So...You've probably heard about it. I'm sure you've seen it.
If you're adventurous; you may have even tried it yourself.
What am I talking about? Well...JUICING of course!
I'm not one to make dietary changes on a whim. My body has already been through a lot, so new things make me nervous...but after seeing the 'Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead' documentary; juicing was one of those things that had always been in the back of my mind. Well...I finally did my research, and consulted with my doctor. We decided together that it wouldn't hurt to try, and if anything; a cleanse could give my autoimmune and digestive systems an extra boost.
The best plan I found was the 'Reboot with Joe' program. He's actually the guy that made the documentary. The program was completely FREE, and layed things out in detail. They couldn't have made it any easier. Here's the link if you wanted to check it out:
Next step was finding a Juicer. This is the one thing that turned me off when I initially started looking into all of this. The 'good' ones can be upwards of $100 or more, and I knew that I didn't want to spend that much money on something I was worried I may not enjoy. After tons of online stalking, and reading through about a gazillions reviews, I settled on a bottom of the line, basic, starter juicer. Here's the one I bought. It was $30...I'm here to tell you, it got the job done.
Here's what it looked like in action:
From there; it was on to shopping! You really need to prepare for this. It requires time and dedication. A lot of people will tell you how expensive this is...but it doesn't have to be. I started by visiting my local Farmer's Market. Buy Local and Buy in Season! This will save you TONS of money! My cost for the week was around $100. Please keep in mind that cost covered enough fruits and veggies for 5-6 juices per day for a whole week, as well as tea and coconut water in between.
I brought everything home, cleaned, chopped, and prepped about as much as I could (not including apples, cucumbers or lemons...I left those whole. Didn't t want to spoil anything over the course of my week.) One of the best tips I read online was to place most of the ingredients for each juice in a gallon size Ziploc bag. This really made it easy to grab my days ingredients. Here's what our fridge looked like when I was done. My poor husband only had two shelves to himself this week...the rest was mine. LOL.
Now it was time to play. I quickly discovered that I LOVED the taste of carrot juice.
It's sweet, and slightly earthy. It's also really pretty!
(This particular concoction was Carrot, Apple, Lemon)
The 'Green' Juices are an acquired taste.
You really have to play around with them to find what you like.
My favorite was this version of Green Lemonade:
(Kale, Spinach, Cucumber, Celery, Green Apple, and Lemon)
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By the end of the week; I had a few ingredients leftover, so I threw them together and made what I jokingly called 'UGLY' Juice for breakfast on the eighth day. It was a random concoction of fruits and veggies, but actually tasted good!
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Here are a few things I learned from all of this:
PROS:
I definitely felt more energetic.
My hair started to feel thicker.
My skin started to shine and felt softer.
I lost 12 lbs!
CONS:
You WILL have GAS.
You will pee. A LOT.
Constipation can happen.
You will also have a day when you hit 'THE WALL.' This is the day when you feel exhausted, grumpy, and gross, and can happen anywhere from days two through four. JUST KEEP GOING! I read online that you should take an epsom salt bath, scrub down with a loofah, and use a good shampoo when this happens. This was good advice on behalf of the interwebs. I crashed that night and slept through til morning. The next day, I woke up feeling like a million bucks.
All in all, it was a great experience.
I would definitely do it again.
If you have any questions...let me know!
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