I’m not saying this to impress you but to impress upon you that you are not about to waste away on this program. I see this all the time at my retreats—people initially freak out at the suggestion that they will be doing an average of 4–5 hours of exercise a day and consuming just 4–5 juices but then calming down when they find they aren’t collapsing all over the place. The biggest revelation people have on the retreats is just how much the human body can do on what appears to be so little fuel. In fact, we do an hour run/walk, a mini-trampolining session, and Astanga yoga all before our first juice! The “dip” in energy that my friend felt was simply due to the withdrawal from druglike foods and drinks such as white refined sugar and caffeine. It was not caused by a calorie deficiency. In fact, most of the time the symptoms of physical withdrawal people think they get from coming off certain “foods” and “drinks” are often extremely mild. Nine times out of ten they aren’t actually physically deflated but mentally deflated. They are once again feeling mentally deprived and so the tantrum rears its head—and once again the set of “buts” arrives on the scene. Once again though this illustrates that the sugar in fruits and vegetables is not the same as in a doughnut! Martin and my other friend didn’t simply think to eat a load of fruit or a large plate of veggies or an additional avocado-based veggie smoothie, NO, they tucked into the white bread and sweets Why? BECAUSE THE SUGAR IN FRUITS AND VEGETABLES IS NOT THE SAME AS THE STUFF PEOPLE ARE ADDICTED TO! You don’t get withdrawal from apples but you do from doughnuts!
I’m far from the only one who has managed to exercise to a high intensity during this juice-only program. I know a girl who also ran a half marathon on day 6, another person who did the backbreaking work of “mucking out” horses for 2 hours a day and doing 45 minutes of mini-trampolining, and many, many, many more who did a lot of yoga, weight-training, swimming, walking, and so on. Most of the juices have celery, cucumber, and apple in them, all of which add up to nature’s finest balance of sodium and potassium—minerals that we lose when working out. These juices not only replenish our stores but also help with any aches, pains, and cramps usually associated with exercise. So the whole “But I’m not getting enough calories” excuse really is flawed. In fact, since the first copies of this book rolled off the press, I have completed the New York and London marathons, plus five half marathons, all on nothing but freshly extracted juice—no “carb loading” necessary.
What is a Calorie Anyway?
We hear about calories all the time, but ask most people what a calorie actually is and you will see a blank face. A calorie is the amount of energy (heat) needed to raise one gram of water by one degree centigrade. Confused? Me too.
Calories are a misguided measurement of what or how much of what we should eat. One example is a simple McDonald’s shake in the US. A 32-oz chocolate triple-thick shake actually has 1,160 calories. In the UK, the TV chef Antony Worrall Thompson created a pie recipe a few years back that was considered so unhealthy that it even had newspaper headlines such as “Is This the Unhealthiest Recipe Ever?” and “Worrall Thompson’s Snickers Pie Condemned as a Health Hazard.” According to the UK Food Commission’s calculations, a single serving of the pie contains 22 teaspoons of fat and 11 teaspoons of sugar and has 1,250 calories—not that surprising when you consider the pie contains 5 Snickers bars! Now, if we go by calories then the average man or woman would only need to consume 1½–2 slices of the pie (or 2 McDonald’s shakes) each day to meet their body’s needs. But even if you know nothing about food, nutrition, and calories, does that make any sense to you? Does anyone honestly believe that on a nutritional or caloric level two slices of Worrall’s Snickers pie would meet anyone’s needs? If we go by my friend’s reason (excuse) for quitting, then I can only assume that if I had put him on a diet of Snickers pie he would have thought it a much safer bet for his health and energy levels than the “live” juices and smoothies on this program.
In reality, nutritional needs and caloric needs are completely different. According to “calorie experts” the simple act of pushing your finger on the button of a remote control uses 1 calorie. So, by that theory, if you changed channels on your TV 400–500 times you would burn as many calories as if you ran on a treadmill at a fairly high intensity for 1 hour. I think we all agree that is total GARBAGE! Let’s also not forget that on the Atkins diet people could eat as many calories as they liked in the form of fat and protein yet still lose weight—and they didn’t exercise. We now know that the Atkins diet had several flaws, but I’m only using it here to demonstrate that calories mean nothing when it comes to optimum health.
Do you actually know how many calories you consume each day? I don’t know about you but I don’t have a clue and I don’t care—I feel damn good and I’m not wasting away. Some days I eat very little and others I have a mother of an appetite, but so what? I eat according to whether I’m genuinely hungry or not—not because it happens to be 6 p.m. or because I’m caught up in this “Oh I must have so many calories a day” nonsense.
If my friend had not been consciously aware of what he had been taught about calories, he would have been fine. However, he was caught up in the belief that what he was having couldn’t sustain him, and belief can be stronger than oak.
In the same way that placebos can help and have been shown in some cases to “cure” disease, the converse belief that something cannot work can be just as strong. Just the belief that you will get weak if you think you’re not getting enough calories can be enough to cause you to actually feel weak.
BUT, NOTHING!
This program is not only nutritionally sound but also calorie sound: the two are not the same. The program is also based on nature’s principles of what calories your body requires and not what we have been conditioned to believe. What you may think you need and what your body actually needs are often a world apart.
One of my friends used calories as an excuse and the other used “I had a lot going on,” but I know that no matter what is going on in your life you can, if you stop the negative “buts,” easily complete the program.
Like so many others, I have a busy schedule at the best of times and the first week I did this program was no exception. I had to leave my house one morning at 6 a.m. and didn’t return until 11 p.m. I had meetings all day and even had to “do” lunch and dinner with some of the top people from a major worldwide company. Despite this I still kept to the program and had nothing but juices. All it took was a little preparation on the mental and physical front. I made sure I woke up early, made my juices for the whole day, stored them in thermoses, and off I went. Was it ideal? NO. Was it the best available? YES! Were some of the nutrients lost throughout the day? YES. How did I go to lunch and dinner and not feel uncomfortable about not eating? EASY, I just told them what I was doing and that there would always be an “exception” during any 7-day period, so please respect my decision. You will be amazed at just how much people respect anyone who makes a decision and sees it through, especially top people of worldwide companies.
I have said that the only way to change your “butt” is to change your “buts.” Instead of “But I can’t because …,” simply change to “But if I could, what would I need to do to make it happen?” Instead of my just saying, “But I can’t because I have to be out all day and do lunch and dinner,” I changed my “but” and asked, “But what would I need to do in order to make sure I could work around it?” As soon as I asked the question my brain came up with the answers. Get up early, make sure you have big enough thermoses, drink plenty of water, and make sure you explain the situation to the people whom you are going to have lunch and dinner with in advance. I also had to do a family lunch on Sunday (day 7). Once again I explained in advance what I was doing. The question is not whether a “special” situation will occur during the 7 days but what you will do when