January 17, 2014

Juicing: The First Week

The SEA SALT Drinks, Recipes, Uncategorized 2 week cleanse, cleanse recipe, Green Juice, green juice recipe, juice cleanse, juice recipe, Juicing, Juicing Experience, SEA SALT 5 Comments

Over a plate of tacos last week, our friend Casey talked us into doing a juice cleanse. He has done a few himself, and we’ve heard him rave about it before but never considered doing it. At that point we had just been having green smoothies, but they were making me gag every time I drank one.  We switched from green smoothies, which we made with yogurt and in the blender,  to juicing fruits and veggies in a juicer. We aimed to juice for 3 meals a day, for a 2 weeks.

As mentioned in my previous post, I have never been one for fad diets but I really wanted to see the effects of this one.

My verdict after the first week:  Fresh juice is super tasty! As you can imagine, the flavors are unlike  juice you can buy in any store. Not to mention, the health benefits are out of this world! Being able to extract the majority of the nutrients from 4 cups of fresh spinach and drink it in 2 seconds is remarkable! ( I read that a lot of people with cancer have been recommended juicing to help increase antioxidant intake).  Note: As far as cardio exercise goes, I haven’t been doing more than walking (4 miles a day as fast as I can go), or a short surf sesh.  I usually run a few times a week, and my knees have been bothering me so this was a perfect excuse to have a resting period. 

These are the differences I have noticed after just 3 days of juicing (3-4 times a day):

1. The biggest difference is that I am sleeping noticeably heavier, (like the kind of sleep when you wake up in the morning and you feel like you’re in the same position you fell asleep in).
2. I have noticed a slight increase in energy (don’t want that 20 minute siesta in the afternoon after lunch).
3. No menstrual cramps (seriously! NONE)
4. Less mood swings.

I’ll let  you know how I feel after 2 weeks!

Here is a recipe for what I’ve been drinking every morning (I make about 4 cups)

Gnarly Green Juice

• spinach
• kale
• green apple or pear
• cucumber or honeydew melon
• thumb of ginger, peeled
• celery

 

 

Tips:

1. Go slowly to extract the most juice, let the weight of the food pusher do most of the work.
2. Add carrots last so that they don’t clog the juicing screen.
3. Harder, less ripe fruits work better. I used the pear before I thought it was ripe enough to eat, but it made excellent juice and lots of it.
4. Some of the veggies/fruits I like to use for “fillers” are cucumber or melon. They give the most juice because of their high water content.
5. The juice doesn’t last more than 10-15 mins before it starts to get gross and lose some of the health benefits (due to oxidation), so gulp it down!
6. If you can keep ingredients cold before you juice them it will help for a more refreshing juice (ie melon and cucumber, and greens should always be in the fridge anyway)