GETTING (RE)STARTED

Essentially four groups of people come to this blog: 1. those who are juicing, 2. those who are thinking about juicing, 3. those who started juicing at one time and quit, and 4. those who are interested in the general topics of exercise, nutrition and health. My aim is address all four groups with a single topic. To see a difference in your health as a result of juicing, follow these steps:

1. Buy a juicer. Easy enough. But the question remains: which one? a top of the line one or the cheapest one you can find? The answer to that question depends on how serious you are. You know yourself best. If you think you may not stick with it because it’s only a fad, buy a cheap one. If you stick with it for months as opposed to weeks, you can upgrade to a more efficient and durable model. I first started juicing when “Juiceman” Jay Korda was promoting it. That would
have been sometime in the late 70s or early 80s. I was impressed by Korda’s knowledge of juicing and its benefits, but not enough to order one of his machines. Then one day at COSTCO, I saw a cheap juicer that I paid only $59 for. I kept that juicer until just a few months ago. It was at that time that I decided I must be serious about juicing, so I bought a standard model Jack LaLane, primarily because Jack has been in the Juicing business for quite some time (he’s 92 years old, you know) and he said his juicer would juice about 30% more than the average juicer. I’m glad to say he was right. Based on my experience, I get much more juice from the LaLane juicer than I did from my old one. Another claim Jack makes is that his juicer allows you to put whole fruits into it rather than cut them up into smaller pieces. Although this statement is true, I’ve found that cutting a whole orange or a whole beet into 2, 3, or 4 pieces before you juice it allows the juicer to run more efficiently and produce more juice. So the choice is yours. Buy a juicer, don’t buy a juicer, buy a really good juicer. That was pretty straightforward, wasn't it?

2. If you’re read this far, I’m going to assume that you’ve already bought a juicer or are considering buying a good one. Here’s what you have to do next: discover some juices you might like. Juices you’d like to taste every day. Because consistency is a big part of a successful juicing program. You can't juice once every so often and expect to have tangible results. Here’s a couple of juices I can recommend:

-Granny Smith apple, beet and carrot. It tastes great, and you’ll feel very good immediately upon drinking it. It will clean you out and keep you regular. I make no recommendations as to amounts of each, although I tend to juice 1 beet root, 1 apple, and 1 to 2 handfuls of baby carrots, depending on my mood.

-Orange, tangerine and carrot. This can be a little tricky, but if you get it right, you’ll fall in love with the taste. It’s more orangey than orange juice! The secret here is to get the lighter colored navel oranges. They have thinner skin, and you will get more juice than you will from the brighter colored, thicker-skinned ones. Remove the skin of two navel oranges and juice them into a large container. Next, take the skin off 3 small tangerines or 2 large ones and juice those into the same container. After that, take 1 or 2 handfuls of baby carrots and juice those into the container. Then, with a long-handled tea spoon, stir the contents of the juicing container until those contents are the same color as the baby carrots. Finally, pour the juice into glasses and drink. I think you’ll be pleased!

-Juice spinach, celery and carrots into a juice container, then pour the juice from the juice container into a glass half-filled with store-bought tomato juice (I’m not going to explain why. If need to know why, read my blog entry that speaks about lycopene) and drink. Good stuff, Maynard!

3. When you buy the juicer, make sure you stick it on your kitchen counter right next to the sink. The reason for this should be obvious. If it’s on the counter and you see it every day, you’re more likely to use it. Also, having it next to the sink makes clean-up easy. I clean up immediately after every juicing, not allowing anything to dry up or cling to the juicing machine parts. I do this by using the spray attachment on my kitchen sink to remove all traces of fruit and vegetable pulp. I use a toothbrush (a new, clean one of course) to clean pulp out of my juice basket, and when everything is free of debris, I re-assemble the juicer so it is all ready for use next time. And every 10 days or so, I put all the removable parts of the juicer into the automatic dishwasher and let the dishwater give it a good scrub. As simple as that.

One other thing I want to mention. Depending on what you are juicing, the leftover pulp can be used in different foods. Pretty soon I’ll give you an example by offering a soup recipe that PSYCHENURSE shared with me.

But until the next exciting episode, this is THE JUICED AVENGER! Signing off.