Jillian Michaels' Water Weight Gain Diet Drink

My sister told me about this drink in August that would supposedly make you lose five pounds of water weight gain in a week. She said Jillian Michaels, one of the trainers on The Biggest Loser, had made it up. She was going to try it and wanted to see if mom and I wanted to try it too.

This is the recipe she gave to me. I think it differs slightly from the one above that is under Jillian Michaels’ picture.

·         60 ounces of distilled or filtered water

·         1 teaspoon of sugar-free cranberry juice

·         1 dandelion tea bag

·         2 tablespoons of lemon juice

Drink this each day for seven days to lose 5 pounds.

This picture has Stevia in it, although my recipe did not call for it, nor is it in the recipe in the picture. I got this picture from Pinterest; I did not take it myself, not sure why they have the Stevia. I also used lemon juice from a bottle rather than squeezing it from the lemon each day.

The first day I tried it almost exactly as it was written, except it was pretty bitter. The dandelion tea is fairly bitter. I did add an extra splash of the cranberry juice.

Then the next day I added even more cranberry juice, maybe a quarter to a half cup. I also added more lemon juice, maybe a tablespoon or so. Also with the cranberry juice, her recipe says to use the sugar free cranberry juice. However any of the diet ones that I saw at the grocery store had aspartame in them. I try to stay away from all of that chemical stuff. So I ended up buying the 100% Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice. It didn’t have any added sugar or high fructose corn syrup, so I figured that was better than a chemical sweetener. I know the cranberry juice is good for your urinary tract, so adding more to the drink didn’t seem counterproductive.

By the third day, I also added about a tablespoon or so of honey and a teaspoon or so of cinnamon. Both of these items are supposed to be great for your body. Honey has natural antibiotic features and is known to clean out your arteries. Cinnamon is an antioxidant. With all of these refinements, it was actually quite enjoyable to drink.

So basically this is a diuretic, making you lose the weight by eliminating the extra water weight in your body. I would venture to guess that if you simply drank 60+ ounces of water a day, you may have similar results, but all of the items added to the 60 ounces of water do have beneficial properties. The lemon juice has Vitamin C. The dandelion root tea is supposed to be a liver and kidney cleanser. I have already said what the cranberry juice, honey, and cinnamon do, so it cannot hurt to add these things to the water. Be please be aware that you will be going to the bathroom all day long for the seven days because this drink really does make you have to pee!

Did I lose the five pounds in seven days? Not quite. I lost about 2 pounds, but more importantly I lost 2 inches from my waist. AND I have kept that 2 inches off since then, which was the first week in August and now it is almost the last week in October.

Do I recommend it? Yes. With my modifications, it really was a nice tasting drink and like I said nothing in it is going to harm you, only benefit you. You can make it according to Jillian Michaels' recipe if you choose. I am just not one for the bitter taste, so that was my main motivation for modification.