My Juice Fast - 56 Day Journey to Health

Hi guys,

Tim Buchalka is my name, and this is Day 1 of my 56 day challenge.

I have decided that enough is enough. I have been overweight pretty well all my adult life.and look, there has always been an excuse. There has always been a reason. It is too hard, I am addicted to sugar. I just like sweet foods too much. And the years have rolled on and I am now 47 and I realise I have been overweight for 30 years.

As a young kid, as a young bloke when I was in my teens, early teens 13, 14,15, I didn't really have much of a weight problem. But as I moved into adulthood, yes, the weight started stacking on. And why? Well, no real surprises. Today's food, processed food. I love ice cream, chocolate, chips, all those types of things. All those man-made type foods. And I have piled on the kilos. I say kilos, but for you US folks, I have piled on the pounds.

I am currently 111 1/2 kg which is about 246 pounds, if I can do my calculations correctly. Enough is enough. I have had a gutful, which is an Australian saying meaning I have had enough. I am not going to put up with this any more. I have decided to take a 56 day challenge which is basically eight weeks, you know 8x7 is 56, again if my maths is correct.

And for eight weeks I'm going to survive on nothing but juice. Now, when I say juice, we are not talking about the supermarket variety, you know the grocer type variety. We are talking about using a juicer, using a machine, and getting fresh fruit and vegetables, putting that all into a machine, and drinking that each day.

So what this is is the first video in a series. I actually plan to do 56 videos. One video for each day of this journey of this challenge, to show you my progress. Because what I want to do is by the end of that - are you waiting for this? - I want to get my weight down to about 80 kg. So we are talking about a weight of, I think, from memory, that's about 165 pounds. (80 Kgs = 176 pounds actually).

So I am looking to lose over 30 kg – 31 kg in only 56 days, which I know sounds like a tremendous amount, but, it's going to happen. It is going to happen! I am going to be 80 kg in 56 days time. So that's - I'm now 246 pounds. That's a loss of about 75 pounds or thereabouts. If I am adding up correctly, about 80 pounds actually. [32 Kgs = 70 pounds]. That's a serious amount of weight. But look, juice fasts which is basically what this is, can actually make you lose weight in that period of time.

I am going to be doing some exercise, but the exercise I am doing is going to be pretty straightforward. I'm going to be walking. This is day one as I said and I have done a walk, a 40 min walk, listening to my headphones, to a nice audio book. And I just walked. I did not walk particularly fast. In fact it was quite slow, because I have been out of practice of exercise.

In terms of what I am going to be doing over the coming videos, I'm going to be going into more details as to what I am drinking. But this morning I had about 500 mls, which is about 16 to 18 fluid ounces of fruit, vegetable mixture, which was comprising of lemon, cucumber, spinach celery – basically five or six different varieties of vegetables and a few different types of fruit. I had some apple in there as well. I converted all that to juice, and drank it.

And the thing that surprised me, was that it tasted quite nice! I was quite surprised that it was quite drinkable. And I felt quite full after it. So I am going to be doing that, just that, for the next 56 days.

Now in terms of going through this program, it is extra ordinarily healthy for you. Juice. If you can imagine having all those nutrients... We are talking about real food the way nature intended. We're not talking about any thing processed. We are not talking about anything of that nature at all. It's all fresh fruit and vegetables. So I plan to buy the fruit and vegetables every day or every second day as I need them and put them straight into the blender and drink them.

So I am going to chronicle this every day of my journey in the next 56 days. I am going to tell you every day how I am feeling, and a little bit more about the journey.

And the other thing I am doing is I am removing all other substances. So, I am a coffee drink, I love my coffee. And I have to say I am already feeling the effects on Day One, in that I am feeling a bit - what's the word - lightheaded? A bit groggy. A bit foggy. And I have got a headache already no doubt that is from the coffee. Now the fact that I am feeling this now makes me think, What is this doing to me? What is this actually doing to my body? Actually, what I need to get into is one of the other reasons why I decided to do this as well.

But just that you are getting headaches by not having coffee, you realise that coffee is addictive isn't it. Actually I like tea and coffee, I like both. But it is obviously addictive, because my body is saying give me some of this stuff or I'm going to give you a darn headache unless you actually get me some more of it!

Anyway that's my plan. I'm going off it cold turkey. I'm going to stick just to juices for the next eight weeks, which is the next 56 days, and if you want to you can actually follow along and look at the video each day on YouTube or on my website, and leave me some comments, and follow my journey.

If this is something that interests use you can actually look at the results I'm getting and decide whether this is something you want to do with your life. Now obviously I'm not a doctor so I can't give you any advice as to whether you should or shouldn't do that. But let me tell you some of the other reasons why I have decided to get my act together and to get myself back to health.

Reason number one. I am an asthmatic. You can probably hear that in my talking I'm very sort of nasally and I have been as a child quite sick with asthma. When I got older I got a lot better but I still suffer from asthma. It is still there sort of niggling in the background. I want to completely get rid of that asthma as well.

The other thing was I had a very nice invasive procedure the other day. Because I am having trouble with my butt. I'm not going to go into any sort of detail because I'm sure you don't want to hear it, but I had a colonoscopy, basically. It is a procedure where, yes, they do put a tube up your butt. Luckily you are sedated and you are out of it! They check to see whether everything is okay there and you haven't got any sort of bowel cancer and all those types of things. And they did actually find two what they call polyps, which as the doctor explained to me are potentially the start of cancer. It still actually, well actually I haven't got the results back. I'm not getting any results back until tomorrow or the next day but he felt fairly confident that there wasn't any cancer there.

But it just hit me. I thought immediately that, you know, I'm at risk here. This could already be the start of cancer.

So yes, it's in very early stages but my body is already sort of losing the fight so to speak and why? It's because I'm so overweight. I'm 35 kilos or 80, 90 pounds or whatever it is overweight. I am putting all this enormous burden on my body and it is done really well to carry me through to age 47 so far but how much longer can it do it? How much longer can it survive with all this pressure that I put on it?

The other thing that I have noticed in about the last four or five weeks is I'm feeling my heart racing a little bit. I can just hear my heart beating. And it seems to be racing a little bit. So, obviously I consulted my doctor, and I wouldn't suggest that you not do that. I think you should certainly have doctors involved. And I did some blood tests and I did an ECG, which is the heart check, and there was a possibility that they found something with the ECG, which they said may not be an issue but they picked up something. So I'm going to a specialist next month in August (this is now July that I'm doing this). So that's another point of concern.

But I have also had some blood tests. I have quite high cholesterol, quite high sugar. We're not talking dramatically high. But we are talking higher than average. And let's be honest here. The reason for this is my weight. I can sit there and say well I'm just unlucky or it's in my genes or I am big boned or whatever it is. The fact is I'm putting all this strain and stress on my body because I am overweight. And I have had enough. I'm not going to do it any more. So I have decided to go cold turkey, and actually go on this juice fast to get rid of these issues.

Lastly, I have also got a problem with my knee. When I was 16 I had a car crash. 16 in Australia is the legal age to get your licence. So I got my learners permit at 16, and then a few months later was able to get my licence. And a few months later, my first or second journey by myself doing things that I shouldn't have been doing (very, very silly driver!) – I crashed into a stobie pole. We call them stobie polls here in Adelaide in Australia. Telegraph poles, you know the poles that hold up telegraph wires for the phone lines and so forth. I crashed into one of those and broke my leg.

Ever since then I have had an issue with my right knee. And for the times when I have got motivated, because I have lost weight in the past, but I've been in that cycle and I gained it again, my knee has always been a problem. Because I got to the stage at one point where I lost 25 or 30 kg over a period of time and I was exercising quite hard every day, and working hard, and got to the stage where I was jogging – but my knee was giving me grief.

So I want that to clear up as well. So the interesting thing is, with all this weight loss journey in the past, everything I have ever done has all been about scarcity, taking things away, not eating chocolate, and going without. But now I got to the stage now where at 47 I've realised that what I have actually been going without, is good nutrition.

I've actually been piling in this junk food, this processed food. Which isn't healthy for me, but quite frankly I am addicted to it. And for all these years I have been neglecting my body. I haven't been giving my body the true nutritional value, nutrition that is actually needs to survive, and that is actually what I have been doing without. So this a new life for me, this challenge.

I'm not calling it a diet. It's not a diet. Diet is what you're going without, normally. The traditional diet is, don't eat this, don't eat that, don't eat chocolate, you have to go without this. This is not about that. This is the other way around. This is give me my body the nutrients it wants, the nutrients it needs.

And I firmly believe in self-healing. I believe that over this 56 days the healing in my body – all these conditions that I've currently got are going to go away. So I would say by Day 56 they are going to be largely or completely gone and I will have lost all that weight because I've been giving the nutrients that my body wants. It is going to sell heal itself. And I'm not going to have to worry about these types of issues, and worry about - quite frankly - dying early!

Because that is the real concern to me, kicking the bucket. Again in Australia – I think it is an Australian saying, "dying prematurely". And I am making a stand here and I'm going to do the right thing, and I'm going to give my body the nutrition it needs, and some exercise as well, each day.

And we're going to succeed, with your help. I'd like you to follow my journey, if you've got an interest in this, and hopefully this will inspire you, if you're looking to do something similar, because you can chronicle my results, you can watch my results over the next 56 days, and just see what happened, and see how I felt. And I'm going to tell you exactly each day when I do this video how I feel - the ups and downs of the previous day, how I got through them, et cetera.

So I'm going to end the video here now. Thank you very much for watching. I hope you going to get a lot out of this. And more importantly I hope that I'm going to because I'm doing this for selfish reasons as well! I am committing myself to doing a video each day. That's going to spur me on to make sure that I keep to it and not try and get out of it or breakdown or not continue this challenge for the next 56 days.

Okay, I'm going to leave it there for now. Thanks for watching, and I will talk to you tomorrow.

You can watch a high definition version of this juice fasting plan video here if you wish.

Hello, Tim here.

Day 2 of my Juice Fasting Plan. My goal, if you recall, if you watched yesterday's video, is to lose 32 kilos, which is 70 pounds, in 56 days.

56 days, basically 8 weeks.

So this is Day 2. So I started my juice diet yesterday, where my diet is comprised of drinking juice only. Now we're not talking about the juice you buy from a supermarket or grocer. We're talking about fresh juice. So I bought a blender, and I am actually blending fruit and vegetables. Good healthy fruit and vegetables. And I'm drinking it immediately for a maximum nutritional value.

So, I guess the first thing is, given that it is Day 2, and I weighed myself yesterday, how have I gone? Have I gained weight, or I have I lost weight?

Drum roll? Maybe not. But the fact is I have lost 1.6 KG - about 3.5 pounds. So I am basically on track at this stage. I am quite happy with that.

I will say it was quite hard yesterday. Towards the afternoon headaches started coming. I've actually still got a headache now actually. Obviously it's a detox type headache. I'm still feeling the ill effects of that. I'm feeling better now, but still feeling very groggy and light headed and tired. I just want to go off and sleep. The research I've done, when you're doing these juice fasts, sometimes it can be a good idea to do that. Don't try and do too much work or anything like that. Just relax and get through it.

So I'm trying to do this all naturally without taking panadeine or any aspirin or anything like that to help the headaches. I want it to be as natural as possible.

So, for more information. With 55 days to go, on average, I need to lose around about .6 of a kilogram per day. So that's about 1.25 pounds per day. If I do that, then by the end of the 56th day, which is the 6 September 2011... coincidentally my stepson's birthday, which was a complete fluke. There'll be some celebration that day, let me tell you, when I hit 80 kilograms!

But anyway, my goal overall is to lose 70 pounds in that period of time, which is 32 kilos. So we're on track. I'm going to keep at it. And a couple of things that I have learnt, if you're following along at home.

Lemon is very overpowering!

Now I'm using lemon in my juice whereever possible. It's very good at masking some of the other tastes. (It's good for detox as well!). So if you're not into vegetables, like me, I was never a vegetables person, lemon can be really good at hiding some of those tastes that you perhaps don't want to be tasting. But if you put too much lemon in it's very overpowering. So that's the lesson for me here, is not to put so much lemon in.

And, I am trying to focus on different types of vegetables. I talked about some yesterday. Just staple ones, celery, cabbage, things of that nature. But also things like carrots. But also some fruits as well. Apples, oranges. Quite a good range is what I'm trying to say. I'm trying not to have too much in the way of fruits. Because fruit is obviously sweeter, and probably nicer if you've got a sweet taste. If you're overweight chances are a sweet addiction is the reason why you're overweight, eating chocolate and the like. So I've tended to gravitate towards fruit, but I'm trying to make sure I'm having a good balance of vegetables as well.

A good balance of fruit and veg is desirable.

And as I said if you put something like lemon in it does really mask the taste. But not too much! So, getting the right measurement is going to be the key here. So I'm going to keep battling on.

Now if you're sitting there thinking, look, there's no way I could do this, let me assure you. I, up until recently, never thought I could do this either. I never thought I would be able to do juice for a meal! For one meal, to go without a full meal, a full meat and potatoes type meal. Let alone doing it three meals a day, and now four, because I'm on Day 2, so I've done four meal periods if you like where I've just had fruit and vegetable as a drink.

And it's really the mind saying: "OK, there's a drink to get started with... where's the main course?" So you need to work through that. Just really be thinking that, no, this is it. And the thing is that if I have that drink, I am feeling reasonably full after it.

I'm having about 500 mls, which is between 16 and 18 oz. And I'm finding that works OK for me. I had 3 yesterday, and I also had a supplementary one, mid afternoon. Because that's my normal craving period when I was eating badly. I wasn't finding I was generally hungry until about lunch time. But afternoon, mid afternoon, towards evening, that would be my period of time where I would be pigging out and eating the wrong things. So I'm conscious of that and I've topped it up with an extra drink, about 250 mls, around about 3pm in the afternoon. And that kept me going until the evening, dinner time. And I had a regular 500 ml of drink. And I was OK.

And I am trying to drink plenty of water during the day as well.

So, all in all it's going well.

Now, I wanted to do a couple of things today.

I wanted to talk to you first about this book: Juice Fasting & Detoxification, by Steve Meyerowitz, if I have got the name correctly. That's actually quite a good book. It's not a huge read. It's only 150 odd pages. I suggest if you're thinking of getting into this, into juice fasting, that you have a look at that book.

It talks about the reasons obviously of what juice is actually doing for you. Because it is going through a detoxification process in your body. So that's one of the effects I'm getting. Not only am I losing weight but I am detoxifying, get rid of all this crap in my body.

And that is one of the main drawcards of course of the juice diet. And that for me is why I actually started with it.

I suggest you grab that. I'm going to put a link in the notes on my latest video, to Amazon. Or you can go and have a look at the book for yourself. I think it's a good book because it goes through the basics of what they are. And the fact that this has been around for thousands of years. This is not something that I have come up with. It's something people have been doing, you know, fasting in general for thousands of years, and in particular, juice fasting.

Some great information in there. There's also some great recipes. Because obviously finding good juice fast recipes seems to be the key, already to me. For example, finding a vegetable juice recipe: it seems to be quite hard to find one that is to my taste. So, some good stuff in there. And I'm going through trying this, and over the course of this 56 days I will be talking to you about the various ones that I have tried, and how successful I have been.

So look, the juice fasting benefits are many. There's really something in it. It's already doing me a world of good, even though I'm not feeling too good with this headache. I know that that is just a matter of time before that really clears out and I'm going to really start powering through this.

But of course, I'm already losing weight. I've already lost that 3.5 pounds, 1.6 kilograms in the first day! I've never done that. I've never lost that amount of weight in the first day. No matter what. No matter how many diets I've tried in the past I've never done that.

So, we'll see how it goes. I'm looking forward already to weighing in tomorrow to see how much I've lost. And we'll keep tracking that each day on this screen, on this video. I'll put those stats on the page so you'll be able to see those.

One other thing I want to talk about briefly before I end up is Wii Fit Plus. Now Wii Fit for those of you that don't know at home, is a great little program that enables you to do lots of things, but I'm using it primarily to monitor my weight loss. Now the thing that I like about Wii Fit is that it's a balancing board, and I'll put a link to Amazon where you can go and have a look yourself.

But you need to buy a little board which you stand on, and it actually connects to a Wii, which is a computer gaming console, a very inexpensive one. And you stand on it, and it measures your weight. And each day it chronicles your weight loss journey. So I have reset that, and started that yesterday. So each day it's going to tell me how much I've lost. And overall I can go back and see how much I've lost historically, which of course is will be good.

Now the other thing I wanted to point out though is with the Wii Fit Plus you can set up a plan. You can say I want to lose this much weight over a period of time. So say for example 2 kilograms I want to lose in 4 weeks. Now the Wii Fit will actually keep track of that and tell you whether you have reached your goal or not.

I want to meet that goal! I want to pass that goal!

Because I have done this before, and I've never actually managed to succeed in passing the goal. I've got close! For example I set it up and got to 60% or 70% of the actual goal. And it actually says, look, sorry, time has run out. You weren't able to reach your goal, do you want me to create a new one? And then you can create a new one.

This time I have set myself a very ambitious goal: 10 kilograms in the first four weeks, the first month. When I say ambitious, that's very ambitious for what's happened to me in the past. So already I've got 8.4 kilograms to go. I've already lost 3.5 pounds, so I'm on track to beat that. And I want to see actually what happens when I get to beating my goal! When I get to that 10 kg of losing weight, within 4 weeks. So I'm hanging out for that. So I'm going to let you know every day how I go with that, and if I actually see the screenshots, if I make it on that day, I'm going to take a recording and show you!

The other thing that Wii Fit is really good at is just for balancing exercises and low impact exercises. Look it's even got yoga. Check it out on the Amazon website. I think it's fantastic. It's a very under utilised and under promoted device. So at this stage because I'm doing my daily walking I'm not going to be using it that much for the exercise side of things.

For the record today I walked for 43.5 minutes, 3.32km, 2.06 miles.

But I'm certainly going to be using the Wii for weight loss tracking and I'm going to keep you involved and up to date with that.

OK, so that's my rant over for the day. Well, it wasn't really a rant was it. It was a bit boring probably, but I'm going to keep going. The thing is I'm on Day 2 now, and I am powering on, and there is no way I'm not going to continue. I'm going to keep pushing forward. I'm going to get to Day 56 before I know it.

Again, my goal is to be 80 kilos, which is 176 pounds, by September 6, which for me when I'm filming this, is 55 days away.

OK, I will talk to you all tomorrow!

Take it easy, cheers.

You can watch a high definition version of this Juice Fasting Benefits video here if you wish.

Hi this is Tim again on Day 3 of my challenge, my 56 day challenge to lose 32 kilograms in that 56 days, which is 70 pounds.

This is Day 3, as I said, and am I on track? Yes, I am!

I weighed myself this morning. I have lost .9 of a kilogram, which is a fraction under 2 pounds. As you can see on the screen there, I have lost a total of 5.5 pounds. Basically in 2 days, because this is only the 3rd day starting now. And that is 2.5 kilograms.

So well and truly ahead of where I need to be. So I need to actually lose 1.25 pounds a day, which is about .6 kilos, or slightly under that, to meet my goal.

So in fact at the moment on average I've lost 1.25 kilograms per day after 2 days, which of course is 2.75 pounds. So I'm well and truly ahead of the curve and feeling good.

Headaches have actually gone, so Day 3, no headaches. Still feeling a bit tired and a bit heady, for want of a better term. A bit blurry I guess you could say. But overall, feeling a lot better than days 1 and 2. The headaches have largely gone, as I said. And that makes me feel a lot better alone.

In terms of cravings and stuff: overall I am doing quite well. Occasionally when I see some food I think, That would be nice. For example, my partner Louise was making her son some crumpets this morning. Crumpets are very nice! I like crumpets. So a fleeting flash went in front of me and I thought, that would be nice to have one of those. But the feeling went just as quickly.

I am finding that the juices do actually fill me up. I only had just the three yesterday. I didn't have any extra. And today - I am actually shooting this in the afternoon - it's about 3:30pm that I'm shooting this. And I've only had the two juices so far. A large one at breakfast time, and a large one at lunch time.

This morning actually I had pretty well all fruit. Just about all fruit. I had apple, spinach, lemon, pineapple, strawberry, and pear. I know spinach was the odd man out. That tasted incredibly sweet. I didn't realise how sweet fruit is. And I think that might be my taste buds coming back now, after only a few days of not having all the normal crap that I would eat, you know, the chocolate and the chips and all that sort of thing.

So that's good, that that is coming back. I'm feeling good about that.

Apples. I have something interesting for you. Apples can be mixed with any vegetables. So if you're looking at doing this, or are doing this, you can actually mix apple with any vegetable you like and it will still taste alright. Now there are definitely some fruits and vegetables that do not mix. And I'm finding out more about those, and as I go on, if I find things that absolutely do not mix, I will let you know.

But I have researched and found on the Internet as well, anyway, the fact that apple does go with any vegetable. But also in my experience I've been putting it in pretty well all my juices so far, and it's just nice. It just takes away that taste. If you're not a vegetable lover, like me - I'm coming around to them, but I'm not really a lover - I'm finding that using lemon and apple can really tone that vegetable taste down. You still get a little bit of sweetness. But obviously you're still getting that nutrition that vegetables can provide. So that's really good.

So, that's really it. There's not really a lot more to report today other than that I'm feeling good, as I said, and on track. I'm hoping that I will be less tired tomorrow and feeling even better and have lost more weight. So that's it!

There was actually one thing that I forgot to add. Walking. I walked 3.21 kilometers. Basically the same route, but slightly less distance because - the actual package I'm using is the iTunes package. It's called: "MotionX-GPS". For iPhone 3 and 4. What it is is a program that records your stats - how far you've travelled, how fast you're going, those types of things. You can use it for bikes, or walking, or even in the car.

I use that so it tracks my stats automatically. And because the iPhone has got a GPS it actually records your track. So you can actually see physically where you have walked. And you can share that if you decide to.

Anyway, the point I want to make about that was the distance basically on exactly the same route yesterday took me 43.5 minutes. Today I felt more energised so I decided to walk faster. And I did the same route in just under 38 minutes. So essentially I am traversing, or travelling rather, at around about 5.1 kms per hour today. Around 3 miles per hour.

Still not fast, by any means, but certainly than what it was yesterday. Because I saved over 5 minutes on yesterday's time. So, obviously the benefits are starting to kick in already, which is fantastic. This juice fasting plan is really starting to kick in, and I'm feeling good about it.

So I'm going to leave it there for now.

Thanks for watching.

I'll see you tomorrow on Day 4. Bye for now.

You can watch a high definition version of this Liquid Diet Weight Loss Video here if you wish.

Hi there, Tim again.

Day Four of my health fast, my juice fast.

Just for those people who are playing along at home and haven't had a look at the previous day's videos I've given myself a challenge to drink nothing but juice for the next 56 days, and to lose over that period 32 kg, which of course is 70 pounds.

So the good news today – I have lost another 0.9 of a kilogram - that's just under two pounds. It's the same weight loss as yesterday but, drumroll please!

My total weight loss so far, just beginning day, so for three full days of being on this diet: I have now lost a grand total of 3.4 kg which is about 7.5 pounds!

So I am actually 10% of my way towards the goal already after just – at the start of the fourth day...

So I am feeling pretty energised and happy. And no I didn't just lose the weight just because I had a haircut. I actually had the hair cut after my weigh-in. So if anything it might affect tomorrow's reading! But hopefully it should not make a difference. I did have a fair bit of hair though, so who knows. But anyway I will take my weight loss however I can do so I am pretty happy at this stage that I have lost that amount of weight.

In terms of how I am feeling overall I have to say that I am feeling a lot better. The headaches have gone. I had a few headaches in the first couple of days that have well and truly disappeared now. And I am feeling energised and quite happy. I'm still drinking plenty of good stuff - this water - in between my juices and overall it is going quite well.

It is a bit surprising. I am surprised at myself being able to go through this. It's not hard. I'm not finding it really hard. There are moments where I think, Oh it would be nice to be eating something. Or particularly if there is family eating, or just talk of food, or I walk into a shopping centre as I did today to get my hair cut. I had to walk through a food court. You know, a place where you can get all sorts of things and so there were all sorts of smells and so forth. But they are just passing feelings and I am sure, I feel comfortable and assured that I can actually survive those and work through them and I am getting the results. I am getting the weight loss and it is making me feel fantastic.

So moving on. I wanted to talk about a little bit today about some juices. In particular, carrot juice benefits. What surprised me when I started doing this research was just how good some of these vegetables can be for you. I haven't known so much about carrots in the past. Incidentally they are quite sweet this drink. I don't know if you realise this but, carrot is quite sweet but apparently there are some benefits.

What are those benefits? Well there are quite a few. Actually it is known in many places as a "miracle juice". Sounds a bit hypey, but it is very rich in vitamin A and it actually can remove bacterial infections from your kidneys and that again is not bad for something that is just natural and not a drug. It's very good for your eyes, your bones, and your teeth and it is actually very rich in vitamin C. There is even an anti-cancer factor in it. There's just a lot of stuff in it and a lot of benefits that you will get from just drinking carrot juice.

So what I am doing is I am not drinking purely carrot juice. I am trying to put carrot in a lot of my drinks. The thing is is that the taste is not very strong like some of the other vegetables and fruits. So I'm finding I am able to put it in a lot of my everyday juices and it tastes still okay. So absolutely: If you haven't thought of carrot juice before make sure, if you are doing something similar to this, that you do use carrots because they have some amazing properties.

There's not a lot else to report today. I'm just going to keep on doing what I have been doing and see how I go tomorrow, but overall I have certainly got a lot more energy. I am certainly feeling a lot better and I'm feeling a lot more confident that I am going to be able to get through this 56 days. Obviously, I thought that I was going to at the start of this. That was my plan to do it. But as each day goes on I guess what I am saying is I'm feeling stronger and more in control.

I am not feeling hungry a lot of the time. I had to say I did wonder whether I was going to be feeling hungry a lot just before I got back home from getting my hair cut. While I was out I thought, yes, maybe I am a little bit hungry. And I have just had some of this stuff, some water, and really that feeling has largely gone away. It's about 11:40am as I'm recording this. It's coming towards lunchtime, but, no, I'm not actually hungry.

Interestingly enough, what I am finding is there are two different types of hunger. There is the physical type of hunger where your stomach is grumbling and so forth. And it can be an overpowering thing, if you don't eat. But there is also that desire for hunger where it is just 'it would be nice to eat'. And I am noticing they are actually two separate things that in the past, to me, they have been one and the same. I just have been 'hungry'. But now I really that there is actually an experience where I'm not hungry as such. I've just got the desire to eat, which is a separate thing altogether. Now that I am actually separating those two I'm feeling more in control and I'm more able to say, no, look I actually don't need to eat at the moment because I am full. I am putting my hand on my stomach and I'm saying: Am I really hungry? And in a lot of cases the answer is no.

So this is all coming to me from juices, from just drinking juice. Just for those people who haven't caught up with those other videos: this is all natural juice. We're not talking about going into a grocer or into a delicatessen or supermarket. What we are talking about is natural fruits and vegetables. You put them in together into a blender and then drink it.

Now I'm going to go through and come up with some vegetable juice recipes for you in a future video, and talk more about some of the different types of recipes I've used for juicing vegetables. And what I have found is that some recipes are good for juicing and some are not. So I am actually going to come through and talk about those and give you the ones that I like. So I talked to you a bit yesterday about this. So if you haven't seen Day Three go back and have a look. I talk about lemon and how that's good at modifying some of the other tastes, but in future videos I will talk more, as I said, about vegetable juice recipes. Things that are simple. You put two or three vegetables together and it still tastes quite nice.

Okay, I'm going to leave it there for now I will see you tomorrow on Day Five. Keep at it, if you are actually doing this yourself; or keep watching the videos if you are following along at home, and we'll see how I go tomorrow!

Cheers for now.

You can watch a high definition version of this Carrot Juice Benefits Video here if you wish.

Hi, Tim here.

It is Day Five of my 56 day challenge to lose 32 kg, which is seven pounds over that period of time, over 56 days.

So my status at Day Five is 0.6 kg of weight loss, which is 1.3 pounds. So overall since I have started this juice fast I have actually lost a total of 4 kg, which is just under nine pounds.

So I am very, very happy with the progress so far and I have to say that I am feeling very energised. I've got lots of energy. A lot more energy than I have had in the past. Definitely no signs of headaches or anything of that nature. I am not missing coffee, which I talked about in an earlier video - that is something that I usually drink a lot. I am not missing all the bad stuff. I'm not going to say it is good stuff because quite frankly chocolate and so forth isn't good for you. And I am starting to really enjoy the juices which is quite amazing. There are certainly moments still where I am wanting to go back to the old habits, back to the old types of foods and so forth. But overall I'm feeling quite comfortable and not feeling hungry all the time. So I am enjoying it.

I would say that, although I don't like using the word diet, this is an easy diet plan, if you are actually looking to lose weight. There are so many different ways to lose weight out there. There are weight loss shakes and people talking about low carb vegetables and other types of foods and so forth. This is really just getting back to the basics. This is just a juice fast plan. We're talking a very simple way of just getting fruits and vegetables, juicing them, and drinking it. At least three times a day.

You can actually have it more times than that. From what I've read some people have it up to 5 times a day. But I am finding I am trying to treat it as a meal. So at breakfast time I'd actually make a proper drink around about 500 mls, 16 to 18 ounces or thereabouts. And I try and treat that as my meal and I do the same for lunch and for dinner as well. And I tend to just have water in between.

So I don't drink any other substance at this stage and it's been working for four days in a row. I've lost weight: a total weight loss of four kilograms since when I started just four days ago. This is the start of Day Five. That's nearly 9 pounds so it's a pretty significant amount of weight to lose. And I'm definitely committed to continuing on and losing it.

I guess the other thing that I'm finding now in terms of energy for walking and so forth. I was able to walk further today. I will just get my handy little iPhone... I've actually got a little program here and that tells me how far I walked today: I walked for one hour and 6 min and I covered a distance of 5.3 km at an average speed of 4.8 km. I have put those actual conversions on the screen for you (5.3 km equals 3.3 miles). And just to let you know, yesterday... (I will just go back and have a look at my track figures for yesterday. And you can do all this with this MotionX package. I think it's pretty cool.) Yesterday I didn't walk quite as far. Yesterday I did 4.33 km / 2.7 miles in 50 min.

The point I am making is that I walked faster. I walked 5.1 km/h. I walked further today. The point I'm trying to make is I've got more energy. I've got more energy to walk further and I'm walking a bit faster. Today actually purposefully decided to walk further again than I had walked in the past, and I walked for over an hour. But I did turn the speed down.

So I've got a little bit of an ache in my legs. So I'm probably going to have a day off tomorrow . Tomorrow will be Sunday from when I'm filming this and I'm trying to get into the habit I think of exercising six days a week and on the seventh day I'm going to take that day off. I will be staying on the juice fast though!

So there's not really a lot else to report. It's all on track. I'm feeling good. I'm feeling energised. And I'm feeling that it is not too hard and I'm feeling confident that I can continue right through and finish this.

So I'm going to leave the video here for Day Five.

Thank you for watching.

I will see you tomorrow.

Cheers for now.

You can watch a high definition version of this Juice Fast Plan Video here if you wish.

Hello everyone, it's Tim again.

And here we are with Day Six of my ongoing juice fast, where I am actually attempting to lose 32 kg - well, basically as quickly as possible but certainly within 56 days. That's right – 56 days!

So, Day Six as I said. I have lost today .7 kg, which is about 1.5 pounds. So I'm pretty happy with that. So my weight is now down to 106.7 kg which is 235 pounds. So overall, after five full days of this (because this is the start of Day Six), I have lost a total of 4.7 kg or 10.3 pounds! So that is just from drinking juice, drinking healthy fruit juice and vegetables. So I am pretty happy with that.

The other thing I want to say today is that I feel very happy. I woke up very happy with feelings of gratitude and happiness and so forth, and feeling very pleased with the world. So interesting enough, I have done nothing else to help stimulate that. This is just coming as a natural result, I think, of going through this process and losing this weight. And I'm just feeling happier and confident and I am feeling quite good. So if that's a side-effect of doing this, it is one that I'm pretty pleased with.

I didn't do any exercise today. I decided against it. It was raining. Anyway, I talked about that in yesterday's video, I said I might have a rest day. I think I'm actually going to exercise probably five days a week and have one or two days off and then have a break with each. So I will probably exercise now for another three days and then have another break and then have a day off, a break, and then come back on for four days. To do it that way I think is going to be the way to do it: to break it up. Three or four days exercise at a time and then a day's rest.

So again I have to say that this is certainly working well. This weight loss is really starting to become serious. 4.7 kg, which is 10.3 pounds, in five days, five full days, is doing, I think, pretty well..

And I am still feeling in control. I've still got the odd feeling where if I see a bit of cake or something - and there tends to be some sweet stuff in this house, which are usually the effects of me being being a bit of a pig out type of person who likes his food, likes his unhealthy food, chocolate and cakes and so forth! So the other members in this household who haven't gone on to this juice fast plan are still eating like that so occasionally I do think it would be nice to try some of that. But again it's a fleeting feeling. And normally a glass of water - I try to drink more and more water now - or just my juices in the normal meal breaks are enough to keep me going.

So I am certainly powering on and I am very pleased with the results. So I am going to continue with it. And why wouldn't I, losing the weight that I have lost? So, over 10 pounds, and I have only needed to lose 70, so I am already one seventh of the way there. After just five days. So if it kept on like that, you know, 6x5 = 30 days I would be there. So whether I can get there in 30 days instead of 56? Stay tuned and watch the videos and see! I am happy to take the weight loss however I can.

Now if I did reach my goal earlier would I continue on? Well I am considering that I probably wouldn't. So if I lost 32 kg before 56 days. I think I would probably stop. And my thoughts are the moment are that I would probably stay on the juice for one or two meals per day. So I would go back to an evening meal and just have a normal evening meal and see how that went. And then if there was a situation where I did eat a few things that perhaps I shouldn't have, you know, go to a party or something and there's those types of foods that I don't normally eat are there and I indulge in a few, I could have just a one-day fast or just go from 1 to 2 juices per day. Something of that nature, to counter that.

Because I think there's something in this because if you're looking to lose only a little bit of weight, and you're looking to do it over a longer period of time, you could probably do that by reducing the juice fast to one or two per day instead of three. You could still live a lifestyle of having other types of foods, if this is too hard, and just have one or two juices. Which is certainly going be better than what you would normally eat during those times.

But with that said, I'm going to continue with this at this stage. I've got no plans in the short term to stop doing this. I want to keep at it, especially given the way that this weight loss is still kicking in every day. It is very, very inspiring to me personally to continue. Because I have just tried so many things in the past. But every single day that I have been on this plan so far I have lost weight. Every single day! So I am looking forward to that continuing, every single day, and getting to my goal ASAP.

I had a couple of things. I talked to you previously about lemon juice benefits, so I'm not going to get into that again, but I want to talk about different types of things that I find each day - things that I find that I think could be helpful for you.

Now just in relation to lemon. I know that there is a lemon cleanse diet, you know, that cleansing diet that is supposed to clear you out and detoxify you. I don't know if you need to go on one of those. If you are doing the juice fast you probably are going to be getting similar results. Especially if you are drinking at least some lemon anyway. Because this is one of the advantages of this process, is that it is actually detoxifying the body as well as giving you all the nutrients and so forth that you need. So if you were looking at a lemon cleansing diet, those sorts of diets that are pretty hot at the moment (and I don't like the word diet anyway, I might add), consider that. Because you might be killing two birds with one stone, if you're having enough lemon, to do what we are doing here at the same time.

The other thing I read up about is wheatgrass benefits. Now wheatgrass is - I think it's classified as a grass literally, and it's really, really good for you. It gives you lots of dark greens, and it's a replacement if you will. It's a replacement for lots of vegetables. And in actual fact, just reading here off the page, wheatgrass is more than twenty times more dense in its nutrients than many other choice vegetables, which is quite interesting.

I've got a problem with wheatgrass, in that it tastes terrible! I just don't like the taste of it, but that's something that I might look at doing. I might look at supplementing that and putting some of this wheatgrass in my other drinks. At this stage I'm trying to just use spinach, broccoli and those types of thingB in my for my greens. Bbut that's another way of doing it. It has chlorophyll if I have that right. And this is what is actually in wheatgrass, among other things, and that draws toxins from the body. So it's very high in oxygen and light energy. So it's very good for antibacterial purposes as well, it's got very good antibacterial properties.

So keep that in mind with wheatgrass. But yeah, even though there are lots of wheatgrass benefits I don't think I'm going to be looking at that at this stage. I'm going to see how I go. Because as I said, I've had that in the past (not recently), and I just do not like the taste.

The other thing that I have come across which I thought was a bit bizarre was coconut oil weight loss. Now there is lots of information out there on people swearing that this is a fantastic property to help you lose weight.

What I found interesting in my research was that coconut oil is very high fat. One tablespoon of coconut oil is 170 calories, or just under 14 g of fat. Interestingly enough, though it is actually classified as good fat. Because there are good fats and bad fats. You know, there are trans-fats, for example, you find in fried foods and so forth, and they are very bad for you.

But on the other hand you can get things like omega 3 which is good fat. So don't just look at fat and say, Oh know, I'm not going to eat it. It's the type of fat that matters.

So I think that what my point is with coconut oil weight loss. Going through that. It is good fat in the sense that it helps you boost your metabolism and gives you energy and makes you feel full which is obviously a good thing. And even the fat that you're putting in there, your body does burn that very quickly.

So I am going to try and talk more about that in future video. Because in this industry, this weight loss industry, there is so much misinformation. I just notice for example on the shelf: lots of food labelled low-fat. And you automatically think low-fat is good, but often it's got high sugar!

And that's just incredible to me that that is the situation. So low-fat does not necessarily mean that it is good for you. You really need to look at that in combination: look at the sugar, the types of fat that's in there, before making a decision.

And if you do look at that you'll find if you look at fat content but also the amount of sugar as I said... And sugar again - that comes in lots of different names. I'll try doing that in a future video, and go through the different names.

Sometimes it's just listed as carbohydrates, sometimes it's actually got sugar. Fructose is another one. Fructose is normally the bad one actually. Even though it appears in fruit naturally, that seems to be okay because the fructose for example in an apple is quite low compared to the overall apple, and of course there are other benefits to an apple.

But when you see high levels of fructose in things like chocolate bars and so forth, that actually is quite unhealthy for you. So again, my point is that you are looking at starting to read labels, and this is a process that I've learned over a long period of time, even though I haven't been applying it, because I'm still overweight, but I'm starting to do that. Not so much now but I was starting to do this more in the past, trying to become educated. And I guess part of this process of education has got me to this point now where I have decided to lose weight.

And researching, I'm just finding that it is very sneaky how much some manufacturers will push the fact that even if there is low sugar, they might have a high concentration of bad fat for you.

So you really need to be reading those labels, and looking at the fat content, but also the sugar content.

Okay I think I'm rambling on a little bit now.

But again feeling quite good about today, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow's Day Seven update.

So I will leave it there for now.

Cheers

You can watch a high definition version of this Weight Loss Video here if you wish.

Hello!

Tim here with Day Seven.

Yes, I've nearly made it! By the end of this day it will have been a week since I started this juice fast. And I'm still living, breathing and surviving.

So how have I gone?

Well, overnight I lost 0.3kg, which is about 0.66 pounds. So just over half a pound.

Overall, after six full days of this, I've lost 5 kg, which is 11 pounds. So, as I said, Day Seven will be a full week tomorrow. Because I actually started obviously in the morning.

So I'm pretty pumped up about this still. I'm pretty excited, the fact that it is still working, that I'm still losing weight. I have lost weight every single day. This is my smallest ever weight loss only .3 of a kilogram but still I will take the weight loss anyway I can get it. Quite frankly the fact that it's going down every day is very, very nice.

The other thing was that I walked 5.86 km today, which is 3.6 miles in one hour and eight minutes. So that's the furthest I've walked since I've restarted my exercise and at the fastest pace as well. So obviously I'm getting more energy. I'm able to go further. I'm doing better stuff to my body.

Interesting enough, I didn't exercise yesterday. If you watched yesterday's video yo saw that I didn't do any exercise. I decided to have a rest day. And I am still going to do that but I am wondering whether that had some sort of relationship to the weight loss.

So we'll see how we go tomorrow, to see how the weight loss has gone and compare that with today's weight loss. But overall again very, very happy.

I'm getting really used to this vegetable drink, well vegetable and juice drinks, the fact that I have been doing this for nearly 7 days. The body is quite used to it. I'm sort of into a bit of a routine, I guess you could say.

I'm finding out more about vegetable nutrition and things that I need to understand more about how this stuff works. But it's good at this stage. I'm not spending a lot of time. I'm not looking for low carb vegetables for argument's sake. I'm just finding vegetables that I think would juice well and combining them. And the ones that I think taste really horrible, I'm not using. So I'm not spending a lot of time on that.

So at this stage I'm happy with the progress I'm making, mixing and matching and trying different fruits and vegetables, other than using a few staples. I know for argument's sake, spinach is very good for you and broccoli is as well. But what I am saying is not going to the degree of researching this to the nth degree to make sure everything is right. And I don't think you need to do that. Just the fact that I'm juicing, having juice, vegetable juice and fruit juice, is enough to be very, very good for my body. And the results are obviously on the board, aren't they: 5 kg, 11 pounds in six days, full days, is a pretty good result. And it is one that I'm looking forward to continuing.

One thing I've noticed is late in the afternoon and early evening I'm getting quite bored. And that's when I'm really feeling – well, what I used to do in that period of time, I think I talked about this on day one video, was I used to be quite hungry at that time. At the end of the day, late afternoon, mid to late afternoon, early evening was my danger period, when I used to really eat all the wrong things.

And what I have found is now late in the afternoon, evening that's when I've got more of a feeling that I perhaps want to eat something else and I'm a bit bored. And I'm realising now that one thing I used to do prior to that, was I used to eat for boredom, to relieve the boredom. So I wasn't necessarily hungry. So obviously I was looking for something to do so.

So what I need to do is find another interest or something, I think, for that period of time where I have done enough work for the day (and I am lucky enough to work from home anyway). But if I have done enough work for that day I need to find another interest. And not just be looking for food. which is what I obviously used to do to relieve that boredom. So, interesting that you can get yourself into that scenario.

Just in relation to hunger... If you are hungry, do what I do, which is have a drink of water first. So tell yourself, ask yourself rather, are you really hungry? Have a drink of water. Half glass or a glass if you can have that much. And wait for about 5 min and then ask yourself the question again.

You would be amazed that often when you ask yourself the second time, that you are not hungry. And if you do come back hungry and this is if you are trying purposely not to eat anything and you have decided that you've had your juice, or you are just trying to cut down on eating bad food. Ask yourself again, Am I hungry? And go through the process twice.

And I find that most times if I do that the first time, have that drink, that feeling will go away. It's a temporary feeling. Much like, I gather (because I'm not a smoker but I understand that) smokers have a similar issue. They have a craving. And if you can get past that craving for a cigarette you can move on. And that's how you sort of learn to wean yourself off them.

I think it's a similar thing here with your hunger cravings. If you are craving for sweet foods or whatever it is: just ask yourself, Am I hungry? And have a drink of water, and that is also going to have a benefit obviously, drinking water, and filling your stomach up a little bit. And ask yourself again in 5 min and then maybe repeat the process and maybe wait 10 min if you can.

Often you will find that probably you are not hungry or if you are still hungry the second time around it's probably more a genuine hunger and that's the time to address that. So you would go and eat something or if you are on the juice fast plan, you would do something like you would actually have another small juice to carry you over to the next main juice drink.

It's very interesting. The body can actually confuse thirst with hunger.

So if you are not drinking enough water you can find these signals saying that you are hungry whereas actually it's because you're thirsty, your body needs more water.

So that's one of the other reasons that people suggest, and I suggest too, that you drink water, is to make sure that your body has got sufficiently hydrated, so that you are not getting those confusing signals. And again if you find that you are doing that you are drinking enough water, you probably will be going to get different or less hunger because there's more water in your stomach as well.

This afternoon, reading up on juice plans, some people talk about getting diarrhoea and constipation. So again water will help in either of those scenarios. And thankfully I'm not affected by any of those. But again water is very important.

So if you are doing this, if you are thinking of doing this, don't just think that it is a matter of doing three juices a day and nothing else. You should be topping yourself up with water during the day, quite a fair bit of water as well.

Remember apart from the hunger side of things, water is very good at cleansing things and clearing out the toxins and all that other stuff that has really built up in your body. If you're overweight now probably from many years, in my case probably 30+ years. So that's where water is flushing all that stuff out. So that's another benefit of drinking water.

Okay not much else to talk about. I just had an interesting conversation with someone yesterday about energy drink dangers. We were talking about Gatorade and some of these other brands. Something again they don't push is that they are really, really heavily loaded with sugars. So you really needed to be careful about how much of these drinks you actually drink.

Even Diet Coke, and Pepsi max and so forth. Whilst they haven't got sugar they do have that artificial sweetener which is actually very bad for you. So what I do suggest is that you go off all that stuff. If you are doing just juice fast altogether, make sure you're not having energy drinks or even any low-calorie stuff, you're just sticking to the juice. No coffee, no caffeine. I mean I know it's hard for the first few days but if I can do it guys, you can do it as well. And the fact is you going to be better off for it. Becase all that stuff you're putting into your body, or, that you were putting into your body, you are no longer doing. So that's going to really help you in the long run. So I really suggest you do that.

I think I'm going to leave it there for now. As I said, it's a Day Seven update. So tomorrow Day Eight is going to be actually seven full days that have been on this diet. Whoops! I said that nasty word again, diet. It's not a diet. This is a juice fast plan, that is changing my life for the better. So I'm looking forward to telling you what my results are tomorrow.

So I will leave it there for now and I will talk to you soon,

Cheers for now.

You can watch a high definition version of this Vegetable Drink Video here if you wish.