It’s been a while since I’ve embarked on a longer juice fast. Things like moving to an Amish farm, the recent loss of several young family members and trying to balance my freelance writing and blogging assignments in the midst of all the chaos has pretty much kept me preoccupied.

So, the other night as I was reading Natalia Rose’s lastest book (Detox for Women: An All New Approach for a Sleek Body and Radiant Health in 4 Weeks–which I’ll be sharing a review about soon and also hosting a contest for you to win your very own brand-new copy!), a light bulb went off when I read one of her tips. She says she freezes her raw juices so they’ll be available when she wants them and/or when she’s in a rush. How awesome is that? I have absolutely no clue why I’ve never even considered freezing my raw juices. Seriously. Raw Juice Girl should have known. Thanks, Natalia!

As I read Natalia’s tip, I made my decision: I’d juice up a bunch of raw goodness and freeze it; I’d start a 30-day juice fast ASAP. (After all, I’ve been hearing the call.) I made my list, went shopping–and even found some really cool freezable containers with twist-on lids to store my raw juices in. They each hold 4 cups and I bought 4 of the 2-packs, so I ended up with 8 of ‘em.

Once home, I went wild!

Check out my raw goodies!

First up: 100% pineapple juice. I cut it into long slices so it’d fit in the mouth of the juicer (which needs to be waaaaayyy bigger, in my opinion).

I don’t peel the pineapple; I just chop it up whole. Everything except the leaves went in. Bromelain, come on down!

Messy Pineapple Preparation

” … studies have shown that bromelain has a wide variety of health benefits, and that many of these benefits may not be related to the different enzymes found in this extract. Excessive inflammation, excessive coagulation of the blood, and certain types of tumor growth may all be reduced by therapeutic doses of bromelain when taken as a dietary supplement.”–WH Foods

Berzerk for Berries

Even I don’t want green juice 24/7, so besides the pineapple, I went for a strawberry-blueberry combo. Here’s what went into that batch (which made it through the juicer before it burnt out):

• 2 (12 ounce) bags of wild blueberries
• 1 (16 ounce) bag of strawberries

I divided this juice into two of the 4-cup freezable containers I bought (I love these things! I even held them upside down after I filled them to the top with juice–and nothing spilled out! Eeeek! ). So this recipe makes 8 cups (because I diluted it). If you don’t dilute it, it makes 4 cups or so. The reason I dilute my juices is because it is easier on the system while juice fasting (for some people, anyway).

In the freezer they went!

Green Goodness

For my green juice, I decided to throw in the following list of ingredients:

• 1 (big) bunch of parsley
• 1 bundle of celery
• 1 (2 pound) bag of carrots
• 1 bunch of kale
• 1/3 of a (2 pound) bag of turnip greens
• 1 big head of cabbage
• 3 (big) cucumbers
• 1 bag of spinach leaves

Yes, folks, I’m serious!

Chopped, Washed, Ready to Go!

Insert Mishap Here

Then it happened. My juicer burnt out on me! What’s a raw juice girl to do without a juicer? Nope, I didn’t have a backup juicer–it went out on me a while back. Hmmm…. So, the juice girl put her thinking cap on. She’s very, very stubborn you see. There’s no way on Earth she was going to be a quitter. Nope! She grabbed the next-best thing: her blender. And she went to town blending away! (Don’t ask why she’s typing in third-person all of a sudden; she has no clue!)

Juicing aka Blending

Foamy Green Stuff

The End

I poured my green juice into six of those freezable containers and into the freezer they went! I also had excess–enough for 3 jars that went into the fridge and I’m drinking those today. I normally don’t like to put juice in the fridge (I like to drink it as soon as possible after juicing, but I was kind of in a mess here with no juicer and all, so I compromised.)

Oh, and the happy part…

Yes, I do believe it is a happy ending after all. I started my 30-day juice fast anyway! My grandmother always taught me: Where there’s a will, there’s a way–and I believe that.

So far today I’ve drank:

6 ounces of 100% pineapple juice (breakfast)
and about 12 ounces of the green juice so far (It’s 3:15 as I write this). I’ll have another green juice soon, though.

I’ve also had plenty of water!

(Updated to add: I had another 8 ounces of green juice around 6 p.m. I also added a tablespoon of raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar
to one of my water servings today.) I also had my daily dose of E3Live (more about that in upcoming posts).

I’ve manually strained the green juice I’ve drank today (other than the pineapple juice which went through the juicer before it burnt out)–my other option is to chew it. LOL (Some of you do that (chew the pulp) with raw juices but I don’t recommend it during a juice fast; it defeats the whole purpose of giving your digestive system a rest.) So, now I’m looking for a new juicing machine. Any juice machine companies in need of a raw juice girl to do a review/contest?

Upcoming Contests Featuring these Fabulous Companies

• 2 books by Nomi Shannon, The Raw Gourmet (These two books have GORGEOUS photos and the recipes are amazing!
• 2 Food Matters DVDs (Haven’t had a chance to watch this one yet, but do check out their site–they have a RAWsome message to share!!)
• Detox 4 Women by Natalia Rose (I read this book last night and it’s awesome; it really helps you understand water retention, etc!)
• Living Tree Community (Raw almond butter and organic coconut mango persimmon butter!)
• Oh Nuts! (raw macadamia nuts and pecans) <— These are seriously delicious nuts–and they’re JUMBO sized!
• E3Live (Green-tasting (which I don’t mind!), but I REALLY notice that it’s making me feel better. It was definitely put to the test through my recent stressful events!)
• and MORE!

You’ll definitely want to stay tuned!

So… be sure to subscribe to Healing with Juices’ Feed for free updates. You can get free updates to your email as well (sign up here). You’ll also receive inspiration, juice and smoothie recipes, and juice fasting tips and encouragement to help keep you motivated toward your ultimate health–and more personal posts about stuff that’s going on in my life.

References:

WH Foods (Bromelain)