After watching Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead last night, my 13 year old son declared that he wanted to try a ten day juice fast just to see what Phil and Joe from that documentary experienced...and whether or not he can do it. It was so cool to watch how touched and impacted he was in watching how dramatically the life of "Phil" changed in such a short period of time....the impact good nutrition can really make in someone's life who truly wants help. Caleb typically likes his comfort zone -- and his food...solid food, especially meat and cheese so I was quite surprised at his reaction.  I also believe, however, that God stirs us in different ways and at different things for a reason. Part of me is a little uncomfortable with it but overall I feel a peace about it and trust God to guide us through it. I truly believe that he has the potential to learn so much through the process, and, with freshly juiced fruit and veggies, he will be receiving tremendous nutrition.....it might even open him up to trying a greater diversity of raw foods  and veggies in the future. 
       In support, and because I've wanted to juice fast for a while now, I am going to join him and his twin sister is going to Daniel Fast during that time as well. There may be a rough few days but I believe we will all be in a much stronger, clearer mind, body, and spirit by the time school begins. 
      There are many components to a healthy juice fast and I want to be sure we are prepared...juice fasting -- a form of detoxifying the body -- requires a short period of supporting the liver for detox followed by another short period of liver support diet. 
     Here are a few great resources on the subject -- I am just at the beginning learning stages of all this but I plan to record our progress, results, and things learned here for future reference.

Books:
Toxic Relief by Dr. Don Colbert
Fasting Made Easy by Dr. Don Colbert

Websites:
www.jointhereboot.com  
This is a great resource for information, support, recipes, plans, and more! You can watch the movie Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead free here, too. This is the best juicing site I have found so far. I believe you can even communicate with live nutritionists.  
www.drcolbert.com
Dr. Colbert is one of the leading physicians in the health and nutrition field. My whole journey began after watching a week's worth of his broadcasts on the Believers Voice of Victory and the information I learned that week was the one thing I had been missing from all the other times in my life I had tried to lose weight or become healthy. This site is packed full of books, articles, health tips, excellent (I believe the very best) supplements, live support from nutritionists, a health library, and so much more. 

If you are planning to add juicing into your daily diet or are considering a juice fast, I definitely recommend checking out the Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead website. It is chocked full of tips, easy and simple nutritional information, juice plans, recipes, and  support. You can even view the movie from the site homepage, access live help from nutritionists. and find support from other rebooters. check it out!!!! 
Click here to access.

If you are looking for support in becoming a healthier eater, the video I just mentioned in the title of this post is a MUST. It is so encouraging and really helped me in my journey with detoxifying and boosting with veggies. It's on Netflix but you can simply watch it online from the Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead website. Combined with "Food Matters" you'll be fairly well equipped to start your own journey toward healthy living. 

1 c filtered water
1 c milk, rice milk, or almond milk
3 T organic frozen OJ concentrate
couple large handfuls of spinach, chopped
1/2 t vanilla
2 c frozen peaches (if they are frozen in one large clump, I usually defrost under hot water a bit so I can break them apart for the blender -- if you are using a Vita-mix, don't worry about that)

Blend until smooth!

Perfect for hot days -- and the child who refuses to drink something green. She gets to sit with her fruit smoothie and a plate of veggies and salad....

Ingredients:
4-8 oz milk, rice milk, or almond milk
1  1/2 cups frozen strawberries
2 T raw honey

Add to blender in that order (always put liquid in first to ease blending process). 

You can drink just like that OR
pour into popsicle holders and freeze a couple hours for a fun snack on a hot day. 

8 oz milk, rice milk, or almond milk
2-3 frozen bananas, chopped
handful chopped raw walnuts or pecans
1 t cinnamon
1 T local honey or agave
1 T gd flax seed for Omegas
1/4 - 1/2 t vanilla (to taste -- some vanilla is stronger than others, start small and work your way up)

Blend well.

We made these last summer at our Hawiian Luau 4th of July celebration. 

8 oz coconut milk
2 cups chopped fresh pineapple
1/2 c shredded unsweetened coconut
1/2 c creamed coconut, prepared (I use "Let's Do Organic creamed coconut which you prepare according to directions on the box)
2 T honey or cane sugar

Blend. 

The beauty of green smoothies is that they empower you to consume larger amounts of raw vegetables more easily. I particularly prefer this method of getting my dark green leafy veggies in  every single day -- without trying to chew on raw kale, collards, cabbage, etc......those are tough for me but they are so power packed and really important in detoxifying my body.....they are also a great source of so many vitamins, minerals, enzymes, water, fiber, and antioxidants. In fact, since I began incorporating green smoothies into my daily eating plan, I have consumed 2 bags of Kale, 1 savoy cabbage, 2-3 bags of spinach,  and 1-2 bags or chard every week.....in addition to lots of other fresh fruits and veggies that I add into these or my fresh veggie juices. Huge boost from the 2-3 servings of greens I was choking down in salads prior to this. 
The basic gist of a green smoothie is that you can take fresh organic greens and get their nutrients while tasting the sweetness of fruit instead of the expected bitter taste some of those veggies impart. 

I start out with 8 oz of filtered water in the blender followed by 4 oz of "chia gel" (2-3 T of chia seed soaked in a qt . of water). 
I then add my greens: 2 kale leaves, a handful of spinach, maybe a leaf or 2 of cabbage. 
1-2 T ground flax seed for my daily Omegas

Other ingredients depend on what I have:
1 golden delicious or gala apple OR pear, cored and chopped
1 banana
1/2 cucumber 
stevia packet or 1 T honey or agave

We travel a bit of a distance to church on Sunday's and by the time we get home it's nearly 2 or 3:00. I really don' usually feel like drumming up a meal at that point since we've typically been gone since 8 or 9:00 AM.....so we have created "Smoothie Sunday's". 
Lunch time is a plate of fresh fruit, veggies, hummus, crackers, and cheeses from the local farmer's market the day before and smoothies!
No better way to get green goodness into some kiddos who don't eat greens, much -- specially the two younger ones. 
This chocolate peanut butter version was a big hit the first time with everyone except Markie, who simply refuses to drink anything green...but that's another story.

Ingredients:
12 oz milk, almond milk, or rice milk -- your preference
2 generous handfuls organic spinach, rinsed and chopped
OR
1 generous handful of spinach and 2 organic kale leaves, de-veined, rinsed, and chopped
2 T all natural, organic peanut butter
2-3 organic bananas, frozen and chopped
1 T gd flax seed (optional -- provides 1200mg Omega 3)
2 T agave or raw honey
few dark chocolate chips (I actually use a small piece of Paul Newman's dark organic chocolate bar chopped)

Place ingredients in blender or Vita-mix if you are blessed to have one in the following order:
milk, greens, PB, sweetener of choice, bananas.........Blend together til well blended. Then turn off, add chips and blend a bit longer til the chips are distributed well. 
Enjoy!!!!