I’ve just wrapped up my 10-day smoothie cleanse and wow, can’t believe how fast the whole thing flew by! If you’ve been following along on Instagram and Facebook, I hope you enjoyed the daily smoothie pics and recipes. I truly had a blast making and eating these!! 🙂 I thought I’d pop in fresh off my cleanse to run through some of my experiences, thoughts & musings over these past 10 days.
The more smoothies I make, the more I crave them
I’ve been drinking green smoothies for years and loving them but I tend to go through phases where I’ll get really into one specific combination for a period of time and then nothing for a while. Usually if I have a green smoothie on a regular basis, it’s almost always my standard – dandelion, berries, coconut milk. It’s easy and delicious and I just don’t get sick of it.
Having to make a new and different recipe for 10 days proved to be quite the challenge. Some days I wasn’t always feeling like making a new combo. Then I started taking out all the vibrant leafy greens and colourful juicy fruits, creamy fragrant coconut milk, rich crunchy almond butter and various spices… by the time I had everything laid out on the counter, my mouth was literally watering for whatever I was making! All the bright colours and tastes had my senses heightened and my whole body humming. This has made me realize just how much my body craves (and thrives!) off a rainbow of colours and flavors. Bring on the variety!
Green smoothies light me up
Say what you will about green smoothies but I can’t deny that I feel ridiculously amazing after drinking one. I literally feel more positive, clear-headed and sprightly, like my body’s energy reserves were freed up. This is such a contrast to the heavy, often lethargic energy that hibernating in winter can bring.
It’s not just an increase in energy that makes these green babies so rewarding though… after all, there are plenty of other quick fixes out there (coffee, sugar, energy shots) that can provide enough energy to keep going (albeit sometimes at a detrimental cost). Drinking a green smoothie feels entirely different… how can I describe it? My body feels as though every cell has been flooded with a great big breath of LIFE. It’s such a fresh-faced radiant feeling. I tend to judge foods predominantly by how they make me feel after I’m done eating — in the minutes and hours after your meal, this is the time to really discover how what you ate is truly affecting you. And I’ve gotta say, smoothies make me feel like I’m on top of the world.
It’s so important to be gentle and compassionate with yourself
Diets, cleanses, fasts… we tend to be so strict and unforgiving with ourselves while on these. I went into this cleanse with a pretty open menu (cutting out just grains, sugar, and processed, packaged snacks). So it was very doable for me to keep up with and have tons of food options… even so, there were a couple times when I caved a bit (for example, in our staff meeting at work I bought chips and hummus for the group to snack on and ended up snacking on a bunch myself!) This brought out a hefty wave of guilt later on — not because I think chips are an unhealthy food – (I actually don’t believe that) – but it was more the fact that I had made a commitment to myself that I would stay on a whole foods, cleanse-friendly diet for these 10 days and I had broken that promise.
But we are all human… we all slip up sometimes and make mistakes and self-sabotage and all that jazz. So while we should strive to see through our goals, it’s important that we not get too hard on ourselves if we stray slightly off-track. I reminded myself that overall I was doing so well – and now that I know what my weak trigger is, I can better avoid it for next time. Compassion, forgiveness, and understanding. In the end, what is more unhealthy: eating the chips or the guilt we feel after eating the chips? In my opinion, it’s always the latter and so, this was a great reminder to put things into perspective and be kind to myself.
Lesson learned from this: If you don’t want to eat it, don’t buy it, don’t keep it in the house and don’t put yourself in situations where you’ll be tempted to eat it.
Preparing & cooking food is creatively nourishing for the soul
I’ve spent years with a big block on my creativity and have only recently begun to give that part of myself expression (I talked a little about this here). That creative fun stuff? That was stuff I would do after all my other work and activities and errands and time with significant others and friends was done with. Meaning… I never got to be creative!! This was not something I prioritised and made time for.
But cooking and preparing food is one way that I can let my creative yearnings go wild whilst still being entirely productive (you’ve gotta eat, right?!) Not to mention that nourishing your body through creative, soulful cooking is a sacred act – seriously. It was so much fun choosing my smoothie ingredients and food-combining to complement different flavors and textures and colours. Guessing what might improve the taste here or add a boost of something there. Inviting others to taste-test as I went along. So much fun and so rewarding on a deep level. If you struggle with giving yourself more creative playtime, this is one way to easily indulge.
It’s all about the Instagram…
I’m pretty new to the instagram world, having just set up an account a couple months ago. That being said, I am really loving the simple layout and focus on pictures over text. I’m not a frequent user of most social media platforms – I try to get into it and I even acknowledge that so many people have made great connections through social media and there’s a lot of benefit to be had… it’s just not a place that I usually spend tons of time in. Instagram, however, might just change that for me!
I loved sharing my smoothie pics on Insty and all the positive responses they received, I love that you can edit and upload pics so easily, I love that you can search for others with common interests, and I absolutely ADORE the fact that Instagram is really just about appreciating a good picture in the end. Simple. I love it!
Have you ever done a cleanse or smoothie challenge? If so, what did you take away from it? I’d love to hear in the comments below! x
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