A Word On Green Juices

I have found that if I set myself up for the sometimes daunting task of juicing all the ingredients for a Mean Green juice (ginger, apple, kale, celery, cucumber, lettuce), the vegetables start to turn in the fridge and I am less likely to make it because of the length of time it takes.

But when I think of juicing fresh cucumber for a cool, refreshing cucumber juice, I’m excited and motivated to give my body such a nutritious treat. It’s much less work and tastes even more delicious since I don’t love the taste of celery juice (although of course I can always just take this out when making Mean Green).

The game is to get as much absorbable nutrients into your body as possible, so that you and your body can visibly thrive. Juices are like cheat codes in the game of life, your body is able to receive a bevy of enzymes, vitamins, and minerals without having to lift a finger to process it. Living Greens Juice says that in order to get the nutrients from one 16-ounce of green juice we would need to eat 2 lbs of carrots, 10-12 apples, or 8 lbs of spinach. Now, that’s what I call an awesome shortcut!

It’s actually pretty difficult to get 100% of the most optimal quantities of nutrients for our body every day, and 95% of what we need is found in the juice of fruits and vegetables. Just adding some fresh, unpasturized juice into your life in the mornings can be extremely beneficial – they aren’t confined to the realm of juice fasts!

Remember to drink juices on an empty stomach. The best way to do this is first thing in the morning because, without fiber and other obstacles in your stomach to overcome, they act as a shot of straight goodness to your system. Your body is able to immediately absorb those nutrients into your bloodstream and you will receive the benefits faster and with less work.

Today, with our knowledge and technology (and our privilege of having a diversity of quality foods at our fingertips) we can eat the most optimal foods for our energy, appearance, sleep, and general functioning. We can overcome the sluggishness that comes from fast foods with the crisp, clean power of fruits and vegetables. Just adding one extra clean element into your diet makes a difference to your body. Any produce you choose very likely has some percentage of a vitamin you are currently deficient in. Experiencing a health challenge currently? Try adding more fruits and veggies into your life; it could just be that your body has gone without a nutrient for too long, or that your immune system has been running on empty.

The Cost Problem and Golden Rice

Why does eating healthfully cost so much money?

Quite unfortunately, in our country, eating healthfully is more expensive than eating poorly. It is such a travesty that eating a quality diet is so expensive these days. Plants are much more sustainable and much cheaper to produce, yet are more expensive to buy than factory-made, laboratory-created, packaged foods. Our government currently subsidizes low-nutrient junk foods, when we could be helping the farmers and the people by subsidizing fresh crops instead (or at least as well).

The types of foods and way of eating that I encourage are not focused on what is cheapest or easiest. This clean-eating lifestyle is about absorbing the most vitamins and minerals, ingesting the least amount of toxins, and cleaning your beautiful body inside and out. This goes a step further than normal healthful living; it’s about beauty, youthfulness, energy, sleeping well, focus, and healing – and is a way for food lovers to lose weight while being fulfilled by their love of gorgeous food.

The main focus of my high-quality, plant-based lifestyle is to get you into the most incredible shape you have ever been in your life, and that requires sacrifices and, unfortunately, doesn’t mean that it is affordable for everyone in it’s purest, most precise form. A version of it can be done, however, by adjusting how and where to get your food, the type and quantity of that produce, by giving up other (junky) foods, and sacrificing less important things to free up your money – while still basing your diet on plants because that is where your life-sustaining, energy-inducing, I-am-thriving nutrients come from.

So to eat this way, and the way of any sort of super clean, healthfully-sourced, “perfect” kind of food lifestyle, you’re going to have to adjust your priorities and compromise (possibly by adjusting to what extent you can live by this lifestyle).

There are ways to get a few fruits and vegetables into your home and bellies on a daily basis.

• Join a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) group where you pay a fee for a share of a farm’s crops.

• Buy produce at a farmer’s market. Bypass the fancy stuff to find the cheap, fresh-off-the-farm produce. Both this and the CSA option gives you access to eating produce that is in season as well.

• Look for produce that is on sale at the grocery store and shop at a discount store, rather than the “whole paycheck” stores.

• Ditch the organic. Yes, I know this is blasphemy, but if you can’t afford it – eat fruits and vegetables anyway! That is where you get your life nutrients. The longer you go without those vitamins and minerals that sustain you and help your body to thrive, the more you will start to deteriorate, see new health challenges arise, and be unable to function optimally.

• Grow your own food. This suggestion definitely depends on where you live, but even in a little apartment one can grow tomatoes and herbs. Any little bit helps, and it tastes absolutely delicious by the way! Mother Earth News says that the easiest 10 crops to grow are radishes, salad greens, green beans, onions, strawberries, peppers, bush zucchini, tomatoes, basil, and potatoes. Look into which crops grow great in your particular area, in your climate. For example, here on Guam my basil and bell pepper plants grow wild without any work at all!

• Start foraging. Foraging may seem pretty old school, but it’s actually really fun! Start looking at the trees and bushes around your area – you may be surprised to find that they actually produce food. Research which crops grow wild near you, identify them, and start finding them. You may find a gathering group near you while you’re at it. When I visited Perth, Australia, I joined a foraging group on Facebook that had a lovely group of people who held fun foraging hangouts. My neighbor and I forage for mangoes, guava, avocados, mulberries, and papaya where I live. It turns out that many fruit trees that aren’t planted for the purpose of harvesting have their fruit drop to the ground and spoil because no one thinks to find food outside anymore. Once you find some trees and know the seasons they produce food, it’s fun for the whole family to harvest together.

• Volunteer at a farm. Some farms will exchange a little bit a of labor, like harvesting for a couple hours on a weekend, for fresh produce. Research these kind of opportunities in your area.

Obvious Epiphany of the Day:

Back in the 90’s, scientists were trying to augment rice so that it was more nutritious and could be used to successfully feed children suffering from vitamin A deficiency, a problem which is estimated to kill 670,000 children under 5 per year. In the year 2000 they were able to fortify rice with beta carotene (a precursor of vitamin A), which could be identified by the orange tinge it gave the rice, hence it’s name – golden rice.

Now, the super obvious point I take away from this is that rice is lacking in nutrients and cannot be used to sustain a healthful life on it’s own. Granted, it also is very low in fat and is generally a very clean food – both the brown and white varieties. It is wonderful as a filler food because of the aforementioned cleanliess of it, however, it is all the fruits and vegetables that you eat, which accompany that rice, which sustains and benefits your body. The rice rounds out your meal and satisfies your stomach and makes raw eating more financially sustainable.

I have found rice to digest well in my body and it also helps me to eat clean by keeping me satiated both mentally and physically. It can be easy to slip into eating more rice and less produce when I become busy, but this thought has reminded me that it is the fruits and vegetables that are truly feeding my body, not the rice.

It Only Takes 4 Weeks…

I have struggled with my weight all my life. It has taken me 10 years to figure out what works for me in terms of eating and exercising. Within that time I have wavered from overweight to a good weight, trying all sorts of diets and lifestyles, but even while I was at a great weight (as I realize looking back at pictures – I was so pretty! – why couldn’t I see it then?) I saw myself as enormous (not conducive to good choices I might add!)

It has taken me 3 years (maybe more?) to actually be able to use “what works for me” in a steady, continuous, comfortable, SUSTAINABLE way, to be able to relax into it as a legitimate lifestyle. Now I know what foods cause me to gain weight, I know what exercises I love and what amount of exercise keeps me balanced, I know that annual cleanses clean me out, and I know I have cleanses in my arsenal whenever I don’t feel well, or after a not-so-great day (or week…).  I’ve learned that loving myself and seeing what is great about me can help my confidence and therefore help my lifestyle choices. Now with this knowledge I have the power to do right by me.

I have come across clients who say that they don’t want food and exercise to be what their life is all about, and it doesn’t have to be what it’s all about. But it’s going to be what it’s partially about, regardless of if you try to pick up a healthful lifestyle or just kinda do what you’ve always been doing.

If you are like me you love food. Now, I’ve said that before and people have laughed at me. They say, “Of course you love food, we all love food.”

No. I LOVE food.

Some of my favorite experiences have been eating an incredibly delicious food. When I travel, one of my top 3 most important things to do is to experience a culture’s food. I look forward to eating during the day when I know something amazing is coming. I am overweight due to poor food choices and/or overeating any kind of delicious food (even healthful food).

So if you are like me eating is already a huge part of your life, although not your entire* life by any stretch of the word.

And, if you’re like me, you fret about your appearance. You can tell when your clothes are feeling tight and it affects your whole day. You see yourself in pictures after a bit of weight gain and figure out how you can not go out into public again until you lose that weight. Pictures in general are not totally welcome. You look at yourself naked in the mirror to assess how your body is looking, maybe sucking in a bit to show yourself that you look alright. You may feel guilty sometimes because you haven’t been exercising or you haven’t been eating well. Maybe you are experiencing some physical reactions to the foods you’ve been eating, paired up with the lack of exercise, and wish you could overcome these health challenges so you wouldn’t have to suffer anymore.

Your health is a big part of your life. Especially if you’re like me and have been struggling with obesity all your life; it is apart of your life for better or for worse, and you have a choice as to how it’s going to be. Not to mention that if you decide that you don’t explore your health, or find out a comfortable way to add your health back into your priorities in life (step-by-step!), your health might actually become YOUR WHOLE LIFE.

So make it a part of your life right now. Begin a little exercise routine, just 3 times a week. Start adding in some fruit, vegetables, salads, reducing your dairy, reducing your fatty foods and oils, cooking more at home, eating junk food less and less. Do whatever you know is good for your body. Any one of these steps can help start a glorious beginning to a healthier you. Start adding in a new step once the previous one has become a normal part of your life.

You can do it. You have a choice. In 6 months, you’ll look in the mirror and be so glad you did. The more you eat fresh, healthful meals, the more you will crave them. The more your taste buds will recalibrate and the other stuff will taste way too salty or fatty or sugary. Remember the saying related to working towards your fitness, “It takes 4 weeks for you to see your body changing. It takes 8 weeks for friends and family, and it takes 12 weeks for the rest of the world. Keep going.”