My adventures in Green/Raw foods education

I've been drinking Green smoothies pretty much everyday since December 12 and I've noticed some rather nice changes in myself! I start off each day craving a green smoothie and making a huge one for myself. No sugar or high fructose corn syrup, only frozen fruits, water and spinach (I've yet to try any other "green veggies" in the smoothies). Some of the benefits i've noticed:

• The dark circles under my eyes have started to diminish. I've had those forever regardless of sleep or not, and they have actually lightened.
• I don't need or want any coffee in the morning. It doesn't even appeal to me and it's something I couldn't live with out a few weeks ago. I didn't say I don't drink coffee at ALL....just not in the morning!
• I have WAY more energy than I did weeks ago. MUCH more.
  
• I physically FEEL better, healthier.
• My skin has totally cleared up and looks much better than it did weeks ago. All my blemishes are gone!
• Everyone else in the house got that nasty fever/runny nose/cough/ thing and I have stayed healthy (though I know there are other factors involved and I COULD still get sick with everyone hacking around me...)
• I don't crave junk food or sugar. I don't even have the slightest desire to have a bowl of ice cream at night after the kids are in bed (which has been our little tradition for quite some time now)
• I crave fruits and veggies.
  

So now I'm reading "12 Steps to Raw Foods~How to end you dependency on cooked food" and am very intrigued by it. I know for a fact I won't ever be able to convert this family into a raw foods family, and of course I really enjoy cooked food. But it's so interesting to read about the chemistry behind raw vs. cooked food and the benefits of eating raw (by the way I am NOT talking about eating raw meat or chicken just veggies). I will definitely be adding more raw foods into our diets and trying to take out the precessed foods (by the way a show on Modern Marvels about how cold cuts were made really helped me want to eliminate THAT from the kids diets!), even removing more sugar from their diets. They actually like a lot of healthy foods (Jonah's favorites are frozen blueberries and a a Spinach salad for a snack!) it's a matter of cutting out the less healthy items in the house. At least for myself and the kids during the day I'd like to eat only raw foods (or very little cooked and meat/chicken) and then have a normal dinner. Like I said, even though Dave teaches chemistry, I don't think he'd get on board with this....but you never know, and I don't think I want to give up all my yummy recipes! But I would think adding healthy and taking out not so healthy most of the day should be good for you right!!??

I've borrowed a few books on how to get kids to eat more raw....I'm looking forward to checking out some of those recipes! I'll let you know!

As for my Green smoothie recipe:

1/2 to 1 frozen banana (necessary for the sweetness factor)
1-2 cups of frozen pineapple, mango, papaya, strawberries (found in a frozen smoothie mix at Costco)
1 cup of banana/strawberry/apple smoothie (found it at costco~organic and NO sugar, pure fruits)
1 cup of pure organic guava juice (again NO sugar added)
water if you still need to dilute to get the right consistency
a heaping handful (or more) of spinach

I blend up the fruit and juice and water first then add the spnach last. You might have to blend it a lot to get the spinach to really get blended in and not in bits and peices.

So WHY green smoothies? What makes em so good for you?

• They are nutricious.....no really? Yup!
• Easy to digest since you are breaking down the cell wall of the greens making it easy for the body to assimilate.
• They are a complete food because they have the fiber in them (juices emliminate the fiber)
• Fruit dominates the flavor, yet greens balance out the taste with zest!
• They are chlorophyll-rich...it's like getting a healthy blood transfusion each time you drink 2-3 cups!
• Because greens are hard to get into your diet, this makes it super easy to make, drink and clean up after!
• Even the kids love it!
• You reduce the amount of salts and oils and FAT in your diet
• After a few weeks you will enjoy eating greens more and start to crave more greens ( I totally attest to this!)
• I can carry my green smoothie around for hours in a thremo cup with a straw and it stays could and doesn't get watery like other smoothies, it stays nice and thick and smoothie like!

So there you have it. My little talk on green smoothies...... call it a new years resolution of sorts to eat healthier and feel better physically.....if you like.



Happy New Year everyone! Careful with those fireworks! We are loaded up and ready to go here!!!