To Juice or not to Juice

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/821828-detoxes-and-cleanses

I have done the booze cleanse a few times.

My thought is that fresh fruit and veggie juice can be a great addition to a healthy, whole foods diet, but I am not in favour of juice "cleanses". And 10 days is a long time to ingest nothing but juice!

My suggestion is to just up your fruit and vegetable intake...focus on eating whole foods. Satisfy your sugar cravings with fruit (or a freshly juiced juice!) I don't think a juice fast is any kind of quick fix for sugar cravings.

BTW I am a big fan of Kris Carr - she's pretty awesome!

Thanks for that, it was really informative. I had no intension of doing the mastercleanse but do know someone who is doing it now and so I forwarded your link to them.

The thread she linked wasn't just about the master cleanse though, it applies to all "cleanses" including a juice cleanse.

Personally I've never tried juicing but I do know it gets extremely expensive very quickly. You're more than welcome to try it, but I don't see what's wrong with just eating a balanced, healthy diet and learning to control your portions. If you do a juice "cleanse" and find success with weight loss/health, what happens when you start eating normally again? You haven't learned anything from juicing, you know?

I really wanted to do serious juicing too. But I opted for a part time thing...when I can! I had a real problem with the amount of waste in the discard of my juicing and couldn't come up with an equitable way to re use it. Composting is ok if you garden and making bread out of it ..or something like that...kind of defeats the purpose....you know ...lots of oil or sugar. So if I can get fruit cheaply enough and /or make smoothies occasionally..I do that. I add veggies too..kale, broccoli, spinach. I am not a sweet craver too much..anyway. But we make fresh ice cream about every week and have that for our dessert. I love my cuesinart ice cream maker!
Good luck on your journey!

:laugh:

Love that! The nellies...haha. I agree juice if you like it ..great, if not move on. even 1 meal a day is a good start!

Anyone tried a juicing cleanse? What was your experience like (good & bad)? I’ve been considering a 10 day cleanse to jump start things, hoping that it helps me lessen my sugar cravings once it’s done. I was looking into continuing with more of a raw vegetarian approach (maybe 50% raw, still to be determined, I want to see what feels right for me) afterwards. But I’d love to hear of peoples experience, and any suggestions of what to look into or do before I start.

Careful, but people are going to **** all over your chest because of your post. Enjoy!

That said, I juice at home, it's delicious, and wakes me up. As for it being a "detox", eh, no support in research that I've seen for or against, so you never know regardless of what the nellies are going to squawk in your thread.

Give it a swing. If you like it, cool, if not, no bigs.

For me I did a 4 day juice only stint. I felt great the whole time, very awake, but I was careful to add in fats and protein. I kept regular juicing because of how I felt.

Also, after 4 days it helped me radically readjust my eating from utter crap to something marginally better than utter crap.

I started my weight loss with a 5 day juice fast. I juiced 4-5 times a day and took in 1200 calories a day through juicing. I did it for the same reason you want to, in the effort to reduce sugar cravings but I also did it to change the way I think about sugar. It helped. Now I take power over my eating instead of my eating having power over me. I am now eating "normal" food, including sugar but I make sure I'm staying within my calorie allowances and I work out 5-6 days a week as well.

Now that everyone has pounded down on the juicing idea....I am a big fan of juicing in general and have done two juice fasts, and just wanted to give my perspective on some of the bad points.

1. It is expensive.
yea, it is expensive. it is only marginally more expensive, in my opinion, than the diets like slimfast that require you to purchase their meals/bars/shakes. you might consider 'supplementing' your juice fast with something like a can of tuna for lunch, or an avocado.

2. It isn't as effective as exercising.
Juicing is great for if you are too overweight to exercise very well or are completely humiliated in the gym. People will tell you to get over these things, and that's fine. But you could also lose your first ten-twenty pounds from your living room. And as you get thinner, you will feel more comfortable and it will be easier to move more.

3. It would be better to learn to eat healthily and exercise portion control.
This is true. Most of us got into the position we're in (being overweight) by failing to do both these things , and having someone tell us we should do them is kinda not enough. Quite frankly i *still* am not an expert if knowing when something is 10 oz vs 2 cups vs 1.3 cups and that can affect your calorie count significantly. I get around this problem by buying meals in a box where the calorie count is very clear to me - you eat the whole box, your calories = x.

4. It would be healthier to eat the raw vegetables.
Well....I don't know many people who want to just sit at a table and eat 10 raw carrots followed by 6 oranges followed by a pint of strawberries with some springs of kale thrown in. The juice on the other hand tastes delicious.

5. At the end of the diet you've lost weight but you'll gain it back.
Maybe. It's possible. Hell it is even likely. But that's not the juice's fault - that's my fault for not being able to control my eating. I think doing anything (working out, eating healthy, etc) has to be done frequently enough to become a pattern and it has to feel rewarding, or else people won't stick with it. For me, running is a chore and I hate it. I *make myself do it* because I don't want to be fat. As soon as I feel thin, I don't go running. Juicing, on the other hand, feels nice. I like juice. I can easily drink juice instead of having a pile of waffles in the morning and although waffles are great, it's not a huge hardship. Thus, I am more likely to "stick with" the juicing. As I juice, I usually munch on the raw stuff. I would say juicing is the reason I have healthier food choices in the house, and the reason I get both more fruits and more vegetables in my diet (juiced and nonjuiced).

6. And finally, results.
In 2007 I did a 10 day juice "cleanse" and during the 10 days I lost 8.5 lbs. I was pretty friggin happy with this result. I am starting another one this week. If you go on youtube you can see other people's results. Or watch "fat sick and nearly dead" the movie on netflix. I don't think every person on earth gets these kind of results. but it worked well for me. after that point i did juice swapping (juice instead of dinner) and ate fewer processed foods, and lost about 70lbs in 8 months. I gained back about 35lbs of that weight five years later (in 2012). i think it was a very positive experience.

I did read the whole thread about the master cleanse and was mildly horrified. I think 30 days is a really long time to do nothing but juice. Also I think if I was going to attempt something like that I would also seek a doctor's oversight... she is very lucky her bowel did not tear and she didn't die of sepsis. I've read research before that humans fasting is healthy and even natural, but going for that long of a period seems very extreme to me.


Elle

Beyond what has already been said, juicing is a wonderful idea.*




*in addition to a well-balanced diet, but never in place of it.

For me, the best way to deal with sugar cravings is to maintain stable blood sugar levels and get out of the spiking and crashing pattern. So I don't think the answer is fruit juice, it's probably more about being aware of hunger levels and eating enough protein, vegetables and healthy fats.