Good Afternoon!
I hope you are enjoying your weekend so far!
So today I want to talk about Juicing. I am often asked my opinion about whether I think juicing is a fad or here to stay. And I believe that it is here to stay.
I know that juicing is all the rage and for good reason. Did you also know that a juice elixir can also be a healthy and safe way to lose weight?
Now, I am not a big advocate of juice cleanses but do think that adding juice as a complement to a solid whole-foods based detox or weight loss plan is awesome. Juicing provides a high level of quality nutrition, which will assist in weight-loss.
Top 5 Reasons to Juice
1) Easy Digestion
One of the best benefits of juicing fresh fruit and vegetables is that drinking them (as opposed to eating them) makes them really easy for your body to digest. If you juice a couple of tomatoes, celery, cucumber, spinach, kale and carrots, you will make a delicious and easy to drink fresh veggie cocktail that will provide a huge amount of nutritional benefits to your body. If you were to actually consume those same vegetables raw, from a plate, in one sitting, you would find the process to be quite difficult. It would take a lot of effort to eat and digest the same quantity of food. But by juicing those vegetables, you get to drink in one glass a dense quantity of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients really easily.
2) Reduction in Cravings
When you drink a glass of freshly made vegetable or green juice, you are loading every cell of your body with detoxifying minerals. By drinking your veggies and fruit, you are giving your body all the amazing nutrients that it needs to heal, stay healthy, and reduce the risk of illness. In turn, you will also find that you experience a reduction in cravings, particularly for sweets or processed foods. This is because you are feeding your body all that it needs. Your body won’t be sending messages to your brain that make you crave particular foods that contain certain minerals or vitamins that you might otherwise lacking. It is in this way that you will start to lose weight, often quite quickly. You simply will be CROWDING OUT the unhealthy foods that make you gain weight, and the best part is that you won’t feel like you are depriving yourself!
3) Filling Snack or Dessert
Another amazing thing about juicing is that by drinking a freshly made juice, your appetite shuts off. This is because your body (which is amazing at knowing just what it needs!) is getting all that it is looking for. You will feel satisfied and satiated, much more than you would by eating empty calories in junk food. Your body will feel revitalized, not sluggish or heavy, and instead of searching for more food even after you have just eaten something, you will find that you don’t really want or need anything more. Give it a try!
4 ) Investment in your health
In order to start juicing regularly, you will need to invest in a juicer, which initially will mean setting aside a bit of money or pick up fresh juice from local juice joints, like KURE Juice, Greenleaf Juice, Portland Juice Company, Sip and Canteen. You might feel like this is an expense you don’t want to have, but by making these purchases, you are committing to your health and weight loss. It gives you a reason to stick to the concept of juicing for long enough that you will start to notice the difference in how you feel. It is also an investment in your health and well-being, so not only does juicing help you to lose weight, but it will save you money in medical fees in the future. There are all sorts of good juicers out there and different price points. I personally own two juicers and love them both. Check out the Breville Fountain Plus or the Hurom Slow Juicer.
5) Fun and Variety
In order to lose weight and to stay motivated, life needs to be fun, right? Juicing is the ideal way to bring this into your life. As you start to get into juicing, you will find it great fun making new combinations of fruit and vegetables cocktails or hitting all the different juice bars and finding your favorite juice combo. I recommend you stick with a 1:3 ratio of fruit to veggies.
If you buy a juicer, you will make all kinds of unique and interesting drinks, and you will find that you never get bored from the endless variety of beverages that you can make for yourself and others. You will also want to share these drinks with others, which will also mean getting encouragement and support from those around you as you continue your weight-loss goals. Support is super important when it comes to making, and sticking to, healthy changes in your life.
Really, juicing is a fabulously fun, easy, and healthy way to shed those unwanted pounds without any struggle or deprivation. You have got nothing to lose by starting to make green juicing a regular part of your lifestyle. I recommend starting with 1 juice a day and then adding more as you like. I enjoy having a green juice to start the day and often make extra to enjoy around 3:00pm when the SUGAR MONSTER want to come out. A green juice stops my sugar cravings in it’s tracks.
To get you started, here is a delicious and easy juice to kick-start your weight-loss:
Abby’s Green and Lean Juice
1 green apple
1 cucumber
1 bunch of kale
handful of spinach
bunch of parsley
1 rib celery
1/2 lemon (peeled removed)
1-inch piece of ginger
Run the vegetables through your juicer and enjoy!
Cheers!
Pop on and share your favorite JUICE CREATION.
In Health and Happiness,
