We've Drunk the Juice

Last month, Kelly surprised me with a text message that simply said:

Have you ever considered juicing?

The truthful answer was yes - but only in theory. Yes, I like fresh-pressed juice but no, I don't want to add another time-consuming activity to my life. So I said:

Yes, but I'd only juice if I had a juicer that was fast, powerful and super-easy to clean.

Five minutes later he texted back:

Done. Our juicer will be here in a week.

So. A juicer was on the way and suddenly an infrequent thought became a subject of much interest. That evening we watched Fat Sick and Nearly Dead. Afterwards I was totally on board for juicing.

I googled a bit and found some helpful websites for new-to-juicing folks like me.

• A shopping list to keep from buying stuff that will spoil.
• Several recipes from Joe of Fat Sick and Nearly Dead
• More juice recipes
• And the best site ever - All About Juicing - that offers recipes and weekly recipe plans. 

With that information in hand, plus our new juicer, off we headed to shop.

It's pretty! Plus it met my criteria: It's powerful, fast and easy to clean.

You need to give the juice a stir to combine the ingredients - below is apply, kale, celery, cucumber and ginger.

Delicious! And best drunk within 20 minutes of pressing though we will confess to occasionally making juice the night before.

Carrot apple ginger is pretty good too...

Honestly, our favorite site is All About Juicing. I signed up for a free two week juice plan. After testing her recipes, we're probably going to pay for a subscription (less than $10/month).

To date we've juiced consistently for nearly a month and are finding it simple and quick. We only drink one juice per day, although I'd like to do a three-day juice fast after marathon season is over to cleanse my system. We rarely juice fruit because it's too high in (albeit natural) sugar.

I did have some headaches for the first few days of juicing, but those leveled off fairly quickly. Now I feel sluggish and head-achy if I don't juice.

Whether juicing is the health promised land that some claim or not, there's nothing bad about focusing on better nutrition and increasing your vegetable intake.