{ Green Smoothie Girl Event }

This past Wednesday, several friends and I attended a free (I love free!) Green Smoothie Girl event in Alexandria, Virginia.  I was familiar with the Green Smoothie Girl blog and her book the Big Book of Green Smoothies, but didn't really know much beyond that.  Green Smoothie Girl, also known as Robyn Openshaw, told us her story and how she came to live and love a whole foods diet.

I really loved that Robyn talked to the group of about 100 (give or take) men and women about how a whole foods diet is about abundance, NOT scarcity or loss. How, in addition to her various smoothies everyday (at LEAST a quart), she really does chew food too (that got a laugh!).

I have never been a huge smoothie fan, but left this event feeling motivated and inspired to really live a whole foods life to include green smoothies every day.  I am vegan, but have many times (as witnessed by my weight and how much I have to lose) gone the easy processed vegan foods route instead of the nutrient rich plant based direction.

Robyn says that we are the first generation of Americans that can't rely on our parents or grandparents to teach us how to cook healthy.   Americans want to eat right, but most don't know how.  The average American eats only 1-2 servings of vegetables a day. If we fix a quart of green smoothie every day, that is about 10 servings (and probably only about 200 calories).  Wow!  Big change!

A big part of Robyn's talk was about using food as medicine.  She reminded us of the Hippocrates quote, "Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food."  I thought her discussion of her history of multiple autoimmune diseases and all kinds of bad health and how a whole foods diet and her green smoothies cured her was impressive.  She and her children have not been to the doctor in many years. I am impressed, but unsure about this.  I know that a whole foods diet can indeed cure many conditions (blood pressure, diabetes, etc.) and I am going to work hard to get off my blood pressure meds, but I also have osteoarthritis in both knees and feet.  I am not really convinced that I will never need any pain meds and that the condition will go away.  Cartilage doesn't grow back and it sure is painful.  I know that losing weight does make me feel better and the pain less, but I am also a firm believer that if I need my pain meds, I am going to take them. Just my two cents.  Who knows - maybe a year from now, I will have to eat my words.  That would be nice.  We'll see.

Anyway, it was a fun night with friends, her discussion was interesting, and there were some giveaways (I didn't win!). Although I had no money to purchase anything, her "store" was interesting.  A few pictures of just some of the product she had on display:

She has some other classes coming to the area in the coming months on other topics, and I would definitely attend.  She is very motivational and a very effective speaker!

Until next time, friends, 

Lolly