My Juice Story Plus 5 Fantastic Reasons to Take Up Juicing

It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver - Mahatma Gandhi

As far as living a healthy, happy, and prolonged life is concerned, you probably won't need anybody to tell you just how vital it is to eat plenty of fresh fruit, vegetables, and other fresh, healthy, and natural nutrient-rich produce as well for that matter.

We know what we should be eating and drinking, yet unfortunately for many of us, we simply don't practice what health and fitness experts preach. As a result, we consume far too much processed junk food, trans fat, salt, sugar, and other harmful ingredients, and not nearly enough fresh and healthy produce.

We find ourselves gaining weight, becoming ill as a result of our weight, and basically not looking or feeling ourselves and feeling unattractive and extremely self conscious. I should know, because that is exactly what happened to me.

My story in a nutshell - At 29 years of age, I've been interested in health and fitness since I was a child. Ever since I was six years old I'd been interested in a sport or another, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I was pretty good at most sports I played as well.

By the time I was fifteen, I'd become interested in weight training and bodybuilding. I purchased a set of dumbbells and a barbell and used to work out in my garage every day, complete with 500-1000 sit ups a day, and 150-200 push ups.

I also followed a low fat diet relatively high in protein that got me a great six pack and some decent lean muscle gains, especially for a fifteen year old. When we left school at seventeen, my buddies and I went on a vacation for two weeks, and it was then that I discovered junk food and alcohol.

From then on, my diet was more of what you'd expect a 17/18 year olds to be, my six pack faded, but I kept on with the training.

As I grew older, I learned more and more about smart training and nutrition in the gym, the problem was that although my training was on point, my diet sucked. I'd work out four or five days a week, down protein shakes, and consume pretty much whatever junk I liked.

I'd order takeout five days a week, would still play sports and stay active, but my weight was creeping up. I built a great deal of muscle mass, I was constantly learning new training principles, (as I am now), but my diet just downright sucked and my body fat began creeping up.

Not a lot changed for the next five years or so, until I picked up an injury that kept me out of the gym for 12 weeks. During this period, I gained a great deal of body fat and from there it increased and increased over the years until I was over 300lbs.

I tried diets now and then, but in the end always went back to my old ways, and eventually had, had enough. I now broke a sweat just getting dressed and decided that something had to be done. Last year (2014) a documentary made by Australian Joe Cross gave me the motivation I needed, the documentary in question was all about juicing.

My juicing story - First off, by juicing, I'm talking about fruit and vegetables juices, not taking steroids, which is often referred to as juicing.

The documentary was entitled Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead and was all about an overweight guy, suffering from ill health, that decided to take back control of his life and embark on a 3 month juice fast, drinking nothing but fruit and vegetable juice every day for 3 months.

He did just that, dropped a ton of weight, cured his various illnesses, and inspired others in America along the way, until a 400+ lb guy that actually dropped over 200lbs in the same manner in just over 10 months. I wanted results, I wanted to improve my health, and so I decided to give it a shot.

I'm fortunate because I work from home, and have also spent several thousand converting my garage into a gym. That means that when I wasn't training with my buddies or my partner at our local commercial gym, I could get up in a morning, workout, shower, and already burn a few hundred calories off before even starting work in a morning.

I invested in a gym, purchased copious amounts of fruits and vegetables, and gave juicing a shot. For the first few weeks I was miserable, I had no energy, I was ratty, constantly hungry, could barely get through my workouts, and did not feel good.

Soon however, I felt healthier, my skin looked healthier, and the weight quickly began falling away. In the first 8 weeks I dropped just over 40lbs, and even though my protein intake was low, as I was training, my muscle mass was still respectable.

After a few weeks I wasn't as extreme and every other day would have 3 juices per day, plus one healthy and balanced meal in the evening. I also increased my cardio as well as weight training, and every week my weight would continue to drop.

People complimented me, they said how healthy I looked, old clothing fitted, and my strength and energy levels weren't really affected all too much. Several months passed and I dropped just under 90lbs in bodyweight, from here it was time for phase 2.

The way you think, the way you behave, the way you eat, can influence your life by 30 to 50 years - Deepak Chopra

Balancing things out - Now I was down to the lightest I'd been in 10+ years, my muscle mass was acceptable, and though I wasn't quite ready for abs, I was in the best shape in a heck of a long time.

Obviously I couldn't drink fruit and vegetable juices for the rest of my life, so had to balance things out by adopting a healthy eating regime, rich in protein, moderate in healthy fats and carbohydrates, and combined with plenty of healthy produce, including one juice a day to boost nutrient absorption.

With healthy eating and regular exercise, including more cardio, I still either maintained my weight, or dropped 2 - 3lbs per week, whilst increasing my muscle. To this day that's still exactly what I'm doing, and it's the best I've looked and felt in a long time.

Obviously juicing in this way is pretty extreme, and in reality I would not recommend it as you need to be incredibly mentally tough and stubborn, which I am. Even one or two juices per day, with a healthy meal or two and regular exercise will still provide great results.

What are some of the benefits of juicing? - Here we'll take a look at a few of the benefits of drinking fruit and vegetable juice regularly, and remember, you can juice for all sorts of reasons, not just to lose weight.

It tastes great - You may think the thought of drinking mixed fruit and vegetable juice is disgusting, but in reality the juices taste fantastic. You use apples, lime, kale, spinach, carrot, cucumber, ginger, broccoli, celery, and various other fruits and vegetables, but the secret is a generous chunk of lemon. The drinks may not look that appetising, though some look great, coming out in bright greens, reds, or oranges, but with ice, they taste fantastic and refreshing as truthfully you can't taste any of the vegetables at all.

It boosts your immune system - Experts recommend consuming five portions of fresh fruit and vegetables each day, but one juice can provide six, seven, even eight portions alone. The ingredients are packed full of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, which all strengthen and boost the immune system. The stronger the immune system is, the healthier the person becomes. Think of each juice as one of the most potent vitamin supplements you've ever taken.

It helps you lose weight - A juice diet alone is not recommended for weight loss, as it isn't all that sustainable or practical, and it is tough. If you can stick with one however, the weight will come off, but even simply replacing one or two meals with a juice will reduce calorie and bad fat consumption and will result in weight loss in a healthy and controlled manner.

It makes you look healthier - People that eat and drink junk on a regular basis tend to be pale, have dry or greasy skin, have spots and blemishes, and generally look tired and unwell. People that consume healthy produce however, look much healthier. Juices are full of antioxidants, minerals, vitamins, and other nutrients that the body thrives upon, including cells within the skin. After a week or two of regular juice consumption, your skin will be soft, smooth, and will have a healthy glow to it. Basically you'll look and feel healthier than ever before.

You can prolong your life - Let's face it, the healthier our diets, generally the healthier we become. By regularly consuming juices, even just as a daily beverage along with a balanced eating plan, your body will be swimming in natural goodness, and because of that, you can help prevent things such as:
Strokes
Hypertension (high blood pressure)
Heart attacks
Certain cancers
High cholesterol
Blocked arteries
Alzheimer's
Degenerative diseases
Osteoporosis
IBS
Cardiovascular disease
And much more...

"Juices of fruits and vegetables are pure gifts from Mother Nature and the most natural way to heal your body and make yourself whole again."

- Farnoosh Brock (The Healthy Juicer's Bible: Lose Weight, Detoxify, Fight Disease, and Live Long)


Luke Glowacki is an avid fan of meditation and contemplation. He also loves listening to binaural beats and isochronic tones as he believes that they have a positive influence on the brain and help one to achieve their full potential. He hosts a website at http://meditationbrainwaves.com where he writes about meditation, lucid dreaming, brainwave entrainment, brain waves and a lot more.

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