Robyn's Blog

Answer: I know it’s frustrating.  I get this gripe all the time, and some people use it to dismiss all information about nutrition altogether and just eat whatever tastes good: “they don’t know what they’re talking about anyway.”

Well, by “they” (first they tell us one thing, then another), we mean science, right?  Science is always evolving, always learning new things.  The perfect example is what is happening in research recently regarding sunshine and Vitamin D.

You grew up, like me, being told not to get in the sun because it causes skin cancer.  We were taught that sunscreen was our friend, and we slathered it on.  Well, I didn’t, but everyone else did.  I felt guilty.  But I cannot stand the stuff—I have a phobia of it, really.  I can’t even stand to touch it to put it on my children.  Just a weird little neurosis (they learned early to put it on themselves, and of course I used the sprays on them).

Now many studies—not just one or two—tell us that getting enough sun exposure is actually critical for cancer defense and immunity. That if we can’t get in the sun close to year-round, we should take 5,000 mg. of Vitamin D supplementation daily.

The reason we get different information is that we’re post-Information Age, constantly getting new data. It’s a GOOD thing. But we have to be smart enough to sift through data—the good, the bad, and the dubious. The dubious, set it aside until you receive further data to support or contradict it. The bad, realize that lots of “research” has a profit motive and doesn’t deserve your attention. With Vitamin D and the sun, to refer back to my example, it’s becoming an avalanche of empirical evidence pointing in the same direction—that sunshine is good for us. (Sunshine, not sunburn.)

Any other issues you’re confused about, I’d be happy to talk about. Or research, if I don’t know enough about it yet.

Raw food promotes weight loss in people who need to lose, and weight gain in people who are severely underweight from malnourishment.  Remember that unless you’re being excessive with nuts and seeds, raw food inherently is lower in fat and starch, which are what lead to weight gain.

To lose weight, following are a few ideas.  Put celery in your green smoothie.  It takes more calories to eat a stalk than you actually GET from it, so it’s bulk, to clean you out, bulk to fill you up, and great nutrition that actually nourishes the thyroid, which regulates metabolism.

Use cayenne, garlic, ginger, and cinnamon, too, to stimulate metabolism as you eat delicious raw food toward weight loss.  And don’t forget lemon juice in your water—it’s a great natural diuretic.

I got this great message on facebook recently from a Canadian reader named Karen.  She said she found GSG.com when googling 12 Steps for a friend in Alcoholic’s Anonymous!  As random as that seems, she called finding GSG “fate.”  She’s made some very significant dietary changes based on what she’s learned thus far, and has lost over 20 pounds.  She wondered if drinking a pint of green smoothie a day is enough.

Answer:  It’s enough for a wonderful first step!  Your body, mind, and spirit will tell you when it’s not enough any more, so listen to those cues and don’t stop your progress now.  My guess is you’ll want more sooner, rather than later.  Boutenko’s Roseburg study asked participants if they wanted to continue with their quart of green smoothie daily, and the vast majority said they wanted MORE, if anything.  I often drink THREE pints a day, though a quart is my average.

So I am gone to Peru for 10 days with my daughter. (No, it won’t be sunny and warm, but thanks for the well wishes just the same!) I’m sure I’ll tell you all about it when I get home!

Despite my sketchy access to a computer, I will magically continue to blog here regularly—and leave you all to wonder how that happened, haha. So keep talking to me!

I hope your Christmas, if you celebrate it, was wonderful. Many years ago when I realized our health required dietary changes, it was a challenge for me to replace the unhealthy holiday traditions with healthier ones.

I remember a Christmas 20 years ago, when I was married but had no children yet. We always spent the holidays at my former husband’s parents’ house in Phoenix. We got lots and lots of candy in the stockings (after a couple weeks of eating pies, nachos, and lots of homemade cinnamon rolls, fudge, and Christmas cookies). On the 11-hour drive back to Utah, we didn’t want to stop for “real” food (we were college students and had no money), so we ate not much else besides lots of our Christmas-stocking candy.

I walked into our apartment, from the car, and promptly passed out! My blood sugar just couldn’t take it anymore. At 42, I would never do the awful things to my body I was doing at 22—thank goodness!

In recent years, we don’t have a house full of sugar. Consequently, we also don’t have a house full of illness! I don’t miss either one, very frankly. Neighbors have mostly figured out that we’re not the people to give the can of Almond Roca to. (Not that we’d ever say a word if they did besides, “Thank you, how kind!” But now we get lovely fruit baskets and non-food items, which is fun. We can always “re-gift” the Almond Roca.) We eat a little fudge or whatever when we’re at a Christmas party, but we don’t make it or have it at home. My kids aren’t growing up with those traditions, and that’s okay. (Have I mentioned no one at my house has been sick during this swine-flu fall/winter?)

Are you reflecting on 2009, and gearing up for a new year with new goals? I hope 2010 is the very best year of your life! I have lots of goals, personal and professional, and I hope the GreenSmoothieGirl site serves you better in ’10 than it did in ‘09. I hope next year’s group buy is a lot smoother. I hope I can continue to learn about what you need in your quest to be healthy, and address that in my writing and development.

For your enjoyment, here’s GSG reader Angela’s twin daughters Peyton and Avery, enjoying hot pink smoothies as they look at Christmas lights in the park!

Merry Christmas!

My name is Shanna Anderson and I live in the Phoenix area. I received an extra large shipment of group buy items and have extras that I can now break down into smaller orders (for those who did not want 25# of something).

Here is what I have left as of 12-22-09:

Olive Oil: Extra Virgin – $27 ea gallon – I have 4 gallons

Coconut: Shredded, Organic – $1.85 per lb – I have 15 lbs

VitaMineral Green: $52 ea – (17.6 oz.) I have 2 bottles left

Almonds, Raw (sproutable): $4.00 I have 68 lbs

Walnuts, raw: $4.00 per lb – I have 23 lbs

Chia Seeds: Raw, Hulled (sproutable) – $5.50 per lb I have 15 lbs

Flaxseed: Organic, Raw – $1.80 per lb – I have 24 lbs

Dates: Chopped, Rolled in Oat Flour – $1.55 per lb – I have 25 lbs

Apricots: Organic, Dried, Whole – $3.30 per lb – I have 21 lbs

I can break these down into any weight (1 lb minimums each please) and will be available for pickup in either Gilbert (Country Club/Baseline), or in the Buckeye area which ever is most convenient.

Please contact me by either email at shanna.dave@gmail.com or call me at 623-332-2622

(Amounts I have left on this page may not accurately reflect what is available when you contact me, so please check with me first)

So you can’t decide whether to get a BlendTec or VitaMix? The BlendTec with the 96 oz. BPA-free jar is the ultimate, IMO. You can read about my opinion on the site under “Robyn Recommends.”

But if you’re torn because you like that tamper that comes with the VitaMix (which, by the way, is more expensive), you can actually get a tamper for your BlendTec. Not from the company–they don’t endorse that. But here’s the link to get one for $5.95, free shipping:

http://www.ecrater.com/product.php?pid=4369877

Check out GSG reader Jenna’s daughters, with their green smoothie mustaches!  They’re beautiful! (The girls more than the green on their faces!)

Jenna is a beautiful redhead living in Switzerland (an expat, I think), and this is part of her email to me:

“Thank you for inspiring me to eat healthier. I have recently made the change in our home to a plant based diet. We were already eating pretty healthy before but have now completely eliminated dairy and animal meats. Not easy to do in a country that is filled with cheese and meat. I am finding my way. My husband is completely supportive of this lifestyle change and I could not be more pleased.”

And here’s Jenna’s blog with her favorite GS recipe:

http://jennalovestocookandeat.blogspot.com/2009/08/green-smoothies-are-whats-cooking.html

You are the first people I’m inviting to check out the PRINTED COURSE MANUAL for 12 Steps to Whole Foods. I’ve been promising this for a long time, haven’t I? And the affiliate program is right behind it—14 affiliates are beta testing the online system right now.

The big holdup has been pulling all the pieces together for the expanded course, $149.95 for course manual, journal, 28 videos on DVD, audio files on 5 CDs, all four additional recipe collections on CD, a copy of The Green Smoothies Diet, and 12 Steps blog support. (That’s $207 worth of products for $149.95. It’s the entire suite of GreenSmoothieGirl.com information products in one kit.)

Anyway, never having done something of this magnitude before, and trying to pull together the affiliate program simultaneously (BlendTec and VitaMix reps will come on as affiliates in early ’10) . . . well, it’s just taken me a while!
So we’re not QUITE there, releasing the full course yet. And I’m not announcing this via newsletter yet (28,000 current subscribers) . . . I’m starting with just you who read this blog . . .

But I’d like to invite you, if you’ve purchased the 12 Steps to Whole Foods digital download previously:

To get AS MANY COPIES AS YOU WANT of the course manual only through Jan. 5, when I get home from Peru (after that, there will be a limit of ONE per customer). It’s $79.95 in the store, but you can use your coupon to apply $39.95 (what you paid for the electronic version, unless you bought it prior to Sept. 09, in which case you paid $29.95) . . .

. . . towards the printed course manual. It has some color photos, color cover, lays flat on your counter for easy use in the kitchen, and over 175 recipes.

We just got an email from a 12 Stepper (and one of the beta testing affiliates) who wants to teach a class starting in January. THIS is your chance to buy a bunch of manuals more inexpensively than we’ll ever do this again, for your class if you want to be a teacher.

If you want to hold out for the full course, hang tight until I announce that. (You’ll get $39.95 off that, too, if you previously purchased the download.)

But some of you have been saying you want 12 Steps for Christmas gifts. Through Jan. 5, you can get the printed manual only, AS MANY COPIES AS YOU WANT USING YOUR COUPON, for $30 instead of $79.95. That’s thanks for testing our brand-new online store AND our new product.

Here’s what you do. The coupon code in the store is the name of the last recipe in Chapter 7! (It’s one word.)

Here’s the link to get it:

http://secure.ultracart.com/cgi-bin/UCEditor?merchantId=GSG10&ADD=100145

Thanks for your patience with the site’s many flaws—I’m planning to become PERFECT in 2010! Let rex@greensmoothiegirl.com know if you encounter any problems or have any suggestions!

I’ll talk more about the affiliate program later, but for now, check it out if you like:

http://www.greensmoothiegirl.com/about/affiliate-program/

I have worked out, almost every day, with a small group of women. I’m one of the oldest, and the youngest is 26. (You can see some of them in my facebook photos.)

We’ve known each other for years because of our mutual addiction to endorphins. We run, stairstep, kickbox, lift weights, play tennis, and twist ourselves into pretzels at yoga. We do things together outside the gym as well, because we have become very close as a result of the massive amount of time we spend together.

I’m 99 percent certain none of them read my blog. (Most of them drink green smoothies, though—at least if I make them one and bring it to the gym!) So I can feel safe that this story is between you and me.

One of the girls has an eating disorder (I’ll call her ED). Not one I am close to. One of the OTHERS I am close to (I’ll call her QT) just can’t stand it. My tennis coach (I’ll call her Shari) got a text from ED saying, “Why is QT so cold to me?” So QT wrote ED a long facebook message.

The message wasn’t something I would write or approve of (and I didn’t love the “we” in the message because I’m a big believer in “speak for yourself”). It was LONG. In a nutshell, it said, “Here’s why I’m cold to you. We love you, but we don’t come to the gym to talk about food. We get tired of listening to the Debbie Downer attitude and obsession with calories and what you ate and how long it will take to ‘work it off.’ We want to talk about life and positive things!”

Well, this story, on a human relations level, is sad. There are hurt feelings all over the place, and Shari and I (the bystanders) are a little at a loss how to solve the problems.

On the issue of food obsessions, though, I’ve been thinking. How true it is that no one wants to know what you ate! How many calories it had. How guilty you feel. Your self-loathing because you ate this or that.

I was thinking how odd it is that, as a bystander in the drama playing out between my girlfriends, I completely relate with not wanting to hear obsessing about food. (I want to enjoy mine!) Don’t you think that’s weird, since I write books about food, I develop recipes, and I have a web site that is all about food?

I kid you not that none of my very close girlfriends ever hear me talk about food. I just don’t.

I bet you’re surprised.

My point is that I put GreenSmoothieGirl up to SUPPORT. Teach if that’s appropriate. Give ideas and encouragement and helpful information not readily available in the mass channels. Only to people who want it, and no one else.

But food obsession is NOT what I want here. Food is a means to an end—oh, and it can be fun and enjoyable on its own. But as the new year approaches, be thinking about your attitudes towards food.

Do you love food? (It’s okay, even good, if you do!)

Do you hate yourself in relationship to food? (If so, I hope you get clear with yourself about that and gently begin to correct it.)

Do you obsess about food? (That’s no fun. So many other subjects in life are interesting too!)

What do you do when you eat something that’s bad for you? (I hope you don’t tear yourself down and feel worthless. That isn’t helping anything or anyone.)

Learning more about whole foods, and raw foods, is exciting and fun—or it can be! If it’s a way to demoralize yourself, compare to others, or set an unachievable bar way up over your head . . .

Well, look at the psychological issues and try to break them down with logic. Because food is a blessing. It’s necessary, but it’s also good and enjoyable!

Just some things to think about. I’m interested in your comments.

Just want to tell you my completely adorable sister-in-law Mollie has a fabulous site with great prices on accessories, purses, etc.:

peartwig.com

She has such great taste and everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, on that site, is so darn stylish. She’s having an open house this Saturday in Lehi, Utah, from 12-2. 1694 South 710 East

I get constant compliments on my red-and-white striped purse from peartwig.com. Hope you enjoy the site!