DRINK UP YOUR VEGETABLES AND REV UP YOUR ENERGY

About 5 years ago, after a year suffering from terrible insomnia bouts, I googled therapies and ways to up my energy levels. After many months of terrible sleep patterns, I wasn't functioning at full speed, I was finding it very difficult to concentrate or focus, to carry out my daily tasks and work responsibilities, and quite frankly impossible to take the necessary steps to move along in my life. I was even getting more and more depressed as I was unable to socialise properly because I was unable to stay up late.

I got so obsessed with curing my insomnia (it was also causing devastating effects on my skin!) that I bought and read a number of books on sleep; I even went to see a sleep specialist, and when this didn't help, I went on another google search: how could I function – albeit in a handicapped way – with just those 3 or 4 hours of nightly sleep. How could I go about my day nonetheless.

My second search led me to juicing. So I went out and bought myself a juicer and the rest is history.

Five years later, I may still be sleep deprived but I am still religiously downing my juice every morning. It means that I have to get up earlier every day, as I have to prep, juice, and then clean my juicer, but I have got the whole process down to about 20 minutes. And I still rather wake up earlier and have a juice than stay in bed and miss out on my morning shot of vitamins. It invigorates me and it helps me poo.

I try to stick to this routine no matter the wake up call. It has now become second nature and I miss it if it is not part of my morning routine. I wake up, I pee, I make my bed, and go and make my juice. THEN, I get dressed and eat my breakfast. I only change the order on weekends when I leisurely drink my coffee before I turn to juicing.

My favourite green juice consists of:

Kale

Spinach

Cucumber

Celery

Ginger

Apple or Pear

Ps: I went a bit overboard with the celery in this photo!

It is better to juice organic produce but my purse doesn't allow me buying all my produce organic. My rule of thumb is if I'm going to take the skin off my fruit or vegetable then I don't need to buy organic. I am strict with my greens though. I buy them organic without fail.

Another favourite juice recipe, which I try on days when I think I need to up my vitamin C intake, consists of oranges, carrots and ginger:

Though my love affair with juicing remains intact, I now also make smoothies on days when time is really pressing or when I just want to add more ingredients in the mix (seeds or powders which do not juice).

You would rightly ask, at this point, what is the difference between juicing and blending. Both have health benefits and at the end of the day, do what you prefer. I just prefer juicing.

When we juice our veggies, we are removing the indigestible fibre and making the nutrients more readily available to the body. When you drink your vegetables, your body doesn't have to produce digestive enzymes to break down the food to access the nutrients, so juicing gives your digestive system a rest.

Unlike juices, smoothies consist of the entire fruit or vegetable and thus contain all of the fibre from the vegetables, but it still supports the digestive health. Smoothies are also more filling.

As far as smoothies are concerned, the rule of thumb is to use a green base (spinach/kale/lettuce etc), some fruit (I like banana), some nuts or seeds (I find smoothies are a perfect opportunity to eat chia seeds which are full of good omega-3 fats and proteins), some liquid (I use either almond milk or coconut water), and then a bit of sweetener (honey or dates or agave nectar). I also add some maca powder which balances hormones, or some raw cacao which is packed with antioxidants.

Below two recipes that I often make:

1) Arugula, orange and banana

2) Almond milk, banana, blueberries, maca powder

I keep a very green fridge in order to always have my ingredients at hand. After I've bought all my greens, I wash and dry everything, and put it all in special bags which I annotate. Quite nerdy I'd admit but so convenient when juicing time is here!

Unfortunately, my juicer is not very good so a great deal of produce goes to waste. I put it through the feed chute twice in order to yield as much juice as I can. But still, some of it goes to waste.

My dream is to one day be in the position to buy a great centrifugal juicer and the crème de la crème of blenders: the Vitamix blender. Only caveat: it costs around 600 euros! Maybe one day...