{"id":36968,"date":"2014-10-24T12:56:01","date_gmt":"2014-10-24T16:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=36968"},"modified":"2015-12-27T15:45:32","modified_gmt":"2015-12-27T20:45:32","slug":"juice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=36968","title":{"rendered":"Because I Am a Diabetic, I am Not a Fan of Food"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Because I am a diabetic, I am not a fan of food. Truth be told, I hate having to eat.<\/p>\n

Since I was first diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 11 eating food for me has been little more than a chore and a necessity. It\u2019s one part of the three-legged stool of medication, exercise, and diet that one must monitor closely in order to properly control diabetes. I still have Oliver Twist-like reminiscences of being called out of class in grade school at 10 a.m. every day to eat a mandatory snack. The experience, however, was more of a Bizarre-O version of Dickens where I was brought to an empty school cafeteria to eat a cheese and balogne sandwich and drink a carton of milk before I was permitted to go back to class. Every day when I was called out of class I wanted to say to the teacher, \u201cPlease sir, I don\u2019t want any more.\u201d<\/p>\n

I have spent years attempting to avoid food. When Power Bars were first introduced to the market I rejoiced because I could simply eat one in place of a meal, or so I thought. This kick lasted a few days before further research revealed it was a nutritionally risky way to proceed with my diet if I didn\u2019t want that three-legged stool to tip over and send me crashing to the floor underneath it.<\/p>\n

When I first got an insulin pump I celebrated by setting the basal rate so low I didn\u2019t have to sit down and accomplish finishing a scheduled meal for two days. Despite these salvos in the war against food, the demand of having to consume meals at regular intervals so that I could manage my diabetes properly has never truly gone away. It is always there, lurking, waiting, controlling my life and imposing its need upon me like a toddler who will never grow up.<\/p>\n

Or, at least that\u2019s the way I figured it would always be. Then, last month, things changed when I got a juicer.<\/p>\n

I was first inspired to get a juicer after reading an article<\/a> by ASweeetLife.org\u2019s own Catherine Price<\/a> about how a juicer changed her life. I read it and thought it would be a good way to get some badly needed fruits and vegetables that my diet is bereft of due to my lack of enthusiasm for eating. After reading Catherine\u2019s article I let a year go by before I did anything about it.<\/p>\n

But then I bought a juicer. I plugged the thing in. I fed it some carrots and apples and spinach and ginger. I put the concoction to my lips and, ehr muh Gawd.<\/em> My life, at that moment, shifted to a higher nutritional plane. Of course I immediately thought of Billy Pilgrim, the main character in Kurt Vonnegut\u2019s Slaughter House Five<\/em>. Specifically I thought of the scene when a starved and malnourished Billy dips his finger in a vat of vitamin-enriched syrup and licks it. \u201cA moment went by,\u201d Vonnegut writes, \u201cand then every cell in Billy’s body shook him with ravenous gratitude and applause.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few hours later I stood in my kitchen and drank a lunch of kale, spinach, lemon, cucumber, apples, and carrots. I then experienced the zing of going through the day with more energy than if I had had a normal lunch of say, a bologna and cheese sandwich and a carton of milk.<\/p>\n

More than this nutritional uplift, however, I experienced a welcome sense of relief as I loosened the bonds of not having to eat as much and as often. In short, I felt high.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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