Dear Steve: I am interested in doing the future juice cleanse with you. Do you have any recommendations or suggestions about doing this and maintaining a high enough caloric intake to not lose weight, or at least not much? I don’t really have any to lose and have pretty low body fat at the moment.
-Lisa
Dear Lisa: Typically, a thin person with low body fat loses a few pounds at first and then stabilizes very quickly. Since you don’t have fat to eliminate, your body can get to work on deeper cleansing of organs, glands, and tissues. This work does not involve “pounds.” So consider yourself lucky because offloading excess fat is time consuming and takes away from your body’s ability to do the deeper cleansing. Remember, your body is not starving on this cleanse. In fact, you are more likely being better nourished than you are on your normal diet.
–Sproutman
Dear Steve: My second question is about the tamari in the green smoothie, is it absolutely necessary? I like all the drinks except for the green one and I think the tamari is part of the reason. I would like to know how much I can tweak the green smoothie recipe without messing up the cleanse. I have put an apple in it to sweeten it a little, is that counter productive? I would appreciate any additional green smoothie combinations that you recommend.
–Ginny
Dear Ginny: Of course, you can eliminate the tamari. And I do encourage you to modify the recipe and if you get it working well for you, please share your recipe. As for the apple, I recommend Granny Smith. It’s sugar is slightly different and metabolizes more slowly. As an alternative to adding sweetness of an apple, I would encourage you to increase the tomato portion and also add cucumber. These veggies neutralize the flavor and increase the water content. Sometimes the palatabilty factor is a matter of it being too viscous. If you make the drink more watery, it is easier to consume. I prefer to see you want to avoid a “sweet” taste and instead achieve a “salad” taste. But choose whatever works best for you.
–Sproutman
Dear Steve: I have had your wheatgrass and Power Juices books for some time and was looking them over this last weekend. Now that I’m getting more “into” this there are so many delicious looking drinks and I would like to incorporate juices into my daily life. Can you talk some about how to do this and integrate with “regular” eating so as to get the benefit of the juices and also, once again, be sure to get enough calories? How much juice do you incorporate into your daily life?
–Lisa
Dear Lisa: Session #4 talks about this as we discuss how to transit back to a regular diet and also the options we have for perpetuating the benefits achieved on this cleansing regimen. My philosophy is that fresh made raw juices and smoothies are the most nourishing foods we can eat. Incorporating them on a regular long term basis improves the quality of your health and increases the length of your life.
–Sproutman
Check back in two days for more Q&A!
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