Green Smoothies
Today’s Raw Food Diet
- Peach/Spinach Smoothie (6 peaches/1 bunch spinach)
- Banana/Strawberry Smoothie (4 bananas/10 oz. strawberries)
- Grapes (7 oz.)
- Peach/Romaine/Strawberry Smoothie (4 peaches/.5 head of lettuce/5 oz. strawberries)
- Radishes (8 oz.)
- Avocado
One area I’ve been neglecting in my diet is consuming a sufficient amount of green, leafy vegetables. Greens are a good source of minerals, protein, and essential fatty acids. They’re also low in calories!
Roger Haeske recommends that one eat 5 - 7 % of daily calories from greens. That would be the equivalent of two bunches of spinach at my current calorie intake. Right now, I’m only eating about half that on a regular basis. Today was a little better in that department.
The good news with greens: Lots of food, few calories.
The bad news: Imagine spending that much time and effort every day chewing through that much greenery.
Without dressing.
Enter the green smoothie.
The green smoothie has most recently been popularized by raw food author Victoria Boutenko. She claims that it helped her family (who was already eating a raw food diet) overcome a number of chronic illnesses that had reappeared after several years of a raw food diet.
Like me, Victoria didn’t care much for green vegetables. She learned about the green smoothies from another author, Ann Wigmore, who claimed that green smoothies increased her already prodigious energy levels almost immediately after consuming them. Victoria found that the green smoothie combination worked well for her, too, and she enjoyed the taste far more.
A Google search for “green smoothie” will yield a number of websites . . . many of which have published a variety of recipes.
You’ll have to experiment with the ratio of fruit/greens that you use. More greens will have a stronger taste. Fewer greens may mean that you have to drink more smoothies in order to meet a daily goal of 5-7% of calories. I suggest using juicier fruits (like peach or mango) to make them more palatable. When those fruits go out of season, I suspect that I’ll mimic what Steve Pavlina did last winter and use bananas as the base and cut the smoothie with a bit of water. Steve also used berries in his smoothies a lot. I’m not sure that I’m willing to pay premium prices to do that when they’re out of season.
One thing I’m curious about: As I develop what Roger calls my “gourmet taste buds,” will I enjoy eating straight greens more?
On another note: My energy levels were up first thing this morning. This could be due to any number of things:
- Six consecutive days of eating raw.
- The Princess awakening me a little earlier than usual this morning (I’ve read that oversleeping can cause daytime lethargy, and I’ve been averaging about 9-9.5 hours per night since the beginning of June).
- Four weeks of not being on a work schedule.
- Incorporating a little more movement into my day.
I did take a nap in the early afternoon, but once I woke up my head felt clear and I felt good to get on with the rest of the day!
The scale says that I gained a pound between yesterday and today. I knew why immediately. Then, when I logged into the How to Go Raw website this morning, Roger also mentioned what I had done incorrectly yesterday. Finally, I’ve been feeling a little “stopped up” this morning.
Do you know what I did incorrectly?
I’ll tell you tomorrow. Better, I’ll tell you how making a small change worked out for me.
