Flatten Your Belly with Simple and effective summer cleansing smoothie strategies
As I get ready for my quarterly Green Smoothie Cleanse, I’ve been pondering the concept of time.
Somehow it seems there is never quite enough time to complete all I would like to do.One way I buy back some time is by doing cleanses. That may seem like a strange comment.
Let me explain
Have you ever calculated how much time it takes you to plan meals, make meals, eat meals and clean up after meals? There is a bit of a time investment. Even if you’re eating out a lot, thinking you don’t have the time to prepare your own meals, the time savings is not that as great as you think, considering you have to drive to a restaurant, order the food, wait for it to arrive, eat it, pay for it and drive home. Even the fast food drive through concept takes time, and unless you eat while driving, there’s still the time it takes to chew your meal.
Some cleanses save time, some require additional time.
Water fasts require the least amount of time at all. No prep, no cleanup. The problem with water fasts is that your metabolism slows down and you can’t quite accomplish all that you might when you’re eating. The good news about fasting is that your appetite goes away after about four days.
Juice cleanses are the most time consuming, especially if you’re dedicated to drinking the 3-4 quarts a day of juice generally recommended to cleanse effectively. It takes me the better part of an hour per quart to prepare the foods for juicing, juice and cleanup. Juicing is similar to water fasting in that your metabolism slows down and different in that you feel hungry all the time. My experience is that my appetite doesn’t go away after four days as with fasting. The lower energy makes me less productive.
Cleanses that require potions and powders, enemas and other cleansing rituals are very effective but it’s very time consuming to make all the potions, do the enemas and cleansing rituals, meditate and rest in between as suggested. I once read about a cleanse that sounded great, and I was all ready to begin. Unfortunately it required several enemas a day, cleansing baths, skin brushing and other rituals, in addition to special teas, drinks and foods. The only way I could have done it was to take time off.
Of course, the most effective cleansing occurs when you take a break from your day to day and dedicate your time to the cleansing process. I did 28 day supervised water fast once. I was at a health center and all I did was drink water, rest, walk a bit and read. It changed my life. I highly recommend that everyone take a month to cleanse sometime. It’s the best.
Unfortunately, not everyone has that opportunity, so we fit periodic cleansing into our day to day routine.
That’s why my current cleanse of choice is a green smoothie cleanse. It may not be as deep a cleanse as a water or juice fast, but it certainly has amazing results.
Every 3 months, I take a 7 day break from chewing and fats and I drink green smoothies
morning, noon and night. I have plenty of energy to work, exercise and enjoy my family. I save precious hours of food prep, chewing and cleanup. Smoothies are easy to make, quick to clean up after and take a lot less time to consume than the equivalent quantity of fresh produce would take to eat.
When you make them as I suggest, between 40 and 60% green and 40 – 60% fruit, they provide an abundance of minerals, amino acids and anti-oxidants. Leaving out the fat gives you’re a liver a break and allows it to devote more cycles to cleansing.
I lead my very first online green smoothie cleanse about 4 years ago, informally with about 25 people. It was so successful I created an official program with recipes, menu plans, shopping lists and lots of bonuses.
It’s evolved now to a full website with videos, audios, a support forum, bonuses, and daily journals and coaching questions.
I’m getting ready to lead another cleanse starting Monday, and I am so ready.
This cleanse will be a bit different for me in that I’ll be in Tucson, staying at my sister’s house. She’s done my Green Cleanse before, and she’s excited that she’ll get to do it with me in person.
We kick off on Monday evening, with a teleseminar called:
“The Art of Cleansing with Greens- Putting Your Best Food First to Get Started “
Later in the week we’ll have a teleseminar called “Gut Healing Secrets” and I’ll do some Spotlight Coaching and answer your questions.
Our last teleseminar of the cleanse is “Eating Healthy in The Real World: Tips and Tricks for Taming Emotional and Social Eating and Living in a Body You Love”
The cleanse includes full access the calls and all the materials, coaching, recipes and guidance of for a full 7 days.
For a limited time, we’re including these extra bonuses:
Early Bonus 1: Eliminate the Gluten and Accelerate Your Health – a special report containing information and inspiration packed articles, recipes and foods to avoid lists for gluten free diets.
Early Bonus 2: Balancing Your Hormones Recording - A 90 minute audio class in mp3 format containing diet and lifestyle tips for optimal weight, vibrant energy, strength, stamina, and joyful longevity.
Early Bonus 3: Balancing Your Hormones Power Point Presentation – A pdf file containing the slides that accompany the 90 minute audio class.
Early Bonus 4: Balancing Your Hormones e-book – Complete written transcripts of the entire 90 minute Balancing Your Hormones audio, as an e-book in PDF format.
Please comment below and answer these questions:
Have you ever cleansed? If so, what’s your favorite way?
Love, Health and Joy,
Dr. Ritamarie
Tags: cleansing, cleansing strategies, detoxification, DrRitamarie, green smoothie, green smoothie cleanse, loscalzo, Raw Foods, raw foods cleanse
Posted in Cleansing Programs, Green Smoothies, Raw Foods
The New Health Insurance: Eating Like Chimps
I read an article today about a man in Medford, Oregon who lost almost 200 pounds, overcame type-2 diabetes, and climbed California’s Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48 U.S. states. He now claims to enjoy the best health of his life. How did he do it? He changed his diet to a raw-food diet that includes copious quantities of green smoothies. Click here to read the entire article.
About a month ago, a new DVD was released called Raw for 30 Days. It’s a documentary following a group of type 2 diabetics on a raw foods program, including an abundance of greens, with Dr. Gabriel Cousins at the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Arizona. The people who finished the program had amazing results. One of the men, a long time diabetic, completely reversed his condition and went on to enroll in naturopathic school so he could help others on their road to health.
A few days ago, I went back to eating solid foods after a week of drinking only green smoothies. I was joined by at least 50 others who spent last week drinking their greens and experiencing a wide range of health benefits including weight loss, allergy relief, reduction in joint pain, normalization of blood sugar, elimination of depression, mental clarity and abundant energy.
Sounds like snake oil, doesn’t it. It’s not magic, or placebo or even secret properties of rare and exotic herbs that produce these amazing results so quickly. It is the power of green foods, many of them wild and free, often classified as weeds, that produce these miraculous changes.
When you blend the green foods that are too often left as garnish, and mix them with delicious fruits, herbs, and spices, you create a tasty and powerful beverage that can transform your life. When you remove the foods that drain your health and replace them with foods that fully nourish every cell in your body, miracles can start to happen.
I’ve seen it over and over. Every two months I lead a group of 50 or so busy people through a 7 day green smoothie cleanse. During our week together, we each follow our own path and choose the plan that works for us as individuals. Some of us choose the most rigorous option and replace all of our meals with green smoothies. Others replace one or two meals a day with green smoothies and eat a high quality diet composed of raw fruits and vegetables. Still others choose to get their feet wet and replace one or two meals with green smoothies and focus on eating a mostly a whole foods, green vegetable rich diet.
One of the participants last week lost 12 pounds, her allergies cleared and aches and pains that had been plaguing her for months were dramatically reduced. A participant on one of the previous cleanses reduced his blood sugars by 100 points in just 3 days. A fibromyalgia sufferer experienced the joy of pain free movement for the first time in years.
I personally know people who have gone off antidepressants and antihistamines after a month of raw foods and greens. I know others who have recovered from cancer.
If I were talking about a prescription drug that claimed all the results I’ve seen with whole, fresh foods and green smoothies, people would be knocking down doors for it.
If this diet is so powerful, why aren’t more people doing it? It’s a question worth exploring and I’ll be doing just that over the next few blog posts, so stay tuned.
In the meantime, learn more about the miracles of green food at www.GreenFoodMagic.com
In this time of political unrest and economic stress, the best gift you can give yourself is health insurance of the most effective and economical sort…taking charge of your health through conscious diet and lifestyle choices and periodic cleansing to counteract the toxic effects of your stressful lifestyle. Mental clarity, energy and focus will help see you through even the most difficult of times.
Tags: allergies, blood sugar, depression, Diabetes, fibromyalgia, Gabriel Cousens, green leafy vegetables, green smoothie cleanse, Green Smoothies, raw food diet, Success Stories, weight loss
Posted in Detox Program, Green Smoothies, Vibrant Health
Green Smoothies for Kids
I had so much fun today. I’m in Arizona, visiting my sister Barbara and brother Frank. This morning, at my Barbara’s house, after a 2 1/2 hour brisk walk, I made us a big blender full of green smoothie….kale, dandelion greens, spinach, peaches, cherries,mango, banana, lime and ginger. It was strong, but tasty. My sister and I fed part of it to her grandson Jason, age 8 months. He loved it. So much so that I had to take pictures. I posted them on my Green Smoothie Cleanse page http://www.drritamarie.com/GreenCleanse.
In the afternoon, we went to my brother’s house. We were talking about green smoothies, and my nephew Anthony, age 9, was fascinated. He wanted to make one right away. After a trip to the grocery store to buy ingredients, we got started. He had his own ideas, and it was exciting to experience his creativity. We made 3 different smoothies. He decided that he wants to make them regularly and take them to school.
My sister-in-law Terese called me later to say that Anthony and Frank made another smoothie after we left, so he could have one for the next day. Frank and Terese also liked them and plan to start drinking them more regularly. Frank may even join in on my next Green Smoothie Cleanse October 5 – 12. For more details go to http://www.drritamarie.com/GreenCleanse
It felt great to successfully introduce my nephews to green smoothies. Getting kids started on them so young is guaranteed to improve their health dramatically.
I’ll post Anthony’s recipes on the Green Cleanse Forum, which is one of the benefits that participants in the Green Cleanse Program .
Have a beautiful Day.
Tags: children's health, food for kids, green smoothie, green smoothie cleanse, Living Foods, Raw Foods, vegan foods
Posted in Raw and Living Foods, Vibrant Health
