greens

7 Ways Juicing Can Help You Lose Weight

April 4, 2019 by Joni Leave a Comment

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last few years, you would have no doubt heard about the amazing health benefits of juicing. But did you also know that a juice elixir can also be a healthy and safe way to lose weight? When consumed in complement to an existing weight-loss plan, juicing provides a high level of quality nutrition, which will assist in weight-loss. Read on to find out how.

1. Easy Digestion

One of the best benefits of juicing fresh fruit and vegetables is that drinking them (as opposed to eating them) makes them really easy for your body to digest. If you are to juice say a couple of tomatoes, celery, cucumber, spinach, and carrot, you will make a delicious and easy to drink fresh vegetable cocktail that will provide a huge amount of nutritional benefits to your body. If you were to actually consume those same vegetables raw, from a plate, in one sitting, you would find the process to be quite difficult. It would take a lot of effort to eat and digest the same quantity of food. But by juicing those vegetables, you get to drink in one glass a dense quantity of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients really easily.

2. Reduction in Cravings

When you drink a glass of freshly made vegetable or green juice, you are loading every cell of your body with detoxifying minerals. By drinking your veggies and fruit, you are giving your body all the amazing nutrients that it needs to heal, stay healthy, and reduce the risk of illness. In turn, you will also find that you experience a reduction in cravings, particularly for sweets or processed foods. This is because you are feeding your body all that it needs. Your body won’t be sending messages to your brain that make you crave particular foods that contain certain minerals or vitamins that you might otherwise lacking. It is in this way that you will start to lose weight, often quite quickly. You simply won’t be eating the bad foods that make you gain weight, and you won’t feel like you are even depriving yourself of these foods like you might if dieting.

3. Tasty Fuel

It is also handy to know that green juices taste great! You can make your juice really flavorful by adding in lemon, mint or ginger to really add a tasty punch to your juice. You will enjoy the flavors of the juice so much that you will choose to make a juice rather than eat another less healthy snack food. It is also worth noting that juice you make at home on your own is a much better option than that which is store bought. Fresh juice made with a base of vegetables is going to contain much more nutrition than the kind that comes from a carton. Even fresh, store-bought juices will often have sugars and other additives as well as preservatives added to the juice. This kind of juice means you are drinking a lot of unnecessary calories. On the other hand, a homemade vegetable and fruit juice delivers nothing but goodness that is healthy fuel for your body.

4. Filling Snack or Dessert

Another amazing thing about juicing is that by drinking a freshly made juice, your appetite shuts off. This is because your body (which is amazing at knowing just what it needs!) is getting all that it is looking for. You will feel satisfied and satiated, much more than you would by eating empty calories in junk food. Your body will feel revitalized, not sluggish or heavy, and instead of searching for more food even after you have just eaten something, you will find that you don’t really want or need anything more.

5. It is not a fad diet

Once you start making juicing a regular part of your lifestyle, and start to experience all the health benefits and begin losing weight without a struggle, you will realize that incorporating fresh juicing into your life is definitely not a diet fad. Unlike regimented diets that are difficult to follow and which can often make you gain weight, juicing works in such a remarkable way that you will want to include juicing in your life forever. Unlike fad diets, you will never feel deprived or hungry. Not only that, but other aspects of your health will also improve. You might notice your skin is clearer, your eyes are brighter, and your nails and hair grow more quickly. You will also have more energy and you will start to feel amazing. Juicing will seriously become a way of life you will want to follow forever!

6. You invest in your health

In order to start juicing regularly, you will need to invest in a juicer, which initially will mean setting aside a bit of money. You might feel like this is an expense you don’t want to have, but by making that purchase, you are committing to your health and weight loss. It gives you a reason to stick to the concept of juicing for long enough that you will start to notice the difference in how you feel. It is also an investment in your health and well-being, so not only does juicing help you to lose weight, but it will save you money in medical fees in the future.

7. Fun and Variety

In order to lose weight and to stay motivated, life needs to be fun, right? Juicing is the ideal way to bring this into your life. As you start to get into juicing, you will find it great fun making new combinations of fruit and vegetables cocktails. You will make all kinds of unique and interesting drinks, and you will find that you never get bored from the endless variety of beverages that you can make for yourself and others. You will also want to share these drinks with others, which will also mean getting encouragement and support from those around you as you continue your weight-loss goals. Support is super important when it comes to making, and sticking to, healthy changes in your life.

Really, juicing is a fabulously fun, easy, and healthy way to shed those unwanted pounds without any struggle or deprivation. You have got nothing to lose by starting to make green juicing a regular part of your lifestyle. To get you started, here is a delicious and easy juice to kick-start your weight-loss:

Trim and Delicious Green Juice

4 carrots

2 apples

1 cucumber

½ beetroot (peeled)

1 rib celery

1 lemon

1-inch piece of ginger

Run the vegetables through your juicer and enjoy!

Looking for some tasty juicing recipes? Joe Cross from, Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead fame has a fabulous website full of amazing juice recipes.

Ready to Learn More?

The addition of a green juice daily has helped me ditch the cravings and get my glow on! Here are a few ideas to help you burn more fat each day.

Ready to make the next step to becoming the most VIBRANT you? Let’s connect

Good Vibrations

August 25, 2015 by Joni Leave a Comment

How does food affect your mood?

Did you know that food has vibrations that allow it to create change in our bodies on a cellular level? Food that is alive and from the earth will energize and invigorate you, while processed, pre-packaged, dead food will leave you feeling lethargic and uninspired, like a light that has fizzled out. Makes sense doesn’t it?

Dark green leafy vegetables are full of chlorophyll, which is basically liquid sunshine. It is the substance in plants that allows them to absorb light from the sun and convert it into usable energy. When we consume raw dark green vegetables such as kale, broccoli, and Swiss chard, we fill our body with the equivalent of the plant’s life blood – the very thing that allows a seed to flourish and take form.

Chemically, the blood of the plant, chlorophyll, is very similar to our blood and, when consumed, it helps us to oxygenate and breathe life into every cell. Pretty cool, huh? Chlorophyll is also extremely cleansing and detoxifying.

Here are some other high vibrational foods for you to try:

1. Tree Fruits – try apples, pears, bananas, coconuts, avocados, nectarines, peaches, plums, apricots, oranges, lemons, limes, mangos, pomegranates, blueberries, cherries, and olives.

2. Non-green veggies

3. Raw Cacao – chocolate in its pure form has over 1,200 phytonutrients. It contains nutrients like magnesium, iron, phosphorus, zinc, copper, and manganese. It also contains phenylethylamine, which are the feel good characteristics, and theobromine which dilates the cardiovascular system to allow all the benefits to come in.

4. Goji Berries – packed with antioxidants, which can help minimize free radical damage to our cells.

5. Cultured and Fermented Foods –a great source of probiotics, which will help your digestion stay on track.

I firmly believe in the old saying, “You are what you eat.” Junk in = feeling like junk, and rich, living, nutrient-dense food = much happier body and mind.

Don’t just take my word for it. We’ve all tried the junk in, junk out experiment, so don’t you think it’s time to rock your body and mind with some fresh and fabulous food? By eating food that vibrates at a higher frequency, we increase our life-force energy and feel more radiant inside and out.

5 Surprising Beauty Foods

March 24, 2015 by Joni Leave a Comment

Beauty foods?!? Yep, BEAUTY foods. Get you glow on without all the toxic muck from the ‘beauty’ industry. Heck, you can grow your own beauty foods in the backyard, balcony or kitchen window sill!

All fresh fruits and vegetables contain magical powers when it comes to shiny hair, clear skin, and strong nails. However, the ones I’ve chosen below are perhaps not as well known for their powerful beauty benefits. Try and include these foods into your diet if you want to look your best without the need for botox or other unnatural remedies.

1. Red Peppers. All red and orange colored foods contain beta-carotene, a powerful antioxidant. Red peppers are particularly beautifying due to the minerals A, C, and K. Vitamins A and C can help prevent cell damage that leads to premature ageing, and they can also reduce inflammation, which can cause a puffy-looking face. Pepper also has Vitamin K, which is an excellent property for protecting our cells from damage.

2. Spinach. All leafy greens are actually very powerful in terms of being a beauty food because of the chlorophyll they contain. There are also loads of other phytochemicals and fiber in spinach that help build blood that is super clean and which will show through in your skin.

3. Turmeric. This yellow-colored, Indian spice has a load of powerful antioxidant qualities. Turmeric assists in protecting our cells from free radical damage and also contributes towards cleaning up metabolic waste in our systems. It is also great as a liver flusher to get rid of any poisons and chemicals which are stored there.

4. Pumpkin Seeds. Wow, these really are powerful. What don’t pumpkin seeds have in them?! The humble pumpkin seed contains high levels of zinc, calcium, potassium, magnesium, and vitamins B, C, and E. Pumpkin seeds are also a great source of amino acids and omega-3 fatty acids, all essential for healthy cell maintenance. Make a handful of pumpkin seeds a regular part of your diet, and you will definitely notice a change in your appearance.

5. Parsley. Next time your plate is garnished with parsley, don’t push it aside. This is a pretty powerful herb when it comes to anti-aging, as well as purifying and cleansing the body. It contains vitamins A and C as well as anti-oxidizing flavonoids that protect our cells from free radical damage. Parsley also helps to purify the blood, kill bacteria, aid digestion, and cleanse toxins from the liver.

The best thing is that all these foods are easy to incorporate into your diet. Add turmeric to juice and combine the other foods with some other fixings to make a great, beautifying salad. Who said that beauty was hard to keep?

Looking for more tips? Check out my tips for Sexy Summer Legs!

Just A Salad

September 5, 2014 by Joni Leave a Comment

Have you had this conversation before?

“So, what do you want for dinner tonight?” asks the master chef of the evening. That would be me!

“Oh, I don’t know. Let’s just have a salad.” replies the one not preparing the nightly bit of sustenance.

“…JUST a salad…” I heard it. One too many times I’d heard it. And on the last – and I do mean last – time, my reaction was so visceral I even frightened myself. Seriously?!? How can someone not have a healthy respect for the prep work involved in JUST a salad? Salad almost became a bad word in our house. Poor, Jerry (yep, that’s the hubby). Being the curious person that I am I analyzed my gut reaction to the JUST a salad trigger and decided to find a solution and now have some fabulous tips to share with you!

First let’s touch on why we even give a hoot about salad. Ready? Here it is…salad ROCKS! Pretty simple to remember, but if you are like me, you want to know why.

Top 3 Reasons to Eat Salad EVERY Day

Eating salads is a super-convenient way to work in a couple of servings of vegetables and/or fruit. Practically none of us get enough fruit and vegetables every day.
Dark green leafy vegetables are, calorie for calorie, probably the most concentrated source of nutrition of any food. These nutrients are deeply healing to your body. Give that body love and it will love you back!
Leafy vegetables are ideal for weight management as they are typically low in calories. I’ve seen it written that two pounds of vegetables is only 200 calories. I’m sure it matters which veggies you are piling on, but in general your greens and extra veggies for the added texture and flavor are very low-calorie compared to the nutrients you get!

Ok, now you have an idea why eating a salad every day, or with every meal, is a good idea and you are fully – well, partially – committed to implementing this culinary delight into the weekly meal plan. Congrats, you are on your way to rockin’ the wellness gig! Ready for some fabulous tips so …JUST a salad… doesn’t set your teeth on edge?

Tips to ROCK Salad Prep

PLAN – Planning a weekly menu helps me keep us healthy and relieves the stress of daily cooking inspiration. Let’s face it. When I don’t plan, we dine on popcorn or peanut butter. I try to plan before I hit the market, but sometimes the food gods speak to me as I peruse the shelves. Makes no matter as long as I have a plan for the week.

PICK A PREP DAY – Prep is crucial to the process. I usually do this on Sunday or when my ‘supplies’ are low. For supplies I’m talking shredded purple cabbage, shredded carrots, celery sticks, matchstick daikon radish, sliced cucumbers, etc, etc. You get the drift. Whatever tickles your taste buds and can be prepped ahead – do it! This includes the base of your salad – the glorious greens.

BONUS TIP:

I know we all cringe at the thought of soggy lettuce or wasted food and sometimes opt for bagged greens for convenience, but you don’t have to! I clean, tear (or chop) my romaine, spin it in the salad spinner, put it in a stainless steel bowl with a damp paper towel on top, and then place it in the fridge to crisp up and dry out completely. Once it is good and dry, I transfer it over to Green Bags (X-Large) and BOOM it is ready for the week. It’s so much more economical to buy a 3-pak of organic romaine and clean it myself. Then I can spend those saved pennies on a ready to serve bag full of organic baby arugula – my fave!

The beauty in my new strategy is that we’ve been eating salads every day without the drama. These tips are such a time saver. Now when lunch or dinner rolls around all I have to do is pull out ‘supplies’ and dress those greens with loads of color and crunch. Another benefit is the variety in our diet. If I don’t have to clean and prep each day it gives me more time to get creative with toppings and dressings. Happy cook. Happy family.

Try this system and let me know how it works for you!

P.S. I love my green bags! They are BPA free and help cut down on spoilage. They are reusable and they really work. Check them out here:
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