Healthy Body, Healthy Mind

Well its been a fair few weeks since I last posted. I think its safe to say I've been on a self imposed hiatus, trying to evaluate whats actually important to me in life and what I want to write about. This may seem like an odd statement seeing as the title suggests that this is in fact a diet post, but I've noticed lately that more than ever, when I get so busy and let my eating habits slip (and when they slip, they slip badly) my whole life seems to follow into a kind of chaotic state.
 
First thing that's worth noting, just to set the context : I've got terrible willpower.

I'm not going to lie to you, I'd rather sit on my sofa than go for a run. I wish I was one of those people who loved going to the gym, but the truth is it bores me half to death. I'd rather be doing something, actually anything, other than step onto a treadmill. Of course, I enjoy the rush of endorphins after a bit of exercise just like the next person. But I know that I can cheat and get a similar effect by eating a bit of chocolate. This is ultimately my problem.

All things considered, I should probably be morbidly obese. But about a year and a bit ago, I decided that after the best part of a decade of half hearted dieting and going to the gym, followed by eating cheese then getting nowhere, that I was just going to bloody well get on with it and do it. I am an all or nothing person. I threw myself into a juice cleanse for a week, and then I followed this with two more weeks of combining juicing with home cooked meals, cutting out all white bread, white pasta or white carbs in general. I lost just over a stone, which is all I really wanted to lose - but it made a huge difference to me. (Then I went to America for a bit and discovered savory pancakes, but that's a whole different story).

After about ten years of saying 'I just need to lose a stone or so and I'll be really happy with my weight' it took some kind of inner revelation for me to just get on with it and actually do it rather than continuously fail. It may not sound like a great deal of weight loss - it's not much to lose, but it really changed the way I felt about myself. I felt able to wear the clothes I wanted to wear but didn't feel confident wearing before. Most importantly, the weight stayed off too, for about a year, despite my gallivanting and pancake eating adventures.

Everyone has different methods when it comes to merging a busy life with a healthy life. But I've learned that for me, the true secret is that you NEED to stick to a change in diet for at least three weeks, and try and be strict with it. After that, the odd camembert sharer is OK (although, as a general rule I don't share camembert). The reason this is important is because your body adapts to your new weight. They also say that after 21 days of doing something it becomes habit and a part of your new way of thinking. After your body has adapted to its new weight, your metabolism tends to keep you there, unless you're really really naughty.

Over the past month (and after a few more gluttonous adventures) my scales are tipping again a bit. This has spurred on my personal mission for finding ways to eat well and stay healthy, when you also work like a madman and can't afford a personal chef. Initially I went back and did a week juice cleanse again to set me back on the straight and narrow. It made me feel great, and I was full of energy. I made it to day 6, lost 8 pounds, then accidentally left the cable to my juicer over a hob and burnt a hole through it. I dare not plug it in now. Consequently, partly due to this, and due to a couple of days in Ipswich and a boozy wedding, I fell off the wagon and regained most of the weight I'd lost a week later. It is always best to aim to lose 1-2 pounds per week, but I find that when I eat healthily and do the following, my body loses what it needs to and that's OK. The most important thing, whether you lose weight or not, is just that you feel better in yourself, and it's taken me quite a long time to realise that this should be my main priority. Here are the steps I am taking to get myself back on track;


1. I am eating more vegetables, soups, and salads.
2. I'm generally forcing myself to walk everywhere rather than be lazy and catch the bus.
3. I occasionally dip into home exercise. I used to be great and go to the gym 4-5 times a week but those days are gone now (see above, terrible willpower). I actually find Results With Lucy to be the best, and I've tried a few different ones now. Very simple and easy to follow.
4. I'm buying a new juicer, and incorporating juices for breakfast back into my regime.  One a day is enough though for a long term healthy lifestyle. Throw some spirulina in too and your body will thank you!
5. Most importantly, and this is probably the key, I'm trying to not spend so much time judging myself.


For me, the three week rule works. My body adapts to the weight and then I relax a little on my diet, but by this point, I want to eat the good stuff and I'm less drawn to the bad stuff. When I'm juicing or eating more vegetables, I feel a huge noticeable difference in my focus, my work, my happiness, and my life. I just don't understand why, even armed with this knowledge, I still find myself surrounded by a load of refined sugar and junk food sometimes!



What methods do you use to incorporate healthy living, especially in busy lifestyles? I would love to hear your suggestions :)

Why a Juicer Might Just be Your Best Ever Staple Beauty Buy..

I will be reviewing Jason Vales 7lbs in 7 days juice plan, and its effectiveness not just in terms of weight loss, but also general health benefits. Juicing has been revered widely for its miracle properties, reportedly curing many terminal illnesses and diseases across the world. I am fascinated by this intriguing prospect and by the seemingly magical nature of its consumption, and have subsequently been seduced into what I truly believe will be a lifelong relationship with my juicer. It's hardly a new idea, juicing has been highly praised in many cultures over thousands of years, yet we are just beginning to take notice in the western world.

My aim here is to explore not just the benefits of juicing, but the lasting effectiveness of maintaining weight loss or health benefits over longer periods of time. My personal experiences can hopefully shed some light on this, as well as attempt to explain how it all works!

What do you need?

• A juicer - I bought a Phillips juicer for about £40 
• The Jason Vale book, or you can also buy the JV app on an iphone or get it on googlebooks for about £5. My Phillips juicer actually came with the book.
• Lots of fruit and veg ingredients, including a lot of green 'stuff'!
• Straws - you do need to protect your teeth as there is a lot of acidity in the juices.

 The concept - you drink nothing but juice for 7 days.

On a first glance, this seems irresponsible. Be prepared for a lot of blank faces when you try to explain why you are not partaking in the staff lunch/birthday meal celebrations/sunday lunch with your parents, and the inherent urge to try and explain yourself. I originally tried this several years ago, but because I did not read the accompanying book by Vale, I had a sense in the back of my mind that I could not survive without food, and I failed.

The truth is though, you can. Having attempted this again last August, my whole mindset was totally different, because I read the book first. You are still eating food, to the value of at least 1,200 calories, and probably far more nutritional food for that matter than you are likely to find in the average diet.

The book isn't exactly a literary genius, but to give credit to Jason Vale, he does help you to understand the science behind it and the reasons why juicing has such a phenomenal effect your body. Surprisingly, the majority of the juices are very nice, even the veggie based ones.


What Happens During the Week?

Notes:
1. If you can incorporate light exercise, do it. It might seem mad as it feels like you are not eating, but it actually makes you feel better. I've tried the plan both with not exercising, and with exercising, and the latter is definitely a bit easier and keeps your energy levels up.
2. CLEAN YOUR JUICER straight after using it. It's incredibly hard to clean it once the fruit has hardened. May sound obvious but I learned this the hard way!

Day one - I miss chewing food. I am anxious that I am going to be hungry, but actually, I'm not. Several of the juices include blending avocado etc, and I actually find them to be quite thick and filling. I don't like the taste of the Spirulina (which does give you your all important vit B), but otherwise actually found the juices to be very tasty.

Day two - I struggle to get up in the morning, but know that if I don't, I won't have time to make all the required juices for the day (and I don't want to be cleaning my juicer twice in one day!) Mentally, I find myself battling with it at this point. I am tired. Exercise brings my energy levels up. I have a plentiful supply of juice and didn't feel hungry at all. 2/3lb is banished by the end of the second day.

Day three - I wake up and a strange thing happens. I don't have a 'sleep hangover' (you know, where you want to roll over and give yourself 10 more minutes). I am raring to go. I feel really good - which makes me realise that what I eat generally perhaps weighs me down/makes me tired. I seem to have dropped about 4lb on the scales, too. The Lemon Ginger Zinger is really tasty (I love ginger, though, so it may not be to everyone's tastes). The 'Passion 4 Juice Master' is also a personal favourite, which includes bio yoghurt.

Day four - I still miss and crave food occasionally, but more out of habit than hunger. However I remind myself that it's ONLY seven days and the scales have now dropped an further pound. My energy levels are soaring which makes me struggle a bit with sleeping, but the exercising helps with that. I actually start to find that I no longer even really need to drink all of the juices, as I feel full before I've finished them.

Day five & six - I'm getting so much done at work. I'm looking forward to chewing something again, but otherwise, I'm not too fussed. I have to attend a work meal, and I'm dreading it. I find it really hard to resist/explain myself, as the social eating scenarios are the worst. 'What do you mean you're not eating?' colleagues say in disbelief, trying to get me to break, but I can't launch myself into a lecture on nutrition right now. I explain myself as basically as I can, they leave me to my soda and lime, and let me get on with it. It's not as bad as I thought.

Day seven - Weirdly, I feel by this point, that I could keep going on longer. I feel a sense of achievement that I've nearly made it, but also a desire to keep on eating and juicing so that I continue to feel great after the week is over. I have lost half a stone (7lb) in weight. As an added bonus, the pesky migraines that had been plaguing me for several weeks are now completely gone. My skin is glowing, and my eyes are shining. Everyone keeps asking me what new beauty product I am using on my skin.

Once you reach the seven days, the likelihood is that you will want to keep eating well. You don't actually miss pizza anymore. Spinach is oddly appealing. And if you're like me, and still need a bit of discipline, Jason Vale has a follow on '14 day plan', which is a helpful next step to start introducing the right foods back into your diet.

I continued the follow on plan for 11 days, incorporating a juice in the morning, a power salad for lunch or power sandwich, and one of the many recipes provided in the evening. They were really tasty, my favourites being the 'fish and chips' with sweet potato chips, or the pesto pasta concoction. The basic principles are to cut out bread, refined sugar and white pasta, and go for healthier subsitutes. The only troublesome bit was the recommended exercise twice a day, which I thought was a bit unrealistic, so I didn't do it. I would advise that you order the google books version of this if you decide to use it, as they seem to exclude some of the best recipes in the app. I didn't follow the plan religiously, but the following 11 days were easy in comparison to the first week, and I lost a further 7lb.

What's so important here, is that if you attempt this plan, you should make the juices yourself.  It's so tempting to order ones that are ready made and delivered to your door, especially when you have a busy lifestyle. I tried one of these ready made plans with a company after buying a Groupon, and it was a totally different experience. I was constantly hungry, it tasted like there were added sugars (which defeats the purpose of cutting out the bad stuff). Plus, it's by far cheaper to buy all the fruit and veg off the market, and you'll be able to continue to use the juicer once you're finished the plan.

But does the weight really stay off?!

It was at this point that I then set off on a mini tour of the East Coast for 3 1/2 weeks (see previous 'Hooters Mission' blog post :). If anything would test the tenacity of my weight loss, a visit to the US and lots of drinking and cheese burgers would. I nervously returned to the scales on my return, tail between my legs, with one eye closed. I had indeed regained 5lb, and figured that this was a fair deal. But here's the interesting part, I reverted to eating relatively normally (not quite as well as before) and the 5lb dropped back off within two days.

Here's my theory as to why this happened; the body, when it gets used to a certain weight for a long enough period of time, 're-sets' itself at that level, and tends to work towards keeping you there. Despite my self sabotage, my body reverted me to the level it had grown used to whilst eating well.

They say if you do anything for 21 days it becomes a habit, and true to form, you actually do incorporate certain changes as a natural part of your lifestyle. I still indulge myself and have bad weeks, but generally I make more conscious choices, I make juices fairly often for breakfast, swap white pasta for brown pasta, white potatoes for sweet potatoes, and enjoy the odd salad out of choice. Juicing also arguably helps you to maintain weight loss because it changes the way your body digests food and makes it more efficient, flooding it with 'good' enzymes, which help you to process your food much, much easier.*


Repeating the process

5 months later, the weight had stayed off at 10st 5 (and 5ft 9) , but I still felt I wasn't at my target weight. I decided to take the juice detox again in December during a 'slow' week at work. I lost another half a stone and have continued to maintain that two months on, without any real difficulty, even over the xmas and new year period, which I have to admit I am surprised about! I keep juicing, though not always every day, and it makes such a difference to my energy. It's great for keeping your skin and hair looking good, too.

For me, the juicing has been life changing and has taken a stone and a half of weight off me, and kept it off, even when I have taken breaks and indulged in the odd camembert/pizza/drinking session. I don't feel like I'm dieting in the slightest. The whole experience has also inspired me to start a nutrition diploma, so I can understand more about foods and how they affect the body.

I hope this review has been helpful! If you have experiences of the 7 day juice diet, please do feel free to share them as I'd love to know how others get on, too.

Alice x


* http://www.i-amperfectlyhealthy.com/juicing.html.

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