21 day juice detox - day 10

Yay double figures! Day ten and I'm not dead! Though I must admit I'm losing momentum a bit with all the juicing, wish someone else could make me some for a while! I think tomorrow I'll make one big batch in the morning and flask it up for the day.

I had my massage today, an hour deep tissue massage...and yes, it was deep! Just what I needed, my shoulders feel much more relaxed. I wish I could have them every week!

I made apple carrot and ginger juice this morning. An oldie but a goodie. I just love the taste of this juice so much. I put quite a big chunk of ginger in so it's quite zingy and spicy but you can put as much or as little as you want.

Carrot, apple and ginger juice recipe:

1 bag (750g) carrots

6 apples

Chunk fresh ginger, peeled

2 tbsp aloe ferox juice

Put through the juicer, mixing in the aloe afterwards in the jug.

So to follow on from re-starting my tap dancing lessons on Monday, I rekindled another old dancing passion today, belly dancing! I love this sensual, exotic art form so much. I used to have to private lessons every week when I lived in London, but then moving away from a big city it's harder to find local classes and teachers. It feels great to be back dancing again.

I've also discovered that there is a hot yoga studio in Dorking. I used to practice hot yoga in Guildford when I lived in Horsley, but since moving to Rusper (West Sussex), the closest hot studio I could find was in Hove, which is a bit far to go for a yoga class as it's a 35/40 minute drive. Dorking is about 25 minutes from me. Still a bit of a drive but we're getting closer! Perhaps someone will open a hot yoga studio in Horsham sometime?! (Anyone..?)

I had some coconut water at dance class, this is great for rebalancing the electrolye balance of the body. If you go for this delicious drink on a fast, be aware that there are several different types on the market. Some actually have bits of coconut flesh floating around it the water, you obviously don't want that kind. Also, if they are coconut water with another fruit flavour, for example, pineapple, it will be blended pineapple pulp, so not a pure liquid, or worse, artificial flavour, so you want to go for the plain version. And always check the ingredients as some are made from concentrate or have added ingredients such as preservatives and even sugar! The one I had is literally just the pure coconut water and nothing else. Mmmmmm...deeelicious!

This evening I had another liquid salad. You can really feel this type of juice nourishing you as you drink it. It's so balancing and grounding, perfect for the evening. It's best to have the juices that are higher in sugar in the morning or at lunchtime so you can use the energy, and the green vegetable juices in the evening to calm and ground you.

Liquid salad 2 recipe:

2 large tomatoes

2 apples

1/2 cucumber

2 sticks celery

1/2 head of dark green lettuce

Handful parsley

Handful dill

Chunk fresh ginger, peeled

Juice of 1 lemon

Dessert spoon of Braggs liquid amino's or tamari

Put through the juicer, sandwiching greens between apples and tomatoes. Mix lemon in the jug and brags/tamari after straining.

Wishing you raw health and happiness,

Natalie. x

www.rawlifestylecoach.co.uk

21 day juice detox - day 6

You know how you start doing something and get so involved you end up losing track of time? That happened to me today. I started at 12.30 just looking for my tap shoes in the shed and ended up tidying, rearranging, and then back in the house unpacking (we moved house recently), tidying etc. The next time I looked at the time it was 6pm! Luckily I had made myself a juice before I started, and had a full water bottle by my side.

My morning juice was orange and wheatgrass. Wheatgrass is the richest source of chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is like the blood of plants, and interestingly it has an extremely similar structure to hemin, the part of haemoglobin in the blood that carries oxygen around the body. So drinking this amazing substance is almost like having a blood transfusion, it purifies and oxygenates the blood so much. It also helps to heal, deodorise, alkalise and detoxify the body, chelates heavy metals and on a spiritual level, raises Kundalini energy. A serving of wheatgrass juice is usually 1oz or approx 30ml. It is very strong and potent, and has a very strong flavour. You can either take it straight as a shot or mix it in with other juice. I took a picture of my wheatgrass tray after juicing enough to make a 1oz serving so you can get an idea:

 And here is what 1oz looks like:

So by mixing the wheatgrass juice with other juices, the strong flavour is softened. I usually use orange juice because it has a strong flavour, but you could try grapefruit, pineapple, apple, or mix it in with your green juice recipe.

Orange and wheatgrass juice recipe:

500ml (1 pint) freshly squeezed orange juice

30ml (1oz) wheatgrass juice

Mix together and enjoy. 

I get my wheatgrass kits from Goodness Direct.

Another delicious and nutritious liquid you can enjoy whilst on a juice detox is goji berry water. This is different from blending the gojis into your juice, because then you would be consuming some solids as well. For goji water, you simply soak about 1/4 cup organic goji berries in a glass of water for 12-24 hours. Strain off the liquid (which will have turned a deep red colour) and give the berries to your kids or family. Then savour the delicious sweet nutritious liquid yourself. I give the gojis to Max, who gobbles them down in about 10 seconds flat, he loves them.

As if I hadn't had enough chlorophyll for today, I opted for a very green drink for my evening juice. I said yesterday that I was feeling a little hungry, and although today I had my psyllium drink, the feeling came back. So perhaps I have had too much fruit juice over the last few days, and if that is the case, then green juices are the way to go. The juice that follows is quite a strong green juice, it's basically a liquid salad. I added a few apples to soften the flavours slightly, but the rest of the ingredients are all green vegetables. It even has a salad dressing mixed in!

Liquid salad recipe:
1 dark green lettuce
1/2 cucumber
1/2 bunch celery
1 green pepper
Handful parsley
Handful dill
2-4 apples
Chunk fresh ginger
Juice of 2 limes
1 dessert spoon of Braggs liquid aminoes or tamari

Run everything through the juicer, sandwiching leafy greens between the apples, celery & cucumber. Mix in the lime juice and Braggs/tamari. Add a dash of cayenne or paprika if you like. Sip slowly and enjoy feeding your body with the best fuel ever!


Wishing you raw health and happiness,

Natalie. x

www.rawlifestylecoach.co.uk