Featured On Friday's: Reflections on our Juicing Diet
Hello Steemian friends,
We hope everyone is feeling fantastic as it's Friday!
We're feeling great! As some of you who have been following us noticed we started a juicing diet this week and we decided to document it. We created a four part vlog where we showed you the highlights, but unfortunately our final part where we talked about our experience didn't come out right. We noticed upon editing the clip that the fan in the kitchen was quite loud and in the process of reducing the background noise, we also reduced our voices. We are new to vlogging and now we know to test the sound as well as not to film with our GoPro. The action camera isn't meant for vlogging. We live and learn! We also learnt that during our juicing diet.
Why a Juicing Diet?
This was the question Sam's mum asked us when we decided and told her that she didn't need to cook for us for the next 9 days. Yes, maybe we do need to lose a few pounds around the edges, but we're not fat nor are we thin. This juicing diet wasn't about losing weight (but we would welcome it), but to cleanse the system. It all started out with Becca buying this 'Modern Juicing' book as she was curious and she is more health conscious than Sam is. The more she read the book, the more she wanted to give it a go! Here's the thing, we're a couple, so when there's a challenge, we both do it to support and motivate each other. Even if this wasn't Sam's thing.
Don't ignore your health in search for wealth
In this modern day and age, more and more celebrities and health conscious people are turning to a juice diet either for a temporary detox or to slowly implement it into their daily lives. It's not new, but it has been overlooked for many years. It all comes down to what you eat determines your body's health and this in turn helps shape how you feel and look. Juicing helps give your body the nutrients and vitamins it needs, without having to ingest the bad stuff it doesn't need. Once you have filled your body up with the right nutrients, it supplies you with mental clarity, physical energy and great overall health. When you juice, all the nutrients that are trapped inside the fibres of the solid vegetables, such as carrots, they are released into the juice which makes it easier for your organs to absorb through the bloodstream, this in turn gives your digestive system a bit of a rest.
What Does A 3 Day Juicing Entail?
Well for starters, it's not 3 days! The whole process took 9 days with a 3 day Pre-Cleanse and 3 day Post-Cleanse in between the 3 day juicing diet (cleanse). Both the pre and post cleanse consisted of eating nothing, but solid fruits and vegetables. No processed or oily foods were allowed. No tea, coffee, milk, soft drinks or alcohol. Just water. It was basically eating salads and soups in different ways. It was quite annoying for the pre-cleanse as our culinary minds did not stretch beyond the simple salad and soups, but when it came to the post-cleanse, it was a relief to be eating solid foods again. Both stages are necessary for the cleanse as those three days on either side prepares the gut for detox period as well as going back to normality.
The 3-day cleanse started on Monday for us, but already from Friday (last week) we were buying the necessary ingredients that we needed for a 3-day juicing diet. The shopping list was extensive from 27 different fruits and vegetables as well as spices and natural sweeteners. That wasn’t all, the amount of each fruit and vegetable we needed was vast too! The book gave us a shopping list for one person, so we had to double everything. Hopefully, we won’t see 42 carrots in our shopping cart for a while! Why so many fruits and vegetables? Well, try obtaining a liter of orange juice with one orange. It’s impossible unless you have a super-duper GM orange then maybe (something out of James and the Giant Peach). But, your average 2-4 oranges will give you about a cup of orange juice. So, imagine a carrot that is not known for its water density. How many would you need to juice before you get a decent amount of juice? Quite a bit.
The 3-day cleanse involved creating six different types of juices per day (each). Water and those six juices is all we could have. The first juice every morning was a blend of carrot and orange as this juice had natural sugars and was a great pick-me-up drink! The next five juices, we would plan the night prior. We would make three juices that we would take to work/university and after the fifth juice prepared for when we got home. The sixth juice was not so much a juice, but a broth. We boiled a few vegetables and afterwards blended them and strain the pulp. Yes, it did taste like flavoured hot water. We did this cycle for three days and nights! We wasted nothing as we kept the pulp too! We stored this in our freezer as we read that the pulp could be used for things like cakes, muffins, crackers and veggie patties for burgers.
Reflections
The ‘Modern Juicing’ book said that during our 3-day cleanse we might experience some fatigue, however, both of us felt energised and recharged. Sam even woke up in the mornings without his usual tiredness and headache feeling. Our cleanse was only 3 days, however there are other cleanses that are seven days or twenty-one days long! We feel we could probably manage a week of juicing next time (if there is a next time) as during the three days we did not feel hungry, this is because we got the required nutrients in a liquid form. It was quite an amazing feeling; however, we love our foods too much to stay away from solid foods for too long!
We had an amazing time juicing and would recommend it to anyone who would like to try it. Take the necessary steps to cleansing, curing and keeping your body healthy. And yes, if you were wondering if we lost weight. Yes, we did. We weighed ourselves at the gym (after no exercise for eight days) on Day 8. Becca lost just under three kilos and Sam just over three kilos in eight days! Yet, do not see this as a weight loss diet, it is more than that! It is about the benefits you will receive.
Stay Classy Steemians!
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Nice guys. Nothing like a good water/juice fast to clean out your system and boost your energy.
Yea we gave it a try and love it! Although, it was hard as we love food too! We'll try it again for sure, but we won't be regularly juicing like every week for example. Our appetite has reduced too, which is great for maintaining our weight down. 😊
Yeah it gives you stomach a chance shrink down a bit, not only flattening yoru belly but suddenly fill up faster and have a smaller appetite. I try to do a 24-48 hour water fast once or twice a month, depending on much I've been pigging out in the prior weeks.
Ah really! You're a big fan of it too! We have been doing some reflecting as we had our day 1 of eating normally again today and we do feel the difference. We're reflecting on the fact, maybe, just maybe we should consider doing this more often than like a yearly thing. We are viewing it more towards how we felt more than how we looked. Yes, juicing/water fasting did bring our weight down, but that was just a bonus. The feeling of waking up refreshed and having a lot of energy through out the day is what surprised us as we were expecting the opposite! This is what we would like to get every day! 😊
The whole thing is underrated. I am a big fan. Congrats for your fasting discovery!
Oo what a great way to lose our weight Becca and Sam. I've missed many post amid this time I guess.
I do really agree when you said "Don't ignore your health in search for wealth", because people do this oftentimes.
Btw I wonder, what happened during your time in juicing period, whether in the 3 day Pre-Cleanse or 3 day Post-Cleanse that we eat nothing, is it okay? No hungry at all?
Ahahaha, you know that mostly Indonesian can't live longer without eating rice. Lol 😅
No worries! You get busy and you get to meet loads of new people on here. We felt bad for following a person at the beginning, but drifted off viewing their posts. It's nothing to worry about. Expand and meet new people 😊
We actually weren't doing this for the weight loss, believe it or not. But to cleanse the gut and the system. We live in a fast pace world, that often a quick fast food meal is the convenient option, but our bodies need to be taken care of.
During the three day pre and post cleanse it's recommended to eat fresh solid fruits and vegetables as you need to work your gut still, but only with good stuff. We don't think eating nothing would help. Yet, during the juicing diet, we weren't hungry at all! It was quite amazing!
Sam thought it would be difficult as he loves food, but he managed and really eating a lot of food is a mental disease. Thus, the saying "your eyes are bigger than your stomach". What we took away from this is to eat right.
I agree that this is more than just about losing weight. I would like to try this one but hesitant doing this for more than a week. I might faint at work lol but seriously, I need to detox and I like those benefits on that photo. Healthy food is expensive here in Manila so need to get rid of all those junk I've taken.
Congrats on this successful juicing diet! Must be so hard not to eat the usual food. And food is soooo tempting!
It's best to do it in pairs for the first time, so you can motivate each other. Do you have a work colleague or friend who might be interested?
We thought we would be fatigue, but we were fine. We got the nutrients we need to function, but in liquid format. It gives the old gut a rest from processing solid foods. The benefits are true, we feel well-rested and more energized.
It doesn't need to be expensive, okay, it will be much more than street food, but fruits and vegetables can be brought at local fresh markets. Some of our fruits and veggies were, but we got the majority of our detox items at the supermarket as sometimes we get low quality fruits & veggies from the fresh market. Have a think about it and do it when you have the right mentality. Do it when you WANT to do it and not when you "need" to.
Awesome tips! Thank you. I have a colleague in mind but she's already on intermittent fasting but maybe I can convince her.
That makes a lot of sense now you said it. There's more nutrients in these fruit and veggie juice than some foods. And I agree it's something that I must do when I want and not when I need it. Although I'm a little late on the "want" part because I actually need to be healthy for my thyroid.
Ask her and then you can both motivate each other and if she's done it before then she can give you some tips and tricks. There's no harm in asking. But also remember to follow through! There's talking the talk, but you need to walk the walk too.
Work it with your thyroid issue, but don't let that be a bad thing - "I have to do it". You probably thinking it's easier said than done from our end, but it's true with anything - don't let problems stop you, find solutions. This is why we wrote out our last post as we have come across a stumbling block in our lives and we want to share and maybe a solution will come out of it. Otherwise, it's on us to figure it out. 😊
Thanks for this motivating message. :)
Any time ;)
This is awesome, guys! So happy you felt some benefits. I think it's really important to look at what we are putting in our bodies, especially if Sam is waking up feeling unwell. That's usually the first sign something is wrong with our diets. Fabulous to see you championing juicing, guys!
It might also be a lack of water too - staying hydrated is important and we were both more aware of drinking water during our fasting as we were limited to our juices or water. Now, we have the option of alcohol and soft drinks, which are short-term fixes when quenching your thrist.
Yet, we're two days back into eating normally and we can feel certain foods making us feel heavy and tired; mainly processed foods (bread and rice).
We would recommend giving it a shot!