Hey, friends! Happy Monday! How are ya?
Let’s kick off the week with some “Q” highlights from yesterday.
Liz (@thelemonbowl) made a fresh and beautiful four bean and quinoa salad! I can’t wait for this recipe to be revealed.
Four Bean and Quinoa Salad with Sunflower Seeds. Recipe coming soon!
Kaylie (@kayliespringer) already made my Quinoa Apple bake! It makes my day when you guys decide to re-create my recipes.
Decided to try out @heatherwaxman ’s recipe for Quinoa Apple Bake! It tastes like sweet apple pie!
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R is for…RAW!
My girl Heidi, creater of Juicingpedia, has a burning, contagious passion for raw fruits and veggies! She’s particularly passionate about turning raw fruits and veggies into medicine for the soul in the form of…you guessed it…juice! Heidi is a juicing expert. She also has a rockin’ sense of humor and a wealth of information to share. Read on and show her (and her adorable son) some love!
Diet. Die. One missing ‘t’ changes the word ‘diet’ to ‘die’. Coincidence? I think not. All of the ‘diets’ I’ve seen others do – be it Atkins, South Beach, Weight Watchers, or whatever else – they all seem to be dying. Counting their calories, writing down every little piece of gum they chew, obsessing over the size of cup they drink their milk from: it all seems so tedious and frustrating, and quite honestly, death inflicting (at the very least, death of your sanity!).
This is the area of life that newbie juicers tend to fall into: killing themselves with awful tasting juices that no sane person can drink for longer than a couple days. They begin with kale, mustard greens, turnip greens, spinach, cabbage, cilantro, celery, broccoli, (one) apple, and beets – a clean-out-your-system-in-a-single-hour juice that they nearly puke getting down – and then promptly either return the juicer, or stash it away in their cupboard for the rest of their lives.
Resolution: fail.
I can say this because I lived it. Killing myself was my (initial) approach to juicing.
After watching “Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead”, I was on a mission. I created the aforementioned recipe. There is a reason it does not exist on my website. There are just simply some things that should not be juiced. Broccoli and mustard greens are two such vegetables that taste much better sauteed.
Time passed (and by time, I mean less than a single week) and needless to say, my motivation to continue ‘dieting’ with juice had withered. It simply was a sacrifice that I was not willing to make a permanent practice. Life cereal vs. nasty mustard greens? Easy choice.
Then my brother-in-law approached me with an idea of beginning a site regarding juicing, and asked for help writing articles and making recipes. I have to admit, I had no desire to come anywhere close to juicing again. That diet had been attempted, and MISERABLY failed.
My pessimistic attitude changed, however, as I began researching. I started to learn about what each fruit and vegetable does within the body, and how they are nutritionally beneficial. I realized that what we take into our body really affects the way our bodies function, but not just in a simplistic ‘eat healthy=good, eat poorly=bad’ mentality. I learned that ginger was highly anti-inflammatory, especially in the throat and stomach. I learned that celery juice is especially healing in the lower GI tract. I learned that citrus fruits are highly anti-carcinogenic, and their cancer-fighting ability lasts several hours longer than other leading cancer-preventing supplements. Oh – and I began juicing again – but this time, I was juicing with a different approach.
Instead of juicing for a diet, I was juicing to ‘live it’ – to live the nutritional benefits I had read about. Knowledge gave me power – power to understand my body, and power to choose to be healthy. Through juicingpedia, I am educating myself and the world (or at least, my viewers!) on what our body needs to live healthier and more disease-free, and providing delicious recipes to achieve these food-based health benefits. It is my way of showing people that juicing is about living, instead of dying (oops…I mean dieting!)
Serves 1
- 2 large handfuls romaine lettuce
- 2 large handfuls baby carrots (or 1-2 medium carrots)
- 1 large firm mango, peel on, cored
- 1 2-inch chunk fresh ginger root (no peeling necessary)
Thanks so much for your story and recipe, Heidi! I know that so many of us can relate to becoming a slave to counting calories and losing our fervor for life! Eating to live instead of living to eat is the name of the game. Thanks for that beautiful and essential reminder. Happy juicing, friends!
Stay lovely,
Heather
