HEALTH: Juicing

Over a month ago, I watched the documentary "Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead". After watching it, I was inspired to improve my eating habits. In the documentary, Joe Cross traveled across the U.S. with a Breville juicer in the back of his SUV. He met over 500 people along his journey talking to them about his juice fast. He told them about the benefits of micronutrient juices, and how his health had improved after starting his juice fast. Less than a week after watching the documentary I purchased a Breville juicer for myself. I love it! I bought the Breville Juice Fountain Plus. I have used it everyday since I got it. It has two speeds. The lower speeds handles all of my fruits and vegetables just fine. It's actually a great looking appliance. I like having it out on my counter top, and it's surprisingly easy to clean.

I have at least one juice a day to help incorporate more fruits and vegetables into my diet. Pictured above are my typical ingredients for one of my juices: 2 Granny Smith Apples, 2 to 3 leaves of Red Chard, 2 to 3 Celery Stalks, 5 to 6 Broccoli Florets, 1 Orange, 1 Beet. I might add Cauliflower Florets, or Strawberries. This will make 1 1/2 to 2 pints of juice. The juice is pretty tasty too!

The juice itself turns out a dark red due to the Beet. Now that I'm getting used to making these juices each day, I'm going to experiment more with different fruit and vegetable combinations. I'm still debating if I should try a true juice fast. Joe Cross has a website called Join the Reboot that has some great recipes and juice fast programs. One of the juice fasts is only three days long. I might start with that one first and see how it goes. For now, I'm happy to just be incorporating these juices into my diet. I have already felt a boost in my overall energy. Anyone else juicing?

DOCUMENTARY: Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead

A little over a month ago I watched the documentary "Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead". I was intrigued by the title. The documentary is about a man by the name of Joe Cross who is 100 pounds overweight, loaded up on steroids and suffering from a debilitating autoimmune disease. Joe's health was very poor and he weighed 310 pounds. He knew he needed to do something fast, otherwise he was headed for an early grave. Joe decided to hit the road and drive 3,000 miles across the U.S. while going on a 60 day juice fast. All he would drink for those 60 days is juice made from fresh fruits and vegetables. Along the way, Joe talked to over 500 Americans about food, health and longevity. He meets a lot of people who also want to live a better, healthy lifestyle. One of those people is Phil Staples. Phil is an obese man weighing 429 pounds. He too suffers from the same autoimmune disease as Joe. Joe helps Phil start his own juice fast and excercise program to get him on the road to health. This is a very inspiring documentary. I highly recommend it if you have been thinking of rebooting your life and start living a healthier lifestyle.

Less than a week after watching this documentary, I ordered a Breville juicer like the one Joe used. For the past month, I have been using my juicer everyday. I have been wanting to incorporate more nutritious food into my diet and juicing has allowed me to get the micro-nutrients my body has been missing. I have been slowly cutting out all the junk food, processed foods, sugar, salt, and any other foods bad for me out of my diet. My first step was cutting out soda from my diet. The was probably the hardest thing to do. I was raised on soda. I have been a Pepsi fanatic all my life. I would easily drink a case of Pepsi a week, if not more. It has been almost a year since I had my last soda, and now I don't miss it. Since I have been juicing, I feel better, have more energy, and my skin complection has improved. I have also noticed my finger nails have been growing faster. I have mentioned "Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead" to friends and family, and now six friends and family members are juicing also!

Joe Cross started a website called jointhereboot.com. The site has all the info you need to reboot your life with juicing. It offers juice recipes, nutritional information, and a large community of fellow juicers for guidance and encouragement. I'll soon be trying one of the juice fasts. I figured I would use my blog to document my experience with juicing. Below is a trailer of the documentary. Check it out.