Juicing and Fitness with #CurrysIntroJuicing

After my less than successful "Juice Cleanse", you may think I never want to see another juice in my life! But although I've come to the conclusion that I disagree with an extreme all juice low calorie diet (duh), adding colourful and healthy juices to your everyday diet can only be a good thing.

Therefore I was pretty enthusiastic about #CurrysIntroJuicing, an evening of fun fitness workouts and getting creative with some awesome Philips juicers.

The evening started off with a Juicing Nutrition talk from Derry Temple (who also led the workout later on). He gave us a good brief overview on the positive and negative sides to juicing and how a juiced-up diet can be a great complement to exercise (the event was not advocating juice fasts, in fact I asked straight out Derry's opinion which was a resounding no, so there you go...).

Here are some of my take-away-tips on how Juicing and Fitness can work together...

Before exercise juices are great as they're more easily absorbed and the digestive system doesn't have to work as hard to break down the fruit.
Juices also help you get your 8 a day, and they are packed full of vitamins and minerals.

Juices offer the body increased absorption of micronutrients such as Vitamin C, which can be found in oranges, kiwi, broccoli, spinach etc and helps to boost the immune system.

Enzymes in the fruit and vegetables dilate the blood vessels and improve blood flow helping to carry those nutrients round the body for your workout.
Antioxidants also neutralise free radicals brought on by physical stress post workout.

Magnesium in green vegetables stop muscle cramps.
Potassium rich juices (from ingredients like carrots, sweet potato and melon) contain electrolytes which also limit cramps, and fight fatigue and headaches.

For post-workout recovery protein is important for muscles repair, and green juices contain the most protein. To increase this add chia seeds, nut milk or protein powder.

Bear in mind that there are negatives- juices made entirely of fruits contain high levels of fructose (sugar), and juices generally aren't "whole foods" (you need protein and fat too). The removal of pulp creates a lack of fibre as well.

But it's great to know what you're putting in your body- no artificial sweeteners or colours such as some sports drinks- and lots of great tasting fruit and vegetables!

The juice that I made was a simple combo- 2 apples, half a cucumber, a handful of strawberries and a handful of raspberries. I call it "Red and Green" 🙂

If you want to give some of the other recipes we made on the night a try, here are a few suggestions: