You last met Nikki in the summer of 2012 when she was about to get married. AND HERE SHE IS AGAIN! It's almost her one year anniversary and she has endured and shared so much over at her blog Mrs. Healthy Ever After. Make sure to hop over there and read things from tips to get your husband to eat healthy to comical stories that you can relate to.

How Juicing Got me to Like Celery
I never thought I’d be a juicing-type person. I mean, sure, my mom did hop on the bandwagon for a short stint when we were in high school to give us freshly made orange-apple juice each morning before school. But it was short-lived, mainly because orange prices had gone up and it became too expensive.

But here I am now, and I can’t get enough of my juicer.

It started innocently enough. I really just wanted to show my husband how important it was for him to eat more fruits and veggies, so I showed him the documentary “Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead” (one of my all time favorites I had seen before). The documentary follows Joe Cross on an epic juice fast as he cures himself of a rare disease and then helps someone else do the same.

When the credits rolled at the end, I turned to my husband with a smile basically ready to say, “And now this is why we’re having salad for dinner—“ but before I could, he said something shocking to me: “So when are we going to get a juicer?”

Juicers were too expensive for us, especially since we weren’t even sure we were going to like it yet. So, we bought a 30 year-old, hardly used, Jack Lalaine juicer off of the work classifieds.

After our first juice, it was love at first sip.

We started off with carrot apple—something I remembered liking as a kid when I visited my aunts house. But then we quickly went on to be more daring and started exploring the world of green juices. Who knew that green apples, kale, cucumbers, celery, spinach and lemons all comes together in a concoction that tastes very similar to Gatorade? It was fantastic!

We started juicing in the mornings for breakfast and maybe a snack in the afternoons. I never felt such a jolt of energy before when I finished one of the huge juices we’d get.

Finally I decided I really wanted to try a juice detox—not to lose weight, but to just see how I’d feel. Would it make me feel better like the documentary suggested? We decided only to do a short one, but in those three days, I felt like a new person. Sure, there was one day where I really didn’t feel that well (but hey, my body was DETOXING) and let’s be honest, my husband cheated the whole time, but the juice detox was eye opening.

Who knew that sweet potato, blueberries, pears and cinnamon tasted like apple pie? Since when did beets taste like the best thing in the world?

And yes, these were all very filling.

The biggest change for me was also the fact that I now don’t mind celery. That may seem petty to you—I hate celery, ever since I can remember. I hate it in soups. I hate it in salads. I HATE IT. When we started juicing celery, I’d have to hold my nose. Even the smell was gross to me. But after a while of juicing celery, I now no longer mind it. Juicing had literally changed my taste buds.

I also lost a shocking amount of weight in those three days, but I won’t disclose that here because that’s not the point. And juice fasting isn’t really about the weight loss (especially since you’ll always gain some back once you re-introduce solid foods to your diet). The point is to get healthy. The point is to rid yourself of the toxins your body (did you know your intestines and bowels can hold undigested meat for years? Yup. It’s a thing).

The point is to be good to your body so your body will be good to you.

While we don’t juice as often as we like (we’ve been travelling a lot this summer), we still do enjoy our juicer and look forward to one day owning a newer model.

But before I go, there’s some things to know about juicing.

1) It’s not the same as having a smoothie.
While you could have a smoothie fast in theory, its not the same. Juicing is absorbing nutrients without consuming fiber, so you get the nutrients quicker. Does that make one better than the other? No. Is fiber bad? Of course not. Should you eat a lot of fiber even while juicing? Duh. Some people like to start fights over juicing vs. smoothies and that’s just silly. Both are fantastic.
2) Juice detoxes need to be done correctly.
Juice detoxes or fasts should not be used as a fad diet, and when done incorrectly can be dangerous. You need follow a legitimate plan (Like Joe Cross’ at www.RebootwithJoe.com) and don’t try to do less than that. It’s important to keep your calories at normal levels (minimum 1200 for women and minimum 1600 for men).
3) You don’t have to waste the pulp.
Many people think juicing is too expensive, especially with how much pulp you get out of it to discard. DON’T DISCARD IT. You can make sweet breads, sandwich breads, or crackers! You can even add it to soup for some added veg AND you can compost it too. It’s AWESOME.
4) You don’t have to do a juice fast to enjoy your juicer or reap the benefits
Seriously, all you need is one juice a day to feel FANTASTIC. Start with breakfast and maybe add one for a snack either pre- or post-workout.

Juice on!

Read more about my healthy adventures at www.MrsHealthyEverAfter.com!