Crazy Sexy Juice Reboot, Day 1!

A few months ago, I purchased Kris Carr's Crazy Sexy Juice book at the Booksellers at Laurelwood's going-out-of-business sale. I love Kris Carr and have done her Crazy Sexy Cleanse several times (always as a January reboot thing). And I'm always looking for new and exciting juice recipes because, without a recipe, I tend to make the same cucumber-apple-celery-ginger-lemon-kale juice over and over and over.

After I bought the book, I realized it included a 3-day juice cleanse. I figured I'd save that for a rainy day, when I felt my healthy eating had gone off the rails a bit. And then I went to potlucks and birthdays and Nashville and about a million restaurants in a short span of time, and well, that rainy day has come. It's time to get back on track! I'd already planned to start the 3-day program today when I got an email from Kris' newsletter about her 10-day #greendrinkaday challenge, also starting starting today, She's asking folks to have just one green juice or smoothie every day for 10 days. Perfect timing! I signed up for that (and so can you!), and I'm kicking it off with this 3-day thing. Then I'll continue to add green juices and smoothies for the following 7 days after my reboot.

Disclaimer: I'm calling this a "reboot" and not a "cleanse" even though her book calls this a cleanse. But I think the word cleanse is misleading since I don't believe I'm actually cleansing my body of toxins (that's what livers are for!). And just so you know, this isn't for weight loss or anything like that. I don't need/want to lose weight. This is strictly as a way for me to fit as many fruits and veggies and green things into my diet as possible to kickstart some healthier habits.

Okay, without further ado, here's what I drank (and ate!) today! The plan starts each morning with Warm Water with Lemon and Ginger. I added an Almond Butter-stuffed Medjool Date (not in the plan) as well since I use dates for running fuel. I downed this at around 5:30 a.m. and headed out for an three easy miles. I won't be doing any tough, long milage or speedwork until the reboot is over.

After my run, I rehydrated with a small Classic Green Lemonade (top left) made with cucumber, apple, lemon, ginger, celery, and chard. This was supposed to be breakfast, but I knew I'd need more than that. So I added one of the smoothies from the book for a second breakfast. On the top right is the Green Power Smoothie (homemade almond-hemp milk, banana, spinach, and dates) that I had around 7:30 a.m. Morning snack (around 10:30) was the Tummy Tamer juice (bottom left) made with fennel, cucumber, mint, ginger, and apple. And my lunch was the (bottom right) Easygoing Green Smoothie with banana, mango, coconut water, avocado, kale, and parsley. By the way, that lunch smoothie jar was completely full, but I drank a bit before I remembered to take a picture.

As you can see, the smoothies are loaded with healthy fats, like avocado, cashews, and hemp seeds. So those kept me satisfied when combined with morning and snack juices. At 2:30 p.m., I had my final juice of the day Blueberry Lemon-Aid (blueberry, apple, cucumber, lemon, mint) with my first solid food of the day — an Apple with Almond Butter!

Even though I wasn't famished by snack time, I was very excited to chew! This is definitely my kind of juice reboot. I've done juice "cleanses" in the past that were all juices/all day with a little nut milk at night. And real talk, that's just not enough fat or volume or protein for me. But this works!

Even more exciting than the apple snack was my dinner. Each night on Kris' plan, you get a solid food, high-raw dinner. Tonight was a Big Salad with Steamed/Raw Veggies, Herbed Lentils, Pumpkin Seeds, and Lemon-Tahini Dressing.

The herbed lentils is a simple recipe from her book. They're just cooked lentils with added garlic, thyme, basil, and parsley (all the herbs were from my garden). The dressing, a simple tahini-lemon-garlic sauce, was from her book as well. For my veggies, I chose steamed broccoli and cauliflower and raw bell peppers and carrots.

Finally, each night, you get a warm nut milk "dessert." Tonight's was this Turmeric Milk, a homemade, raw almond milk (made with soaked almonds) with maple syrup, cinnamon, cardamom, and turmeric. Very good and perfect for getting me ready for bed.

So far, this reboot is far better than any juice thing I've done before. Chewing is fun. And I don't feel at all deprived. In fact, I'm eating just as much fat as I always do. It's just in a healthier form!. I'll check back in tomorrow on Day 2!