My Friend Drinks Green Smoothies, Loses Weight, Addresses Diabetic Issues

I have a close friend who rents my basement apartment. Jean is a 46-year old mom of 3 and a Type 1 diabetic since age 16. As with all of my friends, I never undertook to try to convince her to eat whole foods, but she's in my kitchen a lot and sees what I do. And eventually almost everyone tries it–at LEAST the green smoothie habit, and most of them even more of my lifestyle habits. I have quite an army of friends and ex-boyfriends who make green smoothies regularly and tell me they'll never give that up.

One of the most common questions I get is, "How can I get my [sister] (insert name of someone close to you) on board?" And of course I have detailed answers to that in the 12 Steps Intro, regarding your kids and spouse. But my general answer is, "You don't."

You can't change what someone else eats. A minority of people would rather die than eat right. But lots of people WILL change, just by watching you and seeing the results. Example is so much more powerful than lectures.

So this weekend Jean was sitting in my kitchen while I was testing recipes for Junk Food Dude's Yummy Healthy Recipes. It's a companion to The Adventures of Junk Food Dude, and I found a way to reduce the price of the hardback book by $4! Yay!

We were talking about why she left yoga early that morning. And her insulin pump started beeping right about then. She got it out and squeezed it a few times to eat the "mashed potatoes" (featuring cauliflower and spinach) that she'd just tasted and wanted a bowl of.

My son Tennyson was in the room, so I asked Jean to show him her pump and tell him about diabetes. I asked Ten if he has noticed Jean pricking her finger to test her blood, when she sits with us at church, and he nodded. "I have to do that 20 or 25 times a day," she told him.

"And what happens if your blood sugar is low?" I asked. (All in the name of instructing Tennyson–I would talk to him later about what causes Type 2 diabetes.)

"I have to eat a piece of candy," she said.

AAARGH.

"Or a piece of fruit?" I suggested. "Yes, even better," she said.

So we were talking about how she sometimes has to leave yoga (we go to the same class on Saturdays at the gym), because her blood pressure is too low, and yesterday she had a lot of muscle fatigue and just couldn't finish.

She said to Tennyson, "I used to feel like that a LOT, until I started drinking green smoothies, and it almost never happens now." I asked her what other health benefits she noticed, and she said, "More energy and I lost weight."

Good stuff. I'll post more green-smoothie mustache photos and testimonials sent by readers, soon!