Drinking Your Colors; The Juice Feast

It has definitely been a cruel winter for us New Yorkers. Widely referred to as the "Polar Vortex", it seemed that between obscene blizzards and excruciatingly cold winds, we could never really catch a break. With the start of Spring, one could only hope that the above freezing temperatures we've recently been graced with are not just an elongated April Fools joke. Although, warm weather does come with  some sacrifice. Specifically, the necessary abandonment of our comfortable, heavy jackets, thick tights, and snow boots. Soon enough it will be time to show off our pale arms and legs again. The thought scares me and I know I'm not the only girl worrying about what happened to her former bikini body during the Snowpocalypse. So, while the weather is still cool enough I contacted my friend Terri Green, who lives in the always warm and sunny, Los Angeles, and begged her for diet advice.

For as long as I've known her, Terri has always taken great care of her health. She would share her diet and work out tips via social media, her friends taking note and eventually seeking her advice. After what felt like the saddest weigh in after the holidays, I spoke with her on the phone and for about an hour she bestowed upon me much of her health knowledge. Having a genuine interest in health and fitness, Terri has self educated herself and along the way has been able to stay on a healthy vegan diet. After much of her friends like me, have insisted she started a blog The Banana Chronicles were born. Although she shares a variety of different recipes, her most popular happen to be of the healthy juices she makes.

Inspired by her flavorful and colorful juices, I took it upon myself to try it out. I got a brand new Juicepresso, which I believe is perfect for anyone new to juicing. It's incredibly easy to put together and clean, works quietly, and effectively. My first juice was a mixture of watermelon, apples, oranges and strawberries. Like Terri often does, I took some of the resulting pulp and mixed it into the juice for a hearty and filling beverage. If you're not so tech/machine savvy like me, I think the Juicepresso would be the best machine for you to use. Your roommates will also be grateful for it's lack of noise and mess making. It's an overall win.

After my first juicing experience I still felt like needed to know more. Luckily, Terri agreed to share some of her wisdom with me and A Hit of Sarah readers. See the post below and make sure to check out The Banana Chronicles and follow on facebook, instagram, and twitter.

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When I first decided to start blogging, my friend Sarah was the first person I reached out to for advice. Although we talk about separate topics, coming together in the blogging community to collaborate is always fun and I am very happy to write this post for A Hit of Sarah! One of my biggest passions is juicing and I honestly feel that it has changed my life in such positive ways both physically and mentally.

For me, drinking fresh organic juices is like taking a daily multivitamin. I feel no need to take over the counter supplements. I mix and match different fruits and vegetables to ensure I get a well-rounded spectrum of nutrients, which I like to call “drinking your colors”. Every color that you see on fruits and vegetables are different essential nutrients that your body needs, so it’s important to change it up every couple of days.

Let’s talk about the benefits of juicing: clearer skin, mental clarity, brighter eyes, stronger nails and hair, and the added bonus: dropping a few pounds, as I did on my 21 day juice cleanse. Juicing is therapeutic and very rewarding for me – I love when friends reach out to me for advice and successfully start a juice journey of their own!

Some basic tips on how to start juicing:

• Learn your produce – always try to shop organic
• Less is more – although an acquired taste, use more vegetables over fruits with a 70:30 ratio
• Thoroughly wash your produce
• Save time by preparing your fruit and vegetables the night before
• Depending on the juicer, juices can last up to 24 hours when sealed
• Try to drink one green juice daily

Basic Green Juice
Always try to cover the areas of sweet, neutral and bold:

• 2 gala apples
• 3 Persian cucumbers
• 1 Romaine head
• 3-4 stalks of celery
• Thumb of ginger
• Squeeze lemon juice

Taking care of your body by providing it with the best quality fuel is essential to leading a healthy life. I encourage you to try juicing and incorporating more live, water dense foods into your diet. Juicing questions or comments? Connect with me via social media or at www.thebananachronicles.com!

Photos via: Terri Green & Juicepresso

Fashion Loves Animals

Earlier this month I was incredibly surprised to receive an invitation to Fashion Loves Animals, an event celebrating the non-use of animal products within the fashion industry. The event also served as a fun-filled benefit for Farm Sanctuary, a wonderful non-profit that protects farm animals from cruelty, and additionally honored highly regarded, VAUTE Couture President and Creative Director, Leanne Mai-ly Hilgart. Knowing that I've previously written about collections utilizing fur, leather, and other animal materials, the invitation was honestly completely unforeseen to me, yet  nevertheless, I graciously accepted it as an opportunity to learn more about the opposing stance.

Fashion Loves Animals was set at SIR Stage 37, a large space in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood. My good friend, Rachel Gottlieb, a wardrobe stylist and fashion designer with a deep appreciation for both fashion and farming, seemed like the perfect date to accompany me that evening.  Preceding the event she had just recently returned to the city after a few interesting months of living and working on a farm in upstate New York. Unsure of what to expect, the two of us happily donned whimsical ankle length dresses and walked excitedly into the large space.

The evening began with a delightful cocktail hour featuring delectable vegan appetizers by Jay Astafa. Somehow past experiences had lead me to believe that any food labeled "vegan" meant that it wouldn't taste good. However, to my great surprise, I was immensely mistaken. Astafa's finger food was not only flavorful as vegan, but great tasting as a meal in general. Regardless of it being green, the selections were all exotic in appearance, unique in taste, and completely fulfilling. In fact, I enjoyed the food so much that I  ate enough appetizers to satisfy me for the entire night. Although, what I found even more impressive than proving vegan food can actually be delicious, was the knowledge that Astafa is just twenty years old. Learning how to cook both from his family and culinary education, in addition to catering this large event, Astafa also recently premiered a pop up of his vegan food restaurant concept, Jay Kitchen. It proved to be a huge success and now New Yorkers, I happily amongst them, can look forward to a more permanent Jay Kitchen to debut in upcoming months. Overall, Astafa provided a great start to the evening and also happened to generously offer a private dinner party worth $1000 in an auction to benefit Farm Sanctuary. He is quite the admirable young man and I look forward to hearing more about his innovative ventures in the culinary world in the future.

Following the enjoyable opening cocktail hour was a special fashion show featuring clothing by renown cruelty-free fashion brand, Vaute Couture in addition to other great vegan brands including footwear by Love is Mighty, menswear by Brave Gentleman, handbags by Matt & Nat and makeup by The Body Shop. Also accompanying the models were a few cute furry friends from The Humane Society of New York that only further enhanced each look coming down the runway. Again, what I expected was much less than what I saw. In the last Fashion Unfold twitter debate I participated in I made a bold statement of saying that all eco-friendly clothing lines were generally unattractive. All of these brands made me immediately swallow my words. Rachel and I both absolutely loved Vaute Couture's feminine silhouettes, adorable cut outs, bold colors and prints, admired Love is Mighty's sparkling heels, thought the male models looked unbelievably handsome in Brave Gentlemen's looks, and were ready to quickly purchase a chic Matt and Nat handbag. Everything about the show was executed perfectly and for the first time in my fashion career I actually appreciated a movement I used to be completely indifferent too.

The evening ended with some lovely and relaxing music by Rosi Golan and sweet vegan desserts by Fran Costigan. The desserts were so unbelievably amazing that without shame, Rachel and I followed the waiters circulating the space serving each plate of desserts. Within minutes there was nothing left of Costigan's sweet little bites. Luckily, we were able to meet the Queen of Vegan Desserts. We sat and discussed her career and her dessert making methods. "There's no reason for us to use animals when we can create delicious desserts without them," she said and she's right. I've never tasted desserts as delicious as those. With no eggs or milks involved, it's quite shocking. 

Unfortunately, I was not able to leave Fashion Loves Animals with a cute puppy, but I did leave with an entirely new perspective. As Farm Sanctuary showed me- the American farming industry is not always as cute and simple as it may sound. There are animals who are treated poorly when they're sick or not in shape. They are treated as products and not as animals with hearts, brains, and lunges. I am not a vegan nor am I vegetarian, but animals should be treated well while they're living shouldn't they? and if they're not being used for what they can provide than they shouldn't simply just be neglected or mistreated. I have been swayed to think more about the subject, but either way I greatly appreciate Farm Sanctuary's mission and cause as well as all of the talented people working in the vegan industry wether it be Vaute Couture Founder, Leanne Mil-lay Hilgart, or Vegan Dessert Queen, Fran Costigan, the faux leather quality handbag line by Mat and Nat, or natural beauty products by The Body Shop. They're all working for a greater cause that affects so many helpless animals and all in all it's incredibly admirable.

Photos via: Sarah's instagram, Farm Sanctuary, Max Gordon Photography