Lat year right around New years I saw a documentary called Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead. Joe Cross decided to take his health matters into his own hands and try juicing, and ended up starting a whole Reboot movement. Well, he was so inspiring that I went out and bought a juicer and started adding fresh juices in to my own diet. I did try a juice fast, I think I lasted one weekend. I did make juice every day for a while, but the challenge of getting all the veg in the dead of winter, the noise and cleanup up of the machine didn't boost my desire to pull it out and make juice.
I've learned to adapt the recipes to what I like - I will NEVER like celery. In a juice, stew, as a snack, it tastes terrible, and it ruins anything you add it to, so why add it at all? It is in juices mainly for extra volume.
One thing that bothers me about juicing is that we are stripping out the fiber. I understand that we are making a super concentrated glass of nutrients, but it's hard to get enough fiber in a day. I recently lowered my daily target from 30 grams to 25 grams a day, so I can stop feeling like a failure.
Now imagine if I was pureeing some of those same vegetables - well I'd be keeping the fiber content and more of the nutrients in those foods.
I was also experimenting with additions to the juice, such as spirulina (blue algae), flax seeds, and chia seeds. Even using my stick blender I couldn't get the fine spirulina powder completely incorporated.
I had been on the fence about buying a Magic bullet for a while and decided that I would buy one with part of my year end bonus. Then I heard about the Nutribullet - more power, more benefits, and double the price. I've done about a month of research - reading reviews, checking prices, watching user videos on YouTube, and when I saw a saw at Target (it rarely goes on sale) I leapt up and got one for myself.
I'm hoping that I can make some more nutritious and satisfying drinks with the Nutribullet.
Concerns about using the Nutribullet:
- having to add liquid - I am concerned that in the infomercial, user You Tube videos, and recipe list coconut water or almond milk into the mix. If you're blending the same vegetables you were juicing, wouldn't you have enough liquid? A cucumber is mostly water. I don't want to add extra calories or sugars to my drinks. Searching for Almond milk yesterday (I'm going to try it before I rail against it) I noticed that may brands have added sweeteners and filler ingredients.
- additional prep - I need to cut things up more to fit them into the cup for processing, no more leaving carrots whole. I don't think this will take a lot of extra time, but I'll keep track and see.
- Will I actually use it? I plan to keep on the counter in place of my juicer, which will go into my outbox (see Apartment Therapy's awesome January Cure). That should keep it at the ready and in my thoughts when I go to the kitchen for a snack.
- Will it hold up? Only time will tell. I've read a lot of reviews that say it leaks, stops working, etc., but I read all those warnings about my juicer too, and it's going strong after a year. I bought it at Target and also bought their 2-year replacement plan for $7. What a steal! I need to read the fine print this week and make sure I keep whatever paperwork is required together with the policy.
- Will the noise make me not want to use it? I didn't find many reviews that mentioned the noise level. Hopefully that's a good sign, and this will be answered pretty quickly once I use the machine.
