A few years back I decided to try juicing. Why? Because a super skinny girl I knew was into juicing and I wanted to look like her.

This girl, whose name escapes me wasn’t into “juice fasting.” She was simply into drinking home-distilled juice as a means of cutting her daily caloric intake. There are people however who advocate juice fasts that suggest drinking only fruit and vegetable juices for up to 14 days. This juice fasting paradigm has been touted as a way to detoxify or “detox” the body of unwanted chemicals and toxins. Unfortunately there’s little evidence that these juice-only diets provide any detoxification beyond what our liver and kidneys can achieve normally.

Anyway, once I decided to get on the juice train, I jumped online and ordered myself a Jack Lalanne Power Juicer along with a shitload of books on juicing. Two days later the books and my new juicer arrived sending me off to buy many dollars worth of organic produce to pulverize.

With bags of apples, carrots and greens I raced home to blend up my first skinny cocktail (no I didn’t add vodka). At first I thought the juicer was pretty cool because you could feed it entire apples and lemons, peel, core, seeds and all. “Whow,” I thought. But then I realize that it took a bag-full of produce to squeeze out enough juice to drink, leaving the best parts of the pricy edibles to be tossed in the compost. I kept with the juicing for a few weeks, substituting juice for a full meal or part of a meal. When I didn’t effortlessly get skinny I dumped the juicer. And frankly, the fact that I had to toss the best parts (the things the make you feel full and contain most of the nutrients) down the shoot, never really set right with me.

So here we are years later and I still think conventional juicing is a lot of effort for too much money, too many calories and too much waste. Until I read about juicing with a blender, so off I went again to buy my organics and give this new method a try. It was the idea of keeping all of the fiber and goodness the fruits and vegetables initially came with that interested me.

Well, at this point I’ll simply cut to the chase. Here’s what I have to say about juicing with a blender.

First: What you get is not “juice” it’s more like a chunky smoothie, don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad. It’s just not juice and it’s very filling (which is a good thing). Also keep in mind that you’re using the whole fruit or veggie so the flavors are very intense. Be careful, and you’ll want to add water or ice to the mix.

Second: These concoctions are super filling and keep well in the frig. If you’re the type that likes to get your 5 colors of fruits and veggies a day BlenderJuicing is a great way to get the job done.

Third: You can use the same recipes to juice with a blender as you would with a juicer. Just be sure to cut things up into pieces and take out seeds, cores and I wouldn’t think citrus peel would be too good but you could try.

Lastly: Very important! Check your teeth when you’re done. Think about it! All those little colored bits…

So there you have it. I give blender BlenderJuicing about 6 stars out of 10. It’s a great way to get your colors and fiber as well as keep calories in check. Play with it, you may love it or you may not. It’s worth a spin especially this time of year when time is short and calories are high!