Juice Fasting and Weight Loss Expectations

6 June 2013

8 Comments

Okay. So there are people who won’t listen to me when I advise you to Stay Off the Scale during your juice cleanse. I get that…and I am the first one to acknowledge that you don’t HAVE to listen to me. The siren’s call of the scale is powerful, my friends! POWERFUL! You take the time to invest in a juicer, make all these great drinks, forego your favorite falafel spot, and drink who knows how much water…you want to know that it’s paying off! I get that. 

HOWEVER. (Isn’t there always a “however” with me? LOL!)

I see so, so, so, SO many people who juice for a couple of days and begin to feel great…and then their hopes and dreams are dashed upon the rocks because they haven’t lost 10 pounds in 10 minutes. They allow the scale to mess with their minds, to undermine their efforts and derail their progress. 

My goal is to get you to feel HAPPY about this process. If you’ve taken the time, the energy and the courage to embark upon a cleanse, don’t you want to feel great about it? Well, in order to do that, you should begin to manage your weight loss expectations. 

Here are some ways to ease your mind around weight loss and juice fasting:

1. Understand that the weight release (when juice fasting properly) is INEVITABLE. Just because you do not see a two-pound-per-day release on the scale right away doesn’t mean that weight loss won’t happen. The body is going through some MAJOR changes…give it time to work through that. 

2. Don’t compare your weight loss to anyone else’s. Period. End of story. Their body isn’t YOUR body, so how can your weight release be the same? 

3. Unfortunately, men typically shed weight quicker than women. It sucks, and it’s a fact. For those of you women who are swooning at the weight loss results achieved by Joe Cross and Phil Staples in FSND…uh, yeah. Sorry to say that those results are not typical for us. Men tend to release about one pound per day on a cleanse, while we women shed half that.  

4. Even though we release less than men do…BE HAPPY WITH WHATEVER YOUR RELEASE IS! Celebrate it. Understand that it’s the result of your healthy choices and just the start of the myriad of mind/body/emotional/health related successes in the future. If you aren’t celebrating whatever the number is, then this is just a diet for you and you will gain the weight back right after you finish. Hard truth…but truth, nevertheless. 

That being said, if you ARE chucking pounds faster than a woodchuck could chuck wood, that’s great! My point is that you should be proud of yourself and your accomplishments, no matter what the numbers are. 

So, you don’t HAVE to listen to me…but I advise you to toss the scale in the trunk of the car and just juice. 

Juice Fasting: Getting Past the Hunger

5 June 2013

1 Comment

So. It’s 2:30 on Day 4 of your juice fast. You haven’t had a juice since 11:00 AM, and now, your brain is running rampant. You’re thinking about ice cream. You’re thinking about short ribs. You’re eyeing your kid’s bowl of Cheerios, shooting her a dirty look and contemplating ways to justify stealing it away. You’re thinking…”I’M STARVING!”

Here’s some news for you. You are NOT starving. You may be hungry, but you’re not starving.

The thought of being hungry is one of the scariest things people think of when contemplating a juice fast. However, the hunger is a temporary feeling, and not necessarily your BODY experiencing hunger, but your mind screwing with you. After a few days, all that calms down and the cravings go away (trust me on this). Until then, people who have trepidation around being hungry may be distracted by random thoughts of fast food, funnel cake, or foods they haven’t had in years. That’s when the panic tends to set in.

(Side note: being on Day 4 myself, I had forgotten how much I absolutely enjoy the feeling of an empty stomach! It’s almost peaceful. Seriously. I used the word “peaceful”.)

Let’s talk about mind hunger versus body hunger, how to tell the difference between the two, how your past habits play into how much your mind messes with you, and how to trick your brain into always wanting to reach for juice. Yeah, I said “trick”. You gotta do what you gotta do to get through the beginning of a cleanse!

Juice Fasting: Celebrate Your Before Picture

31 May 2013

5 Comments

Anyone that knows me knows that I hate to take pictures of myself. HATE. Hate it. I’m using the word “hate”, here. However, I have recently had to rethink my perspective on the snap-snap.

The “before” picture ritual is an important part of the juicing and weight loss process. However, it’s also the step on which some people stumble because they get caught up on it. They take the photo and then obsess over it! “OH MY GOD! LOOK AT MY ASS! I cannot BELIEVE I let it get this bad! I remember what I looked like in college/before I had my kids/before that bad relationship/before the food addiction took over/before…before…before…”

That’s the wrong thinking. The RIGHT thinking is, “Hooray, hooray! My BEFORE picture! I celebrate you, oh photo of cellulite, because I will NEVAH EVAH EVAH look like this again! This is my testimonial to juicing/healthy foods/daily exercise/my gallon-a-day water habit/self love!”

That’s the way to do it!