By Alycia Paccione

How many fruits and vegetables do you consume everyday? Is it two servings, three servings – do you even get one serving of vegetables? Getting your daily intake of fruits and vegetables is very important.

They contain fiber but you need to put the pulp in your juice to get the fiber. That will help your digestive tract. It can reduce the risk of high blood pressure, many cancers and heart disease.

The amount of fruits and vegetables you intake should be determined by your weight, age, gender and how much physical activity you do a day. According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control) website you can calculate how many servings of fruit and vegetables you should have a day. For instance a 19 year old male who does over 60 minutes a day in physical activity should have 2.5 cups of fruits and 4 cups of vegetables.

It’s not easy leading a busy life and it is hard to get the nutrition we need to help keep us healthy but there is a simple solution to this- Juicing! I don’t mean steroids juice, your fruits and vegetables you can do it. On a Sunday night put all your juices in mason jars and store them in the fridge.

Now it’s very hard to start juicing if you are not used to it but there are many simple recipes that you can use to get you started and on the right track to a healthy lifestyle. Taking small steps to make a change in your life will make a big difference later on. The amount of saturated fat and carbohydrates we consume on a daily basis is just astonishing and our health just keeps depleting.

The love we have for unhealthy foods is powerful, as evidenced by the 65 percent of Americans who struggle daily with being overweight and obese. But we must break the cycle of our love for saturated fats, refined carbohydrates, processed foods, and excess caffeine and alcohol.

We can not only be healthier, but also actually reverse severe chronic disease. Be mindful of which fruits and vegetables you choose. Do some research because some fruits are very high in sugar and some vegetables are very high in fat which you do not want to be taking in on a daily basis.

Watch Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead a film by Joe Cross who originally got me into juicing made me want to change my life. He has websites and recipe books that are really helpful. I also found this amazing woman who is on YouTube and Instagram under the name Chaudsjuicetherapy.

Perfect Morning Essence

– 4-6 medium size carrots (without the carrot tops)

– 4 stalks of celery

– 1 lemon, unpeeled

– 1 Macintosh or Yellow Apple

– Optional: ginger to your taste

Ultimate Pineapple-Kale-Blast

– 6-8 large leaves of kale with stem

– 1/2 large cucumber

– 1/2 bunch parsley (or cilantro)

– 1/4 to 1/3 pineapple meat, no skin 1 medium apple (either yellow or green)

Reboot Essentials

-1 apple (large or medium, any kind you like)

-1 lemon

– 4 celery stalks

– 2 medium-large carrots

– 6-10 stems parsley

– 6-8 stems fresh mint

The Mean Green

– 1 bulk of kale (8-10 main leaves+stem)

– 4 celery stalks

– 1 cucumber (Italian or other types)

– 2 Granny Smith apples

– 1 lemon, unpeeled

– 1 chunk of ginger