Sarah's "Extreme Green" Challenge - Day 3

Although this is Day 3’s write-up I am writing it early in the morning on Day 5. And five days in I can say that it is NOT DIFFICULT at all to eat this many greens.

I am amazed!

It is partly because of the way I am doing it, which I think is probably pretty essential in order to stay in the happy zone with it – I’ll tell you ALL about that below.

To my surprise, mega amounts of greens are going down VERY easily – all it has involved is a change of mindset. When I am ready for a meal or a snack, instead of asking myself: “What do I want to eat?” I am asking “What do I want to eat that contains loads of greens.” : ) And thanks to the way I am doing it, there are enough choices – sweet and savoury, light and satisfyingly filling, simple and spicy – to cater to any mood.

So here is the secret to easily getting seemingly impossible quantities of greens into your diet every day... 

Use or adapt David Rainoshek’s “FOUR WAYS” approach.

1. Eat your greens
2. Make blended green soups
3. Make green smoothies
4. Juice them

Now personally I adapt this system rather than follow it to the letter. First off, David recommends only low-glycaemic fruits in smoothies, and there are very good reasons to avoid high-glycaemic ones. However, for now sweet fruits are the all-important “spoonful of sugar” that helps my green medicine go down, so I am enjoying pineapples, oranges, bananas and so on in my juices and smoothies.

Secondly, I just can’t do hard-core green soups. If it’s blended cucumber (one of the most popular bases) with some dulse and sprouts and other ‘tame’ veggies, no problem, but add more than a small handful of strong greens to that and it’s NO THANK YOU from me! : ) I physically can’t get them down. Maybe that will change over the course of this trial...    

So anyway, without a doubt, the best way to consume large amounts of alkalizing, nutrient-rich, enzyme-rich greens on a daily basis is to have some of them juiced, some blended (into soups or smoothies, or a combination) and some whole.

WHAT I ATE ON DAY 3:

Breakfast: Juice of 200g kale with half a pineapple

Morning snack: Smoothie of 200g spinach with 2 small bananas and juice of two oranges

Lunch: Salad of 150g mixed greens, 50g mixed sprouts, half a cucumber, ½ an avocado, 1tsp olive oil, ltsp dulse flakes and a dash of Balsamic.

Afternoon snack: Juice of 200g chard with 2 lemons

Dinner: Nori wraps (can’t get enough!): 2 nori sheets (50g) with ½ avocado, grated carrot and approx 50g alfalfa and broccoli sprouts.

DAILY TOTAL = 900g

COMMENTS: Yes, I’m addicted to nori wraps : ) But if anyone has a recipe for a juice or smoothie that makes either Swiss chard OR kale taste good, please get in touch without delay ; )  

Before I went on holiday I was eating around 400-500g of greens a day from the time I first wrote about it online in January - already a big improvement on before. But I had no blender or juicer during my three weeks in Bali, and organic greens were in very short supply, so my consumption went right down. I really noticed the difference in my energy and concentration - despite being in a tropical paradise.

Alkalizing green juices have been a part of my daily routine for around four years now and I have come to think they are more powerful than anything else we can consume. That includes ALL dehydrated superfoods, and ALL powders bearing miraculous claims, no matter how natural and ‘raw’ they may be.   

Such foods have an important place in the diet for most who eat all-raw or high-raw BUT there is NO substitute for vital, alive, water-rich plant foods.

I have more to tell you about amazing shifts that have already happened, but that part belongs to Day 4 of this account so will be in the next installement : )