Juicing My Way to Health

Well, I have been battling with my health for some time. First was the IBS. You can see my post about it here.

I finally got my system in check, and I was feeling better but still horrible. When I went to the doctor, I discovered that I was severely anemic. I have always run a little anemic, at least since I had kids. So I was not at all surprised. And it is something that seems to run in my family.

Now, when I tell you I was anemic, I mean severely anemic.. I was a 5.0 and normal is between 12 and 16.

In the hopes of getting healthier at a faster rate than what the doctor estimated, which was months. I called a friend who is very wise in the area of health.

She gave me a lot of great tips. And I am going to share a few of them with you here. This is no way shape or form if intended to be medical advice. This is simply what I did for my own body. And since every individual body is uniquely and wonderfully made by our creator, you should consult your health professional before implementing anything listed here.

The doctor had told me to add an iron supplement. So, I wanted to make sure that I added a high quality supplement. So I started using Floradix. I actually had 3 people recommend it to me. From California to London, England I had friends recommending the same product. That is quite an endorsement.  It is available many places online, though I picked up a bottle at my local Vitamin Shoppe. Next she suggested that I take a tablespoon of blackstrap molasses, twice a day. It is key that it is blackstrap molasses and not the regular molasses in the baking isle. I also picked this up at Vitamin Shoppe.
I also added B-12. I know that it helps with the iron absorption, so I also added that. 

She also  recommended juicing. This was pretty much impossible since I did not have a juicer. So the next best thing was to make green smoothies.
So every day I made myself a smoothie of spinach, the juice of one lemon, agave nectar, and banana. I just covered it with water and added about a cup of ice and blended.

I did this until my next doctor's appointment. My blood had gone up to 8.6. While, that is still anemic. He had thought I would go up about 1 point a month, and in 6 weeks I jumped 3.6 points.

Now back to the juicing... my friend had recommended that I drink beet, carrot, celery juice. We have a local place that would juice these for you fresh. However, the cost was about $4 a cup. I could not afford to do this on a daily basis, plus it was on the other side of town, so not terribly convenient.

Thankfully, my mom heard my desperation, and bought me a juicer for my birthday. And I have been using it just about everyday since. It has already paid for itself it you look at what it would have cost me to to purchase juices each and everyday.

So, if you see the picture below, that is what basically goes into my juice each morning..

What you see here are; 2 stalks of celery, 1/2 beet, 3 carrots, 1 clove garlic, 1 apple, 2 oranges, 2 handfuls of spinach and one bunch of cilantro.  I usually use parsley instead of cilantro, I just did not have any.
This juice is high in Vit. C and Iron, which is what I need. I have felt awesome since starting this.  I have added the clove of garlic to ward off illness during the cold and flu season.

My goal was to have my children drink one glass a day. They have not been real thrilled with that. So we are easing our way to that.   I have been mostly doing carrots apples and oranges for them.

Below is a photo of a mug of juice. The above photo made this glass, plus another 1/2 a glass.

On mornings I get too busy and don't have enough time to juice, I have noticed a big difference in how I feel. I can maintain my energy level while drinking the juice. The color has returned to my face!  And one of the most amazing things is, that when I drink the juice, I do not have cravings. You know how you go through the day and crave sweets, or salts, etc... however when I drink the juice, I don't have those cravings and I also don't get that, I am starving feeling!

I think that proves that as Americans our diets are nutrient poor, which makes us eat more. If we could just eat more nutrient dense foods, we would eat less!

This is what our new year has looked like! We are doing our best to change the way we eat. Omitting processed foods as much as we can. And adding high quality home-made foods in it's place!
 
Here's to your health!