All juiced up and ready to go

After an enjoyable week of clean living at the Golden Door in Queensland I am feeling fine. 

I mean, you have to be feeling pretty healthy after a week abstaining from the things that make life enjoyable, otherwise why would you do it?  No alcohol, no caffeine, no meat red or white, no sugar, little bread: in return you get quite delicious meals cooked by a passionate chef who knows how to get maximum flavour without using any of those things, along with lots of exercise, stretching and meditation (for a full review see my next two blogs).  

But I am taking it to the next level - as they like to say on Masterchef.  There was no TV either - or cell reception, or internet - fabulous!.

Rainforest chalet accommodation at the Golden Door

Some of you may have heard of Joe Cross, or seen his documentary Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead.  At 41, Joe weighed some ungodly amount and was suffering from a rare autoimmune disease and reliant on pharmaceuticals.  He decided to "reboot" his body by going on a juice fast for 60 days, then followed it up with another few months of fruit and vegetable, nuts and seeds kind of diet.  For the long story google him, or go to his website.

The short story is he lost a truckload of weight, cured himself of the disease and is living happily ever after as an evangelist of juicing.  Needless to say he has a veritable legion of acolytes (of which it would seem I may be one)and has won himself a lasting place in the hearts of the shareholders of Breville.

So, I am not fat (at least, not very), and I'm not sick (though it would be good to reduce or do away with the cholesterol and blood pressure meds), and as far as I know, I'm not nearly dead. However it would be useful to wind back the damage wrought by the last 18 months "fat is flavour" mantra.  Incidentally, fat does carry flavour, but it is also perfectly possible to create delicious food without it, as proven by the excellent cuisine at the Golden Door.

Channeling Lady Macbeth, I "screw my courage to the sticking place" and make a public commitment to the fellow guests at the Golden Door that I will undertake a 7 day juice fast and blog about it. And here I am.

I am not sure if seven days is wimpy or not, as when you peruse Joe's website you find people doing 15, 30 and 60 day reboots.  However the next week happens to work for me and as the stay at the Golden Door got me over the caffeine and alcohol cravings, I may as well carry on.  The hunter-gatherer is away and I don't need to do any cooking - shame about the guest coming to stay over Easter!  

Don't worry, it's my brother and I will see he doesn't starve. 

Behold the Red Devil

Here we are at day one.  I won't blog every day as that may be too tedious for you to read.  I weighed myself this morning and will let you know what impact there is at the end of the week.  Though of course this is primarily for health, not weight loss (yeah, right).

Challenges ahead for the week include two days when I am working (yes, as a chef)..... and boredom.  I really do like to eat. 

So today's menu started with what is already a favourite juice anyway.  Remember the beetroot, carrot and apple salad?  Well, leave out the seeds and the vinaigrette and chuck the whole three key ingredients in the blender and there you have it.   I think you will agree it's worth it for the colour alone - I'm calling it the Red Devil. 

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It is a far cry from the Pink Devil, a rhubarb cocktail I created before embarking on my Queensland sojourn.  As you can see, vodka is a key ingredient, along with a touch of Malibu, squeeze of  lime juice and of course, rhubarb syrup.  Well, be fair, you have to find something to do with all that rhubarb.

After going to the gym, around lunchtime I made a juice of spinach, celery, and apple, and added a rockmelon and a lemonade (sort of a cross between a lemon, grapefruit and orange in taste, if you can imagine that) to lessen the "green" flavour.  It was okay, but needs tweaking before it is delicious.

I suspect rockmelon will be appearing frequently, as the hunter-gatherer has been growing them this summer and we have about 20  which are ready or almost ready to eat. - or juice in my case.

The h-g's excellent rockmelons

Mid afternoon, another Red Devil - mainly because I needed to take a photo for this blog.

So far, so juicy. 

Closing now and will post again in a few days - if I haven't gnawed off my arm.