Blueprint Cleanse - grocery list and cost breakdown

Grocery list for 3 days of the Foundation level cleanse on Blueprint Cleanse:

Produce:
24 - Granny Smith apples
1 bag - Romaine lettuce
4 bags - Celery
8 - cucumbers
2 bags - Kale
1 bag - Parsley
2 bags - Spinach
1 pineapple
1 clamshell of Mint leaves
2 bags - Lemons

Dry grocery:
lemon juice
Agave nectar
cashews (15 oz)
vanilla extract
cayenne pepper

Water bottles - 18
use the water in the lemonade and cashew milk recipes

And now for the final tally........
Grocery cost: $74.69
Per day: $24.89
Per juice: $4.15

UPDATE: when I went to buy the ingredients for round 2 I was a little more cost conscience and the per juice price came down to $3.20!  I also bought some Mason jars to put the juice in (glass is better!) so that reduced the 1-time use fee of the water bottles. 

So, while BPC charges $70 per day, you can make your own for approximately $25.  This does not include the cost of the juicer/blender so you'll have to figure that in as well.  If I were to cleanse every other month that would be about $9.00 additional in blender costs for one year.

I also would suggest shopping a little smarter than I did to be more cost efficient.  I'm sure you can buy raw cashews for cheaper (I spent about $18) and of course you don't use the entire vanilla extract or agave bottle while making these recipes so you can take some cost off there as well.

Good luck and happy cleansing!

Blueprint Cleanse - Homemade

After spending a week on a "diet" that had me consuming almost 1500 calories a day, I decided it was time to repeat the Blueprint Cleanse.  I am going to Sanibel in 41 days and I refuse to look like this when I go!  So bring on the big guns - it's time to get down to business.  And business = cleanse!

I pondered taking the easy route out and just ordering the juices again but at $70/day - I just couldn't stomach the cost.  So I did a little research and found a juicer/blender that I thought could do the trick!  Instead of the very pricey Vitamix that is so highly recommended, I chose a less expensive Ninja.

I made my list and hit the grocery store yesterday on our way home from rugby.  I'm going to have the grocery list and cost breakdown for you in a future post - don't worry.  I'm curious myself to see how much it actually costs to make these juices for one day.  My guess is it's about $12!

I began with the Green Juice since that is the first one you drink during the day.  I also knew, by the ingredient list, that it would be the most time consuming.  And it was to the tune of about an hour of prep and juice time.  But now I'm ready for the next three days.

Once I had all of my ingredients out and ready - it was time to get blending:

Green Juice:
5 celery stalks
1 cucumber
5 stalks parsley
2 Granny Smith apples
3 Romaine leaves
3 Kale leaves
1Tbs Lemon juice
Water

I have to say the Ninja was AWESOME!  No matter what I put in it or in what order, it just made it a smoothy!  Keep in mind you have to strain the mix so it's not going to be a pure liquid!

The recipe I was using said to use a paint strainer.  I'm not sure what that is (but I'm going to Google it for next time).  I used a fine strainer I had.  It worked okay but I do think I left behind a lot of juice by not being able to press the juice out.

End result - nine 16-ounce bottles of Green Juice.  I know the picture is not showing 9 full bottles but trust me - there are nine and they are full!  Not to worry, I am drinking the full 16 ounces of green juice.

Tips: I added a little more lemon juice to make them a little more tolerable than the BPC version.  I also realized, while ingesting my first Green Juice this morning, that they are much easier to get down when served over ice!











Up next, the P.A.M juice!  I promise it is yellow and not green like it appears in this picture.

Pineapple Apple Mint (P.A.M.) juice:
1/3 pineapple
2 Granny Smith Apples
4-5 Tbs Mint leaves
1 oz lime juice (I used lemon)

P.A.M. is one of the easiest drinks in the Foundation Cleanse.  It tastes just like it sounds - pineappley and minty!   Yum!  I will say this drink probably does not have the same nutritional value as if you ordered from BPC.  There was a lot of "pulp" and not much juice so I added a bit of water to the second batch to make it easier to juice.  But that probably detracts from the juice content too.

I'm now onto juice #3 of the day - another Green Juice.  I am actually FULL!  I don't want to drink anything else!  But alas,  in about an hour I will have a spicy lemonade!

Spicy Lemonade
14 oz of filtered water
3 oz Lemon juice
1/4 tsp Cayenne pepper
1 tbs Agave nectar

I put this concoction into the Ninja too just to get it all mixed together.  I believe that is why it turned out orange, rather than a nice yellow lemonade color.  Or it could have been that I added DOUBLE the cayenne pepper than necessary!   Yes - DOUBLE the cayenne.  Needless to say, my lemonade has a KICK!  Whew!  I drank what you see in the glass but couldn't finish any more.  My throat was on fire!

On to Green Juice #3 of the day!  Thank goodness for the ice cubes!  It makes it so much easier to swallow.

Cashew Nut Milk - the dessert of the cleanse

Cashew Nut Milk - the dessert of the cleanse

16 oz filtered water
4-5 oz of raw cashews
1 Tbs of Agave nectar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon

This was surprisingly easy.  I've never made a "milk" before but this turned out just like the BPC version.  I had to strain it to get the gritty parts out but the end result was OH SO delicious!

End result....

Three days worth of Blueprint Cleanse-like juices!  All ready for the week to begin.  I have to say, the process time was LONG.  It took me about an hour to do the green juices and then maybe 20 minutes each on the others so total of about two hours prep time.  Had I planned better, I would have had everything here for the full 5 days so I could have kicked it out all at once.  I also would have had more cheese cloth.  The strainer took forever!

Next post will be the cost breakdown and grocery list.....

I hope you enjoyed the long blog post today!  Please leave me a comment if you have done any cleanses or plan on doing the BPC either purchased or homemade.  I would love to hear what you think!

Happy Juicing!

GM Diet update, leg/hip/thigh update and a treadmill too

Hello readers,

After my last post, I wanted to provide an update to the GM Diet.  I followed the diet for one week as I blogged and then I took one day off and started again.  The second week of the GM diet was a little more difficult to follow (or obey).  I was about 60% on the GM diet until about Tuesday.  From there it all went downhill.  In my defense, I had a LOT on my plate Tuesday including a very difficult decision about our puppy.  But, despite all that, on Friday morning I was 129.4 at home and finished our weight loss competition at 130.4 in the office.  That's a 14lb loss in the 9 weeks we did the competition.

Overall, my rating of the GM diet was a 9 out of 10!   It is easy to follow, strict but flexible, affordable and produced great results without starving me to the point of binge eating!   I liked it so much, I started it again today for week #3!  Following Easter weekend I was up to 133.4 this morning so I would like to get back to that 129 and keep that number going down, down, DOWN!

For those of you who have seen me in person over the last eight months, you might have recognized my slight limp.  Or more like a complete dragging of my left leg.  After doing every possible test, four weeks of PT and even contemplating surgery, I was finally introduced to a doctor who knew exactly what my problem was and more importantly, how to fix it.

About a month ago, I received my first set of "trigger point therapy" needle injections to stimulate a spasm in the muscle belly that runs down your inner thigh.  This is the most painful experience of my life - including child labor.  To be fair, I had two epidurals during labor so maybe my view is a little foggy.  But let me tell you, trigger point therapy hurts like a Be-witch!!  After another appointment two weeks ago, and four more needles in my muscle belly, I am feeling so much better.  It amazes me that I went this long being completely mis-diagnosed!  That being said, I am on the road to complete recovery and could not be happier.

So.....it's time to get moving again!   I was contemplating joining the gym again now that I am able to go but tonight I re-evaluated and chose a more efficient and hopefully useful alternative.  I opted to buy a very "no-frills" treadmill from Amazon that I plan on putting right in my living room to hopefully encourage *force* me to get moving.  I have also committed to Cooper that we will go for a bike ride at least 3-4 nights out of the week.  This can mean me riding, walking or running beside Coop and his new bike!

Stay tuned, I plan on being a lean, mean, sexy mama-machine this summer!   Vacation is 60 days away!!!