Where's the juice?

Tonight's blogging soundtrack is brought to you by Prince Royce. I so love his self titled album. I first listened to it on a flight and fell in love with it. It contains beautiful songs and even if you don't understand Spanish, the melodies are beautiful.

So, when I finally decided that a juice cleanse was not going to hinder my travel lifestyle, I came up with the brilliant idea of finding juice bars in every city I travelled to and featuring them on my blog. The tag line "Where's the juice?" seemed so appropriate that I began dreaming of pitching it as a show on FoodTV and maybe even a guest feature on morning shows world wide or on the Travel Channel! Remember what I said about my imagination? While I work on developing those ideas further, for now we shall stick with blogging about my experiences so far.
Before I visit any city or stay at any hotel, I always check Trip Advisor. If Trip Advisor says no, I won't go and it has not failed me yet! The first trip on my cleanse was to Puerto Rico where I spent 2 days and after a day of walking around Old San Juan I finally broke down and got some broth from a random restaurant which was not very good. To be quite honest, I did not make a good enough effort for me to say that juice bars are scarce in San Juan. This was still early in my cleanse and I was too impatient and irritated to do an adequate search. Therefore, I owe San Juan another visit to figure out, Where's the juice?
The next city I visited was San Francisco and well over a month into my juice cleanse. I underestimated the weather in San Francisco in February and so the cold took me by surprise. My first "meal" in San Francisco was some soup from the San Francisco Soup Company. Now let me stop here and address a question some of you might have. Technically a juice cleanse entails consuming nothing but freshly made fruit and vegetable juices and if needed simple broths. However, to each her own, and that is what I did during mine. I had walked over 20 blocks trying to find my hotel, was poorly dressed for the weather hence freezing and consuming cold juice was not going to cut it! So I drank some soup. I got a small because I must admit I did feel a little guilty about consuming something besides juice during a cleanse. However, The San Francisco Soup Company menu features Organic, Vegetarian, Vegan etc options, source locally, care about sustainability and that is a plus in my book. I choose the Organic Tomato Bisque as it was a smooth soup and would be gentle on my stomach's hibernating system. Maybe I was hungry from that mini marathon around the city but the soup tasted heavenly. It was smooth and perfectly balanced. The San Francisco Soup Company is definitely on my gastronomical rotation when next I visit San Francisco.

The next day, I started off the day with an 8 oz serving of Odwalla juice, proceeded to cross the Golden Gate bridge, and walked from Fisherman's Wharf to Castro Street with a detour by Lombard Street. By the time I got to Castro it was night and while I was not necessarily hungry, I knew that my body needed sustenance. It seemed like fate that I stumbled upon Frapez Smoothie Spa.

 One minute I was walking down a dimly lit street and the next thing I know I am looking into a shop with wheat grass on the counter. I almost ran myself over trying to get into the store. The cashier was very knowledgeable and helpful. Upon his recommendation, I decided to try a concoction called Spring which contained Beets, Spirulina, Chlorella, Green Apples, Wheatgrass juice, Plum, Limes.

I love tangy/sweet combos and this juice hit the spot. I am barely able to drink the 16 oz of juice I take to work with me for the day but I sat down then and there and drank every last bit of that juice! It was delicious, refreshing, filling, everything juice should be. What pleased me the most about this experience was that this is a real juice bar.

I could see the Omega juicer, the Vitamix and the fresh fruits and vegetables hanging out in the background. There were no cans or frozen fruit in bags, just freshness everywhere! Frapez is a must if you are a juicer visiting San Francisco because after your visit you won't have to ask, Where's the juice?











Where's the juice was brought to you today by the San Francisco Soup Kitchen and Frapez Smoothie Spa even though they have not compensated me for this review and I paid for all their products I consumed.

Juice of the day.

Random: I am listening to Nina Simone on Songza as I type this. I was watching To Kill A Baby on Discovery Health and thought I could type this up and watch at the same time but of course that is not possible, so it is currently on mute but still on. Why? Well, it is 0148 in the morning, I am home alone and paranoid as heck, so I need the TV to distract my wandering mind from creating things that my conscious self would rather not contemplate!

So my juice for the day was Orange + Carrots + Celery. This concoction came about because I am unable to consume Spinach. During a cleanse, one's digestive system essentially hibernates and instead focuses on cleansing and riding one's body of toxins and all the gunk we have shoved in it for years or however long we have been shoving gunk into our systems. Well, spinach seems to wake my digestive system up not too gently and send it running about dazed and confused which in turn upsets me. The sad thing is I loved the taste of the Spinach + Orange + Basil and thought it would be the juice mix that would see me to the 60+ days finish line. (I just switched to Johnny Cash on Songza and at this time of the night/morning what does he choose to sing? Ain't No Grave!) Part of this cleanse was an opportunity for me to become more positive and so instead of whinging about the fact that I can no longer consume my favorite juice, I decided to find a substitute. While it does not taste as good as the Spinach Orange Basil, it will do. For those who might find the taste of Celery over powering, cucumber may be a good substitute for the celery. And while I did not try the Orange Carrots Celery mix with Basil, I am going to try it tomorrow. I think it needs a little oomph!
Now, I am an avid traveller, a firm believer in the phrase "the world is your oyster" and I am trying to eat as much of said oyster as I can. One of my decisions early this year was to visit someplace new at least twice a month. This was impossible during the first couple of weeks of juicing as I was battling hunger pangs and demons and could concentrate on little less safe trying not to eat my co-workers who were starting to look like food. However, once I got the cravings under control I began making plans for travel and was looking forward to discovering new cities in different ways. This time instead of looking up all the popular restaurants and bars, I would be looking up the juice bars and soup kitchens...kitchens that served broth. I must admit I was very excited about this new way of travel and  saw it as an adventure. As all things in life however, the adventure has been peppered with good and bad and like ying and yang, the good has been very good and the bad has been very bad. In the course of this gastronomical adventure, I have also discovered how full of crap restaurants that label themselves as healthy can be. I have discovered that calorie counts are merely suggestions for if food is not measured properly then said calorie count becomes obsolete. I have seen a Peanut Butter Banana smoothie advertised to contain 300 calories made with a a heaping ladle of peanut butter which should not have served at the measuring device. Now, according to most peanut butter jars I have looked at, 2 tablespoons of peanut butter contain between 180 - 200 calories. If you put in what looks like 4 tablespoons and are still to add the banana and the "low fat yoghurt" which looks like ice cream to me, how can the smoothie still claim to contain 300 calories. Basically, what I have learned is that whenever you eat out, you need to question, contest and adjust - question what your are eating and what is in what you are eating, contest the ingredients or portion sizes and adjust intake following a meal eaten out. This journey has made me question any and everything. I have 1000 questions for the person preparing my food and the sad things is that there are usually not enough answers. I refuse to let these 60+ days be in vain, so I am going to do what I have to do to maintain the sanctity of this freshly laundered body. At least on the inside.

My Journey So Far

This is my very first post on my brand new MacBook Pro. I barely know how to use the bloody thing but I am super excited to be blogging again after over 5 months of being without a computer.

I have been on a juice cleanse since January 01 2013. My end date is March 06 2013. I started this cleanse without the proper education but I was determined to do so after watching the documentary Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. Watching that documentary inspired me even more as I had received a Breville juicer for Christmas. I began my juice cleanse cold turkey meaning I did not prep for it. The night before I had a full meal including dessert and woke up the next morning with the intention of spending the next  60+ days solely on juice. I underestimated how addicted my body was to food and the next two weeks were a trial by fire. I would stay in bed all day on my days off just so I did not have to face the kitchen and pantry. Being an avid cook, just looking at the stove gave me cold sweats. I wish I had been more diligent about putting down my thoughts and feelings about the experience but I was not mentally capable of doing so at the time. I would not trade this experience for the world and I plan to do another extended cleanse either sometime later this year or early next year.

My primary reason for doing this cleanse was to reset the relationship I had with food. I did not eat to live, I lived to eat. While I still believe in occasionally enjoying one's food, I know that as a society the abundant access we have to food has led us to over eat and not pay attention to what we put in our bodies. Before the cleanse, I read labels and worried about GMOs but I did not worry enough. Henceforth I am going to pay more attention to what goes in my body paying special attention to GMOs and foods devoid of nutritional value. I have also been reading a lot about vegan nutrition and while I am not presently converting my entire lifestyle to the dark side = veganism, my food choices will primarily be vegan based. This has been an exciting journey and I can't wait for the next phase!

I would have loved to include a picture or two in this post but like I explained in the header, this is a Mac and I have very limited experience with Macs. I plan on taking a few courses via Youtube and then I will be overloading your visual senses with pictures. I am after all a photographer.