Do you make fresh juices? Beyond Organic Hot Dogs? TV Squat Swings?

I’ve gotten a few questions over the past few days from people – both online and in real life – so guess what!  It’s Q&A time!

Q: Making fresh fruit and vegetable juices seems really popular among the healthy lifestyles crowd, but I never hear you talk about it – do you juice?  What do you think of juicing?

A: OK – this is 100% my personal opinion, but here you go… I don’t juice things, and I don’t like to either!  Here’s why –

1. OMG its a PAIN… seriously, I don’t care how “easy to clean” the sales copy says about whatever juicer they are trying to sell you is, they are usually lying.  Sure, its fun at first, but… if you start getting to where you want some fresh juice every day in the morning… make sure to start setting your alarm clock a lot earlier – unless you have a gullible person in your house with a job that starts later in the morning – in which case you’re set.  Granted, this opinion is coming from me – and here’s a short list of other appliances I don’t have any use for: microwave, blender*, dishwasher, citrus juicer, toaster.  I also cook most meals in the same cast iron skillet…
2. So… you know sugar comes from plants, right?  And you know juice in bottles has a lot of sugar in it, right?  Guess what… fresh juice is the same – sure you’re getting loads of vitamin goodness, but you’re also getting a whole lotta sugar too.   Back in the day I could literally get a sugar rush off of carrot juice – and ask anyone from back then and they will tell you – this was a horrifying thing to watch.  When I want some delicious fruit flavors, I just eat a piece of fruit getting the vitamins, the fiber, less of a sugar spike, and best of all – little to no clean up and I haven’t given half my cabinet space to some giant appliance.  Freezing fruit is also fun – and again – low to no clean up involved, no concentrated sugar action either.

Q: OK, so I see you’re doing this whole Beyond Organic thing that Dragon Door has been mentioning from time to time – and I know you’re into grass fed beef, but… HOT DOGS?  What in the world are you going to do with those?

A: Little known fact (unless you’re one of my butcher friends, or work at a local German or Polish restaurant) is that I like high end hot dogs, sausages and other such things on occasion. Some of my favorite quick meals that feature high quality hot dogs:

1. Pan fried hot dogs or kielbasa or bratwurst with sauerkraut.  Sometimes if I want to “fancy it up” I’ll mince half a tart apple and cook it down with the sliced sausage.
2. Oh no! I ran out of breakfast meat!  Split 1 hot dog down the middle and pan fry to go with eggs!
3. Delicious street-food inspired snack (I sometimes make this and take it outside if my neighbors are partying in the courtyard on a given weekend – it drives them crazy with envy – and that’s fun to watch).  Carmelized onions and sliced hot dogs – start with 1 hearty strip of bacon – cook it down in your cast iron skillet then remove when browned – add a thinly sliced large sweet onion and cook until slightly golden – add in 2-4 sliced hot dogs (4 if you are being made to share) and continue to stir and cook until the onions are nearly carmelized and the hot dogs are cooked through

Q: I saw people on TV doing kettlebell exercises and it didn’t look like anything you talk about at all – what’ gives? Who’s right?  I mean… THEY’RE on TV and YOU AREN’T!

A: Ah yes, the TV… I am trying to get on TV so the extended members of my family will start to take me more seriously, but that’s another story for another day.  Here’s the thing – there’s lots of silly stuff on tv – lots of people trying to sell you silly stuff on tv – and lots of people demonstating kettlebell form that makes me want to hide under my sofa and cry.   I mean… you don’t rush out and buy every silly gadget on late night tv, right?   There are exceptions**, but it seems like many times the stories will be dumbed down for the general public or will feature people who just have good publicists and not good form.  I mean… so many tv trainers out there on certain popular tv shows are not really trainers, they just “play one on tv.”   Find a local RKC and learn good, safe and seriously effective form.  You’ll be glad you did!

*Blender Bottles however are like the best thing EVER!

**Sarah Lurie of RKC and Kettlebells for Dummies fame was featured on the Today show a while back – and that was a great segment – so it DOES sometimes happen – good stuff on tv that is.