This morning I woke up to discover Jason Vale had shared my Juicing for Clear Skin story on Facebook! Whilst I am honoured to be one of the chosen ones, and I knew they were going to do it soon, I feel a bit embarrassed now it’s out there and my instinct is to dive under the duvet until it’s all over! I gave them a choice of photos, but the ones they used are my least favourite and least flattering 🙄
However, I wrote the original post to try to give people with skin conditions hope and inspiration, so I am sucking in my pride, vanity and embarrassment. It can be miserable coping with flaky, itchy red skin, while creams and medications so often don’t work and can make things worse.
So I am telling the world about Jason’s Facebook feature and wish everyone luck in their pursuit of clear, itch-free skin.
You can see the Juicemaster feature on my Facebook feed on the Home page of my blog or visit my Facebook Page where you’ll find recipes, Team Sky cyclobabble (bit of a groupie), shared juicing, vegan and environmental links, with a few pretty pictures dotted about.
If you’d also like to read about how I started juicing and the amazing benefits I gained both for my many health problems and my weight, plus tips on how to get started, read How to Begin or Do As I Say Not As I Did!
Thank you all for your continued support and I hope some of you feel inspired to give juicing a go, you won’t regret it!
This blended juice was my husband’s improvised creation. Anyone who knows our family understands that this can be a tricky situation. He has always maintained a love-hate relationship with cooking: he loves to eat but doesn’t like the process of getting it to his plate! He has generally lived by the mantra cook high, cook fast, done when smoke alarm sounds! He tries but must be supervised at all times especially if you are the one he’s cooking for: an ambulance once made an appearance when he added 2 heaped teaspoons of ground black pepper to pasta sauce instead of basil and I collapsed on the first mouthful.
He does, however, make our juices every morning, but strictly according to Jason Vale’s recipes, and, apart from the occasional beetroot explosion, these turn out well. Improvisation is not encouraged and I approached this morning’s juice with some trepidation.
*
We generally use cheaper organic Gala apples for juicing and save the larger, tarter apples for eating on their own or as desserts. Today we had run out of Galas and so HB used one of my favourite large Pink Lady apples. Sacrilege in my book, so he didn’t ask first. It did, however, make quite a difference to the flavour of the juice.
I loved it. He is very proud of himself.
*
All ingredients are organic, if the lemon is not organic, pare thinly to leave as much pith as possible. Pears are best used for juicing before they ripen.
Ingredients
1 Large Pink Lady Apple
1 Pear
A Thick Slice of Unwaxed Lemon
1 Celery Stalk, chopped
4″ Cucumber
1 Small Carrot
1 Kiwi Fruit, peeled
2″ Broccoli Stem
Handful of Spinach
Third of a Ripe Avocado
*
Juice all fruit and veg except avocado, then blend with chopped avocado for about 30-45 seconds in a high speed blender until creamy smooth.
and leave your details plus the colours you would like in each of the 350ml, 500ml and 1 litre bottles as well as a travel mug, they will send off your prize asap.
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25% Off Discount Code:
Use STILLWINNERS at the checkout
Please Like and Follow @GripandGoUk on Twitter Or on Facebook
This code must be used by midnight on Friday, 6th May, 2016
(sorry UK residents only)
Visit the Grip and Go website and look at their range of stylish glass bottles and double-insulated travel mugs!
Treat yourself or buy someone a gift. Great for storing juices, nut milks and water. Much better for you and the environment than single-use plastic water bottles.
Thank you all for taking part and to Grip and Go for a great prize!
Blended Breakfast Beetroot Juice in Grip and Go Bottle*
When I first began juicing, I would never have believed some of the combinations I now use every day or how many vegetables I would try with trepidation but end up loving and adding to the juicing repertoire (parsnips being the exception, of course!).
Beetroot is one of them.
I am so hardcore, I even leave the skins on!
Beetroot is known as the blood builder and is especially recommended for anyone with raised blood pressure or poor circulation.
All ingredients are organic and washed and so keep their skins, except the pineapple, if using non-organic then scrub and peel.
The juice is blended with avocado to add protein, fibre and healthy fats and because it makes you feel fuller longer.
Ingredients
2 Apples
1 large Carrot
1 Thick Slice of Unwaxed Lemon
1/2 Medium Beetroot, ends removed and scrubbed well
4″ Cucumber
2″ Broccoli stalk
Half inch slice of Pineapple
1/2 stick of Celery
1/2 small Avocado
(you can freeze the rest if you remove the skin and stone, chop up the flesh and use in smoothies or guacamole)
Juice all the ingredients except the avocado, blend the juice with the avocado.
Please excise any serious typos – there, I made one already, excuse came out as excise – I am injured. Not seriously. Hardly at all in fact, just enough to make typing a hit and miss affair. This morning has been one of those mornings when a couple of things happened to knock the day slightly off kilter and then you’re waiting for the other thing to happen. You know… disasters come in threes and all that. Although mine are more mishap than disaster, but still…
First thing happened when I was barely awake. Actually, no, that’t not right. First thing happened while I was still snuggled under the duvet. I missed the snow! I’ve been waiting all winter and the first real smattering we have comes down before I’ve opened my eyes and by the time I’ve stirred, it’s gone.
(This is from 15th January for illustrative purposes. It lasted all of 5 minutes as did last night’s – apparently).
I thought back to last weekend when my two-year-old grand-daughter, who has never experienced snow but is obssessed with it, had a long, forthright argument with me during a heavy hailstorm. She was entranced, kneeling up at the window eyes alight with amazement, mouthing ‘It’s snowing, look it’s snowing!’ in such a small voice overcome by the wonder of it all. We all tried to tell her they were hailstones, but she held firm and fast to her fantasy, and we finally agreed, yes, it was snowing.
Disappointed, I got up and went to the bathroom. We had a West Wing marathon last night and as I came out I was still drowsily thinking about it all when I was brought up short by a searing pain as I trapped my finger in the door and caught it on the edge of the catch. After all the usual squeezing of said finger while hopping around shouting and receiving no help – as always when disaster strikes, everyone has headed for the hills and you realise you’re on your own – I looked down and saw blood dripping down the bannister, pouring from my nail bed as my finger throbbed. Those cartoon disasters came to mind where a character gets hit on the head or hand and a huge lump forms and throbs in lurid colours. It was a tiny cut, but you’d have thought that at the very least my nail and fingertip were missing, what with all the pain and blood.
Please note:there really should be an image here of my injured finger, but I spared you the sight of it. (You wouldn’t have been able to see it anyway without floodlights and magnifying glass! – ed.)
I made it to the kitchen and thrust my finger under the cold water in an attempt to staunch the bleeding. It carried on. I couldn’t get to the plasters in the cupboard without leaving a trail of blood the likes of which you only see in episodes of CSI! I grabbed a clean tea towel and held it around the finger but every time I tried to release it, the blood gushed. Honestly, it was the tiniest cut, you’d need a magnifying glass to see it. (Told you! – ed.)
Finally, my husband returned from his cycle ride and managed to get a plaster onto the finger. Crisis over. I listened to his usual recounting of where he went, how many miles, how fast, who he saw, punctures etc etc (well, listening might be overstating it a bit), as I got my morning juice out of the fridge and a straw from the cupboard. Intending to seem fascinated, I turned to ask him a question and…
I caught the straw with my sleeve, the jar went over and before my husband had even managed to remove his helmet and cycling shoes, he was on his knees dealing with the second disaster: sticky orange liquid was oozing across the kitchen counter, down the cupboards and fridge, soaking into the hanging tea towels, the leg of my jeans, the tops of my trainers and across the floor!
And then:
There were no ripe bananas for my breakfast smoothie! Now I know that in the grand scheme of things, this is so insignificant as not to be worthy of a mention. But in the context of my morning, this really is a disaster. They were green as green could be. So I decided to use avocado and just put things together and see how it turned out. I had some coconut milk that needed using up, a kiwi fruit, some romaine lettuce. A little wheatgrass powder. I imagined a vibrant green smoothie. But I couldn’t leave well alone and I added blueberries and açaì powder. I got khaki! And it was so thick I could have taken a knife and fork to it! But it tasted a lot better than it looks, really it did. Recipe here.
So that was my morning. My husband fared a little better, he is back cycling after a 9 month lay-off following an accident and a broken arm that needed some metalwork. But he posted a birthday card to his cousin and then realised he’d forgotten to put the stamp on. Then of course he had to start washing floors and cupboards and jeans when he arrived home.
I was thoroughly spoiled yesterday with beautiful flowers from both my mum and my grand-daughter.
It’s Sunday evening and what a contrast to yesterday! After a busy Saturday with family, today I was on my own. The sun was streaming through the windows, I’d lost another 1lb to add to the 5 yesterday and there would be 6 hours of cycling on the telly! I was in seventh heaven.
Our resident blackbird woke me with a virtuoso performance and I began the day as usual with an invigorating ginger shot. This was followed by a tiger nut milk, banana, blueberry and chia smoothie, with a green juice for lunch invented by my husband so I can’t tell you the recipe, he likes to keep me guessing!
Then came an afternoon of peace and quiet and Paris-Roubaix, one of, if not *the*, most exciting cycle races on the calendar.
Team Sky bossing it on the cobbles!
My son and I were texting throughout as he kept losing pictures and I lagged behind due to phone interruptions – imagine, don’t they know!
Despite feeling the effects of a day with a two year old and a few days with an 85 year old, I feel really well from the juicing. Even Mum, who worries about me losing too much weight, said I looked good. It was an extra bonus to have a relaxing day doing what I enjoy and sharing it with my bike-mad son. At one stage I may have been guilty of commentator’s curse when the Sky guys started going down like skittles after I posted that picture!
Dinner was a huge salad with home-made basil and walnut pesto, thrown together to use up the basil from the juicing.
I feel full and satisfied and calm. I have a juice in the fridge for later if I need it.
Just a quick post to finish off the juice challenge. Had a really busy day with my 85 year old mum, my son and my two year old fireball grand-daughter. We are all exhausted – my mum is unused to so much activity, my son is sleep-deprived from a teething baby and had driven the hour and a half to our house, my husband has been preparing house and food all week for the visits as well as driving Mum around, while our grand-daughter was here, there and everywhere, chatting and playing, completely oblivious to our yawns! I must have read 7 books – most of them belonged to her dad and his sister, so have seen better days, but the oldies are the goodies, as they say…
Foodwise, family visits are never easy when you are doing a juice cleanse, but today was a breeze. My family are used to me juicing by now – my son and grand-daughter also juice regularly – and so I don’t get the pitying looks or the questions about my sanity when they are eating pizza and home-made chips with salad while I just have the salad with a juice.
The two year old is a joy to watch at mealtimes, she loves her food and eats a variety of vegetables, salad and fruit. Yes, she had pizza which she loves, but she also had raw veggies and hummus, delighting in everything she ate. This is because raw salad-stuff, veggies and fruit were introduced from the beginning when she started weaning, she has always chosen her foods and watched them being prepared and soon began helping. Likewise, my grandson used to eat red peppers like apples when he was two and would raid the fridge for raw broccoli!
Having had a blended juice for breakfast, I felt no temptation to eat pizza or chips for lunch. Juicing really does reset your taste buds. I was ready for solid food though, I really needed to chew, and I enjoyed the avocado salad immensely. We had also grown some mung bean sprouts in preparation for my first solid meal.
(In case you were concerned, my husband, son and I managed to sneak the occasional look at the cycling Tour of the Basque country this afternoon! 😉).
But, to the business end of this cleanse: the results. My digestion is calmed, my tendency to snack – however healthily – is calmed, I have more energy and my itchy skin has calmed down. Last year’s extensive rash has stayed away,* but occasionally I do have a tendency to itchy skin if I stray from what I know keeps me healthy. My left ear and sinus had been blocked for a few days before the cleanse but are completely clear now.
And yes, I lost 5 lbs. (Update: another 1lb gone next day!)
I hope you gained the results you were looking for or that these posts have encouraged and inspired you to take a step towards a healthier lifestyle.
Celebrate your success and your resolve and Juice On!
Congratulations! You’ve completed the 5 lbs in 5 Days Juice Challenge! How do you feel? Can you see the improvements in your hair, skin, eyes? Do you feel lighter, no bloating, flatter tummy? Are you sleeping better, do you have more energy? Are you more patient with those around you?
Reflect on how you feel for a few minutes and compare and contrast with how you felt before. Do you want to keep this spark, this sense of being really alive, of appreciation and gratitude; do you want to hold on to the pride you are now feeling, the self-esteem?
Well, then, you have a decision to make. Will you continue your plant-based regime, using whole fruits and veg, full of vitamins and minerals; wholegrains, nuts and seeds with their healthy oils, protein and B vitamins?
Will you continue to have at least one juice a day or perhaps have a couple of juice-only days a week?
Or will you travel down the slippery slope and find yourself back eating burgers or pizzas and processed sugary foods? Maybe your family don’t want you to continue? They may with good intentions be concerned about your protein or your calcium but sometimes, seeing you change can be unsettling for them. Perhaps you think you are being a spoilsport because your friends want you to go out for a drink and a takeaway? Or you’re not sure you have sufficient motivation on your own?
In my experience, no amount of talking, explaining or encouragement will win over the sceptics. What does win them over is leading by example.
People will look at you and think, wow, she is looking so healthy, her eyes sparkle, she is so much happier, how do I get to feel like that?
So how do you keep yourself on the path you have chosen? You may have just taken the first step or you may be rebooting after taking a detour. Try to surround yourself with like-minded friends. Keep following this or other plant-based blogs for reinforcement, tips and recipes. Maybe find a Facebook group or Twitter juicers/healthy eaters if your friends are not quite there yet.
Jason Vale* has several books and apps that provide motivation and recipes to help you keep on the straight and narrow. I have tried most of them and can recommend them. I use them often.
If possible, try to spend this weekend continuing to juice but have a large salad as your lunch or evening meal today.
Sit at the table, eat slowly and chew thoroughly. Appreciate all the flavours and textures. On Sunday, still juice and perhaps have a light soup or something like Stir-fry Veg With Ginger and Avocado (but omit the nuts this time).
If you eat fish, then steamed or baked salmon and steamed or baked veggies. Try not to over-eat, your eyes will probably be bigger than your stomach! Keep grains to a minimum to begin with, every other day, after the weekend. Ease back into eating wholefoods gradually, your digestion will appreciate it!
If you’re a parent of young children, just watching you juice every day will make it the norm and will go a long way in helping you to maintain your healthier lifestyle. Letting them choose the ingredients and help with the juicing will reap benefits in the long term. The 2 toddlers in our family are already avid juicers. (If they are very young, be sure to dilute it well). Introducing more fruit and veg by being creative or ingenious – or downright sneaky! – will provide more variety in their diet and keep them healthier. Spiralising is a great idea, such fun for kids to watch and test the results.
Replacing sugary ice lollies or ice-cream with real fruit frozen smoothie lollies or banana, cacao or peanut butter nice-cream will help wean them off so much refined sugar. Or look at the raw treats recipes on this or other blogs.
L to R: Sweet potato brownies, Grab yourself a slice of energy, home-made raw chocolate, Spicy Orange Fruit Balls, Go-Go Berry Fudge.
Ok, I’ll spare you the rant! Regular followers on here and on Twitter will be well-versed in my, ahem, relationship with this particular root vegetable – if you are one of the few not familiar with said relationship, I invite you to read Pears But No More Parsnips!
The reason I mention it again here is that Day 5 means Pear ‘n’ Parsnip juice – twice! But after trying several times in the past, I have given myself permission to forego this ‘delight’ and will be substituting with a juice from the Super Juice Me! app so that I can use some of the asparagus we inadvertently ordered in our veg box this week, forgetting about the juice cleanse.
It is ok to substitute occasionally, providing you still create a balance with your juices and don’t overdo the fruit or the root veg to make them sweeter.
Nature’s Super Blend in my Grip and Go leakproof glass bottle. Much healthier to use glass rather than plastic to store or drink juice from, both for us and the environment.
5 Day Friday
So, today is the final day of the cleanse. How is it going? Did you find it a breeze or a struggle? Did you ‘cheat’? How do you feel about ‘cheating’? Did you give up because you cheated? Do you feel a failure?
As I said at the beginning of the week, this is not a test for you to pass or fail. One slip doesn’t mean juicing isn’t for you! You can start over: if circumstances precluded you doing a full cleanse, then have a juice a day until you can. Did you have support or were people commenting about protein/fibre/sugar etc? Or cooking food you don’t want to eat and ‘encouraging’ you to ‘just have a little mouthful, once won’t do any harm.’
You are trying to be the healthiest you can be.
That’s not for anyone else to comment on, only for you to feel proud about.
And if you’ve made it through the week, well done! But don’t give up yet – it’s 5 Days AND 5 nights!
Saturday is transition day. You will still need to juice while gently introducing whole fruit and veg, in other words plant-based foods. Don’t be tempted by family or friends to go out and celebrate – well, not in the way that’s traditionally done! No alcohol or fatty, sugary processed foods. Believe me, you will regret it.
(Whispering now cos it’s not polite to use toilet talk in public: after the initial ‘elimination’ at the start of the cleanse, some people have problems restarting the system, shall we say, towards the end of the week. If this is the case, it is perfectly fine to add a spoonful of ground linseeds to your juice in the morning).
And with that thought, I’ll love you and leave you!
Oh, ps look what my mum brought with her!
NB Please ask your doctor for advice if you’re thinking of extending your juice cleanse.
It was certainly the highlight of a wintry day here where we had bone-chilling winds and face-scalding hailstorms interspersed with steely skies and sluicing showers!
Today you can look forward to Minty Sunshine, a refreshingly fruity/spicy/minty juice that perks you up in the middle of the day.
So, are you feeling it yet? That feeling of being on cloud nine, your mind clear, alert and bursting with ideas/goals/motivation? My eyes, so often tired and strained from too much reading and not enough sleep, feel so wide open – like those characters in cartoons whose eyes jump forth on springs when they are surprised by impending disaster! I am all ready for family visits starting later today, one the oldest member of our family in her 80s, the other the 2 year old whirlwind who’s already a juicer! I need all the energy I can get 😉
Tiger nuts* are soaking to make Horchata or Tiger Nut Milk in the morning as Mum said she would like to try it, and I think the 2 year old might like it too.
Thursday’s Thoughts
From ‘The Secret’
I realised as I had my shower I hadn’t mentioned skin brushing when I talked about skin being part of the detoxing system. A great way to enhance the detox and renewal is to brush the skin with a dry loofah or Dead Sea Salts to slough off old flaky cells and stimulate the circulation. Do this before you go in the shower or bath. Work up from your toes to your belly using single upward strokes – go gently there and if you’re female avoid the breast area – use circular motions on your buttocks and upward strokes again up your back, then from your fingers to your shoulders, working your way towards your heart. It might hurt at first, but do it gently until you’re used to it and you’ll feel warm and invigorated. Then have a warm shower or bath.
You will feel so alive! (You can just see Graham Nash in this video)
How to cook "with visual instructions" "using familiar ingredients from your local grocery stores" healthy, traditional and delicious Japanese dishes!!
Did you all enjoy the Berry Banana Crunch? 
pearsnotparsnipsdotcom 
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