Reminder - Green Smoothie Challenge

December 31, 2009

Good Morning!

This is a reminder that I am starting a Green Smoothie Challenge on Sunday, December 3, 2010. To prepare for the challenge, I wanted to send a list of the things you will need to succeed.

1. Good blender. I have a Blendtec, but any blender will work.
2. Plenty of greens. It's best to rotate the greens you are eating on a regular basis, but for one week, using one kind of greens will work fine.
3. Lots of fresh, ripe fruit. There are a lot of yummy combinations of fruit and greens to make the smoothies delicious! Find some good recipes that you can use regularly that you will thoroughly enjoy.

Here are some awesome recipes that I enjoy.

Banana Kiwi Smoothie
2 bananas
4 kiwis
1 bunch of kale or spinach
2 cups of water (or however much will make it the consistency you would like)

Pineapple delight
1/2 pineapple
2 bananas
1 bunch of spinach
2 cups of water (or however much will make it the consistency you would like)

Best Smoothie Ever :)
Some grapes
Some blueberries
Some strawberries
1 mango
As much greens as you can fit in your blender
Some water

I'll send an email out on Saturday to make sure everyone is ready for the Green Smoothie Challenge! Thanks for joining me! This is going to be a great week!!!

Green Smoothie Challenge

December 27, 2009

Good Evening!!

I hope you all had a great Christmas and wonderful New Year! I wanted to let you know that on January 3, 2010, I will be starting a 7 Day Green Smoothie Challenge!! What better way to start the New Year? I'm sure most of us have not eaten quite the way we should, or exercised as often during the holidays, so I thought this would be a good way to start the New Year!!

First I want to talk about the reason I am doing this, and what I want to accomplish. Then I will tell you what my plans are for the Green Smoothie Challenge. Follow along as closely as you would like. I will send out a daily email giving some tips, maybe some recipes, and tell you how my day is going. Thanks for joining me!

Before we start the Green Smoothie Challenge, I encourage everyone to read Green for Life, by Victoria Boutenko. Also, Green Smoothie Revolution, by Victoria Boutenko is her new book. It's a very easy read and elaborates more on the benefits of green smoothies. Not only that, but there are over 200 recipes for green smoothies! Both of those books are amazing and most helpful when understanding the reason behind my Green Smoothie Challenge :). I have never felt better than when I restrict to a simple daily intake of green smoothies. We'll see how this 7 day challenge goes!

I want to do this challenge because I have reached a plateau in my weight loss streak. I only have a few more pounds to go, but I want to get it off as soon as possible! I know that a strict diet of green smoothies for a short amount of time, is just what I need to boost me to my weight goal.

My goals during the 7 day Green Smoothie Challenge are:

I would like to be consistent with excercising 6 days 30 minutes each day. I would also like to stick to nothing but green smoothies all 7 days.

January 3

This is the first day of the Green Smoothie Challenge. I will be starting the Challenge with a fast that will begin Saturday, the 2nd at 6pm (light dinner Saturday). I will fast for 24 hours and have a 32 ounce green smoothie at 6pm on Sunday, January 3.

Daily Routine (January 4 - 9)

Exercise - 30 minutes aerobic exercise upon rising

Breakfast - 32 - 48 ounce green smoothie

Lunch - 32 - 48 ounce green smoothie

Dinner - 32 - 48 ounce green smoothie

I will also be drinking plenty of water. Although I've been eating quite clean for several months, I know I will still have some detoxification symptoms so I will need to make sure to drink a lot of water so I feel OK.

I hope you'll join me for the Green Smoothie Challenge!!! Happy New Year!

Welcome to my Blog!

Oddly enough, in this day in age, I am new to the blogging world. But, since I've been working on perfecting my new, Raw Food Lifestyle, I've gotten the itch to share my experiences with the world (or even just a few people :) ). After struggling for several years with trying to become a 100% raw foodist, I feel like I've finally succeeded. Since September 1 of this year, I have eaten 100% raw food. I have released a lot of weight, I feel great, and it's time to share my experiences.

On this blog you will find my tidbits for the day, recipes, ideas, and opinions (lots of those as my opinions are almost ALWAYS heard :) ). I would love to hear other raw food experiences. With the holidays coming up, I know I will face some big challenges in sticking with the raw food diet. I'm preparing myself now so I don't give in or let others comments bother me. I think it will be fine.

I follow the Raw Vegan 80/10/10 Diet (See Dr Douglas Graham's book The 80/10/10 Diet). I have found that the mainstream raw food diet is very high in fat (about 50% of calories from fat). I tried this type of raw diet a few times and I couldn't maintain it because I felt SO terrible on it. After reading Dr Graham's book I realized why I couldn't succeed longterm on the high fat diet. I drink about 64 ounces of green smoothies a day in addition to a very simple diet of fresh, sweet fruits, non-sweet fruits, and no more than an ounce of nuts or seeds per day. I track my calories on www.nutridiary.com and that helps keep everything in the right proportions.

This journey has been fun so far and I look forward to continuing. After gaining so much health in the last couple months, I see absolutely no reason to change what I am doing.

That's all for today. I will try and post on a regular basis. If you have any questions, please ask. I am learning too and I think we can all learn from each other. Thanks for visiting!

P.S. I've become obsessed with taking pictures of my food because it looks so amazing. The recipe above is:

Winter Fruit Salad

Pomegranate arils from one pomegranate (I found already seeded arils at Costco - saved me hours of time I'm sure :) )

3 small navel oranges

1 honeycrisp apple chopped (this is my most favorite apple, but any will do)

1 cup chopped pineapple

1 banana sliced

Chop and mix everything together. I kept 1/4 of one of the oranges and squeezed it to make a nice dressing. You could also use lime juice, but I didn't have a lime :). This salad was so delicious!! 450 Calories.