My Juicing Adventure

Just when I didn’t think I could improve my living habits any further, my wife and I have found a new way to go about one of our favorite activities: eating (or in this case drinking). Up to this point I thought we were doing pretty well. Our frugal fury fighting days turned us towards grocery shopping on a budget and planning out ahead of the times the frequency that we dine outside of our apartment. I had been inspired by Jeff Yeager to only buy in season fruits and vegetables at around a dollar a pound. And when we were attacking debt we really did live off of rice and beans and beans and rice.

So now that we are 9 months into a completely debt free marriage and we’ve developed an even bigger margin between us and life, we’ve started looking around our normal and everyday expenses and asking ourselves, “what else.” What else is important to us that we want to prioritize that may have been an extra cost we didn’t want to occur when we were fighting the debt monster.

That lead us to an interesting film by Joe Cross titled, “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.” In this documentary, Aussie Joe takes viewers on his journey through a 60 day juice fast. For two months Aussie Joe cut out solid foods, coffee, alcohol and just about everything except water, and only consumed juiced vegetables and fruits for 60 days. Skeptical, interested and inspired were the exact emotions I went through as we watched the film. So my wife and I decided to start incorporating juicing into our daily lives.

Now while Joe’s circumstances for pursuing juicing are different from mine, I still wanted to give it a try. What caught my attention were his higher levels of energy and focus. Up to this point in time, I needed about five cups of coffee in the morning before I could even begin to gather my wits. And although we have heavily cut out meat from our diet, like in personal finance, I knew that there was always room for improvement.

So we bought this guy and immediately stocked up on vegetables and fruits:

Carrots, kale, oranges, sweet potato, spinach, apples and ginger have seriously been staples in a lot of our meals over the last 2 weeks (and might I add happily devoured!). The first few days were rough as I switched off coffee, but once the migranethatwassobadiwantedtorunmyheadintoawalloverandoverandoverandoverandover was gone and coffee was replaced with fresh vegetable and fruit juice, the turnaround has truly been amazing.  

Although we aren’t solely juicing as Joe did in the film, I have been thoroughly happy with the results. I have replaced my morning pitcher of coffee and late night sweet tooth and empty calorie eating binges done out of boredom with juicing. In 2 weeks I seriously have felt an enormous uptick in energy and focus, and in general I feel great. And might I add the taste of our various combinations of juices tastes awesome, I know, I was surprised too, but honestly try it before you knock it! J You’re welcome in advance.

And though odd, I feel compelled to take care of my body. I’ve been hitting the gym more regularly and I haven’t had a sip of alcohol since Easter.  I’m neither an infomercial nor an advertiser for anything, but seriously people, juicing really works.

At this stage in the game financially it was a pretty easy switch to make as well. We used current month income to buy the juicer, which was around $150. And through 2 weeks of mostly stocking up on fruits and vegetables our weekly grocery bill has actually gone down. So I feel better, I’m eating/drinking healthy and my weekly grocery expenses have gone down…that’s a win-win in my book.

Turns out fresh vegetables are better for me and my pocketbook than red meat ever was! I’ll definitely keep you posted as my juicing adventure continues.