Jason Vale - The Juice Master - Turbo-charge Your Life in 14 Days

Nobody, when they are tucking into a cream bun and a large Coke, is ever thinking, ‘The only reason I’m doing this is in case something happens to me tomorrow.’ If you really thought tomorrow wasn’t coming, the last thing on your mind would be, ‘Yippee, how much junk food can I stuff down my gullet today?’ Your only focus would be on finding the people you love and telling them how you feel.

‘But Jason, life is too short.’ I agree, life is too short, and unless you change it will be even shorter! It’s also too short not to live your dreams; it’s too short to live feeling sluggish and overweight, hating the way you look and feel; it’s too short to be scared to get into a bathing costume; it’s too short to hit your head on the pillow every night hoping things will be different tomorrow; it’s too short to wake up every day with a junk-food hangover; it’s too short to collapse at the end of the working day with only enough energy to slump in front of the TV for hours on end – YES, LIFE IS TOO SHORT – so stop saying, ‘I could get run over by a bus tomorrow’ because that’s not why you eat and drink rubbish or don’t exercise – it’s just another excuse.

I suppose there is some argument on the other side though. I mean, if you keep eating and drinking rubbish and end up as big as a house, the chances of a bus actually being able to run you over would be pretty slim!

Too old for what exactly? Too old to buy some fruit and veg? Too old to peel a banana? Too old to go for a walk? Too old to push some vegetables through a juicer and drink it? Or too old to live?

I’m not saying that the years don’t take their toll. As we get older we often genuinely can’t do what we used to be capable of, but it doesn’t mean for a second we are washed up and on the scrapheap. Age is just another excuse, which once again is simply based on fear – the fear of taking the leap from settling for what we have to making life an unbelievable adventure.

Two ladies in their sixties attended one of our Ultimate Health Weekends. Having read my first book, Slim 4 Life, a few months earlier, they had decided to get up and, as one of the chapters suggests, Get Busy Living. In the time since they had read the book, and, more importantly, acted upon it, they experienced not only an increase in physical energy but found their worlds expanded by the day. On this particular weekend they played ‘net-football’ on the beach at 7am; swam in a cold, but beautiful lake first thing on a Sunday morning; climbed an enormous height up a pole onto a platform where they then attached themselves to a Zip-Slide and slid James Bond-style down a mountain; completed a 50ft high-ropes assault course; ate and drank pure live foods; and joined in with everything. I know people in their thirties who wouldn’t have the physical or mental energy to do that.

I met a young man on holiday and asked if he wanted to come ‘wake-boarding’ with me (this is like snowboarding but on water with a boat pulling you along). He seemed unsure, so I told him that if he had done any snowboarding or skateboarding it would be an advantage. His eyes lit up and he explained that skateboarding was his passion. When I asked if he still did it, he said, ‘Oh not now, I gave it up as I’m getting too old to do that sort of thing.’ I asked him how old he was, and he was 29! He thought it looked silly for a 29-year-old to be on a skateboard. Who gives a flying 360-degree jump?

If I want to skateboard at 99 let alone 29 then I will! Stopping physical passions cause people to ‘age’ before their time.

When ex-veteran Ray Sheriff jumped from an aeroplane with the Red Devils on 18 September 2004 he was 84, and he was blind! He was just one of ten men aged between 79 and 85 that made the jump in order to commemorate the battle of Arnhem. He has made the jump in the same place, on the same date, every year since he was 70. Ray lost his sight in a German mortar attack in World War II, but being blind and 84 years of age isn’t enough to produce one ‘but’ from this amazing man.

Life begins at 40…or 50,60,70,80 or whenever you want it to. Life begins when you say, ‘That’s it. I’m no longer going to sit and be a spectator of life – I’m going to get off of my backside and live a little.’ It’s when you aren’t willing to settle for a mindset which falsely tells you ‘you’re too old’ or ‘you’ve had your time so it’s time to sit back now’. We are on this planet for a short enough time as it is; the last thing you want is to tell yourself you’re too old for anything.

Some people don’t think they’re too old; they think that they’re either too overweight or have battered their inner organs so much that it’s just not worth making the change as it’s too late. But the human body is one of the most rejuvenating survival machines on the planet and no matter how much we’ve battered it over the years, the second we give it the opportunity to heal, it will do everything within its power to make optimum health possible. No matter how ‘old’ you are, or what condition or conditions you have; if you supply the body with the right tools – ‘live’ foods, drinks and physical movement – it will do whatever it can to breed life and vitality to your body and mind.

Before I get on to why this excuse doesn’t wash, I want to stress that THIS IS NOT A JUICING BOOK!Yes, juicing will play a part during the 14-day programme. The chances are, once you start to live, feel and see the difference juicing makes, you will continue well beyond that time. However, the main focus of this book is to show you how to drop the bullshit excuses.

The same people who say it takes too long to make a juice and clean the machine don’t seem to have the same misgivings when spending God knows how much time cooking bacon and eggs and cleaning the pan!

It’s hardly the most difficult process. All you need to do is pop a few fruits and veggies into the juicer and push down. How flipping tricky is that? Even cleaning the machine is hardly back-breaking work, is it? I mean, all you have to do is rinse a couple of parts and spend about one minute (if that) cleaning the filter part – so big deal. Most juicers will now even go into the dishwasher, making juicing life even easier.

Millions of people all over the world would kill for the opportunity to have the liquid fuel contained within fresh fruits and vegetables feeding every cell in their body. These are people who often walk 20 miles a day to find water. Somehow I don’t think they’d moan a great deal if they ‘had’ to juice the finest fruits and vegetables from around the world.

In reality, it shouldn’t take any longer than 10 minutes to make a juice and clean the machine. Like anything new, juicing takes a short while to get the hang of, so don’t throw in the towel after just one attempt. No matter what, you will be juicing for at least 14 days during the programme, so even if you ‘hate juicing’ you can easily do it for 14 days.