Where do I begin if I want to juice?

So you've watched the movie Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, you've read up a little bit about the benefits of juicing (they almost can't be numbered), and now you're ready to give it a go.  Awesome!!  I'm so glad you've made that decision.  :)  Juicing really and truly is a great way to compliment a healthy diet.

There is a down side to juicing and that is the initial cost to buy the machine, because you can't pull juice out of a vegetable with your bare hands.  (Or, I suppose you could, but who has that much time and muscle to dedicate?)  We (or rather I should say my husband) researched quite a few different models before we made our investment.  We tried out a few different brands and decided we liked this one the best:

It's a Breville brand, like the one in the film, but not the exact one from the film.  It's been really great for us, we use it a couple of times a week on average.  Sometimes more, sometimes less, and it's held up great for us.

They say you want a juicer that causes minimal heat and oxidation to your juice.  What?  Well, the heat is obvious.  When you cook your produce you lose some vitamins and minerals.  And some juicers can really heat up with all that spinning they do.  But oxidation?  What's that?  You know when you chop open an apple and it turns brown?  That's oxidation.  When you juice, the oxidizing that takes place causes your juice to foam quite a bit.  (And in my opinion, that's by far the best part!!  Like a root beer float!  Yum!)  So they say to look for a machine that doesn't do that, or at least on a very small scale.  Check out this website for more info, I found it to be pretty informative.   

And then you have all that lovely produce!  It can get expensive.  Because you will go through your produce like it's going out of style (but just think of all that goodness you're pumping into your body!)  This is yet another reason why we buy a lot of our produce from Costco.  Bulk portions of produce can disappear quickly in our home.  But that's how it should be right?! 

So just to completely hook you, here are a few more reasons to juice (copied over from this website):

1. Juicing helps you absorb all the nutrients from the vegetables. This is important because most of us have impaired digestion as a result of making less-than-optimal food choices over many years. This limits your body's ability to absorb all the nutrients from the vegetables. Juicing will help to "pre-digest" them for you, so you will receive most of the nutrition, rather than having it go down the toilet.
2. Juicing allows you to consume an optimal amount of vegetables in an efficient manner. If you are a carb type, you should eat one pound of raw vegetables per 50 pounds of body weight per day. Some people may find eating that many vegetables difficult, but it can be easily accomplished with a quick glass of vegetable juice.
3. You can add a wider variety of vegetables in your diet. Many people eat the same vegetable salads every day. This violates the principle of regular food rotation and increases your chance of developing an allergy to a certain food. But with juicing, you can juice a wide variety of vegetables that you may not normally enjoy eating whole. 

Again, that was completely copied over from THIS website.  Not my own words.  

Tomorrow I'll start sharing with you some of my favorite juicing recipes and that should really hook you.  If not come on over and share a juice with me!  :)