Day one of RawBella's Green Smoothie Challenge

So a friend of mine who is a raw foodie, her website is http://www.rawbella.com, has challenged me and hundreds of others, to drink one green smoothie a day for 10 days. She's a hard core raw food way-of-lifer, so her smoothies are incorporated into full days of eating raw food. Although I can see the benefit in a raw food day here and there, I can't imagine and don't want to know how I'd give up hot food altogether. Cooked food is what's helping me through this first challenge day. Apparently, I'll be so pumped with energy and...um...flowing freely...flowing...freely... after ten days of drinking one green smoothie a day, that I will make green smoothies a way of life. After my first day I'm not so sure, but remain hopeful.

I thought I'd start simple: banana, spinach, icy water. So I made the smoothie. Yuck. But, because it's a challenge and because I'm determined not to be wasteful, I sipped it and placed it in the fridge between sips. By the time I made it to the last sip, after about 4.5 hours of sipping, it started to taste ok. I imagine with a little more experimenting and adding ingredients like dates, mango, berries and apples to the green stuff (spinach and collards mostly), I could actually get into the green smoothie thing. The benefits seem harmless...actually helpful and it's a great way to cut calories and increase nutrients, antioxidants and fiber, which is a huge reason why, after sipping on spinach for 4.5 hours, I'm looking forward to day two. I won't be posting daily updates, but do wish me luck!

Comments

[KRISTEN'S RAW]

By adding more fruit, you should solve the problem. The key for most is hiding the flavor of the greens which is pretty easy with bananas and mango - not necessarily together, but you can if you want (both are nice and sweet and add a creaminess to smoothies).

I made one today with water, organic pineapple, and organic sunflower sprouts. I like the green flavor, so it was super delish! But, if you're just starting out, using mild greens like romaine lettuce, spinach, etc can be nice. :)

Cheers,
Kristen

[SmoothieGuy]

I agree, hide the taste of your greens with some nice fruit and berries..... after all, they're just as healthy as the greens you're taking in.

my favorite ingredients (for taste and health benefits are)

• berries (mainly blueberries and boysenberries


• avocado


• banana


• yogurt


• nuts (grate in some brazil nuts or almonds.... tastes awesome!

I also did a smoothie diet a few years back. I just wanted to feel healthy and give my body a good cleanout, but I also lost 5kg (11 pounds I think) over 5 days.... but most importantly I felt awesome!

Good luck!