By Lauren Jane

If you’ve been reading the My Body Updates series on here, you’ll know that I mentioned I’d been using Juice Plus. Juice Plus is a brand with a confusing name; they sell protein shakes, vitamin capsules etc. it is not a ‘juicing’ diet. I signed up with my partner for the four month programme, meaning we’d both be on it for 2 months in total. I had one shake for breakfast, mixed with almond milk, fruit and occasionally had honey with it. I’d then have a second shake for lunch mixed with water.

For our evening meals we attempted to be healthy, in that most of the time we’d have a home cooked meal, made from scratch, but once a week we’d have a takeaway and/or go out for dinner. In between meals, healthy snacks are recommended. The majority of the time I’d have rice cakes with organic peanut butter, even though peanuts aren’t part of the plan, a piece of fruit, a nakd bar or homous and carrot sticks.

My bloating reduced considerably, which I think gave the impression of a large weight loss, when in fact only a few pounds had been shifted according to the scales. My stomach cramps and gas definitely reduced also, but I did find myself going to the bathroom more often than would be usual for me. In terms of weight, I did notice a good weight loss within the first week of 3lbs whilst on Juice Plus, which I achieved without a single workout. Since the first week, my weight fluctuated around the same, but I did not see anything dramatic.

I found myself waiting as long as possible to drink my morning shake, starting work at 8am and trying to wait until 9:30am to actually consume it. This was to prevent hunger kicking in later in the morning. I found myself extremely hungry by the time I got home around 5:30pm. Most nights I was reaching for carrots and homous just to keep me going before dinner. If I had been fit enough to go to the gym, I most certainly wouldn’t have had the energy to complete a workout.

Because of my lack of energy, I craved carbs and takeaway as well as sugary snacks. I also took the capsules throughout the period, 1 vegetable, 1 fruit and 1 berry. I did find these gave me an energy boost, but obviously did nothing to curb the hunger pangs I’d get early evening.

By the end of the programme, I found myself grumpy and miserable, which I think was down to the fact that I was so hungry come evening time. I didn’t find the days a struggle, especially being busy at work, but, my evenings were definitely a struggle. I possibly wasn’t consuming enough snacks throughout the day, but I definitely can’t carry on. I think I’d be able to cope with the breakfast shake, as this had fruit added, making it a much more filling meal.

The lunch shake was enough to keep me going for the afternoon at work, but not enough to curb my hunger until my evening meal. As soon as I noticed my mood being impacted by my hunger, I knew it was time to stop. Overall, I think Juice Plus is a great idea for busy people to ensure you are consuming your vitamins via the capsules. I think the breakfast ‘smoothie’ shake would be sustainable, but two shakes a day, one being with water, is definitely not sustainable.

When starting a project like juice fasting it is important to have a plan in place, because without it, your fast will fail. I tell you this from personal experience with my own 60-day juice fast. It was not easy but I was able to complete it because I had all of the pieces in place and ready to go.

Going on a raw-only diet for a few days right before starting the juice fast makes the detox symptoms a lot lighter and easier to handle. If you are able to to it, I highly recommend it. Personally I did 8 days of raw food before starting my juice fast. There are a few factors that go into a juice fasting plan. One, and probably the most important one is to have a well-defined, tangible goal.

What is something you'd like to do but aren't able to do because of your current weight? The second thing is to create an accountability partner. Having someone in place that can keep you focused on your goal, keep encouraging you, and monitoring your progress is crucial. Even with an accountability partner in place, go ahead and tell everyone you know that you are juice fasting to lose weight. Let these folks encourage you to keep going and help keep you from failing. The third thing that helped me is to post daily updates on my blog, Facebook, and YouTube.

As you gain an audience, they will support you and encourage you. Once you have these pieces in place, the next step is to get rid of all of the food in your house that is not a fruit and vegetable and get a juicer. Now you are ready. The actual juice fasting plan is very simple. Just start substituting juice drinks for all of your daily meals and snacks. The idea is to have an 80% vegetable and 20% fruit ratio in your juices.

If you have too much fruit juice you will not lose as much weight. There are a few awesome juices you can have on regular basis such as "lemon ginger blast" for breakfast, "mean green" for lunch, and a "nice green" for dinner. You can also choose to enjoy straight carrot juice for snacks if you like.

The beauty of juice fasting is that you are allowed to have as much juice as you want. But, be sure to have at least 64 oz per day - no less. This will fill your body with the micronutrients and chlorophyll necessary to shed weight as well as fix a lot of additional health problems that may be present in your body. Another important thing to remember is to also drink at least 64 oz of water per day in addition to your juice.

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