Green Smoothies-What the?

Recently, an acquaintance of mine, told me she had decided to eat only raw foods and as part of that diet, she said she had got a hold of some 'green smoothie' recipes. She told me what was in them. I said 'yuk, that sounds horrible'. She assured me they tasted just like fruit. Last week, I felt sick and I thought to myself 'I reckon I need to dose up on green vegies to help me get a health boost'. What I usually do is eat baby spinach in a huge salad for lunch but as I was unwell, I really couldn't be bothered to get up off the couch and do that, so I was trying to think of easy ways to consume lots of baby spinach.
Then I remembered the conversation I had had with my friend and contacted her to get the 'recipe'. I began straight away on the Wednesday (day two of feeling unwell). I had two green smoothies that day (quick to make-about 5 mins total I would say) and the next day when I woke up, I cancelled all my appointments for the day, made myself a huge green smoothie and hit the couch. Slept most of the day, mind you! In between sips of green smoothie of course. And what do you know. I woke up Friday, with only a hint of what I had had. I was feeling so much better in fact, that I was able to get up and about and do the chores etc that I had had to reschedule from the previous day plus what I had on the agenda for Friday. Mind you, I was driven by the fact that I have a scrapbooking retreat coming up and plenty to do in preparation for that and need to be as healthy as ever.
This morning I was woken up by my son sneezing at 5 am with all the symptoms, and as I had to be gone by 7.30, I got up and made him and myself a green smoothie. My friend had promised me that her children really enjoyed the green smoothies so I put it in a cup (with a lid because it looks horrible) and asked him just to sip it. Three sips were enough for him. He had had enough. He didn't like it all. I guess you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him enjoy it!
So what is a green smoothie? Well basically, it's roughly 2 cups of fruit (any fruit really or any combination) with all the yucky bits removed (core, tips, stalks, seeds, whatever), in a blender with a large handful of greens (I only used baby spinach as it is what I had in the fridge and I believe it is the green with the most nutrients). Wizz it in a food processor or blender until it all sticks to the sides then gradually add 2 cups of water (or enough at least to make the mix resemble a smoothie consistency). I put mine into a 'Thermos' cup (with the lid on as I mentioned before because it doesn't look that appetising-it's green for goodness sake) and then I sip it. I have been having them for breakfast and am back to feeling great. I might even continue having them to keep up my 2 serves of fruit and 5 serves of vegies per day. As it's blended and not juiced, you also get all the fibre as well.
These are the fruit mixes: I have had green apple, strawberry & banana, berries(that was a bit bitter), also recommended are pear & parsley, apples & lemon juice, peaches, mangoes, grapes & mango, orange & mango, mango & pineapple. I was thinking you could do watermelon as well with summer coming up(or is it already here? It feels like it today).
So you see, as far as fruit goes you can use whatever is in the fridge. Well, if you are feeling a little under the weather anytime soon, get the blender/food processor out and grab some baby spinach and some fruit and wizz to your heart's content. A quick easy nutritious meal when you are feeling poorly, if nothing else!
You can check out more here: www.GreenSmoothieRevolution.com/blog

When I was driving home today, I heard on the radio that today is national marriage day. The announcer on the radio was saying something along the lines of you better give your hubby or wife an extra kiss today because it's national marriage day. It got me to thinking about marriage and in particular my own.

There are two pieces of information that I wanted to share here which I have found to be very helpful in keeping my marriage feeling like it's national marriage day everyday(well almost!). One comes from the Guru, Dr Phil. He says a lot of people wake up in the morning and from the moment they open their eyes they are thinking or looking for things in their partner to be improved. I know I've been there. He recommends turning that around to think what can I do to help my partner today? (or what can I do to make my partner's life happier today?). I'm not talking about necessarily 'doing' more, it could be something as simple as a smile when you first see him (instead of the usual growl!).

The other piece of information comes from a dear friend who once told me in her marriage, her and her husband have agreed to never speak badly about the other to people outside the marriage. They have an agreement to always communicate the issues between them in the hope to get the issues resolved. Obviously this wouldn't apply if you were seeking professional coaching or advice. I'm talking about the issues you sometimes share about your partner to your girlfriends or mates where you and your partner didn't agree and you feel the need to 'bitch'.

So Happy National Marriage Day!

The Good Doctor

I was very proud of myself. I took advantage of a special offer and purchased heavily discounted tickets to go see one of my all time favourites, Dr Phil when he was in town on Friday night. Firstly, I have to tell you, I purchased the last Dr Phil T-Shirt in Australia and think I'm pretty lucky. My son tells me it's far too big for me and it makes me look fat. Care factor-nil. It's not like I'll be wearing my Dr Phil T-Shirt to the disco!
Now love him or hate him(and from what I know about people, they only fall into two categories when it comes to Dr Phil), he has some clear messages on all things from kids and families to taking care of your partner and having a successful life.
For me, Dr Phil reiterated lots of things I already knew about. Things like, How's that working for you? You know if you keep doing the same thing you will always get the same results. Why would you do the same thing and expect different results and he likened it to someone continuing to bang their head up against a brick wall (haven't we all felt like that at one time or another) and instead of stopping it and doing something else, just continuing to do it and expecting the pain to go away.
He also talked about Personal Truth which I will talk more on at another time along with 7 laws to success and other things. Again, it's probably all things that you have heard before, but by heck it's great to be reminded. And you know what? I actually found Dr Phil to be as funny as a comedian. Probably the raw truth in what he was saying. When I left my belly and my jaws ached from laughing. So that in itself are the tell tale signs of great night. Thank you Dr Phil for a great night out!