juicing

I’m not really a person who runs from fad to fad. I bought my neon orange cross-body bag last summer before shades of tangerine tango were omnipresent. I was late to the Facebook, twitter, foursquare game. I don’t try to get reservations at the hot new restaurant anywhere close to opening night. And when it comes to breakthrough diets and revolutionary eating plans, they definitely do not appeal to me.

I had heard people talk about “juicing” but the idea of a juice cleanse did not appeal to me. Until a week ago, that is. I was inspired by the spintastic Ingrid at Biker Barre, who did a five-day cleanse last week and still managed to teach some of the most kick ass classes at the studio. A juice cleanse, one that really allows you to drink your fruits and vegetables sounded appealing to me, unlike the Master Cleanse Gwyneth Paltrow swears by, though she can do it because she has servants to run her life while she hallucinates on a diet of lemon water with cayenne.

I’m following the BluePrint Cleanse (BPC) but instead of purchasing their pre-made juices, I’m making my own, in my new juicer, at a fraction of the cost. (BPC charges $11/bottle x 6 bottles/day for 3-5 days. That’s a lot of shoe money.) After consulting both Consumer Reports and my most recent edition of Food and Wine Magazine, I purchased the Hamilton Beach Big Mouth Juice Extractor. This juicer scored one point lower than the highest rated model but at a lower price point.

I have the BPC recipes and I chose to do the introductory version (“Renovation”) for three days because I’m not quite as hard core as Ingrid. And because I love solid food.

If you want to come over this weekend for a jar of green juice (kale, apples, romaine leafs, celery, cucumber, parsley, spinach and lemon juice) or maybe a concoction of beets, carrots, and ginger, you are more than welcome. But please don’t bring a bottle of wine or vodka. I’m sure spiking your green juice is very much against the rules.