Last month, I watched the documentary currently available on Netflix called "Hungry for Change". I kept texting Devin while I was watching it, telling him how many brain cells I probably kill with my diet coke addiction, and how I wanted to throw away all of our food and start completely over. He said "that seems extreme", but a few days later, he let me get a juicer. Compromise. So I started juicing. I became a juicer. I found an awesome deal at Kohl's (go figure. love that store) for the Bella Juice Extractor, and the next day, we went to Harmon's and bought out the entire produce department (almost).
Wasn't joking. And I used almost all of it! My original plan was to do a 7 day juice "cleanse" or "detox" - I don't like using those words because they make me feel silly and extreme and extra granola, but it's what happened. I was totally intending to do all 7 days of straight juice, nothing else, but it was a lot harder than I thought. The juice was delicious, and I was definitely feeling healthier and my skin got all glowy, but I was pretty much hungry for 3 days straight, and on the night of the 3rd day, I had dinner. Oops. It was an exceptionally healthy meal, if that makes a difference?! So I stopped the straight-juice thing, but have kept up with making juices every once in awhile. It's nice to replace a breakfast or lunch with juice, because it's so much faster and 10 zillion times healthier than anything I normally would have eaten for those meals.
But anyway. The juicing thing is awesome. I subscribed to Jason Vale's youtube channel, Juicemaster, and loved his recipes, and it was even fun to make some up and do whatever I felt like. I've learned a lot about juicing since, and thought I'd share, since you should totally do it next time you get one of those weird shoves from your brain saying "be more healthy!" - I get those every once in awhile, hence the juicing. I can't be the only one who wakes up one day and is dead set on some weird thing like that, right? Anyone? Anyone...?
Moving on... since my 3 day "cleanse/detox", I've kept up on my healthy habits as best as I can. For the month of March, I've cut out candy, treats, desserts, fast food, junk food, all those things. All my favorite things. And even... (gasp!)... diet coke. No soda for this girl. It's day 7 and I'm going strong, even though I have a drawer full of my favorite candy at work from Vendors (my job is a horrible temptation when it comes to eating choices...). And I've gotten really into Vinyasa Yoga. Look it up. You'll fall in love and get stronger all in the first 10 minutes. It's awesome and Sadie Nardini is my favorite. Devin and I also resolved to take up trail running this spring. As soon as the weather warms up (we both hate running in cold weather), we are going to take frequent runs up the canyons right by our house, and Cooper is really excited about it. He even got an awesome new leash made out of upcycled climbing rope (possibly coming soon to the
shop?). So it's going to be a pretty great summer. I can already tell. Okay... back to the juicing stuff. Here's what I've learned and realized and come up with since I started:
The benefits are unbelievable. So many vitamins. So much nutrition. So delicious! The key to juicing for healthy juices is to always have a dark green vegetable base (kale, cucumber, celery, spinach - all green veggies! even zucchini!), and to stay away from sugary vegetables. Almost all of the juices I've been drinking include lemon, though, because it cuts out the bitter taste of some of those veggie juices. I'll get to that in a minute though... I think that juicing is a great idea, and I wish I would have started sooner.
It starts with the juicer. Which I already mentioned. I didn't want to spend a ton of money, and fancy juicers can be as much as $400. And Devin and I have a very strict policy against one-use kitchen appliances, with the exception of my cocoa-motion, because... hot chocolate. But this was a very justified purchase. I found the Bella Juice Extractor at Kohl's on sale for $70 (original price was $100). I hear that the cheaper juicers don't get as much juice out and can clog easily, but that hasn't seemed to matter yet. I'm not a hard core juicer, and I clean my juicer immediately after I use it every time, because it takes all of 2 seconds, plus it's dishwasher safe, for when I don't have time to clean it myself. And since I'm usually only making juice for myself, getting all the juice out isn't vital. I'm getting plenty. Okay. So now you have your juicer.
Next, it's time for that serious trip to the grocery store. I think it's probably best if you can go to a whole foods, good earth or sunflower market type of grocery store, but those places are expensive (although, organic and ideal for juicing), and too far from where I live. I went to Harmon's, because I love their produce variety and they always seem more fresh then other grocery stores. You'll surprise yourself with how much you walk away with. You'll also feel really awesome and healthy. This is what I walked away with (I wrote it all down for pure entertainment, because when I read it now, I think I'm a total crazy person to have eaten almost all of that stuff.)
2 bags of golden delicious apples
1 pineapple
1 small seedless watermelon
9 lemons (wax free)
3 limes
4 cucumbers
1 bunch parsley
2 bunches kale
4 kiwis
2 bags oranges
1 small bottle pomegranate seeds (you could just buy a pomegranate, but I was lazy)
2 boxes strawberries
1 box blueberries
2 grapefruit
2 mangos
3 plums
3 pears
1 small bag carrots (the real ones. not the baby kind.)
2 stalks celery
small package mint leaves
The very first thing I did when I got home from the grocery store was wash everything. I knew I'd be making juice every day, and wouldn't want to take the time to wash and cut up everything each morning, so I washed it all in advance and put it all away, as accessibly as possible. I put most of it in the fridge to keep it fresh, and even switched most of the vegetables to zip-loc bags instead of produce bags (but hold onto the produce bags!)
The cool thing about juicing is how fast it can be. I have a wide mouth juicer, which can fit whole apples, so it speeds up the process to not have to cut everything into smaller pieces. Now that I'm not juicing as often as I was at first, I've found that I love making things like fresh squeezed orange juice (I recommend peeling the oranges first, though, because the rinds are pretty bitter and zesty.) and my favorite juicemaster recipe: Sherbet Lemonade: 2 golden delicious apples, 1 1.5 inch slice of lemon (with the rind on). It's absolutely delicious. I also read about combining watermelon, strawberries and a little bit of lemon for a yummy fruit drink, but never tried it. I learned that I love mangos. Love love love mangos. They made every juice taste amazing. And I learned that I did not like blueberries. The flavor was okay, but they didn't combine well with vegetables, and I dont' like the little flakes of blueberry skin in my juice. And I learned that as much as I try to be, I'm just not a fan of grapefruit. Way too bitter for me. Here's the best list of tips I could come up with:
1. 1 wide mouth chute is equal to about 1 big glass of juice or 1 meal. the chute is what i call the tube part of the juicer that you fill with your fruit and vegetables. get it all the way full, and juice it, and it's pretty much 1 larger glass of juice.
2. layer your juice between 2 apples (put an apple into the chute very first and very last for each juice. this maintains sweetness and texture throughout the whole juice, and mixes everything together well.)
3. use lemon slices to cover up bitter vegetable tastes (you can leave the rind on with lemons, but i don't recommend with limes - it's a little bitter and too zesty (same with oranges.) one 1/2 inch slice is usually enough, depending on how much you like lemons. i can taste the lemon plenty with just a 1/2 inch slice.)
4. always include 1-3 dark green vegetables (cucumbers, broccoli (head or stem), celery, zucchini, kale, spinach). use fruit as a filler, not as a base. unless you're making a fruit juice. then, duh.
5. make sure to put greens in the middle in order to juice them (if you put them in first or last, they won't juice very well... i feel like that should be obvious though.)
6. stay away from sugary fruits and vegetables, or keep them to a minimum.
7. for thicker, smoothie-like juices, make a juice with your juicer out of your fruits and vegetables, and then combine that juice in a blender with things like sweet potatoes, avocados, bananas and live yogurt.
8. use golden delicious apples. they are soft and juicy, and usually small enough to fit in a wide mouth juice chute. other apples are too tart, not juicy enough, or too big.
9. i like my juice better with ice. it gets really gross really fast when it starts to get warmer.
10. cheaper juicers (like mine), whip the juice, which oxidizes it and gives the juice a bit of a foamy layer on top. it's best to make a juice and drink it right then, but if you need to make one in advance, store it in the fridge in a sealed container, like a mason jar. (I would make 2 juices in the morning, drink one for breakfast while i was getting ready, and put the other in a mason jar, and keep it in the fridge at work until lunch.)
11. don't be afraid when your juice separates, even though it looks gross. just give it a good shake. also, don't be afraid when your juice looks gross period. no matter what you put in it, it will almost always come out a gross shade of green, yellow, orange or brown. But it will taste amazing.
12. save your produce bags and use them as "trash can liners" for the compartment in the back of the juicer that spits out all the pulp and extra stuff - makes for way easier and faster clean up! the produce bags fit perfectly!
so. there you have it. i'm no expert, but i think i've got it figured out pretty well. adding fresh juice to whatever you're already eating can only mean improvement. my favorite quote from hungry for change is when one of the guys says something along the lines of "we don't eat food anymore. we eat food-like products." isn't that scary? you should go watch it. it will change your life. happy juicing :) (i just said that... eww)
