Juicing on the HCG diet
 

Juicing, (that is, fruit and vegetables), is becoming more and more popular. Especially after watching "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead."

In the past months we have been juicing on and off - for a week at a time, for a weekend, or some combination. It is AMAZING for your health - because it literally FLOODS your body with phyto-nutrients. You feel energetic, and most people see great changes in their health and their energy. Of course, men lose weight like crazy...

So, this round of HCG, I'm doing Phase 2 with juicing.

Normally, our juices contain LOTS of fruits, (like, 2 apples, 2 pears, some kiwi, strawberries, etc..in just one batch). But due to calorie restriction, I am narrowing it down to just one apple, one lime, and some ginger. This makes it NOT taste like a salad, it's still sweet and tangy.

I wanted to start this thread in case anyone wanted to talk more about it and has watched the movie too.

I am beginning to wonder if juicing while on phase 2 is the healthiest way to do it. (I plan to add in a steak if I ever crave protein, but I was surprised how much protein is in some of the vegetables I use!)

****I want to make it clear that this is NOT THE PROTOCOL, AND NOT THE USUAL PLAN****
This is just something that I am trying - and because I have followed strict protocol with great success on 3 other rounds - all by the book! But since I have been dealing with some fatigue issues, I feel very strongly that I need to be giving my body lots and lots of nutrients, and I feel a whole lot better and more energetic when I do.

I went through the reboot entry program a little while ago (after R3P4). I definitely want to do it again. :)

I watched the movie too and being an experienced faster/cleanser, I wanted to try just juicing but decided to do HCG instead. Please post your progress here and tell us (or me) what your putting in your juices each day.
Are you doing a variety of juices or sticking to certain juices?

I do lots and lots of as many different leafy greens as I can, plus cucumber, zucchini, and then only one apple, one lime, and some ginger. I make a quart in the morning. When my body tells me it wants more protein, I'll have a lean steak.

So far it's going really well! I'm on VLCD 3

How much are you releasing each day.......if you don't mind my asking

I watched that movie, too - but I can't get past the fact that my body needs the fiber, so I got a Vitamix instead of a juicer and use that some - not as much as I should, but at least some. On P2 I use celery and orange, and strawberries and spinach.

I ran into a lady at a Portland HCG meetup that did the entire protocol with only as many veggies and fruits as she wanted while she was on P2. She did really well.
Good for you! I hope you do fantastically well!

Cool thread!

Reds, Desma -- do you ladies have juicers? I am thinking about getting one, and would love a recommendation of a good one that won't break the bank...

C'Marie -- I've done a few fruit/veggie only days this round, and I've been losing really well so far. Kinda hard to go wrong with that, at least for a short term cleansing plan.

2 responses. First is what I've read regarding juicing versus blending. I find it SO very interesting.

First- BOTH are really good for you. But why would someone want to remove the fiber?

When we juice our veggies, we are removing the indigestible fibre and making the nutrients more readily available to the body in much larger quantities than if you were to eat the fruits and vegetables whole. When you drink fresh veggie juices, your body is soaked in nutrients, without having to use up any of its precious energy. Itʼs like injecting goodness straight into your blood stream. Sitting down to eat five large carrots and one large apple would take a heck of a lot longer to do than if you were to juice those suckers. I canʼt imagine it would be as fun or tasty either.

Juicing naturally reactivates your body’s magnificent ability to heal itself – with no damaging side effects. It is a powerful, natural treatment boosts the body’s own immune system to heal. With juicing, an abundance of nutrients from copious amounts of fresh, organic juices are consumed every day, providing your body with a super-dose of enzymes, minerals and nutrients.

More about juicing greens:
(and this is copy/pasted from a website, which I think I'm not allowed to post)

"Generous servings of greens = best thing ever for your body!
Greens are extremely rich in chlorophyll and the molecular structure of chlorophyll is very similar to that of human blood. Studies show that when this is consumed, the production of hemoglobin in blood is increased. Higher amounts of hemoglobin in the bloodstream means more oxygen-rich blood, the first and most important element that cells need to thrive. Therefore, greens are incredibly alkalizing and will help protect your body against disease and illness. They also boast high amounts of easily digestible nutrients, fat burning compounds, vitamins and minerals, proteins, protective photo-chemicals and healthy bacteria helping you to build cleaner muscles and tissues and aid your digestive system. These particular vegetables act as mini-transfusions for the blood, a health tonic for the brain and immune system and a cleanser of the kidneys."

JUICERS:
The Jack LaLane juicer does just fine. It was about $129. If you want to go higher end, and get more power/resiliancy, I'd recommend the Breville line. One there is about $359.

The same amount I did in other rounds. In the first 3 or 4 days, a pound a day. Then I moved to .5 pound a day. Of course, the juices don't taste as good, (sweet), as they normally do, because I am keeping the calories down.
But they are definitely not yucky, just neutral. And I feel SUCH a difference healthy wise.

To me, it makes sense. One of the concerns with HCG is getting your body the nutrients that it needs, (and yes, I know you can do this with vitamins too). With this, I am having the MAGIC of HCG telling the body to feed off stored fat, PLUS simultaneously flooding my body with nutrients. Win/win!!

However, I want to be CLEAR here and say that I would NEVER recommend this for the first round. This is NEW, and EXPERIMENTAL. This is my 4th round. I would never, ever recommend this to someone new at HCG. I had to learn and live the protocol, by the book. Then I had to go a year to learn how to eat, and make it a way of life, not a diet. All things which are vital to do FIRST, in my opinion.

I have the Jack Lalanne Juicer. I got it from Costco for $89
I also have the Ninja which is excellent if you want to just clean your veggies and fruits and drink it all.
I'm actually thinking of getting the Nutribullet. They have a payment plan $19.99/5 payments and free shipping.
I'm going to juice after I finish this round and after a maintenance week. I love how healthy I feel when I'm just taking in fresh fruits and veggies.

I love my VitaMix!! I got one while on P2 so I can do the spinach smoothies. My Ninja couldn't get the spinach smooshed up fine enough. I was having to chew when it was all blended up. Same thing with my blender. It was well worth the investment--my kids love making smoothies and homemade ice cream so we use it almost daily! How interesting about the meetup.

Does the La Lanne one do greens well? I'd like to spend as little as I can to get a juicer that meets my needs...

I feel that it does. I've never had any issues with my Jack La Lanne juicer. It works well for me.

We ended up giving ours to our neighbor - but it worked well. Never had an issue with it. I'd recommend it.

This is a great thread. I was wondering how it would work with hcg. I was drinking the mean green juice every day before I started this.

I bought my breville for $50. on Craigslist. Still in the box, the lady only used it a couple of times.

Did you lose weight from juicing? When did you start drinking mean green juice, during P3? In between rounds?

marking my place, to follow how its going. I would love to do some meal replacements with fruit and maybe the egg protein per protocol

If you want to make green smoothies ( I did this a lot on my last round ... frozen strawberries + raw spinach + juice of lemon + a little stevia) I highly recommend the Nutribullet! <3

I got mine at Bed Bath and Beyond for around $80 (with my 20% off coupon).

How long have you had the Nutribullet? I was thinking of getting one to travel with. Is the 20% coupon available on line?

About a month of so. I love it.

Don't know if you can find the coupon online, I get mine mailed to me every few weeks. It's worth a search though!

This was before I started HCG, and no I didn't lose weight because I'm a stress eater and I'd come to work and eat everything in sight. :laugh:

As soon as I can add it back in I will though, I'd rather have veggies than meat these days.

Just an update. After a week on P2, my total loss is 3.5 pounds, which is actually very good for me. Even when I was at the beginning and I had 30 pounds to lose, I averaged .5 per day. And in my last five pounds, (where i am now), I often spend 3 or 4 days within the same pound range.

The real point here is, how it compares to solid food protocol. These are my findings so far:
~My energy is much better.
~The juices, (lacking 75% of the fruits I would usually use), are quite bland, only still tasty to a veteran juicer.
~Once you start adding in solid food, (I had meat two nights), you can expect a gain just because the food in your digestive system is going to have weight.
~I believe my body and my liver are healthier than strict protocol because I am flooding it with phyto-nutrients, and I take the other supplements too.
~I believe the rate of loss is about the same, no faster, and it's important to keep your calories around 500 or the body gets unhappy.

I'll write another update later.

As always, your "mileage may vary."

Hey RedsSkinnyJeans! How's the juicing going?

I tried juice smoothies as meal replacements and it was great with good release the following days.

"Smoothie One Rx" spinach, apple, 4 eggs whites, frape. It was great without any sweetner other than the juice of the apple and spinach.

"Smoothie Two Rx" 4 eggs whites, tsp of instant coffee, 8 drops of vanilla Stevia, ice
Not as good as the first one, but I got my protein serving in that day without cooking.

I really did feel great after the smoothies. I may try one with an orange and cucumbers later...

Last summer after watching Fat Sick and Nearly dead, we juiced for 8 days. No solid food. I can't begin to tell you how amazing we felt!
We only did fruit in the mornings so we could burn off the sugar and did veggies thru out the day, more of a V8 style juice.


Some really good juicers are the Hurom and the Breville. They really extract a LOT from the produce. I compared my friends hurom with my sisters juiceman, and you can feel the difference in the pulp that comes out.

Hi Red--it's been a LONG time since I've been here and let's just say that I royally f-ed up my 3rd cycle, didn't stabilize and now am at 178 (I was at 165 when I started P3 all 3 times). So while it's not horrid, I need to get things under control ASAP. I just stared loading today but am only doing 1 day. I figure I'm starving the first 10 days anyway so why add an extra day of gorging and most lbs to have to lose LOL

Anyway--I just watched Fat, Sick and Almost Dead last week and ran out and got a juicer. I have been having his juice (minus the celery-just can't do it!) every morning and LOVE it. So I was totally planning to be rogue yet again and incorporate 1 juice a day while in P2. I usually go a little over 500 cals anyway on P2 and do plenty of rogue things like mix my veggies, do 1/2 and 1/2 in my coffee, use some fat free dressings, eat lean pork etc... so I'm hoping the juicing doesn't hurt.

I figured I would replace my morning coffee with it and make mine with kale, spinach, cucumber, ginger, 1/2 a lemon and 1 apple. I figure all of those are "legal" anyway on P2 so how bad could it be? LOL

Then I will eat a normal P2 lunch and dinner (with no breadsticks or other carbs and no more fruit other than the apple in my juice). I'm REALLY hoping this helps me in the beginning because usually for the first 10 days in P2 I want to hunt down and murder anyone who comes even remotely close to pi$$ing me off! LOL I also usually want to gnaw my arm off also :hyst:

I'll keep ya posted!

When I only use 1 apple with all my other greens, I sometimes sprinkle a little stevia in the juice and it makes a HUGE difference! I've been focusing on the whole alkaline vs acidic thing and I was very happy to read that stevia is alkaline so it doesn't hurt to add a little to the juice to make it a bit more tasty :) I use NuStevia and it is BY FAR the best stevia I have used in the past 3 years (I am a "super taster" so it's very hard for me to find one that doesn't taste bitter!).

I just went out and went crazy and bought the Huron...it is AMAZING! Broke my bank a bit but I figure it all evens out in the end since I get so much more juice from my expensive organic veggies than I might with a cheaper model :)