Mathew and his greensmoothie “beer”

Matthew texts me: Look, I’m drinking St. Patty’s Day Beer again!

[Robyn aside: Hmm. Genius. Tell your husband that his green smoothie is a St. Patrick's Day beer.]

Me: Niiiiice!

Matthew: Does it ever crack you up that there are guys out there who used to eat bacon and eggs for breakfast, who now hold their fist up in the morning and yell, “Curse you, green smoothie girl!”

Me: Yep. I meet them in 60 cities, USA, annually. More like, I meet their wives.

I think that secretly these guys, robbed of their bacon and eggs, like to make jokes about it, but they’re GLAD that they’re healthier because of you ladies who care about them enough to put a big jar of green in their hands. They like to play dumb about it, but they’re thankful. Most of them.

And it seems I always get one guy who tells me after class, “I’m the green
smoothie GUY around here, and I dragged HER here.”

I get a lot of women telling me stories about their husbands’ resistance to the new nutritional regimen, occasional outright sabotage. But I love to hear stories from women whose husbands are their PARTNERS in a shift to smarter nutrition. (Tip: get him to come to my class next time I’m in town, and get him to do his own reading, of The China Study, for example.)

Tip: if you want to make smoothies taste more like beer, learn how to make Rejuvelac or even better, kefir, from Step 8 of 12 Steps to Whole Foods. Make that the base of your green smoothie rather than water.

Dear GreenSmoothieGirl:

I’ve been searching your site for information about sleep. I have a friend who has struggled his entire life to sleep and it is affecting his health dramatically.  There are very few places on the web where I feel that I can find truth when searching about information on health, but your website is always where I go first for answers. As of now, he’s stuck on either Ambien or Tylenol PM just to make it through each night.  There have got to be alternatives that are more effective and healing.  So, what have you learned over the years and what would you do? Thanks, Valerie

Answer:  Valerie, that’s great you’re helping your friend. I have an ex-boyfriend who takes Trazadone at night (way more hardcore than Tylenol PM or even Ambien!) and still gets only an hour or two of sleep many nights. He occasionally falls asleep at work (in surgery!) and is perpetually sleep deprived. To be sure, the drug approach is a cycle that can ultimately lead to more problems. Watching his struggles, and as a former 20-year insomniac myself (I resolved my sleep issues a number of years ago), I have a lot of sympathy.

My mother can pull over on the side of the road and take a 10-minute power nap. I’ve seen her lie down on a bench in the BYU football stadium or at the Marriott Center, during football and basketball games in huge crowds. She actually FALLS ASLEEP and wakes up rested. When my son was in the state playoffs last year for a week straight, I saw her lie down on concrete and take a nap between games. I don’t know why I didn’t get the Sleep Anywhere Anytime gene from her.

HERE and HERE are my past writings on natural ways to solve sleep problems.

I also recorded a webinar with sleep specialist and Intellibed founder Bob Rasmussen, HERE, where he and I talk about sleep research. I also explain how I recovered from insomnia and am no longer ever sleep deprived despite spending at least 10 nights every month in hotels.

Valerie, I hope this is helpful to your friend and also to anyone looking for answers to insomnia problems.

Don and Donna have been married a long time, and live out in the sticks in Oregon, where they’ve raised three children. They’ve recently hit some very hard times, with many losses during the recession, including unemployment and much upheaval.

So Donna’s big request of Don, for her birthday, was that he drive her to my first-ever lecture in Eugene, Oregon.

Donna waited patiently to tell me her story, the last person in line. She was raised on soy formula and was sickly and depressed, from her earliest memory. Her dietary staples were candy. The corn-syrup fruity kind, like Skittles. Until 15 months ago, the ONLY effect Donna understood that eating candy has, on her health, was that they cause cavities. (After all, Skittles are LOW FAT, right?)

One day Donna was on the couch, terribly ill and desperately depressed. Her married daughter found a Juiceman juicer collecting dust in the back of a cupboard and asked Donna if she could use it. “Only if you clean up when you’re done,” Donna said.

Soon her daughter presented her with a glass of fresh-pressed vegetable juice. The next day, she made her another glass. Donna found herself feeling……rather different. Rather better!

She felt guilty, though, with family finances the way they were, about throwing out the mountain of pulp that are a byproduct of juicing. She prayed to God, feeling horribly ill, “Please help me find a way out of being sick all the time.” She walked to the family’s computer and googled,

“What can I do with vegetable pulp and a Vitamix?” (She also happened to own a Vitamix blender.)

What came up was GreenSmoothieGirl.com. As Coach Loretta from Spokane said to me during our Pacific Northwest tour that same week, of the three days after she discovered GSG online, wherein she sat on the couch reading content and watching videos, telling the kids to get their own dang dinner……..

…..like Coach Loretta, Donna then fell down a rabbit hole of watching many GSG videos, reading, and absorbing information. New, revelatory information she wished she’d known decades before. About shifting the body towards alkalinity. The power of raw foods. How easy a green smoothie is. How to make whole foods, and why we HAVE to, if we want to be well.

She was ready and motivated to put new habits into play.

Donna instantly became a green smoothie girl. She said to me,

“That was 15 months ago. I have felt better since then, than at ANY other time in my whole life!”

Don, luckily, is “fully on board.” His father, grandfather, and brother all recently died of colon cancer! Don himself was diagnosed with high blood pressure, and polyps in the colon. He’s given up drinking Monster and eating fast food. He loves green smoothies and whole foods and supports Donna in everything she is doing for their health. (A bunch of women reading this are jealous right now.)

Both Don and Donna have lost more than 20 lbs. and have seen radical changes in their health. I’m so delighted to have met these new friends and hope you’re inspired by the story of a mother who is up off the couch, and thriving in the life she was always meant to enjoy. Thanks for sharing with me, Donna, and for driving the distance to my class, Don!

Anne-Sophie

I’ve been thinking about that newly famous, often-quoted piece of research that, to be great at something, you must spend 10,000 hours. Breaking it down, that’s 5 years of full-time work. I’m awed by the beautiful, virtuoso violinist, Anne-Sophie Mutter. I heard her play, live, when I was in Paris in 1992, when she was 8 months pregnant, and I was utterly devastated by her performance. I did not know sounds like that could come out of a violin.

I could not sit still for the performance that night in the Paris opera house, so I stood in the back through the whole thing. Barely breathing.

You can hear her playing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, about that time, with the Berlin Philharmonic, HERE.  Or a shorter performance on Letterman, HERE.

I think about the phenomenal amount of effort that went into earning a talent like Anne-Sophie’s. Maybe 50,000 hours!

Actors like Meryl Streep or Daniel Day-Lewis who bring us to tears. They paid the price, in workshops, being painfully evaluated by peers, trying out for parts, delivering lines in the mirror.

Writers like John Irving who astonish you with their prolific stories—he’s been writing for 40+ years!

Or Annie Lamott who enlivens an everyday event to be something you think about for weeks. Who writes single sentence you read five times because it rolls around in your brain so deliciously, and you write it and pin it on your cork board to save for later. Annie Lamott didn’t get to be my favorite writer because she sprang forth with an exquisite way with words. She put in the 10,000 hours honing her craft. Getting a degree, writing, re-writing, reading copiously, re-writing some more, listening to other professionals, teaching workshops, re-writing and reading some more.

A surgeon who completes 1,000 successful specialized procedures. A Major League Baseball player who fields every grounder, no matter how fast or angled it’s coming at him. (Evan Longoria on 3^rd base. Magic.)

I was thinking about this, watching my 12-yo son’s baseball tournament last weekend, thinking about the difference between these boys—competitive players way ahead of the average 12-year old playing city league—and the Tampa Bay Rays athletes we watched play 4 games in 4 days on our recent spring break.

My boy’s a great athlete. But he misses a pop fly and misses grounders and strikes out pretty regularly. I was amazed, watching the Major Leaguers go entire games with almost no infield or outfield errors. The difference? About 10,000 hours!

Robyn and Kids at the Ballpark

And I am always sad and amazed at how everyone—LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE ONE—at a baseball field, if they’re eating at all, is eating hot dogs, candy, soda, chips, nachos, and salty pretzels.

And I had this thought:  Being 100 lbs. overweight is the result of 10,000 bad choices.

Cancer and heart attacks are the result of 10,000 bad choices.

Jillian Michaels’ body is the result of 10,000 good choices. Not a little “health kick.” (A friend of mine who lost 80#, then gained it back, made 5,000 good choices, then stopped short—and made another 5,000 bad choices.) Jillian Michael’s megastar reputation and sculpted body are the result of many years, of thousands of instances, of doing the right thing.

I don’t believe it’s 5 or 10 bad choices that have a net result of heart disease. It’s 10,000. The body deals with insult by rallying. If you drink alcohol, your body works very hard to detoxify. If you drink a lot of water before you go to bed, you’ll likely wake up with no hangover. Because you helped your liver do its job.

But drink yourself to sleep every night for 20 years? It’s amazing the body survives it, but sometimes it does. Not without a heavy toll. Cirrhosis of the liver, cancer, or many other disease states are the likely result.

Think on whether you have a great ratio of good choices to bad. A green smoothie won’t be enough, against a highly stressful lifestyle, tons of Diet Coke, an absence of exercise, AND a smoking habit. But you make about 10 or so food decisions a day. If all but one of those are whole plant foods, mostly raw, maybe it’s okay that one choice isn’t great. If you’re eating an 60-80 percent raw, organic diet, maybe it’ll be enough to cover for the glass or two of wine you have with dinner a few times a week.

I’m not legitimizing poor choices. But we’re none of us perfect. Myself included. We live in a flawed world, and I choose to operate in reality rather than sniffing around the ether zone. I like to talk about things I’ve personally achieved and know to be possible.

10,000 good choices lead to health and vitality in the “senior years.” Like Coach Jeanette’s dad, Ed, my friend who is a DYNAMO at age 59, buying and selling companies and traveling the world with a mind as sharp as a razor. Most people his age are nursing a bunch of diagnoses, eating a bunch of pills every day, and winding down permanently. I could talk to him for hours. He eats a whole-foods diet and has educated himself about health, healing, wellness and spirituality. And he walks the talk.

My point is, it’s all in the ratio. I’ve quoted my grandmother many times. Even though she said this to me only once when I was in my 20’s, it went to my core and stayed there:

“It’s not what you do once in a while that’ll kill you. It’s what you do every day that’ll save you.”

We’ve had a bunch of contests lately, and we’ll have MORE, so make sure you read this blog sooner than later, because early birds get the worm around here! I’ll be blogging some really great stories that readers told me from my Pacific Northwest speaking tour.

Check out HERE where I’m speaking in the next few months, which include Sandy and Bountiful (Utah), then Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago, Idaho Falls, Denver, Omaha, Des Moines, Memphis, Lexington KY, Cincinnatti, Grand Rapids, Kitchener (CAN), Ann Arbor, Atlanta, Charleston, Charlotte and Raleigh.

But before I get to telling you stories about some lovely new friends I met in Oregon and Washington, here are our winners:

Nature Nate’s Honey gift basket giveaway

(oops, we accidentally gave 4 instead of 3 and Nature Nate’s backed us up, thank you!)

Amanda Luschin in Katy, Texas

Hannah No in Hollywood, California

Alisha Regis in Farmington, Utah

Anissa Chapman in Mesa, Arizona

Identify the Contents of Robyn’s Fridge contest winners

Won a 12 Steps manual ($100 value):

Corry Whitteker in Gunter, TX

Won signed copies of The Green Smoothies Diet:

1. Nancy Cadjan in Orem, UT
2. Keith Lock in Windsor, Ontario, Canada
3. Hilary Hales in Ft. Belvoir, VA
4. Emily Gibbemeyer in Ft. Lauderdale, FLA

Best fridge, won a 12 Steps manual:

Bernadette Astrella of San Jose, California

Worst fridge, won a 12 Steps manual:

Mike Randolph of St. Louis, Missouri

Xlear xylitol products gift basket winners

(oops, we accidentally gave it to SIX instead of THREE, and Xlear backed us up, THANKS Blaine!)

Karen Lonsdale of South Jordan, Utah

Marty Alvis of Clarksville, Tennessee

Melissa Krueger of Bartow, Florida

Shirley Morgan of Boulder City, Nevada

Virginia Edwards of Livermore, California

Denise Miller of Bella Vista, Arkansas

I edited these recipes at 10 pm and was so hungry when I was done! If having great ideas and recipes is the key to healthy living, you’re now 9 steps ahead, thanks to Michael and RaeVern Dumond of Seattle. Thank you, my friends!

 Raw Lemon Cookies

4 cups raw cashews ( soaked 4 hrs)
1 cup shredded coconut
one large whole lemon ( grate for zest and then squeeze all juice out, remove seeds)+ 1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup Raw Honey

Using food processor with the “S” blade, combine all and grind till the mixture becomes a “dough.” Make star shapes with a cookie decorator tube, or anything you like, or just press on teflex sheets in the dehydrator. Dry below 116 degrees for 12 hours, then place the cookies on mesh, and they will be ready to eat after drying a couple more hours.

“Tuna” Walnut Pate (makes a great sandwich)

3 cups raw walnuts (soaked 2 hours or more)
3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp tamari (low sodium)
3/4 tsp garlic powder
dash  Original Crystal Himalayan salt
1 Tbsp parsley flakes
2 Tbsp dry dill
2-3 Tbsp organic dry french onion powder

Use food processor with “S” blade. Stop occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl with rubber spatula. Transfer to medium bowl, with large fork add parsley, dill and onion powder. Stir and mash until thoroughly mixed. Enjoy as a cracker dip or sandwich filling.

Raw Chocolate Mousse (4-5 servings)

1-2 young coconuts, depending on the meat. If it is pink like jellyfish, use the meat of two coconuts; if it is white meat, one is enough.
1 1/2 cups raw organic cashews
1-2 Tbsp organic cacao powder
1-2 Tablespoon of agave
dash sea salt
1-2 tsp organic non-alcoholic vanilla extract or cut 2/3 vanilla bean (just cut off the end and throw into blender)
Optional:  1 Tbsp. GreenSmoothieGirl chocolate protein powder

Open coconut(s) and drain coconut water into high-speed blender. (Approximately 1 1/4 cups.)

Add all ingredients and blend in at once, scrape the coconut meat out. Blend, with speed slow at first, increasing to high. If it is too thick, add 3-4 ice cubes. If it is too watery, add 2 Tbsp. GreenSmoothieGirl Sprouted Flax. Pour into pudding cups and leave in refrigerator for two hours or more.

Raw Energy Bars
Yield 75 to 100 bars

1 cup almond flour
1 cup brazil nut butter (partly ground)
1 cup pecans butter ( partly ground)
1 cup cashews butter
1 cup pumpkin seeds
3/4 cup goji berries
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 cup coconut flakes
1 cup almonds butter
3/4 cup raw honey (or raw agave optional)
1/3 cup flax oil
3/4 cup non-dairy soy-free, nuts-free chocolate chips
1/2 cup cacao nibs
1/2 cup GreenSmoothieGirl Vanilla Protein
2 tsp Original Crystal Himalayan Salt

Mix all dry ingredients into large bowl. In a separate medium bowl, mix all wet ingredients.
Combine both with your hand. Use an ice cream scoop to pick up the dough, patting in place on cookie sheet. Refrigerate 2 hours or more, and cut into squares.

Raw Tomato Flat Bread
Yield: three trays of dehydrator

5-6 vine tomatoes, cut in quarters
1 1/2 cup sun-dried tomato or jar with olive oil would be fine
3/4 – 1 cup sprouted GreenSmoothieGirl flax
1-1/2 tsp tamari (sodium free) or nama shoyu
1-2 tsp dried oregano
1 Tbsp dried basil
1-2 cloves garlic
cracked pepper to taste
1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds

Use food processor with “S” blade, mix all except sunflower seeds. Blend till smooth and creamy, then add sunflower seeds. Blend gently. Spread on teflex trays and dry at 105 degrees overnight. Then pull out the tray and flip it over and remove the teflex and leave on mesh tray. Return to dehydrator for another couple of hours. Cut the bread with scissors, make it 9-12 squares of bread in each tray.

Yummy Raw Flat Flax Herb Bread

1 cup ground flax meal (or any GreenSmoothieGirl sprouted flax product)
1 cup ground sunflower seeds
2-3 medium yellow onions, diced
2 large vine tomatoes, chopped
1/3 cup or a little more  extra-virgin olive oil
2-3 Tbsp tamari
2 Tbsp thyme
2 Tbsp rosemary

Mixed all together in food processor with “S” blade, blend till mixture is smooth and creamy. Spread on teflex tray (about four trays), not too thin, thicker like leather, dry at 105 degrees for 12 hours. Pull out tray, flip the bread over the tray, remove teflex and leave on mesh, return to dehydrator for another couple hours. Cut with scissors, make into 9-12 squares of breads in each tray.

Onion Rings

Raw Onion Pizza Crust OR Onion Rings (Michael says, “oh boy, these are really good!”)
See photos below.
2 large yellow onions
1 large red onion
1/2 cup ground flax
1/2 cup ground sunflower seeds
3-4 Tbsp ground almond meal
3-4 Tbsp tamari
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2-3 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1/3 Tbsp garlic powder
1/3 Tbsp dried oregano
pinch Original Crystal Himalayan Salt

Use food processor with “S” blade to mix dry ingredients only. Add tamari and olive oil, mix again until creamy. Transfer to a bowl.

For pizza crust, slice the onions in thin rings using the food-processor slicer or a knife. Cut onion rings in thirds. Blend them gently by hand into the mixture. Distribute the mixture in the shape of circles on 2 teflex dehydrator sheets.

For onion rings, cut the slices thick, because when they dry they get much thinner. Gently mix batter and rings together. Put rings individually on teflex sheets.
Dry pizza crusts in dehydrator at 105 degrees, 18 to 24 hours. Remove teflex sheets and continue drying for a couple of hours on mesh sheets in the trays.

Dry onion rings 4-8 hours or until crispy.

Pizza Crust

Yummy Pizza!

Oatmeal Chocolate Milk Shake

1 cup ground organic oatmeal, groats, or steel cut would be fine
1/2 large banana
2 Tbsp GreenSmoothieGirl Chocolate Protein
1 Tbsp barley powder
1 1/4 cup almond milk
3-4 ice cubes

Grind oats in blender/coffee grinder until fine.  Add banana and GreenSmoothieGirl Chocolate Protein. Pour in almond milk and add ice cubes. Blend until smooth. (2 servings)

Enjoy!

Raw Zesty Cheesy Kale Chips (Michael says, “my whole family loves these!”)

 6 bunches of kale, washed, stems removed, cut in thirds or halves
2 cups raw cashews (soaked 2 hours, drained)
1 cup pure water, add only if needed to be smooth as creamy like cheesy
1 whole large red bell pepper, seeds removed
1 small orange bell pepper, seeds removed
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice (our favorite variety is Santa Cruz)
2 Tbsp agave
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
3/4 tsp turmeric
3/4 tsp onion powder
dash sea salt

Blend all ingredients except kale in high-speed blender until creamy and pour into a large bowl. Put kale by large handfuls in the batter until all the kale is covered with sauce. Dry in dehydrator for 12 hours or more until crispy. Tip: to keep kale crisps from going stale, put a small cheesecloth bag with dry rice into the jar, then put kale chips in the jar.

Micheal Before Greensmoothies

Michael DuMond in Seattle is a firestarter in the hearing impaired community in Seattle. He’d been to my lecture before when I spoke with David Wolfe a couple of years ago, but this time he brought 20 deaf friends and two interpreters. This story was told to me through one of the sign language interpreters, Marlene Bell.

Michael is totally committed to eating a high-raw, plant-based diet after his doctor said he was in late stages of congestive heart failure and would live no more than two years. He had Type II diabetes and was on medications for high cholesterol.  He said, “No, I won’t die in two years! I will change my life!” At the time, Michael weighed over 300 lbs. at about 5’8″. His diet was fast food, pizza, diet pop. “7-11 stuff,” as he put it.

He started working out at the Y. And he and his wife RaeVern began drinking green smoothies and eating raw plant food. He loves his tomato flax crackers, chocolate mousse, walnut-based “tuna” pate on a sandwich.

Tomorrow I’ll run Michael’s 9 Favorite Recipes:

Raw Lemon Cookies, Tuna Walnut Pate, Raw Chocolate Mousse, Raw Energy Bar, Tomato Flat Bread, Flax Herb Bread, Onion Ring (or raw pizza crust), Oatmeal Chocolate Milkshake, and Cheesy Kale Chips.

He says, “I have lots of things to eat that I love, and I have a big garden.” He’s organizing a co-op. I think he had much to do with the crowd of hearing impaired friends coming to the lecture.

Micheal today with Marlene Bell

That was 7 years ago that his doctor gave Michael a death sentence. Now, at 53, he has lost 114 lbs. and has normal blood pressure (formerly 160/104, now 117/74), and is off all drugs, with all disease states eliminated.

Unlike before, he now has lots of energy, sleeps well, has a better memory and a more positive and stable mood. He had hip replacement 10 years ago and was told he’d have lots of problems, but he’s had none. RaeVern also lost 40
lbs and eliminated joint pain.

So, this is to honor Michael (SO PROUD OF YOU!), our ASL interpreters, the deaf community, and anyone who wants to turn their life around, starting today. Having good recipes you love is the key, and that involves a learning
curve that’s totally worth your time and effort.

“Marilyn Peterson Openshaw, Robyn’s grandmother, in her early 20′s, with her second son Ronald”

This story is worth your time to read.

It made me cry, both when I first read it, and again when I sat down with it to craft it into a blog entry to share with you.

It moved me because, on its own, it’s a gorgeous story. It’s also very close to my heart, because both my paternal grandmother, and my paternal great grandmother, took their own lives at the same age, 33. My grandmother put a bullet in her brain. My great grandmother jumped off a bridge.

Because of this, I never had the chance to know them. I have seen only two photos of my grandmother. I have stared at them for hours. My face looks like hers, and I am built like her. Sharp facial features, thin but curvy. (This was helpful to know, as I’m built like no one else in my family.)

“Robert G. Openshaw, Robyn’s dad, as a young boy”

Depression robbed me, and my 15 paternal cousins and siblings, of ever meeting her. More importantly, it left my dad, who was standing in a crosswalk fulfilling his crossing-guard duties at the time Marilyn got the gun out, motherless at the tender age of my son Tennyson. Just 12. I don’t know what my dad was like at that age, but Tennyson still climbs in my lap, every single day.

Please enjoy Tori’s story. Most of it I have quoted in her own words (name changed to protect sensitive details).

Three years ago, Tori was at a very low point in her life. She’s a beautiful, young, fit blonde woman who looks like she has life by the tail. She had been struggling with crippling depression, and for 5 years had been on an obscene amount of mood stabilizers and anti-depressants. The meds caused her headaches, grinding teeth, the sensation of her skin crawling, and feeling slow, unemotional, and unable to concentrate.

Her doctor helped her up the dosage, change the dosage, change brands. Tori calls it “an experiment from hell.” But like so many of the rest of us, she says, “I didn’t know what else to do.” She went to therapy. She’d have okay days. Then she’d have weeks or months where she was preoccupied with taking her own life, and she came dangerously close to suicide at least twice. She cut herself constantly.

She said to me, “I HATED ME.”

And Tori is a young mother of two small children.

She carried a photo of them with her, and that is the only thing, she said, that kept her alive: “I didn’t want to die and leave them motherless. But I wanted to give up because I thought nothing was ever going to change and that I would always feel this way. Miserable.”

“I was searching for alternatives when I found your blog. I read it with interest, but wasn’t sure I wanted to blend a salad and drink it. How could that really work? Your blog seemed to tell me it would help, though. Just my luck, I saw that you were coming to the Seattle area in a few months, so I put it on my calendar. I was eager to see you.

“In between that time, I did make myself a green smoothie in my crappy blender and choked down chunks of it, and my husband swore it was the worst thing ever. I didn’t blame him, as I witnessed spinach leaves attached to his teeth and watched him chew his smoothie. I wasn’t sure this was for me, and it didn’t help that my husband was scoffing at the cost of a Blendtec.”

“I invited some friends to your seminar—and that day, each one canceled. I was very sad and wasn’t sure I wanted to go alone. But I wanted out of the house, and I drove there.

“I was at rock bottom that day. As I was driving the freeway, I saw the embankments and thought to myself, ‘I wonder how fast I would need to go, to fly off that, and be dead rather than injured?’ I did not want to live anymore.

“As you spoke about your own family’s story, with your son, your own health, and your grandmother’s story, I was blown away by the positive effects this way of life could have on someone. I was slightly hopeful, but also overwhelmed at the thought of getting my family off the S.A.D. diet and onto what you were talking about. But I listened—I actually LAUGHED (!!!)—throughout your lecture. You made me smile and enjoy being there learning.

“I thought about buying the 12 Steps to Whole Foods program, but I wasn’t sure, and planned to look at it, at the end of class. You were giving prizes away all night, and a few came very close to my number. Then you came to the grand prize, the Blendtec, and I could see that everyone was smiling and sitting on the edge of their seats. I had very little hope of winning, as that kind of thing just doesn’t happen to me. Yet you slowly read the numbers and……

“IT WAS MINE! I WON THE BLENDER!

“I was shocked and speechless, and I think I tried to throw a ‘yippee!’ out there, so you would know how thankful I was, but I’m sure it wasn’t loud enough. I couldn’t believe it. I was stunned.

“By the time I got through the crowd at the end of your talk, your 12 Steps program was sold out. But I ordered it online that night, and it was to arrive soon. I did purchase The Green Smoothies Diet, as well as The Adventures of Junk Food Dude. My kids LOVE that book, and can I tell you how many times they have selected that book to bring in for Show-N-Tell, or write a book report on, or “Bring a Book to School Day?”

“When I got home, I showed my husband what I won, but he thought I’d stopped and bought it at Costco! I told him it was true, I really WON it, and that I was going to make him a REAL smoothie in the morning. It was a simple first effort. But it was smooth, frothy, and delicious! He was so impressed that he asked me to put them in Mason jars so he could take them to work.

“I went off and bought greens I’d never used before and didn’t know what to do with. Kale, swiss chard, and…..what the heck, dandelion greens?!

“In the following months, I was still working with my doctor on meds, and still in therapy. But I also started adding in green smoothies. I love vegetables, but getting ‘in the habit’ with my busy day was a challenge. So I committed to 3 days a week. After the first month, it became 4 days a week, then 5, and now we are up to 6+ days a week drinking the amount of green smoothie you suggest.

“I started educating myself. Went to a naturopath and talked to her about diet and mood. She helped me with a full checkup and some supplement tweaks.

“Slowly I went off my medications. Each time I’d try before, it was a terrible experience. Dizziness, nausea, deepening depression, restlessness. I never wanted to go through that again.

“After a few experiments with natural supplements, I found a combo that worked. And all the while, I was still just drinking green smoothies. Of course my naturopath supported this!

“With a healthy breakfast in my belly, I started to WANT to eat a healthy lunch and then a healthy dinner. I lost 15 lbs without trying. I got a dog and walked more. My energy improved. I started to actually sleep, rather than toss and turn for hours. My joints stopped hurting. I felt smarter and could concentrate. I smiled more. I realized I WAS BECOMING HAPPIER!

“About 10 months ago, I completely went off the supplements from my naturopath to see how I’d do. They weren’t bad for me, but I didn’t want to feel tied to them. I’m drug-free to this day. I still have days when I feel down, but it’s never been that dark, dark hole that I was in for a very long time. I have learned how to manage these moods in a more mindful and positive way.

“I know green smoothies aren’t the cure-all to depression. But I really believe it was the kick start. I attribute the green smoothie to better health and well being. I feel BALANCED now!

“I love not only my morning green smoothie, but also your Hot Pink Breakfast Smoothie, and lots of things my kids and I create in the Blendtec. I don’t eat completely raw or plant based, but I have made steps, and I will continue to take more. We got rid of cow’s milk, almost all processed foods, and we have 3 nights a week that are meatless. Small steps are getting me there.

“I make soups, salad dressings, hummus, almond butter, ice cream, and of course smoothies in my blender. I LOVE LOVE LOVE your lentil soup recipe, which is a savior for me getting through the dark Seattle fall, winter, and spring. Our meals have never looked so pretty and colorful!

“That night in Seattle was a turning point for me, and I believe someone was watching over me that night. Yes, I walked out the door with the blender. But what I later came to realize was that I walked out that evening with the gift of HOPE. The gift of LIFE. The chance to be the wife, mom, friend, daughter, and sister that I deserve to be.

“I truly believe if I didn’t go that evening, I wouldn’t be here anymore. Robyn, you gave me a new way of looking at life. One green smoothie every morning. To start. It was something I began to look forward to. It helped me fight through the day, to make it to that next morning, when I could continue my commitment to my family. At last, I was doing something good for me. I was nourishing my body and pampering my soul.

“Thank you, Robyn, for the gifts you give to so many who attend your seminars!! You really are a blessing to me, and I am so grateful I came to meet you. You have a gift and I appreciate you sharing years of knowledge with us so we can stop this unhealthy way of life and give our children a chance.”

Tori’s is one of the most moving stories I have read from a GreenSmoothieGirl reader. You know I’ve read hundreds, possibly thousands. This one is so very special.

I have thought about it all week. I think what touched me so deeply by her story is knowing how, by not putting sugar water in our gas tank (I’m being figurative), and putting premium fuel in instead, FAR more is affected than just disease states and energy.

Everybody knows you don’t put sugar water in the gas tank. No one has ever done so. Unless they are sabotaging someone ELSE and thereby risking going to jail.

After all, that car cost you $20k! Or $60k. We put in EXACTLY the fuel the manufacturer recommends. I do not even put REGULAR unleaded gas in my Lexus (let alone throw some Diet Coke in there). No way. Premium gas always. And I am vigilant about where I park it, so nobody’s door might mar the pretty, candy-apple red paint.

But look what we do to our bodies. Fry a dead chicken full of steroids and antibiotics in a vat of two-month-old grease, sprinkle it with salt and MSG, and wash it down with a Coke that has no actual food ingredient in it. And while we’re munching on that, we stop at a gas station and put PREMIUM fuel in the gas tank.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Is your body less valuable than a car? Can you buy another one, for any price?

Truly our whole lives are affected by our fuel. Every aspect. From our attitude and mood, to how we care for our home, to the way we are able to treat others and love them, to our ability to advance our professional careers and execute on goals.

Not to mention the more obvious effect on our clear, proven risk for cancer, multiple sclerosis and ALS, heart attacks and strokes, and obesity sidelining us in an armchair.

A variety of things affect our abilities to LIVE THE LIFE WE DREAM OF. But I believe that the #1 impediment, to living on a very high plane on all those issues, is the fuel we choose. Everything else builds on that foundation. I constantly meet doctors, coaches, fitness professionals, and regular people whose life experience validates that.

My next blog will be Tori’s story. I will tell it the best I can. It is based on a discussion we had in person (she later told me she was very nervous at the time)  and also includes quotes a more detailed email she later sent me.

It’s worth your attention.