Before providing this summary for 7 lbs in 7 days by Jason Vale I do have to say that the author states that for success on this program it is crucial you read the whole book for all of the information and motivation you will need. But now that you know that, if you decide to just follow this summary I will try and put the most valuable information in here that I can! The author spells out everything in his book so well (including all questions) so if you have any questions about the “safeness” of this program please refer to the book (FYI it’s not only “safe” it may be one of the best things you’ll do for your body).
I'd also like to point out that this isn't the ONLY way to lose weight. I've had great success at losing weight by counting calories and eating a balanced diet with whole "real" foods. Refer to how I lost 42 pounds here. However, if you already have a juicer this program is worth a try (not only to lose weight, but because it's so good for your body!). I solely juiced for 5 days and I lost 4 lbs and my husband lost 8 lbs. We are now going to slowly start incorporating solid foods (today is my 6 day and I'm juicing up to dinner, then I am going have some chicken, broccoli and brown rice). The key to keeping the weight off is by not binging once the cleanse is over but by slowly reincorporating healthy foods.
If you've been following my blog you may think that I'm a nutter because I'm constantly saying that losing more than 2 lbs a week isn't sustainable and here I am doing a "diet" that claims to make you lose more than 7 lbs in a week. I didn't necessarily do it to lose 7 lbs in a week, rather I did it to detox from my Bahamas vacation (too many virgin pina coladas and french fries!). The result of the juicing for 5 days was amazing… I felt great! My energy had increased like fold and I felt and feel very healthy. On the fourth day of the cleanse I even ran 5 miles (I haven't ran for over a year! No joke!) and I felt great! I knew I was going to appreciate this author while reading the introduction and it states,
I realize that the title of this book--7 lbs in 7 days—may have lured many people into looking for some kind of “quick fix,” but I know that if you read the book and follow all of the instructions, it will be a catalyst to a lifelong change.
I have already been rapped for using the word “diet” on the front cover of this book, but that’s the publisher—not me! I did argue my case over and over again: after all, the first chapter in my first book, Slim for Life, is all about why diets don’t work, but here I am with a book that contains a title with the word “diet” in it. I suppose that in order to get your message to the people that who need it the most you sometimes have to compromise along the way, and the titles of this book is one of those compromises.
Having said that, after thinking about it, and after seeing the long-term results from all over the world, I believe it has only done good. Because of the title the real message has reached people who would perhaps otherwise never have been touched by it. The way I look at it is this; if this book gets to those people who are “serial dieters”, then that’s just great. I know from personal experience that jumping from one diet to another is not a bundle of fun, and if I can do anything to break anyone’s diet merry-go-round then I will—no matter what method is required (well, within reason!). My aim is for this to be the last book with the word “diet” on the cover that they will ever feel the need to buy. And throughout the book you will discover that I never once refer to the 7 lbs in 7 days program as a “diet”; I always use the words “plan” or “program.” (Vale, 2012, p. 4)
Benefits of the Program
Sounds like words that would come right out of my mouth! The book provides many testimonials of women and men losing on average 7 lbs in a week (7 lbs for women, 10 lbs for men). One man suffering from severe obesity even lost 18 lbs in the week.
Not only do people lose weight, but they feel the most energized and healthy that they have in their whole life. After being on the program for 5 days I have tons of energy and feel great!
Because the program is actually detoxing your insides, it makes it so you don’t crave junk food anymore. No more cravings for white refined bread or refined sugars. In fact, after the program, if you do eat those things you will probably get sick to your stomach. Your body will finally realize that those things are not “food” and you shouldn’t be eating them. In fact, it’s likely that after the program you will crave healthy whole foods. For example, day one of the program I had a huge craving for in-n-out (especially their animal style fries!) but now I’m just craving grilled chicken, a baked sweet potato and grilled asparagus (mmmmm!).
Juicing retains 95% of the nutrients in fruits and vegetables. You tell me who can eat 2 apples, ¼ a pineapple, ¼ cucumber, ¼ an avocado, a lime, and wheatgrass for breakfast? If you can, kudos to you! There is no way my insides would be happy with processing all of those fruits and vegetables and fiber (seriously, if I tried to eat that, you may not want to hang out around me that day). The good thing about juicing is that you get almost ALL of those nutrients in one big glass of delciousness!
Critics
People don’t like change; people don’t like what they don’t know. As I said above, if you have any questions about how safe or healthy the program is, please refer to the book. That being said, the author says it best again when he says,
Well firstly, it’s not a fast. I hate it when I hear of people describing this plan as a “juice fast.” It’s a contradiction in terms. You cannot be fasting while you are having freshly extracted juices. A fast is where a person drinks only water and takes in no nutrients from food whatsoever. Juicing furnishes the body with the finest, easiet to ingest nutrient on the planet, and juicing retains 95% of the nutrients in fruits and vegetables. Let me reiterate that: juicing retains 95% of the nutrients in fruits and vegetables. And given that these highly charged macro- and micro- nutrients are often much more bio-available to your cells (meaning more of the nutrients will get to where they are needed), there is no way on earth that this program can be described as a fast.
Secondly, it’s ironic that any program that feeds every cell in the body with precisely what is requires for optimum health could possibly be called unhealthy. I find it mind blowing when people tell me that this program is not only unhealthy but—wait for it—dangerous. Yes, DANGEROUS! I kid you not. This program has actually been described by a few uninformed doctors and dieticians—the very people who are meant to be in charge of our health and vitality—as dangerous. Now call me Mr. Are You Flipping Kidding Me, but how on earth can ridding yourself of junk food, caffeine, alcohol, and other crap from your diet and pouring nature’s finest super foods for a week be described in any way, shape, or form as dangerous? (Vale, 2012, pp 43-44).
Disease Curing
Eighty-five of western disease is caused directly by what we put in our mouths (World Health Organization). Think about it, you can decrease your risk of type 2 diabetes by losing weight and living a healthy style. You can decrease your risk of cardiovascular disease, heart attacks, high cholesterol, by living a healthy lifestyle and losing weight. The chances of getting cancer can even be reduced by living a healthy lifestyle. Yes, really. Do I need to say more? That’s enough motivation for me.
Jason Vale (the author) provides “juicing retreats” in Turkey, where participants go out for weeks at a time to relax, have people prepare the juices for them, and work out. The fresh squeezed juice is curing asthma, arthritis and even reducing cholesterol numbers by 100 points; all that in just in a week!
Imagine a goldfish in a bowl of clean water. What would happen to the fish if the water was never cleaned? What would happen if the fish was left to live in a polluted environment day after day with the pollution getting slightly worse each day? I think you’d agree that it’s likely the fish would probably get an ailment or two.
The question I have is a simple one: what would you do to help the fish? Would you treat the fish or clean the water? Would you give the fish a drug to help with its condition or would you clean the water? You really don’t need years of medical training to come up with the only logical answer: clean the flipping water! (Vale, 2012, p. 53)
People far prefer to take a pill then to change their lifestyle. How dumb would we look if we were to treat the goldfish with a pill rather than just cleaning the water? It’s the same concept with our bodies! The food we put in our bodies is equivalent to the water the goldfish “breathes”. “Big people are Big Business to the pharmaceutical industry, and it seems they will do anything to sell their wares to customers” (Vale, 2012, p. 49).
Program Rules
1. Follow the program, exactly how it is laid out.
2. Do not eat/drink ANYTHING but the juice and water.
3. No caffeine.
4. No alcohol.
5. No food (not even the vegetables you are juicing with, the point is to rest your intestines for the week… but if worse comes to worse and you HAVE to eat something then those vegetables are better than mcdonalds).
6. No chocolate ;)
7. If you cheat, don’t get discouraged. The program allows for a 5% margin of error. Just make sure if you do cheat it’s something with high water content and is healthy (like a big avocado salad!)
8. Drink 2L of water a day in addition to the juices.
9. Try to make the juice fresh whenever possible. Avoid making a big batch and storing it for extended periods of time because it loses a lot of the nutrients. If you must (like me, I work 12 hour nursing shifts!) then make it, put some lemon in it, and try to drink it within the next 8 hours. Every hour that passes makes the juice lose more and more nutrients. However, if you still have some juice after 12-14 hours don’t trash it, it still has plenty of vitamins and is better than drinking pasteurized juice (which is what all grocery store juice is!).
Supplies
1. A juice extractor (yes, the program requires it, you cannot only use a blender. You will end up with a bunch of mush!)
2. A good blender/smoothie maker
3. Wheatgrass—either a tray of wheatgrass with a wheatgrass juicer or wheatgrass powder. I got the powder for about $20 from Sprouts.
4. Good-quality probiotics (acidophilus bacteria capsules). Udos is a great brand.
5. Sprirulina (powder form).
6. Thermos or large water bottles—to store juice in when you’re on the run.
7. Fruits and vegetables (shopping list here)
Here are the recipes and schedule I have been doing. As I said earlier I'm going to begin introducing solid foods today (both my husband and I now have a sore throat and we need more protein for healing). On the program you can ONLY consume these juices (no coffee, alcohol, other juices) literally nothing but water and the fresh squeezed juices. No questions about it! The point is to detox your body by giving it valuable nutrients and resting your intestines for a week.
Ok, now that we are clear on that. Here is the schedule I've been following.
Day 1
7 am- Hot water with lemon, lime or mint
Exercise for Day 1: 1 hour of moderate intensity cardio. (Walking, jogging, elliptical, etc… The exercise can be split up into two or three segments throughout the day. I do it all at once because I don't always have time to do that with a baby!)
Day 2
7 am- Hot water with lemon, lime or mint
Exercise for Day 2: 1 hour and 15 minutes of moderate intensity cardio.
Day 3
7 am- Hot water with lemon, lime or mint
Exercise for Day 3: 1 hour and 40 minutes of moderate intensity cardio.
Day 4
7 am- Hot water with lemon, lime or mint
2 pm- Juice Master's Super Detox Juice (recipe below)
Exercise for Day 4: 1 hour and 40 minutes of moderate intensity cardio.
Day 5
7 am- Hot water with lemon, lime or mint
2 pm- Juice Master's Super Detox Juice (recipe below)
Exercise for Day 5: 1 hour and 50 minutes of moderate intensity cardio
Day 6
7 am- Hot water with lemon, lime or mint
2 pm- Juice Master's Pure Green Super Juice (recipe below)
Exercise for Day 6: 1 hour and 50 minutes cardio.
Day 7
7 am- Hot water with lemon, lime or mint
Exercise for Day 7: 1 hour and 50 minutes cardio.
Juice Master's Super Detox Juice
2 Golden Delcious or Royal Gala apples
1/4 cucumber
1 stick of celery
1 small handful of Spinach
Ice Cubes
1 handful of mixed green leaves (watercress, parsley, lettuce)
Instructions
Juices the apples, cucumber, celery, spinach and mixed greens. Pour into blender and add ice.
Juice Master's Pure Green Super Juice
2 sticks of celery
1/2 medium cucumber
1 small handful of spinach
1 shot of fresh wheatgrass juice or 1 scoop of powdered wheatgrass
1 slice of orange
2 ice cubes
Instructions
Juice the celery, cucumber, spinach, and wheatgrass. Add ice to a glass and pour in the super pure green juice. After each mouthful take a bite of the orange.
Congratulations! You made it!
Be wise and don't go back to your old way of eating… you will gain the weight right back. The author has a book called "The Turbo Charge Plan" that he advises you read to continue losing weight. However, if you choose not to read it just make sure that you reintroduce solid food very gradually. He suggests the following:
Day 8-10
Breakfast: veggie-based juice/smoothie or your choice
Lunch: Veggie-based juice/smoothie, or a good avocado salad, or fruit salad.
Dinner: Large salad, or wholegrain/wild rice with steamed vegetables, or fish with salad or veggies
Day 11-21
Breakfast: juice/smoothie, fruit, or hot oatmeal with fruit, or "live" yogurt
Lunch: Juice/smoothie, fruit, or a big container of "live" yogurt, a stuffed wholemeal pita bread with salad, or large salad.
Dinner: large salad, wholegrain/wild rice with steamed vegetables, fish with salad or veggies, try to stick to "whole" foods (hunter or gatherers diet).
Works Cited
Vale, J. (2012). The juice master diet: 7lbs in 7 days (New & updated ed.). London: HarperThorsons.
And there you have it! I'm now hooked on juicing and will continue to incorporate at least one or two fresh juices into my diet even now I'm done with the program. It's so good for you and makes me feel great! Have you done this program or know someone that has? Let me know below how it went!
