So… I started juicing recently and now I’m OBSESSED.
I don’t know why some things just click and others don’t (I’ve never been a veggie man in my life!) but here we are going into our 5th straight week now and I have yet to miss a single day without my new favorite green cocktail.
IT FEELS SO GOOD!!! And I blame you, Madiha, for introducing me to it!! 
She wrote me this note last month and it’s completely transformed my eating habits:
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“Hey! Please watch the documentary, Fat Sick and Nearly Dead. Part 1 and 2 on youtube. The director, joe cross, did 40 days of green juicing exclusively to lose weight and cure himself of autoimmune skin diseases. It really works, God Willing. I hope and pray for your good health.”
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Of course at first I rolled my eyes and was skeptic as hell, because come on – it screams scam!! And MLM! And any other “fast fixes” out there! But I also know that sometimes things are legit (like FIRE, Britney Spears), and if someone took the time to recommend something to me I’m at least going to check it out for a minute and not be a dick….
So I loaded it up on YouTube and a few seconds turned into a few minutes, and a few minutes turned into 30 minutes, and before I knew it I had consumed the entire thing – and its counterpart, Fat Sick and Nearly Dead 2! – and immediately knew it was for me. It just clicked. As if Jesus himself came down to me and proclaimed “The time has come!! Drink your veggies!!” Lol…
I figured there were no downsides in trying either. Worst case I eat a lot of vegetables (*gasp*), but best case I get healthier and happier and just better feeling all around! Which is really saying something since I’m already a pretty happy guy, but hey – you can always strive to be *better* right?
Well, it’s now been over a whole month and I can confidently tell you this freakin’ juice works :) And before you roll your eyes too, let me just show you what’s in it so you know it’s literally just veggies! No magic pills or powder or herbs or whatever else people are hawking these days. It’s as natural as it gets.
[Kale, green apples, cucumber, lemon, celery, ginger root]
I just throw all this into the juicer – and voila – I’m sucking down more nutrients in this one helping that I normally would have in a month! And much more efficient than TRYING TO EAT ALL OF THIS too as a) there’s no way – bleh, and b) it hits your bloodstream much faster in juice form than chewing! (At least per the scientists in the doc).
And that’s all there is to it. No magic sauce, no powders, nothing.
I drink 1 of these every single afternoon, and then supplement it with a fruit/veggie/oats smoothie in the mornings and it’s completely revitalized me. I’m sleeping better. I’m feeling better. I haven’t had a headache in weeks (not that I got them too often, but usually after a coffee binge I would!! Lol) and so far not a single outbreak of my skin disease either (*knock on wood*).
Here’s the recipe for it if you’re already sold ;)
“Mean Green Juice” Recipe:
- 1 cucumber
- 2 green apples
- 4 celery stalks
- 1 bunch of kale (if you can get it with stalks, get it! 8 stalks)
- 1 Lemon (or 1/2 a lemon, depending on your taste)
- Ginger root (only one inch worth!! Do not burn your face off by putting an *entire* root in like I did at first and almost spraying it across my kitchen cabinets! Ginger is no joke!)
The single best effect this has had so far though is that it’s completely infiltrated my *entire* habits around eating now.
Similar to waking up about your personal finances or relationships/etc, you start to see the bigger picture and realize how all these little habits you’ve formed over your lifetime has been holding you back. Like the bagel I used to have every single morning, or all the late afternoon snacks I’d need to keep me energized and filled up on the daily.
The last time I had a bagel has now been over a month (!!) and the last time I had a bag of chips or cookie was…. well, yesterday! I’m not a masochist!! LOL… But it was only the 2nd time I allowed myself to indulge in such a treat since this “juice awakening” and let me tell you – it tastes soooo much better when it’s not a “habit treat!” And if you can believe it, I’ve even turned down big juicy pieces of Pizza too… PIZZA!!! Somebody stop me!!
It’s like my eyes have finally been opened for the first time in 40 years, and I now realize how poorly I’ve been treating my body.
There’s been a handful of other interesting effects too:
- I don’t eat as many helpings during dinner anymore (instead of 2-3 per usual, it’s down to 1-2)
- I’m accidentally losing a little weight! (Down 10 pounds and back to my usual “norm” before getting sick last year)
- My blood pressure has dropped significantly (I was hovering around “hypertension” at 140-something over 70-80, and the past two weeks now averaging 115-125ish over 60-70! A pretty big drop!)
- I’m finally using all those things in the kitchen I never use. (Minimalism win!! Lol) Like the blender and peelers and all those extra sets of drinking glasses we’ve gotten as gifts but had never really needed until now! We go through soooo many glasses now with all these extra drinks added on!
- That nagging thought of “needing to be healthier” is slowly fading… (I no longer have those pangs of regret/wishful thinking about eating better, very much like my new volunteering efforts because I’m finally DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT!)
- But probably the best side effect is how excited my kids are too :) Not only do most of them drink my concoctions every single day (even my 5 y/o!!) but one likes it so much that I told him he never has to eat veggies again if he continues it up, haha… Which is hilarious because a) there are SO MANY MORE VEGGIES in these drinks than the few we put on his table each day
, but also b) he cannot STAND spinach to the point he has to crumple it up and down it with a large glass of milk every night *while plugging his nose*, and yet he doesn’t even notice it at all in these cocktails… It’s the perfect kid hack!
So yeah. Super wild and random this whole juicing phenomenon in my household right now, but again, like other things in life when something just feels right and clicks you gotta run with it as far as you can!
And if you’re wondering about the costs, yes – it does get pretty pricey as you’re just loading in sooooooo much food with every single drink. AND you constantly need to be buying more of it because only so much fits in your fridge and you want it to be as fresh as possible!! But – it also leads to less snacking and over-gorging yourself with food in general (at least if you have the same effects as I do), so that certainly defrays the costs. I may be spending loads more on vegetables every week, but I’ve also cut out 90% of the garbage!
The other pricey part can be getting your hands on the juicer itself. But until you’ve tried it and KNOW it will stick, just borrow one from your friends and family instead! I guarantee one of them has one stashed away in the back corner of their cabinets somewhere from failed attempts of their own, lol… Maybe even you too?
I borrowed one from my sister (pictured below) and will be forever grateful for it… Because unlike other experiments, you DO unfortunately need one of these guys to fully give it a go. A blender will get you partially the way there, but the juicer is where the magic lies.
I should also note that that’s exactly what this is here for me – an experiment. Something I’m trying out and hoping to do *more* of as time goes on, but for now just building up slowly and taking note of how it’s affecting me.
In the documentary the main subject (Joe Cross) takes it to an extreme level because he found himself in a pretty extreme situation: fat, sick, and nearly dead as he puts it ;) So he decided to try out a 60 day “juice fast” drinking nothing but this Mean Green juice and that’s it. No snacks, no meals, no dinners – nothing! Which of course makes it a compelling documentary to watch, if only to see if he survives in the end, lol…
But for me it was more of a wake up call realizing just how little veggies (or thought, really) I put into my diet on a daily basis. So as the inspiration struck I decided to just go for it and start juicing as a “supplement” to see how it goes rather than any “meal replacements.” And as you can see it’s already had some quite profound effects! (If you are interested in going the “meal replacement”/fasting route fyi, then beware you need to float it by your doctor first to make sure it’s safe!)
Oh, and the taste?! You would assume it’s gag worthy and anything but enticing, but it’s actually not that bad! It’s weird and *different* tasting, for sure, but it’s also oddly refreshing. And the bit of ginger you put in there gives it a nice little kick that you often don’t get with this “healthy” stuff. It literally feels like a shower for my insides every time I take a sip, haha… It cleans out all the dirt and bad stuff in there and makes it all clean and pretty again!
We’ve started incorporating other juices in our household as well to spice things up. Namely a beet one, and you can probably guess why it’s now one of the kids’ favorites ;)
[Recipe: 3 beets + 4 carrots + 2 oranges!]
All this to say that if any of this juicing stuff interests you here in the *slightest*, please please please AT LEAST watch the trailer of the doc and see if it inspires you! If it’s boring and lame then of course go on your merry way, but if it sparks something like it did for me, then keep going and see where it takes you!
Just adding one glass of green juice to your diet can be enough to improve your life!! You can never have too many veggies!!
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[Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead: “Overweight, loaded up on steroids and suffering from a debilitating autoimmune disease, Joe Cross was at the end of his rope and the end of his hope. With doctors and conventional medicine unable to help, Joe traded in junk food and hit the road with a juicer and generator in tow, vowing only to drink fresh fruit and vegetable juice for 60 days. Across 3,000 miles Joe had one goal in mind: To get off his pills and achieve a balanced lifestyle.”]
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Big thanks again to Madiha who accidentally turned me into this freak, and big thanks to you all for reading as well ;)
If any of you decide to give this a shot – please tell me how it all goes!! Friends who juice together, stay together!!
XOXO,
PS: I really liked this clip from someone who started juicing in the 2nd documentary … It really is the best part of it all:
“I didn’t realize how bad I felt for so long, until I felt this good… And, in fact, losing weight is probably an important but small portion of the whole equation. Just the introduction to juice into our household has significantly increased the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables that the entire family eats. And I think that’s really the main benefit of all this.”
Other fun juicing pics!
[Beet juicing!]
[Colorful ingredients of the beet juice]
[The perfect storage containers for extra juice/smoothies! Whenever I’m ready to down them I just pop off the lid and gulp! They’re awfully cute too.]
[This post, I’ve turned into a juice freak!! 🥦🥬🥕, was first published by J. Money on Budgets Are Sexy]
source: https://budgetsaresexy.com/ive-turned-into-a-juicing-freak/
