Drink Your Daily Greens

For the past year I have been drinking green juice every morning. I had seen people doing it in California and to be honest didn’t imagine it would become part of my daily routine, but as I have entered my thirties, I have found that having a healthy mind, body and sprit has become increasingly important to me, especially with the demands of running a start-up. I went to a workshop with Tanya from Better Raw last Feb, and shortly afterwards received a blender for my birthday. I don’t think that I have ever in my life used any appliance as much as this blender. If it was smaller I probably would take it away with me on weekends and overnight trips. But luckily it’s big, which keeps me balanced. Green juice for breakfast when I am home, and then Eggs Florentine when I am away…

To be totally honest, when I first started drinking green juice, I did think it was disgusting, and then when I started to add superfood powders, it became hard to drink again, but both times this didn’t last long, and now I look forward to drinking it and really enjoy both the taste and how it makes me feel.

I get asked a lot by different people in my life how I make mine, so here it is if you want to join the green cocktail party.

When I started I did my research, and saw that there were many different ways to make it, and so I just make up my own recipe every day depending on what I have in the house.

I tend to throw in my blender: 

*Lemon

*Ginger

*Apples (and/or other fruit – mango/kiwi/pears/melons)

* Celery

* Cucumber

* Greens – (spinach/kale/chard/parsley/romaine lettuce/lambs lettuce/carrot tops/beetroot tops/coriander/mint/rocket/cabbage/asparagus/bok choy/broccoli….)

* Superfood Powders – Spirulina,Wheatgrass, Maca

* Chia Seeds

* Water

First I put the lemons, ginger, fruit and water into the blender and mix that.

Then I add celery & cucumber, then the greens, then the chia seeds and superfoods.

Sometimes I add extra water and blend for longer so it’s quite thin and juice like,

sometimes I have less water and make it quite thick.

You can find lots of recipes online that tell you how much of the different ingredients to put in there,

but I don’t follow a particular rule.

On average, I make my juice once every three days, and for each batch I use : 1 lemon, a big chunk of ginger, 2 apples, 1 other piece of fruit, a whole cucumber, 4/5 celery sticks, a ‘pack’ or ‘bunch’ of greens, and then I really just free pour the superfoods in there.

Here are some tips that I have picked up: 

* It’s good to rotate your greens and not always put the same ones in there.

* If you are blending and buy organic ginger and lemons, you can throw it all in skin and everything.

* There is much discussion on if using a blender or juicer is better, I prefer a blender, much quicker, less mess and you don’t lose nutrients, or separate the fibres from the sugars.

* Sometimes you can add things to your juice like garlic, cayenne pepper, alfalfa sprouts, or beetroot.

* Use lemons and limes freely.

* Limit the amount of fruit (not including lemons/limes) you put in to keep sugar intake low.

* Some say it’s not great to mix fruit and veg together. Greens don’t count as veg and so go well with some fruit.

* Some say make your green juice 50:50 fruit and greens

* Others say do a 3:1 ration rule with veg and fruit

* I say mix it up….put whatever you feel like in there

And why bother drinking Green Juice?

* You get increased energy

* It clears toxins

* It strengthens immune system

* It stops cravings and curbs your appetite

* It’s drinking ‘liquid sunshine’ straight from the plants

* It allows you to easily consume large amounts of fruit and veg that would be difficult to eat through normal meals

* It’s a way to consume nutrients fast

* It’s easily digested

* It alkalises the body

* You get smoother skin

* It’s good for weight control

* It’s healing

* When you get used to it, It’s delicious