Orlando has successfully completed 2 weeks of his cleanse. Here is the breakdown:

Week 1 – fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds
Week 2 – fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds, seafood

I realize that sometimes the most challenging part of changing your diet is that you don’t know where to begin. That’s why we all desperately look for sample menus or recipes. The whole concept appears bigger than our minds can handle. This used to happen to us. I believe our success in this process has been in keeping it simple.

Especially when doing things like a cleanse which is so strict or when starting a lifestyle change, sticking to a simple regimen makes it easier for us to follow through with it. Then when it gets boring or you’re more comfortable with the foods you’re eating, then you can start incorporating more alternatives.

The basic meal plan is as follows:

Smoothies for breakfast
Salads for lunch
Powersnack balls or almonds for snack
Hot Dinner

There are so many things I’d like to share about the cleanse that i’m having a hard time putting it all in one post so I’ve decided to do several posts regarding the recipes used during the cleanse.

Let’s begin with a few recipes for our morning smoothies:

I’ve made all sorts of smoothies in the past but during these 2 weeks I’ve really focused on cleansers for us to maximize orlando’s detox month.

I bought a few herb plants: parsley, mint, thyme, cilantro, basil, oregano and put them in my backyard. I’ve been taking advantage of them!!!

Smoothie #1 (Orlando’s favorite)

• parsley
• cilantro
• celery
• cucumber
• lemon
• pear
• water

Smoothie #2 (my favorite)

• cilantro
• cucumber
• pineapple
• blueberries
• lemon
• water

Smoothie #3

• celery
• parsley
• lemon
• ginger
• apple
• stevia
• water

Smoothie #4

• cucumber
• celery
• lemon
• green superfood
• pear
• water
• stevia

The great thing about these smoothies have been their consistency. Orlando does not like the seedy smoothies and he really doesn’t like it when the smoothies are thick. But we do smoothies instead of juicing in order to preserve the fiber content of the fruits and veggies. Well, the beauty of these is that they come out juice-like. Much smoother than some of the other smoothies and Orlando likes drinking them a lot more. I use the nutribullet for these and I make sure to always add water to the max line and they are great.

All these variations are great for cleansing the system, great for the skin and quick and easy to make in the mornings.