Now, before I start this article, I must mention that I am not yet a Registered Holistic Nutritionist. I am in the process of becoming one. So all that I say here is my own personal opinion.

There seems to be a lot of discussion about whether or not to include juicing in your diet. After much thought, and an old juicer conveniently being found in my garage, I decided to take the plunge! I am all stocked up on fabulous fruits and veggies and I can’t wait to take a couple of days to just fill my body with all these nutrients, and give it a rest from some heavier and not so nutrient-dense foods. I’m somewhat following a juicing cleanse from a book published in 1992 called Juicing For Life by Cherie Calbom and Maureen Keane. Though it’s over a decade old, I think it’s extremely informative and relevant to today. These ladies were clearly ahead of the game!!

I wanted to give you a sample of what a typical day of juiceing would look like, though I must add that if you ever feel the need to eat the food in it’s whole form such as a salad (just a squeeze of lemon for dressing), that is perfectly okay. It’s all about finding your comfort zone- in no way is it about feeling hungry or deprived. Juicing will give your body a break by providing it with pure nutrients in an easily digestible form. Lots of time for your body to clean itself out!

Juicing isn’t really something you should begin spontaneously. Think about it, plan it out, and prepare your body for juicing by a day or two of light eating- ease into it. Don’t begin your first adventure into juicing with a 7 day juice fast…take it slow. Try starting with one day or even half a day. You just want to offer your body a little break, to heal and recover itself. If you jump into juicing you may even feel lightheaded or develop a headache as toxins are ’stirred up’ in your body. Slow is the key.

**if you are juicing, BUY ORGANIC!!!! Actually…buy organic all the time!

**Don’t forget to consume lots of water

Here is a sample of what I will be consuming in one day

Breakfast- Juice of one grapefruit and one apple. This tastes absolutely delicious and so refreshing in the morning!

Snack- juice of 1/4 inch ginger, 1 beet, 1/2 apple, 4 carrots. I spilled this entire glass of super-staining beet red juice all over my kitchen counter, cupboards, appliances, and floor. I don’t suggest doing this….I ended up with two shots by the end of it, but it was fun to drink it out of shot glasses!

Lunch- 2 parsley sprigs, handful of wheatgrass, 4-6 carrots, 2 stalks celery, 1 apple, 1/2 beet

*Since it was my first time juicing, I stopped here and ate a light dinner instead of juicing all day. Like I said, take it slow at first! I’ll post the rest of the day’s juices anyway, though.

Snack- handful of parsley, five carrots, 1/2 and apple

“Happy Hour!”- 4-6 sprigs fresh mint, 2 apples, 1 lemon, sparkling water

Dinner- 3 broccoli flowerets, 1 garlic clove, 4-5 carrots or 2 tomatoes, 2 stalks celery, 1/2 green pepper

Snack-  any juice mixture frozen into a popsicle!

What to do with all that pulp?

It looks kind of gross but it really contains great nutrients and it’s GREAT for compost!! I filled up the pulp bucket with water and watered my garden. It’s like a powershake for your plants- so many vitamins and minerals! If you don’t have a garden to do this, you can use the pulp in your baked goods- try making carrot muffins with all your carrot pulp! Hopefully I can post a recipe that includes pulp sometime soon. In the meantime, enjoy your juice!

For some more information on juicing, click here.

I’ve been interested in raw foods for a while now but I hadn’t yet dabbled into the actual ‘cooking’/eating of it- until now. I decided I would make a raw cheesecake. As I study to become a holistic nutritionist, I think it is very important to experience many different ways of eating, in order to be able to give effective information to my future clients. I’ll definitely be trying more raw foods but I will probably stick to savoury recipes. I was thinking of purchasing a pack of cookbooks from Kristin’s Raw. Has anyone tried these?

I noticed that most raw foodists use cashews as their cheese and I was curious as to how the flavour would be, especially in a dessert raw food. The crust tasted quite like a Larabar- just fruit and nuts blended throughly. The cashew cheese was actually quite nice and I really felt like it wouldn’t be difficult for me to adjust to. All in all, I think this would probably be a delicious recipe as a treat for any raw foodies out there, and it’s definitely an interesting dish to try. I think smashing some of the berries into a sauce of sorts would be quite nice on top!

The recipe came in my e-mail from Vegetarian Times.

Raw Cheesecake

2 cups macadamia nuts

1 1/2 cups cashews

1/2 cup pitted medjool dates

1/4 cup dried coconut (I used unsweetened of course)

6 tbs coconut oil (liquid)

1/4 cup lime juice

1/4 raw agave nectar

1/2 of a sundried vanilla bean (I just used a regular vanilla bean…not sure if it was sun dried or not)

3 cups mixed berries (I used blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and cherries)

Place macadamia nuts and cashews in two seperate bowls. Cover each with cold water and soak for four hours. Rinse, drain, set aside.

Pulse the macadamia nuts and dates in the food processor to a sticky, crumb-like consistancy. Sprinkle dried coconut on the bottom of a 8 inch pie plate. Press macadamia nut mixture onto it, to form a crust.

Place cashews, lime juice, agave nectar, coconut oil and 6 tbs water in the food processor. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean into the food processor. Puree until smooth and then pour onto crust. Freeze 1 to 2 hours, or until firm. Slice while frozen, but defrost on counter or in the fridge. Top with berries and enjoy! (*I think the mixing some of the berries into the cashew mixture could be neat as well, but I have not tried it!)