A couple summers ago I went into the doctor’s office thinking I was in good health. I was twenty-seven at the time, and considered myself to be an average weight. I was in for a surprise when my doctor told me that my cholesterol was high, and if I didn’t change things I could expect an early heart attack.
How could it have happened. There was a point not long before the visit when I would run around the park three times a week. With a quick evaluation of my current lifestyle, it wasn’t really that hard to determine I had let myself slip. I no longer ran around the park, and my eating habits had become worse. Also, I had been moved from my physically active position at work to a more relaxed environment. I knew I had to set out to change things… next week… after some pizza and a few beers.
While I was sitting on my couch, eating pizza and drinking beer, I came across a movie called Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead. You can visit the website here:
http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com. In the film, a man named Joe Cross discusses his health and eating habits, which were very poor. He decides to start juicing, prominently drinking something called mean green juice.
Without getting into the movie too much, I will simply recommend it and say that you owe it to yourself to see the film. It inspired me to go out and get a juicer, and I started making the mean green juice for myself. The drink consists of Kale leaves, cucumber, celery, green apples, lemon, and ginger. As far as taste goes, the mean green drink is no beer and pizza, but it tastes pretty descent to be as healthy as it is. The lemon and ginger cut back on the veggie taste, and make it enjoyable to drink.
In the movie, Joe Cross commits to drinking nothing except for juice for an entire month. I wasn’t as devoted, and only committed to drinking as much juice as possible during the day to cut back on cravings. To my surprise, the juice filled me up, made me feel great, and I started losing weight almost immediately. As the weight came off, I started feeling more active. I began going to the gym and using the elliptical trainer.
However, there is a downside to using the mean green drink to lower cholesterol and improve your overall heath. It can get expensive. If you think about food prices, you can probably figure out that a dollar cheeseburger from a value menu is cheaper than investing in fresh fruits and vegetables constantly. And it is a constant process, because you will be going through the juice fairly quick if you’re consuming enough of it. The basic principal of juicing is to get a quick dose of nutrients, and that means drinking big tall glasses of the stuff, and several times during the day.
Juicing can also be messy, as you’ll have to make the juice, store it somewhere, and repeat constantly as needed. Your countertop will need to be wiped down, and if you don’t clean your juicer you will experience rot and flies by the end of the day. My refrigerator was full of containers, because I tried to limit the times I had to make the juice by making a lot of it at once. It helped, but was still a lot of work.
Don’t let this dissuade you from juicing if you are serious about improving your health, though, because it works! My next trip to the doctor’s office was a very pleasant one, with lots of praise. My cholesterol was down, and I was told to keep up the good work. For anyone who has a juicer, and can afford to eat fresh fruits and vegetables, I strongly recommend the mean green juice.
For detailed recipes and variations to the original drink, please see this website:
