Fresh pressed juice is a popular health trend. It's commonly used for adding healthy nutrients to your diet, fasting & cleansing the tissues, organs and cells.
Juicing extracts the important nutrients in the food like an abundance of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that contribute to your overall health, boosts the immune system while preventing disease and illness. Although juicing does not extract the fiber of the food like it does with the other nutrients - the fiber is in the pulp, which basically gets left behind. You can save this pulp, add it to your smoothies or salads to increase the fiber content. I also add it to my backyard compost!
When juicing, it is important to keep it simple and use more vegetables then fruit! Our diets our usually very high in sugar, so limiting the fruit reduces the amount of sugar you are consuming. You don't need to juice 10 separate foods to have a cleansing juice, you simply just need 4-6 ingredients. If you give your body to much it may slow down the ability to process all the nutrients and deliver them where they need to go - so simple is better!
It's best to drink your batch of juice on the day you make it for the highest concentration of the nutrients. Try not to let it sit for over 5 days - 1 week!
If you don't have a juicer you can simply use a blender which will also keep the fiber content. If you are going to use a blender I would recommend diluting it with some filtered water (so it's not a chunky mess).
Juicing for Cleansing and Weight Loss
Here are a couple ways you can start to drink fresh pressed juice to support weight loss.
1. Adding a fresh pressed juice daily to your routine will drastically increase the amount of nutrients you are getting and alkalizes the blood & tissues. It provides nutrients that we don't normally consume every day or nutrients that may be missing from our diet which is common in overweight/obese people.
You'll be rejuvenating your body, supporting the liver's detoxification process (helping hormonal balance) and the kidneys filtration system (eliminating toxins and waste from the body), which is necessary for weight loss. If you hormones aren't balanced and your body is not eliminating waster properly... this is not the ideal environment for weight loss.
I personally find adding a juice to your daily routine is a great way to contribute to weight loss but rebalancing the body and we know that weight loss happens when the body is balanced - from our hormones, waste elimination, to our digestive system and mindset. Having a fresh pressed juice daily is an simple way to help with weight loss!
A delicious cleansing juice recipe that is excellent for weight loss:
- Kale
- Spinach
- Beet (liver)
- Parsley (diuretic)
- Lemon (alkaline)
- Optional: 1/2 thumb size piece of turmeric or ginger (anti-inflammatory)
2. You could do a 3-4 day juice fast/cleanse which many people use for cleansing and weight loss. A juice fast is when you consume nothing but fresh pressed juice and water, promoting cleansing on a cellular level. Drinking juice for 3-4 days can pull out toxins & waste from the cells and tissues that could be contributing to weight/fat gain or illness. It's basically breaking down the body to be cleansed (toxins, fat cells, etc.) where as building up the body to put on muscle or weight you would be eating high protein and high carb meals.
Since you are limiting calories "breaking down" while juice fasting this can be very beneficial for weight loss. But drinking only juice may not be the best option for some since it limits your fiber and protein intake - so you might start to build cravings and urges to eat whole foods. I would recommend to drink 2-3 fresh pressed juices a day with one cleansing meal like a salad and a palm sized piece of protein to ensure you are getting the proper macro nutrients daily.
Now you can't just sit back, relax and drink juice for a few days and expect to feel fantastic. The juicing starts to cleanse the body, pulling toxins out of the cells and blood - so take those few days off from any intense exercise and just a heads up, don't be surprised if you feel some side effects like headaches, nausea and diarrhea but these subside within 1-2 days depending on the person!
You can try a juice fast for 1 day and see how you feel. The important thing is to stay relaxed and not overthink about eating food. Stick to juice fasting every 2-3 months, your body doesn't need to be in a breakdown phase consistently!
TAKE HOME MESSAGE: Fresh pressed juice in moderation can help breakdown, cleanse and remove toxins & fat from the body while promoting a healthy balance contributing to overall health!