Maybe try skipping the kale next time? Just a pinch of spinach. It's really just a process of elimination and addition to find a good combination. Pineapple has never agreed with me and banana is ok, just a frozen slice. I LOVE banana but does not sit well on its own. Same with apple. So i make a pretty crazy combo and a bit different using what i have. My system (body/digestion) has a kale addiction in all forms...baked crispy chip, steamed, raw salads. I have a big bag frozen that i lightly steamed and chopped up fine from a big farm stand purchase. I use a pinch of that if i don't have fresh. And they don't need to be the color green to be 'green'. I used frozen blueberries, grapes and cherry tomatoes. Tbsp ac vinegar, a scoop of yogurt, a squeeze of lime and a slice of ginger. Slice of apple. A pinch of baby spinach and arugula. A bit of water because of so much frozen stuff. That was this morning. DH takes a small granola, yogurt and frozen berries in a jelly jar to work. He poured a bit of my brown eggplant colored sludge on top. Leaves me with about 6 oz. to sip while buzzing around or commuting. My stomach does not handle a large amount of fruit sugars. I recall you just got your Vitamix? Are you burping it? After blending running it on low for 10-15 seconds. High speed does whip in alot of air. Grainlady has a good point. Just give it more time to consume at first? And smaller amounts till you get used to it. It has the opposite effect on me. Seems to settle my stomach. Too much sugar, too fast, and too icy cold and i would probably puke. We have a couple Breville juicers at work and they run non-stop for a couple hours. Some can't handle ginger at all and get immediate burps and heart burn. We all have different tolerances. Sugars on an empty stomach first thing, or some would rather have nothing for a few hours. A small oatmeal first... Some, somehow, are still standing after a cig and diet coke for breakfast followed by a bagel, a couple-a pastries and a bag of chips. Sounds like you are putting the same things in that your system is used to. Just a different order in your day.

"I WISH I could like the green smoothies but I just don't! Maybe I need to add more fruit to give it a sweeter taste." You could add more fresh fruit and/or dried fruit. An alternative is to give your tastebuds more time to acclimate to the "green" taste. When I first started making smoothies, they had quite a lot of sweeter fruits in them, and a lot of carrot juice. These days, I've not only increased the proportion of vegetables substantially while decreasing the proportion of fruits and sugary vegetables, but I've also switched to lower-sugar fruits, like berries, including unsweetened cranberries. What's interesting is that now, I don't like sweeter smoothies as much. For example, I made one a few days ago with unsweetened pomegranate juice, and it seemed like a dessert to me. golddust, you said this: "I can't believe the difference in my skin. It feels softer and less puffy." The same here. But there's more. How many of you have face creams, eye creams, special creams for nighttime, body creams and lotions? Special ones for feet, for cuticles. For every single body part or so it seems? I realized the other day that I'm no longer using anything. After showering, I always needed the whole gamut of creams and lotions; the same after washing my face, which always felt unpleasantly tight. These days, my skin always feels soft, and no creams or lotions are needed. Of course, I can't scientifically ascribe the change to green smoothies, nor would I. I also can't say it's because of what I now eat, or because of what I no longer eat. It's probably due to a combo of all those factors. (It might well be due to something else entirely, of course.) But whatever, I don't want to estimate the cost of all those partially jars and bottles! Because I doubt I'll ever finish up any of them.

Oh dear - let's see what I did :-) Basically, I started with the Gazpacho recipe in WS but wanted it chunkier and easier. Chopped 1 red onion in Vitamix - saved 1/4 cup for another recipe. Put 3/4 to 1 cup in a bowl for later. Add 1 chopped seedless (skinned or not) cucumber, 1.5-2 cups chopped heirloom tomatoes(or whatever you want - I used a mixture of Amish paste, heirloom, and regular tomatoes), 1 TB lemon juice, 2 tsp fresh chopped parsley, 1 TBS oil to this bowl and refrigerate Start a second bowl and put the rest of the onions in it. Core(if you want) another 2 lbs of tomatoes and quarter - put 1/2 in the bowl and the rest in another bowl.(or just combine them all - it works a well as you are going to liquify everything in the end). 1 large or 2 small garlic cloves Salt and pepper to taste (I keep things low sodium but added a bit for our guests) 2 TBS lemon 1/2 tsp fresh thyme 2 TBS Sherry vinegar (I didn't have any - so used 1 TBS Apple cider vinegar and 1 TBS port wine - LOL) Blend 1/2 of the tomatoes going from 1 to max until completely smooth. Then turn to level 1 to "burp" it. Pour into a dish Add rest of the tomatoes and another cuke and repeat. Just before serving, add the fresh veggies to the soup or ladle soup and have guests add the veggies. Now, the WS calls to use 2 cups of cubed french bread and blend that into the first batch of tomatoes(in the vitamin) but I didn't do that step - I didn't have any french bread and wasn't sure about how it would do. Serve with either plain yogurt or sour cream. Hope I didn't miss anything.

"Wouldn't just using a good quality Greek yogurt give you the protein you need to get through the morning?" I like to supplement my protein intake because I am very active and am always trying to build more muscle. I don't eat any meat and only have fish occasionally. Protein shakes are an easy way to make sure I'm getting protein. I keep track of my nutrient intake and without a protein supplement, I would fall short most days. Back on track to the smoothie diet, I bought that book a few weeks ago (10 day Green Smoothie Cleanse). The diet is not just smoothies as other things are allowed, too ... hard boiled eggs, crunch vegetables, apples, a handful of nuts or seeds, peanut butter, etc. I saw it more as a way of cleansing your system to get back on a good nutritional track than as a way to lose weight, though most of the testimonials included weight loss.