Juice Days at OHI

Renee's loving her green juice

It's Juice Days at OHI! Eight meals in a row of streamlined, refreshing, green goodness. We tried not to talk about how nice it would be to actually CHEW something. We were both amazed at how "not hungry" we were. The juice is so packed with nutrients that your body really doesn't ask for more. If there were an apple or two thrown in there I may have gone back for seconds and thirds but the plain juice satisfied me. 
The food-addicted cravings are another story altogether, but I was pleasantly surprised at how tame the were after juicing. I felt hopeful that one day my life will be ruled by something more profound than my sweet tooth. 
The ingredients listed for this juice were: cucumber, celery, zucchini, chard, kale and ginger. They must stick to the same recipe because the taste is pretty consistent from meal to meal. Those participants on the regular diet had some beet and carrot thrown in the mix as well. We did the hypo diet for those with sugar issues or cancer (I always do the hypo diet since sugar is a huge issue for me). I've tried the regular juice and you'd think I'd prefer the slightly sweeter juice but I don't. The straight green is so refreshing.
The first weekers juice on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday until dinner. Second weekers, third weekers and returnees juice one day only. I was shooting for the entire fast since I've never actually succeeded before.
We were plowing straight through this juice fast (feast), feeling smugly proud of ourselves when the kitchen made the mistake of serving a yam soup for Wednesday's non-juicing lunch. We caved and had a bowl in addition to our juice and it was sooooooo good! I'm going to blame them because they really should know better than to serve deliciousness during juicing days. There are limits to my self control. (Way too many limits, actually. In fact, so many limits it may not even count as self control to begin with.  Debatable.) The soup portion was actually only about a half a cup so it's all good!
The kitchen is staffed with accommodating angels who filled my heart with gratitude on many occasions. They're very good at special requests or extra servings and will even email all their recipes to participants.
The juice did have a pronounced celery flavor which did not bode well with Renee. After Thursday's breakfast juice we asked the kitchen if they could make some without the celery. They said no problem and made us a special batch for lunch. It was heavenly. It never occurred to me how much better it would taste without the celery! I'm so glad Renee had that brilliant stroke of genius. We were both happily guzzling our new and improved juice and wishing we had thought of it seven juice meals earlier!
By Thursday's dinner most of our detox symptoms had diminished and we were feeling pretty good. It was so lovely to be able to walk up the hill from our townhouse without wanting to stop and rest. Simple pleasures.


Thank you, Anne Giacinto, for sending me these recipes. You're the best! (The soup we had was wonderfully spiced, almost like a pumpkin pie.)

Yam Soup
(10 servings)


6 – 8                 Yams
2 pints                 Sesame milk
1 Teaspoon            Cinnamon
1                     Avocado

Combine above ingredients in food processor or blender until smooth

You can add seasonings:

Suggestions:
Mace
Allspice
Nutmeg
Cloves
Pine nuts (ground finely)