Archive for October, 2008

Hi, just back from 4 days visiting my best-friend-since-7th-grade in San Francisco.   I’m digging my way through emails, and I just wanted to say PLEASE FORGIVE ME because I just added another 50 emails from GSG.com readers asking me questions, to my folder of already hundreds.   I don’t know if I’ll ever get to them all, and if I do, it’ll be a while.   And it kills me, because some of those emails are those of you who wrote very kind words about my very personal disclosure recently (THANK YOU) or who are struggling with something significant.

Your best bet to ask me a question is to blog it because I prioritize answering anything that’s out here in the public space.   But anyway, thanks for your patience with me.

Coming soon: I have that nutrition quiz I beta tested a couple of months ago, new and improved, and going live on the site soon, and it’s INTERACTIVE!   (Calculates your totals for you.)   Also I have lots of new content that’s been backed up while I didn’t have a webmaster but now I have these good people in India, just getting them going.   Gradually lots of cool stuff should happen on this site, including the blogs becoming a forum at some point.   Watch VERY soon for a chance to get in on a group buy of RAW ALMONDS–opening it nationwide, though I usually just do this for my local group.   Cool, huh?   You can’t get raw almonds anywhere without paying $8/lb. to get them from Spain, and these will be $3/lb.   You just have to have raw almonds in your whole-foods cupboard or freezer, and your food storage.   Watch this space.

So, getting there, getting there!

Much love,

Robyn

Dear GreenSmoothieGirl: Thanks for your blog entry today about what you eat in a day, and when.   I had been wondering about that.   You should also let us know your beauty routine.   Do you use special facial cleaners or just simple products?   I’m wondering if you use Basic H.   Also, do you use expensive natural makeup, or just the drugstore brands?   Thanks for whatever info you want to share.

Answer:    This will probably be a disappointment, since I’m not sure I have any genius ideas.   I’m all about what I can do with the least amount of time, with few chemicals, especially sodium laureth sulfate (SLS), propylene glycol (PG), and mineral oil, which are probably the worst three of the bad ingredients in cosmetics and soap.   My main beauty tip is to let your pores be unclogged with makeup as much as possible!   I use organic, unrefined coconut oil all over my face at night, and on my lips several times a day.   I wash my face with any unscented, simple facial bar.

I don’t wear foundation.   I wear drugstore eyeliner, mascara, blush, and lipstick if I go to work or out in the evening, and that’s it.   (I’m not recommending them—I just haven’t found natural products that do what drugstore mascara and lipsticks do.   In general, expensive brands have just as much junk in them as cheap brands do.)   On days I don’t have to dress up, I wear no makeup at all, letting my skin breathe.   I’ve read that the “natural” brands (Jason, KissMyFace, etc.) still are found to have toxic chemicals in them when they are tested.   Anyone have better ideas?   I don’t think “bare mineral makeup” is the answer.   I realize that’s all the rage, but they’re still metals or minerals, maybe better than the worst products, but still pore clogging and not really the nutrition skin needs.

I also like to go in the sun to run, garden, or play tennis, several days a week—just not long enough to burn.   And I use a crystal stick for deodorant (from the health food store or Azure Standard)—it’s just salt!   No aluminum products that build up, are very difficult to eliminate, and cause Alzheimer’s risk.   (To answer your question, I do use Basic H by Shaklee, not for a beauty product, but for a veg/fruit wash, highly diluted, in a water bottle.)

My publisher for The Green Smoothie Diet, to be released next spring, wants me to tell my “story” in the beginning of the book.   I’ve been compiling a list of what happened as my family transitioned to a diet of whole foods.   It was certainly a sea change, to go into my pantry and dump all the Tupperware labelled flour, sugar, cornmeal, spaghetti . . . and relabel those same containers with things I’d never heard of before: quinoa, spelt, Kamut, oat groats.   And to fill up the fridge with produce instead of milk.

It’s helpful to make a list like what follows so you see the gains you’ve made (12 Steppers, I nag about this all the time, right?!)   Please feel free to share YOUR list or any part of it!   I know you are experiencing profound gains, because you email me all the time about this.   Sharing here helps others.

1.           Kids’ asthma more or less disappeared, never again a steroid prescription or an emergency visit

2.           I lost pounds I’d been carrying for several years and achieved my ideal weight, easily and without dieting or deprivation

3.           I regained energy I’d lost in my 20′s

4.           My really scary migraines (right arm going numb, unable to see or talk for several hours) stopped

5.           I needed 2 hours less sleep at night and no longer had insomnia

6.           I didn’t crash into coma-like 90-minute naps in the afternoon anymore

7.           I bounced out of bed in the morning instead of needing 20 minutes to drag myself out

8.           Panic attacks / anxiety I’d had since childhood gone (only returns if I eat sugar)

9.           Digestive problems gone: all of us totally regular, all the time, no hard or foul-smelling stool, eliminations complete

10.   Nobody gets sick anymore, besides an occasional mild cold (no strep, bacterial infection, or flu in 10 years)

11.   All four kids grew strong and tall and dominate in competitive athletics

12.   Menstrual irregularity gone, PMS symptoms dramatically lessened (I didn’t get so cranky, didn’t have cramps any more, didn’t break out)

13.   I loved people more naturally and purely, and I took frustrations with people in stride, even when their behaviors are negative–instead of wanting them to just leave me alone!   My siblings and parents commented on the dramatic change in my personality.

14.   My nails lost their white spots, grew quickly, and became strong and flexible

15.   Cravings for bad foods lessened (not gone, unfortunately, but lessened)

16.   People in the family who had warts lost them (they just went away)

17.   Nearly all of us had eczema, and it went away for everyone

18.   Two of us had hayfever, which dramatically decreased, no longer requiring drugs

19.   I used to be a terrible runner and hated it; now I look forward to running 15-20 miles per week and sometimes run races

20. My hypoglycemia (since childhood, causing me to be unable to fast for even one meal, and causing me to not dare even going for a walk without an apple in my pocket while pregnant) . . .  GONE.

Thinking about Katie’s fingernails prompted this post.   Ridged, bumpy, splitting every which way, I believe she wrote.

Green smoothies started her down a great path.   Good things are happening internally, whether she notices the changes or not.   But sometimes we do—sorry to tell you—have to go further than just adding a quart of green smoothie to your daily diet.   If you want to get rid of annoying, chronic issues, like bad nails, a sacrifice may have to be laid on the altar.

You know what it is.   I bet you could tell me.   For me, it’s sugar, my only real vice (most of the time, I don’t eat it—but when I’m weak, that’s where I’m going to fail).

You need to lay sugar on the altar?   Or what is it?

I don’t want to make Katie feel bad or anything, but since we’re talking about hair and nails, right as I read her comment, my camera was sitting next to me and I took this photo of my hand.   Yeah, I know.   That’s probably the dumbest thing I’ve ever taken a photo of.   Thank goodness I don’t have to rationalize the development cost, now, with digital cameras.   But this is what happened when I changed my diet: they have no white spots (mineral problems), and they grow long and fast and strong.   I’ll put up with them like this for a while and then get annoyed and whack them off.   Then they grow again, lightning fast.   I’m not proud of my hands (no offense, Mom, if you’re reading, but they look like hers).   Not pretty.   But I have great nails!   (Stained an unfortunate red right now from putting up raw pickled beets from my garden—that’s Ch. 8 in 12 Steps.)

Victoria Boutenko writes that this is one of the things she noticed, right off, drinking lots of green smoothies—nails growing quickly and becoming strong.   Remember that Boutenko was ALREADY OFF SUGAR (100% raw) when she started adding green smoothies.

I don’t like being any of those three things.   One thing that really helps is if I have a good repertoire of treats that don’t involve any processed sugar.   I don’t even need a treat every day, as long as I know I could have one, if I wanted.   They’re in the fridge, the freezer, or at least I have the ingredients.   The main ingredients of my favorite treats tend to be cashews, almonds and almond butter, tahini, raw chocolate, raw coconut and its liquid, agave, and fruit.   I have had so much fun developing Chapter 11 of 12 Steps to Whole Foods.   Some of the recipes are 100% raw, and none used processed ingredients (well, duh).

The whole time I was developing recipes, I had no desire whatsoever to eat anything bad for me, because I always had something yummy that I made the day before, or something I was about to make.   I hope Ch. 11 helps you.   It’s going to be a fun month, in November.