Adventures in Beekeeping: Installing a Nuc

Here are some pictures of the hive as well as an overview of some things we've learned about bees!

On Saturday, June 2 we traveled to Fruitport to pick up our nucs.  When you buy bees by the nuc you're buying five frames of bees and a queen. They've already built some comb, some brood, and a bit of honey.  They come in a box like this:

So you take your box of new babies home, set them next to their hive and open the plug. They'll spill out and fly around getting the lay of the land:

If you ever have a chance to watch bees coming out of a hive, you'll notice that they come out they'll fly a figure eight before leaving, that's the bee setting is GPS, so to speak.  Now that they've been here a while, we notice several fly straight out and away - they're experts! They'll always return to their queen so you don't have to worry about them flying off and never returning.

After an hour or two, you want to transfer the frames from the nuc box to your hive. You have to do this carefully so as not to smush any and so as not to jostle and lose the queen. No queen = no colony and that makes this $500 venture pointless.  You don't want to smush bees because (1) you care about bees and (2) when one is injured/killed it inspires the others to begin stinging.

At this point, you're in the midst of around 10,000 bees! It's pretty amazing actually. The first time I did it it was exciting and terrifying and made for a definite adrenaline rush.  I've been out four times in the past week and it is less terrifying, but still pretty intense!

Today my husband and I went out (he finally got a bee suit) and cleaned the hive up.  They'll build comb over the tops of the frames and hanging down under and you have to scrap this off.  This can then be made into candles, soap, lip balm, etc, but I have no idea how! ... yet!

In this picture (above) you can see a bit of comb that's been built underneath the frame (the frame is upside down in this picture). That's what needs to be scraped off.

You can't see it too well (above), but in the bottom of this comb (near Chris's thumb) are some shiny, wet cells that are being filled with honey!

Here's a better picture of excess comb that needs to be shaved off.  You can't see it in the picture, but when you see the bees up close, some have bright yellow legs because they are full of pollen! So cute!

Other things that you're looking for:

     - When you look at your comb you're looking for brood (babies) so that you know your queen is alive and well.  These look like tiny will curled up white caterpillars - also super cute!

     - You're also always looking for the queen. We haven't seen ours yet, but we have lots of brood so we know she's in there.  The queen has a "court" of 10 bees who stay with her (around and on top of her) which makes it hard to find her. These workers bring food to her. The food that the queen eats is called royal jelly... haha. The queen lays all the eggs and secretes a pheromone that keeps the other females sterile - now that's power!

     - We're still trying to figure out who's who. The hive is made up of the queen, the workers (also females), and the drones (males).

     - Drones are male bees whose only job is to mate and then die (sorry guys).  In fact, they don't even have stingers so they can't even defend the colony. In the winter, the workers will keep the drones from entering the hive (which means they'll starve to death) so that the workers can save the precious honey for their own survival.

     - The worker bees are crazy busy. They tend to the queen and larvae, build the comb, clean the comb, collect pollen and nectar, produce the honey, defend the colony, and even clean up and remove the dead. They also decide when the hive is too crowded and then they swarm and leave (something we would NOT like to happen).

Why raise bees?

We might get honey in a year or two, but this isn't our primary reason for raising bees. They are fascinating and incredibly important to our survival as a species so we're doing it mostly for a hobby.  We might collect comb and do something with that.

You can also make money in bee world by taking your bees to fields to pollinate, building and sell bee boxes, raising and selling nucs and queens.  Right now, we're just trying to keep them alive!

Oh, the fashion is also a bonus:

How Much Food Does one Woman Need?

There is a student of mine who I have gotten to know pretty well over the years. Let's call her Ashley.  She has a sketchy home life. A good relationship with her mom, but Mom makes poor choice in men. As a result, more drinking and drug-use goes on in Ashley's house than she would like her little brother and sister to see.  Ashley has taken it upon herself to look after the younger siblings and, while I really do think her mom means well by her kids, she continues to make bad choices.  She recently married the very man who prompted a CPS call from a relative because he was stealing Ashley's aderol.  Last summer, Ashley accompanied my son and I to the zoo one afternoon and chattered the whole way home about drug use, arguments, and shut-off notices with the same ease that I would discuss what I'm having for dinner.  She a very sweet girl, however, who struggles with her school work and has low self-esteem as a result.

Last week she informed me that her step dad (who was recently released from jail) was probably going back soon because he had failed a drug test.  On Monday she mentioned the he was in fact in jail and had taken their new food stamps card with him. On Tuesday she told me that her mom went to the jail to get the card, but it was missing.  I said, "how are you guys on food?" she responded, "I mean, things are bad, but we've been through a lot worse so don't worry Mrs. Villarreal."

On Wednesday she stayed after school for a club I run and had arranged for me to give her a ride home. On the ride home, we were talking about how hungry we are (lunch at a high school is at 10:30) and I said, "We need to eat up leftover chicken salad, but I'm not really in the mood for it." She says, "Oh man that sounds SOO good! I love chicken salad." We chat a bit more and she tells me that last night she didn't eat any dinner because there wasn't enough to go around. She told her mom and siblings to eat first (her mom because "you know, she's nursing so she has to eat" and her siblings because she always puts them before herself.)  She had eaten lunch (thank goodness for the free/reduced lunch program), but her prospects of dinner weren't looking good. She kept saying, "we'll figure something out."  So I told her we were going to stop at my house (on the way to her house) and I would make her a chicken salad sandwich.  Well I ended up giving her the container of salad that was left and then when she said, "Alright, dinner for me!" I started thinking about the other kids in her household. We went out into the garage because she wanted to see our chicks and while we were out there I said, "I can give you a chicken to take home. Does your mom ever make roast chicken?" Her eyes lit up, "yes! we love chicken!"  So I go over to the deep freezer, open it up, she peers into it and says, "Holy crap, this whole thing is full of food?"

At that moment I suddenly looked at that freezer from her point of view. That freezer that I have opened and closed 100 times in the past month. That freezer that I have rummaged in and dumped bags of fruit in. That freezer that I have stood over, countless times, staring in while saying, "What do you want for dinner?" or worse "Nothing sounds good." I thought suddenly of my kitchen cupboards, full of canned goods, pastas of varying shapes and sizes, granola bars, goldfish crackers, hell, I have 4 different kinds of vinegars! I have a spice rack and an entire cupboard devoted to my overflow spices. I have a special tupperware that contains all my cake decorating tools. And my refrigerator? Always needing to be cleaned out and always full of dressing, sauces, veggies, and leftovers. My whole kitchen is full of food.  I felt embarrassed. I felt gluttonous. I felt guilty.

Go I grabbed a bag and started grocery shopping. I sent her home with a roaster, a couple pounds of ground beef, some noodles, soup, etc.  I kept assuring her "don't worry, we have more food than we need," but I this was really just my inner voice speaking out loud.

While I am aware that I have never gone hungry and am thankful for having lived a life so free from want, this experience really made me internalize what it would mean to be hungry. I couldn't imagine, as a child, coming home from school and not going straight to the refrigerator for a snack. I couldn't imagine an evening without dinner. My entire life, dinner has been the mainstay of the evening. If it wasn't for dinner prep, dinner table conversations, and then clean up, what would I do with myself all evening long?  So much of my life revolves around meals and I've never once had to go without one.

Over my eight years of teaching I have known so many kids and heard so many different life stories. I think we really do take for granted where people come from. Ashley is a smiling, jovial girl who goes home to chaos most days, but you'd never know to look at her.  In some ways, kids like Ashley are inspiring. They speak to the resiliency of the human spirit, but mostly I find these stories depressing.  This is America and in 2012, surely we should be doing better by our kids by now.  Ashley's mom is loving and once Ashley complained to me that her mom never buys junk food. She makes strategic choices to extend the life of her food cards: roasts, bags of potatoes, canned goods, spaghetti. She is also working on her degree, little by little, as time and money allow. She's doing the best she can and attempting to eek out some version of the American dream. Certainly she could make better choices in some cases, but poverty is cyclical and it's all Ashely's mom has ever known.

In the end, I feel inspired and thankful that I was able to help one student out, but I also feel overwhelmed knowing that Ashley is just one of millions of kids who won't eat dinner tonight.

The Problem with Organics

So the last time I wrote it was to promote organic food. I do 100% support buying and eating organic food, but as we get closer to growing and farmers market season, I can’t help, but think about fresh, healthy produce. The problem with organic food is that has become so profitable that corporate farms are trying to get in on the act. Or, once small farms are growing to such a point that the “hand-picked” philosophy is being replaced with farm machinery and chlorine baths. In addition, the labeling of food in this country is pretty ambiguous.

Here is an overview of a few of my concerns regarding large-scale “organic” fruit and vegetable operations:

• Large organic farms might not be using pesticides, but they aren’t always taking care to preserve soil quality. And soil quality is not entirely infinite.
  
  
• Large fruit and veggie farms rely on heavy machines to pick and wash produce. These machines are running on fossil fuels.
  
  
• Organic food is being shipped all over the world. It’s great to buy organic tomatoes, but if they were grown in California, a lot of fossil fuels were used to get those pesticide-free maters to your plate.
  
  
• Also, organic produce from outside of the United States does not necessarily follow U.S. Regulations. Investigative reporting have uncovered some questionable practices in Mexico.
  
  
• The organic label does not require the growers to be hippies. By this I mean, we tend to associate the organic label with backyard farmers, but many of these large companies are exactly that, large companies. In the case of tomatoes, human rights issues are a major concern.
  
  
• Let’s talk about organic baby carrots: these are mis-shapen carrot nubbins that are whittled down into a cute and uniform shape. Organic? Maybe, but also wasteful.

Here is an overview of a few of my concerns regarding large-scale meat and poultry production:

• Organic cows may be fed organic corn, but corn is not part of a cow’s natural diet.
  
  
• Organic chicken and poultry is not necessarily “free range.” So a cow or chicken who is eating corn and not getting antibiotics or hormones may still be raised in deplorable conditions.
  
  
• “Free range” is an ambiguous label as well. In regards to beef, there are no legal standards governing what this means so if you buy beef labeled “free range,” the wording could really mean anything. In regards to poultry, a chicken must simply have “access” to the outside and there are no specifications about the size or quality of this outdoor space. It could be soft, lush grass, it could be mud, gravel, or cement. In addition, it could be a small paddock attached to a huge warehouse full of birds. Further, if a producer allows birds access to the outside for only 2 weeks of their lives (say before butcher) they can still count this as “free range.” There are no regulations regarding free range eggs. So, in this case, it’s similar to beef and pork.
  
  
• “Cage free” poultry means that birds can be packed into a warehouse-like building so long as they aren’t confined to cages. Example:
  

Here is an overview of a few of my concerns regarding processed foods:

• An “organic” label doesn’t necessarily mean healthy. There is such a thing as organic high fructose corn syrup.
  
  
• Many processed foods feature the claim of “all-natural.” It is possible to begin with a natural product (like a cocoa plant) and then, through processing, yield an unhealthy or harmful product (like cocain). The same is true of MSG and high fructose corn syrup. These are “technically” natural products, but they are not healthy. Salt is another example of a natural ingredient that could be hiding in your food without your knowledge (or in a surprisingly large quantity).
  
  
• “100% Organic” (a label you’ll rarely see) means that all ingredients are organic and the product contains NO synthetic ingredients.
  
  
• A product can have the “organic” label if 95% of it’s ingredients are organic. The remaining 5% can be synthetic, non-organic, or genetically-modified.
  
  
• “Made with Organic Ingredients” means that 70% of the product must contain organic ingredients. The remaining 30% can be synthetic, non-organic, or genetically-modified.

Holy Crap. What’s a consumer to do?

I know, right?

The solution is buying local and seasonal. It means giving up strawberries in winter and seeking out local beef, pork and poultry farmers. It might mean planting a few of your own tomato plants. It means learning how to can, freeze, and dry or raising a few hens for eggs.

This is the ideal.

What’s a REAL person to do?

Here’s what I do (and I am, by no means, the gold standard). I buy beef and pork from local farmers. I ask them about antibiotics, hormones, and pasture time. I buy a quarter at a time and keep it in my freezer. I raise my own chickens for poultry and eggs. In the summer I try and do most of my grocery shopping on Saturday mornings at the farmers market or from road-side produce stands. I ask questions about farm-size and pesticide use. I also grow my own garden. I grow (so far): potatoes, onions, carrots, lettuce/spinach, tomatoes, peppers, cukes, zukes, beans, swiss chard, and pumpkins in roughly an 8x12 chunk of land. I can, dry, and freeze in an attempt to preserve the bounty!

Honestly, if given the choice I’d choose local meat and produce over store-bought organic any day. It’s fresher (and therefore more nutritious) and it supports farmers in my own community.

But in the winter?

I grocery shop. I try and use up what I have first, but I inevitably want a salad in December and an avocado to go with my tacos. I’m not perfect, but I do make the attempt to buy organic when I can because, even though the system isn’t perfect, I want to support it in hopes that it will change.

In addition, I write letters to congressmen, sign petitions, and go to meetings about legislation that affects food labeling, because that’s the only way things are ever going to get any better.

Sources
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/home/index.asp

http://michaelpollan.com/books/the-omnivores-dilemma/

http://trusted.md/blog/vreni_gurd/2008/11/22/the_problem_with_organic_food#axzz1sbSDPu00

http://healthwyze.org/index.php/deceptive-organic-and-all-natural-food-labeling.html

http://politicsoftheplate.com/?page_id=831

http://politicsoftheplate.com/

An Intro to Beekeeping

For the past few years, the hub-cake and I have been interested in raising bees.  We've watched/read several things about Colony Collapse Disorder and the mysterious disappearance of honeybees in general and have always felt that one way to "give back" (even in a tiny way) would be to raise some bees.  It would be great to get some honey, but our main purpose is similar to the reason why you put a bird feeder out. You want to help nature in some small way and it is interesting to watch different birds flit and fly around your backyard. Lately I've been reading more about the biology of bees and just how those bee hives work on the inside and it's pretty addicting stuff.  Bees are insanely fascinating.  They have such specialized and important jobs and every little detail is attended to within a hive. They are, however, fairly fragile. A poorly producing queen can throw a wrench in the works, too many drones, not enough drones, a bad year for flowers, a tough winter, a wet summer, and many other variables can all affect the health of a single colony.  One faulty "part" and the whole thing may fall apart.

Here are some bee fun facts:

- Bees pollinate about 1/3 of our food supply (just one reason why you should not consider this venture crazy)

- Honey bees can travel up to two miles away from their hive while collecting pollen.

- Honey bees navigate with an internal "GPS" similar to that of birds (they work like magnets)

- Honey bees are cold blooded and can handle weather fluctuations pretty well.

- Bees survive the winter by eating the honey they've stored. If they have a good summer, they'll produce excess honey (which we can then harvest and eat!)

- Changing queens will change the personality and routine of the hive (just as it would in a human society)

- A colony of bees consists of 20,000-60,000 honeybees and one queen. Worker honey bees are female, live for about 6 weeks and do all the work. Males are for mating and, unfortunately, are prone to mites.

Okay someday I might write a post about all of the different roles bees fill in the hive. It's absolutely amazing. 

Well Chris and I went to bee school and spent the first hour feeling completely overwhelmed and staring blankly at the power point in front of us. Actually, I can only speak for myself. It's entirely possible Chris was not as confused as me... but I doubt it.  Then a second speaker came up and began his presentations with "Getting Stung." Ah yes, this is more my pace! Long story short, bees are a tricky business and they might just die the very first winter. This wouldn't be such a big deal if a pack of bees wasn't $80-$120.  That is an investment I can make once (after a month of saving), but not one I'd like to make year after year. And they recommend you start with two colonies!

When purchasing bees, you have two choices: packages or nucs.  Packages come from Florida or Alabama and run about $80. If you order a package you get 3 pounds (about 10,000) bees delivered to your door! This includes a queen as well.  Then you dump them in the bee box and hope they all figure out what to do.  

Nucs are colonies that are already beginning. You get the comb already attached to some frames, the bees have already stored some honey, and integrated the queen.  These you'd buy locally so they are climatized and also run $120.

Professional beekeepers say that you can be equally successful, but I feel like the nucs sound like a better option. They cost a bit more, but to me it seems smarter to start with a partially formed colony. So that's what we ordered and we pick them up mid-May!

You also need a bee box. There are many parts to a bee box:

 

Bees build their colonies up so the longer the colony survives the more boxes you would stack on top. The very bottom one is where the bees are and the one above is where they store honey. Any additional boxes above that are surplus honey. If you take too much honey then you have to offer the bees supplemental food throughout the winter. Phew... but that's not all! if you want liquid honey you have to buy (or access) an extractor (they run about $200-$300). You can do it the old-fashioned way, but one of my co-workers has an extractor and said she would share it!

There are things like bee veils and smokers to keep from getting stung, but I have a feeling that bee sting posts will exist in my future!

This is seriously only the beginning. Who would have thought it would "bee" so complicated? (I had to work in one bee joke!).  I'm really excited to start and a little nervous. And while this post makes it sound like I know a lot about bees, I assure you that when they arrive I will put them in the box and then go, "holy shit, now what?"

Why Organic?

A friend of mine recently asked me to help her come up with some "pro-organic" arguments that she could use to persuade her husband that organic food was worth the extra cost.  The more I thought about my answer, the more I felt that a blog post was waiting to be hatched!  Short answer to why I eat organic? It's safer, it preserves the environment, sustains soil quality, is safer for the farm workers, it's more nutritious, and the food generally tastes better.

To me, choosing organic is demanding quality and freshness. Throughout the time I have spent reading, writing, talking, and campaigning about the food industry, I can tell you the most common response from people is something along the line of "what I don't know, can't hurt me." And I would argue that what you don't know IS hurting you. This country is fat and sick and, while we spend thousands of dollars searching for cures, maybe we should consider the causes. We eat multiple times a day and the average person consumes food from fields and factories in this country as well as around the world. We are eating food (including produce) that is full of chemicals, preservatives, additives, dyes, artificial flavors and colors, etc. We are eating meat and drinking milk full of antibiotics and hormones from animals raise in inhumane and unsanitary conditions. Our food (meat, fruits, and veggies) is washed in bleach or ammonia and is coated with waxes and ripening agents. Packaged and processed foods have all of these chemicals as well and also high fructose corn syrup which, even if it is as safe as sugar (it's not), is hidden in so many things that even when you try and eat healthy, you are consuming tons of this sweetener (which is making you fat, by the way).

We're passing these habits on to our kids by feeding them convenience foods, packaged treats, and snacks that are dyed all colors of the rainbow. It's no wonder we have cancer, depression, anxiety, obesity, autism, and ADD. We hardly eat any REAL food. I'm tired of being labeled at the lunch table because I make food from scratch and don't feed my son oreos.  I work full time and so does my husband, so if we can make time to sit down to home cooked meals every night - then so can you. It's all about priorities.  In addition, I'm a teacher and my husband is a builder in the middle of a housing crisis, so if we can afford to add organic foods to the cart, then so can you. Again, it's all about priorities.

Okay, rant over. The point of this post was to explain why eating organic is good. Rather than summarize other people's brilliance, I thought I'd just point you in the direction of some useful links.

Why eat organic?

1. It's safer. 
Check out the  Environmental Working Group's annual report as well as the Pesticide Action Network's studies. There's real proof that pesticide residue is showing up in our bodies. And there's growing evidence that this is not a good thing.

2. It's More Nutritious. (read)
This point has been argued for some time. There are now valid studies that prove that organic food does contain more nutrients that conventional produce, but the relationship isn't causal. Produce that is grown organically is generally grown in more natural conditions, often by farmers who use sustainable practices. This means healthier soil and healthier soil means more nutrients in your produce. Also, organic fruits and veggies are not sprayed with ripening agents or preservatives, so they have to be picked closer to their natural ripeness - which means more nutrients for you.  Non-organic produce like bananas and tomatoes, are picked while still raw, then sprayed in a warehouse with a ripening chemical. This changes the color, but does not enhance the flavor. That's why a store-bought tomato can't hold a match to a fresh, just picked 'mater out of your garden.

3. It's Better for the Environment and Humanity
I don't need 100 links to prove that spraying chemicals has an affect on the environment. Pesticide residue pollutes lakes, streams, and rivers and adversely affects natural species (everything from deer to fish to bees). In addition, many large corporate growers are showering the plants and employees with dangerous chemicals and affected families are having a hard time fighting the corporate giants. In addition, the variety of food in this country is dwindling. We are literally putting all of our eggs in one basket when we let heirloom seeds go extinct so that Monsanto and Cargill can hold patents on 5-10 species of corn. (check out this graphic) We haven't even touched on terminator seeds, foreign seed policies, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) - another post maybe.

So Why Does it Cost More? 
Short answer? Less insecticide/fungicide/weed killer means more crop fatality which means loss to the farmer.  In addition, more weeds means more manual labor for the farm crew as well. Organic foods cost a bit more because they take a little more time and care to grow.

There are also fertilizer differences.
Some of the things organic farmers can't use that conventional farmers can: Sewage sludge, which is cheap to buy, and chemical fertilizers, which are both cheap to buy and cheap to transport. Instead, organic farmers fertilize their land with compost and animal manure, which is bulkier and more expensive to ship..." (read more)

Where to Start

If you can't/don't want to make a commitment to filling your grocery cart with organics, then I would urge you to start with The Dirty Dozen. So named by The Environmental Working Group which issues an annual report about pesticide use and presence in American produce. (You can check it out here) The Dirty Dozen are the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables. They include: apples, celery, strawberries, peaches, spinach, imported nectarines, imported grapes, bell peppers, potatoes, domestic blueberries, lettuce, and kale/collard greens. 

Produce that you should not lose sleep over are: onions, sweet corn, pineapples, avocado, asparagus, peas, mangoes, eggplants, domestic cantaloupe, kiwi, cabbage, watermelon, sweet potatoes, grapefruit, and mushrooms.

More great links to check out: http://www.organicconsumers.org/organlink.cfm
http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/ 

On Having the Crud

I’ve been lucky, blessed if you will, with a child with an incredible immune system. I like to think it was the months of breastfeeding, where I supplied him with all my super-human teacher antibodies, but it’s probably just luck of the draw. (By the way, I also took the credit for his 100% hearing ability when they did the test directly after his birth. I chalked that one up to months of prenatal vitamins and organic chicken). Well anyway, he’s had few very minor bugs, but this week is really the first week he has been down and out sick for several days. Thankfully this bug didn’t involve barfing, but it did include a whopping fever, a phlegmy cough, a lack of appetite, an increase in whining that escalated to crying and then screaming, and (in between crying fits) a listless child who wanted to do nothing but lay on the couch and watch Mickey’s Clubhouse.

The first day I worried about his TV consumption; everyday after that was simply survival. By the second day of no eating I was willing to feed the kid hot dogs and velveeta til the cows came home if it meant real substance. In addition, any rules about pacifiers and sleeping in bed with mom and dad? Out the window.

He really was fine. It was a bad cold that turned into an ear infection, but it really makes me question some of my values (of course it does, you’re thinking, you make mountains out of molehills and favor overused phrases!). Well I don’t like the idea of antibiotics and dose after dose of artificially-flavored Tylenol. I also don’t like to see my baby watch hours and hours of TV or cry “Miiiickeeeey!” in the middle of the night. But when you, as a parent, have reached your max, it becomes (as I mentioned earlier) SURVIVAL.

My husband had the bug a week earlier and was still erupting in coughing fits every couple minutes (including all night long) and I, because of those amazing antibodies, had convinced myself that I was going to be fine (despite the dozens of times when Dylan coughed directly into my sleeping face at 3am). But by Wednesday, even I felt like crud. So here we are: all three of us in bed at 7:00, feverish, glassy-eyed, watching Mickey’s Clubhouse, taking turns coughing like some sort of out-of-sync orchestra. It wasn’t pretty.

I juiced the hell out of some oranges and lemons because I really believed that that vitamin C would help us. I made Chris experiment with Vick’s on the bottoms of his feet to see it would help the cough. I actually tried to convince him to experiment with several different holistic treatments that I found online, but the Vicks was the only one he would entertain. In the end, however, Chris indulged in Nyquil and the doctor prescribed an antibiotic for Dylan. I tried to integrate tea into my coffee-laden life, but in the end, what I really want is a handful of ibuprofen and a bottle of Nyquil. By my 4^th hour class today I had only a squeak of a voice left and while the kids thought it was hilarious to hear me attempt to speak, I instead showed an episode of Modern Family and called it a day. And, while I don’t feel nearly as sick as I sound, I am exhausted. Exhausted from being up with Dylan all night this week, from waking up to cough, and from waking up when Chris coughs. My plan is to leave work immediately at 2:30 and rush home to take an hour nap so that I can pick Dylan up from daycare by 4:00. I’ll probably give in and take some drugs too.

I write this only to say to the dozens of people who have posted “feel crappy” as facebook statuses in the last week – I FEEL YOUR PAIN! And also to remind myself mostly that this quest for eating healthy, living healthy, and being healthy is bound to have a few setbacks along the way.

My 30th Year

I turned 30 in October and there has been something about this “thirtieth year” that has been different. In the past I have resolved to work out, eat healthier, lose a few pounds and for some reason, right around my 30^th birthday, things just started to click. For years my parents have told me to work out and eat right for the health benefits, not for weight loss, but as every woman who has ever wanted to wear a bathing suit knows, results are ALL that matter! My general pattern was: something would put the idea in my head that I needed to shape up (a hot tub party, a tight-fitting dress, jean shopping, etc). So I would resolve to eat healthy and exercise. I do this for a day or two and, when my pants still fit just as snuggly as they did the day before, I’d give up.

My “excercise” plans have ranged from walking to running to biking. Past plans have included workout DVD’s and circuits I cut out of health magazines. Once I joined a really expensive gym. Nothing ever stuck. I generally don’t like to work out. I like to do physical things, but not when the point of the physical thing is weight loss. I like to swim, I like to play sports, I like to walk when the purpose is sight-seeing, and I never enjoy running. Ever.

So a little before my 30^th birthday I joined a gym. It’s not a fancy one and not terribly expensive. I had to sign a contract, which I know is a horrible thing, but I felt like I should be able to committ myself to working out. I pay $25/month and I figured that if I went 5 times a month, then it was worth it. I didn’t go into this experience with any illusions of grandeur. Just go to the gym from time to time. Thankfully, I’ve discovered zumba. Zumba burns a ton of calories and doesn’t feel like exercise at all. Don’t get me wrong. It feels like hot, sweaty, can barely breathe work – but not exercise. I actually look forward to zumba! Also, when I'm in a bad mood, stressed out, cranky, I now find myself CRAVING a trip to the gym.... seriously... I've never experienced such a thing before...

Eating healthy wasn’t too big of a leap because we already don’t eat too bad. I did Weight Watchers for a month or so with a co-worker and what I learned the most from that system was portion control (no you do not need to have two rolls with that meal, heck, you don’t even need to have ONE roll!) and respect for the little things. While on WW I got 29 points a day. Suddenly a tablespoon of butter or oil (1 point) feels like a lot, especially when I've grown to be quite liberal with the oils and butters! A mindless snack might be 5-10 points – that’s a lot! So it helped me put my day in perspective. Someone brought in donuts at work and I just couldn’t refuse, ok, well don’t feel guilty, just have a light dinner or hit the gym after work.

Now on to my newest piece of craziness. The hubs and I watch a lot of documentaries as you probably won’t be surprised to hear. Several of them have included or featured, in some way, the effect of juicing. We’ve talked about buying a juicer for a while and over Christmas break we finally did (a $100 purchase is a big deal in our household). So far, we love it. So far, we’ve made fruit juices. So far, we’ve only used the juice to supplement our diet.

Until today.

This weekend we decided to make a real honest effort at a juice detox of some sort. After reading and reading we settled on a modified diet. We will replace two meals a day and all snacks with juice or raw fruits and veggies and eat good, healthy dinners.

Today was Day One.

Breakfast was a “Morning Energizer” which included parsley, carrot, and apple. It tasted mostly like parsley, but was drinkable and got me through the morning.

Mid-Morning Snack was “Cantaloupe Cooler” which is cantaloupe and strawberries. Better than parsley!

Lunch was a veggie salad with a little bit of the Cantaloupe Cooler as my dressing. Not awful, but I made the mistake of including mushrooms and let’s just say that mushrooms and Cantaloupe Cooler are not a good mix.

In addition I’ve been drinking water with lemon in it and I brought a banana that I waited until the very last minute to enjoy (which is now).

I’m not a chugger of beverages, especially these types of beverages so they last me quite a while just sipping on them.

After School Snack is a "Watermelon Spritzer" which contains watermelon, strawberries and sparkling water.

Before committing to this plan, I had already defrosted a pot pie that I made and froze a while back so that's what we'll be having for dinner.

How do I feel? Crappy. All the juicing info says that at first you might feel groggy (check), tired (check), and experience headaches (check). I’m not, however, hungry, which is kind of a surprise. And I felt fine all morning. The grogginess just hit me this afternoon. I’m also a pretty serious coffee drinker so the headache may be caffeine withdrawl.

I do think, if nothing else, this will give me an appreciation for dinner. All day I’ve been dreaming about the from-scratch, pot pie that I have at home, ready to be thrown in the oven. I also savored a banana, alone in my classroom during my planning, as a near spiritual event.  Mmmm... solid food....