Food glorious food

   I was watching 20/20 the other night and it was about living until you were 150 years old.  That the technology is almost there to ... well, I don't want to say much more because I wasn't really listening because if I'm going to be around for that long, I have plenty of time to learn about it!  But then there was a segment on this couple who practice Calorie Restricting (CR) and they were eating a plate of food that I can't seem to get out of my mind.  It was so beautiful.  There was sweet potato (orange) and roasted beet (red) and carrots (orange) and broccoli (green) and cauliflower (white) and green beans and I couldn't stop looking at it.  I wanted it!  I craved the colors, the textures, I could feel the way the food would feel in my mouth, crunchy or soft or sweet or earthy.

Veggie cravings?

Maybe.  I started juicing again -- just out of the blue -- I am not sure how long I haven't been juicing, months I know.  Before that I juiced daily for close to four years and I know last summer I was getting weary of it ... I kept thinking to myself that I needed a juicing vacation, and apparently I went on one because the juicer got so dusty my husband moved it into the basement.  I actually had to go looking for it!  An appliance that had been sitting front and center on my counter had been basemented!  The horror!

But it's interesting how the brain works.  I stopped drinking coffee years ago too, and I've started drinking it again.  Not daily, but a few times a week.  I had a cup of coffee (organic) at the health food store the other day and it tasted like sheer heaven.  It was so smooth and yummy.  So at that moment I pledged to never drink another non-organic cup of coffee again.  Which rules out the corner-store cups my husband has been bringing home to me on the weekends.  And I am pretty sure it nixes Dunkin' Donuts.    My kids and I wanted coffee last week and I said I didn't have any in the house, and my son came into the living room with one of those Sam's Club-sized bags of coffee.  Huh?

Then I remembered:  I had just kind of off-handedly decided that if I was going to drink coffee then it should be organic and I stumbled across the big-ass bag of organic coffee at Sam's Club and bought it.  (This was before drinking the organic coffee mind you.)  So odd.  But ... now that I am back to juicing, I don't want or need the coffee.  Or do I?  Is coffee bad?  I know I believed it was for years, but there are such conflicting reports on it (haha, like I ever read those.)  The only time I put an ear out for a conflicting report is if **I** am conflicted and want someone to make up my mind for me.

I started my morning out today with a shot of wheatgrass.  I had stopped wheatgrassing a while ago because it was making me kind of sick -- the smell of it, the taste.  Went down fine this morning.  I am thinking my body was saying oh so many months ago -- you're need to lay off this stuff for a bit.  I followed it up with carrot/apple/beet/dandelion green/cabbage/ginger juice and it was to die for.  The COLOR of it.  Oh, I could wax poetic on the color of that juice for hours.  And while wondering for the millionth time if there is ANYTHING I can do with the pulp (the colorful pulp) like dye clothes or paint a picture ... anything but throw it away, it struck me that not too long ago I wasn't juicing with that kind of fervor and appreciation for the color and the end product ... it was a job and I hated it.  I was sick of it.  I was D O N E.

I then went on a hike and returned home ravenous ... and opened up the fridge and thought oh no!  It's just a green jungle in there!  I've gone overboard.  So I thought, what do I want?  What would taste good right now?

And I opted for a chunk of cheddar cheese and an organic wheat roll I'd picked up at the health food store.  It was so good.  I relished every bite.  But it wasn't that colorful, so I made a smoothie -- out of blueberries, banana, some protein powder and flaxseed oil and made Charlie drink it because he said he had no energy, and then I just stared in wonder at the purple yummy drink before me.

What is going on?  I am in love with food or something?  The colors.  The taste!  It was sooooo good.  I had a completely different topic I was going to blog about.

But I have food on the brain.  Beautiful food.  Luscious, bright, crunchy, cold, hot, smooth, sweet, tangy yummy yummy fooooooooooood!

I just left for a moment to rinse out my smoothy glass in the sink and I realized I need to do something besides sit.  So I have to leave ... but before I go, I must say this.  I am often asked what wheatgrass does for me ... and I really have a problem answering ... because I think that it -- combined with a lot of other things, makes me feel great.

But here's what it does:  I went on a hike this afternoon -- a good hike.  Almost an hour-and-a-half of vigorous slogging through mushy snow, sometimes sinking up to waist level, (the things I will do to avoid wearing snow shoes!) and it was great.  And normally I would be happy about now, late afternoon, to curl up with a good book or blog and call it a day.

But today I had wheatgrass.  And I feel like going again!  In fact, I can't stay inside.  I have to move.

And that, you see, is what wheatgrass does.  It makes you live!