Sunday, April 1, 2012

Are you juicing?

No, not that kind of juicing.  

My brother, my mom and I all watched Fat Sick and Nearly Dead on Netflix last week.  Talk about motivation to get healthy.  I HIGHLY suggest you watch it.  For those of you that haven't seen or heard of it yet, it is a documentary made by an Australian.  He was so overweight that he developed an auto-immune disease that basically gives him hives all over his body and had to take a shocking amount of medication.  In an effort to lose weight and get healthy he goes on a 60 day juice fast and travels across America talking to people about their outlook on food, weight management and vegetables. 

About halfway through watching it I was already on Amazon ordering a juicer.  We bought a Breville compact model that was on sale for about $100.  It's incredible!  The whole idea behind having the juicer is that you can make juice with no sugar or preservatives that is so fresh it still contains all of its nutritional goodness.  V8 can't even come close to how good this is.   

Kale and carrots have been our power veggies so far.  They are both incredibly cheap and can be purchased in bulk.  The flavors also blend exceptionally well with other veggies and fuits.  Kale is known for being incredible healthy (even though its a real bitch to eat.)  It contains high amounts of beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, Lutein, and a fair amount of B6 (good for energy levels) and calcium.  It also contain zeaxanthin, which may help reduce your risk for age related eye disorders, and sulforaphane, which has anti-cancer properties. According to wikipedia: "kale is also a source of indole-3-carbinol, a chemical which boosts DNA repair in cells and appears to block the growth of cancer cells."  Woohoo!!!   Just one cup of chopped kale contains 206% of your daily Vitamin A and 134% of your daily Vitamin C which can prevent scurvy.  Suck on that pirates!

Carrots are okay.  I eat them when I'm starving and don't want to blow all my calories and get stuck with a cup of fat free popcorn for dinner.  But I never loved carrots until now.  They always taste kind of bitter and I feel like a rabbit eating them.  That being said, they are AWESOME in juice.  My husband and I juice two or three oranges and an apple with 8 big carrots.  You lose all of the bitterness and gain all the sweet sweet benefits.  Carrots are high in vitamin A, carotenes and flavonoid compounds that can help prevent skin, lung and oral cancers.  They also contain a good amount of vitamin C, folic acid, Vitamin B6 and healthy levels of copper, calcium, manganese, potassium and phosphorus.

I love mixing carrots into my fruit juice and kale with other veggies and apples.  The only downside to juicing them together is that it somehow tastes kind of banana-y.  For those of you who don't know me well, I have a SEVERE banana allergy and even the smell of them makes me nervous. 

We haven't done an all juice fast, mostly because my brother and I work out way too much to not have any protein.  But I got paid today so starting tomorrow I'm going to try a one week juice fast.  On days that I skate/ work out hard I'm going to add protein powder to one of my juices.  Don't judge me, I'm just kind of nervous about my body going after my muscles as a protein source.  I'll watch my weight closely and see how I do this week.  My cousin's husband pushed me through our weight loss competition and lost 7 pounds in the final week doing the juice fast and working out.

The juicer is our new toy and it's really fun to use.  We kind of fight over who gets to juice and who has to clean the damn thing out.  There is a screen filter inside that catches all the little bits of pulp and you REALLY have to scrub it.  Below is a video of our new juicer.  Be warned, this thing goes.  It actually makes a mini hurricane in the middle and will push the plunger up out of the shoot if you aren't careful.

 

Yikes!   So that's what this week is all about!  I'm setting up a weight loss spread sheet on google docs that will be open to anyone wanting to jump in.  Just leave a comment and email me for an invite.  There's no cash prize this time, just the benefits of being healthier, looking and feeling better.  Also, I'm going to a wedding this summer and want to get a new dress 2 or 3 sizes smaller.

Stay Strong!

Raewyn

1 comment:

  1. I am so mesmerized by how fast those oranges were obliterated!

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