Whole New Tomorrow: 03/29/11

I have been drinking a lot more smoothies lately. But more than just a regular fruit smoothie, GREEN POWER smoothies! In a rut of eating my normal breakfast of Oatmeal with peanut butter and blueberries, I was feeling more sluggish than energized! It was a great breakfast for the winter months to warm me up and keep me full, but now I need something light and rich, full of antioxidants and phytochemicals to give me ENERGY!

Next week, some of my closest friends and I will be do a 10 day cleanse together. We are going to include yoga everyday (my favorite part) and 10 minutes of mediation! And I must say, if you ever do a cleanse, check your calenders first because you never want to plan it around important dates!

We are all choosing our own cleanse and I have chosen the Elimination Diet. I have been wanting to try this cleanse forever but it takes a ton of dedication, so why not now! In true, this cleanse is really 28 days long but it is so much more convenient because you get to eat actual FOOD, and not just fruits and veggies for a whole month. The purpose of the diet is to first cleanse your system (green smoothies for 3 days) and then slowly add foods back in to see if you have an intolerance for any of them like oats, gluten, dairy, meat, and so on.

To learn more about the Elimination Diet visit: http://www.wholelifenutrition.net/id16.html

I bought the book on amazon for about $20 bucks and it is full of amazing recipes and more that I cannot wait to share with you all!

I must admit, I have never actually enjoyed a "Green Smoothie" because I have always been so intimidated by the abundance of green spinach, kale, and collard greens in them I have shyed away. But if I am going to be drinking them for 3 days straight (along with water and tea) I have to get used to them and find a way to make them delicious!

So I am going to share with you some I have found to be AMAZING!! You wouldn't even think they have ANY greens in the AT ALL, that is unless the bright green color didn't give it away ;)

GREEN SMOOTHIE #1 (KALE)

1 Very Ripe Banana

1 Nectarine

1 Orange (peeled)

1 Very Ripe Pear

1 cup of Almond Milk

3-4 Kale Leaves (stripped of the center stem)

Throw in a few ice cubes if you like! I love mine to be more like a shake, so I stuck with fresh fruit instead of frozen.

Kale is now recognized as providing comprehensive support for the body's detoxification system. New research has shown that the ITCs made from kale's glucosinolates can help regulate detox at a genetic level.

Researchers can now identify over 45 different flavonoids in kale. With kaempferol and quercetin heading the list, kale's flavonoids combine both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits in way that gives kale a leading dietary role with respect to avoidance of chronic inflammation and oxidative stress.