My Green Smoothie & Raw Food Story
Growing up, I wasn’t aware of what healthy food was. A typical dinner was chicken nuggets and mozzarella sticks. No veggies. When I did have a “vegetable”, it would most often be canned corn or potato.
By the time I reached my early 20s, I had higher-than-normal cholesterol, had difficulty managing my weight, chronic acne and frequent heartburn. I tried a variety of diets and supplements and health programs, but I was never able to stick to them long term because I never truly got the results I was looking for.
I lost motivation to change because I knew I wanted to be healthier but I just didn’t know how.
Everything came to a head after I got married and upon arriving home from our honeymoon, I weighed myself at 147 pounds! It was the most I ever weighed. I was well outside of my ideal weight and it showed.
My husband, Davy, was equally floored to find himself at his all-time high weight and knew it was time to change. He had been carrying a roll of tums with him everywhere for the past few months.
I first heard about green smoothies around the holidays in 2007. After a food-filled honeymoon in Mexico and a holiday season filled with baked goodies, I wanted to start the new year off healthier. Not just packaged, “healthier” food, but real food that is found in nature and fresh from the farm.
I decided to incorporate green smoothies into my daily routine and quickly became a fan of the simple banana-spinach green smoothie. I’d make up a big pitcher and have it with either lunch or dinner.
I found green smoothies to be the absolute easiest and delicious way to get more than five servings of fruits and vegetables per day.
A couple months later, I began adding tomato and carrots to green smoothies and experimented with different flavor combinations. I especially loved the fact that I could get in 6-10 servings of fruits and vegetables without tasting the veggies! We eventually replaced our morning breakfast and coffee with a rich, delicious green smoothie.
I also became interested in the raw food diet and experimented with it for periods of time. I tried various versions of the diet and settled on a mostly raw vegan diet based on fresh fruit, vegetables and small amounts of raw plant fats such as avocados, coconuts, nuts and seeds. I supplement with some whole, cooked foods (which help me have a normal social life and travel abroad).
In the meantime, I noticed an increase of energy and a decrease in cravings for junk foods. Davy lost 30 pounds, dropping effortlessly to his ideal weight which he hadn’t weighed since he was in high school. I also dropped weight quickly and went from 147 lbs to 107 lbs! These green smoothies were not only delicious, they were keeping our health on track and our weight in check!
The power of green smoothies, raw foods and a great workout program! Me before at 147 pounds and me now at 107.
I’m starting to get a nice toned tummy!
My acne cleared up and my cholesterol numbers returned to normal! Both Davy and I realized one day that it had been months since either of us had had heartburn or indigestion. We were both feeling great, craving healthy foods and working out together on a daily basis.
We never get sick anymore either. It’s been years since I’ve had a cold and Davy no longer get’s seasonal allergies or “out-of-the-blue” allergy attacks. We don’t even keep medicine in the house anymore because we just don’t use it. We don’t get headaches or colds. One day, I was cleaning out our medicine cabinet and found that all of our medicines were over a year expired!
We are not 100% raw foodists and we don’t spend hundreds of dollars each month on expensive supplements, superfoods or alternative health products. You won’t find a “water ionizer” in my kitchen and I don’t even have an organic garden. But I enjoy exceptional health by drinking green smoothies, eating lots of fresh, raw foods and fun workouts that give me the figure I always wanted.
I decided to create IncredibleSmoothies.com to share my health journey and help others realize incredible health like I did. My mission is to inspire you to reach your health and fitness goals without struggling or feeling deprived. You can live a normal life and enjoy incredible health and vitality!
I have created two information products to help you do just that. My Green Smoothies Health & Weight Loss program shares everything I know about green smoothies including which fruits to use, which greens to use (and why) and how to maximize health benefits by using different foods. You’ll also get over 200 recipes, many of which target specific health needs you might have.
My Thriving On Raw Foods program is a 21-day transition plan that steps you up to the raw food diet with ease. It is the raw food diet program that I wish I had when I got started. I’ve addressed all of the confusing areas about the raw food diet that tripped me up when I started my journey. You’ll get lots of recipes, meal plans, shopping lists and a ton of tips and advice for eating 100% raw or mostly raw long term.
I hope you enjoy my green smoothie and raw food recipes, and by all means, let me know which ones are your favorite and share any recipes you come up with as well!
Don’t put off your health one more day. Find a green smoothie recipe, whip it up in your blender and raise a delicious green glass to your health.
Cheers!
Tracy Russell
Ask questions, find recipes, get advice, and meet other health enthusiasts in the new 
Davy and Tracy – Thanks for sharing the story of how you started gradually changing your diet to include more fruits and vegetables. Congratulations on achieving great health! I appreciate your dedication to sharing your diet and health knowledge with others.
Dear Dave and Tracey,
Your smoothies are so delicious and easy to make.
Thankyou for sharing your ideas with us, and maybe you can come out with a book/leaflet that we can buy from you.
I have signed up for your newsletter and ebook.
I have had asthma, arthritis, fatigue, add symptoms for over ten years, so hopefully will pick up some tips on how to improve my diet. I have already brought some spinach and pineapple to have a go at making my first smoothie. Just going to introduce a smoothie a day to start off with before progressing onto other dietary changes.
I would love for my pain and stiffness to disappear, to be able to put my own socks on and to be able to become self employed.
Hi-I love your recipes. I am eating mostly raw food with a sweet potato or a bowl of bean soup thrown in now and then. I make green smoothies, but also like using my juicer to make carrot & green juices and I grow wheatgrass hydroponically and drink wheatgrass juice everyday.
Here’s a recipe I am really crazy about, thought you might like it. It’s a raspberry vinaigrette with no oil. The original recipe had oil, but I found that by eliminating the oil, it tastes much better and you can use all you want without worrying about loading up on fat.
1 12 oz box raspberries
juice of 2 medium oranges
juice of 1 large lemon
salt and pepper to taste.
The directions are just one word-Blend.
Great on salads
Thank you so much for sharing your journey, recipes, and tips on this website. I have many friends that are proponents of “fad diets” or “lose weight fast” schemes, and they always seem to end up failing. My doctor suggested that a majority of my health issues, including my extreme fatigue, was a result of my diet. I was looking for a lifestyle change and desperately wanted to incorporate more fruits and veggies in to my diet, but I had a hard time *eating* them. Enter your website: I have now been enjoying green smoothies for a few days and can already feel a difference! From a busy mommy of four young ones/full-time student/devoted wife/exhausted woman, thank you!
I definitely have to agree with your green smoothies. I have started on smoothies in 2010 Dec as a result of poor health. What began as a way to regain my health saw me losing around 11 pounds over the year without doing much except yoga once a week.
I drank a green smoothie almost every work day for breakfast. The bulk of smoothies was an apple + carrot/ cucumber/ green leafy vegetables / tomatoes with some chorella added in.
My health problems subsided (I also cut down on sugar, wheat and dairy and added vitamins). I believe now when experts say that to lose weight you have to eat more vegetables and cut down on calories.. only that the method was not clear how.. green smoothies is definitely the yummy way to go!
I’m trying to restart this green smoothie habit since I have around 20 pounds to go but first I have to wake up earlier to blend them for breakfast again..!
Hi Tracy:
Way to go for writing about the scare mongering article on Green Smoothies. Some of these bloggers are just trying to create controversy to get more people to read their sites.
I encourage my clients to juice every day,and especially to drink green smoothies with raw organic eggs and sour cream for a very nutritious and balanced breakfast.
In my experience, people who have trouble with oxalates have unbalanced gut flora, and lack the bacteria Oxalobacter Fomigenes. It is a normal inhabitant of the gut, but is very vulnerable to broad spectrum antibiotics. Once it is wiped out by antibiotics, these people cannot process oxalates, which are a very cleansing food for the body.
So, we work together to restore the gut flora and start with very small amounts of oxalates in the smoothies. As the gut bacteria is restored, people process oxalates very well, and get the full benefits of green smoothies.
Green smoothies provide magnesium,which most people are deficient in. Magnesium Oxalate salt removes the oxalic acid from the body. But, if you’re deficient in magnesium your body will use calcium instead, which can cause kidney stones, chronic inflammation in the bladder, burning, painful urination and vulvodynia.
So, the answer is to restore your gut flora with probiotic foods and supplements, while gradually increasing your oxalate foods. Then oxalic salts will not build up in your system and cause problems. Dr. Carolyn Dean and Dr. Oz are 2 of the many people promoting getting magnesium from green smoothies.
Gerson clinic uses large amounts of green juices to detox the body, as well.
What I have found works is to restore gut flora to really enjoy the benefits of green smoothies and good digestion.
Keep the good information coming.
Maura
Numerous benefits of green smoothies to the body, that this reply hasn’t even touched on.