When SERENE’s London Lead, Leslie Saglio, was introduced to Gee Jajodia and her juice line, Juice Philosophy, she was an instant fan. Gee, a health and lifestyle coach and firm believer in juice cleanses, developed a delicious UK-based line of cold-press detox juices delivered right to your door. Gee credits juicing to a host of body happenings including increased energy, health weight loss, clearer more radiant skin, reduction in cellulite appearance, more sensitive taste buds (greater enjoyment of food!), improved focus and productivity, stronger immune system, increased will power and a general feeling of a more calmer, rested and relaxed state. We asked Gee to share some of her health, entrepreneur and personal wellness tips with us below.
In London? Try out the juices at tomorrow’s Rise Up Rooftop Yoga class at Coq d’Argent or order some Juice Philosophy to your home.
Can you tell us a bit about your story and what led you to launch Juice Philosophy?
My father is a passion-led entrepreneur; I think I always knew one day I would do my own thing too but I spent 17 years in Financial Services before I had the idea and courage to do it! When I worked in face-to-face business development in the city of London, I often felt unhealthy and exhausted. Entertaining clients meant eating and drinking out more often than I would like and the work in general spanned long hours week after week. I discovered juice cleansing four years ago when I took myself away to recover on a juicing and yoga holiday. I got amazing results both physically and mentally, so from that moment made juicing a half yearly healthy habit. Three years later I took a career break and went to live in LA with a friend for three months. I knew I wanted to try something new but I was unsure what it was. The previous role left little head space for creativity. While in LA I adored the healthy lifestyle and easy access to juicing, I once again turned to a juice cleanse for some mental clarity to think about my future and that’s when the penny dropped: I loved juicing and decided I wanted to share the amazing benefits with as many people as possible!
What sets your juice range apart from others?
I have tried many juices and cleanses over the years. I decided I wanted mine to be easy for first time juicers, so flavour was important. I invested in the best cold pressed juicer from America so my juices are silky sooth with no pulp. This is beneficial when cleansing as it means the juice nutrition and enzymes are absorbed to cellular level within 15 mins, as very little digestion is needed. This is also much easier on the stomach/toilet department when just drinking juice; if you cleanse on smoothies with the pulp and fibre it can be ‘uncomfortable’. So I wanted the best quality juice from the best juicer I could buy, the flavours to be tasty to make the cleanse as easy as possible without any compromise on the results you get. The ingredients are carefully selected to give you a balance of nutrition while you cleanse.
Can you describe what your juice cleanse is and what are some of the most important ingredients used?
A juice cleasne is a process to eliminate toxins from the body. It’s a fast, you replace solid food with nutrient rich cold pressed juices for a number of days (3 or 5 being most popular). During this process the body switches to using stored fat as it’s main energy source, as the cells are used for energy it releases toxins. There are many benefits to juice cleansing. It’s been around for thousands of years and is a natural transition for the body. It’s also a safe and healthy way to lose unwanted weight giving fast and effective results. Regular juicers do it for all the health benefits, not just the weight loss. While your body is in cleanse mode it gives your body the opportunity to heal it’s self. It can help kick start a healthy regime as you’re taste for unhealthy food alters. It also gives your mind space and clarity, it is an amazing experience. The ingredients all have amazing health benefits, you can see the ingredients and their benefits on the website, they are designed so you get a balance of everything you need while cleansing.
Los Angeles is described as a big influence behind your range. Can you tell us more about the LA connection?
My 3 months in LA in 2013 was the first time I’d lived away from London. My time there allowed me to step back from daily life, evaluate what was missing and important in my life & to be creative. LA inspired me to be even more healthy and eventually to start the company. I decided to give the juices LA themed names as a reminder of my time there, also to make them fun and stand out, so many juice companies call their juices ‘detox’ ‘green’ ‘vitality’ etc, I wanted my brand to have more of an identity. I love LA, I can’t wait to go back!
A lot of women in our SERENE community have business ideas that they would love to move forward with or are currently rolling out. Any bits of advice, wisdom or encouragement on their journey?
You can do it! You just need to stay focused. I’d say you should be passionate about what you’re doing, don’t just do it to ‘make money’ because it takes a lot of hard work and long hours, so you have to enjoy what you’re doing. I found doing something with purpose for me is what I should have done 15 years ago, although it’s never too late! So don’t delay, begin with what you have, ask for help, it’s OK to fail and learn from everything you do, keep moving forwards. People often over-estimate what they can achieve in a year and can feel disappointed at this milestone, however people usually hugely underestimate what they can achieve in 5 years. With this in mind, keep working at your vision, the alternative is what I did, working in a job making someone else money for 17 years! If I had applied all that energy into this, who knows where I would be today!
As a health and lifestyle coach, what do you typically do during one of your consultations?
I had been on juicing retreats in the past and when I returned to my normal life and job again the hold habits quickly returned. I could have done with some coaching! It’s important to understand the driving forces behind your current behaviour patterns if you want to be successful at changing them. People use food as a control or a comfort for something else in their life that is not satisfactory, so it’s important to address that so you can move forwards and make some lasting changes. The health coaching program is typically three or six months depending on the client’s goals. The process starts with a Health History form and an hour session usually on Skype to discuss the areas in form, any specific goals or areas of concern and to see if we think we could work well together. Once we agree to the program, the early sessions will be around evaluating your life in all areas, noticing and prioritizing what’s most important to start working on, and from there setting one, three and six month goals. Once we have that as a template, each session we work towards achieving one or more of the goals. We discuss what they want to achieve from the session, explore options and agree action steps for them to work on until the next session. I speak to my clients every 2 weeks. The process helps people make gradual changes to their daily routine. I would recommend health coaching to anyone who has tried to reach a desired outcome working alone and found it challenging. I plan to launch some retreats where I will pull all this together and offer juice cleansing, coaching, yoga and other holistic ideas such as meditation, watch this space!
What advice do you feel you are always giving?
Drink more water! There are so many people who are dehydrated. Also be kind to yourself.
How do you personally take care of yourself and maintain balance?
I don’t drink any caffeine at all and aim to drink 2 litres of water and herbal tea per day. Monday to Friday I am very healthy in the day; I’ll have a juice for breakfast and lots of veggies for lunch. Then I can eat what I like in the evening and I’m more relaxed on weekends. I also do cleanses regularly if I feel unhealthy habits creeping in or if I want to look and feel my best for a holiday or occasion like a wedding for example.
Do you practice any daily or weekly rituals that help keep you on point?
I started keeping a gratitude log in 2012, that year I kept it up every day, that was a life changing experience. I now do one weekly but my outlook has certainly changed from the exercise. My next goal is to incorporate daily meditation. I have signed up to a number of the free meditation courses run by Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey, they’re a great way to get you started. The reason for both is we all find it so easy to talk negatively to ourselves in our head, these practices help you stay focused and positive.
What is/are your favorite form(s) of fitness?
You will find me at my local Bikram Yoga Studio (Bikram Yoga Essex in Loughton) or running around my local streets! I find a the combination of running and being outside with the convenience and quick time it takes to go for a run and Bikram Yoga which takes a bit of planning into your day is a good mix. Find something you enjoy and keep at it!
For more information on Juice Philosophy visit JuicePhilosophy.com
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