THE CHALLENGE...

First off, I am so excited, I feel so humbled and grateful this week for the out pour of love and support! For those reading this I am SO glad you are here! This week (Starting January 29th) I am 'running' a 7 day Raw Juice Recharge Challenge! I want to empower myself (and hopefully a few others this week) to work together, and take a little extra time to nourish our bodies in the quickest and most efficient way possible...RAW Vegetables! It can't really get any closer to nature than that. This WON'T be the type of cleanse where you drink only juice. I want us to feel revitalized and energized! Throughout the course of this week we will stick to our standard 3 meals a day plus snacks as needed.

The clincher: clean foods only! I want to kickstart a little team support system on my page so please share pictures of your smoothie/juice and meals via my facebook page, or even message/email! I would love to hear from you!

For those of you completely 'green' to this lifestyle, what exactly is clean eating?

Eating clean involves not only choosing the right foods to eat but also avoiding all of the junk foods and processed foods that are so readily available. The keys to good health and proper nutrition are in the following principles:

Eat whole foods: Whole foods are foods that haven’t been tampered with, in the lab or the manufacturing plant. The foods you eat on this plan are straight from the farm: whole fruits and vegetables, whole grains, avoiding wheat is ideal: optimal grains are rice and quinoa, grass-fed and free-range meats, whole dairy products (avoid sweetened processed dairy products), unsalted nuts (raw is ideal), and seeds.

Avoid processed foods: Processed foods are any food that has a label. A label means that more than one ingredient was used to make that food. You don’t have to eliminate all processed foods (like natural cheeses), but if you can’t pronounce an ingredient on a label, don’t put that food in your shopping basket.
Eliminate refined sugar. Refined sugar provides nothing but calories. Other sweeteners can be used (raw honey, coconut sugar, stevia, or agave syrup are great options), but with all the good foods you add to your diet, refined sugar really has very little place in the eating clean plan.

Eat five or six small meals a day. By eating smaller meals throughout the day you can help rev up your metabolism and reduce the chance that you’ll eat a bag of chips on the go instead of a rice cake with nut butter and strawberries. You never get so hungry on this plan so you shouldn't feel deprived or feel the need to 'cheat'.

Cook your own meals. Instead of buying meals in a box, cook meals from scratch. That’s not as hard as it sounds! Clean, whole foods need little preparation beyond chopping, sautéing, steaming to make satisfying, delicious meals your family will love.

Combine protein with carbs. When you do snack or eat a meal, make sure that meal is balanced. For the most satisfaction from your diet, and so you’ll be less tempted to eat junk food, combine protein with carbs or carbs and fat. This simple act will fuel your body and quash hunger pangs. (for example if you eat an apple at snack time, pair it with a serving of
almonds ) 

I did a trial run with my juice today, as I don't actually have a juicer I used my Ninja blender and then sifted with a fine strainer (like the kind you use to sift flour) this method was definitely not ideal, and messy (to say the lease), but sometimes you gotta work with watcha' got, so thats how i'll be rollin' for the duration of this challenge. Now recipes... today my smoothie was filtered water, a handful of herb salad, cilantro, 1/4 cucumber, a lime, and half an avocado, it was actually really refreshing, and I had no problems slammin' 'er back :)

For more ideas and recipes I follow a website called Young and Raw and they are definitely worth a look if you're stumped on ideas or want creative ways to work with ingredients you already have in the fridge.

Brief Benefits of Incorporating Raw Vegetable Juice Into Your Day:

-You will easily consume more fresh vegetables than you normally would, which are pumped full of vitamins, minerals and beneficial enzymes.

-Raw juice is loaded with antioxidants which will bind to toxins that will then be removed from the body.

-Raw vegetable juice is very alkalizing which will help the body get back to it's ideal pH while assisting in the detox process. Foods we eat like sugar, fried foods, bread, alcohol, animal products, ect. are very acidic. Over time the build up can cause an inflammatory response which puts stress on our tissues and organs.

-I've been asked green juice vs: green smoothies, what difference does it make? When the vegetables have been juicd the insoluble fiber is extracted making the nutrients more readily available, which means less energy for your body to use digesting, meaning there will be more energy left for healing your body! Raw juice is easier on the digestive tract than green smoothies.

Happy Juicing!!!