Loving the BITE: Green Detox Super Smoothie
So, your Thanksgiving menu’s set. But what about the day after?
We suggest our after-Thanksgiving-back-on-track Green Detox Super Smoothie. Why? Simply because most people don’t wake up feeling super great the day after Thanksgiving. Even though they had good intentions for healthy Thanksgiving eating, and they actually feel like they did pretty well (this is always relative to grossly-overeating), they still don’t feel quite right. They feel like they’ve taken a step back with eating right and feeling fit.
The remedy: A Green Detox Super Smoothie on Black Friday.
Disclaimer: This is definitely not a free license or encouragement to eat horribly on Thanksgiving. The smoothie won’t work miracles, after all. But, it will give you awesome, concentrated, whole-food, raw-food nutrition packed with antioxidants, anti-inflammatories, and detox nutrients. A good step to getting back on track.
Recipes of the week: Green Detox Super Smoothie
Ingredients:
- 1 medium Grapefruit, peeled
- ½-1 cup fresh or frozen whole cranberries
- 1 Tbsp organic coconut oil
- 1 Cup fresh Kale
- ½ cup cauliflower florets
- ½ cucumber
- 1 Tbsp ground flaxseeds or Chia seeds
- ½ Tbsp fresh Ginger (optional)
- 1-2 tsp organic honey
- Protein: Your choice. I recommend 10-20 grams protein from undenatured whey simply because it can encourage the production of your cells’ own super antioxidant, glutathione. Other great choices include Greek yogurt, soy protein powder, hemp seeds, or a mix of them.
Blend all in your blender or food processor, adding water/ice as needed. For all the texture-people out there, the quality of the texture of this smoothie really depends on the quality of your blender. A Vitamix, for example, will deliver a gloriously smooth smoothie. If you’re still using the same one you used in college, on the other hand, you may get a more coarse texture. Enjoy this smoothie for a Black Friday breakfast. Or, really detox by repeating raw Green Smoothies for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with a variety of fruits and vegetables!
Comments:
Type detox smoothies or detox juice into any search engine, and you sure to get all sorts of ideas and recipes. Some of them are awesome. Some of them are dangerous. Some of them offer very little nutrition; a popular cayenne pepper/lemon juice one, for instance, has no protein and very little whole-foods. Sure you’ll lose weight…but what will you gain? Our smoothie is not so much about losing weight or a digestive tract cleansing. It’s more of a nutrition punch and detox for your cells.
And there’s no better time than the day after a big Holiday feast.
The focus of this detox is to decrease:
- Oxidative stress: The high amounts of antioxidants from the fruits, vegetables, ginger, honey and undenatured whey will reduce the free radicals in your body.
- Inflammation: The anti-inflammatory components of ginger, coconut oil, and omega-3s from flax or chia seeds reduce cellular inflammation.
- Toxins: Our cells are can get loaded with toxins from our environments, preservatives and chemicals in our foods, and our own biochemical processes. Some foods and nutrients, such as kale and cauliflower, can actually encourage our cells’ ability to detoxify themselves. Our bodies can do amazing things if we give them the right nutrients with which to work.
Additionally, the cucumber will act as a natural diuretic to battle the fluid retention brought on by too much sodium.
Why not just eat all of these foods separately?
No reason, you sure can. Just keep them raw. Part of the detox experience is to give your body the full nutrition offered by foods, including the chlorophyll, enzymes, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytochemicals, and fibers that can be altered, reduced, or damaged by cooking. For this breakfast smoothie, keep it raw.
This week, even with Thanksgiving, you can feel healthy and fit instead of stuffed and lethargic. Start the day with a Green Detox Super Smoothie and follow it up with a nice autumn ride.
Fuel Your Ride. Nourish Your Body.
Could I add oranges instead of grapefruit? My husband can’t eat grapefruit with his anti-rejection meds. Or should I just leave the grapefruit out?
Hello – you can absolutely substitute an orange for the grapefruit. They both have wonderful nutrients that will contribute to the antioxidants, anti-inflammation, and detox qualities of this recipe. Enjoy! Kelli, RD
Nutrition is clearly the one discipline holding me back from taking my racing efforts to the next level, but this just sounds nasty. Think I’ll look through the archives to find another smoothie to warm up to first.
Hi Christopher – I hope you found what you were looking for! While certainly not jamba juice, most of my clients accustomed to green smoothies have liked this recipe. But, of course, it’s important to find one that works for you. To get started with green smoothies, you can take regular smoothie recipes that you like, cut back on any added sugar and add ~1 cup kale or spinach (the spinach is usually so mild that you won’t notice it). And, there’s plenty of other ways to get in great nutrition for daily wellness and training goals, so no worries if the smoothies aren’t for you. All the best!
I had my wife pick up the supplies earlier today and am going to see how this thing performs for me tomorrow. I don’t plan on eating too much but it always seems to happen.
What exactly are Hemp seeds?
Hi Heather, we posted about Hemp hearts (seeds) in the past, so have a look at this: https://lovingthebike.com/uncategorized/i-absolutely-recommend-hemp-hearts. We really love hemp hearts over here.
This just may come in handy tomorrow. Thanks guys.
Happy Thanksgiving and thanks for this recipe. I find thta it takes me a while to get my stomach feeling good after eating too much so I hope this helps.
Thanks Jackson, be sure to check back with us and let us know how it worked out for you.
One of our grocery stores are open this morning and I’m leaving right now to get the missing ingredients I need to make this tomorrow. Thanks loving the bike.
Sounds good…let us know how you like it.