The Setup…

Let’s talk about your kitchen. The kitchen is often described as the heart of the home, and it’s definitely the heart of your green juicing endeavors. If you don’t have one already, I highly recommend starting a loving relationship with your kitchen…it’s definitely a relationship built to last!

Making your green juice isn’t an overly time-consuming endeavor, but you are going to need a little bit of work space. Designate a specific place for your “juicing station” – preferably close to the sink. You will also need room for your cutting board — I highly recommend a bamboo board dedicated only to raw veggies — and your juicer. Remember, while it is not a requirement to have these items out all the time, I guarantee that you will be more dedicated and therefore more successful on a daily basis — and overall, it will just make it simpler if you have a dedicated spot for everything!

So again, it’s easiest if your juicing station is located near the sink. Reason? Sink-board-juicer is ideal because you can rinse the veggies, chop them and then juice them in an assembly-line-esque manner. I even use an over-the-sink drainer to place my rinsed veggies in so the water mess is minimized and it takes us less space, but you can use any large colander or a towel on the countertop if that works best for you.

If you’re really limited on counter space, I highly recommend the compact Breville juicer, the over-the-sink drainer, and simply put your cutting board away at each day! All set to go!

Lastly, you will need to set up some dedicated space in your refrigerator. The best way to do this, is to clean out the old stuff that you are no longer using! I go through this step more in my 1:1 programs, which you can check out here.

What Else Do I Need?

So what else do you need besides the cutting board, drainer, juicer? You’ll definitely need a great knife — the best one you can afford! I personally have a large chef’s knife from Ikea that was actually not too expensive and I love it! A good knife will definitely speed up the process for you.

Other great things are: Produce bags and/or special refrigerator containers are also a major convenience because they help protect your green goodies from spoiling! Food waste bags to collect your pulp in…put it directly into your juicer pulp-catcher as they help minimize the clean-up and keep your garbage can from getting too “smelly”. Lastly, you may want to keep some canning jars on hand to store your green juice in in the fridge! Why? Because despite that it’s best to drink your juice straight from the juicer, it’s not always convenient with our busy lives. Canning jars have tight-fitting lids and are also convenient drinking cups – double score!

Your Juicing Station will be totally unique to you, but as long as you’ve got a great process and method that works, and you are juicing, that’s all that matters. Really.

Whatever it takes to get you juicing is all you need. Nothing more, nothing less. I am here to help you along the way…

For support and more tips you can pick up my Juice Yourself Healthy book right now or better yet….get the book AND how-to videos, plus some cool bonuses in my online, go-at-your-own-pace program called  The Juicing Experience.

Guest Post by Charlene Happel…

When “letting go” shows up on my to-do list, the idea auto-starts an old tape inside my head…“but won’t I need that?”  I usually mean “need” in the sense of needing a very important organ, like the heart, the brain, etc.

I’m pretty sure I’m gonna NEED that.

So, it will come as no surprise that this particular mindset of letting go initiates resistance.  You know, the kind of resistance that is spelled in all caps – RESISTANCE.  Up go the roadblock, a brick wall, and the barrier stronger than all known blasting elements in this universe.  Our well-intended action item of letting go has now generated enough resistance to propel a rocket into space.

Now What?

Well, I propose an alternative perspective.  Maybe the releasing is actually giving you something rather than taking something away. Maybe, you are giving yourself a sensational gift, the gift of liberation from the cords that bind you.  When you think of it as abandonment, then the cords feel like lifelines.  The fear translates into, if I cut these cords, I will have no lifelines.  I will be isolated.  Now you have a logical reason to NOT let go.  If I let go I will be isolated AND missing a key thing that I need to survive.  We now believe that letting go = isolation (death).

Why was I supposed to let go again?

Enter a new prospective…

Your natural state is to be without cords, to be liberated, to be free. So what to do? Cut the cords and know that you are not meant to have cords.  You are meant to be free.

The real truth is that these parts or pieces, anything you still need or that is part of your highest good, will come back to you.  Not only will it come back to you, but also it will come back in the way that serves you now.  From this perspective, we realize that we are binding ourselves with cords from the past.  Those cords that we thought were lifelines, tie us to a frame of reference that no longer exists.  While these parts may have been perfect in some other moment, it was a moment that has past.  We may still need these parts, but we don’t need them from a moment that has past, we need them in the moment that is now.  In order for that to happen, they can’t be bound to us and we cannot be bound to them.

So, we cut our cords and as we let go, we are free and those parts that are meant to come back to us will come back in forms that are perfect for this moment.  So, I invite you to let go, be free, be present, and be who you are meant to be now.  If you take up this invitation, know that I am right there with you.

With you as my witness, I’m cutting cords and choosing liberation.  I choose to be free.

Charlene is an intuition and money-mindset coach.  She helps women ignite their intuition superpowers, reveal their unique voice, and transform their relationship with money.  She is launching several great programs this spring, with a teleseminar series starting very soon.  Sign up for her updates at www.charlenehappel.com.