A little secret......

I want to let you in on a little secret. It is a little secret that has made a BIG difference to my health in a short period of time. I am a "green smoothie girl". I drink a litre of green smoothie every, single day and I can highly recommend it.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, don't worry. I had no idea what green smoothies were about 6 months ago either. My dear friend J started waffling on about them in about mid 2010 and I thought she had turned into some kind of extreme health nut :) Then she started talking about Raw food and I really thought she'd gone completely hippie! But I couldn't deny the changes I saw in her. In a matter of weeks she had bright, clear eyes; fresh, glowing skin; a huge increase in energy and a smile that she couldn't wipe off her face. She was losing her excess weight too, which was a happy bonus to the way she was feeling.
After witnessing the changes in her, I thought I should start listening to what she was on about and start asking questions. Then I started doing my own research. Wow - talk about opening up a whole new world! Green smoothies were just the start to my awakening to Raw and living foods.

I must admit, I started on the green smoothies late, last year. I was feeling heaps of improvement almost immediately. Less fatigue, less joint and muscle pain and best of all, a clear, unfoggy head. I hadn't really changed my diet completely - I was just trying to avoid processed foods and focus on eating "whole" foods that were as close to their natural state as possible.

Over the summer, particularly over the Christmas break and during January, I really "fell off the wagon". Christmas feasting and lots of road trips meant that I slid back into a diet of fast foods, soft drink, sugary snacks, lots of meat and processed rubbish. And the result? I felt SICK! Back came the extreme pain, the overwhelming fatigue, and the foggy, muddled brain. I went back to needing to sleep for an hour and a half every afternoon. I woke up tired. I was grumpy and depressed and I felt absolutely lousy! That's after only a few weeks of abusing my body.

On the 2nd of February we returned home from visiting my sick Nan in Wangaratta and I decided that I'd had enough of the crappy diet. I was going back to the green smoothies, and transitioning to more Raw, living foods. I completely cut out caffeine, sugar and processed foods and upped my intake of fresh, mostly raw vegetables and fruit. Lo and behold, within a week I felt A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! I can honestly say that after only two or three days, the headaches and brain-fog lifted and I felt "alive" again. In the past few weeks, my joint and muscle pain have all but disappeared and I have loads more energy. The best part is that my head is clear. I no longer feel like I'm walking around in the "cone of silence" (Get Smart reference there for any fellow fans). I am by no means on an all Raw, vegan diet, but the better I feel, the more inclined I am to consume things that keep me feeling well. I find myself avoiding the foods that leave me feeling sluggish and unwell. When I do succumb to processed foods I immediately feel unwell and this discourages me from eating those things next time.

It is early days, and I know that I have tried other types of diets (gluten free, dairy free, allergy elimination etc. etc). I also know that my experience with those diets showed some improvement, but I couldn't sustain them. Why I didn't continue with them is a complex question. I think much of it has to do with the fact that these diets were imposed on me by health professionals. I also feel that while these diets had benefits, they were not the "whole picture" and I continued to eat processed foods and meats while on them. There was something missing with my previous attempts at diet change. They just weren't quite right for me. So I got frustrated and threw in the towel. But I learned a lot along the way, and I continue to do so.


l know this lifestyle experiment seems a bit extreme to many people, but hey, you know what? If it makes me feel well, then I'm going to keep doing it. I will happily be an "extreme health nut" alongside my friend J.

I cannot get my hands on enough reading material about Raw foods and thanks to the internet there is plenty out there to be found, right from the comfort of my own home.

Want to know something else? Even my husband has started drinking green smoothies every day! For those who have known him all his life, that is a complete miracle. He loves his green smoothie after work and is feeling much better since starting the habit about 2 weeks ago.

Want to know what is in my green smoothies? I will come back with a post tomorrow to let you know exactly what I put in them.