Juicing

Not this kind

My wife and I watched this documentary called Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead (it's streaming on Netflix) about a month ago. It's a very well-made and inspiring movie about a couple of morbidly obese men who use a juice cleanse to change, and save their lives. Since watching it, I have been obsessed with juicing.

Our family eats healthy. We rarely eat anything that comes out of a box, we are nearly gluten-free, and we usually have a salad and some lean meat for lunch and dinner. This is more my wife's doing than mine. I'm sure if I did the grocery shopping we would have many more boxes of Peppermint Jo-Jos and many more cartons of Ben and Jerry's than we do, and of course she is satisfied with one bite or one spoonful, while I'm not satiated until the box is sparkly clean. I don't feel like I need to do a juice cleanse (although I told my dad I would do one with him if he would commit...still waiting to hear back on that one). However, I love drinking vegetable juice and I really wanted to start making my own (uncanned and preservative-free) V8.

I was pretty sure that my wife was getting tired of the flowers, clothing, or jewelry that I usually buy for our anniversary, so this year, for our twelfth anniversary, I bought a bright and shiny silver Breville Ikon Multi-Speed Juicer. I'm not really the king of romance, but I am now the king of juiced vegetables, so I have that going for me.

I'm not ready to try the juice cleanse that they advocate in the movie, and it is pretty obvious that extreme diets don't work for long. However, I have found juicing a way to get a ton more nutrients every day, and in a country where my dog eats more fruits and vegetables than the average person, I figure it can't hurt if more people saw the movie and gave juicing a try.

Looks like swamp water, tastes like delicious swamp water

I have been experimenting with different recipes, and while I still want to try a couple of variations, this is my favorite so far:

4-5 tomatoes
Two handfulls of spinach or kale
1/2 bunch of parsley
3 carrots
3 sticks of celery
1 bell pepper
1/2 onion
a chunk of fresh ginger
Trader Joe's Smoked Sea Salt (this stuff is the best)

This yields about 30 ounces and I usually drink it after a long run, or have a glass for breakfast. The taste isn't for everyone, but for me and my...no, just me, it is delicious.

A good article on juicing from Sanoviv
Juicing FAQ