Juicing 101

Juicing is SO easy!  I've been juicing breakfast and lunch for almost a month now and I am down 20 lbs!  Below is a quick start guide including tips, techniques, and recipes:

How do I make juice?

I've tried juicing using a blender, a Vitamixer, and a Breville juicer.  The Breville juicer was definitely the best product I've tried so far...but I don't own one myself.  I use the blender passed down to me from my mom because it's FREE!  :)   A couple tips:

- Juicers (like the Breville):  These are great.  They deconstruct fruits and veggies so that you are only drinking the actual "juice" from each food item.  You CAN drink the pulp left over from juicing but I have found it will slow your actual weight loss.  

- Vitamixer:  Vitamixers are powerful!  But there really isn't a way to remove the pulp from your juices so you end up drinking it all.  Again, that's perfectly fine, but you won't see a dramatic weight loss.

- Blenders:  I love this old school method :)  Cut up fruits and veggies (make sure to add a little water to the blender!) and blend until liquefied.  Use a small holed strainer and a bowl to remove the pulp from your mixture.  You can always put the strained pulp aside and reblend just the pulp in order to get even more juice out of it.  Don't forget to restrain if you choose to do that.

Storage

I store all of my juices in small mason jars that I picked up on the cheap at Target.  Using glass jars makes clean up easier, and it's just better than plastic in terms of keeping your juice fresh.  

Juicing Frequency

As I said above, I juice for breakfast and lunch.  I eat an early, healthy dinner (something like sauteed salmon and fresh salad, for example) each day.  You may want to mix it up and have a food lunch and a juice dinner, or something like that :)  It's just easier for me in terms of my schedule to juice during the day so that's why I do it that way.

Tips

- Try to juice fruits in the AM and veggies in the afternoon.

- Don't juice any fruit skins/rinds you wouldn't normally eat.  

- Drink water throughout the day.

- At first you may experience a slight headache.  That means your detox is working!  Calm the headache with a cup of green tea and honey.  

- NO alcohol - especially beer.  Don't be mad at me if you juice diligently but drink 3 beers at the game on Saturday and end up gaining weight!  :/  I learned this lesson the hard way...lol

Recipes: 

Lord Featherbottom's Nectar1 pear
1/4 of a head of broccoli
4-5 leaves of kale
4-5 leaves of swiss chard
1/2 a lemon

Green Moonshine1 pear
1 apple
1/2 cucumber
1 handful of spinach

Mean Green 1 handful spinach
3 leaves of kale
1 apple
handful of parsley leaves
1/3 of a lemon
3 inches of cucumber
optional - 1 inch ginger

Carrot Quencher
3 carrots
1 apple
1 big handful of spinach

Vegetable Potion 
1/2 cucumber
3 carrots
1 big handful of spinach
1 apple
1 inch ginger

Chill to the Beet (Anti-anxiety drink)
1/2 beet
1/2 cucumber
1 inch ginger
1/2 lemon
add coconut water if you can

Sunshine Elixer
1 orange
1 big handful of spinach
3 carrots
3 big leaves of kale

Mighty Marrow Calcium Drink
a cup of chopped broccoli
3 carrots
1 apple
handful of parsley leaves
1/2 lemon

Liquid Kleenex (Anti-allergy drink)1 apple
4 carrots
1 inch ginger

Skiddly-Boop-Boop-Skat-Skat!2 handfuls spinach

4 carrots
1 green apples

Kathy's Not-So-Green Tonic
3 leaves of kale
1 apple
1 big handful of spinach 
3 carrots
1 inch ginger
1/2 lemon

There are many more recipes available online!  Also, feel free to make up your own juices!  You can't really go wrong :)

Good luck!!!