"The perfect lover is one who turns into a pizza at 4 A.M." — Charles Pierce

As another part of our spring-cleaning Becky and I took part in 3-days of juice fasting. With juice fasting, the juice must come only from fresh vegetables, no fruits, and V-8's do not count. I must say I started and stopped on three separate occasions, giving in to the desire for Indian take out one night and basically just the need for solid food the other time. The third attempt went without fail and I must say I was most proud of myself for sticking to it and congratulated my willpower and stamina with a trip to Islands.

Because I did not want to invest in a super juicing machine which run anywhere from $80 to $500, I decided to sample the various fresh juices from juice places around town. I can honestly say there is no truth to the saying, "Had one beet, carrot, celery combo had them all." Some places served really thick heavy concoctions that were really hard to get down; others would add just a little too much of one ingredient like ginger, making the juice taste like one giant liquefied ginger snap. Of all the juice places, our favorite turns out to be Roebeck's juice in the Costa Verde center, which manages to strike a perfect balance between carrot, beets, ginger and celery.

If you're juicing at home be sure that before you start you have plenty of refrigerator space, not to mention counter space, as you'll be quite surprised how many heads of broccoli, stalks of celery and bunches of carrots it takes to make one glass of juice.

The following menu is a perfect introduction to the three-day juice fast. If this is your first time, start out slowly doing one day the first week, two days the next week and build up to three full days on your third week of juicing.

A.M. When you wake up, drink one liter of water with freshly squeezed lemon or limejuice to alkalize the body. (About 1/3 c of juice added to water.) This is the time when your body needs hydration the most.

Breakfast: About one-two hours after your liter of lemon water make your first juice of juiced greens, consisting of: 1 carrot, 1 cucumber, 6 celery stalks, 10 ounces of spinach, 2 cups of fresh sprouts, 2 slices of fresh ginger and 2 large heads of broccoli. Make enough for one 12-ounce glass and drink right away.

Mid Morning Snack: Another liter of water with freshly squeezed lemon or limejuice. (We're not kidding, this is actually a snack!)

Lunch: Repeat the same juice that you had for breakfast. Making the juice fresh is best so if you can, bring your juicer to work. If you can't, make two 12-ounce drinks in the morning and drink one at work for lunch.

Afternoon snack: Another liter of water with freshly squeezed lemon or limejuice

Dinner: 3 carrots, 6 celery stalks, 1 bunch of parsley, 1 head of broccoli, 1 cucumber, 2 slices of fresh ginger, 2 cups of fresh sprouts and 6 ounces of fresh spinach.

Note: The variations of juice for the three days could be the following as listed below:

• 3 tomatoes, 2 slices of fresh ginger, 4-6 stalks of celery, 1 carrot, 1 cucumber, 2 cups of fresh sprouts and 1 head of broccoli.
  
  
• One bunch of fresh asparagus, 2 slices of fresh, 1 fresh beet, 1-2 broccoli heads, 1 cucumber, 2 cups of fresh sprouts and 1 bunch of fresh parsley.

Let your imagination run, sticking with as much green vegetables as possible. Ginger soothes the stomach and aids digestion. Beets clean the liver and kidneys. The green vegetables clean the blood, tissues and organs. For those of you who would like to add SUPERGREENS to your juicing or everyday lifestyle, click here to purchase your products!

HAPPY JUICING!