More on green smoothies....

So I got my awesome red Blendtec blender today.  I used it to make a double batch of green smoothie for my wonderful hubby and I in this crazy machine. It was a lot easier to make one big batch.  Today's ingredients were:  greens(spinach, kale, romaine, mizuna, arugula, and chard),  fruits(fresh bananas, lemon, pear, blueberries, frozen goji berries, and a frozen blend of peaches, mango, pineapple, and strawberries), bee pollen, flax oil, and a little stevia to sweeten.  Sounds crazy but oh so yummy!  Yesterday I think I made my favorite so far with watermelon, even the boys drank some!! :)  You don't have to have a high power blender to make a green smoothie, it just makes it a lot easier.  My red Oster is about to be donated to my mother and I hope she'll make some smoothies for herself because it did a great job for a regular blender. 

So I bet you may be wondering where I am getting my produce and how is it affordable to make a green smoothie every day for the family.  I have been getting a lot of my greens locally from our CSA(community supported agriculture) called Red Springs Family Farm.   We have done this for three years now and love it.  We basically get a share of what they are growing each week and have been introduced to some unique greens and veggies we would not have tried otherwise.   I also shop at Sam's for our raw spinach, bananas, frozen fruits, and avocados.  I also like the organic produce stand, MMKM Family Produce in Baxter.  Sometimes when we are in Nashville for doctor's appointments we shop at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, but most of the rest of my shopping is done at Kroger.  They have the best deals on organic/natural foods locally in terms of a supermarket.  We also get supplements and a few other items at our local health foods store, Good Sheperd.   If you are not in this area, you can find local CSA's and farmer's markets in your neck of the woods at localharvest.org.  Support local whenever you can, the Big Box Marts of the world make enough money.

The motivation to eat more raw foods has been easy since I started the green smoothies.  My body seems to naturally crave healthier foods, and the not-so healthy options are starting to taste yucky now.  It's not been very hard to say no since the process seems very natural and easy.  Our bodies are made to live on fresh raw foods, and if given a chance will naturally crave them.  I'm really excited to have found something that makes total sense and is working without me feeling like I'm deprived. 

 

Birthday Present For Myself

I went to bed last night at 1 a.m. I was so excited about my new lease on life turning thirty one.  Last night was wonderful.  My sister in law was in town to visit with her family and also my mother in law was there along with my nephews and nieces and my wonderful wife.  As I listened in the background it made me so happy to see what wonderful family I have as they all shared great memories of growing up with each other.  It reminded me of how long Heather and I have been together.  I look back feeling so assured that God gave me the most perfect wife.  It feels awkward calling my in laws in laws.  They are my sister, and mother and brother and nieces and nephews.  I was so charged up last night, like I had read the end of a really good book knowing that I have a strong marriage, wonderfully unique children and an amazing spouse.  It was conformation that my life is on the perfect track.  As I finally retired to bed It still took me about 30 minuets to fall asleep.   Elijah made his way in there with me and he was twisting like a drill bit last night.

I awoke to my cell phone alarm this morning by accident at 630 am.  I don't know what got into me but I sprang up like I had a plan and within 1 minute, I found the garage door opening and me pulling my bicycle off the rack.  This was a surprise to me because I didn't set my alarm and had no intentions of doing much at all today.  Within 2 minutes still in the cloths I sleeped in, and with a pair of flip flops on I took off.  At the 3 Minuit mark I knew what was going to happen.  I decided that I was going to bike 6 miles.  There is a loop I had measured of for my next goal breaking run about 2 months ago and it just seemed right.  So I took off.  I went for it. The humidity was high and the wind was slapping me in the face saying happy birthday you crazy Spack!! 

Dave Ramsey has always said (When people think you are crazy, you are probably on to something good.)  Two miles into the trail, this lady slows down her car and says  'Do you need a ride somewhere or are you just exercising?'  I laughed and told her thanks but I was exercising.  This concept has a tendency to confuse Gainesboroians, as it is a foreign practice around here.  After all I was still trying to find our what I was doing out there. After about an hour I had finished.  Super charged and alert.  Praising God for starting 31 with such a bang.  I feel fantastic.  I am so blessed.  I cant wait to see my family and have a great rest of my life.

Noah's Dreamy Eyes

"And ALL things, whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive."  Matt. 21:22

Today Noah went to the eye doctor after six months of being on Atropine drops.  He got a great report and his eyes are looking amazing!!  I am so thankful for the good report.  Noah was about a year old when his eyes started crossing and the right eye weakened.  I look back at the pictures of him before his surgery and am amazed at how good they look now.  I am also amazed at how I didn't notice how much the eye really crossed until after the surgery.  I just saw my handsome little man who I loved unconditionally.  I bet this is how God looks at us.  The flaws are there, but through His AMAZING love for us, He doesn't even notice. 

Thank you Father for another amazing healing journey, it may have been a tough road at times, but through Your grace and mercy, we have overcome another obstacle and emerged STRONGER THAN EVER!!!   

Green Smoothies...YUM!

My First Green Smoothie

Looks like a big glass of grass, but tastes great, and the health benefits are AMAZING!

So I had my first glass of green smoothie Tuesday May 24th.  I have been really studying the benefits of raw foods lately in my quest for health.  I came across the green smoothie idea on greensmoothiegirl.com about a year ago and have been getting emails from her since.  I kept being led back to her website in my research and finally decided to order the digital download, 12 Steps to Whole Foods by Robyn Openshaw.  Basically, you do one step a month for a year.  I love her approach, it is so realistic.  She is a mother of four super healthy children and teaches you how to incorporate her ideas for your children as well.

The first month is having a quart of green smoothie every day. I was both excited and curious about this step.   Excited because doing this gets you about 15 servings of fruits and veggies a day!  Curious if I would actually enjoying drinking blended greens and fruits!  I was so happy when the taste was awesome, I love them.  I have had one everyday for almost 2 weeks now.  

So far I have noticed several benefits.  The main one being more energy.  After I drink my smoothie in the morning, I feel like actually doing something.  Having a newborn and 2 toddlers, this is AMAZING! lol  For this reason alone, I will continue to drink them every day.  

A few other benefits I'm noticing are:  better moods, clearer skin, shinier hair, fewer sugar cravings, and improved digestion and elimination.  I haven't lost any weight yet, but my body just shed 24 pounds after delivering Ava Mae, so I'm not expecting it to let go easily for a while.  Plus I am breastfeeding and don't want to lose to quickly and mess up my milk supply.  I do have a goal to lose 20 pounds in 4 months.  That will have me back to my pre-Noah weight.  Once I get there, I will strive to lose 10 more, but if my body wants to stay there, that is my happy weight and I'll be content.  

Here is a video link to how I learned to make a green smoothie from Robyn.  In the video you will see that she is using an awesome Blend Tec blender.  I have been using my Oster beehive blender but ordered a Blend Tec last night and am SO excited to get it!  Jason told me we could get one when the Oster burned out.  It worked great for about the first week.  Then Jason himself started wanting me to make him smoothies also.  This became so time consuming since I can only make one quart at a time and the blender takes a while to mix it all up.  It also began to show signs of soon burning out, so after some complaining and explaining a new blender means more smoothies for him, I was told to order one! :)  YAY! Thanks honey.  So you don't HAVE to have an expensive blender to make them, but I now see WHY you NEED one if you plan to make them everyday.  Plus, they do SO many other things that it makes it totally worth it to me. 

I am also reading the book "The China Study".  Every single whole foods resource I encounter has recommended this book to be the first thing you read.  Since I just started reading it, I don't have a lot of comments about it, but so far it is eye-opening!  It is based on the largest nutritional study ever conducted.  It describes the link between nutrition and disease and how animal-based foods are linked to disease, while plant-based foods heal them.  

So I'm doing great getting my plant-based foods into my diet through my green smoothies.  Jason and I are still dealing with old habits and emotional issues a bit, but they are getting better.  The cravings for those foods are starting to really diminish, which is fantastic!  I'm trying to look at this as adding to my diet the healthy plant-based foods instead of this is all I can eat.  Slowly I think we will be able to really eliminate the disease causing foods just out of natural response.  I don't want to ever feel like I am controlled emotionally by foods, what I can and can't eat again.  So far the simple act of a green smoothie daily has made this whole foods transformation so much easier.  I encourage you to watch the video and check out greensmoothiegirl.com.  There are tons of other great raw, whole foods websites out there too.  Green smoothies are yummy and while I'm still working on a recipe my kids like, I am so excited to finally have a way to get raw fruits and veggies into my family's diet every single day.