I read about having 3 meals a day on Robyn’s site. It said “not 2, not 4″. So what is it I keep hearing about late afternoon snacks? I thought we weren’t supposed to snack.
Archive for August, 2009
can you drink too much? (GS that is)
Q: Dear GreenSmoothieGirl: can you drink too much green smoothie? What time of day should I drink it?
A: I never have had “too much,” even when I want to “cleanse” a bit and have not much else but green smoothies for a week or more. You can go too fast for comfort at first (and suffer a cleansing reaction when your organs of elimination get overwhelmed).
Google “green smoothie experiment” to read, if it’s still there, about a woman who started over 500 lbs. and had nothing else for 5 months but green smoothies–and lost over 100 lbs.!
You’ll get bored before you get malnourished.
Drink it whenever you want—doesn’t matter. For me that’s lunch or late afternoon snack, often both. I frankly don’t WANT a green smoothie for breakfast or dinner. But lots of people are different, and I hear of people doing it for breakfast more often than anything else.
School Snacks
with school starting soon I am feeling lost on what I can buy for treats to take and share with my children’s school classes. Our state requires that all treats brought to school are store bought. I just can’t seem to find anything I want my kids to eat that is store bought and reasonably priced to share with 30 other children. One of my kids also has a child with severe peanut Allergies, complicating things even more. The youngest is still in Preschool, and part of the contract is that we all take turns bringing in the treats. Does any one have any suggestions or ideas?
Thanks so much!
more edibles, and the book tour
Did you know the leaves of your squash, cucumber, and cabbage plants are edible? (You probably already knew the leaves of grape, radish, beet, turnip, strawberry, and carrot are edible.) Toss them in the blender with fruit. I’m going to do a little video shortly (be a YouTube GreenSmoothieGirl subscriber) showing and telling about 6-8 edible weeds in a field near my house where I run.
We’ve had lots of interest in my coming to your city with my book tour for The Green Smoothies Diet. My assistant Jenni will give you a press release on the book, a script for talking to the health food store (or book store) near your house, and a sheet for them to fill out and fax to us.
Please write her at support123@greensmoothiegirl.com to get those things if you want to line up a couple of venues so I can teach a free green smoothie class/demo (with book signing) near you! This will be fun!
Robyn
Enzymes — help!
Would love some guidance regarding buying enzymes. My vitamin shop has dozens of bottles — what should we look for? Can you recommend a particular brand, or else please explain which enzymes are the “right” ones, which ones aren’t? Years ago my naturopath steered me toward Wobenzym http://www.wobenzym-usa.com/, but it appears those enzymes are meant more for immune and joint support, not so much for digestion. Or maybe they all do the same thing? Would be very grateful for your guidance. And also — probiotics. Same thing: do you have a particular brand you like? Again, there are so many choices out there, just want to make sure I’m getting the biggest bang for my buck! Thanks!!
Raw Foods and “Funny” Stomachs
Dear Robin,
I have a few health related questions I wanted to ask you regarding starting a raw food diet. I consider myself a beginner raw fooder, I have taught myself how to drink green smoothies, learned how to eat cabbage and other greens.
Here is my question. I have a history of having a sensitive stomach. I’ve had 6 pregnancies where I’ve thrown up (sorry) for months on end. It’s been horrible. I’ve also had a lifetime of debilitating carsickness. I’m in my 40′s now, and I think I am just prone to having my head/stomach upset easily. As far as the raw food issue, there are times when I just feel down and out nauseous, at those times, how do I incorporate a raw diet ? For me, soothing stomach foods can be high fat/high sugar/high carb – easy processed from a box things. I cant think of a single raw recipe that I’ve had that would help me during these icky times. And my second question. What about the stomach flu? My diet this year has been better than ever (much better than the average American, though not raw) yet we just had a 10 day intestinal bug go through our family, and there was no way during that time that I could stomach ANYTHING that needed major digestive juices! I have searched the web for answers to these question, but have come up empty so far. I’m sorry to take up your time here, I know you are a busy mom. Please take your time in responding if you feel you can! Thank you, Robin
Birthday parties with whole foods!
Dear GreenSmoothieGirl: What do you do for birthdays?
So it’s my kids’ birthdays (yes, all of them—within three weeks of each other—go ahead and make your jokes about me and November). And last night I had a family party. Dinner was taco salad without the taco meat (though my mom brought BBQ chicken for those who wanted it). I provided sprouted-wheat tortillas as shells, and I cooked brown lime rice, and black beans cooked in veg broth and salsa, plus all the fixings (lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cilantro, shredded cheese if you want it) and homemade dressings and guacamole and salsa. And a big fruit platter. It was easy.
You can see here I made a chocolate beet cake (see Ch. 11 of 12 Steps), containing pureed beets, no refined sweeteners, no white flour, and only high-nutrition coconut oil. I also made a regular cake-mix with tub-o-frosting cake. Check out my two oldest kids (and my niece, Macie) in the photo above, blowing out candles on both cakes. Everyone had both options, and I told them exactly what each cake was.
Now check out what happened. The cake that not a single person chose was . . . drum roll please . . . the cake mix. Everybody loved the beet cake and some wanted seconds:
See, what happens when you become the nutrition guru, the health food nut, the earthy crunchy, is that people learn that WHAT YOU MAKE TASTES GOOD. They expect yummy food of you that doesn’t make them feel regretful. They make the healthy choice at your house because they trust you. I influenced my family in no way last night, didn’t say “This beet cake is really good,” or anything like that. I just said, “This one is a cake mix, and this one is beet cake; which one would you like?” It’s not that you’ll NEVER make anything that doesn’t taste good. (Read the dedication in my new book for evidence of that! No one is perfect.) But you’ll learn a repertoire of things people really like. And the people you love will appreciate that.
And then here’s what you’ll do with the junk. This is where the entire cake-mix cake ended up, an ignoble end, but a fitting one. Nobody ate propylene glycol and partially hydrogenated fat and refined sugar and vegetable oil and a dozen chemicals and preservatives I can’t pronounce. (I’m so proud of my family.)
EVOO in Dark Bottles
Is it true that it’s best to by Extra Virgin Olive Oil in dark bottles. I was taught that Olive Oil becomes carcinogenic otherwise. Is this true?
Young Thai coconuts
I watched the Youtube video on making Hot Pink Breakfast Smoothies (I am positively addicted, like you!!), and in the comments section, someone made a remark about how young Thai coconuts are dipped in formaldehyde to preserve them I guess, and if you go that route, you’d better scrub yourself down after touching them. I was pretty freaked out reading that. Do you know if this is true?? I haven’t been too happy buying coconut juice/water in cans because they seem to have a lot of chemicals in them, which I’d like to avoid, but that formaldehyde comment really spooked me. Can you comment? Thanks Robyn!
Want a GreenSmoothieGirl class in your city?
One of my Brigham Young University students had serious digestive problems, and when I taught him green smoothies, he had such massive health improvements, he became an evangelist! He ran a booth at a farmer’s market yesterday selling green smoothies and my new book—just arrived and probably not yet in your bookstore—The Green Smoothies Diet. (Shameless plug: This site is the only place you get an autographed copy with free shipping.)
I think I’m going to do a book tour Sept. 14-18. I don’t want to just sit there and sign books—I’m far too hyper for that–I will do free green smoothie classes and sign books afterward. My classes are high energy and information packed and fun! So, if you live in a Western U.S. city, do you want me to come to you during that week? If so, please write us and tell us what bookstores or health food stores (that sell books) we should come to, and if you’re willing to make that contact with them. I have found they’re virtually always ecstatic to host an event—and it is an EVENT rather than a passive book signing—if you explain it to them. They can check the book out on Amazon or here.
I’d love to meet you in person and get everyone you know pumped up about a mostly raw, whole foods diet!
