Sunday, August 4, 2013

Shrink and Juice™: No More Soggy Salads

If you thought Lucy and Ethel are funny, you've got to check out

Shrink and Juice: No More Soggy Salads

 for our version of an I Love Lucy Adventure



On the more serious side, Toni Bloom RD at Center for Thoughtful Weight Loss (www.thoughtfulweightloss.com) tells us the pros and cons of Juicing in…

To Juice or Not to Juice…That is the Question

Juicing sure is popular these days and when my clients ask me for recipes and tips, they seem shocked I’m not a “juicer”.  I don’t mean to disappoint, it’s just that I like to eat and chewing makes me happy.  So long as a food tastes yummy and has some nutritional value, it’s on my list of go-to items.

Since I’ve shocked a few more clients than I care to this past month, I thought I’d put my juicing thoughts into a simple pro/con layout.  Here goes and you can decide for yourself what you want to eat (or juice); you usually do!

Pro-Juicing

- You include fruits and/or vegetables you may not ever otherwise buy and consume.
- You start juicing when you decide to start exercising and that 1-2 punch can be effective.
- You eat breakfast (an easy time to juice) and that’s been shown to help with weight loss.
- You feel “good” about juicing, are motivated and empowered, all things that help health.
- Your vitamin, mineral, phytonutrient (beneficial plant compounds) and fiber intake increases, all great nutrition improvements.

Con-Juicing

- It requires another kitchen apparatus and my job is to help change food choices not kitchen equipment.
- You think it’s the juice that helps with weight loss but it’s the switch to low calorie foods.
- You don’t focus on learning portion control on the foods you struggle to eat moderately and that back-fires when the juice interest wanes.
- You miss chewing and some of your favorite foods, and that backfires too.
- You don’t learn how to include those fruits and vegetables in a solid form as part of an everyday breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Since most people tend to eat more fruits than they do vegetables, consider making vegetables a primary part of your juicing. It’s smart to start out with a small amount of vegetable(s) in your juice and then increase the vegetable to fruit ratio over time as your palate adjusts.  Vegetables (and fruits) with higher water content are the ones that work best for juicing.  The most commonly used juicing vegetables are:
- Cucumbers
- Carrots
- Spinach
- Cabbage
- Kale
- Tomato
- Broccoli (yes, broccoli)

A few more tips to make it easier to squeeze in the veggies:
- Roll the leafy green leaves into a tight roll for easy placement in your juicer.
- Leave skins on all veggies (and fruits) if they are edible; this adds fiber and more nutrients.
- Add a few cubes of ice; flavors are often more mild when the juice is cold.

Wait 'til Ricky and Fred see this!
- When juicing hard veggies, do it between softer items so the juicer doesn’t clog.
- Get rid of extras by adding vegetable or salad “leftovers” from your last meal or two.

Happy Juicing!

Ellen Resnick, LCSW is a psychotherapist in private practice in San Francisco and Redwood City, California. She specializes in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and incorporates the use of mindfulness into the treatment of depression, anxiety, and emotional overeating. She runs a holistic weight loss program called Center for Thoughtful Weight Loss, www.thoughtfulweightloss.com. You can email Ellen at ellen@thoughtfulweightloss.com and follow her on Twitter at @thoughtfullellen. You can also follow Ellen’s weight loss board on Pinterest at pinterest.com/ellenresnick/

Toni Bloom, MS, RD has been a registered dietitian in private practice for 18 years. Her specialty is helping people improve their eating habits and views of food so that they accomplish their nutrition and health goals. Toni’s typical clients are lowering their weight, blood pressure, cholesterol or glucose levels. In addition to coaching clients, Toni is a sports nutrition instructor at San Jose State. In her spare time, Toni enjoys playing with her three young sons and golfing with her husband.

Copyright © 2013 Ellen N. Resnick, LCSW

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