I have discovered that I was wrong on all accounts. Juicing is fast and easy, not a waste of food, and can be inexpensive. I have been converted.
What finally coaxed me into drinking my rabbit food? After all, once your glass is filled with that mysterious green liquid you have moved from trying to eat healthy into the realm of hippy health freak! What converted me, besides Malissa being a juicing enthusiast, was the movie Fat Sick & Nearly Dead. Having read many books and articles about healthy eating, I thought this movie would only be regurgitating information I already knew. Well, it did have some information that wasn't new for me, but one thing that was an eye opener was that juicing is a great way to quickly get much of the nutrition your body needs.
Still, why not just eat your vegetables to get the nutrition your body needs? The answers are a lot simpler than I thought. The first reason is because it's super fast! A few nights ago, I was eating a carrot and it took me a good fifteen minutes to eat the whole thing (not to mention how sick of chewing I became). Meanwhile, Malissa would drink a glass of carrot juice, containing six carrots (and savoring every sip) in much less time! So, imagine eating carrots, spinach, kale, celery and an apple in a few minutes. And imagine all the incredible nutrients you're giving your body as you guzzle the delicious concoction!
This brings me to my second reason. It's pretty hard to eat all the vegetables you need in a day, but you can get the same amount of nutrients from juicing. Imagine trying to eat eight whole kale leaves, a large cucumber, two apples, a lemon, and a handful of spinach every meal! Now I am not suggesting that every meal you should be juicing a ton of vegetables. But I am saying that juicing is a quick way to get lots of nutrition in your diet. At the end of the day, if you realize that you didn't have many veggies, take out your juicer and some leftover fruits and vegetables, and you are set. You can go to bed knowing that your body has gotten the nutrients it needs.Alright, so what about the money, you ask? I won't lie: sometimes produce can cost a lot of money! One problem I had with the movie Fat Sick & Nearly Dead was that they were trying to convince you that going on a juice fast isn't that expensive. The numbers they gave showed that purchasing the vegetables at Walmart would make each meal cost four dollars! At first that may sound great, except that in a thirty day month that would add up to $360 a person, meaning Malissa and I would be spending $720 a month on groceries if all we did was juice! For two struggling college students (who would prefer to live in an apartment bigger than a walk-in closet) that amount is unreasonable.
However, we have been able to juice semi-regularly and do it without emptying everything out of our pockets. First, I can't speak enough about the awesomeness of carrots. You can get a huge bag of carrots for a dollar or less at many stores, and you will get from 4-8 servings out of them by themselves. Another thing we do is load up on the veggies we find on sale. Sprouts Farmers Market always has awesome deals on produce. Recently, we got four red peppers for a dollar (usually around 70 cents each), mangos for 50 cents each, 5 POUNDS of oranges for a buck! Look for deals in the mail, find the best prices, and juice away! If you do it right, you could be guzzling nutrients down each day for a dollar or less. In addition to these savings, you will be able to waste less food. Didn't use the entire tomato for your dinner? Throw it in the juicer! Is any of your produce beginning to go bad? Juice it! Now you can sleep well knowing your body got the nutrients it needs, and you didn't let any of your food go to waste.Coming up in Drinking your vegetables PART 2- What vegetables should you juice, and what combinations taste good.
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