The Ultimate Green Smoothie (TMP Photo/A. McKinney)

Last week, my husband and I decided to try a smoothie detox cleanse that we had seen on “The Dr. Oz Show.”

I announced on Facebook what we were doing and, to my surprise, people really responded to it. Many people were interested in what it was, and mainly, if it worked.

Because it was a three-day cleanse, weight loss was not my goal in doing this.

I am not a big believer in crash dieting. However, the idea of cleaning out my system and only eating pure food for three full days was appealing to me.

The breakfast smoothie was my favorite, filling and sweet.

The lunch smoothie was full of cucumbers, celery, kale and other green ingredients. It took me about an hour to drink the whole thing, but I felt like I was drinking a magic potion.

It’s not very often you get so many ultra healthy ingredients packed into one glass.

In between lunch and dinner, you are allowed your favorite smoothie of the three recipes as a snack, thank goodness.

Lastly, the dinner smoothie was packed with berries, more kale, and even an avocado.

The first day was definitely the easiest, once the afternoon of the second day came, I was craving anything and everything salty.

Usually, I am a sweets person, but with the drastic salt reduction, a big juicy steak was all I could think about.

Overall, I am glad I tried this cleansing routine, but I am not sure I would do the whole thing again. I did feel cleaned out, if you know what I mean, but I didn’t have a huge change in the way I felt.

I suppose if you are eating fast food and highly processed foods on a regular basis and you tried this, it would make a huge difference.

But, I did learn some great new smoothie recipes as a result of this experiment. These are my simplified versions of the actual cleanse recipes.

I will definitely be substituting my lunch and breakfast for these after a weekend of indulging.

If you are interested in the Dr. Oz detox cleanse that I tried, you can find the shopping list and directions at doctoroz.com.

The Ultimate Green Smoothie

Serves: 1
From start to finish: 20 minutes

Ingredients:
1 cup kale
1 cucumber, sliced
2 celery stalks, sliced
1/2 of a green apple
1 cup pineapple
1 cup unsweetened almond milk

Directions:
Combine all of the ingredients in a blender or a food processor and blend until a smoothie consistency is formed. Serve immediately.

Power Breakfast

Serves: 1
From start to finish: 20 minutes

Ingredients:
1 cup blueberries
1/2 cup spinach
1 banana
1 Tablespoon almond butter
1 Tablespoon ground flax seed
1 cup water

Directions:
Blend all of the ingredients together and enjoy.