What made you start this?
My husband and I had been wrestling with getting healthy for a while. Then one night while scanning our Netflix queue we came upon a documentary by Australian borne Joe Cross called Fat Sick and Nearly Dead. That was the launch we needed to know we could change our health for good.
* I think it is important to note that Joe and his team of nutritionists do not advocate doing a long juice plan like he did. Anything longer than 15 days needs to be closely monitored and carefully thought out. Partner with your doctor, especially if you are on prescription medication or have physical limitations. By working with our family physician, my husband is now totally off his blood pressure medication.
Here is a great article (transitioning out of total juicing) concerning how long a person should juice.
At this stage of my life, I find it too stressful and complicated to follow a set plan, count food types or log calories. Instead I listen to my body talking. I believe that the more healthy we eat, the more we will tune in to our bodies telling us what we need. I like to keep it basic and focus more on eating predominately good produce and supplement with plant and meat proteins.
Is juicing healthy?
Juicing is a perfect way to impact your body with a huge dose of cleansing and filling phytonutrients. Juicing enables you to take a major list of ingredients (for example: 1 cucumber, 4 celery,2 apples, 8 kale leaves, 1/2 lemon and a slice of ginger) and obtain all of the importance of it without over filling your stomach on all that bulk. Could you really eat a full plate of those ingredients multiple times a day?
Aren't you missing fiber?
When produce is juiced, the soluble and insoluble fibers are separated. Soluble fiber stays with the liquid while insoluble fiber becomes the left over pulp.
What do you do with the left over pulp?
Some people like to bake with their left over pulp. You can find tons of recipes online using it so nothing goes in the trash. Other people like use it for their garden compost. I personally just toss it. My juicer does a good job leaving little waste so I don't feel bad. I don't know how scholarly my thinking is but I figure all the good stuff is already gone from the bulk so it is just empty left overs. Dr. Ronda Nelson suggests that you mix some of the pulp back into your drink for added fiber. Since I don't always buy organic and most of the pesticides are located on that outer wasted pulp, that would defeat my cause.
Do you get enough protein?
I never knew this until recently but plant based proteins are in produce. Here is a good read (the 'P' word) on the difference between animal and plant based proteins.
How often do you juice?
When we first started our Reboot cleanse, my husband and I were each making 5-6 juices per day.
Do you ever eat?
During the Reboot cleanse, those juices were all that we had along with lots of cleansing water and some coconut water. It enabled our bodies to 'clean house' so to speak as well as give our digestive systems a much needed break.
Now that we are both beyond that initial cleanse, we each have 2-3 juices a day as well as a couple of good salads. We snack on healthy produce like figs, carrots, celery, grapes, apples and oranges. We have also incorporated chicken, yummy garden burgers and legumes into our daily choices.
Do you get hungry?
In the beginning yes, I was definitely hungry. But at the same time I was learning hour by hour how often my hunger thoughts were really about emotional spirals. Often my supposed need for food was really my emotions telling me I needed a distraction. I also learned that many times my hunger signals really had more to do with being dehydrated.
What kind of juicer do you use?
There are tons of different juicer types available on the market for every possible need and the choices can be very daunting. I personally use a single auger Samson juicer. I spent a couple of months looking at different websites and also found that there were many comparison videos to be watched on youtube. Once I figured out what I wanted for my own personal needs, I shopped around for the best price on ebay.
Blender, Emulsifier, Juicer......is there a difference?
A blender is a machine that takes some bulk foods along with some liquids and blends everything together to make the consistency of a smoothie. The bulk foods do need to be chopped up a bit and typically a smoothie recipe will add 12 oz of water, juice or type of milk to be able to properly blend. Blenders are great for adding spinach, bananas or ice to something.
An emulsifier is a whole food mixer. It takes the whole produce: skin, pulp juice...everything and pulverizes it to liquid. Using the whole bulk of produce means no left over waste to deal with. To do this the machine must spin at a super high rpm and can actually create heat within your juice.
A juicer separates the soluble and insoluble fibers from produce along with all of the important nutrients that produce holds.
How much produce do you buy in a week?
I honestly can't completely remember now how much produce we bought those first couple of weeks when we were both juicing a 100%. But now I would say our mainstays per week are things like 10 lbs of carrots, 8-10 lbs of celery, 10 lbs of red apples, 10 lbs of granny apples, 10 lbs of oranges, a 6 pack of romaine hearts, 9-12 english cucumbers and maybe 4 lbs each of spinach and kale. Then we buy our fun stuff like a watermelon, 1-2 pineapples, beets, fennel bulbs and added salad fixings like grape tomatoes.
Is it costly?
When we first started and were both juicing our reboot 100%, I think we were spending maybe $20 per day on produce. Now that we have slowed down on juice and incorporated salads, soups and meats; I think we spend more like $80-$100 per week on food.
At a different time in my life I would have thought that all to be a crazy cost. But now that my husband and I are both dedicated and supportive of each other, I think we are actually saving a little money. We used to do our big grocery shopping and then go out to eat several times a week for dates and extra junk. Our food bill was through the roof!
How much time do you spend juicing?
My juicer has a smaller food chute. This causes me to spend a little more time preparing than some other juicers. I have gotten into a great routine and can make 3 juices along with doing all the clean up in an hour.
To save time in my day, I choose to make my 3 juices all at once. It is said that you get the biggest impact from your juice if you use it as soon as you drink it. But really it is totally fine if you cover it with little air room left over and store it in your cold dark fridge for a few hours. My husband makes his juices the night before because of his work schedule and it has always worked out great for him.
* A word of advice from experience....don't procrastinate cleaning your juicer. Clean it as soon as you are done with it. Having to soak parts to get off the dried on fibers is time you will never get back.
What if I am missing certain recipe ingredients?
When we first started juicing, I was opposed to beets and my husband couldn't bear the thought of cabbage. What do you do with that? Here is a great list of substitutions from Joe's website.
I like fruit but I don't like vegetables. Is that okay?
Our bodies need the wide variety that both fruits and vegetables provide. Even though fruits are immediately tasty, they carry more sugar and calories while missing out on much of those important green nutrient values. Truly a great secret that everyone should know is that the more healthy you eat, the more your taste buds will change. Give it some time and you will find that you will come to embrace and even crave the goodness of veggies. Here is a great article on understanding the 80% / 20% rule of thumb for veggies and fruits.
I have been juicing for 1 day and I feel horrible. Should I quit?
Oh boy I remember that feeling. You may feel tired, nauseous, achy, maybe even wondering if a touch of the flu bug is knocking at your door. Don't give up. Keep pushing forward in giving your body the aid of those mega phytonutrient doses. Those blah feelings are your body throwing out all of the toxins that have been stored in your muscles and organ tissues. Your body is celebrating the good food you are supplying it with and trusting that you will keep giving it more goodness. And those hard cravings of caffeine, sugar, bread and chocolate.....I promise that in 3-5 days of doing a full reboot you will all of a sudden wake up and feel right as rain. The emotions and irritability will be gone and you will feel fresh and brand new.
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