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Green Goodness

2/18/2012

4 Comments

 
Get a little raw… with your food!
Great food - Great tastes - Great results
No gagging recipes, guaranteed.
February 17, 2012
As promised, today is my big “Grand Opening” post in favor of a daily green drink.  I don’t want to belabor the benefits, if you really want in-depth data, just google “green smoothies” and you will have plenty of reading material.  In short, these are, in my opinion, the five top reasons to drink a green smoothie every day:
1.  The raw greens alkanalize your blood, which is a very good thing.  Our normal diet of dairy, protein, sugar and carbs makes our blood chemistry highly acidic.  Acidic blood ph encourages inflammatory responses such as arthritis, cancer and acne, to name a few. 
2.  Green drinks are a powerhouse of micronutrients, live enzymes, phytochemicals, and fiber.
3.  Green drinks pump up energy, give a wonderful cosmetic free radiant glow to the skin, strengthen the immune system, destroycravings for sweets, lower the body’s internal inflammatory response, which means less pain and regulates digestion and elimination. 
4.  Green smoothies are an excellent meal replacement when combined with a little protein powder.  They make an awesome lunch.
5.  Since these green drinks improve digestion/elimination, contain lots of protein and knock out cravings and energy slumps… ta da!  They work VERY well in a weight loss program.
The “How to” part is easy!
1.  You need a blender.  Forget high priced juicers (for now.)
2.  You need to learn about fruit and green combinations so you don’t gag.  This is important.  My first green drink consisted of kale, spinach and a beet.  It was horrible.  It wound up down the drain.  I’ve learned a lot since then!
3.  You need some protein powder.  I use a raw vegan product from Sunwarrior. Whey based protein also works fine.  If you’re not a vanilla fan, try Banana or a Tropical Fruit flavor.  I’ll list my favorite brands/sources for these at the end of this post.
MILD greens:  romaine lettuce, the green leaves of bok choy, and baby spinach. 
STRONG greens: kale (recommended), parsley, mustard greens or anything in the cabbage family (go carefully here.)
*** Pair MILD greens with mild fruit: berries, melon, grapes. I buy a frozen “mixed berry blend” in large bags at Sam’s. 
***Pair STRONG greens with SWEET fruit: mango, banana, pineapple. I buy the mango and pineapple in large size containers at Sam’s Club and freeze the fruit.  Peel and freeze the bananas.
RECIPE (this easily replaces an entire meal!)
2 c water, almond or rice milk
1 scoop protein powder
2 handfuls greens
1-2 frozen fruits, or 1 c (this fruit part is really personal choice for sweetness)
3 ice cubes
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Here are two of my absolute FAVORITE green smoothie recipes:
Spinach, almond milk, frozen dark cherries, protein powder
Kale, frozen pineapple (I like a lot), protein powder
 Here are recommendations and sources for protein powder.
Raw and vegan:  Plant Fusion at Plantfusion.net or Raw Vegan Protein by Sunwarrior at Sunwarrior.com
Whey:        Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Whey.  I LOVE their Banana and Tropical Punch flavors.  Best price and delivery are from dpsnutrition.com.
A few closing ideas: 
Frozen bananas make ANY green smoothie thick, creamy, sweet.
Don’t drink the same greens every day.  I cycle through kale, spinach, romaine and parsley.
Buy the darkest, leafy greens you can find.  Go organic, especially on the spinach, kale and romaine.  However, organic kale is a hard find around here.
Always add 3 ice cubes to your smoothie.
Drink one every day.

4 Comments

Get a little raw… with your food!

2/12/2012

1 Comment

 
                     Great food - Great tastes - Great results
                          No gagging recipes, guaranteed.

February 12, 2012
Welcome to the first post on Lewisburg Yoga’s blog about the benefits of raw food.
Four years ago, the osteoarthritis pain in my body was unrelenting and steadily worsening.   Traditional treatment was an ever-increasing pharmaceutical regime of anti-inflammatory drugs and pain killers.  I was swallowing these in addition to the 4 Aleve I was taking every day.  Still I had A LOT of pain, decline in quality of life and stomach issues from the drugs. 
When we need a breakthrough the most, it usually shows up, in unexpected ways.  One of my clients had stabilized Fabrys Disease symptoms with a raw food diet. So, I began reading… and reading… and reading.  Having been vegan for years, the concept of just not cooking my food didn’t seem too terrible.
I bought a juicer.  I bought carrots - and ginger, and organic apples and lemon.  I figured out how to put the juicer together.  I ran all the above through the juicer, produced a HUGE glassful of bright orange liquid, held my breath and drank.  I was AMAZED at the taste!  I made some more.  Drank it down.  Started doing this every day.
Well, one month later, I cut out all prescription meds.  Got down to 2 Aleve a day.  Went back to walking and cycling.  Started juicing green things, and actually did dump some of those concoctions down the drain.  But I kept at it, perfecting the green veg and fruit combinations until I looked forward to these green drinks.  Digestion improved. Pain still lessened.  Regularity improved.
Went on vacation not thinking my body would miss the raw juice and veggies.  By day 3 of vacation, I was hitting every vegetarian restaurant/juice bar in Key West to get some raw juice in me.  I drank plenty.  I felt satisfied again.
So, there is the Cliff Note version of my journey into an 85-90% raw vegan food way of life.  It’s kind of like yoga… some changes are huge and noticeable right away.  Other changes are subtle, hidden, but profound.  We change our bodies a little bit at a time through yoga and the raw food.
I will be offering a weekly post with some personal observations, lessons learned (trust me, you will want to pay attention to what NOT to juice together…) some recipes, some helpful websites, etc.
Keep an open mind and try some of these food ideas.  Wonderful surprises and changes await you AND your body.
I also do a daily FB post with food ideas, you can check in there as well.
Next week, I am going to Ground Zero of the raw food philosophy and talk about GREEN SMOOTHIES.  I promise, anti-gagging recipes guaranteed.
Namaste,
Nancy Giuntini
    

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