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| 100+ years young. Longevity at work folks! |
Juicing for health. Let's examine that phrase for a second. I mean, why do we juice? Is it because we love the sound of our wonderful counter top machines? No. (some cheap juicers sound like muscle cars with broken mufflers) Is it because we love to see veggies and fruits getting sliced and diced like wood in a wood chipper? No, although it really does look kinda cool during the first few weeks. :). Is it for the taste? Possibly, but the truth is any supermarket juice can taste great as well, and buying a jug of store bought OJ is perhaps easier than making your own. So in truth, aside from the taste, pretty much the only good reason for adopting a juicing lifestyle is because we seek the many health benefits from the creations we make in our wonderful machines.
The question then becomes, is juicing for health enough? Answer: of course not. If we are truly to achieve longevity and true long term health benefits, juicing becomes a single piece in the longevity and health puzzle. There are certain things we humans have to do on the regular to keep the body as primed as possible, things that have nothing to do with Doritos, TV addictions, or Pizza Hut (even though that would be just awesome). The point being that if we are juicing, we should also be eating only the right foods, getting up and moving with a dose of daily exercise, and making sure to get proper rest. Otherwise, I may as well be sending you a Twinkies/chocolate/Haagen Dazs juicing recipe today. ;)
Now, depending on your goals, getting and staying as healthy as possible can either be rocket science, or as simple as 2+2=4. For example, someone whose singular fitness goal is to look like a cast member from 300 has made a much larger commitment to weight lifting than someone who just wants their internal organs to stop melting. For most of us, we fall somewhere in between a photo spread in Muscle and Fitness magazine and a couch potato. That being said, all fitness goals boil down to optimizing the same 3 areas of health in order to achieve their desired results. These areas are:
For some of you, I just pulled another "Captain Obvious" moment by stating what should be elementary. But for some, I really do have to mention the necessity and equal importance of these 3 areas, since there truly are kind folks who misguidedly expect to become the next Lance Armstrong just from juicing for health, or from working out incessantly. Case in point: a 20 something man who comes to our gym every day, works out for at least 90 minutes every time, just finished complaining about having been diagnosed with high blood pressure. After talking with him for a few minutes my partner and I learned that he eats anything and everything, using salt and sugar with reckless abandon. I know what you're thinking, and no, this guy was not dropped on his head as a child. He just simply never grasped the golden rule that overall health involves more than bench presses and squats. In fact you'd be surprised how many people assume that a good daily workout cancels out the need to eat properly.
At any rate, to cut a long and preachy post short, if you really want to get the most from your
juicing for health lifestyle, please don't just stop at juicing. Take 45 minutes each day to get active. Do an
abs workout, sit down and crank out 45 minutes of
rowing. Go down the street to the gym and play a game of squash with your buddy. (BTW, squash is a blast, try it). Get a proper, award winning, and extremely beneficial nutrition program like
The Diet Solutions and follow the steps and guides. And after each day make sure you wind down appropriately, relax, do some
meditation, and sleep 8 hours. If sleep is a problem for you (it has been for me lately) there's a well known blog called
Insomnia Cures. Head over there to learn about a myriad of natural cures and treatments for sleeplessness. I can't stress enough how important sleep is to maintaining proper health. So overlooked, the restorative power of sleep is just as important as nutrition and exercise.
If you're on the fence about making that final step towards personal Uber-greatness, just look around here and examine the sites I promote. They are here only because I absolutely trust in their ability to make getting you in shape fun, exciting, and certainly NOT rocket science. They all work like gangbusters.
Truth About Abs is the cats meow. It's like working out, only
awesome.
Diet Solutions takes confusion over calories and proper diet, and squashes it like a bug.
Amazon? Come on folks, really.
Amazon sells everything, and usually at insanely low prices.
If you are juicing for health and not going the extra mile, start now. No, seriously. Right now. It's February already folks, one month gone. 2011 should not be about wasting more time before you get to it. So take the plunge folks! Longevity is a reachable goal.
Cheers!
Longevity and The Uber Health Collection: Fruit Juice Recipes
Lemon~Lime Ginger Ale
- handful of grapes
- 1 apple, cored and sliced
- ½ inch fresh ginger (less if you find the taste too strong)
- 1/2 lime
- 1/4 lemon
- sparkling mineral water
*Remove the grapes from the stem. Juice the apple and ginger together, then juice the rest of the fruit. Pour the juice in a large glass and fill to the top with sparkling water and serve with ice.
Sparkling Tropical Fruit Juice
- 1 kiwi, peeled
- 1 orange, peeled and sectioned
- 1/2 mango, peeled and sliced
- sparkling mineral water
*Process the fruit in a juicer. Pour the juice in a large glass and fill to the top with sparkling water and serve.
Gingered Apple Cider Juice
- 1 inch piece ginger
- 3 apples or 1 cup apple cider
*Process and serve.
Peach Pear Apple Juice Recipe
- 1 apple, cored and sliced
- 2 peaches, remove seed
- 1 pear, sliced
*Process and serve.
Fruit Punch (Juice)
- 6 strawberries, fresh or thawed from frozen
- 1 apple, cored and sliced
- 1/2 orange, peeled and sectioned
*Process and, well, you know the drill by now.
Fruit Nectar Recipe
- 1/2 cup raspberries, fresh or thawed from frozen
- 1 orange, peeled and sectioned
- 1 nectarine, pitted and sliced
*Invite 3 friends over. Place fruits on the ground. Jump up and down until squashed. Scoop up the bits and drink.
OR
*Process the fruit in a juicer and serve. :()
Blueberry Cherry Juice Recipe
- handful of cherries, pitted
- 3/4 cup blueberries
- 1 apple, cored and sliced
More awesome fruit juice Ideas …
- 1 cup strawberries
- 2 med. apples
- 1 tsp. lemon juice
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- 1/2 red grapefruit
- 1 med. orange
- 2 handfuls cranberries
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*recipes courtesy healthrecipes.com.
