I planned to stop refined sugar the day after Halloween. Today is that day.

Last week, after a well-intentioned Instacart delivery person brought me a pumpkin the size of a school aged child to replace the canned pumpkin I'd ordered, I enlisted my son to chop it up with a hatchet. I baked 1/8th of it that day. That alone made 8 cups of puree. I cleaned it and bagged the rest. It filled every part of my refrigerator.

To give up refined sugar after binging for the past couple of weeks, I planned to juice. I had carrots, oranges, limes, ginger and tumeric on hand, ready to become liquid vitamins.

Moving pumpkin from the fridge to access my juice-to-be, it occurred to me I've never juiced pumpkin before. I've heard pumpkin and squash juice is nourishing. I'm sure I've seen it in juice blends at the market.

So I juiced a section of the pumpkin. It made a little juice and a lot of pulp, but with the other ingredients my juice was sweet and complex.

With the pulp, I made gluten free muffins and bread.

It took me all day to do, with frequent breaks to recover from electric shocks and spasms induced by movement. I wish my central nervous system would forgive me. Life isn't supposed to be this painful. Maybe this nourishment will help.

At the end of the day, I'm so thankful that life is so delicious today! My experience with pleasurable and life-giving foods are what keep me going through everything. As Lizzo sings, "Got that juice, Baby." 🥤💜💦

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