Robyn’s Blog

I am new and forige me if I have asked questions already answered…. I want to do this right since I have now invested in a $400 blender….

WHY DO YOU USE FROZEN BERRIES?

CAN I FREEZE MY OWN INSTEAD?

I’m doing a 12 Steps to Whole Foods class in Lehi, Utah, on July 17.  Here’s a new link to sign up:

https://www.classicbooksandgifts.com/content/12-steps-food-eating

Check out Dr. Denise Punger’s blog.  She’s a 12 Stepper, and I endorse her recipes and courageous advice to her patients to eat right, as well as her book Permission to Mother, all you young moms:

http://permissiontomother.blogspot.com/2008/12/winter-vegetable-medley.html

Finally, check this out if you’re in Colorado, Michigan, or the East Coast–you can sign up for organic food delivered to your porch.  I love the growing movement to eat local, organic food.  The more we do this, the less we are culturally dependent on foods shipped across the world that deepen our carbon footprint (and give us inferior nutrition).  Please pull over to the fruit stand and support the local growers rather than buy the grocery-store stuff:

http://www.doortodoororganics.com/

How to Get Kids to Drink Healthy Smoothies

If you’ve ever read your kids the book Green Eggs and Ham you know how much resistance can go into eating something green. Yet there are many ways you can get your kids to love green, healthy smoothies, helping them get their vitamins and grow up strong. Here are some tips on selling the healthy stuff to kids.

• Call it something fun. Kids will eat just about anything if it appears to be cool, gross or fun in some way and the green color of these healthy smoothies can work well with this. Try naming your smoothies after your child’s favorite cartoons or making them sound silly.
• Fine-tune them. If there are particular things you know your kids like or hate tailor your smoothies to meet their discerning needs. This doesn’t mean reducing the nutritional content, as sometimes just making them “slushier” will be enough to sell the idea on your kids.
• Sneak the good stuff in. Many kids won’t instantly be in love with the idea of smoothies. The trick here can be to sneak in the good stuff in at first and slowly build up the level as your kids adjust to eating healthy.
• Use kid-friendly containers. Crazy straws, fun glasses and even cup-clinging toys can make getting a smoothie so much fun that kids forget it’s good for them.
• Add a good amount of fruit. For many kids, the sweetness of the fruit will mask any of the veggies and greens they may not find as favorable.  Plus, if you pick the right fruits they can add loads of vitamins as well.
• Make it a treat. Even if you want your kids to drink smoothies pretty regularly, making them a healthy form of dessert can improve your chances of getting your kids to beg to drink them.
• Drink them yourself. Leading by example is a great philosophy to follow and if you want to influence your kids to drink green smoothies what better way than showing them how much you enjoy them yourself?

There are lots of ways to get your kids with you on the healthy bandwagon, just have a little patience and be inventive and you’ll soon make green smoothies a family affair.

I wanted to know if anyone has calculated approx. how many calories are in a green smoothie:)

Curious

Some foods are highly hypoallergenic.  In other words, just about no one is allergic to them.  And this is a big deal nowadays where intolerances for wheat and milk proteins are going through the roof.  (That’s gluten and lactose intolerances.)  Highly hypoallergenic foods include avocadoes, lentils, brown rice, quinoa, sweet potatoes, figs, and cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, etc.).

Lentils have 16 grams of fiber in one cup—wow, right?  That’s six times more than a “serving” of Metamucil, and slightly more than a quart of green smoothie.  And lentils have tons of iron, folic acid, and protein, too.

They’re so cheap, you can’t possibly complain that “whole foods are too expensive!”  All you have to do is rinse them well, then cover 1 part lentils to 2 parts water.  Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer 45 minutes.

Today’s dinner:

I cooked 1.5 dry cups of lentils in 3 cups water.  Then I added two chopped oranges, two chopped red bell peppers, two chopped tomatoes, and some Johnny’s Garlic Spread and Seasoning (from Costco).  Super-easy dinner and yummy.  Even my picky 7-year old liked it.  Didn’t even make a salad—just had a sliced cucumber with it.

This is for you, whether you’re

*a newbie to GSG trying to kick the SAD (standard American diet) or

*you’ve been here plugging along since the start almost two years ago, or

*you’re a lifelong die-hard earthy-crunchy who already knew everything I teach since before I was born

If all you ever did was green smoothies, I could die happy.  If you’re drinking a quart a day, you’re doing better, nutritionally speaking, than 99 percent of Americans.  (If I’m honest, I’d have to guess you’d probably be doing better than 97 percent with just a pint!  Just don’t take that as a free pass for slacking!)

But in my reading of copious emails (I get about 200 a day, and I’m so very sorry that I can’t always respond to all of them, though I do try), I learn this interesting fact.

Once you start with Step 1, you don’t want to stop.  Many people, anyway.  You tune in, especially if you’re DOCUMENTING YOUR HEALTH as a real, live experiment, to what your body is telling you.  You realize that you have more energy, you’re thinner, you have better skin and nails and hair, you crave empty calories less than before, maybe you even have more sexual energy.

So you want to move on to Step 2.

I just want to ask how many of you are STUCK ON STEP 1. 

No shame in that.  I’m not here to guilt trip anybody and never will be.

But I just want to give you the gentlest nudge in the booty, if you just answered yes, to get started on Step 2.

See, I’m ambitious.  Born that way.  Even if I’m thrilled with your fabulous green smoothie experiment, I want to see you replacing low-quality foods with high-quality ones. 

So, are you ready to move on?  If you’ve been on Step 1 for more than a month, what’s holding you up?  Dig deep now, to answer that question.

Is it lack of time?  Content with the progress you’ve already made?  Afraid you’ll be required to give up addictions and that’s scary?  What else?

On Friday, July 17, from 6:30 to 8:30 at Classic Books and Gifts in Lehi, I have been asked to teach a 12 Steps to Whole Foods class.  Here’s the link to sign up:

http://classicbooksandgifts.ning.com/events/12-steps-to-whole-food-eating

I have taken some time off of teaching classes but am getting back into it, with my new book coming out next month.  I’ll post in the next few days that we’re preselling the book in the GreenSmoothieGirl.com store, so stand by.  I’ll also let you know if classes I have coming up are open to the public.

My final thoughts on that revolutionary scripture known as the Word of Wisdom, that was far (200 years, almost) before its time.  I long wondered why we are counselled not to drink “hot drinks” (coffees and caffeinated teas, we assume from historical analysis), and only minimal animal flesh, but nothing is said about refined foods like white flour and white sugar that are currently destroying America’s health.  And LDS people provide those foods in abundance at EVERY SINGLE CHURCH EVENT, including the ones for children. The Primary handbook asks teachers not to feed kids junk food, but teachers routinely do it anyway. We don’t drink or smoke, but we experience the same obesity rates as everyone else and we’re infamous for making up the difference in what we DON’T smoke/drink . . . in sugar intake!

I have two theories about this.  First (this one is a no brainer), at the time of the revelation in 1833, white flour and sugar were virtually unknown.  More importantly, we cannot be given a higher law until we’re living the lower law.  Bluntly: we are not living the lower law.

Many of our children are on drugs.  Utah (the highest LDS population) abuses prescription drugs more than any other state in the nation.  We eat tons of animals and ignore and rationalize away verses 12-15 of D&C 89 (see the part on God approving of eating animals sparingly in times of winter, cold, famine).  We eat to excess and have obesity rates similar to the national average.  All of these are gross violations of the law that is supposed to be for the “weakest of the Saints.”

I personally am ready for a higher law. I don’t say this to be arrogant.  I say this because I crave further light and knowledge; I have a lot of questions.  I wonder, what would God tell us regarding lifestyle and diet, IF WE WERE CLEARING THE VERY, VERY LOW BAR He is currently holding for us to clear?

Apocryphal texts of John refer to not eating any animal flesh and living very close to the Earth.  I’d love to know what God really wants for us . . . a Word of Wisdom 2.0, if you will.  (Oh, and hey, that reminds me: I will announce here very shortly a Green Smoothie 2.0 video I did, part 1 and 2.)

Let’s live the lower law so we can be given more light and knowledge on our path to a truly abundant life rich with divinity.

Back to the weightier issue tomorrow . . .

I taught a GreenSmoothieGirl class up gorgeous Hobble Creek Canyon today at a women’s conference, which was great fun.  On my way down the canyon, I stopped at Ream’s in Springville because of these amazing prices, through Tuesday–worth a bit of a drive, I think, locals!  I had just used up the baggies of washed strawberries I had frozen from the spring (12 frozen in a baggie gets you one Hot Pink Smoothie).  It’s so unusual to find strawberries this time of year for a rock-bottom price like this, and they’re nice ones.  This cherry price is unheard of, and they’re grown in the U.S. (foreign-grown produce scares me, since they have few pesticide controls)

Cherries $0.89/lb.

Flats of strawberries $6

Flats of raspberries $10

Celery $0.39/lb.

Red bell peppers 3/$1

Yesterday, wow, I sort of mindlessly posted on my Facebook page (find me as Robyn Openshaw-Pay or GreenSmoothieGirl) a group called “No More Blood On My Plate.”

Wow.  The response that followed could only be described as a war.  I didn’t even participate in the discussion. (The whole conversation was just NOT. MY. STYLE.  But let’s just say that between those who did, it was . . . heated.)  This leads me to repeat something I learned in my 20’s, as I started trying to share my nutrition philosophies with some of my in-laws.  The point isn’t that they were my in-laws; the point is that I was sharing information they didn’t ask for.  Unsolicited ADVICE giving is probably how they saw it, regardless of whether I felt my motives were pure and didn’t feel I was telling anyone what to do—just sharing things I’d learned.  Wanted to help people I knew were suffering from modern degenerative diseases.

I learned something important.  NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING, is more emotional for us than food.  Our opinions about food are sacred cows.  As deeply held as our religion and politics.  People come to the GreenSmoothieGirl.com program only when they (a) were already primed for information about whole foods by their life experience, or (b) have come to a difficult or even desperate place, health-wise, and are frustrated by what’s available (read: NOT available) in modern medicine to help them.  As I’ve said in one of my books, when a student is ready, a teacher appears.

Anyway, I was dismayed at the Facebook war.  Fact is, as I am working to teach my 13-y.o. vegetarian daughter, we can’t bludgeon somebody to death about our dietary opinions and win a single convert.  (Some in the discussion were talking about “forcing” your food views on others, etc.)

Others were debating the Vitamin B12 issue as a means to promote eating animals.  This is truly a non-issue.  Plant eaters do fine if they’re following a GreenSmoothieGirl approach.  Garden and eat your organic produce, because B12 comes from soil organisms, which come from . . . well, SOIL.  Don’t worry about washing your greens too much.  Eat a little aloe vera, a little raw nori (seaweed), a little Brewer’s (nutritional) yeast now and then.  And remember that your body stores a 3-yr. supply of Vitamin B12 anyway.  It’s a cattle rancher’s dream come true, the false doctrine that you’ve gotta be pounding the filet minon to meet basic nutritional needs.  Here are two of my previous blogs on the B12 issue:

http://www.greensmoothiegirl.com/blog/?p=354

http://www.greensmoothiegirl.com/blog/?p=72

Other Facebook friends were quoting scriptures.  Tomorrow I’ll finish up talking about my opinion about a few points in the Word of Wisdom from the LDS canon.  But here are more of my thoughts on whether God wants us to eat a plant-based diet, from an earlier blog entry:

http://www.greensmoothiegirl.com/blog/?p=179

Be a CONSCIOUS plant eater.  If you’re following 12 Steps to Whole Foods, you’re getting what you need.  If you’re a vegan eating Diet Coke and Twinkies, you’re in trouble.  Being gentle with the earth and avoiding killing animals is great, but let’s take it up a level and also eat what nourishes us best.  That’s what the Word of Wisdom is about.

Here’s the rest of the body of scripture known as the Word of Wisdom.  Tomorrow I’ll comment on my theory about why the scripture doesn’t talk about soft drinks, sugar, refined foods, etc. (beyond the obvious fact that the scripture predates the invention of those ”foods”).  And I’ll comment on some of the interesting things you all have said, especially about conspiracy theory and Tina’s great response to my last post about “conspiring men.”

Here it is:

“All grain is ordained for the use of man and of beasts, to be the staff of life, not only for man but for the beasts of the field, and the fowls of heaven, and all wild animals that run or creep on the earth;

“And these hath God made for the use of man only in times of famine and excess of hunger.

“All grain is good for the food of man; as also the fruit of the vine; that which yieldeth fruit, whether in the ground or above the ground–

“Nevertheless, wheat for man, and corn for the ox, and oats for the horse, and rye for the fowls and for swine, and for all beasts of the field, and for mild drinks, as also other grain.

“And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel and marrow to their bones;

“And shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures;

“And shall run and not be weary , and shall walk and not faint.

“And I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the destroying angel shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them.”

Great promise, right?  Seems to me that we’d be unwise to blow off the parts of this that we don’t like much, saying that it’s “straining at gnats” to examine our meat consumption, for instance, when an incredible promise hangs in the balance.  Would you like to run and not be weary?  Would you like to not fear destructive forces felling everyone around you?

(What do you think of when you read “destroying angel” — in this modern age?  The first thing that comes to mind for me is the H1N1 virus.  Just got an email that the swine flu is at BYU’s Marriott School, where I teach.  It’s in my ex-husband’s neighborhood.  Two confirmed cases in my kids’ school district as school let out.  And still, I am completely unafraid of it.)