I feel like a post is needed to do this wonderful book justice. This book has helped me in so many ways. When I started my food journey I started with Ultrametabolism by Dr. Mark Hyman. See my previous post
http://nebeker-jo.blogspot.com/2011/05/thankful-for-ultrametabolism.html
to learn more about that. My life will forever be changed thanks to that book.
After learning what I did I needed to know more. Specifically how to eat with my restrictions. I had started making Green Smoothies already and loved them SOOO Much. About 1 year after my detox with ultrametabolsm it was time to do another detox. I got the book Green Smoothie Diet by Robyn Openshaw Aka Green Smoothie Girl and loved everything she had to say. Most of it directly coincided with Dr. Hymans teachings and I felt like this was the way to go. She talks in her book about the importance of doing a detox or cleanse and recommends doing a 3 day or 30 day green smoothie detox. I jumped all over this because I already loved Green Smoothies. Being the person that I am I decided to go all out and do the 30 day detox. It was truly amazing. My favorite part was every morning I made my smoothies for the whole day and just grabbed them when hungry. It was so nice not to think about what I was going to eat. Keep in mind I was already eating pretty healthy and had a Green Smoothie Almost every day so I had very minimal side effects. Around day 5 I did notice I had to urinate quite frequently, it felt like being pregnant. I realized my kidneys and livers were being cleansed. That lasted for about 3 days and then went back to normal. One of the things a cleanse is suppose to do is clean your colon. Again I thought "oh my colon is probably already pretty clean so I won't notice much". What happened to me was not extreme but there were some distinct differences. If you want more detail I will be happy to share but I don't want to gross people out. Let's just say my colon was getting cleaned. I had tons of energy, felt great, lost weight, my joints didn't hurt. I loved it so much there are many days where I wish I could do it over and over again. My goal is to do this once a year. Since I have this family to take care of it is hard to prepare meals for a family and not eat them so my husband has to be on board with the idea and was extremely supportive the first time. Anyway because of this book I started reading her website and blog was really excited about what she teaches. Her main goal is 60%-80% raw diet. This is actually really easy to do with the help of her 12 step book. After countless hours online researching, finding recipes etc I attended a class taught by Green Smoothie Girl herself here in Santa Barbara. I was so excited I told everyone she was coming. At her class I purchased the book 12 steps to whole foods https://secure.ultracart.com/catalog/GSG10/10011M.html This book is not cheap but totally worth it. Oh, how I wish I had had this book at the beginning. It would have saved me so much time and I would have been able to introduce my family slowly so that there was not as much resistance. This book has 12 Chapters the goal is to do one Chapter per month and at the end of a year you have transitioned you and your family to a whole foods diet. This is so perfect because you won't get overwhelmed like so many of us do when trying to eat healthy. I often have felt like there is so much how can I possibly remember it all. This book tells you what to do, how to do it, recipes, and recommends other books if you want to learn more. Most of the recipes are Gluten Free or simply changed to be. To give you an example here are the Chapter outlines
Chapter 1. Green Smoothies - I know from personal experience that this one habit a day or 3 times a week or more will greatly change your health, energy, everything. She gives recipes and talks about simple ways to make tasty nutritious smoothies. One quart of Green Smoothie has 12-15 servings of veggies and fruit for an adult. It also cleans out your digestive system so your body works better the rest of the day.
Chapter 2. Making Salad the Star- This chapter talks abut the importance of Salad and how to increase your servings over the month so that the main part of your dinner is salad. The recipes she includes are delicious.
Chapter 3. Dressing Up Your Salads- This entire Chapter is about Salad Dressing. She talks about the importance of making your own dressing and has many recipes. I often make huge batches and store the extra in jars in my freezer so they are there when needed.
Chapter 4. Avoiding Bad Fats, Enjoying Good Fats- This chapter talks about why some oils are bad and which ones are good and why your body needs good fats. This is the chapter the Almond Joy Fudge Recipe comes from.
Chapter 5.- Reaping a Gardener's Rewards- She talks about the importance of having a garden and how to start and recommends books that are great for more info. There is a lot more to this chapter than just gardening so if that is not in your grasp because of your housing situations don't skip this chapter.
Chapter 6- Making Plant-Based Main Dishes - This is when you will start the transitions from animal based main courses to plant based ones. I have been very happy with all but one of the recipes I tried and I suspect the error was on my side. We are going to try that recipe again but have my husband make it this time and I am sure it will come out great.
Chapter 7- Sprouting and Dehydrating- This always seemed so overwhelming and completely out of my grasp. What I found online just seemed like so much work. She breaks it down and makes it a doable thing for every house and explains why sprouting is so very important to get the live enzymes only sprouts can give us.
Chapter 8- Preserving Raw Foods with Natural Probiotics- I have to admit that this is the chapter I am currently focusing on. I made Coconut Milk yesterday and will be making Coconut yogurt tomorrow. I am learning about this chapter currently
Chapter 9- Replacing White Flour with Whole Grains - She explains about many types of grains, how to use them and maximize the amount of nutrition you can get from them. There are some great recipes using many grains.
Chapter 10- Starting Your Morning off Right- This chapter focuses on other breakfast ideas in addition to Green Smoothies. Some of my favorite recipes from the book are in this chapter. It is a good idea to offer alternative or additions to green smoothies a few times a week to keep kids from getting sick of the smoothies.
Chapter 11- Creating Delicious Whole Food Treats- Shockingly, this is my favorite chapter. I can make yummy treats that are whole foods and I don't have to feel guilty about them.
Chapter 12 - Achieving an Alkaline Inner Terrain - I have read this chapter and believe that what she says about water is true but in all honesty it is going to be a long time before this is part of my routine. Part of that is we are a low income family and this takes an investment upfront that we cannot do right now. I in no way want you to fee like this is not worth looking into. If I could I would. We do drink the best water we can in our home.
The First Question I get when people find out about how I eat is "how do you get enough protein" To that I will happily answer with read her book. I will actually talk to you about it but It is the question I am getting really tired of.
The Second Question I get is how do your Husband and kids feel about it. Well in truth it is not always easy. As time goes on it is getting easier. We started Friday Free day. On Fridays my husband and kids decide and cook what we have for dinner. I have a smoothie or something else. It really did not take my Husband long before the thought of not having meat at every meal didn't break his heart. He has embraced it and is healthier and feels better than I have ever seen in our almost 15 years of marriage. My youngest son who has been raised the healthiest has the least trouble. When he does complain he is usually copying on of his big brothers. My 13 year old was pretty pleasant about all of it until the day her turned 13 (give or take a few hours). All of a sudden everything I do is wrong and all the food I cook is gross. All he wants is white bread. I find this terribly funny since never in his life have I bought white bread. I feel like most of his complaints come from being 13. My 11 year old is the hardest to deal with. He however has always been an extremely picky eater. Our Dinner is Salad, Fruits, Veggies and when those are done then the main course. If they don't like it to bad I am sick and tired about fighting over food. I know they are not starving. If they come back later and say they are hungry they can eat veggies or dinner, nothing else. That being said I do try to allow something that makes dinner more palatable. Example with stew or chili we eat corn chips, toast, corn bread, polenta etc. They still have to east some of the dinner before the extras but it helps. I do not do this with every meal and there are many times one of the kids does not eat the main course. They will eat what is served and I am getting more strict about this as time goes on. I know they have had enough nutrition because of the Salad, Veggies, and Fruit that are required before the main course.
This post has become much longer that I anticipated. If you have any questions or comments I would love to hear them. I would also love to be your whole foods buddy if you need help starting out.
Would you like to join a healthy eating club, Like a book club for healthy eating? If so let me know I would love to start one. This is a goal of http://www.wordofwisdomliving.com/ a blog I love following.
