Drink Yourself Skinny With Juice (Plus Some Recipes, Too!)

With a barrage of weird and unusual diets that people try today, juicing is a fresh and healthy alternative that can promote weight loss. Juicing helps you lose unwanted pounds because it keeps your caloric intake at a deficit, without compromising your nutrient intake.

Don’t believe me? Let’s take two scenarios for example.

Scenario A: You are on a diet and decide to cut down on your meals. So, you make do with a pack of low fat crackers and a glass of water instead. That might sound great because you only consume around 150 calories for lunch, but what about nutrients? At best, all you are probably getting is some sodium, and that’s not healthy at all.

Scenario B: You follow the same diet but decide to drink eight ounces of orange-sweetened carrot juice for lunch. That’s probably around 120 to 150 calories per glass, which is similar scenario A. The difference? Your liquid meal packs a punch of vitamins and minerals in your drink. You get Vitamin A, biotin, Vitamin K, potassium, vitamin B6, vitamin C and the whole lot.

Now I do not have to explain what these nutrients do to your body, but given the two scenarios, I think I know what you are going to choose.

Some Juicing Tips to Remember

Hold up! Before you decide to get a juicer and drink yourself silly for the next thirty days, here are a few things that you should keep in mind.

Juice fasts can help you lose some pounds… A three to five day juice cleanse can help you lose a few pounds quickly and reduce bloating, but that’s usually just water weight.

But, juice fasts should only be short term… Fruit and vegetable juices are healthy, but relying on it for sustenance for a long time may lead you to miss out on other important nutrients. Like fiber, for example.

Use it to kick-start a healthier diet… So, instead of looking at juicing as a long-term diet plan, you might want to use it as a springboard that you can use to kick-start your diet. I recommend a quick juice fast (one to five days) to help you reboot and start with a clean slate. Then, Yyou can then use juice as meal replacements, taking a glass or two for lunch or dinner instead of a full meal.

Don’t just rely on juice… To make sure that you succeed in your weight loss efforts, I recommend that you do not rely on juicing alone. Incorporate it with a healthy and well balanced diet and regular exercise like these ten minute workouts to get the results that you want faster.

Some Recipes To Love

1) Garden Salad Juice – This recipe gives you a muddy colored drink. It may not be the prettiest concoction, but it definitely gives you a variety of nutrients. The taste is also a little bit savory, which is great if you want something different from the usual sweet drinks. Here’s the recipe:

• 1 handful of spinach
• 3 large tomatoes
• 2 onions, scallions or chives
• 4 celery sticks
• 1 red pepper

Optional: Sea salt and pepper to taste

2) Orange Sunshine – This drink has a very vibrant color and is deliciously sweet. It is loaded with immune boosting nutrients like beta-carotene, vitamin C and manganese. To make this lovely orange drink, use the following ingredients:

• 2 persimmons (oranges, mangoes or papayas as substitutes)
• 3 to 4 medium sized carrots
• 1 inch ginger

3) Sour Green Power – This is a lovely green juice with a little sour tang, which is a break from the mildly sweet of taste of regular fruit and vegetable juice. Ginger adds a little bit of flavor and helps speed up metabolism as well. You can prepare this with the following:

• 2 green apples
• 1 medium beetroot
• 1 cucumber
• ¼ lemon
• ½ inch ginger

4) Citrus Chili Juice – Chili adds zing to the juice and its capsaicin content increases your body temperature, providing a boost to your metabolism. The apple and citrus blend well with the spice and give you vitamin C and beta carotenes, giving you a healthy little fat burning concoction.

• 2 citrus fruits
• 1 apple
• 1 whole red chili or 1 tbsp cayenne/chili pepper
• 1 tablespoon liquid honey

5) Kale Salad Juice – This is a simple juice that utilizes kale – one of the healthiest kinds of green you can get your hands on. If you can’t get kale you can use spinach instead. To make your Kale Salad Juice, simply shoot all these ingredients in the juicer:

• 1 handful Kale
• 1 and ½ apples (green or red ones)
• 4 stalks celery
• 1 inch ginger

BONUS: Go DIY – You can also go DIY with your own juice. Feel free to use and experiment on any produce that you like. Just remember to use more vegetables than fruits every time you juice to reduce your to lessen your intake of sugar and calories.

Have you tried a juice fast before or are you currently juicing for weight loss? What recipes are you using? Feel free to share them on the comments below.