RIP Sir Juice-a-lot

It’s official…I’ve been sugarless for 10 days (the crowd cheers)!  Yes, some days were more painful than others (yesterday...ahem!) but I’m happy to report that I’ve temporarily kicked my sugar addiction, and I’m now addicted to...wait for it...my j-j-juicer!  Well, more specifically, I'm addicted to beet juice from my juicer (yum!).  So just to clarify, I’ve eliminated the sugar from my diet except some natural sugars including fruits and veggies. That means no chocolate, no licorice, no cake, no sweets, no ice cream, no cookies, no bread, no ketchup, no prepared foods that contain sugar (i.e. cereal) and not even honey in my tea!  No sugar also means none of that toxic substance the "food" industry calls artifical sweeteners (don't even get me started on that subject!).  Honestly, the only sugar I consume on a daily basis is the natural sugar in fruits and vegetables. So now that I’ve replaced one addiction with another, I can say that I love my juicer more than life itself! Okay, that’s probably a slight exaggeration but hey, I’m also slightly melodramatic :)

Where would I be without my juicer? I certainly wouldn’t have become a mad juicing machine, and it’s quite possible that I may not have been able to survive without sugar for 10 days (see blog post – Survival of the sugarless), and I can say with 100% confidence that I would not be addicted to beet juice nor would I have blogged about juicing (see blog posts – J-J-Juice and All Things Green)!

Who do I have to thank for this juiced blessing? Well, I have Sarah to thank since she bought me the “elite power juicer” for Christmas (thanks Sare!). But Sarah would have never been able to purchase that juicer if it wasn’t for the job she had last summer ($$$) Mr. Jack Lalanne! The juicer I received for Christmas is the Jack Lalanne Power Juicer Elite so thanks Jack (and Sarah)! Mr. Lalanne has been referred to as "the godfather of fitness" and the "first fitness superhero” but to me, he will forever be “Sir Juice-a-lot”!  

Sadly, Mr. Lalanne passed away this week at the age of 96!  He was known for saying “Now that’s the power of the juice!” and with his life as proof, he has validated that the power of the juice is longevity!  All the more reason to feed my addiction to red wine sugar juicing! This might turn out to be a healthy addiction except that Sir Juice-a-lot also believed that good health was the product of nutrition and fitness. Ugh! Does shoveling snow count?

As part of my tribute to Sir Juice-a-lot, I thought I would get to know him a little bit better so after some extensive research, I must acknowledge that Mr. Lalanne and I have much in common….he was a fitness expert, a bodybuilder, a nutritional expert, and a motivational speaker. Okay, so maybe we don’t have an abundance of commonalities but we do have the following in common:

1) When he was young (what’s considered young when you live to be 96?), he was a sugarholic, and so am I! 

2) He loved to juice and so do I!

3) He ate a “mostly” vegetarian diet and so do I!  (A side note to the steak-loving vegetarians: saying "I eat a mostly vegetarian diet" is very different from saying  "I'm a vegetarian” but that’s a rant blog post for another day!).

I admire Mr. Lalanne for being such a stalwart advocate for healthy eating. He once referred to the human bloodstream as a "River of Life" which is polluted by junk foods loaded with preservatives, salt, sugar, and artificial flavorings. I must say that I’m a very healthy eater except for my addiction to sugar which includes chocolate, licorice, ice cream, fudge, brownies, cake, sweets...okay, so maybe before I became sugarless, I wasn't so healthy but my meals are always healthy!  I don’t eat fast food, and I don't eat processed foods because I love to cook from scratch, and I eat a mostly vegetarian diet with as much local, organic produce when it's available. There’s so much crap in processed foods so I always advocate for reading labels which I’ve been doing since my daughter made the decision to be a vegetarian at the age of 10 (please note that I never read the labels on the sweet treats that I used to inhale consume...yes, I was in denial!). My trip to the grocery store usually involves shopping the perimeter of the store. At all costs, I try to avoid the aisles because you can easily get sucked into the yummy treats crap that they sell down temptation alley those aisles. Trust me, I haven’t always been perfect a healthy meal eater. I enjoyed eating Kraft Dinner or frozen dinners (you know the tv dinners) or canned soup or Hamburger Helper Potato Stroganoff. Okay, I cannot tell a lie…if I could still purchase Hamburger Helper Potato Stroganoff, I would still be eating it but I can’t find heaven in a box it anywhere :(

Now, now, let’s turn that frown upside down with thoughts of John Cusack juicing! Okay, I’m much better now! So Sir Juice-a-lot loved juicing so much that he created what I call, my precious juicer (yes, I say “precious” the same way Gollum does in Lord of the Rings). Since I love juicing so much, I was curious to know about Sir Juice-a-lot’s favourite juicing recipe and here’s what I found:

Jack's Super 7

This recipe incorporates seven of the most highly beneficial foods.

2 carrots
1 potato
2 broccoli florettes
1/2 small beet
1/4 red pepper
1 tomato
1/4 cucumber

Since I now have Sir Juice-a-lot's favourite juicing recipe, I think it would only be fitting to name one of my favourite juices in his honor.  The sweetness of this juice will satisfy any sugarholic :)

The Lalanne
Apple
Pear

Watermelon
Clementines
Broccoli sprouts
Parsley

 

“Anything in life is possible, if YOU make it happen!” ~ Jack LaLanne