What people are saying
Love the Practical Approach
I have been reading Robyn’s blog for a few months and then attended a class she taught about green smoothies. It has been just over a month but we are drinking green smoothies daily and I’ve already converted a few friends. I can’t help but smile as I watch my 5 kids drink their smoothies loaded with veggies and fruits every day.
I bought the 12 Step program shortly after I started my new green smoothie habit. I had already watched all of the YouTube videos and read everything on GreenSmoothieGirl.com. I just couldn’t get enough. I have read so many books and articles on healthy eating and this feels like a breath of fresh air. I find some of the same things I’ve learned elsewhere but the 12 Steps is much easier and enjoyable to read and follow.
I love the practical approach. I love that Robyn is sensitive to the time and money constraints that are part of real life. The 12 Step program is simple, affordable, and doable even for a busy mom with 5 kids. We are just getting started but I’ve made the Chocolate Beet Cake (Ch. 11) along with several different smoothies and some fabulous salads. I’m so excited to implement each of these steps throughout the coming year and record the benefits that we experience from each upgrade to our diet.
The 12 Steps program is loaded with information. I bought a freezer and am already planning for my garden next year with all of this new information in mind. It has really changed the way I look at food and food preparation.
I can’t thank you enough for the time and effort you’ve put into sorting through all of the information available and bringing the most relevant and useful information into one program that can be followed by anyone. Perhaps the biggest challenge is to take it one step at a time and not get overwhelmed by trying to do it all at once. Thanks again and keep up the good work.
— Kelleen P
Less Stress
I love that there is one goal a month! That makes changing your way of eating less stressful and more enjoyable. I also like it because you can focus on that goal and observe the changes that goal is making to your body and in your life
— AB, IL
So delicious and satisfying!
I’ve been drinking a quart of green smoothies daily for about a year now, with a few exceptions. When I fail to drink them for a few days (too busy, need to go to the store, etc.), I find that the first sip of the next smoothie is so welcome, so delicious, so satisfying.
My children drink them because I put them in front of them. I gave them a pint at first, then my 11 y.o. son struggled to get them down. I let him drink half a pint for a while, until he got used to them. Finally, he asked if he still had to drink the small glass (half a pint), or if he could have a full glass now–YES! He also enjoys drinking them in front of friends and telling what’s in it. That took a couple of weeks, probably.
Now, they drink a pint, and sometimes whatever else is left over after I have mine. They like lots of strawberries in theirs, and fresh peaches, when they’re in season. I have converted several friends to drinking green smoothies, too. (Them: What is that you’re drinking?” Me: A green smoothie.” Them: What’s in it?” Me: Want a taste?” or Would you like the recipe?”)
— Janelle B.
We love green smoothies at our house.
We love green smoothies at our house. I am a homeschooling mom of four children. Three of my children drink smoothies because they love them, and one child drinks her smoothies because it’s a good health choice. I try to vary the ingredients here and there so that they don’t get bored with them. We drink them first thing in the morning. I also have been known to feed them to neighbor children who then will ask to have more! Also, they are pretty tasty as popsicles: I am sure they lose some nutrition being frozen, but the kids love them!
— Melanie H.
I feel great!
I’m always constipated, and I used to drink herbal laxatives to help me, but they give me terrible abdominal cramps and diarrhea. Drinking green smoothie four days a week has helped me a lot. I feel great!
— Anonymous
Life-Changing, Marriage-Blessing Experience and 11 lbs Lost!
I am more grateful than I could ever express with words for this detox program that Robyn has put together!
I was in a place in my life where I felt trapped in my body and in my food addictions that I had—especially refined sugar and white flour. I needed help! I needed a drastic change and guidance and some way to change my life besides JUST relying on will power (I had tried that again and again, which didn’t work).
My experience with the full-support detox really has been life changing. My husband was my detox partner and we really felt that doing something so hard together, and accomplishing it, was such a blessing to our relationship! We still work together every day, even now that the detox is over, to make sure that we have our green smoothies ready for the next day!
I really enjoyed the detox information email that I received every day, as well as using the member forum. It was great to hear from everyone else, both about their struggles and triumphs! I have no cravings for those refined, processed foods anymore.
I can now clearly hear my body’s signals, and it is so much easier to figure out which foods work for me and which don’t. I love my relationship with food now, and participating in this detox did that for me! I still have about 50 lbs to lose, but I lost 11, and I feel that I can accomplish the rest with the things I have learned, and feel amazing while doing it (instead of hungry, grumpy, and resentful like I usually do while “dieting”).
Thank you Robyn and the GSG team for helping me to change my life! I can’t wait to do it again with you in January!
*results may vary
— Lianne A., Apopka, Florida
Not Going Back to How I Used to Eat Before!
I was a little apprehensive when I received the manual and read through all the foods and the limited food. I told myself it is ONLY 26 days and you have been eating poorly without thought for years. I used to be a vegetarian before I met my husband 12 years ago. Many date nights of letting him pick and following his meat-eating diet, I was miserable. I started following Green Smoothie Girl about a year ago. I have been slowly changing my diet and I wanted a JUMP START.
At the end of the detox I have lost 22 lbs. I will continue on this journey and have bought the 12 Steps book to inform me on more changes. I grew up eating the way Robyn promotes and never had any joint pain or issues sleeping. When I started down the junk-eating route I noticed my sleep was restless and my joints always hurt. I AM NOT GOING BACK! I feel so much lighter, even with just 22 lbs. gone. I have no desire to eat meat or sugar, my main addictions.
To anyone out there thinking they cannot do this, YOU CAN! Thank you again, Robyn, for giving me the KICK IN THE BUTT that I needed.
*results may vary
— Eva F., Longwood, FL
The green drink is the best breakfast a person could have.
I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999. I had a surgery to remove the lump but refused chemo and radiation. I saw a naturopathic doctor and through micro water, stabilizing my PH, and diet, was able to get rid of it. In the spring of 2008 I knew from the symptoms the cancer was back.
I checked my pH, which was so acidic it wouldn’t even read on the paper. I went to see my doctor and he confirmed the readings. I knew the key to getting rid of cancer was a balanced pH. I have a microwater machine, but I knew the fastest way to balance pH is through greens, but it was impossible to eat the amount that I needed.
I’ve been drinking blended greens faithfully since August of 2008 along with the raw food, no dairy, no meat. I was rechecked for cancer in January and there are no signs at all*. I feel great, haven’t been sick. I’ve lost weight and am back down to my high school weight and size. I have energy, etc. . . I could go on and on. My kids can’t believe I’m running around chasing the grandkids like a teenager. The green drink is the best breakfast a person could have.
Because of the positive change in me, about 10 other people have started drinking green smoothies. Ladies at Curves, my husband, my daughter, my husbands’ parents, my parents, and my friends. And when I go to Sunflower Market, I meet a lot of people, mostly older people buying kale for their green drink. I smile and think, wow, that’s great!
— Terri Barnett, Payson , UT
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 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.
Changed my diet and the way I think about food
You may struggle a couple of times, but just know you WILL feel amazing after you follow the detox to the end. I’m now hitting all new fitness goals and lost 25 permanent, non-water pounds and counting. Totally changed my diet and the way I think about food.
— Josh Willet, Kansas
We have so much more energy!
What can we say! My husband, myself, and our 15 month old baby are hooked! There is no such thing as the 3 o’clock sleepiness anymore. We have so much more energy. Our daughter loves the smoothies. She even has a smoothie dance she does when she wants some. With her on the green smoothies, I do not worry so much about if she is getting proper nutrition. I just know she is. With the addition of flax seed or chia, I also know she is getting the good fats she needs for brain development. I am so glad I stumbled onto your site, Robyn. This has changed our lives
— Shelly N.
