(Part 3) Top products from r/Juicing

I've read that wheatgrass thrives in cooler weather. My first batch has done surprisingly well in the middle of summer (It averages around 80-85 here in West Virginia). My setup is on a table on my back porch. It is shaded almost all day until 6 pm or so. I water it once a day until the tray leaks.

The kit I purchased included trays, soil and azomite. This product is amazing. I'm used to store bought wheatgrass that is grown in a small 4" by 4" container on some kind of absorbent pad (absorbent pad = no nutrients). This soil and azomite produces some amazing stuff.

I feel great. I've been taking between 2 and 4 oz. of straight wheatgrass for the past several days, and I look and feel excellent. I am trying to clean up my diet and some other bad habits. Once I do, I think the effect of the grass will be even greater.

Here is a pretty simple vid on growing.

And this is the kit I used, and have had success with. It includes a book and detailed instructions.

Good luck! Let me know how it goes.

> check out [1] my personal site for what i've been doing for the last 3 x 60 day juice fasts (currently on day 34/60 - with 182 days juicing thus far). I am averaging 12 cups per day (that's 4 cups per serving, 3 times per day). My [2] BMI is currently 29.9 if yours is higher you may want to consider drinking more. Here are [3] my tips for helping you calculate this.... in the end if you are feeling hungry drink more.

I have actually been reading your personal site and lurking the subreddit for about a week now. I also watched the ~2 hour interview with you on I forget which site. Some really good stuff here! As a programmer myself, I love your logical, calculated method and approach.

My BMI is really close to yours (30.7).

When I look at recipes on other sites, it seems that they usually yield only 1-2 cups as opposed to your 4. How are others juicing? 6 servings @ 2 cups? 8 servings @ 1.5 cups?

> Calculate your calories and nutrition that you are getting using WolframAlpha - [4] tips on that here.. Recipes that I use daily are [5] here and [6] here ... I also [7] take these supplements to account for anything I may be missing.

> I sit in front a computer all day, every day. To date I've lost 82.3lbs ... and that's without the aid of elective surgical procedures, magic pills, expensive special foods or working out. Simply juice and discipline. I went from 3,000-5,000 calories per day to 600-800 calories per day. [8] Use WolframAlpha to calculate everything!

That post was super helpful, thank you so much for putting it together. Again, this is exactly the way I like information presented.

Now, I'm no nutritionist or doctor, but by consuming only 600-800 calories a day - are you not creating too much of a caloric deficit? Do you experience the same increased energy levels that all of the other juicers speak of even with such low calories?

My BMR is 2002 cal/day, and as I plan on doing ~1 hour of light cardio a day while I am juicing (and plan to continue once I am done of course) - that would put me at "lightly active"/"moderately active" 2753-3103 cal/day. What do you think would be the appropriate calorie intake (# or %) for me to maximize weight loss without killing myself / having no energy?

> I make my juices in batches 8 cups x 3 meals = 24 cups of juice. I make dinner for the evening, breakfast for the next day and lunch for the next day all in one juicing cycle (for all these it's about an hour of juicing) - [9] check out the equipment I use for containers (storage and transport) - avoid using metals - metal is great for water but not so much for juices.

That system would work perfectly for me, as I think it would be way too time consuming to do it in the morning before work. I figured metal was probably not the best idea, I just invested in some of these Aquasana AQ-6000 27oz Glass Water Bottles to store juice when I go to work / wherever else I need to "eat". I'll let the community know how they turn out as the reviews are somewhat mixed.

Some other questions that came up for you (and anyone else who would like to contribute):

1. What are the best "bang-for-the-buck" fruits / vegetables in terms of vitamin / mineral content per $ or volume of juice?
   
   
2. I have read that you should say good-bye to caffeine before starting a juice fast. I drink ~6-8 cups of green tea a day. Any idea if that is okay?
   
   
3. In addition to the juices, how much water (on average) do you drink a day?

Couple of comments on a juicer:

I own a Breville I think it is a good juicer but cleanup creates such a chore I think it discourages my use of it.

I have investigated and believe the Champion Juicer is a better all around fit as it requires very little in the way of constant maintenance and its cost is in line.

Here is the link - http://www.amazon.com/Heavy-Duty-Commercial-Juicer-Color-Black/dp/B000E4C53M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373289445&sr=8-1&keywords=champion+juicer

I have met the owner of they company at a ExpoWest and they seem to have a passion for the Champion product.

I also like the pulp - so in general I use my Blendtec constantly and keep the fiber - I know many would say this is not juicing and perhaps they are correct.

AMZCHEF Slow Masticating Juicer Cold Press Juicer Extractor Machine Slow Juicer Vertical Reverse Function Quiet Motor Big Feed Chute|Vegetable&Fruit|Juice Jug & Brush 56RPM BPA-Free https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TC59WH2/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_ff4TDbFBQDYA2

This is what I got and it works great. I'm pretty sure it's a clone of the breville Big Squeeze at less than half the cost. I haven't ran into any issues so far, and if I do I bought the optional 3 year warranty as well.

It's a slow juicer so you get all the benefits of that, and a bigger yield.

One great way to determine the nutrients you are getting from your juice is to use Wolfram Alpha. (Israel pointed this out a few weeks ago). Here is a typical example of my daily juice intake. You can see a very detailed breakdown of every macronutrient and micronutrient present in the raw ingredients you are preparing. Based on the type of juicer you are using, you also have to factor in a 60%-90% nutrient yield (how much of these nutrients are ending up in the juice vs. being left in the pulp).

In any case, you can see that juicing provides a more than adequate level of all necessary nutrients (yes, including the protein that most people ignorantly freak out about). You can also see if you're hitting a favorable Omega3-Omega6 ratio like I am here.

I wouldn't fret too much over recipes. Start with any recipes you find online, then continue with buying a bunch of fruits and vegetables and make what tastes good to you. Run them through Wolfram Alpha and see how they pan out on a nutritional level as well.

EDIT: I almost forgot... I also take a daily multivitamin as well as a daily sublingual B12 tablet to make sure all of my bases are covered.

I gave up juicing for a while just because it was so much work. One thing that's helped me out is making one drink at a time instead of a whole pitcher-full. I don't use the pitcher at all anymore, in fact. I bought several plastic shaker bottles from Bed Bath and Beyond and they fit perfectly under the spout. My juice consistency has gone way up. This along with using produce bags in the waste bin has made clean up a breeze and saves me a lot of time.

Here's an amazon link to the bottles i use. They're good on the go as well.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000GFSUXS/ref=mp_s_a_50?qid=1335508348&sr=8-50

I got some bags like this for Christmas and they keep my greens pretty fresh. Green Bags.

I use a pineapple slicer like this which is great for getting the meaty part of the pineapple out with no mess; then I squeeze the rest of the pineapple to get about half a cup of pineapple juice from it - after all is said and done I make sure to strain the whole juice for a super smooth drink. (usually I split one pineapple into two 32oz juice blend servings)

Good question to ask.

Thrive and Thrive Fitness have more on building muscle on a vegan diet.

More science behind not needing meat is in Eat To Live.

Body weight doesn't tell me my progress. Needing smaller belts does.

Get one of these. I've stored kale for close to two weeks before, works really well (takes up a good deal of space in the fridge, though).

I would recommend the [L'Equip 480 Watts Mini Pulp Ejection Juicer] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000DDVN4/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0000DDVN4&linkCode=as2&tag=campingquartermaster-20&linkId=SUA2YXLHFFUCUGO5). It's $100, has a 10 year warranty, and has all metal parts which is uncommon for this price range.

for vegetables, I use this: http://www.amazon.com/OXO-Grips-Flexible-Vegetable-Brush/dp/B00004OCL2

for the mesh screen, I use one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Scotch-Brite-Products-Heavy-Duty-baked-Top-selling/dp/B004E2RXPA

in my experience, green scrubbies work so much better for cleaning off the mesh than a brush does.

It is supposed to absorb toxins here is a link to what im talking about
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00016XI7A/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00016XI7A&linkCode=as2&tag=tgg051-20

sorry for the long link

nope. The two functions are juicing with the one filter/screen and making a paste, puree or flour with the other. There is technically a pasta making nozzle, for feeding a gluten pasta dough through the corkscrew part of the juicer, but i've never tried that seems like a pain to me. Maybe others can comment on that function. I am too cheap to buy a new appliance for raw noodles, I just use a regular vegetable peeler or a julienne peeler to make them.

I literally just got done using the one mom had. this is the first time i have juiced and it is not what i thought it would be and right now i'm just chocking it up to it being a bad juicer. these are my thought on it so far.

• The pulp that comes out is very quite wet and from what i have been reading it should be fairly dry. (to give you an idea of how wet I could make a ball from the pulp without it falling apart). I even ran the pulp through a second time and got about 4oz of juice from it.
  
  
• I don't know if it is normal with other juicers but the juice it produced I ended up pouring through a strainer to remove pulp. It quickly clogged the strainer and i has to rinse the strainer and repeat 4x times (i made 64oz of juice)
  
  
• Clean up took almost longer then it took to make the juice i had pulp all around the rim between the top piece where you put the food and the bottom piece that had the spout. (I don't consider my self a messy person my any means) Also there is about an 1/8in all around where the hopper, that catches the pulp, and the rest of the machine meet. So some of the pulp flew out the crack.
  
  
• it stalled when trying to juice and orange
  
  For reference this is the one I used
  
  here too (mouse over image)

You're not doing anything wrong, masticating juicers just put out a somewhat pulpy juice.

I don't think straining is imperative, but I don't like the texture of pulp in my juice so I use this strainer and it is awesome.

It takes no time at all to dump the container of collected juice through (with a little stirring if it's particularly pulpy). If I'm making a bigger batch, I strain it into a big pitcher.