Livin' The Green

Entries in caffeine (1)

Thursday

Mar102011

Wanna get Juiced?

Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 1:59PM

Are you one of those type of people who wake up in the morning, hit snooze a few times, get up in a haze, and can't have one coherent thought until you get caffeine? I know I was (minus the snooze button thanks to the little ones). When I was recovering, I was spoiled. Let me state that again, SPOILED by my amazing father. My Dad (who is not a coffee drinker), would get me a tall double soy skinny vanilla latte from Starbucks e-v-e-r-y day before he headed to work for nearly two months. If I was not awake or at home in the am, he would drop it off on my doorstep. I found myself waking up every morning looking forward to this ritual and small chat with my friend, my Dad. As much as I loved the jolt of energy I got, deep down inside, I knew I was setting myself up with an unhealthy obsession.

Caffeine is magical. It seriously is. It can turn a crappy morning into serenity with a few sips. It can help you function and give you the energy you need for work, or raising three boys. I mean 90% of humans consume caffeine daily. There is a reason for this, it is highly addictive. It operates using the same mechanisms that cocaine and heroin does to stimulate the brain. According to Marshall Brain, "caffeine blocks adenosine reception so you feel alert. It injects adrenaline into the system to give you a boost. And it manipulates dopamine production to make you feel good". Still sounds great to me; who wouldn't want to be alert, energized and feel good? But after all these rainbow and butterfly feelings you CRASH. Until you reach the point where you are just jumpy and irritable. So what to do but consume more cups of Jo's. If you try to stop this nasty habit you feel tired and depressed and many people get a terrible, splitting headache. These usually force you back into the addiction again. Wake up folks, this isn't good! It's a bad habit and bad for your lovely bod.

So now that we are addicted, what to do...hmmm....take your a@# to a support group? Little dramatic. Wean down to a few cups a week? Better. Switch to Green Tea? Closer. Replace a few cups with organic green juice? Ah Ha! Peeps are you ready to get Juiced! Oh-my-god it is wonderful. Seriously it gives you the energy and makes you feel amazing knowing that you are feeding your inner beauty with liquid fruit and veggies! The more juice you down the fewer stimulants you need. The juicing Goddess, Kris Carr says that guzzling this emerald liquid will balance your PH and give you a shot of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, protein, and oxygen. Plus it is filled with sustainable energy. If you are thinking, of using store-bought fruit juice. Think again. Those are loaded with sugar that will for sure make your blood sugar spike and crash.

Still not buyin' it...

Juicing helps in the absorption of nutrients.

Juicing gives you more greens in your diet if you aren't naturally filling up on the good stuff daily.

Juicing is a great way to get loads of chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is like liquid gold. It is what makes plants green and is possibly the most powerful element in the universe. Sheryl Walters says, "It is medicine for our bodies. It increases the flow of oxygen to all parts of the body, which means we release more carbon dioxide, toxins and stress. Plenty of oxygen means that our bodies become an aerobic environment where disease cannot live. An anaerobic environment is where disease thrives."

Juicing nearly contains all of the minerals we need.

It provides us with essential enzymes that we need to clean, detoxify, and renew at the cellular level.

The obvious, it taste fantastic! Better than say, eating kale raw.

Hint: It helps to drink green juice on an empty stomach because solid food will slow the digestive process. So what better way than first thing in the morn?

Where to start? First the juicer. There are all types of juicers out there they range from $20-$1000. I have the basic Jack LaLanne Power Juicer. I got it from my in-laws two years ago. This juicer works fine but I am disappointed with how it juices leafy greens. I feel a lot of the juice is just spit out into the chute. I am saving for the Breville Juice Fountain Elite. After The Husband purchased the blender for me, he isn't ready to jump on another juice/smoothie purchase quite yet. Good thing I have a birthday coming up :) (Yes, I still count down to my bday, 3 months exactly)!

Now to be honest, purchasing all the veggies for the juicer is costly. I am still trying to figure out the cheapest way of going about it. When I can, I buy my organic veggies from Costco in bulk. This helps a lot. Other than that I buy kale at the grocery store and when I can, I love to shop the Farmers Market for fresh veggies. However, I find that many of the veggies at Farmers Markets are not organic. My friend Mary told me about an organic fruit/vegetable delivery system. It is called Farm Fresh to You and they deliver a box every week or every other week to your door. It is filled with fresh organic seasonal local produce. I will let you know how that works! So in the meantime if you do buy non-organic be sure to wash, wash, and wash those leafy greens and celery well. I use a lot of cucumbers in my juice and if they are not organic, I will peel the waxy skin off. My summer project is to start a vegetable garden. We will see how well that goes considering I can't tell the difference between weeds and plants. Good thing I have these magazines to start.

These magazines were a kind gift from my Mother-in-Law and good friend Nikki.

Also, cleaning the juicer is a pain. I hate to clean and it's not like I can just throw the juicer in the dishwasher. You have to take it apart and clean each section. That being said, once you start juicing you are hooked and those nuances become trivial.