Juicing & Smoothies

Ever since I watched Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead a couple months ago I have been trying to figure out how to incorporate juicing and/or smoothies into my diet.  Not so much to lose weight, but to be healthier.  I have many mysterious health ailments and doctors have thought I had all sorts of nasty things wrong with me but all the tests come back negative (although still waiting on some) and they remain stumped.  I keep taking more and more pills to try to combat all of this which is similar to the people in the movie.  My body is not happy about something...maybe it is what I eat?  In the movie two of the people are overweight and have nasty autoimmune disorders.  They spent 60 days having nothing to eat but juice, mostly from vegetables, and lost a ton of weight and got off all their medication.  The third person was not overweight but had a problem with migraines and she did the juicing for 10 days and her migraines went away.  They proposed people give it a try for 10 days to "reboot" their bodies and get rid of toxins and cravings.  It was very inspiring so my husband and I decided we were going to start juicing!!!!   

We were so motivated.  We bought the fancy $300 juicer, I went to an organic market for the first time and stocked up on things I have never eaten before like kale.  We decided to replace one meal a day with juice.  I thought about doing a full 10 days of juice, but our enthusiasm quickly waned for a few reasons.

1. It takes a LOT of produce to make a glass of juice
2. The juicer is a PAIN to clean
3. Juice is NOT filling
4. Kale is not for beginners
5. It gave me a sugar rush that felt similar to the start of an anxiety attack

The third item is the main reason why this has not worked out for us.  We even tried adding a scoop of protein powder to the juice, but still was not filling.  I think the fancy juicer will need to wait until summer to make some lemonade for us. 

So then we moved on to the idea of smoothies.  These have fiber and should keep up more filled up.  A fellow blogger gave me an idea for a recipe...blueberries, banana, spinach, protein power, chia seeds and almond mile.  Back to the organic market I went and got chia seeds (yes, like the pet...they are super healthy!) and almond milk.  We had this for dinner one night and it actually filled us up!  The problem though was that we still wanted to chew something.  Given it was also the middle of winter, the hubby gave up on this pretty quickly since the idea of having a cold dinner was not appealing.

I kept on though trying to figure out how to get all this good stuff in me.  I started trying to make smoothies for breakfast...but of course continued to have problems.  They were not tasting good and the texture was like sludge.  Clearly, I was doing something wrong.  Also, my blender really sucks at this so I would be shaking it and opening it to stir and still ending up with little bits of spinach instead of it being blended.  Why can't I get this right?  And why can't Jamba Juice just be healthy!  I could drink those all day long.

I started looking online for smoothie recipes and came across a smoothie diet.  I diet a lot, but I am not usually one for fad diet...until now.  I believe there is something too all this that getting all these nutrients in my body will be better for me than my usually diet of pre-packaged Jenny Craig food.  I am going to try a smoothie diet by the Hollywood diet guru Harley Pasternack based on his book The Body Reset Diet.  There are three phases of 5 days each for 15 days total.  I can do that, right? 

Phase 1: 3 smoothies a day, plus two crunchy snacks
Phase 2: 2 smoothies a day, plus 1 meal, plus 2 snacks
Phase 3: 1 smoothie a day, plus 2 meals, plus 2 snacks

After the 15 days are up, then it is 1 smoothie a day, 2 meals, 2 snacks and you get 2 "free" meals a week.  All meals and snacks are based on being high in protein and fiber to stay full.  Meals should also include healthy fats and carbs.

There is also an exercise component of 10,000 steps per day plus 5 minutes of strength training. 

I am starting today (Monday) and hoping to make it through at least phase 1.  I got a new blender and a pedometer.  I will keep you all updated each day on how it is going!!!

Any advice?  Any smoothie recipes you want to share?  Have you tried juicing of smoothies???