Tag Archives: health

Juice in the morning, sailor take warning

Recently I’ve renewed my commitment to juicing. And we’re not talking drugs here, people–we’re talking vegetables. (I was only recently informed that juicing can also be a term for imbibing steroids. Or does one inject those things? Anyway.)

Why this fresh zest for juicing? (heh heh–forgive the pun–couldn’t resist) Well, in part because I heard my friend Traci’s inspiring story again about how juicing sent her rheumatoid arthritis into remission, and in part because my friend Sarah decided to do a juice cleanse. And did it. And it was awesome (more on that soon!).

There’s nothing like the honest testimony of a trusted girlfriend to get me in motion. With all this motivation, I really wanted to make juicing part of our routine–so I did. And I’m in week 5 now, going steady, holding the course. In case you’re interested in having some tasty, energizing, veggie juice for breakfast to get your day started out right, here’s how I do it:

1) On Sunday when we grocery shop for the week, I purchase a big bag of veggies, to wit:

-5 lbs carrots
-5 cucumbers
-A large, large knobbly knob of ginger
-The biggest bag of spinach I can locate
-1 bunch of celery

And I should clarify, this is just for me (though I do pour a small glass for my husband). I can hardly believe I go through all that in a week’s time considering it’s just my breakfast, but that’s the miracle of juicing, friends.

2) As soon as I get home from the grocery store, all the veggies destined for liquification get washed, prepped, and put into ziplocs for the week. That way, when I wake up and get my sleepy butt into the kitchen, everything is ready. There’s no horsing around with a knife needed, which is great since all my faculties are not yet present.

I also get pre-washed spinach, which saves a good amount of time.

3) Before going to bed (and while my husband sets the coffee maker), I assemble the juicer and put it on the counter so that it’s ready to go.

I figure any extra fussing about in the morning should be avoided, because that could just be used as an excuse to choose the lazy way out. I need to leave everything set up for myself so that practically no effort in the morning is required.

4) Final trick: lining the juicer’s ‘waste’ bin with a trash bag so that all the vegetable refuse can simply be gathered up and tossed.

Saves some washing time! Straight into the trash with you.

5) In the morning, make the juice! I use a big handful of spinach to start . . .

. . .  followed by a thumbsized piece of ginger, a whole cucumber . . .

. . . a couple stalks of celery, and 6-8 carrots.

With the pre-washed and pre-cut veggies, it’s easy to pop them into the juicer and cococt a greeney-orangey beverage that will start my day on the right foot and load up my body with micronutrients.

And I have to say, I’m not hungry in the least after that big glass of juice. It fills me up, but doesn’t give that bloated feeling that bread products sometimes bring. And I think it tastes great! (the more carrots the better it seems to taste–there’s nothing like that sweet, earthy flavor)

It even takes away almost all of my urge for coffee. I usually sip at a coffee while doing my morning devotional right afterwards (it’s a habit that’s hard to break–a hot beverage is so perfect for helping me enter a contemplative state), but I usually only get halfway through the mug, and have no desire for coffee again until the following morning.

How about you–does that picture of green juice make you salivate, or make your stomach churn and turn?

Tomorrow, my friend Sarah will be guest posting here about her February juice cleanse. Just reading about her experience makes me want to do one too. Come back on by and read about her experience tomorrow morning!

The Jenninator goes healthatronic

I’ve been wanting to use the word ‘healthatronic’ more ever since I coined it one fateful, vegetarian night.

And now, I am. Because I am engaging in a veeeeery healthy endeavor these days: juicing!

One day, as the story goes, a free juicer showed up in the mail. I cackled with glee, took it home, and it sat there for at least a month . . . my excuse is that I was in Alaska.

Alaska, Alaska . . . always putting a wrench in things.

But let’s rewind and go back to the very beginning of the story. How did this ‘juicing’ thing even come on to my radar? Well, it all started one summer evening at our church’s summer women’s Bible study. As we sat around a table munching on Caesar salad and cupcakes, our pastor’s wife, Traci, started talking about how juicing had helped calm her arthritis many years ago (along with going gluten-free). She described how much better she felt when she was juicing, and recommended that if we were interested in learning about the health benefits, we should watch a documentary called ‘Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead’ (on Netflix instant play last time I checked).

Then I got the free juicer, and went off to Alaska without ever using it. Thankfully, soon after our return, our church had a community lunch. And as I talked to the ladies, it turned out the the juicing fad was spreading like wildfire in our small church. All the cool kids were juicing. Hearing my friend Sarah describe a morning juice made of apples, pears, and a slice of ginger, my desire for fresh juice was again reignited. It was time to delve into this juicing thing and put that machine to use!

So that night, I queued up the documentary, popped some popcorn, and ordered my husband to join me on a pile of pillows. He was skeptical about the documentary, thinking that it was just a sales pitch for a juicing company–but by the end, he was saying “So let’s talk about the lunch that I take every day–is it healthy? Should I substitute something else for the lunch meat?” and deciding that he didn’t need an egg over his lentils because we eat too many animal products as it is. I love that man. Open-minded, kind, smart–he’s the whole package. But I digress! Micronutrients, people! That’s what we were after.

That very night, after watching the documentary and carefully reading the instruction manual for the juicer, I juiced an apple. Then I juiced a carrot. And I was addicted.

Have you ever had fresh carrot juice? Becuase you will soon be addicted, too.

The following day involved a late night trip to the grocery store, where I purchased two bags full of fresh stuff: apples, pears, 5 pounds of carrots, ginger, oranges, lemons, grapefruit. That night we tried the apple/pear/ginger combo, and I decided I was a true convert. I love fresh juice. It tastes so dang good. It delivers micronutrients to my body. It makes me happy to be alive.

This ain’t no advertisement: I love juicing. And after approximately 1 month of operating it, I love my juicer. I love life, I love bunnies, and I also love small and fuzzy kitties. Oh, and that baby James.

A couple notes about the pros and cons of juicing:

-You gain the benefit of the micronutrients of a whole whoopload of fruits and veggies without eating that much (and thus feeling full). So there’s a higher micronutrient to calorie ratio, as I understand it. In other words, by the time your stomach says “I’m full!” you will have consumed a lot more nutrients than if you were just eating the fruit and veggies directly.

-A direct cause of the above: it’s expensive to juice. Instead of eating one or two carrots, you juice eight of them. So it costs more money to fill your stomach. You’re reducing a lot of fruit and veggie weight into a small cup, so more money–but again, more micronutrients.

-Eventually I’d love to do a 10-day juice cleanse–but maybe when my husband and I can do it together. Like, during his summer break, when he can have access to the juicer for his lunch as well.

-If you start juicing hard core, it can cause some . . . ‘action’ in the stomach/intestines. So Traci recommends ramping up to it instead of jumping in no holds barred. Especially if you use kale (I haven’t gone there yet), which apparently makes things ‘move.’

-One of my concerns was how long it would take to clean the juicer. I’d always heard those things were a pain in the butt to clean–and it has to be done right after using the machine, since the vegetable waste will discolor the machine if left sitting too long. So I timed myself cleaning it at a regular speed (not hurrying, and dawdling a little as I am wont to do):

Five minutes. And that’s counting the pauses to take pictures of the cleaning process. I could probably get it down to three if I were a little more focused.

Most of the parts just need a quick rinse–there’s very little scrubbing action.

I’d love to get up earlier and juice every morning, and then have a small juice at night after dinner for my ‘dessert.’ The problem is, I am a sloth in the mornings. Things that seem absolutely worth getting up for just don’t have the same sheen at 7-something a.m. Know what I mean? So we’ll see. My plan B is to convince my boss to get a juicer for the office, in exchange for sharing my juice-making skills. Then I can juice for breakfast and lunch, and eat a regular dinner.

And see that fish oil there in the background? Yes, I’m now taking those little capsules daily. I’m telling you–totally healthatronic, man.

Anyway folks, this juicer was in the $60-70 range, and I’m quite happy with it. I’ll keep you posted once I try the Big Kahuna: kale.

Have any of you all tried juicing? And has it made a difference in your general health and energy levels?