Juicing: How to Get Started – All You Need to Know

I’ve been getting a lot of emails asking me questions about juicing so I thought to best answer most of those questions I would write an entry about how to get started.  First and foremost, if you are considering a juice fast, DO YOUR RESEARCH!  Don’t just dive in ignorantly because you will wind up getting sick or malnutrition.  It would also be a good idea to get the okay from your doctor, especially if you are taking prescription medication. Now when I say “Do your research” what I mean by that is read up on other people’s experiences with juicing, so you know what the possible side affects are, the withdrawals, and so you are more prepared with what to expect.  Also know that its not an easy journey, juicing takes extreme self control and discipline, and if you don’t already have a little bit of that, its going to be a harder struggle for you.  That’s not to say you can’t do it, but it will be tough.  If you have a hard time turning down a 3rd slice of pizza, or that second slice of cake, its going to be really hard for you to avoid food all together.  It might be easier to ween yourself off of food before diving into a completely juice based diet.  By that I mean, maybe start off by juicing for one meal, then graduate to two, and eventually an entire juice fast.

BUYING A JUICER.  I get asked about this frequently.  This kind of ties into the doing your research part, before you start juicing your going to need to invest in a juicer.  When it comes to picking out a juicer, you get what you pay for.  If you look for something cheap, don’t expect quality.  In my opinion Breville makes pretty decent juicers, and if you’re just getting into juicing, its a good brand to start off with. I own a Breville, and my only complaint about them is they are fragile.  I’ve dropped mine twice and broken it twice, but fortunately Bed Bath and Beyond has a return policy you can’t beat, and I’ve been able to have it replaced both times.  Just be careful washing it.  For a decent juicer expect to pay somewhere around $150-$200.  I’ve had some people ask me about the VitaMixers, or similar functioning appliances, and those are awesome, too far out of my price range, but they’re also not juicers.  Whatever you put into a VitaMixer (or similar appliance) does what a blender would do, it completely purees the food, whereas with a juicer, it leaves the pulp.  Think of juicing as extracting the richest nutrients from the foods you put in, so you can get the maximum nutrition as possible, whereas blending isn’t the same. The key in juicing is getting all those enzymes in your body before they break down, and because you are consuming your juice in liquid form it is easier to digest and gets into your system faster.  That’s why people who juice have more energy, and you’ll find you won’t need coffee anymore with juicing.

A good book I bought when I started juicing that has useful information about fruits and veggies and combinations to try

One question I’ve been getting the most of is “What is a good combination of juice, and how do you know your getting proper nutrition?”  Well you should be taking in more veggies than fruits, but what I like to do is start off with mostly fruits in the morning in my juice and work my way into the veggies.  I get a lot of people asking me what’s a good juice that I’ve made, and I will tel you this: EXPERIMENT!  What I like in my juice, may not taste good for you.  I promise you this, your taste buds will change as you juice and afterwards.  Everything tastes the same when you first start, but eventually your palate becomes more defined and you can start to taste the small nuances of fruits and veggies you add that you may not of tasted before.  I almost always use apples in any juice that I make, and sometimes in the morning I like to put in an orange or grapefruit, and some strawberries so I have a good source of vit C, which is good when you are juicing because you want to keep your immunity up so as to not get sick.  Remember, when you are juicing your body is detoxing, which can be taxing on your immunity.

Take supplements!  I don’t know the official rules of juicing, but I will tell you that I take vitamin supplements.  Yes you are getting lots of natural vitamins from your juicing, but I like to also take a vitamin B super maxi complex supplement, vit D, and additional Vit C.  If you want you can just take a multi-day vitamin, I can’t take those because they make me nauseous (I think its the zinc in them), but if that’s not a problem for you, then go for it!

 

Go ORGANIC, or if you can’t get most of your produce organically, opt for a farmer’s Market.  Because all of your nutrition is coming from fruits and veggies it would behoove you to make sure that those fruits and veggies have little to no pesticides and chemicals as possible.  If you are unable to do a farmer’s market or organic options, really rinse your fruits and veggies as best you can because the increase in pesticide and chemicals on your fruits and veggies can make you feel sick, so be careful with that.  Also, when cutting up your apples, make sure you do not put the seeds into your juicer, they contain traces of cyanide and are toxic when consumed.  So you want to avoid apple seeds.

The last thing that I suggest you do while juicing is exercise.  Not only will you have the energy to do so, but you will maximize your

results by exercising.  If you are out of shape, start off by just walking a mile and increase as you go.  You can add mileage or start incorporating interval training into your cardio, you can also do Calisthenics or light weights as you train, but if you are going to be building muscle mass I suggest increasing your vit B consumption, and maybe putting some protein powder in with your juices.

If you guys have any other questions/concerns please feel free to continue to email me.  Otherwise I hope this helps and best of luck to anyone who tries juicing, let me know how it goes!  YOU GOT THIS!

Food Is A Drug – How to Avoid Becoming An Addict

As more and more people in America are crossing the threshold into obesity, its becoming more evident to health experts that the problem doesn’t reside exclusively with the individual eater, but rather with the food being consumed.  Much like heroin, cocaine, opiates, alcohol, and nicotine, food is gaining in reputation as being addictive.  Unlike its competitor drugs, food is a socially acceptable drug – for now.

A lot of people judge morbidly obese people as being lazy or not trying hard enough with resistance to over indulgence, but the problem is so much more complex than simply overeating.  How does one get addicted to food?  Additionally, what makes one more susceptible to food addiction than someone else?  Which foods have a greater likelihood of starting an unhealthy pattern in one’s diet?

First and foremost to understand what foods create a higher dependence on them, we need to understand how this dependance starts.  Foods (particularly fast foods and processed foods) are packed with chemicals and agents that release chemicals in your brain.  These chemicals being released send the message to your brain that, that particular food is enjoyable and in turn elevates one’s mood.  One of the most common chemicals released is dopamine which is known as the pleasure neurotransmitter.  Your body produces dopamine naturally and releases it most commonly during physical activity, however foods are increasing in causing the release of this neurotransmitter from eating.  When you eat a food that releases dopamine or triggers other pleasure receptors the action of eating and association becomes addictive.  You want to keep that pleasurable experience and the only way to keep it is to continue eating foods that release these pleasure chemicals in the brain.  It becomes a vicious cycle, much like that with hard drugs.  If someone with a food addiction drastically changes their diet to depriving themselves of those pleasure rich foods, the withdrawals can seem unbearable ranging anywhere from headaches, depression, lethargy, and anxiety.

 

Fast food companies and food industries that make processed foods already know the dependency Americans have on these pleasure packed foods, and they market their foods with that knowledge in mind.  Preying on the lower class with deals like the dollar menu at McDonalds, and buying one bag of chips and getting the second free, when you are short on cash, its hard to pick your health over your budget.  The food industry knows this and agrees, its a multi-billion dollar industry, and its legal because at the end of the day its about making money and not preserving health.  With similar mindsets, its easy for food companies to target low income families with addictive foods and cheap prices. Don’t fall victim to these shenanigans. Cheap food tastes fantastic because its designed to, but its not worth the addictive repercussions just to save money.  In the end, its all about business, the more crap you eat the more addicted you’ll be and the worse your health gets which in turn leads to health problems like type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, etc which means more trips to the hospital which means more money pouring into the medical industry.  It’s all about money, no one cares about your health so you have to look out for yourself because no one else is.  Eat smart, not cheap.

Here We Go Again – Juice Fast: Day 1

Alright, so now that my heath is back to 100%, and (just to be safe I’m taking extra vitamin C supplements) my second round juice fast has kicked off.  This morning I made a juice consisting of 2 red apples, 6 carrots, a bowl of strawberries, 1 orange, 1 grapefruit, and lots of spinach.  I haven’t decided how long I’m going to juice for this time, but its going to be AT LEAST be 15 days.  I feel really good right now, no withdrawal feelings, and looking forward to a good work out tonight.

Round 2: Juicing – Restart Update

Since I had to postpone juicing thanks to some nasty 24 hour virus I got, I will be attempting to start my second round juice fast tomorrow.  I should be at 100% health by this time allowing myself 4 full days to recover from whatever virus it was that I had.  In order to ensure this juice fast kicks off without issues this time, I am pushing lots of fluids and vitamin C (2-3000mg) for the next few days, to help keep my immunity up, especially while starting the juice fast, which can drop your immunity as your body detoxes (which is probably what happened when I got sick).  So the plan is, lots of fluids, lots of vitamins, plenty of rest tonight, and tomorrow is Round 2, day 1.  Looking forward to it, spirits are high.  I got this.

Juice Fast Round 2 Postponed

Bad news, what I thought was sideaffects or withdrawals from juicing yesterday was actually a pretty nasty virus starting.  It started off with a headache and then I was running to the bathroom unable to keep anything down.  I read somewhere that putting Gatorade in icecube trays and sucking on the frozen gatorade cubes can help when you can’t keep fluids down, so I tried that this morning and was successful.  I was told by a nurse to postpone juicing until I am well, and its likely I already had this virus when I started juicing, and juicing exasperated it because it flushes out the system.  Anyway, it sucks, and I’m bummed I have to postpone, but I’m hoping to pick back up on Juicing come monday.

Round 2 – Juice Fast: Day 1

Well its been almost 24 hours since I’ve had any food, and the withdraws are starting in on me – hard.  In the past couple hours I have felt nausea creeping in on me as well as a headache starting (no doubt from not having caffeine), and I feel cranky and tired  These withdraw feelings usually dissipate after 2-3 days from initially starting the juice fast, so by Saturday I should be feeling loads better.  Once the withdraw symptoms wear off, that’s when it starts feeling good, the body detoxes, and the energy levels increase and things start feeling … AWESOME.  I wish I could fast-forward to that part NOW, but how I feel now is a necessary step in getting to the good part, and these withdraws wouldn’t be so bad if I hadn’t allowed myself to eat so poorly the past few weeks.  Coming off a piss pour diet, and giving your body only healthy nutritious juice (in addition to chugging a lot of water) is enough to shock anyone’s body.  But this is necessary, and I need this. Looking forward to Saturday, and feeling awesome again. Ugh.

Juicing: Round 2

After much deliberation I’ve come to the decision that I am going to juice – again.  I lost 25 lbs in 30 days last time, and since I went on vacation I’ve gained some of that back due to poor eating and lack of exercising.  I felt amazing when I was juicing, I had so much energy, my moods were elevated, and I felt healthier.  I have not been feeling like that lately, I have been tired all the time, I have been depressed, and I have not been eating healthy.  I need to detox, and I need to get back on track, and the best way for me to get back on track is to throw myself into juicing.  I don’t have an upcoming vacation to interrupt my focus, and once I finish juicing I think it’ll be easier this time to transition into healthy eating.  My mistake before was going on vacation and eating whatever I wanted after juicing for 30 days.  I will not make the same mistake twice.  It was a struggle the last time making it 30 days of juicing, but it was well worth it.  I’m going to aim for 15 days, and after 15 days decide if I want to continue for another 15.  I’m excited to do this again, because I have the confidence that I will be successful because I’ve already done it and have been successful, and I know this time around where my downfall was after juicing and I know better than to fall back into that mistake. I need to do this for me, and I need it to make me stronger.   This is a battle against myself, and I’m mentally prepared for war! I got this!