The Skinny Confidential: A Babe's Sexy, Sassy Health and Lifestyle Guide (7 page)

Any large juicer or blender will work. Just make sure it’s large—there’s a lot to hold. I use the Bella 13695 NutriPro™ Cold Press Juicer. You don’t need to drink the pulp if you’re using a juicer.

How much and how often do I drink the juice?

The cleanse calls for 64 ounces/2 liters a day. You drink 8 ounces/240 milliliters every hour, for 8 hours, with a cup (8 oz/240 ml) of water in between each hour. You can make the 64 ounces/2 liters the night before or the morning of. Keep in mind, the longer the juice is exposed to the air the more nutrients it loses.

Let’s talk working out.

I would have a glass of orange juice (« real, fresh orange juice, like the 100 percent, no added-shit orange juice) in the morning, especially if you’re planning to work out while doing it. The only workout that I would stay away from is hot yoga. The temperature of hot yoga can be dangerous while cleansing.

I try to work out for an hour all three days of the cleanse. Think Pilates, spinning, hiking, barre classes, etc..

Explain the recipe!

This is a three-day juice cleanse. It’s three to four veggies of each, depending on size. For lemons, use 3 lemons, juiced. Your veggies may be smaller than those in California, so if it doesn’t make 64 ounces/2 liters, add more veggies. The skins can be peeled on certain veggies, especially carrots, beets and ginger root. All produce should be raw. Nothing should be cooked.

NOTE:
Apples should NOT be blended or juiced with their seeds; they contain cyano compounds, which are carcinogenic in high enough amounts.

All veggies and fruits should be raw/uncooked.

For things like parsley and lettuce, use about three heaping handfuls. Celery is three full sticks. No canned veggies; try to use all fresh produce. I like to start drinking the juice around 9 a.m.

I always add tons of ice each time I drink the juice. It tastes SO much better that way.

I recommend doing the cleanse for only three days. If you want to detox longer, talk to your doc.

I am too busy to make the juices at home; any other options?

Yes. If you have a Whole Foods nearby, go to its juice bar or any juicing place around you. I recommend choosing that route over making it at home, it’s annoying to deal with all the ingredients.

I have a number of friends who took the instructions to a Whole Foods or juice bar and it worked out well. If the juice bar doesn’t have the particular veggies you’re looking for, buy them yourself and take them to the counter.

If you’re making the juice at home, store it in an empty, clean milk gallon. You can make it the night before if you need to. Some of my friends have also stored their juice in water bottles to drink on the go. I do not recommend juicing as you drink it. The best thing to do is wake up and make the juice each morning of days one, two and three.

So what about protein and veggies during the cleanse?

You’re allowed 6 ounces/170 g of protein a day with a heaping, large handful of veggies. Here’s the fab thing about this cleanse: You can have your protein and veggies
whenever you want.
For instance, one poached egg in the morning, some avocado and then ½ sweet potato at night. Stay away from red meat, if possible. My cleanse choices: lots of avocado (w/lemon and cayenne pepper) and steamed sweet potato slices throughout the day, too. Hard-boiled eggs are great for protein on the go. Not so bad, eh?

Stay away from dairy, nuts, carbs, red meat and artificial sugars.

What liquids can I drink?

No coffee, no alcohol, no sugary drinks, no soda. You should be consuming at least 3 quarts/3 L of water a day on the cleanse.

Green tea is fab. One of my tricks is a Trenta (31 oz/1 L, the biggest size available at Starbucks) of iced green tea with two splashes of passion fruit tea, no sweeteners and light on the water. I drink one or two of these a day on the cleanse.

It tastes bad to me. What the hell should I do?

If you cannot stand the taste of a juice on a particular day (each day is a different flavor of juice), squeeze a ton of lemon into it to neutralize the taste. Sometimes I’ll add extra ginger root, too.

I am starving on the cleanse.

If you’re dying—which you shouldn’t be—have an egg, a salad with red vinegar or a glass of OJ with half-sparkling water. Eating avocado slices and sweet potato slices always works, too! Make sure you’re drinking the cleanse juice every hour (with tons of WATER).

How often can I do a cleanse and can I take vitamins while cleansing?

I like to do it four or five times a year. Doing it too much will not shock your body as much. You don’t really need vitamins while detoxing. Your body is getting enough nutrients.

Cleansing isn’t for everyone: If you have any medical conditions before, during or after the cleanse,
please consult a doctor immediately.

One of the best ways to get all the important vitamins, minerals, enzymes, phytochemicals and amino acids you need to look and feel your best is drinking organic, raw, cold-pressed fruit and vegetable juices. That sounds pretty complicated, but it’s actually pretty simple. Juices prepared this way are as clean and pure as it gets. Suja, a San Diego-based juice company, makes it extremely simple and delicious. They start with the highest-quality fresh ingredients sourced from organic and non-GMO verified farms. After washing, the produce is cold-pressed. Cold presses are different from other types of juicers because they extract juice by grinding and pressing fruits and vegetables without adding heat. In other traditional models, the fast-spinning blades that tear apart produce create heat and draw air in, allowing the juice to oxidize and killing nutrients before it even hits your cup. Sounds great, right? It is, but unless you drink your cold-pressed juice within a few hours, all those vital nutrients you worked hard to preserve are oxidizing and being minimized by heat and light. Suja takes it a step further by preserving all of the cold-pressed goodness without applying heat as with flash pasteurization, which is used on most commercial juices. Instead of pasteurizing, Suja cold pressurizes, or HPPs, their juices. This technology, which applies a large amount of pressure to the bottles while they are kept under 40°/4°C, allows the juice to retain all of its important nutrition while extending the shelf life for 30 days and making it safe to drink as a raw product. Pretty cool.

I have friends who have cured their psoriasis, allergies and viruses by drinking the proper juices.

So do your research. Know what the hell you’re chugging. Because honestly? It could just change your life.

(See
Chapter 11, “Love Chub,”
for more of my favorite green drinks.)

5
MEET CARDIO,
YOUR NEW BESTIE

Ahhhh, cardio.

You’re such a little bitch.

My body craves you. But you’re so damn difficult.

BUT, SERIOUSLY.

You’re boring and repetitive.

I have to say, though, when I hang out with you, cardio, I’m tighter, leaner and longer.

Ugh. Annoying.

For now, I’ll keep you around. Only three times a week, though.

‘K?

xo. Lauryn

So, ya.

And that pretty much sums up my relationship with boring old cardio.

If you love cardio, you’re one lucky kitten.

I’ve taken month breaks from boring cardio and incorporated only weight, Pilates and yoga into my daily exercises.

And let me just say: There’s absolutely, positively, freaking nothing like cardio.

Cardio’s a huge part of the healthy lifestyle puzzle.

Frequent cardio sesh’s allow all that hard work to shine. All those toning sessions/reformer Pilates and barre classes/yoga moves will shine brighter, hunny, because you’ll be tighter.

I’m telling ya, it’s a real fat burner.

Plus, it releases an amazing amount of endorphins, which are vital to healthy living.

There’s really no feeling like the post-cardio feeling.

LIKE, IT’S BETTER THAN SEX.

Kind of.

But I guess sex is considered cardio … so …

OK, we’re getting off topic.

Anyway, here are my three favorite ways to complete my three days per week of cardio:

RUN YOUR LIL HEART OUT.

This is obvious. We all know running’s cardio. But I’d be doing you an injustice if I didn’t mention running. Never in my life do I feel better than when I’m running three days a week.

Sorry.

I know a lot of people don’t want to hear the cold, hard facts.

It really is that simple. So simple, it’s almost stupid.

An amazing benefit of running: It’s a serious metabolism speeder.

I’m into intervals. After talking to multiple fitness trainers, it seems that intervals are the way to go when it comes to running.

Why?

GLAD YOU ASKED.

Instead of running 30 minutes consecutively at a pace of 6.5 or 7.5 minutes per mile, allow your bod to recover every minute. For example: Run 1 minute at 3.5 pace and 1 minute at 6.5, increasing slowly up to 7.5 as you go. I like to run for 30 minutes total.

Allowing the body to recover through interval training will help with stress in general. Interval training allows the body to deal with stress constructively because it’s taking the heart rate up and then down, and then up and then down, etc. It puts the body under stress and then allows it to recover. These stress tactics can be applied to life in general.

TAKE A HIKE

A great activity to do with friends. An even greater activity if you can cut the gossip in half and kick the speed up ten notches. Make sure you’re not just using hiking as “fake cardio.”

YOU KNOW, YOU KNOW.

Get your heart rate up. I’m sure you’re dying to hear whose boyfriend is a scumbag, douche and what happened to Cindy last night, but if you decide to hike, then hike.

Besides, in-between breaths, I’m sure you’ll be able to hear what happened on last night’s epi of “Real Housewives.”

Anyway, my trick to hiking is to bring arm weights. I purchased these bad boys at a superstore (think Walmart, for example). I like 5-pound/2-kg arm weights. They wrap around the arms so they’re not in the way, and they can also be used as ankle weights.

Get creative! Walk half the time, run half the time. Do lunges up the hill. Skip. Stretch afterward. Side-step up.

ELLIPTICAL TRAINER, STAIR MACHINE AND/OR SPIN CLASSES

I pick one of these workouts and use it only once a week. I notice my lower body bulks up if I do too many machines or classes. I also get bored.

Again, do what works for you. If spinning keeps your stems slim, spin, spin and spin some more.

The elliptical can be great, too; however, nothing raises your heart rate like running.

Sorry, Ellipty.

GOOD OLD SPORTS

We all loved at least one sport when we were kids, right?

I definitely was and still am into tennis.