Let’s get green together.

Our Supercharged Greens 6-Packs are just what they say on the label: 6 x 450ml Supercharged Green Juice, designed by Lee Holmes, wholefoods chef, author and creator of Supercharged Food.

The recipe is fruit-free (yep, nothing but veggies and a dash of lemon in this bad boy!)... so if you're not used to drinking green juice, we suggest you try a fruitier option, or our Level 1 Beginners Cleanse.

You can order our Supercharged Greens 6-Packs to accompany a detox, to enjoy as an intensive green cleanse, or simply to complement a healthy diet.

What’s in the juice?
8 lovely ingredients are all it takes:
• Spinach
• Cucumber
• Cos lettuce
• Celery
• Parsley
• Mint
• Lemon
• Ginger

Why go green? 
Green juice is a master healer. Lee swears by it, and so do we. It looks how it makes you feel: vibrant and alive. Just one big glass (or bottle) a day can help bring your body back to an alkaline state (an acidic body is the perfect host for disease, so alkaline is where it’s at). Leafy greens support the detoxification process; they’re also great for your skin and help combat ageing (bye bye free radicals). Mint and ginger enhance digestion and help combat the dreaded bloat, whilst lemon provides a kick-start to your metabolism. Parsley contains anti-oxidising vitamin C and spinach gives you a lovely dose of iron.

A juice with some serious benefits
It’s quick, it's easy. But this juice is in for the long haul.

Our Supercharged Green Juice helps to:
• Enhance digestion
• Reduce inflammation
• Brighten your skin
• Improve energy levels
• Support detoxification
• Alkalise the body

Like all of our juices, these little green beauties are easily absorbed thanks to our cold-pressing method, which breaks down the cell walls of those lovely veggies, delivering them in a pre-digestible state, and helping those nutrients reach your system as quickly as possible.

Our 6-Packs of Supercharged Greens are the easiest way to get your nutrient hit of alkalising green veggies without any fuss (leave that to us). We know this one will leave you bright, bouncy and super clean from the inside out.

Our Supercharged Greens are available to order online now.

Breaking up with booze

It’s Dry July this month and we’re almost three weeks in at the Urban Remedy HQ. Surprisingly enough, it hasn’t been that hard – okay, so we’re lucky enough to have lots of yummy juice at our disposal (that definitely helps) but interestingly the real challenge has been other people’s reactions. Ranging from “Really, no booze for a month?”, to “Kudos but I wouldn’t” or simply “Why?”, we had quite the range! On the whole though, friends and family have been very encouraging and the motivation of supporting such a worthy cause (adults living with cancer) has really kept us going.

This week, we wanted to share a few of our thoughts surrounding alcohol by asking 3 simple questions…

1. How does booze affect you?

We all know that alcohol hits our livers hard. This poor overworked organ can only process ½ an ounce of ethanol in an hour – that’s one beer, one shot or a small glass of wine. Any more than that and it goes into overdrive, and you get… well, inebriated. What’s actually happening is the alcohol your liver can’t handle is circulating throughout your body; yes, we know… not the nicest of thoughts. It therefore makes sense that our other detoxification organs (namely the skin) feel the strain when our liver can’t keep up with our drinking. For a full breakdown of the physical effects, check out our blog on alcohol and the liver.

But the effects of booze are not just physical. Alcohol affects our mental state and mood as well. The immediate repercussions of drinking include increased confidence, elation and (cough cough) stupidity. Not to mention beer goggles. But what about the day after? When we’re hung over, we feel less than joyful and are definitely not functioning at full capacity. It’s not rocket science; our body is still playing catch up and trying to clear the toxins from the night before.

2. What place does alcohol occupy in your life?

When it comes to drinking, it’s pretty simple: most of us do too much of it too often. But why do we do it? We drink out of social custom, peer pressure, habit, boredom… We also drink to relieve stress and increase confidence. The problem is that alcohol is such an integral part of our social fabric that we sometimes fail to examine the place it occupies in our own lives, or whether our relationship with it could do with a little tune-up.

Are you drinking alone? Drinking too fast? Drinking too often? Drinking without thinking? Drinking to drown sorrows? Most of us are guilty of one of the aforementioned charges. Does that mean that we are all alcoholics? Probably not. What it does mean is that it may be time to look at the role alcohol plays in our lives…

3. How can you improve your relationship with alcohol?

There are many ways to improve your relationship with booze. If you’re already asking yourself this question, you’re on the right track. We’re not about extreme views at UR, so we’re not suggesting you never have a glass of wine or beer again. BUT… ask yourself how rich your life is without alcohol. If the canvas is looking rather blank, it could be time to add some other activities in! The best way to take stock of this is to have a mini-break from alcohol. Split up for a little while; you can always get back together, on your terms this time. There are so many organised ways to take a vacation from booze – FebFast, Dry July and Hello Sunday Morning are our faves.

So bottom’s up to Dry July! Green juice in hand of course.

A truly remarkable man.

The Urban Remedy girls went on a very special kind of date earlier this week. We put on our Sunday best and ventured down to the Sydney Opera House to listen (avidly) to one of the great minds of nutrition. If you haven’t heard of him already, he goes by the name of Pollan. Michael Pollan.

Why is he so special? Well, probably because few people combine such a harmonious assortment of attributes and interests in such an easy-to-listen-to package. Pollan is first and foremost a journalist and a teacher but his area of expertise (and passion) is nutrition/health, and he brings to the table the so often missing ingredients of history, culture, government policy and sustainability. After all, nutrition without these key elements is like bread without butter, a roast without gravy, salad without dressing… you catch our drift.

Back to Pollan. One of his best works ‘Food Rules’ (which lays out some really simple but powerful guidelines to healthy eating) can be summed up in seven tiny but mighty words:

 “Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.”

We think they deserve a little elaboration:

Eat food.
If it doesn’t look like food (and your grandmother wouldn’t recognise it as food) it probably isn’t! Pollan wants us to eat food the way nature intended, food that’s alive, food that rots! And this means no need for additives, wonder ingredients or complicated production methods. Food is food. You shouldn’t need a dictionary to interpret the ingredients list.

Mostly plants.
This is self-explanatory. Eat mostly plants (this includes grains, nuts and seeds – non-refined of course). However, Pollan is not suggesting we avoid meat/protein altogether – on the contrary, he encourages sustainably-farmed and cruelty-free fish, free-range eggs, and/or moderate servings of organic meat. Remember to wash veggies thoroughly or if possible go organic. Even better still, grow your own!

Not too much.
Pollan’s least popular piece of advice. However, far from suggesting extreme calorie restriction (or counting), Pollan is simply inviting us to moderate and listen to our body’s needs. Instead of supersizing everything, we should focus on quality over quantity and learn to recognise when we are hungry or full. Our body will guide us to wellbeing if we listen closely enough.

And here are 5 handy tips to get you started:
1. Ask yourself where your food came from and how it was made
2. Make your own meals when possible, or buy them from a reliable source
3. Tune into your cravings – they could be telling you something!
4. Rediscover the pleasure of eating (it’s fun, let’s enjoy it)
5. Eat mindfully. Eating is an experience. There is no need to rush it.

Here's a link to our favourite Pollan book & to one of his many amazing talks.

Yoga to dust off the winter cobwebs…

We’ve recently passed the winter solstice – the shortest day of the year and the depths of winter – which can only mean one thing… spring is oh-so-close! Don’t we know it here at UR; having just planned the summer menu, we are already thinking about bikinis and beach action.

And what does spring bring? A time of renewal and rebirth… and the chance to come out of hibernation.

But maybe, right now, you are feeling a little stuck. A little heavy, lethargic or flat? No wonder, it’s winter! A sure fire cure is to hit-up a delicious yoga class that will help you feel whole again, and loosen you up – mind and body – to dust off those winter cobwebs.

There are plenty of styles to choose from – Hatha, Vinyasa, Ashtanga, Iyengar, Kundalini, Power, Qi… (wow!) so there isn’t really an excuse, is there? Yoga caters for a multitude of tastes – whether you like a dynamic, cardio work out (Ashtanga/Power/Vinyasa) or a more grounded, static focus (Hatha/Iyengar). Not to mention the amazing advantages you get by combining yoga and healthy eating or cleansing.

And just to give you an even bigger nudge (can you tell that we really, really like yoga?) we have a fantastic offer for you today! A FREE 10 class pass from YogaPass.

YogaPass has close to 500 participating studios across Australia and New Zealand which teach a rich variety of styles and lineages. YogaPass does exactly what it says on the label. It allows you to buy a pass (or multiple passes) to attend casual classes at your selection of studios so that you can discover what kind of yoga is ‘your’ kind of yoga. Each studio is listed on www.yogapass.com.au  with full contact details and location.

All you need to do is head over to our Facebook page (and like us, if you haven’t already!) to enter the competition.

Too easy. Get your stretch on and feel winter melt away!

Happy yoga-ing!

Image courtesy of NERONI photo

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