11 days of green smoothies
I’ve been thinking of doing a loooooong green smoothie “fast” for a few months now, but haven’t gotten around to it, mostly because social events revolving around food kept cropping up. So last week I took a look at my schedule and discovered that, starting the day after Easter (today!), I would have 11 solid days of no social events revolving around food.
When the idea came to me, I immediately texted the boyfriend to ask if he would help me out with an 11-day green smoothie fast. His response: “In the form of support?” When I confirmed that that’s what I was asking for, his response was “Can do :)”. I think he was concerned at first that I was going to ask him to do a green smoothie fast with me! Hehe. At any rate, I was awfully pleased to get his support. It’s important to get support from people around you when embarking on an exciting nutrition challenge.
My last green smoothie fast, which “only” lasted four days, was definitely a challenge. Longest four days of my life. (Kidding. It was fun :)). I found that day three was the toughest for me in the last green smoothie challenge, but I think that once I get over the first three or four days it will become easier and more routine. Plus, videos like this one are really motivating.
At any rate, I’m ready to try another green smoothie fast, and this time I want to do it for a little longer. Here’s why I’m doing this again, and for a longer period of time:
1. I’ve been eating out several times each week for the past long while, which is much more often than I really should. It’s completely unnecessary, but now that holidays and celebrations are done with for the next 11 days (on day 12 I have my mother dear’s women’s group convention to attend), I want to make sure that I really don’t go out to eat at all.
2. I’ve been spending too much money on food lately. It’s amazing how much you can spend on food! This is partly tied to dining out. But bananas, greens powder and tofu aren’t too expensive, so this is a good way to save money.
3. Eating raw vegan most of the time (80%, perhaps?) really isn’t that difficult for me. The notion of eating mostly raw vegan until the end of September doesn’t phase me much because that’s how I was eating most of the time before this challenge, anyways (eating totally raw vegan would be a completely different story. That word “mostly” is a very sneaky, flexible word). So I need a new challenge! I want a really good challenge, and this one seems awesome. 
4. Figuring out what to make for meals every day can get really tiresome. Making grocery lists and preparing for the next week to come can be an enjoyable experience, but it can also be exhausting. Juggling a few different jobs means that I’m really busy, and to be honest I just don’t want to go to the trouble of trying to decide what to have, and then shop for the food, and then make the meals. Yeah: part of the reason why I’m doing this challenge is because I’m lazy 😀 Plus, one of the things about living alone is that you eat meals alone. Which is kind of lame. This way I don’t have to deal with eating meals by myself!
5. If I do a green smoothie fast, it will be a good reason for why I shouldn’t purchase and gobble up discounted Easter chocolate. Haha. But seriously, it’s a great way to just completely remove the temptation.
6. I felt really awesome on that last four-day green smoothie challenge. There’s this huge amount of appeal for me to do an entire 11 days of green smoothies… I feel like a little kid at Christmas with the anticipation of it! I’d love to do 21 days of smoothies, but I’m not quite there yet (and yes, a big part of why I’m not doing a full 21 days is because I’m not drinking green smoothies through the mother dear’s convention. That would be silly). I’m not sure why the concept makes me so excited, but I think it’s partly because it challenges both the mind and the body, and partly because it makes me feel super happy with how cleansing it is. I like that.
On this green smoothie challenge, I’ll be switching up my green smoothies in terms of ingredients. My staple will definitely be my trusty water/organic tofu/frozen banana/greens powder combo, but I want to make sure I get a variety of macro and micronutrients by rotating ingredients. I want to try smoothies with leafy greens, frozen berries, mango, coconut water, lemon, maybe even some apples, and possibly even the occasional avocado, oats or ground flax/chia seeds.
I’ll also likely be drinking tea (both hot tea and perhaps cold kombucha).
I’d like to go a full five or seven days of just drinking smoothies, and after that have a bit of fruit or some raw vegetables each day. I’ve heard that it’s a good idea to gently incorporate solid foods into your diet after you’ve been drinking liquids, so this will give me good lead-up to the convention.
Advice! Suggestions! Support! I need it all 🙂 Have you ever done a green smoothie fast? Thoughts on it? Anyone joining me on this one? Anyone tired of my nutrition adventures? (I hope the answer to that last question is “not at all!”. But, you know. I appreciate honesty. Tell me if you’re getting bored, por favor!).
Tofu is mucus forming not the strongest choice if you’re looking to cleanse.
Depends on how well your body does on it, I think.
Mucous-forming? How? Where? Explain.
No way (even aside from the soy allergy) I would do any such thing. When I read your list of ingredients I would so much rather have them in their unmangled form. When I worked in the deli and made the smoothies on our menu, I would occasionally make one for myself, but they’re not really my thing.
Your number 4 does the opposite of resonate with me (whatever word that may be): planning meals is not a conscious process. Sometimes I think “I haven’t had Food X in a while,” and I get out whatever needs to thaw, or put something on the grocery list. Mostly I open the refrigerator door and know instantly what I’m heating up for supper. If I didn’t live alone, I couldn’t do that; I’d have Consult Someone–ack!
(I finished breakfast before I got this far in my blogroll, but I don’t exactly eat alone…)
I’m a big planner… I tend to make all of my meals the day before because I usually eat both lunch and dinner at the office. That means that I like to know at least the day before (and usually a couple days before) what I’ll be making!
I’ve never done a green smoothie fast (yet). I just don’t have the balls for it (yet). But I have been wanting to add juiced fruits (just the fresh squeezed juice – nothing extra) into my diet everyday. Since adding salads 5 days/week, I managed to thwart the ugly colds that almost everyone in my house got. I feel like I’ve found the key to better health and germ defense! The salads will definitely continue.
Salads are awesome for that! I look forward to hearing how the juiced fruit goes. I had lots of juice yesterday for Easter brunch, but it was all combined with champagne for mimosas… I’m not sure that quite counts… 😀
Hmmm… not ever having done this, I have no advice or suggestions but you have my support! Post your fave recipes as you go along! I can always use more smoothie ideas!
I’ll definitely post recipes! It’s fun making new smoothie concoctions.
If NASA was looking for Canadians, you would make a good astronaut with the way they eat!
Hehehe! You’ve discovered my secret plan 😉
I have not done green smoothies but I know others that have… although a fast of them – not sure. OK, I will eagerly look to see what you write. Me, not so brave! 🙂
I’m having fun with it 🙂 Bet you’d love a green smoothie! I’ll post some recipes in case you feel like trying one out.
I haven’t done it before. But don’t you think it’s really okay and not so hard to do? Can you please post the recipes? Thanks.
I was looking into this after watching a video of a guy who did a juicing fast for 60 days. I would like to do a smoothie diet but don’t know what to start. Where did you post recipes at…did you start your day with a certain smoothie?
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