Juicing And Fitness

Welcome Vida Juicer, coming at you with this week’s Wellness Wednesday is a topic that I love, Juicing and Fitness. How do we incorporate juicing into our workouts? Solid fruits and vegetables are nutrient-rich and full of fiber, which have the potential to offer a massive jolt of energy for your workouts. However, the body takes a lot of time to digest these nutrients when they are eaten. That’s when juicing comes in, it allows our body to absorb the nutrients quickly, and it gets them to the areas where they are required, enhancing the impact and intensity of your workout.

Juices will boost your workouts by keeping you hydrated and also provide crucial nutrients which promote muscle development, support exercise, and reduce oxidation and inflammation caused by different types of exercises. However, for this to happen, juicing needs to be done the right way.

Watch Out for the Carbs & Calories
When our goal is weight loss with juicing and fitness, watch the carbs and calories. The number of calories in a glass of juice range from 100 to 800, depending on the vegetables and fruits you have added. While fruits may taste better than vegetables, they also carry more carbs, calories and sugars. Thus, it’s better to opt for vegetables than fruits, or fruits with fewer calories, such as grapefruit or lemon. Remember the 80% Veggie/20 Fruit rule. Additionally, keep the serving size to 400ML, so you can keep the calories in check. If on the flip side you are looking to make massive muscle gains, don’t worry about the carbs and calories so much because your body and muscles need them.

Use the Right Ingredients
Use a variety of nutrient-dense and non-starchy fruits, such as papaya, kiwi and mango, as well as vegetables like, spinach and kale. Remember, when we juice we are looking to get at least 400-500ML daily and by using the right ingredients our bodies love us for it. By Juicing fruits and vegetables and adding them to our diet we not only stay healthy, but we are energizing our bodies at the perfect time when they need it most, both before and after workouts.

Juicing Pre & Post Workouts
Juicing pre-workout is a great way to fuel your body with carbohydrates required to get you through the training session. Drinking juice before you workout will load up your body with micro-nutrients which will prevent muscle cramps, oxidative stress, and support muscle recovery, in addition to delivering plenty of oxygen to your muscles.
In short, you get maximum nutrition in minimum time, as it doesn’t take more than a few minutes to make juice. A good juice alone should give you plenty of energy pre-workout, but if your anything like me and need the extra energy for intense workouts, you might want to add some other good sources of protein and fat to the meal, such as chicken, nuts or seeds and then you’ll have all the nutrients and energy necessary to hit the gym. Most people won’t need the extra sources of protein and fat for pre-workout though.

When it comes to post-workouts, you need to get proteins, and more importantly, carbs to replenish those that were lost while fueling your training. Juicing right after your workout can provide some of the carbs your muscles need. If your prescribed carbohydrate intake is higher, you can add blackberries or raspberries, as this will increase your insulin levels, which will assist the glucose to make its way into muscles instead of your fat stores. By adding Spirulina to our post workout juices we can also increase our protein intake. Additionally, juicing after your workout will also prevent the oxidative stress caused by your workout.

Key Vegetables & Fruits
Finally, here are some important fruits and vegetables you should consider juicing:

Cucumbers and Celery
These vegetables are good sources of potassium, numerous antioxidants and vitamin C. It’s also great if you are a first-time juicer, as they have high water content and are mild-tasting.

Cranberries, Blueberries and Strawberries
Blueberries are an antioxidant powerhouse, and cranberries can prevent UTI’s as they contain proanthocyanidins. Additionally, the acids present in cranberries also flush out fat deposits in your body. Strawberries, on the other hand, are a good source of vitamin C, anthocyanins and antioxidants.

So if you add juicing and fitness to your diet the right way, you can enhance and boost your workout sessions a great deal. If you received value from this video please share it and remember juice strong to live long!

Credit: www.rawjuice.com