Juicing is a pretty big “buzz” word right now.  So many people are trying juice cleanses, ordering green juices from cool juicing bars and shops, and making their own juices.  While juicing is super popular right now, this whole juicing thing is pretty new to me too!

I tried my first juice cleanse about a month ago, and while I didn’t have the experience I expected I enjoyed finding juices that I really did enjoy!

I really enjoyed the Time Machine and Warrior juices and the Relax cashew milk!

A couple of weeks ago, Williams-Sonoma asked me to participate in a brief Q & A about juicing, and because I absolutely adore Williams-Sonoma and I just recently did a juice cleanse I thought it would be a good idea for me to participate.

Here is what they wanted to know!

1.    You mentioned that you just finished your first juice cleanse, how was your experience? Anything you could recommend to someone who is starting their juicing journey and anything you wouldn’t recommend?

Completing my first juice cleanse was definitely eye opening.  As a person who truly enjoys the way fruits and vegetables taste naturally (I’ve been known to chomp on pieces of plain romaine lettuce as a snack…) I was absolutely shocked when I found many of the juices unpalatable.  My two biggest pieces of advice to anyone completing a juice cleanse would be to make sure to do it when you don’t have to be overly active and try the juices first if possible.  I did the cleanse during a three day span where I was able to stay away from the gym and give my workouts a break, but my life was very go-go-go at that point and I found myself lacking energy.  Also, I really wish I would have liked the juices because I wanted to successfully complete my juice cleanse all the way.  Unfortunately, after 2 days of not being able to drink all the juices and having very low energy, I had to add food into my diet on day 3.  This is a link to the full post about my juice cleansing experience.

2.    When you made your first juice how did you decide on a recipe? Was there a combination of fruits and veggies that you thought would be good and it ended up not tasting great?

I actually have never made juice, but due to my serious love of homemade smoothies I am very intrigued with the idea of home juicing.  I really think I could get into making my own juice blends, BUT I really don’t think we have any extra counter space or storage space in our little apartment for yet ANOTHER kitchen appliance 🙂 In my smoothies, I love adding big handfuls of raw spinach or kale, raw carrots, mashed cooked sweet potato, pumpkin puree, and steamed cauliflower to add a little nutrition punch in my morning drink.

As far as surprising flavors when it comes to JUICES, I was actually shocked that I enjoyed the Urban Remedy Time Machine juice blend which consists of acai, lemon, cayenne, and stevia.  It tasted like a spicy lemonade and I while that sounds totally weird I really enjoyed it.  Flavors that I didn’t think tasted so great were many of the juices with cucumber, which is so weird because I LOVE cucumbers.

If you ARE juicing at home and looking for recipes and tips, Williams-Sonoma has an amazing juicing section on their site with tips, recipes, and basically anything you need to know about juicing at home.

Look at all these juice combinations!

3.    It seems juicing fresh juice could be a lot of work, which could discourage someone who is interested in starting a juicing journey. How long does it take for you to juice your favorite recipe? Have you found a way that makes it less time consuming?

Because this whole juicing thing is new to me and I haven’t juiced at home I am going to speak from experience with my smoothie making.  Smoothie making can take a little time when you factor in clean up and figuring out what type of smoothie you want to make, but I think it’s kind of like anything else…with a little practice as you continue to get better at juicing or smoothie making the process speeds itself up 🙂  To make things less time consuming, I always make sure to have frozen fruit in the freezer, I chop up my bananas and put them in a giant baggie to store in the freezer as soon as I bring them home from the store, and I try to keep my blender in an easy-to-access spot.

Another thing that makes a HUGE difference when smoothie making (and I’m sure juicing is the same) is having a quality blender.  I know there a many different quality blenders (like Vitamix, Blendtec, and Ninja) and juicers out there, so I think finding the machine that you love that fits your budget is definitely a wise investment if you plan on juicing/making smoothies regularly.  Having a quality blender will save you SO much time 🙂

Thanks so much to Williams-Sonoma for reaching out to me and for starting the juicing conversation!

So, now it’s your turn!

• What is your experience with the whole juice/juicing craze?
• Have you tried it?  Yay or nay?
• If you’ve got any juicing recipes for the blender I would love to try one out!