I was recently inspired by a powerful film called, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. It is about a man from Australia named Joe Cross who went on a juice fast for 90 days, traveling across the United States. He improved his health dramatically. He also motivated many people along his journey and has since motivated thousands to try juicing. In the movie, people applied the practice of juicing to their lives and got healthier.  This resulted in them being able to stop taking medications that they thought they would have to take the rest of their life.

Joe Cross and his documentary film has started a juicing movement across the country and many that try juicing are feeling the health benefits of it. I have had a juicer for a few years and decided to get it back out after watching this movie. While I had never been committed to juicing on a regular basis, after watching this film, I am now inspired to make more of an effort and commit to doing it more often. While many debate the benefits of juicing versus blending, I tend to find them both really beneficial to your health and they taste great too! While I have been a regular smoothie maker for years, I am slowly, but surely getting my juicing groove going.

Juicing takes the nutrients and water from fruits and vegetables and creates a very smooth drink that can be quickly absorbed into your body because the fiber is not included. Your body easily absorbs the juice and digest it very quickly. Blending is great too as it keeps the fiber from the fruits and vegetables and often fills you up faster. 

Until I watched the film,  my opinion of juicing was that it was a little more work than I felt like doing. If I could get a fresh juice at a restaurant I was all for it, but I had set aside the thought that I would become a juicer. In fact, my juicer was stored away and I had even contemplated selling it on e-bay several times. But as I watched the film and watched Joe Cross juice his way across our country, I realized that it might be easier than I remembered. Joe juiced on the side of the road, at farmers markets and truck stops and he made it look simple. So I pulled out my juicer and started juicing again and it was much easier than I remembered. In fact, I realized that it wasn’t hard at all and I really enjoyed it.

I found plenty of juice recipes online, but to be honest the easiest thing for me to do was to pull the fruits and veggies that I had in the fridge and just start juicing. I have juiced combinations of carrots, oranges, spinach, celery, apples and kale. So far, so good, as they have all been delicious. I normally sprinkle some ground ginger in there as well because I don’t usually have fresh ginger on hand. Having fresh ginger is a plus, so if you can use fresh ginger then you should go for it.

As I continue to incorporate more juicing in my life, I am sure I will explore more fruits and vegetables in my juicing adventure. However, I wanted to share a great green juice recipe with you that I found to be delicious just in case you want to give juicing a try.

Green Juice (pictured above)

• 3-5 stalks of Celery
• 2 good size apples
• 2 -3 handfuls of spinach
• 1 – 2 handfuls of kale leaves
• Ground ginger – sprinkle a little in and mix. If you have fresh ginger then add that to the juicer as that would be the best.

Add ice if you want and drink up!