Summer Slimming Green Juice

Continuing the Detox theme this week, here’s one of my favorite light and crisp green juice recipes.

Detoxing - a deep cleansing from the inside out. The goal is to eliminate toxins in the body. There are several ways to do this.

Fortunately, your body is well-equipped to eliminate toxins and doesn’t require special diets or expensive supplements to do so.

That said, you can enhance your body’s natural detoxification system.

Since I’m talking food in this post specifically, I’m going to refer to juicing as an ADDITION to your diet rather than replacing food with juice. While that can be great for some, its not for everyone. I recommend crowding out, which means adding in more fruits and veggies to replace other things in your diet that may not be as good. Its a way to ease into things rather than going cold turkey.

There are SO many benefits to juicing and I know with myself if I add fresh juice into my diet for a day or two I notice a huge increase in energy, digestive system and my skin starts to glow!I

Here are some overall benefits to juicing:

• Fruits and vegetables are high in fiber, vitamins and minerals. Drinking juices could introduce extra nutrients into the body- especially if you have a hard time getting them in - to boost overall health.

• Juices are rich in anti-inflammatory compounds that may boost the immune system and help a person feel more energetic.

• Juicing helps to flush toxins from the body

• Juices can help to improve digestion by introducing healthy enzymes that make the gut work more efficiently.

Its important to be aware that only consuming juice for a long period of time can have the opposite affect on the body so its important to keep the cleanse short - if you are only drinking juice - or incorporate healthy foods in your diet as well to keep a healthy calorie consumption.

There is a difference between BLENDING and JUICING.

With blending you blend the whole fruits and veggies. With juicing you separate the pulp also eliminate some of the fiber and nutrients. So its good to keep in mind, while juicing is great for the body, you also want to keep whole fruits and veggies in your diet.

For this juice, I did JUICE and separate the pulp from the juice as I am also eating a variety of healthy foods.

If you’re nervous about juicing, don’t be! It can be intimidating but there’s no need to let that scare you!

No, you don’t need a juicer! I currently don’t have space for one and frankly, its not necessary! All you need is a blender, a strainer and large bowl. For storage if you are not drinking immediately you will also need air tight containers. I use glass jars with lids to keep the freshness. However, I’ll include all props below and links to what you will need to make the juice.

Personally, I use a Vitamix to blend, then a strainer, a spatula and bowl.

Equipment Needed:

• Juicer

OR

• High power blender to create a smooth juice blend. I used a Vitamix for this!

• fine strainer - See this link for an example

• Spatula

• Large bowl

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cucumber

• 2” chuck fresh ginger

• 1 cup filtered water

• 1 bunch organic celery

• 1 bunch kale

• 1 organic apple

• 1/2 organic lime

Directions:

1. Rinse and chop all fruits and veggies. I keep the skin on everything and just throw it in the juicer.

2. Add in water

3. Blend until smooth.

4. Pour blended juice into bowl separated with strainer

5. Remove the strained juice and pour into air tight bottle or jar and store in refrigerator for up to 3 days. Juice is best fresh from the juicer so you don’t want to wait too long!

I hope you enjoy!!! Stay tuned for more detoxing recipes!

XX

Angie