When it comes to a few weeks before Christmas, TV and magazines are usually flooded with “Party Diets” and great big grand schemes on how to lose that vital stone in time for Tinsel and Turkey but do any of these diets ever work? Are they healthy? How expensive are they?
In the last month I’ve had the pleasure of trialling Uzuma. Uzuma is a system of cold pressed juices and the initial reviews I read were quite promising so I was quite intrigued to try it for myself.
One of the major advantages of Uzuma juice is that they are preserved through HPP (High Pressure Processing). Many juices are pasteurised as manufacturing it this way the pasteurisation stops deterioration of flavour and nutrients, so on paper it sounds like a first class alternative diet.
When they arrived they were still frozen so I had to take a portion of them out for the very next day to defrost ready. First thing I noticed was the colours of the juice – they looked pretty amazing, but whether or not if would taste as good as it looked I wouldn’t know until the next day. The individual bottles are named, so depending on what program you are following: Slim, Steady, Fit or Detox, you will have a mixture of bottles to arrange for your daily allowance. You can download the app to follow the plan, which rings an alarm every 2 hours so you don’t forget to drink it. Over the 3 days I used the juice, this got a little annoying as it felt like all I did all day was drink to the clock, so perhaps just giving the user an idea of what to drink would be best rather than a timetable.
Anyhow, the next day the juices I was to use that day were defrosted and still cold, so I started to use them. They were ok, some were nicer than others. The green juices were a little less enjoyable than the orange and red ones (mainly because the base of the green coloured ones were filled with kale, and I have a distinct dislike of kale at the best of times). The juices that contained carrot were beautifully sweet and the dark red contained beetroot which although was quite earthy were still quite palatable.
You have to drink one of these juices every 2 hours. I thought this was a little much when you’re also asked to drink vast quantities of water as well. The first day I constantly felt full but not fulfilled. To me, it was far too much liquid. Yes the drinks do have quite a bit of fibre in them but by the end of the day I struggled to find the enthusiasm to drink the very last drop.
That night I slept amazingly well. I haven’t had a night sleep like it for years. I slept all the way through so once I woke up I felt quite rested. Next morning I woke up after 10am so I had already missed 2 of my allocated juices, so drank them those and the one allocated for that hour in the same hour. Bad move. I got the most horrendous stomach ache, with numerous trips to the toilet shortly after. So there’s one hurdle to overcome. Move the alarm to a later time if possible. What I didn’t expect to happen though was over the next few hours to feel euphoria. I felt really well. Aches I had in my back had subsided (and that was just after 1 and a half days worth). So I had massive hopes for the next day when I finally made it to bed.
Shortly after going to bed, I became very, very cold. My bones ached, I was shivering all over and felt quite unwell but I managed to get to sleep somehow. Next morning though was a whole different kettle of fish. I sat lifeless on the sofa, not wanting to eat, drink or even watch TV. It felt as if I had the flu. I couldn’t move without my body aching, I felt sick, dizzy and thoroughly horrible. I couldn’t stomach any drinks at all that day, so just went to bed and slept.
Next morning I felt the same, and the very next day, and this went on for nearly 2 weeks. Somehow I think the juices were pulling all the toxins out of me after 2 days, but it was so bad that I never managed to make day 3. I have never felt so ill before and although weight loss by the end of the 2 weeks was immense it wasn’t through drinking the juices (unless it’s supposed to bring out illnesses to kick start your metabolism or not) but as much as I loved the taste of them, I don’t think I would do it again. I loved how I felt on the morning of day 2 but by the end of it I was a wreck.
Whether or not I had a reaction I don’t know but some of the feedback I’ve read does suggest that sometimes it can be a little delicate on some stomachs – looks like I might be one of those, however if you have tried juice diets before and have had some fabulous results (again, I’ve heard some amazing things about losing weight just drinking juice) then why not have a go. For 3 days worth of Uzuma it’s around £52 and for that you get 21 bottles of really fresh juice, frozen from store to door which you just have to defrost. Simple and easy with no worries about shopping or delivery fees.
Have you ever tried juice diets? What’s your opinion of them?
Uzuma Juices
