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It’s a great story, really, how I happened upon the “green smoothie,” the attention-grabbing part of this site dedicated to helping you eat right.

I was 27 years old, sitting on the front porch one warm summer day when my oldest child was a year old.  Knowing me at that time, I was probably letting him play in the sprinkler and eat an Otter Pop.  (This was long before I knew about corn syrup, and food dyes . . .)

I’d just put some canned pineapple juice, and some alfalfa sprouts and lots of spinach, in my blender.  I was sitting there drinking it when my baby toddled over and peered into my glass.  He asked me what it was, and (in one of those genius Mom moments), I said, “green ice cream.”

Well, that created a demand.  He wanted some.  I said, “No, this is Mommy’s milkshake.”  More demand.  It was all part of my evil plot, of course.

I finally relented (as I’d planned to all along) and let him sip some out of my straw.  He was hooked and a lightbulb came on in my Mom brain! This drink, the Neanderthal version of what I now make, came to be known as “Green Cream” in my young family.

Well, that pineapple juice thing I made (for over a decade, actually) is totally inferior, nutritionally, to what I make as a green smoothie nowadays.  (Not only is concentrated pineapple juice not a great food, but you had to “slam” that concoction or it settled into an ugly mess, undrinkable just five minutes later.)  But it began a quest for ways to get my kids to eat lots of leafy greens and sprouts.  And it taught me that blended foods are key in that quest.

Now I have a BlendTec Total Blender [link to it in the store].  You really must have this item if you are serious about nutrition.  Before I had a turbo blender, I had to settle for the above-mentioned “green cream” that had to be “slammed” before it became undrinkable.  A regular blender won’t allow you to use frozen fruit, fibrous greens, and lots of ice, for many years without troubles, with the Total Blender’s fantastic warranty.

Why is this so important, the purchase of a Total Blender?  Because you’re going to get 15 SERVINGS OF GREENS AND FRUIT in your one quart of green smoothie daily.  That puts you in the top 5 percent of Americans, for the quality of your diet, with just one simple habit that takes just 10 minutes a day.

I can’t overemphasize it.  It’s not just the best thing I have in my kitchen, it’s the most important thing I own, PERIOD.  I use it half a dozen times a day, and so it’s worth every penny.  We’ll talk more in my next newsletter about why a green smoothie habit is the first thing to change.

May you be blessed with good health from DAY ONE of starting this habit!

Here’s my original 3-min. home video on green smoothies:

http://www.greensmoothiegirl.com/videos/videos-page-1/

And here’s my Green Smoothie 2.0 demo, for the “initiated”:

http://www.greensmoothiegirl.com/videos/videos-page-3/

To Your Health,

–Robyn Openshaw

p.s.  If you can’t get a Total Blender right now, that’s okay.  Just start with whatever blender you have, but be aware that you may not be able to use lots of frozen fruit and very fibrous greens.  Your blend won’t be as smooth, but use water, spinach, and fruit, and get started anyway.  The important thing is just to START.

No, this isn’t that episode of Seinfeld where George Costanza tried to combine food and sex in a feverish fantasy . . . and if you can’t handle some frank talk about an important part of your life, WARNING: hurry and delete this email.

Did you know that what you eat has EVERYTHING to do with your sex life?  For you women who are having a hard time convincing your husband to get on board with your conversion to whole foods, this essay might be just the ticket.  I used to be a marriage therapist, and my educational background emphasized human sexuality.  If I went back to practicing now, I’d prescribe, as a starting place . . . green smoothies!  Who’d have thought that owning a BlendTec Total Blender http://www.greensmoothiegirl.com/robyn-recommendations/blenders/best-blender/ could have anything to do with your sex life?  Oh, but it does.

Food affects your sex drive profoundly. And I can prove it. 175 respondents participated in my green smoothie research, where I polled people who undertook a green smoothie habit for at least 30 days. If you want to participate in the research, or write your green smoothie testimonial, please go here:

http://greensmoothiegirl.com/poll.html

So far, 20 percent of my respondents have reported an increased sex drive as a result of drinking blended greens.  And keep in mind that not all respondents are sexually active, and some already had a very high libido so they ignored that question.  Therefore, 20 percent is likely a lower number than what you can expect, those of you considering joining us in the Gospel of Green.

Guys, your wife isn’t as into it as you are?  There’s no drug better than a quart of green smoothie a day (and kicking Hostess to the curb).  Give it a try.  You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.  If you want even more sexual energy, toss some maca or bee pollen in the blender.

In my experience working with people on their nutrition, I have found that being even 10 or 15 lbs. overweight can dramatically affect your sexuality in a negative way.  So, green smoothies are an aphrodisiac. And donuts and Doritos are very literally the opposite: a sex-life stomper.

How?

First of all, you don’t like how you look 10 lbs. overweight.  If you don’t like what you see in the mirror with your clothes off, you aren’t likely to be sexually willing, confident, playful, adventurous, and energetic. And what is the best way to lose ten pounds?  Dieting? No way!

Just start eating the right foods like you learn to do in 12 Steps to Whole Foods http://www.greensmoothiegirl.com/12-step-blog/12-step-program/ No calorie counting or carb-gram-obsessing necessary.  Eat whole plant foods (and stop eating processed foods) and you’ll naturally be satisfied with whatever you eat in reasonable quantities.

That’s because you don’t have endocrine disruptors, hormone inhibitors, and addictive chemicals in the form of refined sugar, MSG, food dyes, refined salt, and much more destroying your sex drive and your sexual performance.

Second, when your energy is depleted, as it always will be on the Standard American Diet diet, you lose the sexual interest and stamina you once had.  Sexual dysfunction happens the same way all degenerative disease does: it is linked to lifestyle choices.  Your reproductive system, after all, is affected by the same things your cardiac, circulatory, and endocrine systems are—they are are inextricably linked, as they are all part of one complex organism.

When you eat lots of raw plant food, and go easy on (or eliminate) meat, dairy, and processed stuff, your body has its energy reserves available for all the fun and rewarding things in life.

For an experiment, eat at Tucano’s or Rodizio’s (or a Brazilian restaurant where they walk around offering you meat dishes until you can’t eat anymore).  How amorous do you feel that night?  I’ll answer for you: you don’t want anything except SLEEP.  And the sleep you do get is troubled, and you feel sick all night.

Now try eating 100% raw plant food for a day, or longer than that.  Watch what happens to your libido.  And a great sex life leads to a great relationship, from which many good things flow.

I hope you give this a try.  I hope my bravest readers will let us know what your observations are after your experiment on these words.  Blog anonymously if that’s what it takes!

To Your Health,

–Robyn Openshaw

p.s.  HAVE FUN!  (And I mean that in the wildest, most passionate way possible.)  Have you forgotten what that means?  Then start drinking a DOUBLE SHOT of green smoothies!

Thanks again for signing up for my free newsletter.   See, I was just like you might be.   I found myself in a place I hated: sluggish, 15 pounds overweight, suffering with a variety of health problems . . . and I was only 25 years old!

But that’s a story you already know well, because millions of people can tell that story.

Where I’ve come since then is the tale you’ll find much more interesting, I think.   Because it represents the way out of the nightmare for you, too.   The mess that is the modern American lifestyle of overweight, energy drain, and failing health.   There’s only one way out of that mess.   It’s a straight path.   And it’s the road less traveled.

I am teaching, on GreenSmoothieGirl.com, my recipe collections, my blog, my 12 Steps to Whole Foods course, and my new book The Green Smoothie Diet, and this newsletter what that path is.

I got to that straight and narrow path through a fairly zigzaggy way . . .

But first, the cataclysmic moment when I knew something had to change.   I had a 15-month old baby who was desperately ill.   He was just fine until I quit breastfeeding him at 7 months old.   Then, on formula and then eventually cow’s milk, he was mucousy and coughing, constantly ill, sickly and miserable, up all night wheezing.   This went on for many months.

The pediatrician gave Kincade lots of syrups and pills and inhaled drugs.   He was always drugged up.   The meds may or may not have sometimes slowed the symptoms (I never was really sure), but one thing was certain: my little boy wasn’t getting healthier.   And the doc told me the steroids were “guaranteed” to stunt his growth.

After quite a few months of this, I realized one thing very clearly, even if a lot of other things were still fuzzy for me.   And that things was, doctors were not going to solve my little son’s health problems.   After this information settled in for a while, in a terrifying way, I made a second realization: I, and I alone—not doctors or anyone else–was responsible for finding the information that WOULD solve Kincade’s problems.

A series of coincidences (that I now believe were inspiration, not coincidences) led me to study nutrition.   I learned that a diet rich in raw vegetables and fruits, with whole grains and legumes and nuts and seeds as complements, might help my son.

Little did I know that it would actually save the whole family—including children not yet born.

A radical shift took place, not over a year or over an extended period of time, but literally overnight.

We were done with steroids.   Done with bronchodilators.   Done with cough syrups.   Done with late-night emergency room visits.   Cold turkey, just like that, we were done with fatigue, and all-night coughing, and stressed-out-Mom tears, and “What do I do?” after-hours calls to the nurse, and counting breaths per minute, and rocking a baby who was turning blue.

All because I got him off dairy products and sugar and white flour . . . and onto green smoothies and whole foods.

What we undertook was a lifestyle of eating—in this order—greens, vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and unadulterated oils.

That sounds like drudgery, but more than 250 recipes and dozens of video demos in my course show you otherwise.   You can eat like a king—food with vibrant, complex flavors and textures—enjoying life . . . while returning your body to a state of health!

I developed GreenSmoothieGirl.com to make your path less zigzaggy.   Writing and developing recipes for 12 Steps to Whole Foods http://www.greensmoothiegirl.com/12-step-blog/12-step-program/ was a labor of love to flatten that learning curve for you, so it doesn’t take you 15 years of trying hundreds of different things.   You can do it a much more linear way!

To Your Health,

–Robyn Openshaw

p.s.   I’ll tell you more about my story later!

I once blogged 20 different astonishing ways my health improved when I began drinking green smoothies and eating a whole-foods diet.   Here it is:

http://blog.greensmoothiegirl.com/2008/10/02/what-changed-when-we-switched-to-whole-foods-part-2-of-2/

But I wanted to get more scientific when I wrote The Green Smoothies Diet, [BUY HERE] and find out precisely what a newbie can expect!

The results of my poll of 175 regular green smoothie drinkers yielded some interesting results that suggest quite definitively that it’s a 10-minute habit worth adopting!   To participate in the questionnaire, one had to be drinking green smoothies for at least 30 days, a pint a day for 4 days a week.   Many were drinking more, up to my recommended 1 quart daily.

The vast majority, or 97 percent, said green smoothies noticeably improved their health or quality of life.   Wow!

Very exciting to me is the fact that 84 percent of those drinking green smoothies are so enthusiastic about the positive health benefits that they’ve told others about or taught them the habit!

These are the positive health effects people experience, listed in order of their frequency among the research respondents:

85.4 percent experience more energy.

79.2 percent experience improved digestion (more regular and/or complete bowel movements, no straining, soft/formed stool, etc.).

65 percent experience fewer cravings for sweets and processed foods.

52.3 percent experience a more positive, stable mood.

51 percent experience an improvement in skin tone, or fewer blemishes

50 percent experience weight loss.   The average reported pounds lost is 17.3 lbs.!

(Keep in mind when considering this very impressive statistic that some of the respondents had been drinking green smoothies only 30 days, and some of them did not have any weight to lose!

48.5 percent experience an increased desire to exercise.

44.6 percent experience improved sleep (need less of it, decreased insomnia, more alert in the mornings, etc.).

41.5 percent feel less stressed out.

40 percent experience blood sugar stabilization.

39 percent experience people telling them they look better.

35 percent say their fingernails are stronger or grow faster.

26 percent say their hair is shinier or their dandruff gone.

18.5 percent experience a decrease in PMS symptoms.   (Consider that some of the respondents in the survey are not females of menstruating age.)

17 percent report an improved sex drive.

Other positive health benefits reported by survey respondents include these:

7 people said: Arthritis symptoms/pain gone or reduced

3 people said: Hyperthyroid condition improved (reduced or gone off meds)

2 people said: Seasonal allergies gone or decreased

2 people said: Reduced asthma symptoms

2 people said: Migraines gone or reduced by 80 percent

2 people said: Acne improved or gone

2 people said: Eczema or dry skin cleared

2 people said: Gray hair returned to original color

Decreased blood pressure

No more hypertension

Was able to go off cholesterol meds

Was able to go off Prilosec

Haven’t gotten sick in a year like I always do

Moles disappeared

Deep facial wrinkles “barely noticeable”

Less nasal congestion

Lump on leg getting smaller

Liver spots fading

Tendonitis gone

Muscle soreness gone

Hypoglycemia improved

No more bloating, gas, indigestion, constipation

Avoided a hysterectomy, lifelong menstrual problems returned to normal

Easier to breastfeed

Don’t sunburn any more

Gallstones gone

Depression symptoms gone

Lifelong bad breath gone in two weeks

Ended coffee addiction

Just feel better

The risks of a new green smoothie habit are limited to an 18.5 percent chance of a short-term, uncomfortable cleansing reaction that include the following symptoms:

headaches, skin breakouts, diarrhea, nausea, bloating, intestinal gas, cramps, constipation, vertigo, dizziness, fainting, lethargy or weakness, runny nose, mucous in the back of the throat, liver pain, mood swings, depression, emotional crisis

The top six benefits that people experience when starting a green smoothie habit are, in order, more energy, improved digestion, fewer cravings for sweets and processed food, a more positive/stable mood, improved skin, and weight loss.

It’s hard to look at this data without being compelled to give green smoothies a try!

Jump in with us and let us know here what your experience is after 30 days:

http://greensmoothiegirl.com/poll.html

To Your Health,

–Robyn Openshaw

p.s.   Join us in 12 Steps to Whole Foods to get on the path to achieve all these health benefits: http://www.greensmoothiegirl.com/12-step-blog/12-step-program/.

Step 1 is all about the why and how of green smoothies!

Welcome to GreenSmoothieGirl.com!

I put this site up in August, 2007 when I went on a reality show and ABC/Disney told me I’d better prepare for an onslaught of publicity and requests for information.

My family eats a rather unusual diet that has led to exceptionally good health.  People notice because we buck American trends, and it shows.

I frequently have people who know about our diet show up on my porch, call on my phone, and stop me in public.  People are sick, they are overweight, they lack the energy to get through the day . . . and they want help.  They have lots of questions.  My experience as a nutrition educator has led me to this conclusion: People want to eat right. They just don’t know how.

The reality television experience was just the impetus I needed to make information about my family’s lifestyle more accessible to more people.

Little did I know what GreenSmoothieGirl.com would become!

A year and a half later, I have a small group of people working on the site, have written two books, and we are getting 80,000+ visitors monthly.  I take my responsibility to teach people how and why to eat whole foods very seriously and am willing to do whatever it takes.

This newsletter is my first-line effort to educate a terrifyingly underinformed public about basic principles of good nutrition, as well as, very specifically, how to live a healthy lifestyle.

I’ve had a wide and varied career. But besides being a mom, I’ve never done anything I feel is as important as my role teaching, helping, and nurturing people towards good health.

Today, a woman stopped me at the grocery store.  She said, “I have been seeking answers to my health problems.  I saw your car and the web site burned into my mind.  I’ve spent three hours reading your site, so far, and trying some things you suggest, and I’m amazed how when I eat right, I don’t crave bad stuff!”

That’s the beautiful thing about whole foods.  They are what God put on the planet to nourish us.  When we eat them, we don’t need anything else.  We get off the roller coaster of craving bad food and succumbing to the temptation and then hating ourselves for our indulgences.  GreenSmoothieGirl.com is the summation of my 15 years of studying exactly how to implement good nutrition in a real American family’s diet.

When we eat whole foods instead of the Standard American Diet, we have the boundless energy to not just dream big, but also fulfill those dreams.

In future newsletters, I’m going to tell you a little more about my story and introduce you to some fun parts of my site.

Thanks for joining me—I’m thrilled to have you along.

To Your Health,

–Robyn Openshaw

p.s.  Hope you’re enjoying your free 12 Nutrition Myths Special Report.  Are you shocked at how many things you’ve taken as “gospel truth” are really, at best, uninformed misinformation, or at worst, agenda-driven lies?  I have a lot to share with you!