Habits can either work for us or against us. It all depends if the habits are health promoting, like taking a walk each day, or disease promoting, like smoking each day. As we go through our lives, we tend to build various habits, which may not always seem obvious to us at first in terms of how they impact our health. Sometimes we simply adopt certain actions or behaviors without knowing their full consequences.

Given that we live in the age of information, it is getting harder and harder to plead ignorance about any given topic. If we are not sure what a certain ingredient on a label is, it only takes a few minute search to find out. If we are not sure if consuming a certain food, or using a certain substance is good for us, again a simple Internet search can keep us busy for days with reading material. Whether it is a type of food, or product there is less and less excuse today for not knowing how something may be impacting us, our health and our well being.

With this in mind I want to share with you about a particular habit that can greatly benefit your health — home juicing. Juicing provides the most easily absorbable and most nutrient-concentrated form of nourishment, and has the potential to take your health to the next level offering a variety of cleansing, detoxing, healing, nutrient providing, and health promoting functions. It is important to point out right at the start that juicing creates juices and is not the same as a smoothie) or a drink blended in a blender.

A few years ago, amidst my personal journey of optimal health and nutrition, I became aware of the benefits of juicing. Although not fully convinced at first that a homemade juice, specifically green or other vegetable juice was needed if I was already eating whole, natural foods and drinking green smoothies, as I researched on, it became clear that there were specific and unique health benefits to juicing that can support a healthy lifestyle.

As I continued to streamline my diet over the years, to make it reflect the highest quality of nutrition for optimal health, along the way some years ago I stopped drinking any and all juice. It did not matter what health benefits the labels claimed, or that there was no sugar added. A packaged, pasteurized and processed food sitting on a shelf for days (if not weeks) in plastic bottles was simply not something I was interested in putting into my body any longer. Plus when it came to juice, I read enough to know that without the added fiber, there was just no point of drinking my calories, processed calories at that. It increases one’s chances of weight gain, causes blood sugar imbalances, makes us more prone to diabetes and adds to creating an acidic environment just to name a few of the downfalls associated with juice.

Once I became conscious of all this, just like that a habit that was built over the years—drinking juice—was over. Oftentimes, people think that it takes a certain amount of time to break a habit, but in reality as I frequently share with people, a habit breaks as quickly as we are ready to let it go. The next time I went to the grocery store, I simply did not buy any juice. The next time I went out to a restaurant, I simply did not order any. It can be that easy, but only if we choose to exercise some conscious awareness and personal discipline.

Benefits of Juicing

  • providing a high quality, nutrient dense food source
  • maximized and optimized nutrient delivery
  • most potent and concentrated nutrient density
  • most easily abundant and absorbable vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytonutrients
  • high concentration of live enzymes
  • you eat more of the fruit or vegetable than you would be able to eat in whole form
  • increased alkalinity to improve and maintain a good acid-alkaline balance
  • powerful detoxification
  • powerful cleansing properties
  • naturally energizing (no need for harmful stimulants)
  • high concentration of powerful medicinal properties of plants
  • increased speed and ease of digestion
  • access to plant nutrition normally locked in fiber
  • break for your digestive system (minimal work needed to deal with juice and get the nutrients into your blood stream quickly)
  • improved conditions for weight loss
  • provide a filling and highly nutritious snack
  • increases the diversity and variety of foods we consume
  • increases the palatability of many foods
  • avoid need for synthetic vitamins and/or minerals, as well as many other supplements
  • raw, vegan and vegetarian friendly
  • child, adult and elderly friendly

Health Benefits of Juicing

There are numerous benefits that are reaped thanks to the consumption of regular vegetable and fruit juices. Since we are ingesting the most concentrated vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytonutrients and live enzymes that the plant offers, it has a positive impact on every area of our health. Here are some of the general benefits you can look forward to or enjoy thanks to juicing:

  • Improved cell regeneration
  • Improved wound healing
  • Improved brain function
  • Improved clarity, focus, concentration, etc.
  • Improved heart function
  • Improved liver function
  • Improved immune function
  • Improved joint function
  • Improved hair, skin, nails
  • Improved eye sight
  • Improved digestion
  • Improved energy levels
  • Improved blood health
  • Improved detoxification
  • Improved elimination
  • Improved longevity
  • Improved weight maintenance
  • Improved overall health
  • Prevention of major and minor diseases
  • Healing of major and minor conditions

21 Days, 21 Juice Recipes

Although we have been told that it takes 21 days to form a habit, this can vary greatly depending on the person and task at hand. A study done in 2010 and published in the European Journal of Social Psychology reported that it can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days to form a habit, with 66 days being the average time to reach automaticity. What improved results for participants was logging daily progress.

If you would like to give your body and nutritional and cleansing boost, you may wish to try doing a 21-day juicing challenge, where each day you consume a freshly made juice. You can always enjoy any of these juice recipes anytime you would like a homemade juice to support your health and weight. Each serving made roughly 1 and a half cups or 12 ounces of juice. (Variations can exist between 8oz to 16oz depending on your fruit and vegetable sizes.) Watch a video demonstration here as I make one of the green juices and provide extra tips.

Day 1: Carrot-Apple Juice

  • 2 small apples
  • 6 medium carrots

Day 2: Caesar Juice

  • 2 tomatoes
  • 4 celery stalks
  • 1/4 onion
  • 1/3 jalapeño
  • handful of parsley
  • handful of spinach

Day 3: MixedVeg and Apple Juice

  • 4 – 6 celery stalks
  • 1 carrot
  • several sprigs of parsley
  • 1 apple

Day 4: Almond-Pear Mylk**

  • 1 cup soaked almonds (24 hours)
  • 1 pear
  • 1/2 to 1 cup water (depending on preferred consistency)

Day 5: Spinach-Pear Juice

  • 3 small pears
  • A few handfuls of spinach

Day 6: Orange Juice

  • 2 large or 4 small oranges

Day 7: Pineapple Juice

  • 1/4 large or 1/2 small of a fresh pineapple

Day 8: Beet-Lemon Juice

  • 1 lb beets
  • 1 lemon
  • some water

Day 9: Papaya-Pineapple Juice

  • 1/2 papaya (peeled)
  • 1/8 fresh pineapple
  • some water

Day 10: Celery-Apple Juice

  • 4-6 celery stalks
  • 2 apples
  • some water

Day 11: Hazelnut “Nutella” Mylk

  • 1 cup soaked hazelnuts (24 hours)
  • 1 to 2 tablespoons of raw carob powder
  • 1/2 to 1 cup water (depending on preferred consistency)

Day 12: Cucumber-Apple Juice

  • 1 large English cucumber
  • 1 large apple

Day 13: Carrot Juice

  • 6 to 8 large carrots

Day 14: Carrot-Apple-Lemon Juice

  • 4 large carrots
  • 1 large apple
  • 1 lemon

Day 15: Celery-Apple-Kale Juice

  • 4-6 celery stalks
  • 1 large apple
  • 4 to 5 large kale leaves
  • some water

Day 16: Parsley-Parsnip-Apple Juice

  • 4 parsnips
  • sprigs of parsley
  • 2 small or 1 large apples

Day 17: Parsley-Parsnip-Pear Juice

  • 4 parsnips
  • sprigs of parsley
  • 2 small or 1 large pears

Day 18: Greens n’ Fruit Juice

  • 4 to 6 celery stalks
  • 3 – 4 large kale leaves
  • 1 pear
  • 1/8th fresh pineapple

Day 19: Tomato-Parsley-Onion Juice

  • 3 tomatoes
  • several sprigs of parsley
  • 1/4 medium onion

Day 20: Spinach-Apple

  • 1 large apple
  • several handfuls of spinach

Day 21: Beet-Carrot-Apple Juice

  • 3 beets
  • 3 carrots
  • 1 large apple

Conclusion

Over the years, juicing has become part of treatment regimes for cancer and other diseases — see The Gerson Therapy, as part of prevention of disease, and promotion of good health, weight loss, cleansing and detoxification. Your body and health can benefit greatly from the increased density of pure living nutrients in their most natural forms. Juicing can also expand your food variety to include foods, especially leafy greens and certain vegetables, that you may not otherwise want to eat. While the juice will never replace its whole-food counterpart, it can still offer you an array of nutrition and health benefits. Thanks to juicing, you can enjoy consuming vegetables like celery, parsnips, parsley, and beets on a regular basis.

Juicing is a very valuable habit that we can get into when we prioritize investing our time and money into prevention today, rather than investing into pharmaceutical medication, medical bills and treatment regimes in the future. The first place to start is simply to pick and purchase a juicer. When making your choice, be sure to consider things like whether it can juice leafy greens as well as various fruits, stems and root vegetables, and how it works in terms of being powerful enough to extract the most juice, without being too powerful and destroying the delicate beneficial enzymes and nutrients. The price of a juicer can range from literally $100 to $1000 dollars, with good juicers starting in the $300 range.

The second step is to visit your local grocery store or farmer’s market and bring home lots of fresh produce. Have fun enjoying the different combinations of vegetables and fruits for the most health benefits, and feel your body’s gratitude as it heals, regenerates, cleanses and builds a foundation for optimal health.