OUR STORY

MORENA E

My first contact with the world of juicing came at such a young age that it now seems like it was destined to become a main pillar in my life. When I was just a kid transitioning into adolescence, my mother would make apple, carrot, and beet juice in the afternoons in her square, bright red juicer. I was a curious kid, so the psychedelic-looking liquid that came out of this strange machine didn’t leave me any other choice but to try it.

At the time, I wasn’t naturally inclined to eat raw vegetables. I definitely wasn’t the one reaching for the salad bowl placed in the middle of the table at lunch. Even though I became a vegetarian when I was four, for skinny ol’ me the fun of eating came from carbs, dairy, and especially sugar! Fruits were okay, and so were cooked vegetables depending on what they were accompanied by. Eating crunchy raw veggies, however, was out of the question, as this practice appeared extremely unexciting to my senses. Nobody was more surprised than me when, from one day to the next, I found myself consuming more raw veggies than a rabbit. My love affair with juicing and a healthy lifestyle had begun.

This was the early nineties and juicing was not the big, sexy trend it is today. Certainly not in Peru, where I grew up. One could say my mom was ahead of her time in the wellness area compared to her peers, and I was lucky to be born into her experimental juice-loving nest. The moment she saw my interest in her evening potions, she encouraged me to try them and explained the benefits of drinking them on a regular basis, or even just once in a while. I don’t know if I immediately liked them because of their sweetness, because of how intuitively attracted I was to a healthier way of eating, or because I wanted to be like her. Whatever it was, I was hooked.

I’ve come a long way since then in my juicing adventures. I’ve spent hundreds of hours in the kitchen assembling juicing machines, washing and cutting up fresh veggies, and throwing them into the mysterious abyss of the juicer, where they disappear with a loud bang and come out at the other end turned into liquid rainbows. I have experimented with all kinds of ingredients, grown my own wheatgrass and herbs, and have a pantry and a fridge bursting with superfoods and wholesome additions for my juices, such as nut spreads, hemp powder, maca, chlorella, and spirulina. In my home we juice every day, and I also do a juice fast for one day every once in a while, to give my body a rest from the daily grind, and, before I quit sugar, from my insatiable sweet tooth.

The positive effects I get from my daily juicing and occasional detoxing are many. My friends always comment on how fresh my skin looks. One of them even jokes that I have a constant “pregnant glow.” (But just for the record, I’m not pregnant nor ever have been.) My clothes are the same size they were when I finished high school. Granted, genetics may have a lot to do with that, but something has to be said about the effect my way of eating has had on my slim waist.

Even though I get off track from time to time, I always return to my plant-based vegetarian meals, which include lots and lots of water and fresh juices. The healthier I eat on a regular basis, the more I crave the things that are good for me. One could say eating well is an acquired taste, and juicing even somewhat of an addiction. Once you’re giving your body what it needs, it realizes what it was missing out on (real nutrition) and starts crying out loud for it. Once this happens, your relationship with your body will never be the same. Your body will talk to you, and tell you what it needs, at any given time, to thrive. All you need to do is listen. I strongly encourage you to try it.

MORENA C (MY MOTHER)

My mother is not only my creatress and the coauthor of this book, but as I mentioned before, she also introduced me to the fascinating world of juicing, fasting, and detoxing very early on in life. She herself had an early start in taking her health into her own hands, as she went through several periods of spontaneous fasting during her own childhood. These spells lasted up to a week of pure fasting (zero food ingestion and only drinking water), followed by a couple days of juicing. I can only imagine the horror in my grandmother’s face as she watched her daughter starve herself to death for no apparent reason.

Nobody taught my mother how to cleanse, or why to do it. It seems like a strong subconscious force of nature came up to the surface about twice a year and told her this was the right thing to do. Pure raw instinct. Do you know what that is? It’s that thing most of us have completely lost touch with, especially when we’re sitting at the table.

My mother never planned her detox diets, and she never stopped going to school or playing like any other kid while she was at it. Other than the sporadic headache during the first two days, she felt light and exhilarated. Occasionally, thoughts of food came into her mind, but then she realized how clean her body felt without it and the temptation was easily eradicated. Once she started juicing, and eventually went back to eating regular meals, her palate felt more sensitive and she enjoyed the flavors of fruits and vegetables more than ever.

My mom explains her unconventional ways simply: she felt the urge to give her body a rest from food, and when she did she felt better than before. So why not do it? She’s now in her mid-fifties and doesn’t take a single medication. She also has the body and energy of a twenty-year-old, and not a single wrinkle on her face. So, really, why the hell not?