Check this out: my brother-in-law Lincoln started this site. I already contributed some stuff for Athens. You put up your favorite things to do in cities you’re familiar with. Easy. Also, you get 50% of the money generated from the google ads on the site. Finally, when you’re looking for something fun to do, something inexpensive, check out what other people have loaded up on the site.

Seems to me that if you live in a university town, or a big city, there’s a lot of potential money to be made. Plus, maybe you’ll get some ideas for fun, inexpensive things to do in your neck of the woods that you haven’t done before.

Cheers, Lincoln!

“I am mesmerized by this video on HFCS”
“WOW”
“I can’t stop watching this, I should be doing other stuff”
“This is fascinating”
“This is exactly what I need to watch right now”

The information is astonishing. I have found that since I’ve been eating more of the nutrient-dense diet that the book “Eat to Live” recommends, I feel so much better. The one thing that sucks me back down-in-the-dumps is my addiction to sugar. I notice a direct correlation between how I feel when I’ve eaten a refined sugary treat (baked goods are my favorite, but so are chocolate candies, ice cream, etc).

Here is the video with Robert H. Lustig, MD, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at UCSF, delivering reputable findings and conclusions:

The blog post where I found this video is here:

IS SUGAR KILLING US? The Consumerist.com

Another interesting website: Sugar Stacks
Gives a visual for how much sugar is included in foods we eat everyday. Sugar content is shown by stacking sugar cubes to equal the equivalent of sugar contained in common foods.

Two of them are doing the 6 week challenge, the third friend is gathering information for a later start-date. All three of them are single, college age women. What nerve! I mean that. When you are single it seems that food is an especially social event, sometimes it feels like 98% of the things you do socially completely revolve around food. I concur that the same could be argued for couples. Eating a nutrient-dense meal plan takes nerve, and you have to ask yourself why you are doing it. You also have to be ready to answer that same question when others ask you, and, you have to be ready to be met with skepticism.

The most frequent comment I heard from others when I began my own 6 week challenge was “I could never do that.” I think that what most people mean when they say that falls into two categories:
1) I could never do that because I don’t really want to do that, I don’t really understand the appeal and I have no interest in that; or
2) I could never do that, even though I understand the appeal of it and I’d really like to know how it would feel to eat such purely nutrient-dense food all of the time, I just think it would be too hard.
The funny thing is that almost everyone I know who has taken the 6 week challenge seriously and has permanently changed their nutritional intake began by saying the phrase, “I could never do that.” Including myself. And guess what? I did it! And I have confidence that my friends will be successful in their 6 week challenge as well.

What is the 6-week plan? Well, I’ve blogged about it before. And I’ll give you the basic rundown below, but you can also check out the index on my right sidebar: “The Plan” and “The Beginning” give some insights to how we approached this.

Using Dr. Fuhrman’s Eat to Live as our guide, the plan is quite simple:

Prioritize Veggies and Fruits:
Eat 1 lb raw veggies per day (lots of salad!)
Eat 1 lb cooked veggies per day
Eat plenty of fruit each day (unlimited)

Also:
Eat at least 1 cup of beans/legumes per day, or more (beans are wonderful and also help regulate blood sugar levels)
Eat whole grains in moderation (mostly whole grain rice, or whole grain pita) but not too many, especially not at the expense of your 1 lb raw and 1 lb cooked veggies
Eat a few nuts
Drink water
Include a good source of Omega 3′s (I put ground flax seed in my green smoothies, and try to remember to take Omega 3 supplements)

Avoid:
Sugar
Salt
Prepared foods (they all have lots of sugar and salt, or crazy ingredients you can pronounce)
Added fats

And that is it! It is important that you approach this challenge with a mental attitude of ABUNDANCE. Think of all the food you are eating! 1 lb raw and 1 lb cook veggies per day, with unlimited fruits, beans, a moderate amount of whole grains–that is a lot of food!

Stay tuned for more…

What prompted this post today is that my sister, Robin, has posted such a great short piece on the mentality of eating healthy in ABUNDANCE. It is a perfect post. A pp. Check it out here:

Lean To The Sun: Abundance

In the meantime, I’ve gotten a chance to visit with some of you who are trying out Dr. Furhman’s Eat to Live 6 week plan. It is awesome! I love hearing about what you’re doing and questions, tips you have to share. Don’t hesitate to email me anytime.

Cheers,
Emily

My sister-in-law said that I should open my own Green Monster Smoothie bar at our local Farmer’s Market. I think it’s a brilliant idea! Maybe this Spring?

***
My $20 Oster blender works just fine for me! You don’t need a fancy BlendTec or Vitamix, trust me, you don’t.

For the sake of making it super easy for newbies, I’ll share my basic recipe. Measurements are ROUGH.

Recipes make 2 tall glasses, and easily makes an additional 2 smaller glasses for the kiddos.

Emily’s Green Monster Smoothies (and variations):

Make it a Greenie:
-approx. 1 c. unsweeted almond milk (I like Blue Diamond Brand best–make sure it is the unsweetened variety) (you may try other liquids in place of almond milk, even water works)
-OR (instead of the almond milk) 1 c. water
-2 large handfuls of spinach (or baby spring mix)
-1 handful of chopped kale (you can buy a big bag of this for cheap)
-1 banana
-1 apple
-a few ice cubes optional, if you wish to make it a bit thinner and chilled
-2 drinking straws (bendy straws are really nice when you have a green smoothie, they just make it that much more special—and for my kids I take the bendy straw and cut off 2 inches at the bottom so that it fits in their plastic Ikea cups)

For Newbies: How to Blend Perfectly
Remember: LIQUID ALWAYS GOES FIRST!
Add liquid
Add 1 handful of spinach
BLEND (as long as you want)
Add 2nd handful of spinach
Add kale
BLEND (as long as you want)
Add apple slices, a few at a time while blending
Add banana
BLEND (as long as you want)
Add 2-4 cubes of ice (in the summer when it’s hot outside)
PULSE BLEND

Serve in a tall glass with a bendy straw.
Pat yourself on the back and feel smug.

Make it a Bluey:
Make as directed above, only omit ice and add approximately 1 c. frozen blueberries, still pulse blending at end.

Make it a Berry:
Make as directed above, only omit ice and add approximately 1-2 c. frozen berries, especially strawberries. It may be helpful to first microwave your frozen strawberries for about 30 seconds to 1 minute just to soften them up a bit for easier blending. Maybe this should be called a “Brownie” because the red berries plus the green = a delightful, healthful shade of brown. I jest.

Make it a Tropical Sweetie:
Make as directed above, only omit the ice and add approximately 1-2 c. of frozen or fresh tropical fruit, especially pineapple and mango!

Also–in the winter I skip the ice.
Also–toss in a spoon or two of ground flax.

Voila! Enjoy! See you January 8th at my house! Email me if you’d more directions.

Let the countdown begin, and see you at my house on January 8th, at 9:00am!

GREEN GODDESS will commence!

I realize how lucky I am that I had Joe to support me and that he also wanted to achieve the same goal, reap the same rewards. It was a wonderful thing to do as a couple, as a team. It brought us closer together. I imagined us as an older retired couple who deliberately makes time to pursue a specific hobby or goal together. This is hard to do when you’re both working on your own graduate degrees AND you have 2 small children. But, I know it could be much more difficult. And frankly, what was really difficult was feeling sluggish, exhausted, (emotional?), and ill from the Standard American Diet (SAD) that I was eating.

I know other women and men who don’t share that same interest with their spouses, or who are single. I have watched them find success in this change by their sheer determination and desire, coupled with their ability to find support in friends and family. If you want to make a big change, but the people in your life aren’t interested in making the same big change, communicate to them that it is important to you. Ask them to support you emotionally, verbally, and nutritionally. Ask them to encourage you, to give you positive pep talks, positive feedback. Ask them to keep their opinions to themselves if it is of a negative nature that will get you down or cause you to feel discouraged. Tell them you need hugs, high fives, and big green leafy salads!

Green Goddess will be a great forum to talk about all these things and more. Plus I will be making delicious, fresh, nutritious food. And, there will be demos.

If you’re interested in contributing, let me know–I’d love for you to do a demo. If you just want to come, then come! We will meet 4 times, and each time we will add on to the time before, talking about nutrition, sharing recipes, eating yummy fresh food. I hope that you come committed! You don’t have to be committed to a strict 6 week nutritarian plan, but just committed to healthier eating and trying to attend all 4 meetings. They will be held early on Saturday mornings, so as not to get in the way of the rest of your day.

Cheers to feeling healthy, happy, pretty!

Joe and I have a running joke, and it begins like this: “Ask yourself this crucial question: Do you want to be awesome?”

The ending to the joke varies on the situation. This situation, for example, is totally awesome.

The answer to this question should almost always be an emphatic: Yes. I want to be awesome.
(See how I did that without exclamation points? Exclamation points aren’t awesome in this context. We’re being Serious Awesome here.)

Keep your head up, tomorrow I pose the question to you.
Ask YOURSELF this crucial question: Do YOU want to be awesome?