Juicing and blending our way to a healthy start to 2022

Naturally I refute them all as I shove anything green to the side of my plate where it sits unwanted until I’m told I can leave the table.

As a kid I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about jams, fruit or any veg, but would have a square go over the right to get the heel from the bread which was then smothered in lemon curd.Not just any lemon curd- nope, it had to be the Gale’s brand.

I bought a jar a few years back, opened it up, and the smell just made me heave.

But, everything changed, almost overnight, in the first weeks of lockdown.

My other half introduced me to shots - not the kind you down in one at the bar, but ones consisting of carrot, apple and ginger.

Before I knew it, we were juicing and blending on a daily basis, and the weight fell off - 12 lbs in five weeks, which made me double check in case the scales were a bit wonky.

All told, I lost two stones, slept like a bairn, and felt much, much healthier.

I’m still a stone to the good, but selling two flats, buying a house and growing weary of the never-ending lockdown did for our juicing regime.

Until now.

A new year, a new start. We have a sleek new juicier which whirrs kale, cucumber, protein powder and dates into something that tastes a heck of a lot better than it sounds.

And, I’ve kinda missed the old juices and blends - even the ones we deemed to be ‘two sippers’ where the first taste was yeuch but the second was surprisingly okay.

But, two years on and I have to renew my pledge not to become a juicing bore.

Blokes tend to do that when they discover something new - a car, a hi-fi or some new gadget for the garden - and insist on becoming absolute masters of their new passion.

I promise never to tell you just how a-ma-zing a tumeric shot can be - trust me, it is rank rotten.

My mantra remains ‘everything in moderation’ – and that includes a cuppa with a digestive. Take away my McVitie’s and you will suffer pain.

But they can also share my plate with a blend or juice of spinach, parsnips, cucumber, fennel, and avocado, not to mention oils and powders I’m not not entirely sure how to pronounce.

If I can down a drink with cauliflower in it - one of my absolute lifelong pet hates - I’m pretty certain I can tackle just about anything. Well, apart from those turmeric shots…

Choosing which turbo blasted berry express to have is certainly a bit hit or miss.

Going by the picture in the book is probably not the best idea, and I now know some of the powders taste like chalk, and dates, even blended, will still be the food of the devil and always be reviled.

They leave chewy bits which shoot up your straw. That’s not a euphemism.

I’ve never dieted or counted a calorie in my life … the beauty of juicing is I don’t have to.

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