from the desk of tara hope…

back in december, i made a huge lifestyle change as far as my eating habits were concerned. i was having some blood sugar issues that to forced me to change things because i was feeling awful and had no energy. i started juicing every day, and cut out all white carbs and sugar. it wasn’t really hard, because i was so tired of not feeling good that the energy burst it gave me was a VERY welcome change. it has been 4 months and this is not a “diet”- this is definitely my lifestyle now. i eat mainly fruits and veggies with some clean protein thrown in there. every once in a while i get sad that i dont eat “fun” foods but when i do try and cheat and eat them they make me feel so crappy that i remember why i dont eat them anymore!

i use the breville juice fountain elite (that i am borrowing from mom) and i LOVE it. i read somewhere that martha stewart has one in each of her homes, so i figure if it’s good enough for martha, it’s good enough for me!

after i had already started juicing, i watched the documentary “fat, sick and nearly dead”. it is a much better movie than it sounds! it’s a really inspiring documentary about how juicing and eating fresh produce can change your life and prolong it. i really loved the movie and it made me so happy i was already juicing!

here are some of my tricks ive learned to make juicing a little easier (they are all common sense, this is not rocket science):
-put a plastic bag in the pulp bin to catch the pulp. makes clean up so much easier!
-wash your juicer immediately! its so much easier to just rinse it all off, then to let it sit and get sticky
-i prep two days worth of juicing at a time, so i only have to do it every other day. i keep the produce in mason jars so the next morning i can just dump it all in the juicer. also, you could just do it the night before to save time each morning.
-throwing an apple in any juice sweetens it up (helpful when you are using other strong ingredients like beets or kale)

here is my fruit juice all ready to go for the next day:

(orange,grapefruit, berries and plum)

i do fruit in the morning and then veggie for my afternoon snack. i generally put whatever veggies i have in the fridge in there, but this is my standard (or a variation of it):

(carrot, celery, tomato, cucumber, orange/yellow bell pepper, a small zuchinni, a small red apple and a small green apple)

juice with beets turns the prettiest color! it always makes me happy looking at it(apparently i am a juice nerd!) this is pretty much the same combination as above, swapping the pepper for the beets

i highly recommend juicing! it gives you so much energy and makes your skin glow! if you need more convincing watch “fat, sick and nearly dead”- i promise its not as bad as it sounds 🙂

i generally stick to the same recipes each day because they work for me and my blood sugar issues, but as i try new recipes i will be sure to post them!