#vegetable drink

POKEMON DRINK!

Ito En's "Pokevege": Healthy and enriched fruit-vegetable drink... It is actually quite nice, the refreshing orange flavor is very welcoming in this hot and humid summer.

Hello, Tim here with my detox diet plan update!

This is Day 18, and I am still on track, doing quite well. I lost .5 of a kilogram since yesterday, which is about 1.1 pound. So, overall my weight loss is 9.5 kilograms, which is 21 pounds. And that is in 17 days, because today is the start of the 18th day as I am filming this.

I have to say vegetable drinks: I am starting to get into those a lot more now. I am finding that I think I need to do that. I think what has happened is that I have had a bit of a slow down in my weight loss in the last probably two or three days. I think that is caused by having too much fruit and not enough vegetables. So if you are on this juice fast, juice diet, I think you need to have more of a component of vegetables.

So, yes, I have taken the plunge everybody, you will be pleased to know, and I am using celery! I actually used celery this morning in my drink. I am using a lot more spinach. I am using broccoli as well. But this morning I just had spinach and celery with my fruit drink. And I am cutting down on fruits like watermelon and I am actually going more to grapefruit, which I know is really good for you. Also lemon, I am using more lemon, and I am also using lime. So all of those alkalis - the body - and they are actually quite good forou. So I am using more of those.

I am still using apples and pears, but to a lesser degree.

So I think by, what I've done, I actually did that yesterday, I cut down dramatically on the amount of fruit, and I don't think it is a surprise that I lost half a kilo. So it will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow. If I lose the same amount of weight, I will know that I am on to something here.

So, I am getting used to the vegetable drink. It's hard to get used to for me because I like the sweetness of the fruit. But I am thinking that it is more important to do that, and obviously if it is going to to help me lose weight, it would be silly of me not to do it.

I have to say that the drink that I had this morning - which was grapefruit, lemon, celery as I said, spinach, and I had a few strawberries in there as well, and I am just trying to think what else was in there as well, apple and pear - was quite nice! And what I am also doing with that, I am also putting some ice in there after I have blended it and drinking it like that, so that it is really cold. And I am finding that is quite nice. And I have to say that the taste was quite good.

So I will keep you up-to-date. If I come up with a vegetable juice recipe that I think really works, I will certainly let you know. I am also using carrot because I am aware that carrot juice benefits are pretty well undisputed and they are a really great source of healthiness for you. So you should be using carrots. I am also using those, but not in my breakfast meal.

So, other than that, I have not got a lot else to report. I am still going well. Weight is still coming off which is making me feel fantastic. I can hardly believe that I have lost 9.5 kg, which is 21 pounds. It is just amazing, and it makes me quite happy, and I am looking forward to losing more.

So this is going to be an interesting test tomorrow to see how much weight I have lost, now that I am focusing more on vegetables. So I look forward to presenting that update to you tomorrow.

Thanks for watching, and I will talk to you then.

See you.

Hello,

Tim here with my Day 10 update.

Yes, I have been doing this for nine complete days! This is my 10th day. And I am still on track. I am still on the juice fast and I am getting through each day.

Overnight, well the last time I weighed myself, I should say (I weigh myself early in the morning) I have lost 0.3 of a kilogram since yesterday, which is about .661 pounds.

So overall, after the full nine days since I have been on this, I have lost 6.3 kg, which is about 14 pounds. So I have to say I'm pretty happy with that over all.

You can probably see in the background I have got my Mac computer. It's upgrading to Lion, which is the new operating system, for any of you geeks out there. It's the new version of the operating system for the Mac, which has come out today so I'm busily downloading that. I have got three Macs and I have already upgraded and installed it on two, and I'm doing it on the third one. Now I don't know why I added that but, anyway, I have!

I am getting used to vegetables too, I have to say. I have talked previously that I don't like the taste of vegetables, but I am coming around to it. I still really do like my fruit drink in the morning. That's the best for me. It's almost my favorite meal of the day. But I am coming around to vegetables, trying different types and so forth. And I am trying quite a few actually. I'm including quite a few ingredients in there. And again grapefruit and lemon are really good (in particular lemon) and apple at confusing or hiding some of the taste.

So I am still at it and I'm still going and I've got basically now on day 10, so I'm looking still to get to day 56. That's the goal and I'm aiming to be 80 kg at that point. So I still have a way to go, but I also I think have made good progress in the first full nine days that I have been on this. I'm looking forward to continuing.

A couple of things I might talk about as well: orange nutrition facts. I wanted to go through and just talk a little bit about oranges. It's very high in sugar. Interesting enough, mangoes are the same actually. Mangoes are quite high.

Orange is quite good for you, but I actually read somewhere, which I am trying to confirm, I read that you can't eat the peel, and that the peel is very toxic. So I've got to try and find out more about that, and reply tomorrow. But if you happen to know this, whether that's true about orange peel, that it is actually toxic and you should not be eating it, let me know. Because even when I'm blending, I have actually blended, in the past, with the orange peel.

Until I find out for sure one way or the other, I'm going to actually not be blending the peel any more, just in case. I mean obviously there would only be a bit of juice that I would get from that peel when I'm drinking, but just the fact it could be toxic I think is quite interesting.

Yet, getting back to oranges. They are very good in fibre but also very high in sugar so keep that in mind. It probably does not matter if you are just on the juice fast but if you are looking for groups that aren't particularly high in sugar oranges is not one of them.

Talking about mango – mango nutrition facts: mango is also very high in sugar and it is actually incidentally, double the calories of an orange. But in terms of proteins and that it's about the same as well. I wouldn't recommend, if you are looking to cut down on your sugar that you would be having lots of oranges or mangoes for that purpose.

I know that there are still people out there talking about diets and so forth, talking about low GI and low carb fruits and all those sorts of things. I think with fruits you don't need to worry about carbs and so forth. From some of the books that I have read the low carb diet has pretty well been shown to be be very effective at losing weight, but also you lose a lot of muscle. So if you are looking at a low carb diet I would not be recommending that you stick to that.

That's why I like the balance of eating fruit and vegetables because you are getting a balance. Yes, there is some high sugar in some of them but there is lower sugar in – obviously vegetables and so forth are very low. So across the course of the day, even though you might be high in sugar here and there, overall you are not going to be having too much which is obviously a good thing.

I had another thing: calories in watermelons = 46 calories. Which I was quite surprised because of course watermelon is very, very – a large component of that is water. So I feel surprised that even though that is very high also in sugar, it has got a lot of water in it. It's still 46 calories. But again, calorie counting? You probably don't have to worry about it at this stage because it is just a matter of sticking to your juice and your vegetables.

In terms of what I am drinking, I am still drinking just three juice drinks a day. In the morning, at lunchtime, and an evening one. And I am just drinking lots of water outside of those times.

And I'm not having caffeine or anything like that. So I am now on the 10th day without having any caffeine or any food. It has literally been drink only. So everything is ticking over nicely.

I would like the weight to be going a little bit faster. I would like to see more consistent half a kilogram or .9 a kilogram of the day, which I was experiencing earlier in the diet. But with that said, and even if I stuck to .3 of a kilogram, even with that loss, which is .6 of a pound, if I lost .3 of a kilogram each day that would still be over 2 kg a week, and that it is substantially fast. I guess I am just used to the supremely fast weight loss that was there in the first few days. But anyway, I am going to keep at it.

Just a few other things: I think it is also important when you are doing this to be thinking positive. You know, you are focusing on what you want, and not thinking – and I have to say I am falling into this habit sometimes – Oh, I really wish I could have a steak, a piece of steak or something like that. Instead of thinking like that I'm trying to turn my thoughts around and say, I feel so empowered that I have stuck to my juice fast, and I know that this nutrition is really helping my body, and I love the new weight loss that my body is feeling. So basically focusing on the things that I am achieving as opposed to the things I think I am missing out on.

And I think that it is having an effect. And I noticed in yesterday's video that (when I was going back to edit the video and had those weights that I have lost and so forth) I noticed I seemed to be pretty flat. And I didn't really realize that at the time, but I was thinking a lot prior to the start of that video about how it would be nice to have some substantial food and so forth.  And I think that had a bit of an effect on the video.

So it is just interesting that those thoughts that I am thinking can actually make a big difference in the overall results that I am getting because obviously if I get myself to a point where I am feeling very down and feeling that I can't continue then in a matter of fact I have sabotaged myself and I don't want that to happen.

So anyway, I am focusing on the good stuff. And it is now my Day 10 Video's time to end!

So thanks for watching and I will talk to you tomorrow.

Cheers for now

Hello!

Tim here with Day Seven.

Yes, I've nearly made it! By the end of this day it will have been a week since I started this juice fast. And I'm still living, breathing and surviving.

So how have I gone?

Well, overnight I lost 0.3kg, which is about 0.66 pounds. So just over half a pound.

Overall, after six full days of this, I've lost 5 kg, which is 11 pounds. So, as I said, Day Seven will be a full week tomorrow. Because I actually started obviously in the morning.

So I'm pretty pumped up about this still. I'm pretty excited, the fact that it is still working, that I'm still losing weight. I have lost weight every single day. This is my smallest ever weight loss only .3 of a kilogram but still I will take the weight loss anyway I can get it. Quite frankly the fact that it's going down every day is very, very nice.

The other thing was that I walked 5.86 km today, which is 3.6 miles in one hour and eight minutes. So that's the furthest I've walked since I've restarted my exercise and at the fastest pace as well. So obviously I'm getting more energy. I'm able to go further. I'm doing better stuff to my body.

Interesting enough, I didn't exercise yesterday. If you  watched yesterday's video yo saw that I didn't do any exercise. I decided to have a rest day. And I am still going to do that but I am wondering whether that had some sort of relationship to the weight loss.

So we'll see how we go tomorrow, to see how the weight loss has gone and compare that with today's weight loss. But overall again very, very happy.

I'm getting really used to this vegetable drink, well vegetable and juice drinks, the fact that I have been doing this for nearly 7 days. The body is quite used to it. I'm sort of into a bit of a routine, I guess you could say.

I'm finding out more about vegetable nutrition and things that I need to understand more about how this stuff works. But it's good at this stage. I'm not spending a lot of time. I'm not looking for low carb vegetables for argument's sake. I'm just finding vegetables that I think would juice well and combining them. And the ones that I think taste really horrible, I'm not using. So I'm not spending a lot of time on that.

So at this stage I'm happy with the progress I'm making, mixing and matching and trying different fruits and vegetables, other than using a few staples. I know for argument's sake, spinach is very good for you and broccoli is as well. But what I am saying is not going to the degree of researching this to the nth degree to make sure everything is right. And I don't think you need to do that. Just the fact that I'm juicing, having juice, vegetable juice and fruit juice, is enough to be very, very good for my body. And the results are obviously on the board, aren't they: 5 kg, 11 pounds in six days, full days, is a pretty good result. And it is one that I'm looking forward to continuing.

One thing I've noticed is late in the afternoon and early evening I'm getting quite bored. And that's when I'm really feeling – well, what I used to do in that period of time, I think I talked about this on day one video, was I used to be quite hungry at that time. At the end of the day, late afternoon, mid to late afternoon, early evening was my danger period, when I used to really eat all the wrong things.

And what I have found is now late in the afternoon, evening that's when I've got more of a feeling that I perhaps want to eat something else and I'm a bit bored. And I'm realising now that one thing I used to do prior to that, was I used to eat for boredom, to relieve the boredom. So I wasn't necessarily hungry. So obviously I was looking for something to do so.

So what I need to do is find another interest or something, I think, for that period of time where I have done enough work for the day (and I am lucky enough to work from home anyway). But if I have done enough work for that day I need to find another interest. And not just be looking for food. which is what I obviously used to do to relieve that boredom. So, interesting that you can get yourself into that scenario.

Just in relation to hunger... If you are hungry, do what I do, which is have a drink of water first. So tell yourself, ask yourself rather, are you really hungry? Have a drink of water. Half glass or a glass if you can have that much. And wait for about 5 min and then ask yourself the question again.

You would be amazed that often when you ask yourself the second time, that you are not hungry. And if you do come back hungry and this is if you are trying purposely not to eat anything and you have decided that you've had your juice, or you are just trying to cut down on eating bad food. Ask yourself again, Am I hungry? And go through the process twice.

And I find that most times if I do that the first time, have that drink, that feeling will go away. It's a temporary feeling. Much like, I gather (because I'm not a smoker but I understand that) smokers have a similar issue. They have a craving. And if you can get past that craving for a cigarette you can move on. And that's how you sort of learn to wean yourself off them.

I think it's a similar thing here with your hunger cravings. If you are craving for sweet foods or whatever it is: just ask yourself, Am I hungry? And have a drink of water, and that is also going to have a benefit obviously, drinking water, and filling your stomach up a little bit. And ask yourself again in 5 min and then maybe repeat the process and maybe wait 10 min if you can.

Often you will find that probably you are not hungry or if you are still hungry the second time around it's probably more a genuine hunger and that's the time to address that. So you would go and eat something or if you are on the juice fast plan, you would do something like you would actually have another small juice to carry you over to the next main juice drink.

It's very interesting. The body can actually confuse thirst with hunger.

So if you are not drinking enough water you can find these signals saying that you are hungry whereas actually it's because you're thirsty, your body needs more water.

So that's one of the other reasons that people suggest, and I suggest too, that you drink water, is to make sure that your body has got sufficiently hydrated, so that you are not getting those confusing signals. And again if you find that you are doing that you are drinking enough water, you probably will be going to get different or less hunger because there's more water in your stomach as well.

This afternoon, reading up on juice plans, some people talk about getting diarrhoea and constipation. So again water will help in either of those scenarios. And thankfully I'm not affected by any of those. But again water is very important.

So if you are doing this, if you are thinking of doing this, don't just think that it is a matter of doing three juices a day and nothing else. You should be topping yourself up with water during the day, quite a fair bit of water as well.

Remember apart from the hunger side of things, water is very good at cleansing things and clearing out the toxins and all that other stuff that has really built up in your body. If you're overweight now probably from many years, in my case probably 30+ years. So that's where water is flushing all that stuff out. So that's another benefit of drinking water.

Okay not much else to talk about. I just had an interesting conversation with someone yesterday about energy drink dangers. We were talking about Gatorade and some of these other brands. Something again they don't push is that they are really, really heavily loaded with sugars. So you really needed to be careful about how much of these drinks you actually drink.

Even Diet Coke, and Pepsi max and so forth. Whilst they haven't got sugar they do have that artificial sweetener which is actually very bad for you. So what I do suggest is that you go off all that stuff. If you are doing just juice fast altogether, make sure you're not having energy drinks or even any low-calorie stuff, you're just sticking to the juice. No coffee, no caffeine. I mean I know it's hard for the first few days but if I can do it guys, you can do it as well. And the fact is you going to be better off for it. Becase all that stuff you're putting into your body, or, that you were putting into your body, you are no longer doing. So that's going to really help you in the long run. So I really suggest you do that.

I think I'm going to leave it there for now. As I said, it's a Day Seven update. So tomorrow Day Eight is going to be actually seven full days that have been on this diet. Whoops! I said that nasty word again, diet.  It's not a diet. This is a juice fast plan, that is changing my life for the better. So I'm looking forward to telling you what my results are tomorrow.

So I will leave it there for now and I will talk to you soon,

Cheers for now.