Our family-owned restaurant is located in beautiful Holly, Michigan. Our kitchen features fresh beverages and plant-based foods, prepared with love and dedication. Did we mention no-added sugars, artificial flavorings and completely VEGAN!
We don't JUST want to nourish and care for our customers.... We also want to do these things in our community. We also believe just as healthy food is nourishment to your body, good music is nourishment for your soul. That is why we also encourage good tunes and will always have them playing in our shop!
Our Story
‘Taking care of yourself’ is a loaded statement. When you are younger, the nutritional side of this is often emphasized because you are growing! It’s also easily ignored because of the chaos of being a kid and teenager.
For me, my parents always taught me the importance of eating fruits and vegetables. Since I can remember, my mom always had my brother and I snacking on them or incorporating them in our dinner. As I got older I continued to maintain those good habits and was very physically active throughout high school. After high school, these good habits I built and the importance of nutrition were lost to my social life. Partying completely overshadowed how relevant taking care of your body REALLY is. I no longer cared about how I ate.
My diet consisted of over indulging in ultra-processed foods, sodas, sugar and animal products. Pushing health to the wayside caused me to gain some serious weight. I went from around 150 lbs to 250 lbs. This gain came with a major dissatisfaction with how I looked and felt . I knew I had to do something about it.
I started trying everything (or so I thought.) Diets, diet pills etc… and nothing seemed to stick. Even if I would shed a pound or two, I put the weight back on very quickly. June 29th 2012- My mom; Diane and I got into a very serious car accident. It was a major set-back for the both of us. It not only negatively affected us physically, but mentally as well. For me, it just made my eating habits worse. Things were difficult recovering while helping my mom do the same. I continued with bad habits and ignored what my body was trying telling me. Then, February 2013- I watched a documentary called Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. This was a HUGE wake up call for me. The very next day, I bought a juicer. I IMMEDIATELY started a Juice fast. I told myself I can no longer ignore the importance of actually taking care of yourself, and this documentary helped me kick-start things into action.
My first juice fast was 60 days. Right away, I lost 40 lbs. Once I saw not only how effective this was, but how amazing I fellt and looked,I knew I wanted a complete lifestyle change. After the fast, this is just what I did; changed my lifestyle. The years following I continued a vegan diet and started taking a heavy interest in healthy vegan recipes. I started a notebook filled with juicing combinations and vegan recipes for desserts and dinners while having a total sense of JOY doing it. During this transformation, my mom endured A LOT of physical hardship. Not only was I going through a lifestyle change, but I had to help take care of my mother who was battling multiple health issues. She was a trooper through countless surgeries (including a brain surgery). It was a challenging time for us both, but we managed to get through it together.
During those 3 years we were living in Arizona. After all of it, we moved back to our home-state of Michigan in late 2014. Although I had been talking about wanting to open my own Juice bar ever since I made this lifestyle transformation, it really started to become a reality throughout 2015. My mother helped me make this dream come to life, almost as a ‘Thank you’ for how I helped her through her physical hardships. My mom was skeptical at the start of these “extreme” lifestyle changes, but after watching the positive affects it had on me over-all she would not only encourage it, but took interest in it herself! That is why I named the store after her and I, Jacq n Diane’s Juice Box.
Now I am a proud owner of my little vegan eatery and Juice Bar, and I couldn’t be any happier. Sharing this lifestyle and my experience with others has been a strong desire for many years now, and I’m grateful the time has finally come!