my mum.  It's the sort of stuff she buys anyway, in the main, so it's not like I'm reducing the quality of her diet.  I couldn't throw it away - I can't abide waste - so she was the perfect answer.

This doesn't mean that I am gong to be perfect, just that I have some cupboard space again and will be less likely to eat refined rubbish for fear of wasting it.  I've kept tins of beans, fruit, soup, jars of beansprouts, that sort of thing, and sauces.  In the main these are made from actual foodstuffs, spices, not anonymous flavourings,  and no colours.  They're not organic, but I can live with that.  I've not been on this project very long and I've already turned my diet around by a long way, so I am content with progress so far.

Best dinner yet!

Oh, that was good!  As is common, I had no idea when I went out into the kitchen what I was going to cook for myself for dinner.  But I happened upon the pack of wholegrain spelt spaghetti that I bought from Sainsbury and that decided me.

I chopped and briskly fried (in a little garlic-infused olive oil) half an organic onion and a big handful of organic button mushrooms  When almost cooked I added half an organic red pepper, sliced, half a tin of chickpeas and half a jar of commercial tomato cook-in sauce, and simmered. Meanwhile I boiled the spaghetti, then about 4 minutes before the end of cooking, I added three big leaves of organic dark spring greens cut into ribbons, to sit on top of the spaghetti and steam under the lid.  Just before serving I stirred a couple of dessertspoons of low-fat hummus into the sauce to make it creamy, and poured it over the spaghetti/greens mix.

It was *far* better than I expected.  The lemon in the hummus really zinged up the greens, which I'll have to remember because I usually use vinegar.  I would happily serve this to someone else, and there's not many things I cook that I'd say that about!

Food good, drugs bad

I gave in and went to the doctor.  It's a long tedious story, but I'm back on antibiotics for the infection on my hand.  Apparently the condition I am suffering from is Pompholyx, and the young lady who examined me that she also gets it, but she's never had it as badly as me!

I've looked on the internet and there are loads of people with it way worse than me.  It's bad enough though.  I look quite a lot as though I'm holding a palmful of raw mince.  I was determined to use the tea tree and aloe vera cure, but this morning it had spread half way up my fingers and with the weekend looming I lost my nerve.  The pain and itching has started also, and that makes life a misery.  Dear Husband is away all next week so I will have to do everything that needs doing for myself and the animals, and I can't see being able to do that with only one usable hand.  I'm gutted.  I hate taking meds.

In other news, I've been to the organic shop again and came home with apples, pears, bananas, fresh dates, greens, avocado, turnips, khol rabi, red peppers, yellow carrots all for £11.  Later on DH went to Sainsbury's and added broccoli, mushrooms and a cucumber to the organic haul.  Good of him, considering that he won't be here to eat any of it.  I'm not looking forward to his absence.

Food today was toast & peanut butter (all organic) for breakfast, soya cheese and cucumber/pickle rolls for lunch (bread and cucumber organic, the rest not) and an amazingly delicious organic apple and a few organic dates this afternoon.  Dinner was a Linda McCartney curried vegcake (not sure of the actual title) with organic jacket potato and steamed veg (yellow carrot, turnip, frozen peas and pointy cabbage - all organic except the peas).  I seasoned it with onion salt and a tsp of mint jelly and it was nicer than I was expecting.  A single square of chocolate and a couple more dates rounded off the meal.

I'm still feeling good apart from my hand, plenty of energy (for me anyway), good spirits (apart from my brush with the NHS) and optimistic about the future despite the setback to my earnings.  So overall and on balance I feel as though I'm winning.  :)