What people are saying
Amazing Energy and Down 10 lbs!
Donald says he is thinking clearer this morning (less foggy), no headache, down 7 pounds total.
I am down 6 pounds, no edema, my senses are more keen–kind of strange–it seems like everything is brighter, like I can see better or something. I’m more aware of sounds and smells. I woke up this morning feeling well rested and energized. My face is breaking out in red burning patches–so exciting! I KNOW I’m cleansing. This may sound totally crazy, but my breath was not deadly this morning.
(Update several days later:)
Donald’s down 9; I’m down 10. Amazing Energy! Feeling Light! Keener Senses! Mental Clarity! Normal Elimination! Clear Complexion! No Joint Pain! All In Four Days!
*results may vary
— Don and Rena P.
I feel lucky to have been introduced to green smoothies
Even if I have not seen so much difference, I feel lucky to have been introduced to green smoothies, a very interesting way to eat more greens and fruits. Hope it will show results in a near future and keep disease at bay!
I now fix green smoothies for my entire family several times per week and our immune systems have been clearly better while doing this on a consistent basis.
— Anonymous
I can never stop!
When I slow down on drinking green smoothies, it seems my joints start getting stiff and I get tired again. Also I stop being regular and go back to bowel movements once every three days!
— Anonymous
Neither of My School Kids Have Had a Sick Day!
I started 12 Steps during the busiest time of my life, when my fourth baby was 6 weeks old. My other little ones were 2, 5, and 6. It was three days before school started and everyone was sick with a cold but me. I was sick with an inflamed gallbladder and scheduled for surgery at age 33! We had been sick more than 50% of the last 365 days.
“Enough is enough!” I thought, “I know what I should be eating, I’ve been studying this since I was pregnant with my first, but I can’t figure out how to apply what I know. It overwhelms me. I want my family to be healthy, especially my son who is sick the most. Maybe Robyn’s program can teach me something I don’t already know. I trust Robyn’s nutritional philosophy more than any other author out there.” (Sorry I was skeptical at first, but the beauty of 12 Steps I now see, is putting the transition into a do-able order and adding one thing at a time.)
We started 12 Steps on the first day of school. An awesome time to start because fruit and veggies are abundant in the garden and cheap at the store, and the beginning of the school year is a time of transition anyway! I had paid for school lunch, but we started 12 Steps just in time. None of my kids will ever have school lunch (they serve corn dogs every single day; I hurt for the other kids).
The first week curriculum for first grade was “health and nutrition.” At dinner I remarked on the coincidence that I was taking a health and nutrition class too. My kids already know to expect fallacious nutritional information from school, so we compared notes on what we were learning each night at dinner. My kids loved that I was going “back to school” too.
I call “12 Steps” my online class and I always say “my teacher says . . .” Rather than being on a crazy diet, in my family’s eyes, I am taking a university-level, highly prestigious, nutrition course and I will “graduate” in a year (you never really graduate, though, do you?). In my eyes, it’s even better than that. Each month as my kids start new units of study, they are excited to hear about my new unit of study.
During the first month, my goal was to drink 8+ glasses of water a day instead of 3 or 4. I had been perpetually dehydrated since I got pregnant, and nursing was making it worse. That was a hard goal because I was so insanely busy I didn’t even have time to get a drink until 10 in the morning some days.
More than once, due to kid distractions, a green smoothie took three days to make. Water in the blender the first day, wash produce the next, chop stuff up and blend it the third. Getting hydrated was wonderful and I had green drinks on days when I couldn’t get a smoothie made. A ginormous burden of guilt (that I didn’t even know I had) lifted off my shoulders about my family’s nutrition. That gave me an emotional boost. The water made me feel physically so much better. I cancelled my gallbladder removal surgery and I don’t recall when it happened, but all of a sudden I had an extra 30 minutes to make green smoothie every day (it takes longer holding a baby or toddler or both while you do it).
Organic ready-to-eat salads just happened to be on sale for $.99 a box when we hit month two. That would convince anyone to love salad, no work and so tasty. When the sale ended two weeks later, I found again that I magically had the extra time to wash piles of romaine, spinach, and other lettuces. Another huge burden lifted off my shoulders, because I didn’t have to think of what to have for dinner anymore, it was always salad. We had main dishes too, but they were way simpler, just side dishes really. Salad was fun. My kids love picking out toppings for the salad and my picky eater has a passion for making her salad pretty. She also loves that dinner every night is a salad bar. Dinner battles at our house almost disappeared. As the quality of our meals went up, there was less to complain about.
The third month was my birthday. I got a beet cake, a salad spinner, and the “okay” to order almonds in the GreenSmoothieGirl.com annual group buy. I have been substituting almonds, apples, and raisins for chips and pretzels (just a few per snack) since we started 12 Steps. I reverse engineered our favorite store salad dressings using high quality ingredients. It was fun.
Where did I get the time to sit around reverse engineering salad dressing recipes? It is a mystery to me. I am getting salad making down to a science. I love buying it. I love being the lady who fills her cart up with lettuce and practically nothing else every few days at the grocery store.
Instead of fruit snacks, my toddler hugs the bags of romaine and skips the complimentary Laffy Taffy at the check-out. (Toddlers transition so much faster than the rest of us). I took salad to the family potluck, and impressed my relatives when 2 of my 3 kids took big servings of it before eating anything else.
My husband won’t touch green smoothies, but he has enjoyed the improvement in the family menu and the unanticipated weight loss from having salads for dinner every day.
Wow, now we are into November and neither of my school kids have had a sick day! My toddler has been sick every other week like usual (and my husband too). Even the daily green smoothie can’t save her at age 2, I guess. With one kid and one parent sick a lot though, it is miraculous that no one else is getting it, as they got everything last year. And my son went off asthma medicine without a hitch. In the past, running out of medicine meant he would be sick in the next day or two, but so far so good! Thanks!
*results may vary
— Regina Slaugh
I lost 7 Pounds and Feel Amazing!
GSG Detox with FULL SUPPORT was a valuable undertaking. Having a buddy was PRICELESS! I lost 7 lbs. over the 26-day program. I went from a healthy 125.5 lbs. to an even healthier 118.5 lbs. Weight loss was not an initial reason for challenging myself; however, cleaning and repairing my body organs was. I have been a vegetarian for five-plus years and did eat a strong, plant-based diet. My goal with the detox was to establish an anti-inflammatory environment for my body. I feel like I achieved that with the full-support program by being guided and supported throughout the 26 days.
I did not sign up with a buddy, and GSG paired me up with an amazing detox participant. We committed to e-chatting daily, and that support became very important to both of us as the detox program progressed. I also took advantage of the Daily Content and Forum posts that enhanced my understanding of the body’s ability to repair itself.
I am an endurance athlete, and even though my stamina suffered during the detoxing, I know that as I slowly increase plant-centered, whole-food calories into my regular diet, that stamina will return and I will be a stronger runner as a result.
I LOVED this program. I lost 7 pounds and feel amazing! I never would have done this program without full support, as I know myself and wouldn’t have kept up if I didn’t have daily emails and encouragement. There were also helpful hints in the full-support manual that those who chose not to go that route missed. The discussion forum was also very helpful as well as the phone calls.
My knees no longer hurt constantly, and I can go up and down stairs without pain. I also no longer need a nap in the afternoon, which has been part of my routine since my teenagers were little. Robyn, I so appreciate all the time and work you put into this program. It truly has changed me. I purchased the 12 Steps to Whole Foods and plan to continue eating this way and getting healthier. I also sleep much better and wake rested.
Again, thanks for all your research and hard work. This was the best thing I have done for myself in a long time.
*results may vary
— Laurie T., Ashton, Illinois
I feel so much healthier!
We’ve been converted to green smoothies for a while now. In fact, I’ll have to say that I crave them. Not necessarily the taste (although our concoction is very tasty), but the effects they have on me! I feel so much healthier and my skin tone has definitely improved. People tell me I look so young–who doesn’t like to hear that?! My daughter and grandson are hooked now, too. Thanks Robyn!
— Karen P.
Thank you Robyn!
My husband and I began with the green smoothies with Robyn in February 2008. Within three months my husband lost 60 lbs and I have kept off 20 and am at my normal weight…which is what I have averaged since high school.* I am 5’4” and 108. I am 41 and have two children under the age of 5. My husband can now sleep through the night (he used to toss and turn). I sleep soundly. I close my eyes and it is morning! My husband no longer needs Prilosec. My children, 2 1/2 and 5, drink green smoothies and they have not been sick in a year. My son goes to a special needs school and I have noticed that his behavior is much better. He also has an amazing creative streak in the past 6 months.
Thank you Robyn!
— Tonya Carney
The green smoothie has lived up to the expectations I had
I tried the green smoothie after juicing for several years. Juicing was expensive and demanded a lot of time and work extracting the juice from the fiber and cleaning the juicer. Blended raw foods made a lot of sense and I did not need to be converted on the idea.
When I began drinking the green smoothie I weighed 285 lbs. One year later I weigh 240 lbs. Daily workouts have contributed as much to my weight loss as any other factor. However, the benefits of the green smoothie as I experienced them are as follows:
1. Drinking the green smoothie changed my bowel movement habits, which are now frequent (2-3 times a day) and regular.
2. The green smoothie is my pre-workout, first thing in the morning food. I have been surprised at the energy it sustains throughout my workout.
3. The green smoothie fills me up without slowing me down. It satisfies my hunger and cravings till early in the afternoon. It has curbed my overall appetite thus decreasing the overall calories I consume in a day.
4. I find that the green smoothie helps my digestion, especially with the foods that do not digest well. I eat a lot of lean meat and I feel the organic raw food in my gut facilitates digestion and elimination of meat.
5. Beginning my day with green smoothie drinks and working out provides me the momentum, nutrition, and motivation to eat a strict lean diet throughout the rest of the day.
The green smoothie has lived up to the expectations I had. Several of the above benefits caught me totally by surprise. I have been drinking green smoothies every morning for the past year. They have served me well. Now that I have lost the weight I needed, I have significantly increased my strength and energy. My new goals are not to lose any more weight but to increase my overall lean muscle mass. My idea is to begin drinking green smoothies twice a day rather than just once in the morning.
*results may vary
— Gregg L.
Worked when juicing didn’t
The green smoothie idea has worked well for me whereas juicing did not. Anyone who has juiced knows the time commitment it takes for juicing and clean-up as well as the volume of veggies it takes to make just 2-3 eight-ounce juice drinks per day. When I read about green smoothies, it was immediately appealing to me. I bought a BlendTec right away. In only 14 months of use, the counter on my machine is already over 1,600!
I average 5 out of 7 days for making smoothies for myself and my husband, who will drink one anytime it’s available in the fridge. One benefit of green smoothies is helping me to be more alkaline.
— Linda C.
Doing the GSG Detox Next Time Around! Feel Great, Look Great, and Lost 7 lbs!
I am thrilled with my experience during the GSG detox. In the beginning I was worried I couldn’t give up coffee, sugar, my Lean Cuisine for lunch, bread, etc., etc. I told myself, just get through the first week and then decide if you want to continue. After the first week I felt like it was totally doable and I didn’t want to quit. I definitely felt like the full support was key to my success. I would have questions or be confused here and there, and having that forum made all the difference. I was able to post questions and get responses from both the GSG staff and also others who were going through the detox with me.
I have told all my friends about the detox—I am planning to do it again next time around! I feel great, I look great, I lost 7 pounds, and am so proud of myself and my buddy for seeing it through. I am also looking forward to transitioning from a Standard American Diet to a more plant-based whole foods (even maybe vegetarian) diet. Thank you, Robyn!
*results may vary
— Jeannine L., Sandy, Utah
I feel so much better!
I have been drinking green smoothies daily for a month now. I have seen a huge improvement in my overall outlook on life. I handle stress SO much better and I feel happier. Another huge improvement for me was the decrease in my cravings for sugary foods. This was a big problem for me. Now even if I eat something sweet, I don’t want very much of it. It has been amazing how much better I feel since starting to drink green smoothies!
— Tammy M.
I am a totally different person!
Green Smoothies have impacted my life in so many ways. I had gained 65 pounds from my first pregnancy on my “organic” processed-food diet. My self-esteem and confidence was crumbling around me. My energy levels ran on low even though I am only in my twenties. I remember when I was introduced to the concept of green smoothies at a health food store. A lady was handing out free samples. I used to work at a smoothie bar and the thought of adding greens to smoothies had never occurred to me.
It was two years ago when I discovered this amazing drink, and I have had one every day since. People started to comment on how radiant” my skin looked and asked how I was losing weight only 2-3 months after starting green smoothies. Soon, I had to make a printout of recipes and tips to give out to friends and family to make explaining the “Green Smoothie” easier and not as redundant. Not long after that, I started teaching health classes. There are probably more families at my church making smoothies than those that are not. We have all seen a difference in our health. I do not crave salty and sweet things like I used to. I feel like the chains of my cravings were released with the key of smoothies.
I have lost over 40 pounds and gained soaring levels of energy. I have a better outlook on life. I prefer to go for a walk instead of watching TV with a bag of chips by my side. My passion has grown so much for this simple concept that I am working on a website called www.smoothie-handbook.com. I want others to feel the freedom that I am experiencing.
In February of ‘09, I had my second son. Thank goodness I can say that I didn’t gain 65 pounds this time around–only 16! I lost all of that on delivery day. Even though I didn’t gain a lot of weight, my 9-pound newborn was not lacking in that area. By 6 weeks post-partum, I was 6 pounds under my pre-pregnancy weight! I was not starving myself either. The green smoothies give me so many different nutrients that my body doesn’t crave the junk.
I am so glad that there are people like Robyn out there promoting such a wonderful concept. Because of people like her, I am a totally different person. Thank you!
*results may vary
— DaNae Johnson
