Juicing for 2 - The cost, recipes, weight loss and more!

Good evening wonderful readers! 

Cali, here and I hope you have all had a lovely week. Last month, my hubby and I ate at home for EVERY meal, ALL MONTH LONG. Now to most people this may not sound like much of a feat, but cooking for every single meal and snack requires much more time, effort, and planning than the average day. 

We embarked on this journey for a few different reasons. We wanted to see how much money we could save on food, open ourselves up to new recipes, and see if we could lose any weight. We threw a week of juicing in the middle to give our system a reboot during this month. 

If you don't know much about juicing, I strongly suggest you watch the very popular documentary- Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. The documentary features two stories of overweight men who completely turn their lives around and revitalize their health through juicing. You can check out the video here:

I think of juicing like this- every day since you were born, your body has been working non-stop to digest the food that gets put in it. Unless you stop stuffing food (and unhealthy food most likely) in your mouth, your body just never gets a break. So, how do you get all the nutrients you need and more without actually eating? By juicing!! The juice from fruits and veggies contains all of the goodness your body requires. Fact of the matter is, most of us don't even get all of the vitamins and nutrients we need in our food because what we put in isn't actually that great for us. That being said, if you aren't comfortable doing a "Juice Cleanse" alone, I would suggesting trying to add at least one fresh juice to your daily diet. 

So, how did I plan for this week of juicing? Well, my weeks generally go from Monday-Sunday in terms of meal planning. I sat down on Sunday and spent about an hour looking through juice recipe books and online recipes. My favorite book to choose from is The Big Book of Juices.   

  

Buy this book on Amazon.com!

I wrote down the juices that we would drink every day- breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner. Approximately 4-6 juices every day. After writing down the recipes, I totaled up the amount of produce that was need and headed to the store. Now grocery shopping like this takes some time as a lot of produce is required. I spent about an hour at the store and about 90% of what I purchased was ORGANIC. The total cost for hubby and I to juice for one week was $110. This came out to about $8 a day for each of us. Surprising? It should be! Juicing gets a bad rep for being way expensive, especially if you buy organic. Planning is key! That hour I spent writing out our recipes and tallying up how much of each fruit/veggie we needed, saved us a lot of $$$ as we did not purchase food that would get wasted or spoil in the fridge. I will list the juice recipes we used at the bottom of the post. 

We have a Breville Juice Fountain Elite that we use to make our juices. It works great and is relatively easy to clean. We bought this juicer as a combined Christmas gift to each other and used a Visa gift card a family member had given us to knock down the price. It pays to save in every way! You may notice the plastic bag on the pulp container. We use our plastic produce or left over grocery bags as a liner to make the clean up process much quicker and cleaner! 

If you do decide to try out juicing, be prepared to have your fridge and counter tops covered/filled with goodies. I like to organize my fridge by using dishes to separate them by color.

 It makes for a pretty looking fridge. :)

During this wonderful week of juicing, I was hungry a lot the first two days, but then the hunger passed and the juices, water, and green tea was sufficient. I don't just limit myself to the juices I make- I still drink water and tea as well. I lost 6 lbs for the week and my hubs lost 8! I'm going to juice again this next week so this post makes for great inspiration once more! I hope you'll try juicing for yourself and see the amazing benefits it has in store. Not only will you lost weight, but you'll also experience clearer skin, that "healthy glow", and feel energized (after the initial detox which can take 3-5 days if it is your first time juicing). 

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns- please share! I'd love your feedback and to hear your experiences with juicing as well. Cheers!

~Cali via LVL~

P.S. It'd be a great idea to brush your teeth after each juice you have as the sugars can be hard on your teeth. :) Keep it all healthy y'all! 

***Note for all the MAMAs out there: If you are breastfeeding, I advise against juicing as I personally noticed the "fat/nutrient" layer of milk had diminished. If you are looking to lose some additional weight while nursing, I suggest drinking two green smoothies a day, one cooked meal a day, and the rest raw fruits and veggies. Happy nursing, happy babies!

Juice Recipes for my buddies J

Orange Basic: 2 oranges, 1 apple, 3 carrots, 1 celery stick, and 1 in. ginger root

Capple Kiwi: 3 carrots, 1 apple, 2 kiwis

Minty Peach: 2 peaches, 1 apple, 1 lime, 1 bunch of mint

Carrot Deep Cleanser: 6 carrots, 1 apple, 1 beet, 2 celery sticks, 6 kale leaves

Water apple: 3 apples, 2 thick slices of watermelon, 1 lime

Apple Cleanser: 4 apples, 1 beet, 4 kale leaves, 2 celery sticks, 2/3  cucumber {my favorite}

Carrot Lift: 4 carrots, 2 celery sticks, 1 bunch of parsley, ½ lemon

Celery Jointaid: 3 celery, ½ pineapple, 1 in. ginger toot, 1 tbsp flaxseed oil

(^^^I didn’t try this one)

Williams Orange: 2 oranges, 2 pears

Digestaid: ½ pineapple, 1 thick slick of white(green) cabbage, 1 in. ginger root, 1 bunch of mint, 1 pear

Water, Water, Everywhere: 1 cucumber, 1 thick slice of watermelon

Blue Pear: 2 pears, 1 handful of blueberries, 1 handful of blackberries {hubby's favorite}

Pear Dream: 3 pears, 4 apricots

Veggie Carotene Catapult: 3 carrots, 1 red bell pepper, 1 broccoli spear, ½ sweet potato

Green n’ Pearit: 8 broccoli spears, 3 celery sticks, 2 pears

Green Citrus: 2 handfuls of spinach, 2 celery sticks, 2 oranges

Green Piney Hit: 1 lg handful of spinach, 1 handful of parsley, 1 handful of mint, ½ pineapple

Green Waldorf: 5 kale leaves, 2 apples, 2 celery sticks, ½ tbsp. flaxseed oil