We drank tea and laughed

Although this blog is going to mainly be about the juicing, I also want it to include my Mum's journey because she is the reason I started in the first place. Also, reading other peoples stories have helped me so maybe this will help someone else?

My Mum found the lump before Christmas and went to the doctors who referred her to the Macmillan Centre at Leighton for tests on Friday 4th January. She really went through the mill with Mammograms, biopsies etc. Dad and I were there to help her through but to be honest, at this point I just thought it was all precautionary. Great, of course that she was getting checked out thoroughly but there was no doubt in my mind that she would definitely not have cancer. Not a chance. No way.

On Monday 14th January it was confirmed that my Mum had Breast Cancer. My Mum  had already come to terms with it in her head and so was pretty calm. My Dad was well, grey is the word that comes to mind. The colour had completely drained from him. I was so frickin mad that I had missed the appointment because I couldn't find a stupid parking space at the hospital.

We went to my Mum's with all the brochures and leaflets about Breast Cancer, drank tea and laughed... Then I went home to Matt and cried a lot.

Why juice?

The reason for juicing rather than just eating the healthy fruit and veg is pretty simple:

1. When you juice food you get 90% of the nutrients - 3 times as much as when you eat it whole.

2. It is much easier to get your 5 a day - which should be the absolute minimum. To transform your health you should be having 9+ a day. How many people actually manage this? With juicing you can get 3 or 4 a day in just one glass.

During my original research I found this inspirational blog - you should definitely check it out if you get chance: http://www.chrisbeatcancer.com/i-juiced-to-beat-cancer-and-turned-orange/

Beta Carotene Rocks!

Firstly I just want to say thank you for all you comments and messages about the blog so far - I really appreciate it. I was nervous about 'getting it out there' as it feels a bit personal but I figured if it inspires just one person to take up juicing or healthy eating in any shape or form then it's got to be a good thing?! Also my Mum read it and has now promised to have a maximum of 2 sugars in her tea... result! :o)

So, there's loads and loads of research on the Internet about what foods are good for you and specifically cancer and also the benefits of juicing etc and it seems when it comes to fighting Cancer, apparently Beta Carotene totally rocks!

The reason for this is that has three actions:

1. It is an immune system booster
2. It can act as antioxidant
3. It can convert in the body to vitamin A, a proven anti-cancer agent

 
You can find Beta Carotene in carrots and dark green leafy veg (amongst other things) and so naturally this was going to be the basis of lots of my Mum's juices.

This was one of the first juices we tried. It's nice and simple so a good starter recipe:
Ingredients:
4-5 Carrots
2 Apples
2 handfuls of Spinach
 
We've found that Apples have been a bit of a lifesaver when it comes to juicing - not only do they have lots of nutritional benefits - antioxidants which can help detoxify, great for digestion etc, they also really help to sweeten up the juice.

The Rules

I've said it before and I'll say it again - I'm no expert on diet, Cancer or well anything but from my research on the Internet and also just common sense I made some simple guidelines for my Mum.

Just to give you a little bit of background on my Mum - she's 50 something, gave up smoking a year ago, has never been over weight, drinks lots of tea with milk and 4 sugars in it, loves a Sunday Roast with Beef, she doesn't drink alcohol, hates drinking water and never exercises.... so a pretty mixed bag really.

When I asked to follow 'The Rules' she was really up for it - much  more than I was expecting but I guess she was of the same mind set as me and that was to do everything physically possible to help make her better... so there was no harm in trying.



I asked her to do the 3 following things to start with:

- No meat between Monday - Thursday. Ideally it would have been none ever but I didn't want to make it too harsh and so not achievable resulting in her giving up. I also asked if she could give up red meat all together which she is giving a good go. She loves Spag Bol and so the Quorn Mince has been a great alternative and she also enjoys fish which again I don't agree with eating but health wise it is fine. So far she's doing brilliantly with this and apart from some fish and the odd bit of Chicken at the weekend she is pretty much Veggie!

- Cut down sugar. Again, ideally it would be no sugar but that would have been too much of a stretch. So far she has gone from 4 sugars to 2... or 3 when I'm not watching! :op She has also swapped a couple of tea breaks a day for Green Tea which is brilliant!

- Stop drinking Milk. This hasn't happened yet. I've tried with a few different soya milks but she's struggling. I'm still working on it though... 2 out of 3 isn't bad.

This is one of the many articles which I found really useful and it inspired the above rules: http://www.healthy-juicing-habits.com/johns-hopkins.html

Next we worked on the juice and the immune boosting ingredients...

My Juicer

Woah so I didn't realise there were so many different types and models of juicers. I just presumed a juicer was a juicer but apart from not getting it mixed up with a blender there are different types depending on what you want to juice...

Thankfully there were lots of sites with helpful information and advice online and I found ukjuicers.com particularly helpful.

I decided on this Philips juicer from Argos because of the great reviews - especially about how easy it is to clean (I knew lots of cleaning would definitely put me off!).

And the verdict is... I love it. It's my new friend and it is so easy to use and clean and does exactly what it's supposed to. My Mum now also has the same juicer and loves it too. It's a great starter juicer and juices all the main fruit and veg with only a few needing to be peeled first.

Next stop... get juicing! But as I said, the reason I started juicing was because of my Mum's cancer and so first I did some more research and came up with some guidlines... or The Rules as my Mum calls them... :o)

So I bought a juicer

This is my first post on my new blog so I figure the best place to start is at the beginning... probably not right at the beginning of time or the beginning of me or anything but the beginning of my juice journey.

It's all very recent. In January this year my Mum was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and I was devastated. It floored me and apart from feeling incredibly scared I felt completely helpless and out of control so as probably many people do in this situation I turned to Google.

I am generally conscious of 'you are what you eat' and completely believe it to be true. I am a Vegetarian and wannabe Vegan - originally because of ethical reasons but now also because I believe meat and dairy products whilst being completely unnecessary in our diet are unhealthy for you. I am not going to spend this blog preaching because I am not perfect. Alcohol also isn't good for you but I still drink that and I say wannabe Vegan because I am still struggling to give up chocolate and cheese but I'm working on it...

I am not and will never claim to know everything... at this point I know hardly anything. This blog is purely for my personal interests and to document my own juicing journey.

Anyway, this was only supposed to be a quick hello and I'm already going on... so, I turned to the Internet to see what I could do to help my mum and found tons of articles about diet, the immune system and how it relates to cancer and I decided this is how I could help... so I bought a juicer.