UPDATE: Join our the all new Lean Green Smoothie Challenge.
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Last week I completed a Green Thickies challenge which involved drinking nothing but filling green smoothies (Green Thickies) for 7 days to see how I would feel and to see if I could drop down a dress size. After already dropping 5 dress sizes, this is the very last hurdle in my weight loss journey. It was a very interesting week and has confirmed to me how healthy green thickies actually are.
You can read my mid week observations and reasons for starting this challenge here. Today I’m going to give you my final results, talk about detoxing, digestion, protein, give you a breakdown of another day’s meals on the challenge and there will be a chance for you to participate in your very own Green Thickies challenge coming very soon.
Final Results and observations
At the end of the 7 days drinking nothing but Green Thickies, here are my final results and observations on this diet:
I lost a total of 5 pounds. I was really impressed by this as I wasn’t counting calories and ate to my hunger levels. It’s great for me to know I can lose weight without having to feel hungry at all. I didn’t have much weight to lose to remain in my healthy weight range so I’m also impressed it came off so easily as it’s normally very difficult to lose the last few pounds. I dropped down half a dress size. I’m so happy as I’ve been stuck between 2 dress sizes for ages so I finally got down to my ideal dress size and managed to get myself a pair of jeans, which funnily enough are actually a bit too big! Yay I can buy clothes again. I haven’t been this dress size since I was 17 years old. Yay yay and yay again! My Body fat percentage dropped by 1%. I’m also very happy about that as my body fat percentage is in the lower end of the athletic range. This is good as even slim people can carry an unhealthy amount of body fat on their bodies. My body fat percentage is actually lower than when I was on the raw food diet, but I think it would have still continued to decrease on that diet had I not become pregnant. Measurements: I forgot to measure myself until a few days into the diet and also forgot straight afterwards, but I think you generally need a longer period of time than just 7 days to notice differences in your measurements. I actually think this is a much better way of noticing dietary improvements rather than weighing yourself as it is a true measure of whether you’re actually getting slimmer. I found sticking to the diet very easy. Even towards the end of the diet, I didn’t get any cravings for anything. I did fancy chewing something but it wasn’t an overpowering urge. I think the key is to eat when you’re hungry. As I didn’t try and restrict my calories I gave my body exactly what it needed so there was no need for any cravings, plus my usual diet is pretty clean anyway so I didn’t have any major withdrawals from any foods. However as soon as my husband got back from his trip at the end of my challenge, I found myself craving my normal food again. I think it’s because I associate the pleasure of eating with enjoying company too. When you eat your meals on your own, you can’t get as excited about a tasty meal. But there are so many reasons why we eat the food we do, we eat because it’s a social and entertaining activity, not just to keep us alive and healthy. I do think it’s important to strike a balance between the two though. Needed a lot less sleep: For a few days my baby kept me from having a good night sleep and I coped just fine during the day, and on the other few days I actually found I didn’t actually need much sleep anyway. One day I went to bed at 10pm and got up at 4am as I was wide awake and couldn’t get back to sleep. I felt fine all day on just 6 hours sleep. I used to need at least 8 hours sleep to feel good the next day, but it makes sense that I would need less sleep on this diet. When you blend your food the body doesn’t require much energy to digest it freeing your body up to get on with healing and helping you feel more energetic. Ann Wigmore, who is the original inventor of green smoothie was reported to only need 2 hours sleep a night as she blended all her food. Wow, I would get so much more done if I could get away with only 2 hours sleep a night. Improved digestion: I used to suffer extremely badly from IBS even to the point where I’d end up in hospital. After I become a vegan my symptoms dramatically improved and went away totally on the raw food diet. However they often come back when I eat my normal cooked vegan meals. On this green thickie challenge while I was drinking green thickies I didn’t have any digestive trouble whatsoever. However one day I fancied something savoury so made myself a savoury green thickie soup and immediately had digestive problems. I’ve no idea whether it was the peas, onion or garlic but it was one of the three. I needed different calories on different days: As I was eating to my hunger levels and logging how many calories I’d consumed, it was interesting to see that the calories I consumed varied greatly every single day. That also makes a lot of sense to me as not all days are the same and we expend more energy of different days. That’s why it’s very hard to still to a calorie controlled diet as some days we just need to eat more food. I ate at totally different times of the day: I also noticed that I didn’t get into a pattern with my meals at all. I was hungry at different times of the day for different amounts of food. I think this is also the key to eating more intuitively, to eat only when we are hungry. Unfortunately we can’t do that as our meal times are too social and have to fit in with work, school and other activities. I started Detoxing. This actually came as a total shock to me. For some reason I didn’t expect to start experiencing detox symptoms. Maybe because the last time I detoxed I was on a raw food diet, and as was still eating cooked food during this green thickie challenge (Oats are pre-cooked and quinoa) I didn’t think it would be that different from my normal diet. So when woke up on about the 4th days with a headache, runny nose and tiredness it was a bit of a surprise. I usually don’t get those symptoms and I recognised the way I felt from my last detox. I guess I was probably detoxing salt, fat, wheat and the vast number of foods I normally eat. Plus blending all your food really does free up the body’s resources for other things. I also know it was a detox as the moment I went back to my normal food the symptoms completely stopped. My skin became softer and my complexion improved which was nice. The great protein debate
I started out trying to explain the protein consumed during the week on this challenge but it got far too long and technical so I’ll be publishing it on it’s own post. A lot of people ask a vegan ‘Where do you get your protein’ so it is important that I do address this on this website. I do think it’s quite important to take a good look at it though as it can be very damaging for your health to consume too much protein. I am in agreement with Dr. Douglas Graham’s advice in his The 80/10/10 Diet book. Dr. Graham recommends we try and stick to no more than around 10% of our calories from protein. This book helped me totally transform my health and the book makes a lot of sense to me and I’m sure it would do to you too as he explains it all very well. You might also be thinking that 10% is a bit low but it is actually in line with government guidelines. I explain all this in more details in my protein article which you can read when I publish it this week.
Exercise and body shape
So what happens when you reach your ideal weight, your perfect dress size, you’ve got your health back but you’re still not happy with the way you look? That’s where I’m at now, and for me the problem is I don’t do anywhere near enough exercise. I feel like I’ve got the diet part of my life sussed now. I just need to do more exercise.
Also when you step up your exercise you shouldn’t really pay much attention to the scales but more attention to your measuring tape or body fat percentage if you still want to become slimmer. Muscle does weigh more than fat and a lot of people find they actually slim down while putting on weight so you really need to be aware of it.
Also when you ramp up your exercising you will need to eat more calories, otherwise you’ll not have the energy to make it through the day.
During my challenge I ate an average of just over 2000 per day (over the whole week) which is supposed to be the amount for a woman to maintain her weight. I was advised by MyFitnessPro to eat only 1200 calories per day. I still lost 5 pounds eating this number of calories. It was the same when I was on the raw food diet too, I ate around 2000 calories and lost 56 pounds, so this is another reason I don’t believe that all calories have the same effect in your body.
The best measure of all is your eyes though, do you like how you look and the way your clothes fit? If not, I’d suggest a Green Thickie Challenge to kickstart your weight loss, and then start an exercise regime for toning, sculpting and overall health.
What I ate in one day on the challenge
This has again ended up being another long post, but I hope you’ve gained some insight into the benefit of this Green Thickie challenge. I’ve also shown you another day of Green Thickies that I ate during this 7 day challenge.
Breakfast
On the Thursday of the week I drank half of my Spicy Plum Smoothie that I had left over from the previous day. I’m going to post this recipe soon as it’s gorgeous. It’s got some spices and ginger in it along with some optional cayenne pepper which gives it an amazing kick. It’s just started to turn really cold here in the UK (did it ever actually get warm?) so this is a perfect smoothie to warm you up if you’re feeling cold.
Lunch
For lunch I tried a smoothie that I’d created a long time ago and had all the ingredients to give it another go. This gorgeous citrus green thickie was just as gorgeous the second time around.
Dinner
For dinner I thought I’d try again at an attempt to make a raw green soup. I made a gorgeous mint and peas no cook blender soup. My previous attempts at raw green soups have all been disgusting but after being inspired by Carrie on Vegan’s Avocado and Peas blender soup and realising I actually had this in one of my Dr. Furhman’s recipe books, Eat for Health, I thought I’d give this one a try. I added oats to it to make it into a filling green thickie soup and not only was it gorgeous and fresh tasting but it actually filled me up all night long too.
Returning to normal food
When I changed my diet back to what I normally eat, I did have some digestive upset again. I also had something with a small amount of sugar in it too and immediately got tooth ache. I also think I’ve been needing a bit more sleep each night again, but all in all I don’t feel too bad off my challenge as I know I mainly eat very healthily anyway.
Now it’s your turn to start a Green Thickies Challenge
Would you like to join me on a Green Thickie challenge? I know some of you have been so inspired you’ve already gone off and started a challenge. This is so encouraging and I can’t wait to find out how you got on. So next week I’m going to officially invite you to start your own green thickie challenge. You will have various options such as choosing to replace only 1 meal, 2 meals or all your meals and snacks with Green Thickies. I am so excited about this and can’t wait for you to begin your green thickie challenge next week.
Do you want to try a Green Thickie? This basic Green Thickie Recipeis the perfect starting point.
[tweetherder]During my 7 day Green Thickie Challenge I lost 5 pounds, dropped down a dress size, lost 1% body fat, needed less sleep and more…[/tweetherder]
Have you ever gone on a detox? How did you cope? Did you have any detox symptoms? Have you taken part in any other challenges? Comments always put a smile on my face, so please take a minute to say hello below. Many thanks.
UPDATE: This post was so popular that I created a green smoothie challenge that you can join and get the same results. Join my brand new Lean Green Smoothie Challenge.
Click here to join
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The post How I lost 5 pounds and dropped a dress size in 7 days: My Green Thickie Challenge (Pt 2) appeared first on Green Thickies: Filling Green Smoothie Recipes.
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