If there’s one thing that’s wrong with us as people, it’s that we want to see results right now. In a fast paced society, we expect things to happen quickly, and that includes weight loss. It has been no secret that people are looking for the quick fix when it comes to diets, which is why you have seen a huge rise in the cleansing community. There are seemingly hundreds of different cleanse diets out there, but the most popular lately has been the 10 Day Green Smoothie Cleanse.
This form of the diet was created by JJ Smith back in 2014, and even reached the top of the New York Times Bestseller List. The claims made by Smith are pretty bold, promising that you will be able to lose weight fast without setting foot in a gym and living healthy. Do all these promises really live up to the hype, though? Can you really change your body and habits in just 10 days? Let’s take a look into the 10 Day Green Smoothie Cleanse to see what it’s all about.
Behind the 10 Day Green Smoothie Cleanse
In just 10 days, Smith says that you will be able to lose up to 15 pounds by following the 10 Day Green Smoothie Cleanse. That’s a lot of weight in a short amount of time, and the claims also say that you will slash belly fat, reduce your waistline drastically and never crave junk food again! It sounds like drinking green smoothies is the ultimate cure-all that we have been looking for, so why isn’t everyone on this diet, and what makes Smith such an expert?
Most of the diets that we have reviewed come from people that have spent their lives as dieticians or doctors. In the case of Smith, she actually graduated from college with a degree in math. Afterward, she would get certification in the world of sports training and has appeared on countless forms of media to tell the world about her failsafe diet.
In her book that outlines the plan for the 10 day diet, Smith also offers up some recipes and advice on how to keep the weight off once you have lost some from the cleanse. Granted, you will lose weight since you are cutting out a lot of foods (especially from the junk department), but don’t expect all of that weight to be fat. In fact, it would be hard to burn more than a pound or two of fat per week without doing some hardcore exercise.
Each day on the 10 Day Green Smoothie Cleanse, you will be drinking plenty of smoothies that contain only raw ingredients. Some people drink up to 72 ounces per day while on the program, though you can feel free to lighten the load or add more if you feel that you need more calories. Each smoothie contains only leafy green vegetables with fruit and water, with no yogurt or any type of sugar. Feel free to put whatever type of fruits or green vegetables in the smoothies that you want, but nothing more.
Once you blend it all up, you can add a little bit of protein if you would like, though it’s not required. As for the fruits, try to stick with the standards as they will be cheaper, and don’t use too many as they can be high in natural sugar and calories compared to vegetables. Another key is chew your smoothies. That’s right…chew.
What’s on the Menu?
Now that you know how to make your smoothie (and it’s not cheap since raw fruits and vegetables tend to cost more than processed foods), it’s time to put it all together into a 10 day cleanse. This is the first phase of the plan where you cut out just about any food that you can think of that doesn’t grow directly from the earth. Let’s look at the sample diet plan so you can see which foods you can eat and which ones to avoid.
Day One – 60 ounces of green smoothie, carrot sticks, large apple.
Day Two – 60 ounces of green smoothie, celery with peanut butter, cucumber slices.
Day Three – 60 ounces of green smoothie, hard boiled egg, raw almonds.
Thankfully there is still some snacking that you can do, and even though the foods won’t take up a lot of room in your stomach, they are at least filled with protein and should be somewhat satisfying. However, don’t expect to ever not feel hungry while on the cleanse as gulping down the lumpy smoothie won’t be all that satisfying. You might get some strong cravings, but you are only allowed to drink water outside of the smoothies, and you can’t have any meat, sugar, carbs or processed foods.
Once you have finished the initial 10 days of the cleanse, you can finally start eating regular foods more consistently. However, this doesn’t mean that you are abandoning the smoothies as you continue to drink them throughout the day. Here are what the first couple of days will look like once you have broken the cleanse:
Day One – Three green smoothies, large salad, carrots, celery, two ounces of grilled chicken.
Day Two – Two green smoothies, four ounces of grilled fish, sauteed vegetables.
Day Three – One green smoothie, six ounces of lean meat, cucumbers, salad and almonds.
What to Know About the 10 Day Green Smoothie Cleanse
Transitioning back to a normal diet is a slow process and you don’t want to overdo it on the foods you had given up. Smith says the reason is because you will feel bloated, but a lot of it has to do with regaining the weight you had lost on the cleanse. You should still be replacing one meal per day with the green smoothies according to the plan, which honestly is not a bad way to start your morning with a lot of nutrients and no sugar.
Many people that swear by the 10 Day Green Smoothie Cleanse like to repeat the process, but don’t do that right away. Instead, you should be taking a break for a few weeks of otherwise healthy eating before jumping back into a cleanse, while making sure that cleanses don’t last for more than two weeks. Smith says that once you are back to eating normal, you should still avoid pretty much all sugar and limit red meat to a couple of times per week.
The diet for after you finish the cleanse is a good way to lose weight since the focus is away from junk food and more on fruits, vegetables, grains and lean meat like chicken, turkey and fish. So why doesn’t the diet just start up from there? Likely because losing more than two pounds per week would be hard when you’re not depriving yourself from food almost entirely, and that doesn’t look as good in a book review.
It’s not a huge secret that you should be avoiding starchy and high carb foods, high calorie fried foods, sugary drinks and cereals and anything else you would find at the top of the food pyramid. You don’t have to consume nothing but smoothies for two weeks to lose weight, but you’re almost certain to drop weight by doing so. It just isn’t in the best interest of doctors and dieticians. Regaining weight can be quick if you don’t stick to eating leafy greens primarily, though getting back into those old habits might be hard to avoid.
Summing it Up
If you tell your doctor that you want to lose weight by increasing the amount of vegetables that you are eating, they are likely going to commend you for your efforts. If you tell them that you want to lose 15 pounds in just over a week by doing nothing but drinking five pounds of pureed vegetables per day, they will likely have a talk with you.
Cleanse diets say that you will change the way you eat once you get through the process, but that usually doesn’t happen. Instead, people tend to go back to their old ways if they even make it through a cleanse at all, especially one that lasts for 10 whole days at least. The 10 Day Green Smoothie Cleanse does a good job at promoting healthy eating when you “break” the cleanse, so that’s the plan you should be following all along.
However, that part of the plan is “boring” and “unsexy” to most people who want a quick solution to their weight problem. Losing that much weight in that short amount of time isn’t going to be a permanent change, and the entire diet seems like a new way of presenting old plans. In fact, doing a cleanse of this magnitude to start a diet might make things worse.
After depriving yourself of foods completely, it makes you that much more likely to binge eat on the other side of the cleanse and put the weight back on. Replacing breakfast with one of these smoothies is a great way to get started on a weight loss program, but don’t base your entire life’s menu on them, as that would be impossible to sustain.