I Juice? Part 2 – Suja and Whole Food Juice Reviews.

Greetings and Salutations.  I realize this post is many days behind the initial post on my second/third juicing experience.  I have no excuse.  I suck.  But, better late than never!  As I mentioned in the first part of this post, I juice? Still? Seriously? https://prettydamnuseful.wordpress.com/2013/07/21/i-juice/, I strayed from just Blueprint juices this time around.  Actually – I only had one Blueprint Juice, the Cinnamon Cashew Milk and we all know from the first time around, I find this drink to be heavenly.  This time around I mixed juices from Suja and Whole Foods to create my own custom, you don’t have a damn degree in juicing either, cleanse.  So for all you blueprinters or first time users of these products, here are my thoughts on the juices I tried from each brand.

One last note, I tried to follow the Blueprint type format So each day I drank 3 green juices, 2 fruit juices, and a nut milk.

 

The Suja Cleanse Juice Line.

Suja Juices

So, overall, the Suja juices were comparable to Blueprint juices.  The Suja juices were cheaper at whole foods, $6.99 a bottle in comparison to $8.99 a bottle and the nut milk (almond coconut) was also $6.99 in comparison to the $11.99 price tag on the Cinnamon Cashew Milk.  I’d like to make one note, the Suja juices are named by their benefit (I guess) so the cute names aren’t mine.  I actually found them annoying because I had to try to remember what’s in them and the name.  Just a nit.  Here’s brief overview of the juices I tried:

• Green Supreme – This was supposed to be the last green juice of the day.  I didn’t look that up until day 2, so I started with this juice.  Oh well.  This can be described as Salad in a bottle.  If you like the Kale Blueprint juice – you’ll like this one.  If you don’t like that one, you won’t.  It wasn’t particularly sweet and while I like green juice, my experience is most people find this one to be outright yucky.   Nina found it to be “grassy”.
• Glow – This was still salad in a bottle, not much sweeter than the Blueprint green juice and while it had some extra stuff, tasted very similarly to Green Supreme.
• FIJI – Not sure I could differentiate between this one and Glow.
• Fuel – Tastes like carrots.  If you like carrots, you’ll like this one.  If you don’t, you won’t, but as the second juice of the day, it is no PAM (Pineapple Apple Mint from Blueprint).
• Vanilla Cloud – The Suja answer to the Cinnamon Cashew Milk…. For $5 less, it passes and it is good, sweet, and filling.  It is however, not nearly as heavenly as the Cinnamon Cashew Milk.  However, don’t get me wrong, it is very very good – especially after a day of basically vegetable juices.
• Purify – I didn’t touch it with a 10 foot pole.  This kid does NOT do beets.

Whole Food Juices

Whole Foods Fresh Squeezed Juices

Whole Foods also has a line of fresh pressed juices.  While I was staring at the dwindling juice choices in the aisle, another helpful customer pointed out the Whole Foods Juices stating they were cheaper, but she wouldn’t drink them because they aren’t Organic.  I find that hard to believe.  Isn’t everything at Whole Foods Organic?  Either way, they were cheaper and available and organic or not – I do not really care.  I believe on my trip their juice bottles were in the $5.99/$6.99 range.  Also, they have cute names, but for some irrational reason they don’t irritate me as much as the Suja names.  My peeves don’t have to make sense, they are mine.   I tried two of the juices there:

• Greens with Envy: Contains: Green Kale, Curly Parsley, Baby Spinach, Broccoli, Cucumber, Bartlett Pears, Pineapples, Lemon.  This green juice was actually quite sweet to me.  I think the pineapple made the difference, but it was DEFINITELY sweeter than either the Blueprint or the Suja green juices.  It almost felt like a green juice cheat.  It was good though.  I couldn’t say much about the nutritional information because the label wasn’t detailed enough to compare to the other brands, but this is definitely the most delicious of the juices, especially for green juice haters.
• Belly Rub:  Contains: Green Cabbage, Bartlett Pears, Pineapples, Curly Parsley, Fresh Mint, Fresh Ginger.  This was the closest thing to PAM I found.  A co-worker examined the bottle and reminded me that the cabbage diet was used to and I quote “clean you right out” so I should be careful.  Between you and me, this juice gave me killer gas.  I actually had to excuse myself to the bathroom and then wait it out until empty to “unload”.  I guess cabbage can be quite brutal.  The juice was tasty, but may be best consumed when you are not likely to be in public or around people that can hear or smell for a while.

My final verdict – if you want to save a little money over Blueprint (and it’s actually cheaper at your store)  go for Suja.  It seemed to be basically same difference to me and the juices were pretty tasty.  If you REALLY hate green juice, ease into it with the Whole Foods Greens With Envy.  It’s much less Salad in a Bottle.  If you are a regular juicer, this may seem a bit on the sweet end of the spectrum for you.

In my next post – I’ll talk about my four/five-ish day experience and how it compared to the first juice cleanse I did.  I shall call this post Juice Angry.  Juice Crazy.  Juice Happy.

For more information on Suja Cleanses see: http://www.sujajuice.com/collections/juice-cleanses

For more information on Whole Foods juices see: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/service/cold-pressed-raw-juice

I Juice? Still? Seriously?

Apparently, I do.

After my first fiasco with Blueprint Cleanse, you figured I’d never ever juice again even though I told you It was pretty da** useful.  You figured I’d given up juicing for life because as my co-workers said, I got Juice Angry.  But alas dear readers, you forget the power of the mind to FORGET and gloss-over old pains.  So, I juiced again.  Twice and….drumroll, it didn’t exactly suck.  The second time was a moral support to a friend (I’ll Call her Nina) also juicing, the third time round was just me.   There’s so much I want to share of this juicing experience that I shall drag it out into 3, yes THREE posts.  In this first post, I’m simply going to tell you about my process this time, I did a bit of mixing up :).  In the next post, I’ll tell you about the NEW juices I tried and their yum factor alone and relative to Blueprint.  In the final post, we’ll talk about the actual experience, what changed from the last time, and my takeaways.

So, if you’re not weeks early in deciding to order and hate paying shipping (I am both), you can still buy juices from Blueprint at Whole Foods.  As I trooped off to buy my three day cleanse juices (starting Monday – purchased on Sunday), I realized this juice thing has REALLY taken off.  So much so that all of the juices I’d need for the Blueprint Foundation cleanse (no icky Beet Juice for me) weren’t available.  They were TOTALLY out of green juice, PAM, and the lemonade.  So a better description is the only things left were that horrifying beet juice and the heavenly Cashew Cinnamon milk.  I was screwed.  I then noticed two things, a brand called Suja and that Whole Foods had their own juices.  So of course, I made myself an expert and created my OWN combination cleanse.  I purchased Suja green juices (Green Supreme, FIJI, and GLOW), Suja Carrot Juice, Whole Foods green juice (Greens with Envy), Whole foods fruity juice (Belly Rub), and Whole Foods Carrot/Apple/Ginger juice.  I purchased a combination of the Suja Vanilla Cloud Coconut Almond (2), and the Blueprint Cashew Cinnamon (1).  So, I guess all in all, I did a combo Suja/Whole Foods juice cleanse.  The formula I determined was somewhat simple, probably wrong, but I’d try to follow the Blueprint format – mostly.  Green Juice, Fruity Juice, Green Juice, Fruity Juice, Green Juice, Nut Milk.  After the checkout guy ensured me I was insane to only have juice for three days and I made sure to stock up on cucumbers just in case, I took my juice home and prepared for my first day of cleansing by ordering a pizza.  Yum.  Yum.

For more information on the Blueprint Cleanse: http://blueprintcleanse.com/choose-your-cleanse

Don’t forget to read the next installment – Juice Angry.  Juice Crazy.  Juice Happy.   The Experience.

Super Green Smoothies for the rest of us – It will change your mind about drinking green stuff…

I am in a constant war to try to get in a sufficient amount of fruit and vegetables – as i’m sure the majority of you are as well.  I choose to do a green smoothie almost every morning and it really gets me PUMPED.  Now, if you’ve read me a while, you know i’m no health freak and I’m very particular about the color and consistency of my food.  So, at first the thought of drinking vegetables in a GREEN thick mixture – made me want to throw up in my mouth.  I’ve found many ways to make this actually quite delicious.  So, if you need some more vegetables, have a blender, and are willing to give it a whirl with me.  Read on.

The Super Smoothie…

Super Smoothie – Unblended

I know Juicing is all the fad, but let’s be real.  I’m lazy and buying all that stuff just to extract the juice is just to damn much.  I much prefer a smoothie.  I like to get the fiber, don’t mind the grainier texture and with A’s overpriced, but amazing Vitamix – I get a smooth meal everytime.  I loaded this smoothie with EVERYTHING (and I do mean EVERYTHING) I’d need to stay healthy.  Here were my ingredients:

• A ton of Kale greens (Spinach/Chard/Whatever) When I have my massive bag of Kale, i use fresh.  I also keep frozen spinach always just in case.
• Frozen Mango/Raspberry (this can be any fruit combo.  I like mango because it’s strong enough of a taste to break down some of the greens)  Lots of people use banana because as you know if you add banana to anything it tastes like banana, but it’s a pretty starchy veggie.  Crisp granny apples are also good.  Berry mixtures are good too, but beware blueberries mixed with the greens make the smoothie a brownish color that MIGHT just be more offensive than green.
• Ground FlaxSeed – Get those Omega 3’s!
• Aloe Vera Juice
• Fish Oil (totally optional) but if you try to take it and the fishy burps assail you, try putting it in the smoothie
• Lemon juice (again optional, but can help balance taste depending on what fruit you add)
• Water or Coconut Water – I add Coconut water when I know I’m dehydrated and want to up my hydration game.  Regular old H20 is cool too.  Add more or less depending on how thick you want your smoothie.

Tastes too greeny – ewww…  Try adding one or more of these

• Agave Nectar – adds some sweet – WARNING this stuff is MUCH sweeter than you will realize.  Use sparingly at first.
• Splenda – if you’re not a chemical purist, it does help to add a few packets
• Truvia/Stevia – if you like it, this works too.  I find it has a bit of an aftertaste, but that’s just me.  I’m a splenda gal.  Give me my chemicals.
• Crystal Light Lemonade – again, if you aren’t offended by chemicals, this is a quick fix to get some extra lemon flavor without squeezing lemons.
• Honey – does same as any sweetener
• Ginger – especially if you use apple or mango as your fruit, adds a lovely zip.
  

  The final Super Smoothie Product – Tastes better than it looks – I promise.

Jazz it up with … (do not recommend all these at once, experiment!)

• Almonds (optional) – If you want some extra protein, soak some almonds and throw them in.
• Protein Powder (vanilla, optional) – again if you want to boost the amount of protein.  I usually throw a scoop of vanilla or berry flavored vega smoothie powder in
• Greek Yogurt (plain or vanilla fat free) – I prefer the plain in my smoothies, adds a nice little zip

Optional Ingredients depending on if you have some issues like I have some issues

• When you just can’t go (you know…go) add Miralax (it doesn’t make you go, it makes it EASIER to go — and I can’t abide castor oil)
• Want some more green power – Green Powder (Super Foods) try this slowly (adding just a bit) the green powder can add a super greeny taste you won’t expect
• emergen-c – I typically add this to up my vitamins and boost the immune and hell, why not.

Now, add to blender, mix, taste, mix, taste, mix, taste, add water, taste – BAM…Super Smoothie.  You’ll have at least ONE meal of your days packed with veggies and other stuff that will get you MOVING (in more ways than one depending on what you add).  It took me a few smoothies to get my preferred ingredients right and the taste I like, but it’s well worth it.

Good Luck and Let me know how it works for you!