Genesis Raw Food

Day 9 ~ Green Smoothie Detox Journal

Laurel — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 05:30:59 +0000

I have some bad news…I broke my Vitamix. Operator error, of course. It will all be ok, but I am without a Vitamix until next week! I have another blender, but it is in NY and I am in CO until Saturday so I am going to have to take a few days off from blending. I don’t think they have anything written about breaking your blender in the green smoothie detox/challenge support emails. I am on my own. Oh well, good thing I am moving to the city where fresh smoothies and juices are at my fingertips. I can’t imagine that a day or two off will kill me, but I definitely plan to eat my greens. Traveling is a hard time to eat healthy, but I will do the best I can. When your body is in good health, it cannot be sabotaged by a few days of travel and less than ideal meal choices. Isn’t that sad that most of the world eats so poorly that when an uber-healthy person travels they have to settle for less than second best? Unfortunately, it is reality.

Your Life. Your Raw.

Laurel — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:51:36 +0000

No one knows you better than you. So why are there so many raw food experts telling you how much fruit you should eat, how many nuts are too many nuts, when you should eat, how much raw you should eat…I thought raw food was about freedom!

Day 9 ~ Green Smoothie Detox Journal

Laurel — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 05:05:02 +0000

9 + days of drinking a quart size green smoothie. I am unstoppable! I feel great, I look great (shiny hair, clear skin, a smile on my face), and I am great because I am taking care of myself by drinking a variety of blended greens and fruit each day. I have been wondering why didn’t I do this before. Drinking your greens is like unlocking the secrets of youth and vitality. Have you signed up yet? 21 days is a lot. You can get your feet wet with the Raw Diva’s 3 day challenge. These are great ventures to explore as we wrap up the the year. A new year, a new you! Let me now if you are thinking about signing up. I would be happy to answer any questions or address hesitations!

Day 8 ~ Green Smoothie Detox Journal

Laurel — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 04:30:15 +0000

I was browsing through the book, Green for Life (Boutenko), today before I give it back to a friend. I own so many raw food books that I can’t possibly buy another so I borrowed a copy thinking it pertinent while drinking so many green smoothies. As with any book, take what you like and leave what you don’t. There is some really great information about greens in the book, but I also read something I felt I really identified with that I want to share ~ The first chapter of the book is titled, “Dare to Observe”. So many times in life we follow the direction or advice of “someone who knows better”. Making our way through life in this way only stunts our personal growth. Instead, we should dare to “see for ourselves”. How many opportunities have you missed because you gave up on your belief when someone else told you it doesn’t work that way? We do love to try and protect others from failing because we think we know it all once we have learned from our own experience. But oftentimes, another’s knowledge from experience is not what we need. When we see for ourselves, we may fail from time to time, but it will offer us so many successes and positive experiences that we might have missed. Don’t let others’ judgements of you make you change your mind. What do you need?

The Ins and Outs of Loving Your (Raw) Food

Laurel — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:23:02 +0000

For me, raw food is an essential part in staying eating disorder free. There was honestly a time when I knew the eating disorder I was struggling with was dangerous. Not only did it have physical consequence, but also it kept me from maturing emotionally. I would be stuck in the same place until I pushed myself to heal. Being thin was much more important that my physical and emotional health. I could read articles about how dangerous anorexia and bulimia are, but the importance of my health wasn’t enough to bring me to my senses. So what’s the point in spending a lot of money and time with a counselor or psychiatrist so they can tell you that you are damaging your body when you already know that, but aren’t ready to do anything about it? I spent years unraveling my past with several different counselors, but in the end, I still obsessed over what I ate. Maybe it wasn’t only my past that was giving me issues with food.

Day 7 ~ Green Smoothie Detox Journal

Laurel — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 18:11:41 +0000

It is funny that I mentioned yesterday’s post as another day on the wagon. Today’s inspirational email talked about just that! There is no way to ever fall of the wagon. Each day is getting you closer to success as long as you are still trying. Copying from the email: “Commit to long term success and one day you’ll simply wake up to realize you’ve already achieved it”. Here is another inspiring tip from today’s email I would like to share: “You didn’t learn how to walk overnight. It took a long time to figure it out without falling, but here you are now. Just like learning to walk, you’re engaged in a process, a journey”. In yesterday’s post I talked about using this challenge as a way to grow and learn more about myself rather than berate myself because I couldn’t follow each day as planned. I will celebrate with each smoothie and know that I am doing so many good things for myself. I don’t want to negate this attitude (because so much of our healing comes with positive thoughts and feelings) by worrying too much about not making the exact smoothie or evening meal provided in the meal plan. How great would it be to go to a place for 21 days where your smoothies and dinner are waiting for you? On the fasting days (today is the second recommended fasting day), all of your activties are scheduled and you are less likely to think about food? That sounds like part of my raw food fairytale. Maybe one day I can spend time at a place like that because they do exist!

Day 6 ~ Green Smoothie Detox Journal

Laurel — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 05:17:27 +0000

As much as I love the fact that I have so many more greens, especially blended greens added into my menu each day, I have seriously been wondering if it is just my life right now or if most everybody’s life is busy enough that following a eating plan (even for 21 days) is even possible. It takes thought, it takes commitment, planning, and sometimes the surrender of normal activities. No wonder I could never follow a diet! But this is not a diet, this is a choice I have made to bring me back to being aware of the benefits of green food. So don’t loose heart all of you who try to follow the advice of some successful eating guru, but fall off of the wagon more than you would like. I do really think that this 21-day Green Smoothie Challenge/Detox is an awesome program. There are many aspects to it that I wouldn’t want to miss. I am aware of what I eat and drink, and I am feeling really good because all of the greens I am consuming! The creators of this challenge have a great program, and I think that if I were in a different place in my life with food (looking for a new way to eat because of not being happy with how I eat), I might be more likely to adhere to the program a bit more closely to teach myself of unsurpassed benefits of raw food. These benefits will not only come from the food choices, but also rest and finding new life and a new way of living. When I first turned to raw food several years ago, I found this freedom and emotional rest from constant worry over food. I discovered how to carry on and live my life without the fear of food ruling over my days. With that being said, maximizing (eating as many greens as I can) my green intake is what I need right now to get me out of a raw food slump. In my opinion, it is easy to get lazy and go for the processed raw food snacks than focus on our fruits and vegetables. I can compare it to babies sleeping. Sleep begets sleep. This is something that I learned when my children were babies. When they were overtired, they had a harder time falling asleep. When they were on a good sleep schedule, sleep came very easily at naptime or bedtime. With eating, the more sugary or fatty foods you eat, the more you crave it. When you are eating more whole fruits and veggies, these are what you want to eat more and more of. Good eating begets good eating. Think about this when you are having cravings. Does one piece of chocolate really cure that craving for good? No, you will crave it over and over again. Where ever you are with your eating, healthy and happy or not, I think that taking the chance to become more aware of our eating through a challenge from time to time is a great thing. I love getting emails knowing that so many others are on this challenge and becoming more aware as well. Maybe they have a bit more time to prepare each day of the plan or maybe they have a life like mine and the benefits of a green smoothie quart each day and inspirational emails is improving my life ten-fold. Whatever it is, we need support to eat well. And unfortunately, we can’t always get it from our friends or loved ones. If you find yourself getting hung up on dieting, I recommend that you try this challenge and take it in stride. Enjoy it, don’t fret because you couldn’t follow a meal. Sometimes, a smoothie is planned as the next meal, but I find I need to sit down and eat my greens. The oral satisfaction of eating from a fork or crunching on a carrot is satisfying. I know this because I have taken the time to think about what I need.

Days 4 & 5 ~ Green Smoothie Detox Journal

Laurel — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:20:07 +0000

Days 4 & 5 of my detox/challenge have been great. I was able to make more of an emotional commitment to my green smoothies. On day 4, I had a pint size mason jar of my favorite chard-mango (recipe on day 1) smoothie mid-morning. For lunch, I finished the green soup from the day before. It actually tasted much better to me the second time around. Just because it is a raw, green soup doesn’t mean that you can’t heat it up a bit. I just put the leftover soup into a sauce pan and turned the heat down low until it was slightly warm. Raw foods maintain their integrity and enzymes when heated below 118 degrees. If our normal body temperature is 98.6 degrees, you can safely heat your soup (or raw foods) above body temperature. That really is a better temperature for your body to digest and assimilate the nutrients from your food rather than really hot food. Soup heated to or near 118 degrees is perfectly warming, even on a cold day. My goals with the green smoothies or soups is to consume 1 qt. per day. This is very reasonable. Along with that, I am eating whatever fruits or vegetables, nuts, and seeds I need to get enough calories. As I have mentioned, this challenge has a menu plan, but because I am not new to raw foods, I am not keeping to it exactly. If I were new to raw foods, I think it is a great menu plan! I am focusing on the fruits and vegetables and minimizing the fats during this green smoothie detox/challenge. I am pretty active because of my lifestyle of being a mom and living in a very active-lifestyle friendly place, but my energy has definitely increased with the increase in blended greens and decrease in nuts, so I know I am getting enough. It is typical for an active raw foodist to over-consume nuts looking for protein and calories. Many people are not aware that greens have an abundance of readily available essential amino acids. I am not going to get scientific here now, but in my next journal post, I will elaborate on the protein found in dark, leafy greens.

Day 2 & 3 ~ Green Smoothie Detox Journal

Laurel — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 04:46:56 +0000

I am combining days 2 and 3 into one journal entry because yesterday was so BUSY! I didn’t have one minute to jot down a quick journal entry or even hardly take time to read my Raw Diva emails. But I did drink my greens! It was one of those days where I had a great start, but then the middle of the day was so hectic I had to have a regular lunch and jump back on the wagon at dinner with a great salad and green soup or savory as the Raw Divas call it. I much prefer the green smoothies to green savories. I admit, I love fruit. I am finding that the recommended smoothie for both breakfast and lunch is not enough to get me through until dinner time. I need and a few snacks. This might be because I am not using as much fruit in my smoothies as some of the menu plans suggest. I find myself wanting to have fruit for a snack. Over the next few days, I am going to work towards adding making the smoothies bigger by adding more fruit. But the ONE thing I keep coming back to each night before bed and morning when I wake is that cutting the fat and sugar makes such a HUGE difference in how I feel. I feel light and energetic. Never too full, but always satisfied. I know my body will get its needed rest and repair while I am sleeping. Our bodies need to repair at night, and when we eat heavy meals before bedtime, our bodies are busy with digestion, not healing.

Day 1 ~ Green Smoothie Detox Journal

Laurel — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 03:55:20 +0000

Today was a great day! I ate or drank, actually, very light until the afternoon since Day 1 of the 21-day green smoothie detox is recommended as a water fast. I mentioned in my journal entry yesterday that I am not completely fasting because today is not a day I can rest or take care of myself. I will work towards this next week. I started my morning with a green juice and a green smoothie. I only sipped on these after I had thought about my hunger and what food meant to me. At about 1:00, I was really hungary so I ate some solid food, but keeping it light. No nuts or sweets. Only fruits and vegetables. I lightly grazed through the afternoon to keep me going and then I joined my family for a nice dinner out. I thought about my day of eating light and starting out only with a juice and smoothie. For dinner I had a salad of greens, apples, and a few nuts with olive oil and fresh pepper. I followed that with a cup of tea and fruit. I am totally satisfied and happy to do it again tomorrow. Adding another smoothie instead of grazing in the afternoon would be a great way to go as well. Tomorrow’s menu is a green smoothie for breakfast and lunch, a salad and green soup for dinner. Each meal has a suggested green smoothie. Unfortunately, I have fallen in love with my chard-grapefruit-mango combo that I can hardly try anything else! Try this smoothie out and let me know what you think: