Boutenko - Green Smoothie Retreat: A 7-Day Plan to Detox and Revitalize at Home

Copyright 2014 by Victoria Boutenko. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the written permission of the publisher. For information contact North Atlantic Books.

North Atlantic Books
P.O. Box 12327
Berkeley, California 94712

Cover photo by Kesu01/istockphoto
Cover and Trade Paperback book design by Claudia Smelser

Green Smoothie Retreat is sponsored and published by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences (dba North Atlantic Books), an educational nonprofit based in Berkeley, California, that collaborates with partners to develop cross-cultural perspectives, nurture holistic views of art, science, the humanities, and healing, and seed personal and global transformation by publishing work on the relationship of body, spirit, and nature.

North Atlantic Books publications are available through most bookstores. For further information, visit our website at www.northatlanticbooks.com or call 8007333000.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Boutenko, Victoria.

Green smoothie retreat / Victoria

Boutenko.

pages cm

Summary: Health and Fitness: Nutrition; Smoothies (Beverages); Cookery (Greens)

Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

eBook ISBN: 978-1-58394-861-3
Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-58394-860-6

1. Nutrition. 2. Smoothies (Beverages) 3. Cooking (Greens) I. Title.

RA784.B6814 2014

613.2dc23

v3.1

Have you ever been to a healing retreat? Were you fortunate to spend several days in a peaceful sanctuary where you were only resting and healing? The participants of a retreat usually live in comfortable rooms in a pleasant environment. They communicate only with a group of like-minded people. They consume special food, participate in workshops, and partake in restorative procedures. Such retreats help people to set a number of healthy habitssuch as going to bed early, eating healthier, giving up coffee, and exercisingalong with learning some healthy recipes.

My family has organized a variety of healing retreats since the year 2000, and we know firsthand that it can be rather expensive. For example, we must find an appropriate venue located in a clean environment but close to the airport or railway station so that participants dont have to rent a car. The facility needs to have a certified kitchen with a walk-in cooler and be suitable for the preparation of large quantities of produce. All of these factors add to the price, thus making such a retreat unreachable for many people. However, most people are even less likely to adopt a new lifestyle while going about their daily lives. I have been teaching natural health for almost twenty years and have noticed how difficult it is for people to start a new way of living without proper preparation.

At the same time, it is possible to organize your own retreat if you know how. In this book I describe in detail what you need to know to succeed with your own healing retreat. I have chosen a green smoothie retreat because such retreats have been particularly effective in my own practice. I present recommendations, nutritional facts, and recipes for a seven-day green smoothie retreat; this way, the book can be used both by those who would like to go on a green smoothie cleanse and those who would like to include more green smoothies in their everyday lives.

From 2008 through 2013, I conducted nineteen weeklong green smoothie retreats. Most of the information in this book comes from my observations of over a thousand participants at my retreats.

CRITICAL THINKING

To find yourself, think for yourself.

SOCRATES

Without the ability for critical thinking you have a lot fewer chances to enjoy vibrant health. Of course, you need advice and assistance from medical professionals once in a while, but I would like to emphasize that it is you who needs to consciously participate in making the key decisions concerning your health because your well-being is among your highest priorities in life. For example, when buying a car, you would never let a car salesman decide for you which car you should buy. I imagine that, if car dealers had the power to decide for their customers, we would all be driving Porsches and Lamborghinis while sinking deeply in debt. Instead, when you decide to buy a car, you first gather detailed information about prospective vehicles and only then make your choice. If you happen to buy the wrong car, though you may encounter problems, overall such a decision is not fatal because you can always replace that car with another, more suitable vehicle.

However, you cannot buy another life or another body. Your life is unique and therefore priceless, and your health is precious. Your health is yours and no one elses. Therefore, you are in charge of your precious health, and you would greatly benefit from understanding the main principles of human health before agreeing to any particular health treatment.

Most people now have cameras in their phones, but only photographers who understand the physical laws of reflection and optics are able to create photographic masterpieces. Similarly, a basic understanding of the principles of natural healing enables each person to significantly improve his or her health. I encourage you to do your homework and read in this book and others about the underlying principles of healing your beautiful body so that you can take better care of your health and live a longer and healthier life.

In order to grasp these principles, critical thinking is essential. Otherwise, it would be hard to understand the true cause of so-called Without a clear understanding of human bodily functions, it may appear natural to take lots of pills but seem abnormal, for example, to connect diabetes to a lack of workouts or skin rashes to the process of detoxing. By studying a natural approach to health, you can start understanding that only the elimination of the cause can ensure true healing of any degenerative disease. Later in this book we will talk about the two main reasons for the majority of health problems.

Nowadays, critical thinking has become many times more vital than in previous times. Two or three hundred years ago most foods were natural and safe to eat. Our ancestors only had to worry about their foods cleanliness and freshness. Of course, there were times of food shortages, but, in general, eating was not associated with a wide range of unsolvable health problems such as those we face today. The words pesticides, bovine hormones, genetically modified, irradiated, synthetic coloring, hydrogenated, pasteurized, organically grown, and thousands of others simply didnt exist.

To navigate for safety in the modern diversity of foodstuffs, one must become an expert in critical thinking. Otherwise, how can you tell organic from original, sugar from sweetener, real from natural, and solve countless other tricky puzzles for the sake of your safety? You have to constantly remember that the food industry stopped being your friend ever since the time of the Industrial Revolution, at which time it developed an ever-growing arsenal of creative means to deceive its customers with a sweet smile at the consumers own expense. As a result, the majority of us face enormous problems connected to everyday eating.