Last night, I read Green for Life in one sitting. Liam ended
up going to bed early, but he fell asleep in my arms on the couch. What better
time to start a new book? Victoria Boutenko’s book Green
Smoothie Revolution caught my eye yesterday at a local bookstore. I sat
down for lunch with that and three other books and I really could not wait to
thumb through it. I ended up reading three chapters while sitting there, and
after having taken about half an hour of my short time to sit alone, I realized
I had to put it down if I wanted to check out the other books I was interested
in. It was tough because I was already hooked. I thought about that book for
the rest of the afternoon until I got home and check out her other book, Green
for Life and bought that one for Kindle. It took me about 3 ½ to 4 hours to
read uninterrupted, and the information was mostly new to me. I have been
researching health and nutrition since last year in March, so almost a year
now! I have come to realize that there will probably always be something new I
can learn, but this book really put things in perspective for me.
Last year in March, I had read Beauty
Detox Solution by Kimberly Snyder, and that was the first I really learned
about green smoothies. Kimberly was such an advocate of them that she even
called hers the, “Glowing Green Smoothie.” I started implementing them after
reading her book, and I stuck with it for a while. I really followed her food
combining theories, but for whatever reason, I always felt like it was too difficult.
I constantly felt hungry, and from what I was reading, I was not supposed to
feel that way. Then, winter came, and the last thing I wanted was something
cold. I had been using frozen fruit for my smoothies. At the time, it really
didn’t occur to me to use room temperature fruit, and I ended up dropping the
smoothies for nearly the whole winter, just starting them up again at the
beginning of last week.
I was so stressed the entire winter. I was still eating what
I consider to be healthy food. We ate baked oatmeal for breakfast, quinoa
salads for lunch, and vegetable/bean soups for dinner for the most part.
However, I was starting to gain back some weight. Trevor was gaining back
weight quickly. I was tired, moody, forcing myself to roll out of bed when Liam
woke up early. None of that was at all similar to how I had been feeling. My
skin looked dull. I had bags under my eyes, and all the while, I was eating
very healthy foods. I just wasn’t eating greens. At one point, I started sautéing
greens because I wanted them back in my life, but I wanted them warm. I started
adding them to any soups that I could just so I could say I was getting them,
but I really didn’t feel any better.
My stress peaked a couple weeks ago, and I decided I had had
enough. In the back of my mind, I had this nagging feeling that all of this
could end very simply if I could just start the green smoothies again. After
all, when I started the green smoothies the first time, I was still eating meat
and dairy and my mysterious orange rash disappeared, I was popping up out of bed
at Liam’s first stir; I was sleeping 6 to 8 hours instead of 10 but still felt
energized. My general outlook on life was better. Even when things should have
been very stressful, I knew that they would eventually work. Nothing sent me
into panic mode anymore. At the time, I didn’t truly realize that the green
smoothies were behind it all, namely the greens. Who knew that simple green
leaves could alleviate insomnia, depression, anxiety, obesity, sugar addiction,
joint pain, rashes, yeast infections, PMS and painful cramping… I think my list
of symptoms goes on, but you get the idea. The green smoothies alone, even if I
hadn’t decided to stop eating meat, dairy and eggs, would have rejuvenated me.
I wasn’t worried about protein. I was wondering how I could
fit the most greens into my diet. I didn’t feel like I needed anything. I didn’t
feel deprived. I just felt good and energized. After reading Green for Life, I
was so intrigued by her comparison of the RDA of protein and the amount of
protein in one pound of Kale. I was shocked! Kale had amazing amounts of
protein, having high amounts of nearly all the required amino acids. It is no
wonder I wasn’t feeling like I needed meat, nuts, beans, etc. At the time, I was
eating about 5 ½ cups of greens for breakfast! That is almost a pound of greens
a day. Victoria also talks about varying your greens. Where some greens are
lacking in certain amino acids, other greens are high. They seem to complement
themselves, and all of this leaves me in awe. I attribute this perfect food to
God’s creativity. You may choose to see it as nature’s learning curve. Either
way, you have to admit that greens are kind of amazing.
These days, I am “eating” about 3 ½ cups of greens and 1 ½ cups
of fruit in my smoothies that are usually around 24-28 ounces. In just one
week, my sleep has regulated. I am no sleeping about 6 hours a night, and for
awhile, I thought maybe something was wrong because I believed I needed 8 hours
of sleep a night, yet every day I was going to bed around 10 or 10:30 and
waking up at 4:30 am or so and forcing myself to go back to sleep. I would lay
there for about 2 hours before I started to fall back asleep, and then Liam
would wake up. It left me feeling woozy for a little while. I decided to try
staying up later so I woke up closer to the time Liam would, and I am still
only sleeping about 6 to 7 hours and feeling wonderful.
Another thing that really grabbed me in her book was her
information on stomach acid and how necessary it is to good health. It
definitely gave me more reason to follow what I had heard about sour and bitter
foods being healthiest. They encourage your body to secrete enzymes and actually
increase your stomach acid while still being alkaline forming to your body.
Victoria states in her book that she truly believes that people could exist
solely on greens as their food source if they had to. Greens are the only foods
that have every single nutrient except B12. They are cleansing. They soak up
toxins and help to eliminate them. Nevertheless, what about salads? Why is it
they seem so unappealing without loads of dressing and cheese? Well, Victoria
covers that as well. She talks about how food is digested and broken down in two
ways: 1) by chewing 2) with stomach acid. Most people can’t chew greens down to
liquid to make them more digestible, and on top of that, most people eating a
standard American diet of processed foods, fast foods, and low/no fiber foods
have very low or no stomach acid. You can actually be tested for this with your
doctor, but one quick and easy way to test, she says, is to blend up a beet
smoothie and wait to see if it turns your poop purple. If it does, you likely
have very low stomach acid, which in turn means you could be malnourished
because your body is not able to soak up the nutrients in the food you eat.
Eating more greens and citrus foods will help replenish your stomach acid and
allow you to break down your foods and really be nourished from them.
I am truly amazed! Greens are perfect food. They are super
food! If you don’t believe me (and I wholeheartedly agree that you should never
just blindly believe), try them for yourself. Read the book. Incorporate them
into your life. I am pretty positive you will see a difference, given the time
to let your body heal.
A good way to start is even with 60 % fruit and only 40%
greens, working your way up to 50/50, 40% fruit/60% greens (where I currently
am) and maybe even beyond where you try some raw soups that are made entirely
of greens and vegetables (and Victoria explains why she really believes greens
should be considered a separate entity from vegetables). Try it today!
Beginner Green
Smoothie
2/3 fruit, 1/3 greens-
Makes about 16 to 20 oz
·
1 cup spinach or other raw greens (collard,
chard, kale, green or red romaine but not pale iceberg lettuce)
·
1 whole banana, sliced
·
1 whole apple, cored and chopped
·
8-10 strawberries
·
1 cup water
Add water and spinach
to the blender and blend well. Then add sliced banana, chopped apple and
strawberries and blend until smooth. Enjoy!
