The Benefits of Juicing – Juicing Recipes for Beginners

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My husband Phil has always been in great shape.  As it is for me, being healthy and working out is a priority in his life.  However, his healthy lifestyle has been put on the back burner these past few months because he works in politics, and with the election 22 days away (but who’s counting?), he is working LONG days, seven days a week. He’s been on the “campaign diet,” which consists of pizza every single night.  The office always has and abundance of chips, cookies and candy…it’s pretty disgusting and you can imagine how he has been feeling as a result…not good.  He has been sick, complains of being exhausted all the time, achy, low energy, etc.  I decided it was time for the “pizza detox” because  I need to keep my man healthy :).

My Aunt and Uncle have been juicing fruits and vegetables for the past year or so and the results have been unreal.  My Uncle John lost 65 pounds in 90 days from juicing alone.  My Aunt Kathy, who has been battling Lyme Disease for years, started to include juicing in her diet as well (not to lose weight but for the health benefits of juicing).  As a result she started feeling better, her skin is literally glowing, she has loads of energy and feels amazing.

I started to read more about it and found the benefits of juicing are endless!  It can boost weight loss, rid your body of toxins, raise your energy level, clear your skin, allow better digestion, help you sleep better, has anti-aging properties, prevents cold/flu, and can alleviate inflammation in your joints among countless other benefits.  Sounds pretty good right?

After speaking to my Aunt more about it and doing my research I was sold, so last week I went out and bought myself a Breville juicer.  Here she is…

One week later, I’m officially on the juicing bandwagon.

My next stop after purchasing the juicer was to Whole Foods to buy my first produce supply for the week and I had to buy A LOT.  I stocked up on kale, spinach, carrots, celery, ginger root, cucumber, pears, apples and lemons.

Here are a few tips for juicing beginners that I’ve found in my research:

• You don’t have to peel or seed the fruits or veggies (if they are organic) with the exception of cutting the seeds from the apples and pears (seeds make the juice bitter).
• Prep the fruits/vegetables by washing them thoroughly and cutting off parts that you don’t want to go through the juicer (tops of carrots, end piece of lemon, cut cucumber and lemon in half before placing in the juicer).
• If you are juicing something really hard like ginger root, put that in first so the rest of the produce pushes it through while you juice the remainder.
• After you are done juicing transfer the juice to from the pitcher to a cup and back a few times to mix everything well.

For my first cup of juice I used these fruits and veggies to get myself one good sized glass.  I used an inch of ginger (ginger is pretty strong so start with a little to make sure you like the taste), 4 kale leaves, 2 celery stalks, carrot, half a lemon, a Granny Smith apple, and half a cucumber.

This is what I got…

I was expecting it to taste pretty awful but I didn’t care because I know the benefits of juicing are worth it, but I was pleasantly surprised!  The lemon and apple really sweetened it up and it actually tasted pretty good.  I immediately felt a higher level of energy, almost even a slight buzz, and my energy levels stayed high for the rest of the afternoon.  I had a late workout that day and I felt like I had more energy for that as well.

Since my juicing experiment went well I made my husband a similar juice the next morning for breakfast.  He said he had higher energy and he just felt better.  It even made him be more conscious of what he ate the rest of the day…he even passed on the pizza :).  Every morning since, as soon as he wakes up he asks me to make our juice and is excited about the benefits of juicing.

The plan for Phil is to replace his breakfast with a green juice for now until the campaign is over and then he is going to do an actual juice cleanse.

Here are a few juicing recipes to try:

•  Blood Pressure Reducer – 2 apples, ½ grapefruit, 2 stalks of celery, 1 cucumber, ¼ fennel bulb, 1 clove garlic, ginger root
• Rise and Grind Juice – 2 apples,  2 stalks celery,  ½ cucumber, ginger, cinnamon
• Clear Skin Juice – 5 carrots, handful of spinach, 2 stalks of celery, ½ lemon
• Pre-Workout Energy Juice – cucumber, beet, lemon, ginger, carrots, apple
• Body Cleanse Juice – 1 apple, 1/2 cup pineapple chunks, 2 stalks celery, 1 lemon, 2 oranges, 1/3 cup cranberries

I will update you with our progress and post more juicing recipes that we like!