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In my quest for better health, to help mend some of the damage I have done to my body over the years, to improve myself both physically and mentally and to teach Stella nutritionally, healthy eating habits I have begun juicing. No I am not putting Stella on a juicing diet, but her diet is becoming more and more incorporated with raw foods.
For the past 20 years + I have eaten a mostly organic, vegetarian diet. I started eating this way due to some health issues I had in my early 20’s and for the most part I have not looked back. By changing my diet back then I overcame IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) and found that I was maybe sick once per year instead of the many, many time per year. It has gotten easier since then to eat healthy, nutritious foods and the selection is so far superior than what it was back then, but we are now faced with so much marketing and altered foods – one needs to be fairly well educated and have a really good BS radar!
This newest quest started with my need and want to feel refreshed upon waking in the morning. Honestly, I can not remember the last time that I did feel refreshed upon waking. A big part of my problem is that I need to get to bed earlier, but for the most part that evades me. There is so much to accomplish in a day and the waking hours seem to not be enough time for me. I wake each morning telling myself that I will be in bed by 9pm that night, read for my 30 – 60 minutes and then lights out, but then the evening comes and I find myself getting in between the sheets around 10:30 and lights out around 11 0r 11:30 and then I start the whole day over again, when the alarm goes off between 5 and 5:45am (but I am usually already awake). The other part of the problem is that I have a hard time going to sleep, I wake a lot during the night and I have a really hard time falling back to sleep. Will changing my eating, help this – I certainly hope so!
So during my quest I have watched numerous documentaries and movies on food (Sweet Suicide, FoodMatters, Food Inc, Sick, Fat and Nearly Dead, Nourishing our Children and have learned from each of them and have made changes in our diet due to that learning.
I am still a newbie when it comes to juicing and my goal is to do a 10 day juice fast – hoping for that to happen in June. May was just too difficult with travel and vacations. I found a great book that has been educating me on juicing – Juicing, Fasting and Detoxing for Life by Cherie Calbom, MS. I have also been referring to these two websites http://myjuicecleanse.com/juicer-recipes/mean-green-juice-recipes/ and http://thriftyandgreen.com/blogs/juicer-recipes-now/how-long-can-i-store-fresh-made-juice
So it has been one week that I have been juicing once a day – the morning to get things off on the right digestive track. Not sure if I can tell a difference or not yet. I am still trying to find the right combination for me for the morning juice – if you have any suggestions, please pass them on!
For both of these recipes I used only organic produce. If you can not find organic – peel the skins – that is where most of the pesticides reside.
The Breakfast Zinger (from the book mentioned above)
3 – 4 medium carrots
1 small beet with a couple of leaves
1/2 cucumber
1/2 small or medium lemon
1/2 – 1 inch piece of fresh ginger-root
1/2 green apple (optional)
Wash all produce and then cut so it will fit into your juicer. Juice carrots, beet, cucumber, lemon, ginger and then apple if using. This will make 2 servings. Store the other serving in an airtight container – I use a canning jar. Sip and enjoy. This one takes me awhile to get it down.
Kale Juice
7 – 10 carrots (depending on size)
2 small green apples, cored
4 large kale leaves, de-stemmed
2 quarter sized chunks of ginger, peeled
Wash and prepare all produce. Juice carrots, apples, ginger and then kale. This makes 2+ servings. Store what you will not be drinking in an airtight container. Sip and enjoy – this one was easier for me to get down.
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What a great article!! We too are learning about juicing and there are many testimonials about drastic health improvement from juicing. One of the major things going on when you juice is that your cells are getting big doses of micronutrients!! I guarantee that you will be feeling and seeing results. Keep us posted. And thanks for this great article.