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Green smoothie fast?

I’ve considered doing long juice fasts in the past, for detox and of course the bonus of weight loss, but I’ve only attempted a few very short ones.

I don’t think I’m capable of a longer one at the moment, plus daily commitments would make it more difficult. So I was wondering if I could do a green smoothie version. I know this takes away the point of a fast as the fibre is still there but it’d still be hugely beneficial right?

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Comments

  • I’m considering doing the same, and I know a few on the forum here have some personal experience. Maybe we could get a small group of us to green-smoothie fast together. Support is always needed during fasts of all kinds!

    Best to you,

    -Dave:)

  • That would be fantastic Dave! :) I love green smoothies already so I’m looking forward to it! I might even begin tomorrow… perhaps.

    I wonder if there’s anyone else out there :)

    Eshne

  • I’d like to try this. I may start this morning since I’ve not made my daily GS yet. Here goes…..

  • Green smoothies would be great for a fast. You give your digestive system a huge break without the serious detox symtoms of a water fast. And you’ll still have the energy to go about your daily tasks. Keep it posted when you’re starting, I’d like to join in. I’ve been bad to my body lately & I need a clean slate! How many days? 3, 5, 7? longer?

  • KristensRawKristensRaw Raw Newbie

    I am a big fan of green smoothie fasts. Another option is to check out this great site for Juice Feasting (not fasting, but feasting)! I’m starting a 21-day Juice Feast on Valentine’s Day. So many people are doing this and loving it! In fact, I think there is a global juice feast starting March 1. They recommend you do this with your BLENDER and strain it to make it very easy to make the juice. www.JuiceFeasting.com

    Cheers!
    Kristen Suzanne

  • greeniegreenie Raw Newbie

    Kristen,

    A big THANK YOU for the Juice Feasting site. As usual, you provide amazingly great information.

    Question:
    It’s so much easier to make green smoothies thank juice, do you think some green smoothies on the juice feast are acceptable or will the fiber reduce the cleansing?

  • I’ve been sipping green smoothies all day but I haven’t ‘officially’ started the fast yet.

    raw_mama, shortnotgold and dave… shall we do this together then?

    p.s. Thanks for the info and link on juice feasting Kristen :) That’s something I may try in the future.

  • In addition to my last post…

    I think I’m going to begin this tomorrow morning (Sunday) and continue for 7 days. Then see how I feel and I might go longer. Anybody up for joining me? :)

  • I just did a Green Smoothie fast for seven days earlier this month. That was so fun. I highly reccomend it!!!!
    You can check it out at my blog

    www.rawroyalty.blogspot.com (older posts)

  • Thanks Sky Princess :) I’ll check it out right now!

  • I started today with breakfast. I just finished lunch and I’m out of my normal day’s upply of GS. I’ll make another batch around 3:00 and that should do me for the rest of the day and maybe tomorrow. (each batch is about 6 cups). I am going to try this for three days and see how it affects me.

  • Hi Eshne,

    I had 4 oranges for breakfast this morning, but am ready to start now (7 days perhaps?) if you’re still in. Have you started? I’ll have a green smoothie for lunch and dinner this evening, and we’ll take it from there. Report back if you can to confirm that you’ve started.

    Joining you now shortnotgold. I’ll join you for the three days you’re committed to, and then see how I feel about going 4 more (or possibly longer). Hoping this goes smoothly.

    Ready to go!

    -Dave:)

  • Hi dave and shortnotgold :)

    I’m going to start officially tomorrow morning and go for 7 days to begin with. I was thinking… how much do you guys plan to drink per day?

  • Hi eshne,

    I think maybe I’ll start tomorrow too, being that I’ve already eaten some fruit this morning. I’m 3 quarts per day – 1 quart for breakfast, lunch, and dinner – or perhaps more if I’m really starting to feel hungry. It’s really hard for me to guage, being that I don’t really know how I’m going to feel. What kind of quantities were you thinking?

    Tomorrow morning it is!

    -Dave:)

  • I’ll probably start off with less than that but I can see myself building up to more :)

    It’s true what you said, it depends on how you will feel!

    Ok… tomorrow we start! :)

  • I’m in too!!
    But I have a dinner at a restaurant tomorrow evening, so I’ll join you Monday. This is very exciting to have support during a cleanse. I’m looking forward to it :)

  • Excellent Nezumi! :) Let’s do this!

  • Here we go :)

    Let’s try to share some recipes, experiences and report back each day with our successes. Sometimes, it helps us to stay disciplined knowing that we have someone to ‘report to’ :) Wishing you all well on this green journey!

    -Dave:)

  • KristensRawKristensRaw Raw Newbie

    Hi :)
    The fiber does impede the true cleansing that you’re trying to achieve with a juice feast. However, some people like doing green smoothie feasts and those have wonderful aspects as well. It depends on your goals. For ultimate cleansing and resting your digestive system, aim for juicing.

    The neat thing (for the juice feast) is that people are doing the juice feast with a blender and then straining the juice through a nutmilk bag to hold out the pulp and fiber. The idea is to give your entire digestive system a real break from having to do any work. Doing this with a blender is supposed to be easier than using a juicer, especially when you’re drinking as much juice as you do on the juice feast (3-4 quarts plus a day).

    By taking out the fiber, you juice “more” produce (to get 3-4 quarts or more of actual liquid)...so you can see that by taking out the fiber from the smoothies, while still getting 3-4 quarts of liquid a day of juice, you’re getting TONS of nutrients (more so than just smoothies).

    All in all, it depends on your goals. If you want something really simple and basic, then a green smoothie feast can be great (or, if you’re new to Raw, this can be a great introduction). If you want to kick it up a notch and truly give your body an extra cleansing, then juice feasting is the way to go.

    Or, here is an idea – do a few days of each. There’s no written “rule” to this, just listen to your body and do what feels right and makes sense for your lifestyle.

    Cheers!
    Kristen Suzanne
    www.KristensRaw.com
    www.KristensRaw.blogspot.com

  • Thanks for the input Kristen. Unfortunately, juice fasting, although beneficial, is just not really in my range of feasibility for the time being, mostly due to cost. It would take an awful lot of fruits and vegetables to maintain a 7-day, 3-4 quart per day juice fast. Please let me know if I’m wrong about this, or you have some good recipes for inexpensive juices.

    So, this morning I started the smoothie fast – not really a fast, considering that there is an awful lot of fiber moving through – by making a little more than 3 quarts of a simple frozen banana, apple, kale. It tastes good and this should get me throughout the day.

    Nezumi, eshne, you guys still in?

    -Dave:)

  • Hi Dave!

    I began this morning too. I made a batch of baby leaf spinach, banana and green grape smoothie – one of my favourite recipes :)

    I feel the same about juice feasting at the moment. Costwise, it’s not do-able at present but it’s something that interests me perhaps for the future.

    I’m pretty new to raw and I’m not 100% so I feel this green smoothie ‘fast’ will do me so much good :)

  • I too is not really in the mood for juice feasting. Although I will try it one day. I want fibers! Lots of them right now, heehee!
    I just went to the market and stocked on kale, spinach, bananas, mangoes and lots of other yummy fruits. I plan on drinking a couple of savory smoothies too.
    You guys think swiss chard will taste good in a smoothie? I’ll let you know.

  • But that’s a really good idea of straining the fruits through a mesh bag. I have a juicer but it can’t juice greens. Thank you Kristen!

  • Hey guys,

    Good to know we’re still all in this together. So far today, I’ve had two quarts and have been nibbling on some sweet fruit (not my intention, but thats just how it happened). I plan to cut back on the fruit nibbling over the next couple of days, as my body adjusts to the 3 quarts of thick liquid that will be moving through it.

    I’m also new to raw, so I think fruits and green smoothies will be very beneficial for me on this brief fast. I’m not sure how long I’ll go (making grand plans, in my mind, tends to make things much more difficult, so I’m just taking it one day at a time), but I’m loving it for the time being. So light and fresh!

    Nezumi, swiss chard is one of my favorite greens to include in smoothies. It has a nice salty flavor which compliments the sweet fruits well. I also use it with my non-sweet fruit smoothes, adding a bit of lemon juice to the concoction for some tang.

    Best of luck to the two of you! Stay strong,

    -Dave:)

  • This is such a great thread. Oh, the gorgeous benefits of smoothies and fresh juices! Happy sigh!

  • Davidp80, I’ll sure try out swiss chard. It is such a neglected green but yet sooo delicious. I’ll allow myself some fruits during the cleanse. I bought Frederic Patenaude’s 21 best cleanse and if one felt like eating fresh fruits during the cleanse, it was no problem. Plus I bought a big beautiful bunch of concord grapes. Can’t let it go to waste, no?

    Sky Princess, I shall look at your blog for inspiration during my green smoothie cleanse. Did you eat any fresh fruits during your seven days?

  • I’m in. Although today I had a few berry smoothies, tonight I’m drinking a green smoothie (spinach, kale, broccoli, asparagus, three bananas, coconut water). Good luck, friends!

  • The list is growing – Awesome, and welcome Shane. I find that supplementing the fresh fruit really helps out for those times that you want to ‘chew.’ Although today, I ate a few too many bananas and am now living on the down side of the sugar high. Tomorrow I’m going to try to work with all non-sweet fruits in my smoothies – cucumbers, zucchini. red bell peppers, jalepenos, etc.

    A new day ahead. Keep it going!

    -Dave:)

  • I’m in! I plan to drink only smoothies starting Monday morning through Friday. This is my first “cleanse-ish” thing ever, so I have no idea what it will be like! Hopefully all the greens will curb my appetite!

  • Hi everyone,

    I’m out – I apologize! Erggghh, I do realize that this was only day 1, but I’ve made a major decision tonight regarding how I’m going to go about my raw food eating, which entails quite a large change (mentally anyway). It just so happened that this ‘realization’ occured during day 1 of my supposed 7 day green smoothie fast! Again, sorry to get jazzed up about all of this and then bail. Please continue to those of you who feel comfortable moving forward!

    So, the story is, my story is….I’ve been trying to transition to a raw food diet for the last 2 months, more or less jumping in 100% from the beginning (specifically, with the mindset of being 100% raw). Now, I may be in a better position than many, coming from a 2+ year successful stint with veganism, but the difficulty I encountered in making this raw transition seemed immensely more difficult (in comparison to changes in my past) from the getgo (I do believe that I have a lot of emotional bondage wrapped up in cooked food eating). I’ve struggled these past two months, battling myself to maintain 90-95% raw. I’ve made it 10 days on several occassions without touching anything cooked, but then I almost always yo-yo back into nothing but cooked food for two or three days thereafter. During these times, I would almost always go through intense feelings of sickness, both physically and mentally. Guilt is a big issue for me. Message: Maintaining an attitude of trying to go 100% is just not sustainable for me right now. In the back of my mind, I’ve known this is true, but in my egoism and lack of self-compassion, I wouldn’t let the thought come to the surface. I thought about it long and hard this evening, and I’ve decided to strive for 80%, – 1 cooked meal every 2 days, or, 5 out of 6 meals eaten is to be raw, with an emphasis on green smoothies. For someone transitioning, 80% is a pretty healthy percentage, and in my mind, having the space to allow myself one cooked meal every two days!! seems much more balanced (given my current struggling). My experience might demonstrate otherwise, but I feel confident in making this change.

    Thus, I will be unable to continue the green smoothie fast! Sorry guys, I tend to get too ambitious and jump in over my head sometimes. Today is day 1 of a more balanced, healthy approach to eating. One day….one day, when it feels natural, I’ll have the strength and confidence to make that leap to 100% raw foods. I’ll see you all there!

    Keep up the good work! I look forward to hearing about how everyone is doing!

    Love to you,

    -Dave:)

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