Green Smoothie Feast Advice!

[rawstrength]

Hi all, I am gearing up to do a green smoothie fast beginning on March 1st. I am doing this fast because I find that when I eat more greens, I think more clearly, am calmer and need much less sleep. Anyways, I really need the extra energy boost from March 1st to March 6th because I know I will be under a lot of pressure with exams and papers then. I have never done a green smoothie feast before, so I could use any advice that you veteran green smoothie feasters could give me! The good thing is that I am already a green smoothie fan, so I know lots of good recipes. But I have never gone so long on only liquids before :o and I am concerned that I will miss chewing. So I think I might chew some wheatgrass blades and spit out the pulp while I am on the green smoothie feasts.
If anyone wants to join me for this short green smoothie feast, please let me know!

[Bookish Lass]

On the juice feast, they recommended crunching on some bee pollen for something to chew on. Some people are allergic to it, though.

[Stina]

Oh, I will totally sign up to do that with you! That will be so much fun! Starting March 1st, huh? Lots of time to prepare.

I like to mess around and use green smoothies to put in other super foods like

kelp powder
E3 Live
spirulina
chlorella
bee pollen

my new thing I'm enjoying is soaking flax seed over night and throwing that into the vitamix blender too. good flavor and texture.

[Stina]

Are you sure you want to start during exam week? What if it throws you off? Do you want to try some test runs on weekends and see how it does you?

[Aleesha Sattva]

i wouldn't start when you need to be on your game like that. i would have that time as the ending of my fast or start afterwards myself.

as for chewing... i love chewing when i'm fasting. do it all the time. i love chewing on fresh coconut meat and spitting it out, sometimes i juice with my teeth (like angela stokes did during her 92 day juice feast)... chewing on grapefruits or oranges and spitting out the bulk. you do get a little pulp in your belly but one orange doesn't really give you much pulp (at least not that i find).

so if you need to chew... chew on something raw and fresh... and then just spit!

[rawstrength]

I'm sorry if this wasn't clear from my initial post, but I'm starting a week before exams. When exams come I'll be in tip-top shape. Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

[luna99]

I hope it's okay to piggyback on this thread..

I"m going to do a 5 day green smoothie fast from February 14th (yes! valentines day! it's my gift of health to the person I love the most.. me!) - I was just wondering for people who have green smoothie fasted before.. (or maybe I should say green smoothie feast!)... how much green smoothies do you drink?

I am thinking I could probably just drink as much green smoothie as I could possibly want right??? BTW, I do not use agave in my green smoothies... I only use water/coconut water, greens, fresh fruit, maca, a green superfood powder, sometimes I add soaked pumpkin seeds, and frozen fruit. (not all at once!).

so what do you think? I will admit I'm partly doing this to lose weight but I also want to do it to have more time to be quiet and meditate and just feel cleansed. My husband will be out of town for these five days so I figure I will have these five days all to myself and can be quiet for as long as I want, I can take extra time to clean my house out as my body is cleaning, and just have peace.

so how much green smoothies?? drink as much as I want? thanks!!!

[Nubianess]

Luna 99,. the valentine's day feast is a great idea! I started a GS feast/fast today, which i hope to keep up for the rest of the month. as gift to myself this valentines day!

We'll see how it goes!

[BeFree2009]

Luna - Great idea for Valentine's Day! :) I'll join in the fun *marking on my calendar* :)

Nubianess - What is your plan of attack, just GS's? Are you a fan of supplementation/colonics, etc., during the fast/feast or is this your first time thru?

[Nubianess]

My line of attack is just pure Green smoothies for as long as I can stand them, then juice for when i want a little more detox/have free time, then back to smoothies.

My favorite so far is kale/spinach/frozen black berries, black currants/ black cherries,. SUPER yummy!!

Im thinking of making more cleansing ones later, e.g. spinach celery lemon.
Ive done a 3 day water fast, and 4 day juice + 1 day water fast.
I did daily enemas on the juice fast, just using pure water.
It helped a lot as after my first 3 day water fast, my Bm's weren't regular for a few days.

Today ive had nearly 3 pints of green smoothies,. lol ive been experimenting in the kitchen. I dont want to restrict myself, my theory is I'd rather have a nutrient packed green smoothie that fills you up for ages than snack on food that would rev up my appetite. For weight loss, I read somwhere to leave out the bananas and avocados so im gonna do that.
I want to loose 20-25 pounds,.. I dont know if that woudl be possible on green smoothies, but its worth a try.
I have the feeling that as time goes on I would be relying on less smoothies and more water to get me through the day.
So far so good though.
I started a thread for FEb 2009 green smoothie feasters,. you can record you experience on there if you want!

Hope you are well


xx

[rawstrength]

How is everyone? I hope you are all drinking your greens every day.

[rawstrength]

Let's get this feast started!
Today so far I have had a GS made of four bananas, two bunches of cilantro, a head of romaine lettuce, turnip greens, stevia, and the juice of one lemon.

[Aleesha Sattva]

congrats!!!

[bumbleberry]

Yay, Rawstrength, it's great to "meet" you here! :)

I'm on day 18 of my GS feast. I'm also eating fruit, and sometimes have some green juice or carrot juice. I'm loving the minimal time spent on food prep! I can see this morphing into a basic, simple raw food diet (with the addition of salads, other veggies, and the occasional raw treat). This is so much easier and feels so much better to my body than when I was eating raw (I was eating too many nuts and seeds).

I think I may try your GS later today (but with less cilantro, lemon, and banana!). How much do you drink at a time? I usually drink a whole 1 1/2 to 2 quarts at a time (oink!) because I like them better when they're fresh and don't want to have to make them more frequently.

So far, my GSs have been made from:

greens - kale, parsley, chard, romaine, spinach, and dandelion (instead of rotating my greens, I throw 'em all in every time)
banana
an apple, orange, pomegranate, blueberries, or cantaloupe
green powder or hemp oil
bee pollen (this, I've just remembered, I've had lurking at the back of my fridge, and plan to start adding it in)

I'd also like to start adding kelp and maca to my GSs; haven't yet because they don't smell enticing to me. But I will...

I'm still getting cravings for other (raw and SAD) foods (especially in the second half of the day). When I do, I remind myself how I've felt all the other times after having eaten those foods: :( !!! And then I get to wake up the next morning NOT feeling like that!

I also committed to getting more exercise, which makes such a difference in my sense of well-being. I'm still not doing enough, but better. I'm doing more yoga (a few hours every day, at least every second day (often every day). I'm still working on getting more regular with the rebounding.

[rawstrength]

Hi bumbleberry,
sounds like you are doing great. I make a big blenderful at a time and drink over the course of an hour.
This morning I am having banana/pineapple/mint leaves and it's very good.

[bumbleberry]

Mint! Now there's something I haven't thought about adding to my smoothies...thanks, rawstrength. Oh yeah...I WAS making watermelon mint juice last fall (delicious...the mint made it taste sweeter). I'm bad about getting into a rut with what I make.

Haven't tried your cilantro combo yet. I'm still hesitant about savory smoothies. And I'm stuck on my present favourite: bananas, blueberries, cantaloupe, and greens. Love blueberries! And maca now smells good to me (must be the 100% raw I'm doing), and tastes good too in the GS. So maybe kelp will smell better to me now, too. But I can't imagine liking it in a sweet smoothie. It would have to be savory.

I had some banana-persimmon "ice cream" (frozen smoothie!) as a treat. Also bought a few passion fruits (more "ice cream"). They were expensive, but I've never had passion fruit before, and wanted to reward myself for having made the 3-week mark with this feast.

I'm feeling good: more clarity and flexibility, needing less sleep, having some intriguing dreams, clearer skin. I think I'd be feeling really great if I was exercising more (but that's improving). I still have alot of cravings in the second half of the day (for both raw and SAD foods), but have managed to hang on so far. (I have a jar of raw honey that sometimes calls me, but I don't dare respond, though I've been close!)