A friend on mine named Phil from Springfield Mo. pointed me to this. He said he lost over 80 pounds in 69 days. He did the juice fast for 60 days and he’s eating again and still dropping weight.
The film is on Netflix or you can watch it free here. And on Netflix there’s a part 2 that’s also great.
This film by itself is very convincing and very well done. But when someone I know personally tried it and it works, that’s even more convincing. So I’m here in the 240 – 250 range and I’m going to turn 60 this year and everything in this is undeniably true. So after I talked to Phil I ordered a Breville 800JEXL Juicer. I then went to Jamba Juice and drank one of their green vegetable juices. I liked it. I bought a 6 pack of various juices to take home.
I also went to Safeway and got some “Naked Green Machine” juice. And I got some juice at Trader Joes that was red, mostly beats.
So I’m 2 1/2 days into this and I haven’t eaten real food since I talked to Phil. As i write this, very strangely, I have not been hungry. I can’t explain that because in the movie people were suffering the first several days. It’s 9:30 in the morning and I’m still not hungry. I intend to drink some juice soon but as of now I haven’t drank any and I’m not motivated to do so. I just don’t feel like eating.
No real physical side effects either so far. If anything I have more than normal energy. Maybe a slight feeling of disorientation. However psychologically it’s kind of playing with my head. I go to the grocery store and there’s all this food. By habit I want to buy it but I’m not hungry for it. I went to an event Sunday where there was the weekly buffet and it’s all really good food.
So in my mind I’m thinking about when I’m going to eat again and what I’m going to eat and juice is definitely going to be part of my diet because it seems to make me not want to eat other stuff. And I’m thinking about how good some stuff tastes and wondering if I’m going to eat pizza again. So this is really more of a mental challenge than anything else. I’m also wondering if waitresses at restaurants I usually go to will be offended because I stopped showing up.
What odd about this is that I really didn’t sort of decide to do it. I just started drinking the juice and I wasn’t hungry. So I haven’t committed to a number of days or pounds to lose. It’s sort of – I’m just doing it. I guess I’ll make those decisions if anything changes for the worse.
When you think about it – fat is really worse the cigarettes. When you look at people who are 90+ you’ll find some smokers but you don’t find many fat people. I’m fairly healthy but I don’t get enough exercise. Joints hurt. I’m pre-diabetic. Blood pressure is almost high enough to need pills. And I have to use a CPAP machine to breathe at night. I’m headed in the wrong direction and the time has come to turn it around before I become like the people in the movie.
UPDATE 11:50
The juicer has arrived. I went out and bought about 20 pound of veggies and a little fruit. I’m planning on making it not sweet. I did buy onions to get my vitamin O. I have fresh broccoli in the garden. I went to the local Mexican vegetable mart where the produce isn’t as pretty as Nob Hill but I’m juicing it so who cares?
Dieting rule of thumb….Take it off fast, put it back fast.
This doesn’t sound like something you can maintain, but good luck anyway. The only thing that ever works for me is really very simple. Cut back on intake, and increase my level of activity. And be patient, lose no more than 2 – 3 lbs per month.
And like you, once I stay away from certain foods, I no longer crave them. Sugars being the prime example.
Well for now – I’m not hungry and I’m not going to eat.
Sorry, exercise is really important.
Just my opinion, I’m not an expert, I just know what works for me. At least you’re doing something.
+1
http://cathe.com/exercise-trumps-diet-for-weight-control-as-we-age
http://cathe.com/5-reasons-sitting-is-bad-for-your-health
Walk a couple of miles each day and watch it disappear.
Don’t weigh yourself every day. Do it Monday mornings after your three Ss.
Oh:
500 calories per day per week is one pound – either cutting it out or exercising more.
I found the best way is to weigh yourself every day and write it on a calendar attached to the front of the refrigerator. This helps to keep you focused. Same eating habits except no cookies, ice cream etc. and I’ve lost 20 pounds in the last year. I still weigh myself to make sure I don’t backslide.
I haven’t done it, but it makes sense to me to keep a note pad around your neck and maintain a food diary. EVERYTHING you eat entered BEFORE you eat it.
Stops mindless grazing, gives you time to think about it and teaches you what you are eating.
Diary should include amount and calorie values and a running total.
Not really.
People that go on fad/crash diets tend to yo-yo and that does change your metabolism and makes weight gain easier each time you diet.
Truly: a life long change is needed or you might in fact be better off just to stay fat.===Seriously.
although, as has been pointed out in this blog several times: the SCIENCE about diet and weight loss ……… ahem:……..”has no consensus.” Leaving people pretty much free to make decisions based on their own experience—you know, like religion and every other loopy idea there is.
BALANCE====in all things.
BALANCE===carbs, fat, protien.
BALANCE=== food and exercise.
BALANCE===have some fun too.
Yea, verily
Is there anyone who thinks eating a little more each day will cause your weight to gain uncontrollably?
I don’t know what you mean Mike. All other things being equal, I would thinking eating a bit more each day would cause a weight gain but what you eat in 99.999999% of cases is totally controllable. In our slothful and excuse ridden non-responsibility taking ways, we may not exercise control….but that is a different issue.
500 calories is one pound is an approximate. If you build up muscle, you will burn more.
Good luck, Marc. If you find some way to change the color of those horrid green health drinks, please let us know. Speaking for myself, it’s the only thing that keeps me from drinking them. Yuk!
Just throw in a beetroot (or beet depending upon your country of origin).
Instant red(ish) goodness.
Sounds like a good idea. Thanks. I’ll also toss in a banana for flavor.
Well, the weird color and strange taste adds to the effect of making me not hungry.
Saw this same documentary a few year ago, bought a Breville juicer and my wife and I did a 2 week juice fast. It works for weight loss…it’s just unsustainable. I hear people doing 30-60 days juice cleanses and I couldn’t fathom it. It was really difficult to get to 14 days. I ended up losing 12 lbs in 14 days but to be honest I didn’t feel any better. In fact I felt worse in some aspects. Mentally, I felt in a fog at first.
My wife and I now use the Mean Green juice as a supplement to a healthy (more or less) eating lifestyle. Good luck with your juice cleanse…keep us posted..
Yeah – I’m not looking at it as a permanent solution. I’m going to try to lose 50 pounds and then start eating good food that includes juicing.
Ask Elon to fly you to Mars.
A 250 lb man on earth is a mere 95 pound weakling on the red planet!
The average overweight 250 male will lose one pound a day if he does nothing and drinks water. I gleaned this myself reading accounts of folks getting stuck in the snow in remote areas. This is consistent with metabolism/calorie needs as well…as best as I did the numbers.
Weight loss above this is initial water loss and goes away after one week.
I too saw this film a few years ago. Juicing can actually be “bad” for your health as it shifts the food to higher glycemic results losing important fiber along the way.
There is no evidence at all that cleansing diets are anything but fraud.
EVERY diet works as long as you follow it, so finding a way to change your relationship with food is what is needed. What can you do over the long haul?
I really enjoyed reading and following the ZONE Diet. It teaches you more about food and what you are putting into your mouth.
THEN===I picked up baking as a hobby along with meat curing and with that sugar, fat, and flour…… living life is a real challenge.
A good issue…. as its all about educating yourself, making choices….and living with the results.
Life is a trip.
Oh Yeah, isn’t that how it always begins, innocently enough “a friend .. pointed me to this”
Now heavy, nutritionally desperate and Soylent Green dependent Marc Perkel has taken the corporate “bait” to push and promote Soylent Green food supplements to the unsuspecting DU crowd. You’ll soon to be a “member of Board of Soylent”!!!
Well, not me!!!!! Fat is beautiful!!!
Look at the picture your promoting! Soylent Green, a Dvorak Unfiltered green drink that is now more nutritious and palatable than its predecessors “Red” and “Yellow” … with the mass production of “only conceivable & sustainable supply of protein”!!!
Marc Perkel your inhuman!!!
Failed humor? Or my sense of humor failing?
What humor?
Obviously you’re a Green drinker!
2 years ago I lost 15lb in 2 weeks single-handedly rebuilding our deck. Unfortunately I don’t have a project of that magnitude for this spring. No matter what though – I like to try and keep 50% of my caloric intake coming from Miller Lite.
Tear down the deck in winter. Then rebuild it. Call it the Keynes diet.
Hmmm. I’d have to convince my wife to put up with that.
Probably better to just eliminate the calories that aren’t Miller Lite.
I got severely dehydrated on a 5 day Grand Canyon back country hike a few years ago. We accidentally lost half of our water and I decided to cut back on mine until we could find a source. I wasn’t able to eat for 3 days and almost didn’t make it out.
But hey, I lost 10 lbs!!!!!
Ha, ha……………………………….
I just noticed the OP picture looks like the guy is urinating that health juice.
…………could be true, I suppose.
Congratulations on your positive results so far..
Joe Cross himself has admitted this isn’t sustainable even for him. He goes off the juice fast for a while, gains a bunch of weight and his symptoms come back. Then back on the juice fast again. For long term results you do have to add regular exercise (especially strength training as muscle burns fat at rest) and find ways to improve your diet in the long run.
It’s not supposed to be sustainable. It’s a “reset” diet after which you eat normal but hopefully better food.
After the reset, as you already indicated, drinking juiced fruits and vegetables is only a good thing.
There is only ONE WAY to lose weight! Take in fewer calories than you burn!
Someone posted that Marc would blog his farts, I thought they were using hyperbole.
A while back I was into the 400+ lb zone (about 4 years).
I lifted weights in my youth and cycled a lot in my 30s. Then I met my wife and all that changed. I packed on the weight and had a triple bypass. That didn’t slow me down but one day I realized that being over 400 lbs was either going to kill me or get me on some stupid TV like Biggest Loser (you know you can think about that two ways right?).
I started eating a little differently and lost about 70lbs over about 2 years then last year I had a stroke. Nothing will wake your fat ass up like looking at the images with the doc and him telling you that you were very lucky. Two of them said it was the smallest stroke they had ever seen.
I have lost more weight and started power training again and feel about the same as my 30s (my 40s were horrible).
I applaud your effort to improve your quality of life. 6 weeks ago I cut out all processed sugar along with any substitutes. Only thing I get now is fruit to satiate my sweet tooth. No soft drinks of any kind.
Good luck
Diets don’t work. Changing your lifestyle and attitude towards food and exercise will help you become healthy. Cut out processed sugar, and all white foods, like rice and bread. Eat the veggies to get the fiber along with the vitamins. To satiate your sweet tooth eat fruit, fresh or frozen.
Shop along the outer perimeter of the market. Remember to eat skinless chicken breasts for protein or cottage cheese. Eat fish no more than three times a week.
Walk every day, start slow and work your way up to 45 minutes a day.
I have the juicer, not to loose weight, I have fibromyalgia and herniated discs causing neck, shoulder and upper arm pain. I thought the high dose of vitamins would help, alas, no help from the juicer. I do enjoy a carrot and apple juice drink now and then.
Warning, during the warm months be careful about the fruits you juice, you will be swatting fruit flies endlessly.
Good luck on your healthy path.
Maintaining a healthy weight is difficult and requires a lifetime of discipline and monitoring. Losing weight is really hard and requires so much more discipline. I am 5′ 11” and 79 years old. Sixty years ago I was in the service and away from home and had access to unlimited food, even though it was Army food, and I soon ballooned up to 200 pounds. I could not get out of a swimming pool and my Commanding Officer started calling me “Blubber”. He motivated me to loose weight. I was young enough to change my eating behavior. First I just cut down on portions, and NO seconds. No going back to the chow line. That was more than enough to loose all those extra pounds. In my 20s and early 30s doing that was enough to keep my weight and waist at a 32”. In my late 30 I started to physically slow down and eating more my weight and waist started going up 33” and then 34”. I was under stress from my job, as well as all the normal stresses from raising a family. Then my weight went up to 185 and 34” pants would not fit me any more, (or just barely). Instead of buying the next larger size I started exercising. Running was the thing back then so I started running after work every day, and that kept my waist at 34, and brought my weight back down to the 170s. It also helped me deal with the stress. I then set limits on my self. I took the pledge to NEVER purchase a pair of pants larger than 34”, and never let my self get over 180. My desired weight was 175. From then on I weighed my self every morning, still do to this day. I retired 17 years ago. Started riding a bicycle. Started riding 12/15 miles. Every year the mileage goes down. Hard on the but and back. Haven’t been on it for a year. So we got a dog and we walk it a mile and a half every morning, and I try to keep active, by spending as little time doing stuff like this. I use little tricks, like in a building , don’t take the elevator, use the stairs. When parking make a point of parking away from the store. Not only does it give you some exercise, but you can minimize door dings, by parking away. This morning I was 178 and I still can get into 34”s. As I age I have had to adjust my eating. I have had to shrink my portions, no eating between meals, and I try to cut back on but I don’t have the self control to cut them out all together. Maintaining a healthy weight is a life long effort. The sooner you start, the sooner you will enjoy the benefits. It’s Years ago someone said about your body, use it or loose it, your mind,use it or loose it, and sex use it or loose it. How true it is.
I meant to “I try to cut back on STEETS but I don’t have the self control to cut them out all together.
That’s SWEETS.
Hello, cool site!
I watched this movie too and started juicing at the beginning of the year as it was way too convincing. Not just only juicing but trying to balance the diet better and eat less crap and more good stuff and raw foods. It is a more expensive lifestyle if you stay organic which seems necessary to do it right.
Here is my favorite juice recipe I like to call my “life elixir”!
Ginger-Beet Juice:
1 medium orange
3 kale leaves
1 medium apple
1 medium carrot
1 large red beet
1 1-inch piece ginger root
+ I like to add 1-inch piece of turmeric root too
drink over ice!
Tasty, filling and satisfying! I have to be careful not to overdo the ginger root or it can get overpowering.
Then I needed to figure out what to do with all the juice pulp left over from juicing because it seems like a shame to just throw all that out or compost it when I spent good money on good produce. So I got a dehydrator and now make pulp crackers out of the leftover pulp so I can consume that too.
Eating better does take more effort.
Good luck and all the best!