Ellie left a comment on the blog asking me ‘What do you use to juice your veggies?’ and I thought I’d share my answer in a blog post for you to read easily too.

Hiya Ellie! I did a lot of research before finally choosing my juicer.  I bought it ooh way back in ummm 2005 I think it was and it was the best investment ever.  In fact, a few months ago I hauled it down to my friend Maggie’s in Devon with me and she was so impressed with it, she bought one too! *lol*

It’s a masticating juicer called an Oscar Vitalmax and you can buy them off Amazon – here’s my affiliate link if you want to go take a look – http://bit.ly/4oAcbB.

Why did I buy the Oscar Vitalmax?

• Well its motor is guaranteed for 10 years so it meant it was sturdy – handy as frequently I’m juicing 4 or 5 times a day.
• It juices wheatgrass.
• Because it masticates i.e ‘chews’ the vegetables slowly instead of being whizzed round at high speed like a centrifugal juicer does, it doesn’t heat the fruits and veggies up therefore your juice has a lot more of the nutrients in it.  If you get a chance to see – take a look at the colour of juice from a centrifugal juicer next to one from a masticating juicer, it’s startling how much brighter the masticated juice is.
• I find the juice from the Oscar is also a lot less frothy and it stays ‘good’ to drink for a lot longer because it hasn’t been heated – definitely 24 hrs if kept in a fridge or if you pour it into a thermos that has been chilled beforehand.  This is great if you need to go out for the day or weekend and are doing a juice feast – just make a huge batch and bung some ice cubes in the thermos and take your meals with you!

Any negatives?

• The chute isn’t very wide, so you do have to spend some time cutting your fruit and veg to fit but that doesn’t take long.  I spend heaps longer prepping and cooking a ‘normal’ meal for my kids than doing a juice for me
• It does struggle if you’re doing a lot of soft fruit or veg – pineapple I find challenging as the fibres clog the filter.  To help get round this, when I push the fruit and veg through the juicer, I alternate it all so i have some soft then hard to help push the mushy ones through.  Otherwise, I do have to stop it and give the filter a scrub with the brush to get it all moving again.

Would I buy the Oscar Vitalmax juicer again? Yes! Why?

• I like the way it looks *lol*  I have it in chrome but I think it comes in other colours and am happy to have it sat on the worktop all the time
• I find it easy to clean – alllll the time I hear people moaning about how time consuming or hard it is to clean their juicers.  This machine is made up of about 5 parts that slot together, the only ‘fiddly’ bit to clean is the filter and they give you a sturdy brush to clean it.  *TOP TIP* always, always, always, clean your juicer STRAIGHT AWAY.  If you can’t wait the two minutes it takes to clean it before drinking your juice, put the bits in a sink or bowl of water to soak in until you do it.  When I clean the filter, I do it with the brush under some running water.
• The juice it produces is excellent quality and the pulp comes out nearly dry and apparently can be used in raw recipes but I’ve not done that yet
• It’s not too noisy and very easy to use

There are a lot more juicers on the market now but please remember, any juicer is better than no juicer, so just buy the best you can afford now.  It may also be worth trawling classified ads for those people who had good intentions then never used their juicer and are selling them!  Always bargains around

If you have specific questions you need help with on getting started with either juicing or eating more raw, please let me know and I’ll do my best to answer.

The greener way to start your day (yes, you just KNOW it’s gonna start coming out that colour the other end too!).

Sarah’s Super Green Smoothie

• 1″ Root Ginger, peeled (more if you like it hotter)
• 1″ slice pineapple
• 1 courgette (zucchini)
• 2 generous handfuls kale
• 2 generous handfuls spinach
• chunk of lemon, unwaxed with rind on

Juice that lot up then pour into a blender and add

• half avocado
• half a small, peeled, frozen banana
• about tbsp of Udos oil
• 2 tsp Spirulina

Whizz it all up, pour and enjoy slowwwwwly

What does it taste like? Well it is sweet but the lemon and ginger help offset it and it is sort of thick and very filling which is what I wanted this morning to take the thought of toast and jam out of my head *lol*

Gawd ok, here’s the weigh in video I did yesterday morning – had a full on day and just felt like chilling out yesterday evening so didn’t get round to editing and publishing and uploading it until now!

Last week I was 10st 7lb / 147lb / 66.4kg and 35% body fat

This week I am 10st 5.5lb / 145.5lb / 66kg and 33% body fat

So although not a huge difference, there still IS a difference, despite my being on my period so it’s not completely horrendous.   I forgot to take my measurements so I’ll do those in the morning and update this post then.. better find the tape measure.

Positive changes I’ve noticed?  My hair and skin are softer, in fact my hair is a lot less frizzy.  My friends tell me I am looking more ‘sparkly’ and I just feel a lot lighter generally – so that’s great!

Sure I can do more.  And maybe I will do a short juice feast for  a few days.  Definitely writing my menu plan last week was a great help and so I need to sit and do it again as I’m SURE you’ve loved my recipe videos *grin*

To update you, as I’ve not been around much since last Thursday, I’ve been helping one of my sisters do a house clearance sale, packing and moving stuff so she can embark on a radical lifestyle change. I find clearing out the clutter is a great exercise, even if it’s not mine! How weird, eh? *lol*

The kids groaned though, as I came home and started going through our cupboards and also encouraging them to sort through their crap, I mean, treasures.

This evening, I’m probably going to have a go at listing stuff on eBay and also reselling some books via Amazon – am wondering if the effort/reward ratio is going to be incentive enough to do the whole lot or if I’ll end up carting it down to the local charity shop instead…

I just came across this very inspiring video via the website http://www.ToughLoveWeightLoss.com (Stephanie from that website had posted a comment on one of my YouTube videos) and have to share it with you.

It’s by watching videos like this from http://www.PureJeevan.com and making connections with others, like Stephanie and the lovely Jo who takes the time to keep in touch with me, that I feel motivated to just keep returning my focus on what I want – a healthy, vibrant me and I know raw foods is a crucial key to my success in achieving that.  Thanks guys!

Good morning!  I’ve just kick started my day off with a new raw juice recipe I’ve just made up.  I’m gonna call it The Refresher as, well.. it’s refreshing and surprisingly tasty *grin*

In it is…

• half a large cucumber
• one small courgette (zucchini)
• handful of spinach
• some parsley
• small wedge of lemon
• 1″ slice of pineapple
• 2″ broccoli stem

Oh and here’s another picture of it while it was being made!

I haven’t lost the plot really and these were SO good – I ate FOUR muhahahaha

In the video there are actually three recipes – one for marinated mushrooms (omg soooooo yummy), one for red pepper sauce from Kate Magic Wood’s Eat Smart Eat Raw book and finally putting it altogether for the RRRrrr! Lettuce Wraps.

Today has not been as productive as the rest of the week I think and this really is down to the fact I didn’t  drag my butt back out of bed and get my notepad to plan my day last night… that really HAS made a big difference for me.  So now I know I MUST do that to get more done.

So what have I been up to?  Well today a made granola – I soaked the nuts and seeds for it last night.  Yep, with this raw vegan food prep thing I do have to be a bit organised *groan* but hey, hopefully it will soon become a great habit and second nature to me…  well, ya never know *lol*

I also soaked some stuff to sprout and rinsed and drained them this morning and I’ll do it again this evening.. ummm I shall do a picture journey for you so you can see what’s going on there and I’ll show you the ‘timeline’ so to speak, at the end.

So yes, granola which is in the deyhdrator and now I’m stuffed full of lettuce wraps I’ll find it easier to stay away from snacking on it… so daft that I even tell myself  ‘Yes Sarah, you must just test a bit to see how much longer it needs’ – such a pork pie!

I went to see my sister Nicola this morning so had green tea instead of my juice then came home and made my Lush Lunchbox smoothie which I put on the blog earlier – sooooo mmmm…  I then had some time free that I could have squeezed some exercise into but ermmm went through all my emails instead and got completely distracted so that’s two days now where I haven’t really exercised apart from housework.  May have to make myself wake at 6am and start running again.  I hate the cold tho *sniff*

Ok, I’m off to relax and digest on the sofa now and breathe the most amazing garlic breath on any stray child that is foolish enough to come near me.  Oh, great news btw – I didn’t snack on their dinner when I made it!!!  (I am wondering when my bowels are going to start working more regularly though as I still feel incredibly fat and bloated at the moment… hmmm… maybe premenstrual? I hope so then it may magically disappear..  ooh talking about magic, I may actually buy a lottery ticket this weekend as it’s stupid figures in the euro I think.  Anyway I shall stop sharing my thoughts and b**ger off.  Byeeee x

I just made up another new smoothie and thought I’ll actually show you what it looks like AND name it *grin*

Ta dah! Introducing the RawRRR! Lush Lunchbox

In it is:

• 2 sticks of celery
• 1 tomato
• 1 small wedge of lemon with rind on (unwaxed)
• 1 red bell pepper (capsicum)
• 2″ / 5cm approx.  of broccoli stem
• 1/3 cucumber
• 1 sweet apple

Juice that little lot then pour it into your blender and whizz in half a small avocado and some icecubes.  Yummmm.

I have survived day three of my raw vegan challenge for February and celebrated my tortuous granny dodging outing in Tesco’s by making Matthew Kenney’s Portobello Steaks out of my haul.

Needless to say they were delicious – in fact I have one left over as I couldn’t eat three – eyes bigger than gut as usual *grin* and a top tip from my culinary experience with this receipe – mix the ingredients in a bowl BEFORE putting the mushrooms in.  I’m sure Matthew would roll his eyes that someone could be that dumb to have plonked the mushrooms in THEN sploshed everything in with them.  D’oh.. I will get better at this raw uncooking malarky I’m sure…

Anyway, enjoy the video and watch out for a very surprising cameo by my son.

Ok update from yesterday’s video.. gawd my memory is bad.  I remember doing really well umm maybe I should check my tweets – you can follow me at http://www.twitter.com/sarahcairncross btw.  I also remember having to cook sausage and mash with gravy for Spencer and well.. well that was the only bit of my day that wasn’t raw as omg I HAD to taste some mash, potatoes really are my downfall  

Never mind! Only a small blip and today I’ve done juices that I’ve made up on the spot – swampy was particularly yummy and I think tomorrow I’ll get the pictures off my camera and create a Flickr account for you to perv over them all.

I quite enjoy throwing stuff randomly together, on the whole they even taste pretty good *grin*

So I’m feeling quite pleased with myself at the moment and although I did scoff a few of the garlic prawns I made for the kids dinner tonight, I have eaten raw all the rest of the time AND drunk lots of water and I’m really enjoying it.

I am getting sugar cravings and have been eating medjool dates and also some macadamia nuts and dried cranberries but am conscious I need to not overdose on those things if I want to lose weight.  But hey, nuts and dates are a bloomin’ better than icecream and biscuits *lol*

Until tomorrowwwww… byeee 

‘ello

Well I survived the humiliation of getting in my bikini in yesterday’s video and have received some great supportive comments – so thank you x

I’ve just done a video for Day 2 which I’ll add now and I may put some more thoughts to this post at the end of the day…

If you didn’t catch it in the video, the books I talk about are below – they are clickable affiliate links to take you through to Amazon so you can find out more about them and buy if you fancy it:

Jason Vale – 7lbs in 7 Days Super Juice Diet

Ani Phyo – Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen

Jennifer Cornbleet – Raw Food Made Easy

And the juice I made up had in it:

• 4 large carrots
• piece of lemon with rind
• small chunk of ginger, peeled
• 1/3 cucumber
• 2 handfuls of curly kale

I do feel really tired again at the moment but am very pleased that Jack Canfield’s video that Heather sent me, is definitely working for me and highly recommend it!

• think about what you want to get done the next day
• write out a list
• put what time you are going to do for each item

This helped me as it focussed on what I wanted to do.  Made me think about what I could realistically achieve in one day – giving myself PLENTY of time for each thing, especially with stuff I know I’ll procrastinate about. And of course letting my subconscious think about it while I sleep seems to have weirdly help my resolve.  Now I just have to keep repeating the process *grin*… and of course I’ll let you know if I got everything done

Off to drink more water now, as I want to get at least 2 litres down my neck every day.  There is a cunning way to work out exactly how much water you should be drinking and will look it up for you in case you want to work it out.  I’m doing it as I know I’m dehydrated – just take a look at my skin.. and also as I’m detoxing, I want to make sure I flush as much of the crap out of my body as quickly as possible.  ERmmm ok, I really DO have to stop typing now as I need the loo again *lol*

Hiya, how you been?

Well after my very despondent, miserable moments in my last video, I’m feeling heaps better.

My help with the rent was approved so we don’t have to move YAY!  Which also means I don’t have to sell my lovely little mini just yet which is FAB news as it’s just so freaking cold still and the thought of having to walk everywhere would not be fun, or indeed the whining from my kids (and yes! she does start first time unless something comes loose).

Last night I started a new gratitude journal, writing in all things that I was grateful for that day, before I slept.  I also decided to write down what I wanted to get done the next day and spookily my sister Heather sent me a link to a video about this very subject this morning which I’ll post for you below.  It means I’m going to tweak this process so it’s more effective!

So last week I was focussing more on what I do have and would like to have more of in my life, after having a wonderful weekend in Devon and was reading an email from Raw Food Rehab (http://bit.ly/di6UDp) which is a great community group set up for people who are looking to specifically lose weight by adopting the raw food diet – check it out!  Anyway, Penni was talking about doing a 28 day challenge for February and it caught my attention and I mulled it over and although I’ve not got her book yet from Amazon – Raw Food Cleanse – I thought, sod it!  28 days sounds achievable and I have been feeling like crap and I want to feel great again.

It’s also my 40th birthday in August and I want to love how I look in photos!

So yesterday I decided to set myself the goal of doing a high raw diet for February and see where it takes me.  And as i KNOW you love to see what I’m up to, I’m going to diarise it for you here!  Because this series of videos IS about losing weight – I’m the biggest I’ve been in ages – I’m going to get in my sodding bikini once a week to help motivate me.  So here’s today’s flab shot for you *grin*

Ok here are the gory statistics in print for you too:

Weight:  10st 7lb / 147lb / 66.6kg

Chest:       39.5″ / 100cm
Waist:       33″ / 84cm
Tummy:  40.5″ / 103cm
Thigh:      22.5″ / 57cm
Arm:        12″ / 30.5cm

It’s not pretty but it’s really interesting to note how distended my tummy is from all the rubbish I’ve been eating and I hate to think what state my intestines are in.. lol.. yes I am going to be exploring all kinds of things during this 28 day challenge.

I want to keep this achievable to I’m aiming for 90% or more raw vegan diet during this time – I don’t expect to be 100% all the time but 90% is a challenge for me and I want to kick my processed sugar addiction to the curb with this challenge.

I also want to clear my skin, start to glow again, think more clearly and regain purpose.

I want to be stronger in all areas – mental, emotional, physical and spiritual and intend on moving my fat arse for at least 30 minutes every day minimum, instead of staying sat at my computer.  I know, I can hear you say OMG, 30 minutes, is that all *lol*…. as I said, I want this to be achievable and that is a MINIMUM.  I shall share what I do when I blog about it.

Ok, what’s happened today?  I woke up and meditated (which is something I want to make a daily habit again).  I went for a very brisk walk on the South Downs for half an hour, fuelled by a fruit smoothie I had.  Came home and made myself a green juice of carrot, apple, salad leaves, savoy cabbage, spirulina, udos oil.  Drank lots of hot water with chunks of lemon.

Danger time for me is when I cook for the kids in the evening.. so even though I snacked on a couple of Medjool dates, half an avocado and some nuts and berries.. I still ended up eating some of their chilli I made – just the quorn mix and no rice (or cheese or nachos), and it wasn’t a huge amount.. but still it wasn’t raw.  I feel proud I never scoffed ANY apple crumble and icecream though! A miracle I tell you!

So now, I’ve actually done some food shopping I’ll be able to make myself a lot more juices and some salad tomorrow which will help me.  I also need to make a 7 day meal plan and go an shop for it!  Dull but if I want to succeed I know I have to do this.

Anyway, enough waffle for today – here’s the Jack Canfield video I watched today that I mentioned earlier on how to plan your day.  Hope it helps you too x