"BTSB"- Back to School Breakfast

Let's chat about "BTSB."  No, it's not a frightening medical diagnosis, or to be confused with PTSD.  It's my label (a Joni-ism again) for Back to School Breakfast.

For me, breakfast-making and -eating on a school day (I work in a school) is a "right start" imperative.  I'm one of those people who is desperate to eat the moment I (unwillingly) open my eyes.  OK, please don't "sugar shame" me.  But I adore a sweet bakery item for what is touted as the most important meal of the day. Unfortunately, my sweet start deserts (or desserts) me no longer than one hour after I eat it.  Ugh, I have vowed to start this school year with healthier choices.

About a week ago I was listening to a radio show from the Medical Medium, Anthony William, on Hay House Radio.  The entire broadcast was a rave-fest about the amazing health benefits of drinking celery juice as a morning ritual.  When the hour-long episode wound down, I made a commitment to give it a try.  "Why not," I thought.  It's healthy and certainly easy to do.

I convinced Lloyd (hubby) to join in, and we have completed Week 1.  Why in the world am I waxing poetic about the juice from a stringy vegetable in a blog post about healthy breakfast eating?  Well, it's now part of my new AM regimen.  You begin your day with 16 oz. of the green beverage, consumed on an empty stomach.  Then you wait 15 minutes before you eat.  In his blog post (Celery Juice 101), the Medical Medium said "It's most powerful when you drink it solo."  So, in order to get the biggest health benefit, you shouldn't combine it with other greens.

Here are the reported benefits:
1.  Calms inflammation
2.  Improves digestion ("leaky gut syndrome")
3.  Balances the body's ph
4.  Repairs the liver
5.  Evens out blood sugar and blood pressure
6.  Helps with chronic illnesses
7.  And much more

That's quite a healing-tonic resume for a very underrated vegetable.

I bought our celery juice at Pressed Juicery in Los Gatos.  But you can make your own. Here is the very simple recipe (in fact a single ingredient) taken from the blog.

Ingredients:
1 bunch celery (organic is preferable)

Directions:
Rinse the celery and run it through a juicer.  Drink immediately for best results.

Alternatively, you can chop the celery and mix it in a high-speed blender until smooth. Strain well and drink right away.

The juice is pretty easy to drink.  It tastes like, well, um, celery!  Starting your day by drinking a vegetable is a bit of an odd practice.  But it's not bitter, weird, or unpleasant.  I'll share our results with you in my next post (but both of us are already seeing some positive results!).

Stay tuned for my next BTSB blog post about baked oatmeal with coconut and blueberries. It's heaven!