Juice cleanse, 12WBT, I Quit Sugar, paleo, Isagenix, 5:2 fast diets put to the test
JUICE cleanse, 12WBT, quitting sugar, paleo, Isagenix and 5:2 fast are some of the most popular diet trends, but which lives up to the hype? We put them to the test - with mixed results.
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WE’RE a dedicated team at Weekend. It seems just about everyone is on a diet these days, so we put our bodies on the line to put some of the more popular diets to the test — with mixed results.
JUICE CLEANSE: Anna Byrne
A JUICE cleanse is exactly as it sounds: five days of nothing but juice, water and a new-found reliance on herbal teas. Hell, basically.
On the upside, it promised to wash away my kilojoule sins and alcohol-lubricated social life, flushing my system of toxins and impurities and leaving my organs squeaky clean, my skin glowing, concentration levels razor sharp, while reducing bloating and improving energy levels and quality of sleep, as well as possible weight loss.
A juice cleanse requires super stamina and discipline, qualities for which I am not renowned.
Thankfully, unlike other diets that involve spending hours shopping and cooking, all my daily juices were delivered to my door, numbered 1-8.
All I had to do was drink one every few hours.
The juices from Pressed Juices are made from organic, clean, raw vegetables and fruits and are not the consistency of your average pulpy juice, but rather a vegetable-infused water.
People say it’s good to push your limits, so I opted for the advanced juice cleanse, lower in natural sugars than the beginners’ program. I started with the black lemonade, a blend of alkaline water, lemon, activated coconut, charcoal and cayenne pepper. This was followed by a liquidised fusion of strawberry, mesclun, banana, raspberry, blueberry, mint and chia seeds, two green juices that tasted like pulverised lemony grass, a tangy zesty juice, and an orange earthy juice.
By 11am, I had consumed almost two litres of water and juices, and given that my usual daily fluid intake is a can of Diet Coke and glass of wine, I was pretty sure my bladder was going to explode by noon.
The main event was juice No. 7. I would be lying if I said this chocolatey, milky blend of almond milk, dates and raw cacao didn’t get me through each day.
The night time juice, enticingly entitled “slippery elm” was a hard-to-swallow therapeutic tonic to reduce gut inflammation and irritation, thanks to licorice and marshmallow root, cinnamon and slippery elm itself.
On day two, I was barely holding it together emotionally. I had a headache, and my niceness reserves were running out.
I woke on day three from the greatest sleep of my life and found my skin glowing, my eyes iridescent and even decided to forgo make-up for the day. I had surprising bursts of energy and clarity.
My enthusiasm faded by late afternoon and the Pressed Juice nutritionist, on call to answer any questions, flung me a lifeline by way of allowing me to dilute a small piece of miso paste in hot water.
Day four made day three seem like a holiday and I was increasingly concerned my jaw may be seizing up.
I missed chewing as much as I didn’t miss dishes.
I cracked at a work lunch and had a small serving of salad and some raw fish. Guilt set in.
On day five I finally felt as if I had something to live for. I felt good. I felt changed. There was a significant decrease in stomach bloating. My skin and eyes had never been clearer. My insides felt clean, too. I felt lighter and my energy levels had increased.
I found it was as much a psychological cleanse as it was physical. Knowing I had been treating my body like a temple for five days made me less inclined to treat it like the shack I had in the past.
While I only lost 500g, it was a lifestyle shake-up that has motivated me to make changes in the future; but these changes involve chewing.
Verdict: a fresh and fruity makeover
12WBT: Susan Bugg
YOU’D have to be living under a rock (ie, not on Facebook) to be unaware of the 12WBT, fitness powerhouse Michelle Bridges’ online weight-loss and exercise program.
The 12-Week Body Transformation programs are tailored for different fitness levels, life stages and goals (weight loss, running from novice to advanced distances, strength, pregnancy/post-baby, post-50).
So, whether you have never exercised or feel ready to train for a marathon, there’s a program designed for you and a flexible eating plan to match, about 5000kJ a day for women and 7500 for men.
After watching several friends attempt “Michelle Bridges” with varying degrees of success, I decided to invest the $199 fee and jump on board.
I didn’t want to lose weight — well, not much, but who’d argue with shedding a kilo or two? Already a regular exerciser and recreational runner, I had entered a half-marathon 14 weeks away and wanted extra support through training. I also wanted help with the amount of food that needed to be on my plate at meal times.
After a pre-season measure-up, I diligently shopped for my first week’s meal plan (a generous 8400kJ a day to fuel my training).
Meal plans went “live” each Thursday, along with shopping lists, recipes and exercise plans for the next seven days. The food was tasty and allowed for a small amount of much-loved carbs in dishes such as seafood marinara, beef curry with rice and chicken-pot pies. To save time, I began doubling a recipe to make two meals, instead of making something completely different the next night, and began eating the same breakfast most days.
But 10 days in my throat started itching and, as my nose began to run, I came to a stop. At the same time I started a new role at work, and any energy I had for grocery shopping and cooking was diverted to my job.
My enthusiasm for sticking to the program waned; sometimes I ate as prescribed; sometimes ticking off the required exercise.
Temptations loomed and, after hearing, “I thought you were doing Michelle Bridges” a few too many times whenever someone saw me with a biscuit, I gave up.
Not even Bridges’ motivational words could help. “Power of Mindset” videos on subjects such as, “Is Self-Sabotage Getting in the Way of Your Training?” — that would be the cupcakes — or “How Setbacks Can Make You Stronger” were posted twice-weekly on the 12WBT website.
So did I run a half-marathon at the end of 12 weeks? No. Did I lose weight? No.
But the program had its benefits. Along with expanding my healthy cooking repertoire, I learned that mindset is what counts. You’re the one who has to do the work, shop for food and cook. If your heart and mind aren’t in it, the best program won’t work.
My tip is not to rely on having made a financial outlay to keep you in the right frame of mind. If you’re determined, the next round starts on November 2.
Verdict: a Bridges too far
I QUIT SUGAR: Shelley Hadfield
WHEN I heard I Quit Sugar permitted red wine consumption, I thought this was definitely the diet for me. I could eat quinoa, skip my afternoon fruit or coffee scroll and indulge in vegetable-infused “lasagne” — a dish that didn’t actually contain pasta — if it meant I could have a tipple, I thought.
The eight-week I Quit Sugar program involves eating whole, unprocessed foods and cutting out, obviously, sugar. Eggs, dairy and nuts are also allowed, as are grains. The $150 fee provides access to the IQS website, including recipes for every day of the program (they don’t like to call it a diet), grocery lists, tips, information and access to forums where you can ask experts questions.
You cut out all fruit between weeks two and six to allow your body to “recalibrate” and week four involves five days of cutting back on coffee, alcohol and gluten.
I know lots of people spout on about loving this diet and how great it made them feel, so my expectations were high. This diet, I thought, was going to change my life. There was only one small problem — my shocking sugar addiction.
The day I signed up for IQS I had a 1.25 litre-a-day Diet Coke/Pepsi Max habit. On top of that, I couldn’t go without that afternoon pick-me-up.
Then there were the ravages of having three children in 4½ years. I knew I had to do something and IQS was the answer. Alas, it didn’t take long for me to start calling this diet I Quit Life. I have other names for it, too, but they are not fit to print.
I weaned myself off Diet Coke over a week before the program started.
The night before the diet began I spent just over $20 on the ingredients for my breakfast granola — and that was even without a few of the ingredients that were not available at the country supermarket I visited.
I’m absolutely sure the breakfast would have been amazing and worth every cent if I didn’t burn it.
The first few days were tough. By day three I was suffering a constant headache and extreme tiredness. My head was foggy, I was flat and basically useless.
But I was starting to think the I Quit Sugar movement was on to something. Already the weight was starting to drop off and on day four I felt the sugar-free fog had started lift. I continued to feel blurgh, but I was over the worst of it, I thought.
Sourdough and avocado were getting me through.
By the end of week three my early euphoria at losing weight was replaced by generally feeling awful, tired and headachy. I was not sleeping well and I had a horrible metallic taste in my mouth. I was grumpy.
By this stage the meals were starting to become a chore. I have three children aged 8 or under. At up to $10 a bag, I didn’t want to share my quinoa with them only to have them turn their noses up at it. So Sundays were spent preparing one set of meals for my husband and I and one set of meals for the children to last the working week. I was starting to think this was a diet for single people.
I made myself pumpkin and sweet potato balls. They didn’t stick together. Besides I was so sick of cinnamon anyway.
I made fish cakes. They were the tastiest thing I’d eaten for weeks, but without a food processor they were fiddly and time-consuming. I was grumpy.
But then week four hit. The insomnia I had been suffering struck with a vengeance. I was awake for two to three hours every night. Thankfully, I Quit Sugar has a forum. One expert suggested a hot bath before bed, scented candles or yoga. I laughed.
In week five I continued to suffer headaches and I finally cheated. By the Friday I was eating M&Ms at the movies. In week seven I ate one of those decadent delicacies known as a banana, one of the naughty fruits on the “high-fructose” list.
By week eight I wanted it to stop.
All up, I lost 5kg — all of those in the first three weeks. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for my body to “recalibrate” to its former state, piling back on three of those kilos. But I have kicked my Diet Coke addiction, apart from the odd splurge. So there was a sweet side to IQS after all.
Verdict: take the bitter with the sweet
PLENISH: Blanche Clark
DETOXING and cleansing diets always seemed excessive to me, until the Plenish book landed on my desk. Not only did the juices look enticing, UK-based US author Kara Rosen presented a good argument for why rebooting your gut can help combat such conditions as stress, constipation, high cholesterol, excess weight, arthritis and insomnia.
I was suffering frequent abdominal discomfort, eating too much bread and too few vegetables, and though coffee and alcohol were irritating my stomach, I was addicted to my daily “reward” of a 10am coffee to keep me going and a glass of wine at night to keep me sane.
Plenish offered “health and happiness” in only nine days: three days to wean off refined carbohydrates, sugar, dairy foods, processed foods, alcohol and coffee; three days of cleansing with vegetable and fruit juices, and three days of reawakening the body to solid food.
It started with a pantry makeover and I spent about $60 on dates, Himalayan salt, cider vinegar, quinoa, buckwheat, coconut yoghurt, nuts, seeds and Puy lentils for the pre-cleanse recipes.
Next was a big shop at the greengrocer: kale, beetroot, carrots, celery, red pepper, cos lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, watermelon, pears, apples, orange, lemons, ginger and chilli.
I didn’t want to fork out $500 or more for a cold-pressed juicer, so I minced the vegetables in a food processor, and then blended as required.
Admittedly this stopped me achieving optimum results. By still ingesting the insoluble plant fibres I felt fuller, but this interfered with the cleansing process by slowing digestion down.
However, I still reaped plenty of benefits.
The Plenish program was well-structured, easy to follow and filled with tasty choices. I was allowed six juices a day, an interesting mix of green, fruit and root juices, with a homemade nut milk for dinner.
I was soon looking forward to concoctions such as the Watermelon Green Patch of mint, kale, watermelon and cucumber, while Spicy Lemonade in the afternoon proved a fabulous appetite suppressant.
In the post-cleansing phase, there were dishes such as the portobello mushroom stack that have since become a staple.
The down side was the headaches. I had to take paracetamol a couple of afternoons so I could concentrate at work. Evenings were also hard. By about 9pm the cravings for chocolate, toast — anything — came with a vengeance.
I held on and by the second day of cleansing all evidence of stomach bloating had gone and I felt that I’d regained control over my eating.
I nearly came unstuck on the third day of cleansing when constant hunger set in and one of the hard-core beetroot juices made me feel sick.
I reverted back to fruit juice for the sweetness and indulged in an extra nut milk at lunchtime to keep me going.
Then I made a big mistake on the first day of the post-cleanse phase. I ate more than was prescribed and suffered a severe stomach ache for a couple of hours.
More self-control was required and I was rewarded at the end of the nine days.
I felt like I’d rebooted and regained my willpower. I even lost 2kg, though that wasn’t my goal.
I admit some of my bad habits have crept back since, but I can quickly regain control if I replace the occasional meal with a juice. My latest addiction is the Turmeric Tonic of orange, lemon, parsley and turmeric.
Verdict: Ready to reboot
PALEO: Megan Miller
ANY diet on which you can say “pass the bacon” has my attention. I’m carb-reliant, portion control is problematic and willpower against sweets hovers around zero. So, it was hello to paleo for 10 weeks.
The premise is to eat like paleolithic man/Pete Evans to embrace my inner hunter-gatherer — meat, vegetables, eggs, nuts, fish and a bit of fruit were in; out were grains, dairy, legumes, processed food and refined sugar. I also banned the booze.
I asked Google if coffee was OK and the jury was out. I decided I couldn’t cope with a caffeine-withdrawal headache so still had my morning flat white but would order it with dairy-dodging milk.
I signed up for Paleo Pete’s The Paleo Way, a 10-week “activation” program ($99). Evans and his team sent emails with meal and exercise plans, encouragement and paleo Kool-Aid. I was welcomed to the “tribe”.
The food plan’s three meals a day mostly involve cooking — who has time? — but you do use leftovers from dinner for the next day’s lunch. Most of the recipes can be found in Evans’ cookbooks so the program might not be great value if you already own those.
Preparation, not Pete, is the key to paleo.
For breakfast, I tried paleo mueslis and porridges. Many were laced with noxious levels of cinnamon. Almond milk was a let-down, too. Watery and vile. Yuck. Ditto for soy milk in coffee.
I missed toast. I found a decent paleo bread recipe that kept me going. It was more expensive and time-consuming than grabbing a bakery loaf, requiring six eggs and two cups of almond meal (among other ingredients), plus an hour in the oven, to turn out a small loaf, but at least it was bread.
Come the weekend, a full breakfast was the go — bacon, eggs, avo, mushrooms and spinach. Delish.
Weekday lunches were mostly salads I made at home. I ate a lot of beetroot and spinach leaves.
Dinners can be a drudge of meat and veg if you don’t plan. We used a spiral slicer to make zucchini noodles (not bad), switched to cauliflower “rice” (haven’t gone back to real rice since) and baked a spaghetti squash (bitter, never again). Grass-fed meat was easy to find.
The discovery dish was lasagne, replacing pasta sheets with grilled slices of eggplant and pumpkin. Yum.
I was feeling good. Energy levels were definitely up, my mind was clearer and maybe my skin, too.
I had a blowout about week four when I had to review a burger bar for work. I intended to order a naked burger (no bun, no cheese) but when a mix-up saw a full-loaded bun before me, I collapsed like a sandcastle in the rising tide. It was amazing, then a gut ache set in for an hour or so. Urgh.
Avoiding sweets was the hardest. I organised a morning tea for a colleague going on maternity leave and collected three dozen cupcakes. Proudly, not one passed my lips. Nor did the block of Cadbury’s my partner and I were fond of scoffing most nights after dinner.
Luckily, I’m not a fan of paleo-friendly dark bitter cacao so it was better to go cold turkey. The nightly choc habit was broken, and has largely remained that way.
Paleo isn’t about starving. I always felt full, yet lost about 5kg. (My partner lost about 8kg without ditching grog.) Eating out was relatively easy and there are lots of paleo cafes to seek out. Richmond’s Patch Café and The Wooden Elk in South Melbourne were faves.
Post-paleo, I’ve cut down on bread and am mindful about incessant snacking. But I’ll also enjoy the things I love in moderation, like milky coffee and Woodfrog Bakery bread. I’m OK with being in Pete’s tribe as long as there’s the occasional leave pass from the cave.
Verdict: totally doable
ISAGENIX: Alice Coster
IF Brendan Fevola could do it, so could I. Or so I thought. Having travelled down the fad diet highway many times, I had high expectations for amazing results as I embarked on the latest quick fix: Isagenix.
In retrospect they were unreasonably high expectations. But Fevola swore he lost 9kg in a month after completing the program, so I was amped.
“Achieve incredible results,” the starter pack chimed after a monstrous box arrived on my doorstep.
I’d forked out $575 for the “Energy and Performance Weight Loss President’s Pak”.
But the literature assured me the money spent was well worth it, as I was basically paying for most of my food consumption for the next 30 days.
But there was no food in the box, just mountains of vitamins, protein shakes, a NutriBullet-style blender and supplement “IsaLean bars” and “IsaLean snacks” — “they taste just like brownies”, the booklet assured me.
Already I felt overwhelmed, so shoved the box to the side and didn’t think about it for a week.
But a 20-minute YouTube promotional video with a grinning (thin) American, guiding you through how to plan your day and week got me prepared for my next weight-loss journey.
Week one and I was doing OK — just.
In a nutshell you have two protein shakes a day and one meal consisting of about 1600kJ, with the “brownie” (insert cardboard) snack in case you get hungry, which you do.
This might sound reasonable enough, but as always, when trying to incorporate such a rigid plan while working fulltime and juggling a kid, it can be tricky.
The morning shake was not a problem. But just a shake and a “brownie” pill at lunch had the energy levels down and my brain was screaming for real food by about 5pm.
And then came the cleanse day once a week.
Not eating for 24 hours, only consuming the “brownie” pills (above) and cleansing shakes, aimed at flushing your system, if you get the drift, was just not possible while working.
I lost 4kg, which I duly put back on.
But one thing has come out of it. Having never been a breakfast girl, I now have a protein shake each morning.
The Yarra River-coloured shake is consumed with the Isagenix vitamins.
My son is delighted by the whirring of the blender each morning, yelling “shake” when I make his Weet-Bix.
So I might not have achieved my weight goals like Fev, but at least I’m eating (or drinking) brekkie.
Verdict: at least I’m a breakfast girl now
5:2 FAST: Jo Schulz
IT was week one of the 5:2 fast diet, and I decided Tuesday and Thursday would be my regular fasting days. Tuesday morning rolled around and I temporarily forgot I was doing 5:2, stood in the kitchen contemplating breakfast then snapped myself back to reality. It was going to be coffee (210kJ) only, having already decided this was not something I was willing to give up from my daily routine.
It was 11am before hunger hit. And it hit hard.
There was stomach grumbling and I had a headache.
I pushed through to 12.30pm by sipping water and had a banana (290kJ) for “lunch”.
The thought of what a 1590kJ dinner would look like powered me through the afternoon. And, yes, that healthy homemade chicken and vegetable massaman curry (hold the rice) never tasted so good.
The principle of Dr Michael Mosley’s 5:2 is you fast for two days a week — that is, restrict what you eat and drink to a maximum of 2090kJ for women, or 2510kJ for men. On the other five days, you eat as “normal”.
Before you get too excited, what that actually means is you use an online calculator to work out what your “normal” should be. It’s called your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure), which for me is about 9200kJ and is what I should be eating on non-fasting days.
Typically on a fast day I’ll use my 2090kJ on a coffee for breakfast, a boiled egg or couple of pieces of fruit for lunch, to allow for a bigger healthy dinner — usually a combination of grilled meat with vegetables.
By the second week, I’d lost 1kg so motivation was high. It was tricky to navigate with Tuesday and Wednesday night dinners out, and Friday after-work drinks that needed to be planned around. But the flexibility of 5:2 meant I adjusted my fast days around my social calendar.
I used the MyFitnessPal mobile app to track energy consumption on both fast and non-fast days during the week — though made a rule to always take weekends off from tracking and fasting. For once, a diet was working around my lifestyle, not the other way around.
Fast days weren’t easy, but they got easier.
It’s good to join an online forum, like the 5:2 Diet Australia group on Facebook, to provide tips, recipes and inspiration along the way.
The “before and after” success stories are enough to keep you motivated.
You also learn a whole new diet language — 4:3 (four normal days with three days of fasting, to kickstart weight loss), 6:1 (six normal, and just one fasting day, used for maintaining your weight) and my personal favourite, WoL (way of life, which many 5:2 dieters have certainly signed up for).
So how did I fare? During the first five weeks I lost about 3kg, then I went to the US on holiday and gained most of it back.
It was harder to get back on track but the tape measure had some good news — I’d lost 15cm all over during my 12-week trial.
Verdict: way of life
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