My favourite morning green juice

I have recently cut meat out of my diet totally as a challenge to see if it made me feel better. It did and still does. But one of the withdrawals of cutting meat out of your diet totally is that you need to ensure you are still getting all of your daily nutrients but from a different source. Iron deficiency is something that is quite common in women in their 20's and 30's (thanks periods) and can be counteracted by eating a portion of red meat, maybe once a week. Now I needed to find the same amount of iron but not from meat.

When I first told people I was cutting meat out of my diet completely the usual scaremongering started, "Oh you won't get enough iron, you'll become anaemic" is something I heard surprisingly more than once. Initially I ignored these comments and ploughed through, feeling full of energy for the first few weeks but then my energy levels started to wain, and I started to think the critics were right. Needless to say I wasn't going to give up, I hadn't felt so good in myself in ages, so I started thinking. One idea I came up with was juicing. I had tried juicing before with a big old bulky juicer, but the hassle of cleaning it every single time I used it usually meant I was cleaning for longer than I was juicing so as you can imagine that habit didn't last long. I had taken green juice before in the form of Amazing Grass Superfood powder and I can hands down say it is one of the main things that helped me get through my Masters, it gave me so much energy, so  I knew juicing could work for me.

So I bought a Nutribullet. My idea was if I could make sure I was getting as many nutrients as possible first thing, then I had to benefit from it. I stocked up on loads of fruit and vegetables, mainly greens and started to play around with recipes. My juice has now replaced my breakfast and I drink it first thing on an empty stomach. I believe that this helps the goodies assimilate into your bloodstream (or wherever they need to go) much faster than taking it after food. It is important to ensure that you have a balance of fruit and vegetable in your juice, as the sugar from fruit juice can damage your teeth.

The Ultimate Green Smoothie

> 2 handfuls of washed spinach

> 1 green apple

> 1/2 cucumber

> 1 cup of coconut water

Add one if you want

>> 1 kiwi

>> 1 pear

>> 1 banana

>> 125g blueberries