Juice Day 1

This morning I woke up with a killer hangover and needed some juice to sort myself out. I altered one of the recipes in the juice book I'm currently reading (more on that later) in hopes that it'd relieve my hangover, but unfortunately it didn't quite do the trick. Anyways, I juiced ginger, pear, celery, and carrots and it came out a nice bright orange colour. It wasn't too gingery but you could definitely feel the ginger tickle in your nose afterwards and it did clear my sinuses a little.

So the book I'm reading is The Juiceman's Power of Juicing by Jay The Juiceman Kordich. It's pretty well, hokey, and a lot old school, but I like the recipes and that he explains each fruit and vegetable's benefits and why, e.g. carrot juice is good for your skin because it contains beta carotene. Yesterday I had an annoying headache (probably due to not re-hydrating very well throughout the day after my morning run) so i tried one of the jucie recipes that were supposed to relieve headaches, a combination of apple and celery. Sure enough after finishing the glass my heachache was gone. Wild.

The Year of Juice: An Experiment

For my birthday a few weeks ago Andy bought me a juicer. I had asked for one because I'd watched the first half of that doco Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead... about a very unhealthy Aussie guy who goes to the USA and drinks only juice for 60 days (or is it 100?). Anyway, I don't think I could drink just juice for that long but something about that film struck a cord and got me thinking. I liked the idea of getting more from and consuming more fruits and vegetables without having to prepare or do lots things to them. I've always struggled with getting enough, i.e. more than zero, fruit and veg in my diet and juicing seemed like a viable solution to end the not enough strife! I have also bought fresh, juiced-in-front-of-you juice from Adelaide Central Market in the past and it is always delious but at the same time expensive, a 250ml cup is like $3.50.

So now I have the juicer and since receiving it I have juiced everyday. Thus far I have been throwing whatever produce we have into the juicer and all the combinations have been loverly, well except the one with grapefruit, it was to tart for me. But that is besides the point... the point is that starting tomorrow, April 1, 2012 I am going to try to juice everyday for one year. (Now try is the optimal word here because we're planning a holiday in July and I am not bringing the juicer with me, but that break in itself will be helpful in seeing the effects of quitting juice for a week or two.) Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to just drink juice and only juice for a year because that is 1. crazy and 2. you can't juice chocolate, or cheese, or avocado, etc. But I do plan to replace breakfast with juice, or make juice my breakfast I mean. And a glass of juice will make a nice weekend snack... AND if I can find the right information I might do a 48-72 hour juice fast as like a detox or something just to see what that does to me.
Mainly it will be a little, well long I suppose, experiment to see if all the extra nutrients and minerals and good things that come out of fruit and veg when juiced make a difference.  I will mostly be tracking my energy/fatigue levels (especially since winter is approaching and I tend to go into hibernation mode), the appearence of my skin, hair, and nails, oh and teeth, and lastly general wellbeing- how do I feel? I'm thinking things like headaches, cold, upset stomachs, BMs, aches and pains and muscle soreness- will they be less frequent or stay the same?
My year of juice starts tomorrow folks, so stay tuned for regular updates!