Here is the video of the smoothie creation processs. In the video I cover the ingredients, knife safety, blenders and everything you need to know to start making daily life transforming smoothies. The video showcases an older version which really targets healing the gut and is not nearly as tasty as my current version. I ate this version for about 2 years until I realized I needed to tweak it to make it more palatable for my tastebuds. This involved increasing the orange, banana amounts. Whatever you do, make sure you can palate the smoothie, otherwise you will stop making them and never receive any benefits.

Elixir Of Life Smoothie Revision 3 (2015-17)

♦ 8 oz. Plant-Based Milk: Soy, Coconut, Cashew.
♦ 1tbsp Chia Seeds or Hemp Hearts (Omega 3 & Fiber) Soak in milk for 5-10 minutes before blending.
♦ ½ tsp Organic Turmeric Powder
♦ 1 large carrot
♦ 2 bananas w/peel
♦ 1 inch of Ginger
♦ ⅓ Sweet Potato
♦ 2 cups of organic Kale & Spinach
♦ ½ Apple
♦ 1 Orange with partial peel
♦ ½ Avocado with seed (chopped up)
♦ ⅓ Large beet with greens (color)
♦ 1 cup Raspberry, blueberries
& Strawberries.

The Incredibly Awesome Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent Fasting: This is a really incredible tool to help heal the digestive system/gut and in turn helps keep the waistline consistent. You can read more about how I stumbled into intermittent fasting below but it is truly remarkable. I start my Smoothie between 1-3PM each day depending on how my body feels. Somedays I get up at 6am so I am up and about for up to 7-8 hours before eating my first food for the day. I have been able to do 30+ miles on a bike ride before my smoothie and many other feats which our traditional nutritional organizations would disagree with. You can see quite a few of the amazing benefits of intermittent fasting by clicking the image.

Water: This is one of the keys to health and everyone knows it but so few take advantage of it. In 2013 while on a hike one of my vegan pals talked to me about this wonder potion. Before that day I had experienced more than a decade of very painful chronic back issues. At the time of starting my water regiment I was taking an advil regiment, prescribed by my doctor, doing bi weekly massages and still barely comfortable enough to stand after a day of sitting in my office. My entire life was transformed by water. Within weeks I no longer needed the advil and shortly afterwards I made the realization that my chronic back pain was 90% from being chronically dehydrated. EVERYONE MUST DRINK A MINIMUM OF 64oz of water. I have heard so many BS reports how this is not necessary but I am living proof that it is. We have to remember that our society is designed to flourish with sick people. Corporations want to keep people sick to keep the money rolling in. 

Another huge benefit of water is helping the gut in the morning. People misdiagnose that their stomach is hungry in the morning but actually it is seriously dehydrated from 8 hours of laying in a bed. If you think about it, it makes sense. During the day it is smart to keep putting water in the body but then we sleep and the body continues to operate, especially the brain. One of the functions of Water is that it is the coolant for our brains as well as many other parts of our bodies. Our bodies release a lot of water over night and our body craves it, we think it is hungry because most food does have some water in it. Anyways, after doing intermittent fasting with water as the start of my day since 2015, I can safely say that my body thrives each morning on pure water or tea. 🙂 

Tea: In 2016 I changed my daily water into 32oz of tea daily. Now I drink a 32oz mug of tea every morning as soon as I can. Water can get a bit boring so I started switching things up and drinking a big mug of herbal tea each morning. I am not a fan of caffeine and if one is eating well and sleeping well, one will have an abundance of energy so caffeine is completely unnecessary. 

Dinner: Because of how I eat I am able to have pretty much whatever my heart desires for dinner each evening. 

Part I

Going Veggie | 1992-Current

Back in around 1992 I started giving up specific animals. The first ones were sea animals and pigs. Shortly after that I quit eating turkey. Each animal was connected to a personal connection or story. I stopped eating pigs on the day my mom explained to me what baby back ribs were. I could not believe that we were eating baby pigs. Baby back ribs were one of my favorite foods at the annual fair. I have since learned that mostly what I enjoyed was the delicious BBQ sauce but at that time I did not know this. One by one I gave up another animal.

In 1995, over the summer before 7th grade I for some reason made the decision to give up all animals, except for chicken. My mom and I were going through the drive through and getting our regular Whoppers. After she passed it to me and I began to chow down, I turned to her and said very matter of factly that this would be my last one, and it was.

A few weeks into my 7th grade year of junior high we were tasked to do a research report. I decided to do factory farming. I knew very little about it and at this time the internet barely existed so all of the resources we have today did not exist. I went to my school library and my Spokane public library to learn more. What I found was painful and shocking. As I finished my classroom presentation I shared with everyone that I had given up my final animal, Chicken.

In 1995 it was pretty hard to find plant-based foods so I mostly ate 3 things: Mac and Cheese, Pizza and other forms of Pasta with LOTS Of extra cheese. Cheese was my solution for this thing called protein. I wish I had a picture but my mother would stock up on 2lb blocks of cheese and I probably ate close to 2lbs of cheese a week for the next 18 years of my life, not very healthy.

Part I

Going Veggie | 1992-Current

Back in around 1992 I started giving up specific animals. The first ones were sea animals and pigs. Shortly after that I quit eating turkey. Each animal was connected to a personal connection or story. I stopped eating pigs on the day my mom explained to me what baby back ribs were. I could not believe that we were eating baby pigs. Baby back ribs were one of my favorite foods at the annual fair. I have since learned that mostly what I enjoyed was the delicious BBQ sauce but at that time I did not know this. One by one I gave up another animal.

In 1995, over the summer before 7th grade I for some reason made the decision to give up all animals, except for chicken. My mom and I were going through the drive through and getting our regular Whoppers. After she passed it to me and I began to chow down, I turned to her and said very matter of factly that this would be my last one, and it was.

A few weeks into my 7th grade year of junior high we were tasked to do a research report. I decided to do factory farming. I knew very little about it and at this time the internet barely existed so all of the resources we have today did not exist. I went to my school library and my Spokane public library to learn more. What I found was painful and shocking. As I finished my classroom presentation I shared with everyone that I had given up my final animal, Chicken.

In 1995 it was pretty hard to find plant-based foods so I mostly ate 3 things: Mac and Cheese, Pizza and other forms of Pasta with LOTS Of extra cheese. Cheese was my solution for this thing called protein. I wish I had a picture but my mother would stock up on 2lb blocks of cheese and I probably ate close to 2lbs of cheese a week for the next 18 years of my life, not very healthy.

Part II

Giving Up My Addiction To Dairy | 2013-Current

After 18 years of happily being a vegetarian. The universe gifted me with a partner who chose to watch the first 20 minutes of the film called Earthlings. She was in the other room crying and I felt her emotions. It was so hard to take second hand. Years ago I helped her go veggie and now she lead me to go vegan. Once I had the blinders off, there was no other option. I had never fully allowed myself to look at the reality of the dairy industry. I knew veal was a biproduct of it but again I never looked deep. That changed that day in April 2013. At that time in my life I ate museli with yogurt each morning and I could not imagine life without this ritual. So we drove to Fred Meyer’s(Krogers) Grocery Store and I bought my first Silk Vegan Yogurt. I was so nervous and excited that I could not wait until I got home, the moment I had paid I opened the yogurt and turned the lid into a spoon. I was instantly shocked, IT TASTED THE EXACT SAME!!! I could not believe it. There was no real difference between the dairy yogurt which I ate that morning and this. We also grabbed some of this weird sounding Daiya branded cheese and other things to try. Everything was either great or acceptable. Things have changed a LOT since 2013 and today there are so many plant-based dairy options that I cannot imagine a reason to not go vegan. I have so much respect for the people who chose to go vegan back in the 1980s and before like Moby. Truly incredible! 

Removing Dairy Healed My Asthma, Pet and Seasonal Allergies

Something I never imagined was not having Asthma. I had my first Asthma attack at the age of two. As I remember, I was eating oatmeal with my father in his dinning room and all the sudden I could not breathe. I was rushed to the hospital and spent a week in a breathing chamber until my lungs could function properly. What I would not realize until decades later was that I was eating oatmeal with cows milk.

The next 3 decades I spent struggling whenever I would run, or do heavy physical activity. I was always trying to catch my breath without success. My mom wanted me to be active so I played soccer until I was 12 and every practice or game was a living hell for me. So much pain in my throat and lungs.

Why does dairy cause asthma? Well dairy is one of the inflaming foods in our diet. It produces an abundance of mucus in the throat and lungs. This causes the burning and blockages. Since giving up dairy I do not recall using my inhaler a single time 🙂 It just sits in my dresser drawer.

Then I quit dairy in the spring of 2013 and my life changed forever. As I mentioned above, I ATE A LOT OF DAIRY! Especially in the form of cheese. I noticed the change about 2 months after going vegan and I was not out of breath when active. The more wonderful change was that for the first time in my life, I no longer was allergic to my fur babies.

When I was a born we had to let go of one of our two cats because I was severely allergic to her. I would deal with this challenge for my whole life, never being able to really get close to animals. If we would go to the humane society to look at a new cat, my airways would close within a minute or two and I would have to rush to the car to wait until my mom was done. We always had 2-3 cats in the house as I grew up . Each time we got a new one, my body spent 2-3 weeks in a asthma state where I had great challenges of breathing. Once my body got used to the new dander, I was fine. I could not get too close though and I never could really pet my cats for fear of a reaction. They were not allowed in my bedroom at night. Around 2 months after removing dairy from my diet, the cats were able to sleep in the bedroom. Now they sleep on my pillow in my face every night.

I still have minor allergies to dust, paint, some chemicals and sage burning but all other major ailments are long gone. If I had known this when I was a child, my life would be seriously different. I may be a player in the NBA or on a MLB team 😉 Friends don’t let friends drink dairy 🙂 Note: Some who give up dairy continue to have allergies and asthma. I would recommend seeing if this can help. I am sure you will find some health benefits of giving up dairy.

Part III

Intermittent Fasting and other tools

Before 2014, I would bounce between 185-205lbs depending on the time of year. Compared with the average American on the SAD diet, I was pretty average but I knew I was not healthy. I went vegetarian at 12 and lived primarily on a processed plant-based diet for over 20 years. About 2 months before the film Fed Up came out I tried an experiment which involved 2 simple adjustments in my eating schedule. After watching the film I doubled down on my efforts to curb my processed sugar intake. Here is a bit more about my eating history and how I became who I am today.

Backstory: Pre-Smoothie Breakfast

Because I was brainwashed, like many others in our society, I believed that to be healthy I needed to eat a large breakfast very quickly after waking up. I would daily eat 4-5 cups(wet) oatmeal with raisins for breakfast daily since I was a child. From time to time I would eat a whole wheat waffle with homemade applesauce on top or Cheerios. For the final 2 years of my pre-smoothie eating, I was eating Bob’s Red Mill Museli with a non-dairy yogurt. Most would say I eat an incredibly healthful breakfast but I had no idea how good things could be.

Phase 1: Adjusting my eating schedule(Intermittent Fasting) & Cutting out Sweets/Junk (Massive Weight Loss) | 2014

In 2014, I realized I needed a change. On the scale, I tipped to 205lbs for the first time in my life and I was so uncomfortable in my own skin. I was wondering if I could do simple tweaks to my diet to remove my weight without anything drastic such as a traditional diet or exercise :). My first step was to cut out all food after about 8pm. I have always been a snacker, especially late at night. I would regularly eat 1/2 pint of vegan ice cream or a row of Newman O’s( a marginally more healthy alternative to Oreos). Over the first 2 months, I lost about 1-2lbs/week of fat using this simple method of eating. What was really cool is that within a month my extreme cravings also dissipated 🙂

Simultaneously, I began moving my breakfast back a little bit of time each day. I started eating around 9am, at that time I was working my old corporate job and so I would eat at my desk when I got to work to save time. I usually woke up around 8:20am, would shower and zoom to work. At this point in my life, I was still requiring at least 8.5-9 hours of sleep. Going vegan did help a bit but I was under immense stress at home living with an alcoholic and at my corporate job. Sleep has always been my favorite healthy drug. I learned at a young age that it was incredibly important to never try to cheat sleep. It has served me very well.

Over the following 3 months, I kept moving my breakfast back further until I was eating around 1pm each day. I also incorporated drinking 32oz of water with apple cider vinegar in it every morning before my day began. It was usually the very first thing I did when I got in the office. I would then refill my 32oz mason jar and bring it back to my desk. This was my trick to get my minimum water in each day. I had learned the amazing benefits of water a year before I started this food journey. After 4-5 months of doing these simple steps, I was eating food in a 7-hour window(1-8pm) & removed over 35lbs of fat off my body. I was now weighing in around 167 and a year later I hit my all-time low of 161lbs(shortly after a few emotional events took a toll on me). About 3 months into my journey I learned what intermittent fasting was and that it was incredibly healthful, quite the opposite of what I had been taught my entire life. I would actually get on people’s cases if they said they choose to not eat breakfast because I thought it was so detrimental to one’s health. 🙁

Phase 2: Smoothies | 2015 – Current

Around January of 2015, I began eating smoothies on the weekends. They were very simple and how most people probably start and stop when it comes to “smoothies”. I made them with about 1-2 cups of berries, plant-based milk, banana or 2 and some protein powder( I still was slightly protein obsessed, haha ). I may put a couple of leaves of greens but that was not regular yet. By July of 2015, I had transformed the basic simple smoothie to include many of the ingredients that I now use such as turmeric, ginger, and avocado.

July 4th, 2015 was the first day that I started eating smoothies every single day. On July 5th I went through a breakup and it was not a pretty one, I guess they never are. So I decided the morning of July 6th that I would eat one of these crazy smoothies every day, to give myself enough health and nutrition to stay alive through what was going to happen next. Over the course of the next 4 months I not only went through a breakup but my ex-company began to treat me worse than ever before and then in November fired me for being vegan. I guess my intuition was right telling me that I needed before I even knew it.

Healing My Gut and Beyond | 2016 – Current

Over the next year of drinking my Elixir of Life smoothie, my health got even better. I required much less sleep than before( average is about 7ish now), continued to never get sick and even overcame my digestive issues relating to wheat and gluten, read more here. All in all, I stumbled upon what I believe is the fountain of youth and the best source of raw energy.  I cannot imagine not eating my smoothie each day and I find it so funny that people regularly gorge themselves for breakfast and lunch and then have multiple hours where their digestive system takes over their brain so they do not have enough blood to do regular brain processing. Most do not know but when one eats a heavy meal, up to 60% of the blood in their body goes to their gut to help the processing. This is why it is so hard to think after a heavy fat-enriched meal. I absolutely hate the feeling when I eat a heavy meal, it makes me almost feel stupid drunk. Things that usually come very easily are much harder to do or process.

More Flexible Eating i.e. Falling Back into Sugar Addiction | 2016-17

What was really surprising is that after about 6 months of eating my smoothies I was able to start eating treats at night and my waistline did not expand. For over 2 years I regularly have whatever I want for dinner and after and I have stayed between 172-176lbs. I feel like I have found the magic bullet. I do enjoy treats late at night, ice cream, cookies, and other yummy foods before bed. That being said, I have to truly follow my regiment or else this does not work. I do my best to never overeat. With the snacks( 300-500 calories), Dinner(500-800 calories), and my smoothie(900-1000 calories) I am eating still a very sensible diet. What I have found is that have no cravings for junk food until after dinner. Part of this was my teaching myself not to eat junk until after dinner. It does take restraint but the benefits of my way of eating are pretty incredible. I DO NOT RECOMMEND ANYONE TO INCORPORATE JUNK FOOD BACK IN THEIR DIET UNTIL THEY HAVE MET THEIR IDEAL WEIGHT GOALS AND STAYED THERE FOR A MINIMUM OF 6 MONTHS. I cannot stress this enough. You have to reteach yourself how to eat sensibility or else this program will not probably work. I had a fair amount of fat on my body so I never was hungry at night, once I did lose that weight my body began to crave a bit more calories, at least that is how I think it works. Also, do not eat highly processed crap. Make your own cookies and snacks instead of store bought crap. Your body will thank you and be able to bypass the junk without holding on to it because you have healed your gut.

Cutting Out Sweets Again | February 2018 – April 2018

For about 6 months, since I started working out again, I was toying with the idea of cutting out sweets again. This was primarily because I would love to see a full 6-pack on my body and I have a hypothesis that my sugar intake at night is keeping that layer of fat on my stomach.

So when my roommate of the time got sick, a week before Central Coast VegFest, I knew I had to be extra careful to not get her flu/cold. I have stayed well for the years since going vegan and I do that by following some strict self-support steps when near people who are sick, you can read my recommendations here. One of the most important of my steps is NO SUGAR!

So the first about 7-10 days were tough and I had some cravings but because I was not doing this for myself but because I did not want to let down a community of people who were depending on me for the event, I stuck with it. I honestly do not know if I would have gone through if it was not for that event. In the end, I was able to go through the week with her and put on the event without getting her cold. It took her out for about 10 days.

So at the writing of this(March 18, 2018), I have not been actively eating sugar foods for about 7 weeks. What I have noticed is a very minor slimming on my body. That is pretty much the only change but I am happy that I no longer crave sugar in an uncontrolled manner. Just a few months ago, if it was a vegan and a sweet, it would land in my mouth 🙂 On my birthday I ate 1.5 maple bar donuts but because the bacteria in my gut are much more healthful, my body did not go into full cravings again. I have eaten a few other sweets in the past 7 weeks but so far I have kept my addiction at bay 🙂 I also have been eating Apples on a much more regular basis than before. Josh Lajaunie got me interested in Apples, I have never really eaten them outside of my smoothie. Watching him down a 3lb bag in a single day was inspirational. 🙂  So I am eating more natural fruits outside of my smoothie.

Less Restrictive Eating – April 2018 – Christmas 2019

After a few months without sugar, I stopped restricting it. I do not go out of my way to eat it now but I also am not too worried about it. I know that cutting out food after 8pm and shortening my non-fasting window does lead to weight loss. I have stuck in the 180-185lb range over this past year which feels like a healthy weight with my current muscle mass.

Part IV
Adding Practices to daily life

Healing Mind and Body Time – Christmas 2019 – Current

Around Christmas I felt a shift. I was dealing with heartbreak and the universe directed me to make some changes without my notice. On the 5th of January, I jumped on the scale and realized I lost 10lbs since Christmas. I was now 176 for the first time in a while. I had really gotten used to sticking in the 180s and eating a lot more garbage than my body needed. Well, this miraculous weight loss gave me the inspiration to really amp up my game in my gym with a goal to finally create the body I have desired since childhood. I had begun to work out around the middle of December again and so I dedicated myself to getting in my gym every other day and begin a true reshaping of my body. Now in mid February I am down a total of 15 lbs to 171lbs and my body is really completely redefining. On top of these bi-daily workouts I have added the following practices to my life:

• Staring breakfast between 4-6pm and stopping around 10pm each night. This 18-20 hour daily fast has been really powerful at removing excess body weight.
• 2+ hours of meditation daily plus 2x week meditation in groups
• 2 yoga sessions or other group workouts
• Organizing the entire house and keeping it in order. This was a wild one, I did not have any intention but the lady I was seeing made a simple comment about the messy spices on my counter and I cleaned them and then I cleaned the entire kitchen, then organized the cookbooks and on it went. Over 2 weeks I cleaned and organized every room in the house. The big change in my life is I leave nothing to be done later. My bad habit from childhood was setting things at the top or bottoms of the stairs to put away later. Well later would never come and there would be huge piles of crap sitting there. This lead me to be very disorganized in many spaces around the house. Since the switch was flipped, I have done everything in the moment instead of putting things off until later. It really makes life so much easier to live! I highly recommend it. Living in order helps everything else. It also allowed me to let go of about 200lbs of stuff, 9 bags and a bunch of other large things I no longer use.
• 1-2x week rollerblading at local roller rinks
• Vitamin D3 daily. This has completely cured my normal seasonal depression. You can check out the brand I bought, it is amazing!!!
• Reading! I have read The Untethered Soul 5x in the past few months and I am reading also The Empath’s Survival Guide and a few others. Reading is a great meditation practice.

Overall I am really focusing on healing and centering myself. Eating much better again plus all of these other practices is helping my mind, spirit and body come together. I never intended to do any of these things but each of them just sort of fell into my lap and I accepted the challenge.

Good luck on your journey. I am here if you ever need any support!

Josh@plantpoweredprophet.com