I know many who would love to eat healthier, drink less and get a juicing practice going, yet don’t. Why? Because it requires an element of change – and change is hard. Here are my top tips for sticking to juicing.

• Get your juicer out! You’d be surprised how many wanna-be juicers keep their hardware tucked away in a top cupboard behind stuff that they never use. Is this you? I’m of the firm opinion that unless the juicer sits on your kitchen counter it ain’t going to happen. You need a daily reminder of this new habit to make it into a hard working health tool. Mine looks quite rough because it gets daily usage. No matter – I consider it to be one of my best investments.
• Buy more veg! If you are used to buying a bag of salad, some cucumber and a punnet of cherry tomatoes for the week then you may have to rethink. Juicing takes quantities of green stuff. You need several cucumbers per week, couple of heads of celery, bag of spinach, kale, chard or whatever else you plan to put in the juice. The point is you need to buy more than you are used to. Try to buy seasonally – it is much more cost effective. Juicing expensive apples from Peru makes no sense during the wonderful English apple season, just as an example.
• Put a small plastic recyclable plastic bag in the waste compartment of your juicer. That way, all you have to do is throw it away afterwards without cleaning the compartment itself. You still have to clean the filter and perhaps one or two other parts but you soon get used to it.
• Stop thinking of it as a ‘luxury’ or a ‘fad’. The health benefits of green, leafy vegetables have been documented for years and by consuming a daily green juice you stand a fab change of feeling recharged and energised as well as adding a much needed nutrient boost to your hard working body.
• Do it with a friend. Everything is better if you share it with someone. Be creative. Get your mates in on the juicing. Compare recipes. Alternate mornings – one morning it’s the friend’s turn to juice for two and the next yours.

Today’s juice was mean and green thanks to a lovely batch of Cavolo Nero that I got at Whole Foods. Here is the recipe:

Mean, Green Cavolo Nero Juice

BIG handful cavolo nero

3 stalks kale

3 stalks celery – with leaves

1/2 cucumber

Big handful rocket leaves

1 apple

2″ piece of ginger root

Juice the lot! Enjoy! x