Stats: down 1 pound Net Loss: 4 pounds
Breakfast: 1 cup grapes; Lunch: Dr. Bob’s Kale Blueberry Smoothie; Snack: 1 ruby Red Grapefruit; Dinner: Kale Apple Carrot Smoothie w/ ginger instead of lemon; Snack: air-popped popcorn
Today I mostly cleaned house. Not an exciting topic for a blog, so instead we’ll talk about how your diet can help you clean house. Cleaning the toxins out of your bloodstream enables it to pull more toxins out of your stores of fat. This is critical. The body uses fat stores to protect the body from toxins it has ingested but is too overloaded to process. Clean your blood, and the body is able to start processing those toxins. Once the fat stores have let go of the toxins, they no longer serve their purpose of protecting the body and can be dissolved.
Most of the smoothie recipes in The Aztec Diet include some form of greens. This is a critically important part of the diet. Green means clean. Be sure you are including greens in your smoothies at least twice a day. The greener your green, the better. This is why kale is number 1 on Dr. Bob’s list. Further down the list is spinach, and below that is leaf lettuce. Romaine is comparable to leaf lettuce, but has more protein and beta-carotene and less fat than leaf lettuce. It may be that Dr. Bob prefers leaf lettuce because it blends more easily than romaine.
I like to add a tablespoon of green powder to my morning smoothie. Green powders come from any of a number of plants and algae that have a high concentration of chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is very similar to hemoglobin in make up. The main difference is that it has magnesium instead of iron at its core. Chlorophyll is a wonderful blood builder and detoxifier.
Chlorophyll is alkaline and combats acidosis. It is also a deodorant, which is why restaurants used to garnish plates of food with parsley. You were supposed to chew on it to freshen your breath. Ironically, the sprig of parsley that has been so ignored is likely, gram for gram, the most nutritious thing on any given dinner plate. The greener something is, the more chlorophyll it has. Your green powder should turn whatever you put it in a deep dark green.
You can buy green powders in jars for about $20 and up for a one month supply. I make my own and pay much less. Many of the commercial green powders have lots of extras in them. However, you may not be getting therapeutic amounts of all the ingredients, especially the expensive ones.
I buy the following from the bulk herb section of my favorite health food store, Clifton Natural Foods here in Cincinnati: 4 oz. spirulina, 2 oz chlorella, 2 oz. wheat grass powder, 2 oz. barley grass powder. I toss them all in a big jar, screw the lid on tight and roll it around until it’s well mixed. Any one of these powders is a wonderful supplement in its own right. I like to use a blend. While each is a good detoxifier, they all have different properties.
Spirulina has many benefits. It has a highly concentrated complete protein. It works to balance blood sugar and increases brain function
Chlorella Japanese research found that chlorella could be beneficial in fighting obesity, diabetes and heart disease by reducing body fat percentages and blood glucose levels. Researchers also claim that chlorella is effective in boosting energy, improving digestion and fighting depression (The FDA does not support these findings). Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/243612-benefits-uses-for-chlorella-powder/#ixzz2LxakA1hv
Wheatgrass increases energy and stimulates the thyroid gland.
Barley grass promotes the growth of friendly bacteria in the intestines. It also is full of iron.
Spirulina and chlorella are algae. They naturally clump on top of water. Whenever you add these to a smoothie, wait until you have a nice whirlpool in the center of your blender, then open the lid and pour your green powder into the center of the whirlpool. This prevents your green powder from sticking to the side of your blender.
Other good blood cleansers are lemon and cayenne. Including these in your diet will accelerate your losses. I put cayenne into empty capsules and take them with meals. Go slow with the cayenne, it can cause stomach upset. Lemon can be added to smoothies or drinking water.
Lia Anderson Dog Park Mysteries by C.A. Newsome 