Juicing

A few weeks ago when I shared my health journey on my blog, some of you had questions about juicing, which I've been doing almost every day for a couple of months now so I thought I'd answer them in this post : ). I started juicing after watching a documentary called Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead (which is very inspiring, everyone should watch it!) and after reading about all the benefits of juicing. I knew I wasn't getting enough fruits and vegetables in my diet each day and juicing is an easy way to make sure I'm getting the vitamins and nutrients I need in one glass. When you juice, all the enzymes, amino acids, chlorophyll and live energy goes straight to your bloodstream, it's like an instant shot of goodness!

Above are the veggies and fruits I am typically juicing at the moment: beets (including the stems), swiss chard, kale, green apples, lemon, cucumber, carrots and celery. The beets and swiss chard came from D.'s Grandmother's vegetable garden, so they're organic as well as the kale but the rest of the produce isn't. It's best if you use all organic fruits and vegetables but of course that's not in everyone's budget, including mine ; ).

So first I wash and then chop (or peel, if needed) everything up 

so it will fit into the top of my juicer, which is a Breville, below.

Then I juice! It's pretty simple, you feed the fruits and vegetables into the top, and the juice comes out of the spout, into a pitcher (that comes with the juicer) and anything that isn't juiced, shoots into the black container on the side. To see a demo, click here. This juicer cost me $200.00 if you were wondering and I got it on Amazon. It was recommended to me as a ''starter' juicer by my friend who is a Juicing Queen ; ). There are fancier and more expensive juicers out there, but this one works just fine for me, for now.

This is all the pulp that's leftover after you juice. There is fiber in this but all the nutrients are actually in the juice itself. If you feel bad for "wasting food" there are lots of ways to use juicer pulp, like using it in soups or stews, or for making crackers.

Here's what the juice looks like. I love being able to drink my vegetables! I made enough for two servings. Someone asked me how much I spend on juicing per week and it's really hard to say because it depends on what I juice. And sometimes I get my produce from a grocery store, other times I go to a discounted produce market and sometimes I buy organic or I am given a ton of vegetables from D.'s Grandma (which we are grateful for!) but if I had to guesstimate I'd say I'm spending anywhere from $20 to maybe $40-$50.00 juicing for both D. and I, per week, and I juice about 5-6 times a week. Typically it's best to juice in the morning but I drink my super smoothie in the a.m. and juice in the afternoon or early evening when I get home from work. I don't have a lot of time in the morning to juice, for me it takes about 20 minutes to wash, chop, juice and clean up and smoothie-making is less time-consuming!

If you have any questions about juicing, please leave a comment in the comment section below and I'll do my best to answer them!

Oh, and if you live in Edmonton, we are getting our first juice bar in September! Yayyyy! It's called Glow Juicery, you can read all about it here!