As you all know, one of the reasons I went vegan was to improve my health. Although a vegan diet made me feel immediately wonderful morally, my exhaustion still hasn’t disappeared completely, as I had hoped. One thing I find really helpful for me is juicing. As a person with the challenge of chronic fatigue, unfortunately nothing really makes me feel energized, but when I juice, I do feel a slight boost physically and mentally. I notice a lot of other positive effects as well: my skin clears up, gets hydrated and glows, I slim down, my asthma and allergies disappear, old emotions come up to be healed, and a perpetual feeling of bliss ensues.
I learned all about juicing from the Juice Master himself, Jason Vale. I purchased his DVD and juice menu plan called “7 Pounds in 7 Days”. I have done the juice cleanse a few times now, but the last time, I felt such a positive impact on my health that I extended the cleanse to 14 days. At the end of it, my asthma and allergies were completely gone, my skin was looking its best, I lost 10 pounds, my tummy flattened out and I was feeling light physically and emotionally. I re-introduced solid food into my diet slowly after that, but kept juicing as part of my daily lifestyle.
One does not have to do a complete juice cleanse, i.e. live only on juice for days, rather, even having just one juice per day is beneficial to our health. You can make a juice or two in the morning before heading out, and conveniently store them in mason jars and they’ll be ready to guzzle later in the day when you get hungry!
Why is juicing so healthy? Juicing extracts all the living nutrients from the raw vegetables and fruits. We are therefore getting a concentrated form of nutrition in liquid format and in its totally natural, unadulterated state. It’s best to use organic produce when juicing. We are also getting a higher volume of these nutrients than we would normally consume if we were just eating one fruit as a snack or one serving of vegetables. Therefore, juicing is an optimal way of maximizing our nutrition. And: juicing is so beautiful and delicious!
There are many juicers on the market, varying in price and capacity. The centrifugal juicers tend to be most common and affordable. If that’s all your budget will allow at the moment, they are fine juicers for your first purchase – good at juicing most fruits and vegetables. They have difficulty juicing certain thin greens like wheatgrass for example (specific juicers for wheatgrass exist!), but for most greens, they work well enough. Masticating juicers are better at extracting more juice from greens, so if you are ready to invest, go for one of those.
I’ve heard many people complain about the hassle of cleaning the juicer. Yes, it does require some effort, but it’s really no more trouble than washing plates and pots after a meal! A good trick to keep things easy is wash the juicer right away after juicing, even before you have your juice, so that the pulp doesn’t have time to dry and stick to the parts. A quick rinse and little scrubbing with a hard brush will do the job!
Juice recipes are readily available online or for purchase. Also, when you buy a juicer, a book of recipes usually comes with it. Recipes are not even necessary! It’s easy to freestyle with whatever fruits and vegetables you like and have available. Have fun experimenting! It’s usually good to have a base of an apple or two, or pineapple, and then add to that whatever other fruits and veggies you like! Remember that greens purify our cells and fruits nourish!
To get you started, here are a couple of ideas for you. I free-styled this one:
Sunset Delight
Makes 2 ½ cups juice
2 red apples
2 oranges, peeled
2 carrots
1 celery stalk
4 leaves of collard greens
1 small piece ginger (1 inch thick)
The following juice, I saw Jason Vale make in a video. He refers to it as a naturally sweet lemonade. I agree – it is like a delicious lemonade, but better. When he makes this juice, he peels the lemon and he only uses about half of it. I use the whole lemon and I leave the peel on because I really love lemony flavours. Try it both ways and see what you prefer. One of my all-time favorite recipes, I call it my “Sunshine in a Cup”. Enjoy, in joy and in health!
Sunshine in a Cup
Makes 1 cup juice
2 red or yellow apples
1 lemon
“When diet is right medicine is not needed; when diet is wrong, medicine has no effect.” ~Ayurvedic proverb.
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