How to Lose Ten Pounds in Ten Days By Juice Fasting

If you've been meaning to lose weight but lack the motivation to begin, a cleansing juice fast is a great way to transition into your new lifestyle. There's nothing like losing ten pounds in ten days to encourage your goals! But the biggest benefits are ongoing. Fasting allows your body to purge built-up toxins and waste, making metabolism more efficient and allowing you to absorb more nutrition from your food. Plus, you'll lose destructive cravings and addictions fast by cutting them off cold turkey and cleaning out your palate.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Plan Your Time

1. Start on a weekend. The first two days of the fast are the hardest, so plan to start on a weekend without any serious obligations. If you're going to experience food withdrawals, it will be now. You may also feel the effects of toxins being purged from the body. As they pass through you on their way out, you might experience headaches or queasiness.
2. Be prepared with sick-day distractions. You may want to rent some movies, pick out some magazines, or plan to update the scrapbook this weekend, just in case you feel like taking it easy. Remember, your body is beginning an important healing process, so even if you don't feel unwell, you deserve to pamper yourself.
3. Pick a low-stress work week. Make sure that the work week that follows is not an important one for deadlines, reports, or business lunches. If you anticipate an unusual level of stress, this may not be the time to diverge from your regular routine.
4. Pick a low-stress home week with no birthdays, house guests, or social events that you would be sorry to miss. It's only too easy to lose your resolve when you're at a celebration where food plays a starring role, or working hard to prepare food for others.

Making Your Juice

5. Find a good juicer. You're going to be using it several times a day, so if it doesn't work efficiently, you'll be miserable very soon. For most people, a decent citrus juicer at around $50 is a reasonable long-term investment, because most people enjoy fresh orange juice now and then. On the other hand, a fruit and vegetable juicer allows for more variety, and may help encourage you to make a long-term habit of fresh juice. You can get a good one for $100 or less.
6. Find your blend. Your juice diet can be as simple or as imaginative as you want. Many people prefer the no-fuss Lemonade Diet, also known as the Master Cleanse, which consists of lemonade sweetened with maple syrup and spiked with cayenne pepper. It only take one lemon per glass to make, and due to the high nutritional content of lemons, it's very satisfying. Then again, there's the whole produce department to experiment with. You may have more fun on your fast by taking the opportunity to discover the unique virtues of each fruit and vegetable.
7. Drink it fresh. Vitamins and minerals start to disappear within minutes after fresh juice is squeezed. Of course, if you have to pack a thermos for lunch, it will still be good, but drink it fresh as often as you can. Make only as much as you think you can drink in one sitting. If you're using a vegetable juicer, you may be surprised at how much juice a vegetable makes, so build your blend gradually with only a few pieces of each kind at a time.
8. Be consistent. The more regular your diet, the faster your body will adjust. You don't have to drink the same juice blend all day every day, but try not to vary the density or sugar content too much. For example, you may want to make lemonade or grapefruit juice in the morning and a denser, greener blend in the afternoon. Also be aware that some fruits and vegetables are sweeter than others, and if you make a much sweeter blend than usual, you may feel a sugar spike and crash. Try to drink about the same amount of juice each day.

Take Care of Yourself

9. Be patient with the process, especially during the first weekend. Try to remember that something good is happening and don't sabotage it by taking drugs or cheating on the diet. You may think that eating would make you feel better, but that's only because it would stop you from detoxing, not because you're suffering from the lack of food. Drink lots of water, and instead of taking aspirin, take naps.
10. Keep drinking water. Just because you're on a liquid diet doesn't mean you're hydrated. The body distinguishes pure water differently from liquid food. Remember, all food is liquid by the time it reaches the digestive system. Water has its own important uses, and when you're detoxing, it's especially important.
11. Maintain a healthy routine. Get plenty of sleep and light exercise. You may not want to engage in rigorous activity now, but you should have plenty of energy for an hour's walk a day, which will help keep your mood and metabolism up.
12. Break your fast gently. Start with fruits and vegetables and gradually add rice and simple proteins. Avoid complex carbohydrates and meats for at least three days. Let your stomach rather than your eyes tell you how much it wants.

Tips & Warnings

• Lemons are a great addition to any juice blend because they balance high sugar content and cover up the bitterness of leafy greens. They are also highly nutritious, and if you are using a vegetable juicer, you can put them in whole and get the benefit of the peel as well.
• Don't take supplements while fasting. Most need to work with food in your stomach to be absorbed anyway, and if your stomach is empty, it might reject them.
• Try to resist watching the scale during your ten days. Fasting tends to make the body retain water, so the numbers can go up in down in an exasperating way. Just trust that it's working, and that by the time it's over and your body has regulated, you'll be able to see the difference.
• Taking care of yourself means don't try this fast if you know you have an exceptional medical condition that would be unduly stressed by fasting, such as diabetes or an eating disorder. Also, don't do it when you're pregnant or nursing. Your body has very different needs from your baby's.