Loaded Fruitopia - New Recipe

For lunch today we had our "Loaded Fruitopia" green drink. It was amazing as usual! Typically in my green drinks I like to load them up with veggies, but in my "Loaded Fruitopia" it is mainly fruit. I do this for one of two reasons. Reason 1 - I need more energy and the fruit provides the right carbs to burn, and it has certain micro-nutrients that aren't found in vegetables. Reason 2 - I am sick of only eating vegetables!:)

So, here is recipe for this grandiose drink. You will love it if you like drinks from Orange Julius or Jamba Juice.

- 2 Roma Tomatoes       - 1 Banana
- 10 Baby Carrots          - 1/2 C Blueberries
- 4 Large Strawberries   - 1 Peach
  (Frozen)                          (Frozen)
- 1 C Fresh Apple Juice - 8 C Spinach

Make sure to put banana and tomatoes at the bottom to create a soft substance to blend into. Blend for about a minute on high or until smooth in your Vita-mix. Makes 2 servings. Enjoy!

This is a good drink to start the day off right with because of the energy that it provides. If you are diabetic, be sure to take a little bit larger of a bolus of insulin for this green drink. Although this is one of my favorites, I try to limit myself to one of these every few days because of the high fructose content.

Thanks to everyone that follows my blog (if you don't just click follow on the right) and for everyone that is striving to eat healthier through juicing! I appreciate comments, so please leave your recipes and ideas below. Happy juicing!

Eating Healthy While Traveling

This week I am traveling in the great state of Utah. The one problem that I have while traveling is not always having a good health solution for controlling my blood sugars better. Unfortunately I am unable to lug my vita-mix around in the back of my trunk with fresh fruits and veggies ready to show others how to make green drinks and smoothies. It just isn't as easy as Mr. Joe Cross of jointhereboot.com makes it look on his video "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead."

Fortunately, there are options. Of course, I don't have to just drink my fresh vegetables and fruits. I can also eat them. One of my favorite places to go for a quick shot of veggies is Subway. I always get the veggie foot long on wheat. It is the best!

Here to the left is a great picture that I found on www.cookinglight.com that portrays a foot long veggie. Now, I know what some of you are thinking. "Veggie sub? Gross!" Actually, it is pretty dang good. There are a couple things to remember when getting this bad boy. You have to LEAVE OUT the cheese. Including the cheese is like putting chocolate syrup on your salad. It just doesn't add any health value, or even much taste for that matter! I always tell the Subway worker that I like to treat my olives like my meat, so put a lot of those on! I get lettuce, spinach, tomato, green pepper, olives (lots), cucumbers, and onions. I top it off with a nice splash of vinegar and NO oil. The vinegar maintains the healthiness of it without sacrificing much flavor!


Another great option for eating healthy while traveling is any of the bottled green smoothies that you can buy at pretty much any grocery store. Of course they are not nearly as good as having fresh fruits and vegetables ready to blend up in your vita-mix, but it is a way better solution than McDonalds! My personal favorite is the "Green Machine" by Naked. One bottle contains Apples, Bananas, Kiwis, Mango, Pineapple, Spirulina, Chlorella, Broccoli, Spinach, Blue Green Algae, Garlic, Barley Grass, Wheatgrass, Ginger, and Parsley. The best part about it is that it is an all natural 100% juice smoothie. This is probably the closest that you will get to the real thing, but the real thing still dominates because you lose tons of nutrients any time that you process food. Fact.

This stuff truly is amazing though. I love the flavor and all the veggies that it contains. It may look a little gross, but you probably are willing to handle that risk considering that you are on this blog and reading about green drinks. For diabetics, this drink will have a great impact on your blood glucose than your drinks made from scratch. It must be something with the nutrients that are lost in processing.

To finish off, the most important thing to remember while traveling is that there are still SO many healthy options out there. You don't have to sacrifice your health just because you don't have your kitchen to come home to. Happy juicing!

Juicing Away

So, I've started up with juicing again. I am not doing a full-time juice fast like before, but I am doing juices and 95% vegan. The 5% that I am cheating with is usually eggs or tuna (I like to use those to supplement my workouts).

My goal right now is to juice 2 times a day. I find that I feel the best when I start out the day with a green drink. When I do that, I feel a TON more energy and I need a whole lot less sleep. The reason for that? I sleep better! The hours that I do get are way more quality.

The picture that I have posted to the left is one from www.healthygreendrink.com. This is what most of my green drinks look like.

For the morning, I like to make 2 drinks (1 for me and 1 for my wife) in my vita-mix with the following recipe:

- 2-3 large tomatoes        - 10 cups spinach
- 2 leaves kale                 - 2-3 whole carrots
- 2 bananas                      - 1 head romane lettuce
- 1 cup apple juice           - 1 glass ice cubes


Make sure that you put the tomatoes at the bottom of the blend, creating more of a liquid for the rest of the solids to blend into. I don't add the ice cubes until I have blended the drink on high for over a minute. The vita-mix is so fast that it starts to heat up the drink, this is why I add the ice cubes at the very end to cool it down.

Starting your day off right with one of these bad boys will get you feeling better, more energy, and will have you shedding the pounds in no time! Happy juicing!

Back at it!!!

So, I'm ready to start posting again. I fell off the block there with the holidays and everything. I know, I know, no excuses!

So, I finished off my juice fast with 30 days. I didn't quite make it on the 60-day juice fast that I originally set out to do, but I'm ready to start applying the principles of juicing. A lot of people wonder how to juice fast. With doing the juice fast, I don't necessarily drink your typical "juice," but rather more of the green drinks or green smoothies.

I typically make my green smoothies using my vita-mix....which is amazing by the way! I am going to start posting a lot of my recipes that I like to use.

The key to any green drink is that you use a heavy content of veggies. The reason behind this is that vegetables are the "healing" food because of their high micro-nutrient content. As Americans, we miss out on these essential micro-nutrients that are provided by fruits and vegetables.

My Brother Tony Indulging in American Traditions:)

We are always trying to "supplement" our lack or nutrients by taking various vitamins and pills. The problem with this is that there are hundreds, if not thousands, or micro-nutrients that science still hasn't discovered nor perfected, which means if we do not eat fruits and veggies, we are missing out on those!

I find the best way to get in a healthy serving of fruits and vegetables is by drinking them freshly blended. You can eat WAY more than if you were to just sit down and start chomping. On top of that, when they are put into the liquid form, your body absorbs the micro-nutrients quickly and easily.

Best of luck and happy juicing!