Apple
Do
you notice that the apple juice that you get from juicing actual apples is
cloudy while the ‘natural’ bottled apple juice in the supermarket is clear? The
cloudiness in your apple juice is exactly what you want to start losing those
extra pounds.
Natural
apple juice has a lot of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals; but for weight
loss juicers, it has one valuable thing that bottled apple juice can never give
you – pulp and pectin. Pectin is a natural fiber found in plant cell walls.
It’s one of those water-soluble fibers that we were talking about earlier and
it’s actually the gelling agent at work when you’re making fruit jams and
jellies. In our stomach, that same gelling characteristic can delay it from
emptying, making you feel full longer.
Aside
from keeping those hunger pangs away, it also slows down the digestion of food
which stops the sugar levels in your blood from going on a roller coaster ride.
With a steady source of glucose, you’ll be keeping those food cravings far away
where they can’t hurt you.
Cantaloupe
Despite
the sweet flavor of cantaloupe juice, it has one of the lowest mass to calorie
ratios on the list of fruits and vegetables. This makes it an ideal addition to
your regular juices when you’re trying to lose weight, especially if you’re
looking for something to pacify your sweet tooth but don’t want the glucose
levels in your blood to go haywire.
You
can have a lot of cantaloupe juice and still stay within a healthy daily
calorie count which means you can stay full longer and enjoy more nutritious
juice while also shedding those extra pounds. It also doesn’t hurt that it
helps fight high blood pressure and cancer.
Pomegranate
For years, pomegranate seeds have
been the focus of many anti-obesity studies by a lot of medical groups. It has
been linked to numerous cases of weight loss, inhibition of hunger, and
inhibition of fat build-up. And while they haven’t found exactly what
pomegranate seeds trigger in the body that makes it such a great weight loss
agent, they do know that adding natural pomegranate juice to your diet can help
regularize glucose levels, inhibit fat absorption in the large intestines, and
reduces the build-up of fat in your adipose tissues.
To
put it simply, something in pomegranate stops the body from absorbing fat and
helps reduce the amount of fat that’s deposited in your fat cells. And that’s
on top of having more cancer-fighting antioxidants than even green tea and
cranberry juice.
Cabbage
What
makes cabbage so special compared to other leafy vegetables when it comes to
weight loss? Cabbage has something that not a lot of vegetables have – high
tartaric acid content. The best part is that the tartaric acid is more abundant
in uncooked cabbage which means that you’re reaping its full weight loss
potential when you drink its raw juice. But what exactly does tartaric acid do
to help you reach your goal weight?
Aside
from being both an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent, it also inhibits
the conversion of sugar and other carbohydrates into fat. It also helps lower
overall glucose levels which helps ward off those unwanted cravings and
improves the absorption of vitamins and nutrients into the bloodstream.
Cucumber
Aside
from having loads of fibers (always a good thing when it comes to weight loss),
cucumbers are also made up of 70% carbohydrates. That might make most weight
loss juicers run the other way, but those carbohydrates in cucumber are
actually complex carbohydrates which is a whole different matter.
You’ll
find simple carbohydrates in most processed food – candy, potato chips, that
burger and fries you had at that fast food joint. Those carbs are broken down
by the body fast and easily and are also just as quickly absorbed and stored as
fat. With vegetables like cucumber on the other hand, you get complex
carbohydrates. Those kinds of carbs take longer to break down during digestion,
making you feel full longer and give the body a steady stream of glucose which
reduces cravings.
Don’t
be put off by the high carb content in cucumbers that’s higher than most fruits
and vegetables. It’s the kind of carb that you want in your body and, believe
it or not, will actually help you lose weight.
Peppers
Why
would people add fiery hot peppers to their juice?
For one, some people do like the
kick, the hot flavor, the wake up slap that a pepper can give to your juice.
Even the milder varieties can give you a lot of nutrients and vitamins while
also giving that unmistakable heat. But more than that, peppers have long been
a natural weight loss food. Peppers have been shown to increase your body’s
internal heat and oxygen production which helps burn fat and encourages weight
loss.
Here’s
a piece of important additional information – the weight loss substance in
peppers is found in both sweet and hot peppers. That means you don’t have to
love the hot kind of pepper to enjoy its advantages; the sweeter varieties like
bell peppers will do just as well. Got you there, didn’t I?
Keeping and Maintaining the Juicing Lifestyle
Getting
started is hard, but keeping and maintaining a new and healthier lifestyle is
even harder.
When
you’ve already started juicing, you’ll notice that you’ll have more energy,
you’ll even be in a better mood, and you’ll enjoy glowing skin and better
digestion. But even with all the advantages, it’s easy to fall of the wagon
simply because it does take some effort to pick out fruits, to store them
properly, and to prepare juice every single day. You might be able to do it for
two weeks or even a month but one day you’ll wake up and you’ll think, maybe
I’ll skip juicing today. Then you’ll do the same thing the next day and the day
after that and pretty soon your juicer will be a relic on your kitchen table.
The best way to avoid backsliding
into bad health and junk food is to establish a routine and to reinforce good
habits. Make a day out of buying your supplies by visiting the nearby farmer’s
market or local market. Talk to the farmers or the store owners, ask them
what’s in season and which fruits and vegetables go well together. Get to know
them and listen to their recommendations; they’ll appreciate your interest and
you’ll learn a lot from the experts. If you can’t visit the market twice a week
then even one trip a week can be something to look forward to; a break from
your usual routine.
You
can also encourage yourself by keeping track of your progress and by setting
performance metrics. Are you measuring success by your weight loss? How many
pounds or inches have you shed? Is your goal to fit into those 90s pants? Or do
you have other weight-related goals like lowering your cholesterol or blood
pressure? How about juicing to help you prepare for a 5k or 10k run? Your goals
can be just about anything but measuring and keeping track and seeing that
you’re actually making good progress is often enough to keep you in track.
Another
great way of making sure you stick to your juicing program is by having a
juicing partner or group. With friends who are also juicing for health, you can
exchange recipes, buy supplies together, measure progress together, and also
have a support group for those days when it’s hard to stick to the program.
There are some juicers who would prefer to enjoy juicing by themselves but a
lot of people benefit from having partners or a group of people that they can
compare notes with and who can encourage them when it gets tough.
Just
remember that juicing is a lifestyle, not just a weight loss fad. It’s
something that you can benefit from in the long run in terms of overall health
and fitness. You don’t have to switch to just juice for your food intake if
your health doesn’t call for it or if your doctor hasn’t recommended it, but
having a glass or two a day can make a lot of difference for your overall
health and wellness. If you can make juicing a part of your everyday life,
you’ll not only lose weight, you will also enjoy a longer and better quality
life with reduced risk on a lot of diseases. So keep juicing and have fun!
This is a sample from the book 33 Juicing Recipes for Weight Loss--to get the complete recipes you can get the book here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NB0RD8I
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