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!

Week Two

Ok, now I think I'm really getting into the flow of making the best choices for my health, life, and body. It's becoming natural and stress-free. This past week was great. I continued along the same path, and faced a few tough choices (to buy or not to buy a cookie? Eat popcorn or don't eat popcorn?) but came out on top, feeling positive. I did a lot of walking this week; I like to walk to Westwood village, a little shopping center about a 20 minute brisk walk from my house. Since I eat salad pretty much every day, I run out of salad greens fairly quickly so instead of driving to PCC, I walk to QFC (they have a decent organic selection) when I have the time and energy. I've been working evenings lately, so taking a nice, energizing walk in the morning is perfect. My eating habits have remained mostly the same, except not quite as stringent. I've been snacking a little more (I had popcorn after my dinner salad one night, a couple spoonfulls of peanut butter when I was still hungry, etc.) but not uncontrollably. I still eat fruit first thing in the morning every day (unfortunately, I haven't had much green juice this last week except for twice at Juice Plant, a fresh juice place in the mall I work at), usually two pieces 30 min - 2 hours apart, followed by a snack at work like two carrots, or like yesterday and today, a Nana's cookie. For dinner I've had a big raw salad almost every night, along with pasta, popcorn, or homemade whole wheat biscuits. I had spring rolls and sushi one night, and last night I made a delicious salad; greens, avocado, carrots, cucumber, and tomato tossed in a little lemon juice and agave nectar and then topped with more fresh avocado and "Tamari Chickpeas" from Dreena Burton's "Eat, Drink, and be Vegan" (my new favorite vegan cookbook!) It was delish and I look forward to eating the leftovers tonight.

For the week, I think I spent about $46-$50 on food and groceries (including my Juice Plant juices.) Not bad at all! I spent about $30 at Trader Joes at the beginning of the week (and still have stuff to feed me throughout this week too!) and then the rest was from misc. goods like salad greens, avocados, a couple cookies, etc, throughout the week. And I'm still maintaining my perfect weight! I know that walking is helping with that too. I would like to make it a goal to walk to Westwood village as many days out of the week as possible. It feels so good to walk in the fresh air, especially when I need something from the store (having a goal or mission really helps!)

I'm also reading this wonderful book, "Real Magic" by Wayne Dyer. I've been curious to read his works ever since I read that he was a huge influence in the lives of Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin, the writers of "Skinny Bitch". I'm a big fan of self improvement books about The Laws of Attraction like "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne, "The Success Principles" by Jack Canfield, and "Excuse me Your Life is Waiting" by Lynn Grabhorn. While reading Wayne Dyer's book, I'm remembering all the things I have learned from these other books (it's easy to forget if you are not constant in your practices and thoughts) and am also learning so much that I haven't caught on to yet, like the power of meditation. I intend on trying meditation on a regular basis. I tried for the first time the other day and it was very interesting. I didn't get too deep, and kept falling asleep for split seconds and mini-dreaming, but it was a start! What this has done for my eating habits is it has put me more at peace. I had already naturally shifted from self-loathing to writing and saying positive affirmations about my self and my choices whenever I would over-eat or snack on something I didn't need, etc, and this book just confirmed that I am on the right path in doing so. I don't think I'm even half way through the book yet, but I'm taking it slow, practicing what I learn slowly every day so it will really sink in.

I have discovered a couple new favorites this week (don't I discover something new every week?!). First up is "Eat, Drink, and be Vegan" by Dreena Burton. This is a vegan cookbook that I got for Christmas from my boyfriends sister the year before last. At the time, I was mostly into vegan comfort food and excited by desserts, desserts, and more desserts. My life pretty much revolved around making vegan mac n cheese, grilled ham n cheese, and anything else with "cheese" and mockmeats. Oh, and did I mention desserts? Yeah, there was A LOT of that. So anyhow, I also received "The Joy of Vegan Baking" by Collen Patrick-Goudreau, which is probably the most delicious and complete cookbook of vegan desserts- lemon bars, cookies galore, cheesecakes, cookies- can you guess which cookbook got the majority of my focus? I thumbed through EDABV a few times, but I saw a lot of unusual-at-the-time ingredients like Spelt and oat flour and there weren't many recipes that included mass amounts of vegan cheese or mockmeats, which was all I was really interested in. So poor little book sat on my bookshelf and was nearly forgotten about until earlier this week. When I finally did pick it up, I was filled with awe and excitement; the recipes are exactly what I need in my life now! Why didn't I remember this book when I was sick of vegan comfort food, and craving whole grains and healthier foods? This book is it! She uses healthy, whole ingredients, whole wheat or gluten free flours, unrefined sugars, minimal oils, and the recipes are unique and awesome! I have yet to make anything except the "Tamari Chickpeas" but I expect this cookbook will become THE cookbook that I use from now on. I would also like to pick up one of her other cookbooks, "Vive Le Vegan."

This just makes me realized the importance of the Vegan Transition; moving from exciting, hearty comfort food dishes (in order to get you motivated and thrilled with the vegan diet) and onto lighter, healthier dishes (in order to maintain health and balance). I wish more writers would include this ideal in their books. If I realized there was somewhere to go beyond "vegan mac n cheese" and pancakes besides a life of salad, I wouldn't have stressed out so bad when I got fed up with comfort food! You know, I could always write a book like that. Haha there I go with my ambitious ideas again! But I really could...I also need to finish my novel though.

And my second favorite of the week is Living Harvest Hempmilk. I was recommended hemp milk by a worker at Fresh Vitamins (a store at Westwood specializing in vitamins, raw, and vegan products!) and then saw it again recommended on Dreena Burton's blog. When I wanted to make "Simple baking powder biscuits" from Sarah Kramer's La Dolce Vegan, I realized I would need non-dairy milk halfway through sifting my flour mixture. So I sped to QFC and decided to try out the hemp milk (I bought the "Original" flavor.) The biscuits turned out amazing (I made them with whole wheat pastry flour) and after I tasted the hemp milk alone, I fell in love and ended up drinking the rest by the glass over the next couple days. Today I bought the chocolate flavor at Fresh Vitamins and can't wait to try that!

Fresh Vitamins is worth mentioning here alone. Today was only my second visit to the store, and I just have to recommend it to anyone living in the West Seattle/White Center area who is interested in raw, vegan, and gluten free products. While their selection isn't HUGE, they do have a lot of stuff you can't find other places, such as a GIANT tub of Really Raw Honey. Some of their items are also a little pricier, but they are worth supporting. I look forward to shopping there during my walks to Westwood. They carry my favorite bread (Food For Life Sprouted Bread), vegan chicken nuggets, Nana's cookies, Kombucha, Lydia's live food products, and so much more that I probably haven't even noticed yet.

And now I should probably get ready to go to work!