What on earth is a green smoothie? Glad you asked. My versions are basically your typical smoothie, with a handful of greens and no dairy. The greens are important (bet you could guess that by the name) but not nearly as important as finding a good blend of fruit that will mask that "green" flavor until you're used to drinking them.
The general principle is that you're letting the blender to a better job of breaking down the tough greens than your relatively weak jaws. So the nutrients (green leafies have more nutrients per calorie than any other food) are easily and thoroughly absorbed into your system.
Obviously, the more fruit you add, the more calories are instantly absorbed into your system as well. I'm adding quite a bit of fruit still, both to make the drink potable (the kids have been taking nips and I'm encouraging this) and because the smoothie has become my mid-day meal and I feel I need the calories so I don't crash an hour later and eat all the chocolate and cheese in sight.
This morning's offering includes parsley, kale, romaine, a blood orange, frozen cherries and strawberries. Sometimes I add a dollop of almond butter, especially if I worked out that day.
They're not the prettiest things in the world.
How do I feel? To be honest, not that different. But they're just as easy to make as any other meal so I'm going to extend my challange to a month and see what happens. From what I've heard, they tend to be detoxifying at first but then your skin starts to glow, your hair and nails grow like crazy and your energy levels skyrocket.
I guess I'm still in the detox mode.
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Will look forward to hearing any results you start to see. I would think the sugar load from all that fruit would still cause the crash/hunger/binge cycle, though. Wouldn't adding a smidge of protein - soy, whey, whatever - help?
ReplyDeleteYUM for green smoothies. My family loves them! I'm off to make one now with orange, frozen banana, hemp seeds, and kale. :)
ReplyDeleteHmmm… I'm a skeptic I think. Though it really looks like salsa verde to me, I think I'll stick to my salads and whole veggies. It's not that I wouldn't try the shake, greens are exceptionally good for your heart and organs, I'm just a skeptic on the whole detox thing. Like, what exactly is being detoxed? Blood stream or colon? And what are the toxins that are to be removed? Sugar, caffeine, tannins?
ReplyDeleteI'm curious to hear your results though.
Good work on the supershake! Keep a careful eye on your "toxins" talk, internally, I mean... because it's a slippery slope once you find yourself convinced once morning that you're still not able to rid yourself of some mysterious evil agent called "toxin". It's not as big a deal as pop culture would have us believe. If you do it, do it because you're adding to your health, not because you're trying to get rid of magical bad stuff you probably don't have (and that your kidneys aren't already perfectly capable of handling on their own.)
ReplyDeleteThat being said though, these green drinks probably WILL make you glow and fill you with energy and all of earth's goodness one fibrous swallow at a time. They'll do wonders for you and your whole family and you're going to feel like a thousand bucks by the end of the month.
Keep it up!
Funnily enough I just finished my green smoothie challenge week and I've yet to see any glow! That being said, I do like them and the fiber found in whole fruit plus the greens is supposed to curb that sugar high. I've been having them for breakfast and don't feel hungry until lunch--but I often didn't eat breakfast before and didn't feel hungry until lunch either. Well, that was not very helpful!
ReplyDeleteBut I'm going to keep trying anyway because it's still better for me than nothing! And I don't find it necessary to put any flax in mine--I'll save that for my granola!
Thank you for sharing your tips. Just wondering. How are you doing with these smoothies?
ReplyDeleteI've been doing them for I think over a month now and have practically no aches and pains anymore. Have also almost eliminated my sugar cravings, thank God. Also don't have a strong desire for dairy, and bread as much although I still eat it, just don't want it like before.
So how was your progress? I'm really interested.
Thanks again.