Chocolate Greens Smoothie and Juice Fasting!

So I have been eating pretty healthy (lots of raw) and making healthier decisions, but I am finding that my stomach has been hurting after a lot of things I eat. I feel like I've grown to be very intuitive about my body and am noticing things I maybe would have just ignored. But, then again, maybe these are new signs. Maybe my body is telling me that it is literally sick of food. Even my daily green smoothie has been hurting my tummy. Mind you, this week's smoothie was an experiment: Chocolate Greens. But as I am familiar with all the ingredients in the smoothie and use them all regularly, I can't see what could be upsetting my tummy! Anyhow, yesterday I didn't eat at my best (my mom took me out to a veg Indian restaurant, which was yummy...and I ate a piece of vegan chocolate cake...yum!) and my stomach wasn't too pleased. But it wasn't the normal upset feeling I've gotten in the past. It was more similar to the pain of taking too much rough medication, like Tylenol. And my kidneys felt a little hurt as well.

My intuition has been pushing me toward a juice fast for quite awhile now. I keep picturing a Juice Fasting Retreat. But right now, that option is not available to me. What is available is a juice fast! So on my way home from my mom's, I was feeling peaceful (despite my tummy) and made the decision to juice fast. I went to PCC, bought the only book on juice fasting that they had (besides the Master Cleanser which I've already done but don't feel inclined to do right now) and came home to read it. The book, Juice Fasting and Detoxification by Steve Meyerowitz, was pretty good, but I also feel like there were a few conflicting principles; for example the colon cleansing drinks (they are basically a smoothie with flax/chia or psyllium blended with juice and a banana): in one chapter he says they are good to drink during your fast, and then in another it says not to drink blended drinks and that bananas are not to be part of a fast. Other than that, it was an enjoyable read

So I've started my day with 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar in a small cup of water (something I picked up from the book that sounded interesting), and then warm water with lime and cayenne.

How long am I fasting? No time frame. No limit. I'm just going to listen to my body to tell me when it's done fasting. One day? Three Days? One Week? 10 Days? I don't know. We'll see.

What do I expect to gain from this fast? A clean inner body, mental clarity, and hopefully the removal of some blockages surrounding my creative energy when it comes to art and the finishing of writing my novel. And for the sake of sharing a recipe, here is my Chocolate Greens Smoothie experiment:

Firstly, I made my own hemp milk!

1 cup hemp seeds
4 cups water
1/2 packet Stevia (optional)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp agave nectar

Blend! Strain through a nut milk bag unless you have a Vita Mix type high-powered blender (which I do NOT). This milk was pretty good, but not nearly as good as the packaged kind, of course. And it was a little more watery than I like, so next time I will probably use only 3 cups of water, and I will probably play around with the sweetener levels also. I originally had one whole packet of Stevia in the recipe, but I found that the flavor was stronger than my liking. This was my first nut milk ever! I've made easy nut milks with nut butter and water, but this was my first real one! I finally got to use a nut milk bag! Wow, does that thing work miracles!

And there is my Chocolate Greens Smoothie:

2 Cups (tightly packed) Kale, de-stemmed (about four leaves)
1 Cup nut milk of choice (I used hemp milk)
1 Cup frozen berries (I used blueberries one day and a blueberry raspberry combo the next)
1 Frozen (or fresh) banana
1 Tbsp Cocoa (or cacao, carob, or a combo)
1/2-1 Tbsp agave nectar (or more according to taste)

Blend! NOTES: I like to blend the kale with the milk first, just so all the blending doesn't melt my frozen fruit, as I like a thick and creamy texture. Use less kale if you are sensitive to the "greens" taste or are new to green smoothies. I only had fresh banana this week, and I imagine it would have been even better with frozen instead. I also imagine a Chocolate Greens smoothie would be much easier with Spirulina, or some other greens powder, since you wouldn't have to use as much, but I DON'T have greens powder, and wanted to do an all fresh, whole foods version. If you use tart berries (like raspberries) you'll need more agave nectar to balance the taste. I'm still playing with this recipe to find perfection, but now that I'm juice fasting, I'll have to set this one aside for awhile.

So here I go, day one of my juice fast!