Juicing a New Leaf

Who else is stunned at what they ate through the Holidays? Anyone? Everyone? It’s natural to eat big in the winter months; we don’t hibernate, but we pick up some extra pounds in case of scarcity. Naturally, this creates a perfect storm in the stretch from Thanksgiving (Halloween if we’re being generous) to New Years, which in our culture seems like a celebration of availability.

And I guarantee you: if it didn’t have eyes, in the last six years I’ve eaten it at a Holiday table. Candied yams, butter-dipped steamed collars, canned cranberries and mashed potatoes, homemade sugar-cookies and biscochitos, hand-crafted nachos and 75-layer dip, SO MUCH STUFFING, a 15-passenger salad, cheese enchiladas, veggie tamales, bean & cheese burritos, SO MUCH CHILE… and on. Once, I even ate a bowl of my best friend’s grandma’s posole – I had to know what he meant by “Mexican Ambrosia.” Come the first week of November, I start sharpening my fork.

And all that undoes much of my goals every other morning of the year: eat mostly fruits and vegetables until satisfied, exercise, and keep off the 40 lbs. I lost in 2009. In the last year I’ve even been working out, and deepening the bond between brain and belly. I learned tricks to muscle my way through what seemed a small meal – my most effective was visualizing how I’d feel about that cookie tomorrow morning – and it became easier. Of course, if you’re the gregarious type, who connects with friends over lunch, dinner, drinks, or at anyone’s house, at any hour considered normal snacking-appropriate, it’s Herculean. But if you’re like me, the slow realization that you have control over your physiology can be itself a hammer of the Gods.

The Holidays always break me of good habits. I remember a time before the Holidays, approaching my body differently, and every year it’s a struggle to return to it. In my fantasy, it’s the dawn of summer, I’ve returned the last of my tummy to the universe, in the form of heat and reduced need, and I look awesome at the beach. I turn 30 this summer, and intend to ring in the new decade with habits (and evidence of them) my body deserves.

This is the start of a series I’ll be posting here about my adventure through the last steps. The ones everyone knows require gritted teeth. Is Juicing the way? Intermittent Fasting? A carefully-vetted diet of salad and protein powder? I don’t know. I’ll be talking to my physician, a personal trainer I have a few hours banked with, and, in my case, trying to kick the last of my gut. We present it in tandem with Atlas Charles’s series from earlier (or later, depending on your perspective) in the process. As he rides his way to a slimmer frame, for the moment I’ll be exploring a combination Juice and Intermittent Fasting.

Social accountability, here we go.

Please note that this series – and this blog – are not a source of medical advice. This blog is intended for entertainment purposes, in no way makes medical recommendations, and should not be taken for such. Please consult a medical professional with any questions.