Today, let’s master the fine art of crafting the best green juice imaginable.

Making a green juice really isn’t hard. It does take time, and we can set things up so that you can efficiently make a fresh green juice in the minimum amount of time necessary.

For starters, the most important thing you need to have in order to make a great green juice is the right juicer.

Green juice is about the toughest juice you could try to make (other than wheatgrass juice). This means that you need a powerhouse of a juicer to handle all the dark green leafy greens you throw at it.

Of all the options available on the market, your best bets are the Green Star Juicer, the Breville Juice Fountain, the Omega 8006 and the Champion Commercial Model juicer.

Out of those four juicers, I personally prefer the Green Star, though it is admittedly tough to keep clean. The Juice Fountain is the only centrifugal juicer in that bunch. It is the easiest to use and clean, and it can juice leafy greens, but I find it doesn’t do quite as well a job as the Green Star or Omega when it comes to greens.

The Champion is a solid juicer, but it is the worse of that bunch at juicing leafy greens. It is probably the most versatile of that bunch, though, because of the various attachments available for it. You can use it to process frozen fruits into delicious sorbets, and you can also make nut butters with it. But for making green juices, it definitely comes in last place out of this group.

The Green Juice Form

Green juice is basically a combination of dark leafy greens plus milder tasting vegetables that cut that strong green flavor and make the juice a little thinner and more palatable.

The best dark leafy greens you can use are: romaine, kale, parsley and spinach. These are easily the most common leafy greens used in green juice.

Romaine is the lightest tasting of this bunch. Juiced romaine is actually quite sweet and delicious.

Kale is one of the most nutrient dense foods on earth. It is absolutely packed with minerals, iron and vitamins. As a consequence of all that nutrition, however, it has a very strong taste. Most people don’t particularly like juices that have too much kale in them. Use with caution. Also, I prefer the dark green heirloom variety called “Lacinato” or “Dinosaur” Kale.

Parsley is a fantastic green that detoxes the liver and blood. It is surprisingly nutritious given its usual identity as a nondescript garnish on restaurant plates. Nevertheless, parsley is a powerful green and a fantastic component of green juice. Like kale, though, parsley’s flavor can be a bit strong for some people.

Spinach is a milder tasting green that juices reasonably well. Thanks to Popeye, we all know the nutritional power contained within spinach. I consider spinach to be a midpoint between the smooth light flavor of romaine and the super dark green intensity of kale or parsley.

Alongside these dark leafy greens, I most commonly use celery and cucumber.

Celery is extremely easy to juice and tastes neutral. It has a bit of a salty flavor, really. It is my favorite go-to juice base.

Cucumber also makes a lot of juice and its juice is very cooling and mild. Some people don’t digest cucumber well, however, in which case you can rely on celery alone.

To make a green juice, combine one-half to two-thirds of celery and/or cucumber by volume with about half to one-third of dark leafy greens.

One thing to know as you make green juice is that most juicers do better if you start with the dark leafy greens and then use the celery and cucumber to come behind and help push all the kale, spinach, etc. through the juicer mechanism.

An Example Green Juice Recipe

Making green juices is quite easy. The tough part is cleaning up!

Here’s a solid green juice recipe to get you going. Experiment using this as a starting point.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 stalks of celery
• 1 medium cucumber
• 7 to 8 leaves of romaine lettuce
• 1/4 bunch of flat leaf parsley
• 4 stalks of dinosaur kale

Feel free to adjust the quantities here to your liking. I intend for this green juice to be reasonably tame. It’s a good introduction to the world of green juice, but if you’re already a seasoned green juice veteran, then you can up the quantities of parsley and kale for a stronger green juice.

How to Fall in Love with Green Juice Forever

With the rest of this article, I’m going to share a little with you about how you can go from being a total green juice newbie into a transformed green juice slinging health powerhouse. Yes, this is totally possible for you.

So, here’s the deal. At first, green juice tastes pretty nasty. Let’s just speak like we’re among friends here: the taste of a properly made green juice takes a little getting used to. There’s a reason “Lettuce Juice” isn’t served in restaurants everywhere. That’s apple juice’s job.

In the beginning, the best thing you can do is commit to sticking with green juice regularly for a period of time. 21 days is as good a number as any. Can you push through your innate resistance to the following three challenging aspects of green juice? 1) the taste (it’s a little gross, and gets grosser if you add more kale), 2) the way it looks (like green mud) and 3) the annoyance factor (making green juice takes time and cleaning up the kind of juicers that can successfully make green juice is basically a bummer).

Well, there had better be a pot of gold waiting at the end of this green juice rainbow. So, is there?

Why, yes. Yes there is. It turns out that green juice is one of the things that can absolutely save this planet and the plight of sick humans living on it.

Green juice is one of the most amazing things you can possibly consume. Instead of spending a bunch of money on fancy supplements, let dark leafy greens be your supplements. In a single green juice, you’ll get more readily assimilable nutrition than most people eat in a week (I’m totally making that figure up, but it may be a gross underestimate).

Green juice is the best substitute for coffee ever. It’ll clean you out and leave you flying in the best possible way.

Green juice grows on you. The taste isn’t so bad after a while. It starts to be something you crave.

Trust me: push through whatever resistance you have to green juice initially. Make it to Day 22 and tell me you don’t feel better.

Juice Diet HQ -

If you want to be healthy for the long-term, you have to make health a habit.

Trust me–if you leave your health up to chance, you won’t like the results you get.

And as wonderful as juicing and doing a single juice diet can be, you haven’t seen anything until you’ve made cyclical juice fasting a part of your health regimen.

In this article, I’m going to take you through some of the profound benefits that accrue when you juice fast with the seasons.

 
Nature is something a lot of us meet only rarely.

However, Nature is baked into our DNA. We came from it, and we’ll decompose back into it once we’re done here.

The seasons are one of the ways Nature marks time.

There’s nothing arbitrary about the way the seasons work–they’re precisely divided up in accordance with the movement of the Earth around the sun.

The shortest day of the year is called the Winter Solstice.

The longest day of the year is the Summer Solstice.

When the length of day and night are equal between Winter and Summer, we get the Spring Equinox.

And when the length of day and night are again equal as we move from Summer to Winter, we have the Fall Equinox.

So there you have four clear markers that occur every single year: the Winter Solstice, the Spring Equinox, the Summer Solstice and the Fall Equinox.

These cosmic cycles of astral and planetary movement culminate in these four special days each year when the Earth and the Sun are either at their most extreme or their most balanced relationship.

 
If you’re like most people, you probably don’t do much to mark the seasons.

You may not even notice that the Equinox has just passed or the Solstice is coming up.

That’s totally fine, but I wouldn’t choose that as a way of being.

The way we move in the modern industrialized world is like an arrow pointing straight ahead into the future.

We like straight lines. We like when things go according to plan. We like when we arrive at our destination without incident.

However, Nature moves more in cycles than straight lines.

And we’d be wise to reincorporate the ceremony of cycles back into our lives.

A seasonal juice fast is one absolutely incredible way you can do this.

 
I once read that ancient Taoist sages would actively prepare their bodies for shifts in the seasons beforehand. Their preparations would allow the body to be less shocked by the changes in temperature and weather that the new season brings.

(Of course, it’s hard to trust what’s said about the ancient Taoist Sages…I’ve never personally met one myself…)

Doesn’t it make sense to help you body get ready for the changes a new season brings?

I know, I know–we’ve got air conditioning and central heating and dehumidifiers and we can simulate 72 degrees and perfectly clear in our homes and offices regardless of what’s going on outside.

However, it’s a darn good idea to consider how you can integrate more deeply with the natural world. For lots of reasons.

What if you started a juice fast and designed it to conclude on the first day of Spring or Summer, Fall or Winter?

What would that do to reorient you to the entire way things work on Earth?

 
Every time I do a cleanse or fast, I come out feeling reborn.

Sure, the actual experience might be a little challenging. But I’m always grateful I did it after it’s done. (That’s a mark of many of the most exquisite experiences possible for human beings.)

Also, I’ve noticed that every time I juice fast, I reconnect with personal commitments that mean a lot to me (like eating healthily, exercising, meditating, getting out in Nature, drinking spring water, etc.).

Just like people go to church or temple at least once a week to make sure they don’t drift too far from their religious community and its attendant beliefs, a seasons juice fast can once again reaffirm your commitment to your maximum radiant health.

 
Something interesting happens when you start stacking cleanses one after another.

They keep going deeper and deeper.

If you don’t let too much time pass between cleanses, you can get right back to the deep cleaning you were doing the last time you fasted.

You reconnect to everything you went through, learned and experienced on your previous fast.

The books you read last time pop out at you.

New insights pour in thanks to the fertile ground you’re creating as your physical form.

Momentum builds. Transformation takes hold.

A new you is born and the old you falls away.

 
I’m not saying you’re going to see God if you start juice fasting at the beginning of every season.

But I am saying that you will be in very good company if you start aligning yourself with the cycles of the seasons.

And if you lean into one of the most profound preventative health (and weight loss!) practices known to humankind, you will like the results that accumulate in your health and life.

Go from being unconscious and unaware of the cycles of Nature to connecting with these cycles and getting to know them intimately.

Go from living at the effect of your life to becoming the cause.

Go from unconscious reaction to conscious creation.

And go from at risk and unhealthy to vibrant and radiantly healthy.

 
You have from now until the next Solstice or Equinox to get ready.

Transformation awaits.

Now: will you actually take action and transform your health and your life?

Juice Diet HQ -

Organic food costs more.

It’s harder to find (for most of us).

Food grown organically usually looks less “perfect.”

So here’s the question we all want to know:

 
i.e. Should you spend your hard-earned cash on more expensive organic food?

 
At a basic level, I think everyone can agree that eating food coated in rat poison sounds fairly unappetizing.

I remember being totally flabbergasted when I read in Michael Pollan’s The Botany of Desire that one of the non-organic Idaho russet potato farmers he interviewed wouldn’t eat potatoes he grew in his own fields because he could tell the pesticides he used on his crops were absolutely dangerous.

It is unfortunate that pesticide residues are invisible and odorless–it would be fascinating to be able to examine a piece of food and actually see the pesticides still on it.

Despite the lobbying and marketing efforts of chemical manufacturers, chemicals aren’t fun. They aren’t cute. It’s absolutely insane that we spray our foods with poison and then consume that poison-drenched food.

Pesticides have been linked in all kinds of disease for as long as they’ve been used. DDT is one of the most infamous pesticides that is now banned due to its acute toxicity.

However, there’s ample research indicating that all synthetic chemical pesticides are in one way or another too risky to use on the foods we eat.

 
Unfortunately, “organic” isn’t one thing.

There are farms that obey best practices in organic farming but either can’t afford or simply aren’t interested in going through the certification process to become officially “organic.”

You better believe there are many so-called “organic” farms that don’t actually obey practices that you’d ideally like to find in food grown under the “organic” label.

If you want to guarantee that your food is grown organically using the best growing practices available, then you have two options: either grow your food yourself or connect with a local organic farm and spend time with them helping out to verify that their practices are truly healthy and organic.

Otherwise, buying organic is a game of trust. You trust that the growers are true to their certification. You trust that the whole system is actually set up fairly and honestly.

 
By now, I’ve come to be at peace with the fact that much of the way things work on Earth at the moment are the exact opposite of the way we would have consciously designed them.

Consider the fact that it’s actually very hard to live a healthy lifestyle.

Fast food is deeply unhealthy, and yet it’s the cheapest and easiest food to buy.

Subsidies go to the corn industry instead of the superfoods industry.

If you want to find the most nutrient dense food available, you really have to work at it–you have to do your research, order from hard-to-find vendors and spend more money just to get access to foods that can promote and build your health.

Many people have dedicated their lives to change this. And things are changing–even just in the past decade, I’ve seen massive positive change in how accessible healthy foods are where I live.

However, there’s a long way to go before the world is organized in a way that makes sense. (Wouldn’t it make economic sense for society to foster health in its citizens as the guiding goal at the heart of how our entire food system is arranged?)

 
Given the state of things and the politicized nature of “organic,” all of this means that there are levels of organic that you should be aware of.

Level One Organic

If you grow your food yourself, then you can grow organic without any question. You can go so far as to test your soil if you’d like to know more about whether your garden soil is contaminated with pesticides from previous misuse.

Even if you don’t have land to grow food on, you can still grow a little herb garden, pepper plants in pots, or just sprout your own sprouts. If you want Level One Organic, you can have it. It just takes a little ingenuity and effort.

Level Two Organic

Local farmers whose farms you can visit and tour (and perhaps volunteer on, even) comprise Level Two within the world of organic food.

This is usually your best bet for getting truly organic food in high volumes.

The farmers specialize in growing healthy food through healthy practices. You get to know them and get to know their farm.

You know where your food was grown, you know who grew it, and you know for sure that it was grown organically.

Level Three Organic

More and more big supermarkets are carrying organic food.

Big Organic is quite a business. Imagine the premiums on food grown and sold under the “organic” label.

At this level, you just have to trust. You can’t visit the farms where your food comes from, and you know that food grown on large-scale organic farms is probably borderline organic.

Huge fields with just one crop are part of what got agriculture into the pesticide business in the first place. When you have multiple plants, animals and insects living all together in a diverse ecosystem, there are more natural controls on pests to insure that they don’t get out of hand.

However, when you put only spinach in a huge field, you’re missing all the components of the ecosystem that would have naturally fought infestation. And so, pesticides are used instead.

I’d say it’s better to go organic than conventional even if it’s coming from big organic growers. But just realize that it’s going to be way better for you, your family, your community and the environment if you can shift as much of your food consumption to locally grown organically farmed food as possible.

 
If you’re juicing, then you’re likely more concerned about certain fruits and vegetables than others.

So what are the most commonly juiced fruits and vegetables to buy organic?

Here’s a quick list of common juicing ingredients that you should absolutely buy organic:

1. Apples
2. Celery
3. Spinach
4. Lettuce
5. Kale
6. Carrots

I pulled this list from various sources online including The Daily Green.

Basically, these ingredients are the first ones I’d buy organic if I could only afford to start with a subset of the foods I buy regularly.

However, you’re better off to make your juices entirely out of organic ingredients.

 
So, let’s swing back around and provide a definitive answer to the question that started us off: Is organic important?

The short answer is: yes.

The long answer is: yes, but be aware that “organic” means different things, so get more of your organic food from Levels One and Two.

Finally, I want to say something important about health and nutrition: the last thing you need to do is make all of this into another religion.

Do your best. Strive to get the best and healthiest food you can.

But remember: eat to live; don’t live to eat.

Go out there and do something with all that fantastic energy you’re getting from your healthy food. Make the world a better place. Be the change.

Organic or non-organic, it’s who you are and how you live that makes the biggest difference.

Juice Diet HQ -

From the Farm Straight to Your Juicer

Let’s talk about where your food comes from.

As you go deeper in the journey of juicing, healthy weight loss and detoxification, you’ll become more and more interested in who grows your food and how they grow it.

It’s empowering to discover more about the food you eat.

The health information, yes–whether it’s good or bad for you, what kinds of vitamins and minerals it contains.

But also where it grew, how it traveled from seed to sprout to plant to harvested and packaged and shipped and displayed for you to find it wherever you shop.

One of the most powerful things you can do for your health is cultivate a relationship with the actual people who grow your food.

If you’re into gardening, perhaps that’s you. You’re the one who grows much of what you eat.

But if you’re busy and trying to be healthy in a crazy-busy world, then you might want to discover ways to connect directly with farmers who handle the hard work of growing the food you eat.

 
The best ways for you to locate and then develop a relationship with local farmers is by shopping at farmers markets and joining a CSA.

Let’s take each of these in turn.

 
Ahh…the Internet–source of such wisdom if you know where to look for it.

To find out whether there are any farmers markets in your area (if you live in the U.S.), head over to Local Harvest and run a search for farmers markets near your zip code.

Unless you’re way out in the boonies, chances are you’ll have some options close to where you live and/or work.

Another online option for locating farmers markets is FarmersMarket.com.

If you don’t live in the U.S., that shouldn’t stop you from finding a fantastic farmers market where you live. Hunt around–there are country-specific websites that chronicle local farmers and farmers markets in almost every country now.

(If you’re Australian, for example, I’d head here.)

 
When it comes to juicing, not all vegetables are going to work for you.

And depending on where you live, you probably won’t be able to juice local veggies year round.

However, take guidance for your juice components from whatever’s available on the market’s stands.

You can, of course, supplement with store-bought veggies grown in California (or wherever). But it’s also nice to stick to local ingredients as much as possible.

Food grown locally will be fresher. If it was picked yesterday and you’re juicing it today, you’ll get more nutrition from what you’re juicing.

Moreover, local organic farms often take better care of their soils than the big organic growers you’ll find in big supermarkets. The mineral content of the soil directly translates into the nutritional content of the vegetables grown in that soil.

So, basically, it’s worth it to pay a premium and directly support your local farmers at a farmer’s market.

Not only that, but you can even cultivate a relationship with the farmer as you get to know them. You might even find them amenable to growing some crops that you’d love to have. It can’t hurt to ask.

Maybe next growing season they’ll be able to come to market with a fresh bushel of your favorite vegetable.

 
Another fantastic option for supporting local farmers and getting super-fresh food into your kitchen is to join a CSA.

Again, you can use the Local Harvest website to search CSAs in your area.

You can also contact farmers directly either through meeting them at farmers markets, finding out about them through their websites or just old fashioned networking. Even if a farm doesn’t offer an official CSA, you might find they’re totally happy to come to a CSA-style arrangement with you.

A CSA presents a win-win for both you and the farmer.

Here’s how most CSAs work: you pay a lump sum (or a few installments) and in exchange, you receive a set amount of produce each week straight from the farm.

They’ll give you a nice basket full of whatever was ready to pick that week.

Now, CSAs are great because you get great local food at a great price. The farmer gets a guaranteed income which helps in the always volatile world of agriculture.

However, you likely won’t have much control over what comes in your bushel on any given week.

Which means you might find yourself having to learn how to use vegetables you’ve never heard of before.

Is that really a bad thing?

 
If you’re juicing with any sort of consistency, a CSA probably won’t satisfy your juicing needs.

Which means: enjoy the best of both worlds. The CSA AND the Farmers Market.

If you ARE juicing regularly, then you might be surprised to discover that local farmers will work with you to help you get more of the greens and other veggies that you need.

I’m not guaranteeing anything here, but I have some farmer friends at "http://www.nashsorganicproduce.com/" target="blank">Nash’s Organic Produce in Dungeness, Washington. And I know for certain that it’s not uncommon for them to work with local supporters who really pour their money into the farm.

Moreover, here’s a solid farmers market tip you can try: come at the very end of the market and make some deals with the farmers. They’re going to have to lug all that produce home, and they’d much prefer if you took it home instead (and left some money in its place).

See what they have and make an offer.

Now, any kind of wheeling and dealing with farmers needs to be done with a massive dose of gratitude so you don’t get carried away.

These people work unbelievably hard to bring you and many other people healthy food. They deserve to be billionaires.

So don’t get cut throat with them–just look for win-win’s and help both of you come out ahead. If they’ve got produce left at the end of a long market day and you’re looking for volume because juicing consumes so many vegetables, surely there’s a way for you to work something out together.

Just my two cents there.

 
One of the things I love most about juicing is the fact that it connects us more and more deeply with our health proactively.

Feeling great is fun! Juicing is fun! Being healthy is fun!

And putting some thought into where your food comes from and who grows it is fun!

Without food, life as we know it wouldn’t exist. And without farmers, we wouldn’t have much food.

Get to know your local farmers, and juice their produce like crazy!

Juice Diet HQ -

Here’s a health challenge for you: what if you could only eat one food at any given meal?

If you’ve never heard of food combining, then this might sound incredibly strange to you.

Food combining is the principle of only eating foods at a given time that digest well together.

Different foods digest at different ph levels. If you combine foods that need to be digested at opposite ends of the acid/base ph spectrum, you’ll end up with a putrefying mess in your stomach.

Indigestion, gas and sluggishness naturally result when you combine foods poorly.

The Body Ecology Diet contains the clearest explanation of food combining that I’ve come across. (And it’s a fantastic book you should definitely check out if you’ve never read it…)

Here are the basic food combining principles listed in The Body Ecology Diet:

1. Eat fruits alone and on an empty stomach.

 

2. Always eat protein with non-starchy and/or ocean vegetables.

 

3. Always eat grains, grain-like seeds, and starchy vegetables with non-starchy and/or ocean vegetables.

These principles are generally recognized as the best practices in food combining.

 
The purest form of food combining would be to not combine foods at all.

This is the logical extension of the entire idea of food combining–just don’t combine foods! Eat one thing at a time, digest it fully and then move on to the next thing.

Of course, every meal you’ve ever eaten is in direct violation of this principle. And I’m under no illusion that either you or I are going to go out and start only eating one food per meal.

That would be, among other things, incredibly boring.

However, what if we took this wisdom of food combining and eating just one thing at a time and applied it in surprising ways to our vegetable juices?

 
If you’ve never read the book Ancient Secret of the Fountain of Youth, I highly recommend it.

This book isn’t actually about diet, but there is a passage in which the mysterious central figure of the book lays out the dietary practices of the Tibetan lamas he’d spent time with (and from whom he learned the secret mentioned in the book’s title).

Here’s the relevant passage from this book:

“No lama is choosy about what he eats. He can’t be because there is little to choose from. A lama’s diet consists of good, wholesome food, but as a rule it consists of only one item of food at a meal. That in itself is an important secret of health…” (pg. 58-59)

And he then goes on to explain the basics of food combining right in line with what The Body Ecology Diet teaches.

 
We’re all familiar with mono-juices.

Apple juice, orange juice, grape juice, carrot juice–the sweet juices are all quite famous, and rightfully so. They’re sweet and delicious.

However, you never really hear about celery juice, cucumber juice, lettuce juice, parsley juice, zucchini juice…

…and if you’re like me, you might even be gagging a little bit at the thought of something as unappetizing as…lettuce juice.

I’m not suggesting you actually drink a juice made solely from lettuce leaves, am I?

Well, yes. Yes I am.

I want to encourage you to get to know your vegetables on a more intimate basis.

An easy place to start is with celery.

 
Celery is surprisingly tasty when drunk on its own.

It’s salty more than anything but the juice goes down quite easy.

 
Believe it or not, simple zucchini juice is another mono-juice that is quite easy to get into.

Simply put one zucchini in your juicer, juice that sucker right through and drink the small glass of juice that awaits.

It’s not as good as apple juice, perhaps, but zucchini juice is quite surprisingly tasty.

 
Cucumber juice is right up there with celery juice as far as these lesser-known mono-juices go.

If you’ve never loaded a single cucumber right through your juicer and consumed the juice, you’re missing out on the delicious cooling refreshment that IS cucumber juice.

Personally, I’d take a glass of cucumber juice over Gatorade any day.

 
If you enjoy your explorations in mono-juices and start looking for new juices to make, I’d just say go easy at first with the darker leafy greens.

Straight parsley juice is incredibly good for you–it’s a potent detoxifier.

It also happens to taste *super* intense. If you like parsley a lot, that’s a great thing. If you merely tolerate its flavor, I’d suggest starting with a tiny glass of straight parsley juice and perhaps add a little lemon juice. (Acid fruits are permitted along with vegetables in the rules of food combining.)

So that’s it for our quick primer on mono-juicing.

What are some unusual mono-juices that you’ve found to be surprisingly tasty?

Juice Diet HQ -

The human body has built-in mechanisms that allow it to repair and rebuild from the slings and arrows of life on Earth.

Cleansing is a process whereby you cut down your food intake and allow your digestive tract to turn from constantly digesting food to assisting all the other systems in your body with the elimination of waste and toxins.

Health care professionals and spiritual teachers from all ages and all places have taught the beneficial value of periods of rest and rejuvenation.

The busier and more polluted the world becomes, the more important it is for you to proactively maintain your health through cleansing.

Here, then, are 10 top reasons why you should cleanse:

 
Let’s face it: most people cite busyness as a main reason that they get sucked into unhealthy cycles.

Cleansing can not only help you undo unhealthy cycles, but it can also make you ultimately more productive.

From increased energy and vitality brought on by getting rid of toxins to improved powers of focus and concentration, you’ll be amazed what a solid cleanse can do for your productivity.

(These tips are really in reverse order of importance, but hopefully now I’ve at least got your attention.)

 
By cleansing, you actively protect and build your health.

What better reason to be healthy than to get to share more time and experiences with your loved ones?

Preventative maintenance in the guise of a cleanse can help you have more energy, feel better, focus more and live longer. Which means more time to spend with your loved ones and a more quality you for them to hang out with.

 
If you’re overweight or in any way frustrated about the state of your health, a cleanse is a fantastic way to hit the reset button on your primary health habits.

Through a cleanse, you’ll have ample opportunity to confront and release cravings, urges, compulsions and unhelpful habits.

This isn’t always fun while it’s happening, but it’s fantastic once it’s over. You emerge from your cleanse reborn and energized to tackle everything your life throws your way with greater clarity and confidence.

While I don’t recommend that you cleanse in order to lose weight, weight loss does usually accompany cleansing. However, it’s the process of undoing your bad habits and then installing new ones that helps you continue to lose weight as long as you maintain your new healthier habits.

 
If you’re always eating, you’re always digesting.

How would you feel if you were forced to work overtime all day every day? That’s how your stomach and intestines feel.

Wouldn’t it be nice to give them a rest every now and again?

Through the process of cleansing, all kinds of strange things will come out of you. I’ll spare you the gory details, but let’s just say “I’ve seen some things…”

With the gunk gone, your digestive tract will be able to function more effectively.

Of course, if you go back to unhealthy eating, you’ll tax your digestive tract and be back where you started.

 
Over 50,000 people die of colon cancer each year.

This is basically criminal. No one should be dying of colon cancer.

The body can heal if we learn how to let it do what it is designed to do.

Cleansing taps the innate healing potential of your body.

Whether or not 80% of all illness begins in the colon, it’s clear that at least in the case of colon cancer, the colon had something to do with the illness.

Cleanse. Clean out your digestive tract and colon. Give your body a chance to do the healing work it intuitively knows how to do.

Cleansing is your ticket to preventing many potential illnesses.

 
How often do you push yourself past your limits in a healthy way?

When you cleanse, you’re actively pushing out into the unknown.

You’ll absolutely learn a lot about yourself through cleansing. You’ll discover strength you didn’t know you had.

Obviously, cleansing isn’t easy or everyone would be doing it all the time.

Unfortunately, cleansing requires determination, willpower, persistence and grit. By leaning into the hunger pangs and pushing through your cravings, you’ll build emotional and spiritual muscles you didn’t know you had.

And in the process, you’ll find out what you’re really made of. I suspect you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

 
If you live in the industrialized world, then you probably have enough to eat.

Many people on Earth don’t.

When you cleanse, you get the chance to lean into the discomfort of being hungry.

Most of us almost never feel truly hungry.

We eat out of habit or for psychological reasons.

A cleanse gives you the chance to lean into that edge where hunger truly lies. And guess what you discover? A little hunger won’t kill you.

Beyond that, feeling true hunger can open your heart to all the people in the world who are currently hungry.

Develop your compassion through cleansing, and then act on it to help those in need.

 
If people could truly receive the feedback their body is giving them, then the fast food and processed food industries would be out of business by next week.

Unfortunately, advertising is capable of drowning out the still small voice of guidance that emanates from within.

And so, people get themselves into all sorts of trouble relating to food.

When you cleanse, you strip down to essentials.

Out of that state of simplicity, you’ll eventually start to hear your body giving you signals about what it needs.

The more you can hear your body’s inner guidance, the better you’ll be able to feed it appropriately. Your health will improve. Pounds will fall off. You’ll have more energy.

This is perhaps the most important result that comes from successful cleansing.

 
Cleansing brings you face to face with addictions to things that don’t serve your highest good.

While confronting these addictions isn’t always fun, after you’re through it, you’ll feel amazing.

Cravings and attachments have physical components and emotional components.

Cleansing can manifest as bodily symptoms, but it can also manifest as sudden swings in mood. Depression, anger, fear, despair–it’s totally normal to go through many different negative emotions on the way to deep feelings of well-being, joy and gratitude.

The good news is that cleansing provides you with a clear path for releasing old negativities that are affecting your life.

On the other side of these old emotions lies freedom. Cleansing helps you get there.

 
Whatever you believe about the ultimate nature of reality, cleansing will help you explore your Source.

Spiritual teachers have advocated fasting for its spiritual benefits for millennia.

Beyond all the fantastic physical and emotional benefits it provides, cleansing can connect you more deeply to your purpose, your heart and Life itself.

There’s not much to say here other than this is as important an effect of cleansing as any of the other points on this list.

If more people truly knew themselves, this world would be a much better place.

Do your part: cleanse and discover your Truth.

Juice Diet HQ -

Are you interested in detoxing but not quite sure where to start?

There are just so many options.

So many cleanses, fasts and detox diets to choose from.

Out of the many available cleansing options, today we’re going to look at two popular cleanses: the juice diet or the Master Cleanse.

Which is better?

Let’s investigate…

 
If you have been doing any research around the Master Cleanse, you’ve likely encountered some of the controversy and debate surrounding it.

This controversy is totally unnecessary. Let’s just bypass it.

The fact is that the creator of the Master Cleanse (Stanley Burroughs) developed his cleanse in the 1950′s.

Imagine how much we’ve learned and grown as a society since then. Airplanes, computers, cell phones and all the rest of the sweeping changes that have overtaken the world.

The Master Cleanse is old technology. Back when it was invented, it was the best they had given where they were at.

We can do better, however.

 
The good news is that many of the leading luminaries in the health and natural diet fields have developed some fantastic tweaks and improvements to the basic Master Cleanse regimen.

If you want to get started learning about how the Master Cleanse can grow up and enter the 21st century as a cutting edge health practice, check out this video series by David Wolfe.

You’ll learn about a whole lot more than just the Master Cleanse here:

David Wolfe is one of the most knowledgable people around when it comes to cutting edge health and nutrition information.

If you are considering doing the Master Cleanse, I definitely recommend you follow a regimen more in line with the lemonade David Wolfe put together in those videos.

 
Just to provide you with options, there is another fantastic lemonade that I prefer to the basic Master Cleanse lemonade recipe.

This recipe comes from Annie and David Jubb’s fantastic LifeFood Recipe Book.

Some of my best cleanses have involved using only this lemonade.

To make it, add the following ingredients to your blender:

• Three Organic Lemons, White Pith Intact
• 1 Organic Pear (core removed)
• XX Tbs Raw Organic Honey
• XX Tbs Flaxseed Oil
• Pinch of Sea Salt

Blend all those ingredients, and then filter your lemonade through a sieve.

The resulting beverage is refreshing, cleansing and thoroughly delicious.

 
So hopefully we’re at least clear on this point: the antiquated Master Cleanse isn’t worth doing.

You’d be much better off using one of the Master Cleanse upgraded recipes above and following the same protocols you find in the Master Cleanse pamphlet.

However, let’s really look at the competition between juice dieting and the Master Cleanse. If you’re only going to do once cleanse, which one should you do?

For starters, the answer is going to be different for everyone.

I love the simplicity of the Master Cleanse, but even if you follow one of the recipes above, you’re still taking in quite a lot of sugar in the form of honey.

Honey’s great, but you may not want to ingest that much sugar. If this is you, then a juice diet is a much better way to go because you can make your juices to your liking.

If this means very little in the way of sweet ingredients, then you’re free to do that.

 
This is a site on juice dieting, so I’m of course partial to the juice diet as a detox method.

For most people, getting a ton of chlorophyll in the form of fresh squeezed juice provides a much-needed health boost that you won’t get from relying on a supercharged lemonade.

I also find a spiritual connection with the green juice you take during a juice fast that is quite special. You have to try it to experience it, but I really enjoy the relationship that unfolds between me and the vegetables I’m juicing as I push forward into a juice diet.

The supercharged Master Cleanse lemonades are fantastic as well–don’t get me wrong–and ultimately, my advice to you is to try both and see which one works better for you.

 
I’d love to hear your opinions about juice fasting vs. the Master Cleanse (in its upgraded form).

Do you have experience with one or both of these approaches?

Which do you prefer and why?

Juice Diet HQ -

The secret to losing weight naturally lies in the innate wisdom of the human body.

All Who Enter Here...Shall Lose Weight Naturally!

True nourishment feels good.

The body loves being fed.

The only problem comes with the question: What are you feeding your body?

To the degree that you’ve fed your body foods that disagree with it (and we all know what these are–processed foods, fast food, heavy salty greasy fried fake sugary food), you won’t necessarily be able to hear the innate wisdom your body shares.

Losing weight naturally has everything to do with learning how to hear your body’s guidance clearly.

 
I remember very clearly not being able to hear my body speaking to me.

18 years of eating the standard American diet will do that to you.

Cheeseburgers, fries, cake, chips and ice cream, anyone?

At the age of 18, I left home and headed out to California. (I’ve told this story in greater detail elsewhere.)

When I got out to California, the health vibe was inescapable.

So, I followed an urge I’d had for a few years and decided to become a vegetarian.

 
Of course, deciding to go vegetarian didn’t automatically make me healthy.

Oh, no sir.

In fact, initially (and I know this is quite common for many people who dive into vegetarianism), I probably ate a less healthy diet than I’d been eating before.

But I did find that putting more attention on what I was eating naturally led to healthier and healthier food choices.

The health snowball was starting to roll downhill.

And as my health choices improved, I started to notice a very alarming phenomenon: directly after eating, I would go through a wild up-down roller coaster ride. My energy would spike, and then it would crash.

 
I look back on those early days when I was figuring out what it means to be healthy as if I was coming out of a fog I didn’t even realize I had been in.

The thing about being stuck in a permanent state of mental fog is that it becomes normal.

It’s just the way things are (or so you think).

And to be honest–I was a young, active, healthy person. I was actually in pretty good health all things considered.

Yet the shift to a healthier way of eating brought me in close contact with sluggishness and foggy confusion that I hadn’t even realized I’d been coping with.

 
If you’ve been eating “normal” foods, the occasional (or not-so-occasional) treat and plenty of caffeine and sugar, then you are probably at least somewhat out of touch with the innate wisdom of your body.

We crave unhealthy foods because these foods do provide a short-term chemical boost that feels great.

However, the chemical effect quickly wears off, and we don’t feel so good.

Which means we’re off to the races in search of another hit of the chemical–whether we’re talking about sugar, caffeine, greasy fat or whatever you happen to crave.

This cycle is vicious: the more disconnected you become from the innate wisdom of your body, the more you eat foods that only further cloud your body’s messages about what it truly craves for optimal health.

 
The shift from numbing your body’s messages to purifying the communications channels so you can hear without any doubt what your body wants is the key to getting on the road to health.

When you’re in touch with your body, it’s much smoother sailing. You automatically receive feedback when you put something unhealthy in your mouth–it may taste good, but your body quickly lets you know what a bad choice you just made.

Think about this: we live in a modern society where the vast majority of the people you know are totally and completely cut off from the flow of wisdom emanating throughout their bodies.

As I write these words to you, I’m sitting in a Starbucks watching the morning crowd flow in and out.

I’m drinking Gynostemma Tea that Starbucks doesn’t even sell–I usually buy green tea and then use my tea bags instead. I just like being out of the house with the headphones on and time to write, so here I am.

Plus, I do enjoy watching my fellow humans come and go.

However, what I notice is that the customers here are walking out with towering cups of coffee filled with sugar and cream.

It’s fine once in a while, but I know from having come here frequently that there are quite a few regulars who down a grande whatever coffee pretty much every day.

 
Nature speaks with a voice.

Your body is the result of millions of years of testing and experimentation to find out what’s the best vessel for carrying consciousness through the physical world.

There is SO MUCH WISDOM in your body just waiting for you to heed it.

And the key to losing weight naturally is to purify your system, cut out the noise that comes in through unhealthy foods and unhealthy lifestyle habits and then just listen and receive guidance at all times about what’s good for you.

The fact that this is the way it can work is so elegant. So kind.

Let’s celebrate the fact that our bodies know what’s good for them.

And then, let’s live in such a way that we learn to hear them speaking loud and clear.

 
Ultimately, I’ve learned (over and over) that you can’t change anyone else.

You have to change yourself and let your example ripple out and inspire others.

If you’re reading this, then you must know that what I’m writing is true.

This is how it works: we can learn to feed our bodies true healthy nutrition, and our bodies reward us with abundant energy, vitality and creativity.

So–what’s the #1 thing you can do to get started losing weight naturally and hearing your body’s messages to you?

 
Of everything I’ve discovered on the planet, I see green juice as the clearest, fastest and most powerful gateway into greater health.

Green juice can guide you home.

Here’s why: green juice is pure nutrition. If you drink a tall glass of green juice, you just received more vital nutrition than the vast majority of modern humans will receive all day long.

That nutrition filters throughout your body. It bathes your cells.

All that chlorophyll (it IS green juice, after all) brings the energy of the sun and the plant kingdom into your body.

 
If you’re serious about changing your health but you don’t know where to start, then start by making this green juice recipe once per day every single day.

If your reason for not doing this is because you don’t have a juicer, there are lots of ways to find juicers at a discount.

Instead of trying to starve and diet and punish your body into submission so it’ll finally give up that excess weight you’re carrying around, what if you changed tactics completely?

What if you bathed it in the best most accessible nutrition possible–fresh green juice?

Now, don’t expect everything to change in a day or even a week. It takes time to hit the reset switch on years of poor health habits.

But within a couple weeks–and certainly by the end of a month of drinking green juice every single day–I guarantee you’ll notice a positive difference.

And once you’ve got some positive momentum, who knows? Maybe you’ll decide to dive into a full juice diet.

What do you think?

Juice Diet HQ -

If you’re concerned about your health, then you definitely want to think long and hard about where you get your water.

Water is a deep subject. At first glance, it seems so simple–you just turn on the tap, and there it is!

Maybe you filter your water before you drink it because you don’t trust your municipal water system.

However, it’s really amazing when you think about what a vital ingredient water is and how little we think about it.

Around 70% of our bodies are made of water.

Water is one of the key cornerstones of life on Earth.

What if you started putting some intention into the whole issue of water in your life?

 
In the world of raw and wild foods, there are some wild characters.

One character that I really enjoy learning from is Daniel Vitalis.

Daniel started a website that basically serves as an online database of natural springs where people can go to harvest their own water.

You can find this site at www.findaspring.com.

The basic premise is simple: the purest water on Earth is available through certain extremely clean springs.

The water bubbles up from deep underground where it has been filtered and energized naturally by the Earth.

Unlike the water that has been treated and distributed through a municipal water system, fresh natural spring water is naturally purified. It is some of the best water you can drink.

 
It’s amazing how profound a juice fast can be for bringing new insights and possibilities into your life.

Just a few weeks back, I did a 12-day juice fast. During this fast, I thought a lot about water.

I was living off of water, tea and juice. So I was very connected to the water that sustained me and helped me thrive.

That’s when I started looking into various options for gathering the freshest purest water possible. I intuited that my city’s tap water and a Brita filter probably wasn’t the state-of-the-art when it came to high quality water.

My investigations led me to FindASpring.com, and from there, I scrounged around for some empty bottles.

After cleaning and disinfecting my bottle stash, I headed to the closest spring I found on FindASpring.com’s map.

 
I’m kidding, but only slightly.

The fact is, there’s a reason people like to have their water piped directly into their homes–it’s a heck of a lot less hassle than taking the time and energy to harvest your own water from fresh springs.

Most of us don’t live so close to springs.

And so, after a first trip just to check out the spring and verify its existence, I realized I’d need some bigger containers.

 
A carboy is a special type of container that is usually used in home brewing.

I found a couple 5-gallon glass Carboys at a brewing supply store where I live, and the next time I visited a spring, I was able to take a big batch of water home with me.

I can definitely tell a difference in the taste, and a home water test I ran on the water came back totally clean.

That doesn’t mean the spring is completely pure–home water tests aren’t professional grade, after all–but I feel comfortable drinking this water for sure.

More than anything, what I’m noticing from drinking spring water I harvest myself is that I have a deeper connection with the water I drink.

I’m aware that it’s precious, finite, not to be wasted.

In the modern world, we don’t have to see the guts of the engine behind so much of the lifestyle we enjoy.

We don’t have to actually plant, weed, harvest and ship the foods we consume.

We don’t have to assemble the televisions we watch.

We don’t have to generate our own power.

All this convenience comes at a subtle price, however.

By getting out in Nature and harvesting my own spring water from fresh springs, I’m discovering that there is a deep sense of security in tracing the thread between the water I drink and where it sprang from the Earth.

If you’re interested in deepening your health and your connection to the blessings that sustain us here on Earth, I heartily recommend you check out www.findaspring.com and go on an expedition to gather and drink fresh spring water.

If you’re interested in health, spring water is a major gateway into deeper levels of health, energy and wellbeing.

Juice Diet HQ -

If you forced me to choose, here’s the juice I’d pick as my desert island selection.

It’s profoundly powerful, it has a slight edge, a little tang and it leaves me feeling nourished every time I drink it.

You can taste the health filtering directly into your cells when you drink this juice.

Ingredients:

• One Head of Celery
• One Cucumber
• One Green Apple
• Half a Bunch of Parsley (I Prefer the Curly Kind)
• Six to Eight Leaves of Lettuce (Romaine or Red Leaf Work Great)
• Half a Lemon (White Pith Intact)
• A Piece of Ginger

All ingredients organic, of course.

Juice all of those puppies and you’ll come up with two to three tall glasses of juice–plenty enough to share with friends and family!

If you’re feeling frisky, here’s what you can do to really get your blood moving when you drink this juice.

Pour the juice into your blender.

Then, add:

• 1 Tsp to 1 Tbsp Spirulina Powder
• 1 Tsp to 1 Tbsp Chlorella Powder
• 1 Tsp to 1 Tbsp Vitamineral Green Powder

Pulse your blender very gently to get the powders to dissolve into your juice.

If you add the supergreen powders there, your juice will contain antioxidants, minerals, protein and vitamins out the yin-yang.

Drink this juice seven days in a row and tell me you don’t feel like a million bucks.

This stuff is pure jet fuel for the soul.

Drink up!

Juice Diet HQ -