Mission Accomplished

It's officially after midnight (don't trust Blogger time) which means I have successfully completed my twelve day juice cleanse! In celebration, I thought I would share twelve things I have learned on this journey.  And here they are:

1. Real juice does not come in a glass, cup, bottle, can, jar, jug, carton, box, or anything of the sort.  Store bought juices are nothing but sugar water and have little to no nutritional value.  Even Odwalla and other "naked" juices are pasteurized.  Pasteurization is when the juice is heated to get rid of bacteria.  Unfortunately, beneficial nutrients may also be eliminated during this process. If you want to reap the full health benefits of drinking juice, you must make it yourself or purchase it from a legit juice bar.
2. Do not put your juice in the fridge!  When fruits and vegetables are juiced, they begin the oxidation process and soon lose some of their nutritional value.  (Oxidation is what makes an apple turn brown when you cut it.)  Always drink your juice right after making it.
3. Drink your juice slowly.  You must give your body time to take in the overwhelming amount of vitamins and minerals from the juice.  Drinking it too fast can prevent you from fully absorbing the nutrients.  And it can make you feel sick.
4. Juicing is time consuming.  For each glass of juice you make, you will need to prep the ingredients, juice them, and clean the juicer.  This can take anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour.  If you're doing a juice cleanse, you will probably want to make juice at least three times a day.  So, you're likely to spend an hour and a half to three hours a day in the kitchen.
5. Making juice can be very expensive.  It's amazing how much food you have to put in your juicer just to produce a small glass of juice.  Shop at the farmer's market when possible.  Not only are the fruits and veggies local and fresh, but they also tend to be cheaper than at the grocery store.
6. Don't be afraid to experiment with different juice combinations.  You just might end up with your best juice yet.  By the same token, use your intuition.  If you can't imagine pairing a certain fruit with a certain vegetable, you probably shouldn't.
7. Use a wide variety of ingredients.  Every fruit and every vegetable has its own unique nutritional benefits to offer.  Try them all!
8. We are in control of what we put into our bodies.  We can choose to fill our bodies with foods that will help us or with foods that will hurt us.  The helping foods can taste just as good as (if not better than) the hurting foods.  In fact, if you begin eating more healthy foods, your taste buds will change.  All of a sudden, the unhealthy foods you used to crave will start to taste as awful as they are for you.
9. If you are looking at your computer, tablet, or mobile phone to read this blog, then chances are you have never been hungry.  Most of us have never experienced true hunger.  The hunger we feel stems from our brains, not our bodies.  However, hunger should be physical.  We must learn to listen our bodies not only to tell us when we are hungry but also to tell us when we are full.
10. Never underestimate the importance of drinking.  You can survive much longer without food than without water.  In theory, you could live your entire life on a liquid diet.  When we think we are hungry, more often than not, we are really thirsty.  Drink a full glass of water before every meal even if your meals only consist of juice.
11. You may think that you need your cup of coffee, your can of Red Bull, your 5-Hour Energy Shot, etc. to wake you up or give you the energy you need to get through the day.  But these things are not doing anything good for your body.  Several hours after drinking them, you are likely to feel even more sluggish than you were to begin with.  You don't need caffeine or a ridiculous amount of vitamin B to get energized.  All you need is a good healthy dose of vitamins and minerals.  Which you can always get from a delicious glass of fresh squeezed juice!
12. It is possible to completely change your life in as little as twelve days.  And I am living proof!

Juicy Fruit No More

It's official.  I've become a hardcore juicing machine.  What better way to celebrate Independence Day than with an all green veggie juice?!  That's right, no fruit.  Not even a sweet beet.  Ingredients: Russian kale, curly kale, dinosaur kale, broccoli, rainbow chard, celery, dandelion greens.  Can you say yum?  Celebrate your freedom...drink juice!

Deep In The Juice

Day nine is coming to a close and the countdown is on...only three more days to go!  There is no doubt that already the juice has helped me to become stronger person.  For the first time, perhaps ever, I have made myself a priority.  I am doing this for me, no one else.  And I am not depending on anyone else but myself to complete this journey.  I get the ingredients; I make the juice; I drink it.  I have the discipline to to this everyday all on my own.  Sure, some people have helped me along the way.  Like my friends at How Art Thou? and all the fabulous people holding me accountable by reading my silly blog.  Still though, at the end of the day, I juice alone. 

For as long as I can remember, I have been self-conscious about my weight.  There was always this feeling in the back of my mind that if I could just be thin, somehow all other aspects of my life would magically fall into place.  That I was inadequate as a person because I never fit into some Hollywood-created mold of beauty.  Or because I couldn't wear a pair of skinny jeans without looking ridiculous.  Yet, in nine short days, I have opened my eyes to what I could not see for twenty-two years.  It was never about my desire to be gaunt.  What I really wanted, deep down, was to be perfect.  Now, everyone knows that there is no such thing as perfection.  But, knowing this does not stop us (or did not stop me) from desperately wanting to achieve it.

I have often felt myself thinking, "I'll never be good enough."  The real question is: good enough for whom?  Whom is it, exactly, that I am trying so hard to impress?  And why, of all things, would I want to impress he/she/it with my body?  Physical beauty is, after all, quite subjective.  I can now accept, amongst other things, that I will probably never fit into a size two.  I simply wasn't designed that way.  Loving myself and my body is the first step in attaining that which I have only dreamed of.  When you truly love yourself, no one can change your perception.  Being perfect doesn't matter anymore because you only have to be good enough for you.  To me, skinny isn't beautiful.  Fat isn't beautiful.  Short, tall, big, small isn't beautiful.  No, healthy IS beautiful.  I may not lose a single pound from this juice cleanse.  I might gain twenty when it's over.  Guess what?  I could care less.  I am happy to be getting healthy.  No matter what number that may reflect on the scale.

What's even more amazing about this juice journey than my self-realizations is the impact I've had on others.  My friends are starting to adopt better eating habits and a few have even set out to buy their very own juicers.  Nine days ago, that never would have happened.  Pretty soon, the juice will spread like wildfire!  How fitting that when I randomly turned on the television today, Family Feud was on.  The topic: "Name something that might be referred to as juicy."  And the number one answer...me!  (Okay, just kidding.  It was fruit.)

Recipes

Recently I have been getting a lot of questions about juicing recipes.  Personally, I feel that following a recipe is more trouble than it's worth.  I prefer to experiment and see what combinations strike a chord with my taste buds.  But, I can also understand that someone who is new to the juicing world might want a recipe as a starting point.  So, I thought I would post some links that I have discovered.  (These links contain other useful information as well.)  And without further ado, here they are:

• Top Juicer Recipes – The Power of Juice
• Juice Recipe for Beauty
• Jack LaLanne's Power Juicer Health Community
• 5 Favorite Juicer Recipes
• Mean Green Juice Recipes
• 30 Days of Juicing

Also, definitely check out RebootYourLife.  They post new recipes on their blog every week.  Happy juicing!

James Island Juice!

This morning I made my first ever visit to James Island's one and only juice bar!  How Art Thou? Cafe, Juice & Wine Bar is located on Maybank Highway, making it convenient to Johns Island, West Ashley, and even Downtown.  Food allergies are not an issue at this lovely juice bar as they clean out their juicer after every use.  The juices on their menu do not contain many green leafy vegetables.  But, they are willing to do substitutions and add anything from their food menu into the juice!

My father and I chose the "On the 'Monet'", which contains cucumber, broccoli, kiwi, white grapes, and mint.  We subbed the cucumber for greens.  I can honestly say this was the best darn juice I have ever had!  The mint gave it such an amazing flavor.  And for $6.79 for a 20 ounce cup, you can't beat it.  That's about half the price of the juice at The Sprout.  Not to mention the exceptionally friendly service and great ambience How Art Thou? has to offer!  I will definitely be returning very soon.

What You Juicing Up Now?

It's the end of day seven which means I have successfully completed one week of my juice cleanse.  And now there are only five more days to go.  I'm so happy that the end is in sight.  I'll admit, the past few days have been rough.  I attribute this mostly to the extreme heat we've been experiencing.  Normally, I'm not a big fan of the rain.  But, this evening I could not have been more thrilled to hear the thunder boom and the see the lightening crack signaling that the showers are on their way.  Hopefully things will be cooled off soon.

Even though I'm past halfway, I'm still having juicing firsts.  I was so tempted by the amount of juice that I could get from my favorite fruit that I simply could not resist.  One slice of watermelon yields over four ounces of juice.  That's insane!!!  Do you have any idea how many greens I would have to juice to get that much?  The only downside is that watermelon isn't as nutritionally sound and it doesn't mesh as well with vegetables as an apple does.  Yet, my amalgam didn't turn out half bad.  I combined watermelon, celery, a red bell pepper, dinosaur kale, rainbow chard, and baby spinach.  Next time I'll use less celery.  Oh yes, there will be a next time!