I love fruits and vegetables. I am blessed with a palate that truly enjoys pretty much any fruit or vegetable I try, although I’m pretty sure I haven’t always been like that since most of my memories from when I was younger include chicken fingers and french fries. However, in my adult life, I am a huge fan.
Until I got pregnant.
Oh man, I had it bad. I thought pregnancy was all about cravings and eating for two, but boy was I wrong. For the first three months of growing a human being, I couldn’t stomach anything. Nothing sounded good, ESPECIALLY anything remotely healthy. I was freaking out, because I had this idea in my head that I would be even more conscious of what I was putting in my body in this delicate time, but unless it was some combination of bread and cheese, it wasn’t happening. I crossed my fingers that my prenatal vitamins would make up for my lack of good nutrition while I made my third grilled cheese sandwich of the day – the only thing I had been able to eat – and tried not to imagine my baby being formed out of two slices of bread and some cheese. For a health nerd like me, this was pretty devastating. I missed green smoothies and crunchy salads. I missed snacking on apples and blueberries and cucumbers. I missed feeling good and healthy and strong! I did not feel good, or healthy, or strong.
One day near the end of my first trimester I had coffee -well, peppermint tea in my case, thanks to the constant nausea – with a friend, and we met up with her other friend who she had been wanting me to meet for a while. We chatted about our husbands and where we had grown up and where the military had moved us (and would be moving us), and our families. We soon realized that we were both pretty nerdy when it came to health and wellness, and I told her about how my first trimester was such a struggle because I felt anything but healthy and well! I told her how much I missed fruits and vegetables, and she whipped out a little package of gummies that were made from the juice of whole fruits and vegetables. I gobbled them up, and demanded that she go through her entire Juice Plus+ Wellness Presentation right then and there in the coffee shop. I needed to know everything about it and how I could get this product into my body yesterday.
Now, I am quick to jump on many wellness trends – CrossFit, paleo, barefoot running, green smoothies, etc, etc. . . . however, I’m not big on vitamins and supplements claiming to have magical healing powers. I took fish oil half-heartedly for a while, but much preferred getting my omega 3’s from my mom’s grilled salmon or some flax seeds mixed into my morning oats or smoothie. Even protein powder made me wary, due to so much other crap being on the ingredients list. Some eggs, chicken, fish, or nuts seemed like a much better way to get protein into my body than drinking a chocolate flavored powder drink. I learned in my college nutrition classes that you end up urinating out most of the stuff that comes in your supplements, because the body simply can’t absorb and use it in that form. What a waste of money! So, when I first heard about these capsules of fruits and vegetables, I was initially turned off and resumed my normal “just eat real food” thinking. Thankfully, I kept listening.
By the end of our conversation, I not only wanted Juice Plus+ in my body, but I wanted to share it with everyone I knew, especially those who were sick, or had been sick, or might end up sick if they don’t start taking care of their health through proper nutrition. Even those who strive to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, but are either stuck in a rut and lacking variety or maybe just go through periods of time where nutrition falls to the wayside – I’ve sure been there! That’s all it is, a safety net. It’s so you can consume the nutrients from kale and beets whether you eat them daily or not, or to make up for those times when you might be sick, or traveling, and fruits and vegetables are hard to come by. It’s not a free pass to eat like crap as long as you take this magic pill, which is what I like about JP+ and the company. It promotes healthy living all around. We even have another product called the Tower Garden where you can grow your own fruits and vegetables so that there is no excuse NOT to eat them! I’ve even noticed that I tend to WANT more fruits and vegetables when I’m taking my JP+, sort of like when you start eating junk food and all of a sudden you are craving more junk food, except the opposite.
I could go on and on about the research, and the way the product is made, and about how phytonutrients are so much better for you than the isolated vitamins and minerals from supplements, and how JP+ has been proven to be bioavailable and actually do what it claims to do in the body, but I would rather you come to a presentation yourself. Mostly, because I am hosting two webinars coming up, and I don’t want it to just be me and my mom. . . . Kidding, kind of. It’s because if you read this blog, you probably care about your health in one way or another, and I think that this information would be really interesting to you. Everyone knows that fruits and vegetables are important for good health, but do you really know and understand why? This presentation isn’t about selling a product, it’s about explaining the how’s and why’s of the preventative health and healing powers of fruits and vegetables.
So, if you’d like more information or would like to attend an event either in person or online (fancy, fancy!), please let me know. The upcoming Wellness Webinars will be this Sunday afternoon and Tuesday, although the times are not yet set in stone.
Please “come”, I’d love to “see” you.
Be Well,
Namaste 🙂
YOGA with MINDY 