Homemade Green Juice. NO fancy juicer needed!

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I was on a mission to make myself a green juice. I do not have a juicer, but that did not stop me. And should not stop you either. Here is an easy way to make a green juice. You will need:

• blender
• jelly strainer (I got mine at ACE hardware)

Ingredients:

• 4spinach ice cubes
• 2 carrots chopped
• whole stalk of romaine lettuce
• 4 leafs of kale
• 1/2 a green apple
• 1/2 of lime squeezed
• 1/4 inch of ginger
• 1 Cup water

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Directions:

• add water, spinach ice cubes and blend
• add romaine lettuce and apples and blend
• Squeeze lemon juice and add kale. If you feel you need more water to help you mix ingredients, add more :)
• Lastly add the remainder of your ingredients, carrots, and ginger.

*TIP* Add ingredients in slowly. If you over stuff your blender it will not mix.

Blend until it is a puree.

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Wash your jelly strainer with soap and water. Rinse well. Drape it over a big glass and pour your green mixture. Squeeze the jelly strainer to help reveal your beautiful green juice into your glass.

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The jelly strainer will catch all of the fiber and ruffage from the vegetables and fruit and just give you the straight juices.

*TIP* I found that if i filled the jelly strainer too much it was hard to squeeze and made a mess. In order to prevent this you can squeeze the jelly strainer over a big bowl and then transfer to a glass cup.

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I like my juice COLD. So add some spinach ice cubes, or regular ice cubes to your juice to make it cold. Or stick it in the freezer for a couple of minutes. You want to drink the juice as soon as possible, while the juice is at its maximum nutrient level.

What is your favorite green juice mixture? Let me know if you try this jelly strainer trick!

Starving for a photo shoot

I recently had a photo shoot with Eric Levin, from Elevin Studios. The photos are for a composite card, which is like a portfolio/business card combo. This will be a really useful tool for me as I am trying to get into fitness modeling and/or commercial modeling. When I say fitness modeling I do not mean that my goal is to do muscle posing on the cover of Oxygen, I mean I want to display exercises in a spread in SHAPE magazine!

After my shoot someone asked me if I went on "some crazy diet" before the shoot.  Legit question. I can totally understand wanting to look your best for photos that will be in the public eye, but here is my answer… NO!  This was my second photo shoot, the first being with Lucie Wicker Photography, and before that one I DID restrict my food intake more. After that experience, I told myself I would not do it again for the following reasons:

1. I hate restrictions! I like to eat what my body needs.

2. I was so grumpy and all I thought about was food.

3. I ate even worse AFTER the shoot that I did before I started my “diet." I had an “I am free” feeling and thought “let me eat the world!”

4. I eat clean enough that there was no noticeable difference in my body, even with the restrictions.

5. Who  am I trying to fool? I know what my body looks like and the photos should be a strong representation of that. It would not be good business practice to advertise myself a certain way on my comp card and show up to a photo shoot with my body looking different.

I guess my restrictive diet before my first photo shoot was kind of a test. Would I still feel good for a photo shoot without restrictions before? Would I be bloated?  Would I look my best? For my most recent shoot with Elevin I ate my PB, almond butter, oatmeal, quinoa, nuts, mango (dried no sugar added), and mini dark chocolate chips, which are all the things I did not allow myself to have before that first shoot.

While I didn't completely restrict, I DID do things differently for the three days before the shoot:

1. I LOVE broccoli and brussels sprouts, but they can make me bloated and, errr, gassy so I stayed away from them! Yes, they are great foods for a healthy diet when you're trying to lose weight, but I was more concerned with avoiding bloat than dropping pounds.

2. I traded in my daily apples for grapefruit. I chose grapefruit thinking that the fiber pectin would help cleanse my body. I'm not sure if it did anything, but mentally it made me feel better.

How did I feel at this shoot with Eric, you're wondering? AMAZING! I felt better than I did during my first shoot. I felt I had more energy, I was stronger, and I was ready to conquer!

On the morning of the shoot I ate oatmeal, half a banana, and PB. During the day,though, I was only able to scarf down an apple and Asian pear in between shots. My body is used to eating every 2-3 hours, so eating nothing that day wasn't a great idea. But my energy was so high and I was so excited to be doing what I was doing I didn't feel hungry or shaky. It's weird how your body can go in to a ZONE and just GO.

I can’t wait to share more about the shoot with you, tips from the makeup artist, advice from the photographer, and all the other things I learned during the shoot! Stay tuned!