Prior to juicing, a cucumber used to last me for about a week. I may also have kept a bag of salad and some cherry tomatoes in the fridge, as a side to a main meal. Not anymore. These days my weekly shopping of organic produce for juicing looks something like this:

5 cucumbers (1 per day)

2 big bunches of celery

2-3 romaine salad heads

1 huge, fingery piece of ginger root (the more ‘fingers’ the better)

2 bags of kale

6-8 apples

2 bags spinach/swiss chard/spring greens or whatever else dark green, leafy vegetables  you can lay your hands on.

2-3 1L bottles of coconut water.

And that is just the juicing, add the smoothie making and I go through:

5 avocados (for smoothies or spread on toast)

3-4 lemons

2-3 limes

In a smoothie you can also add all the extra bits such as soft fruit, ground flax seeds, chia seeds, spirulina and ground nuts. The list is endless and full of possibilities. You can keep it interesting by adding new flavours that may prove surprisingly tasty like beetroot, fennel, carrots, cabbage, green beans, even garlic.

The thing to keep in mind is that in order to get a daily BIG JUICE you need a LOT of vegetables. These days I don’t have unnecessary things lying around in the fridge because there is NO SPACE!! It is filled to the brim with veg and coconut water.

All this juicing may all be a bit much, both on the quantity front and your taste buds, so if you are just starting out here is a Wake Up remedy from Gillian McKeith’s book ‘You are what you eat, Cookbook’ to get you going in the mornings. Enjoy x

Wake Up Juice (serves 1-2)

6 carrots (if organic no need to peel)

1-2 apples

1′ piece fresh ginger root