Compassion Fatigue Solutions

During my travels last week, I met some lovely people and enjoyed several great chats over lunch and during breaks during the training sessions. One of these conversations was about green smoothies (as in smoothies made with greens) - yes, you heard me right. Let me explain what this is all about.

Several months ago, I came across an article on the health benefits of eating raw foods. I had heard about raw foodism in the past and was always rather sceptical about this approach to nutrition. In a nutshell, raw foodism advocates eating foods in their least processed and most natural forms. The argument is that cooking food destroys important enzymes and make foods less nutritious and less digestible. I have no idea about the science behind this, but I do know that eating mostly plant-based foods in their least processed forms can't be a bad thing and that most of us eat far too much salt, fat and preservatives.

I decided to try introducing more raw foods in my diet in October and within two weeks, I noticed significant changes in my overall health. After a lifetime of low blood sugar crashes, for once in my life I started feeling actually satiated between meals. I no longer got that shaky headachy feeling if I didn't get lunch right on time. I also noticed a whole host of other improvements to my overall health and energy. Eating more raw food is not about dieting or depriving yourself. Rather, it's a way of introducing more plant-based foods in your life.

Anyhow, if you want to know more about raw food, you can read all about it at the sites I mention below, all I really wanted to tell you about today was green smoothies.

I don't think that many people will argue with the concept that eating more greens is good for all of us. Raw Divas recommend a very painless way to do this: drink a green smoothie once a day. For starters, they suggest making this very simple green smoothie: (you need a blender for this): 2 ripe or frozen bananas, a handful of spinach, a cup of water and a few ice cubes if your bananas were not frozen. Start with a little bit of spinach and add more after you are used to the taste. Try having a green smoothie at breakfast, as a midafternoon snack or in the evening instead of your usual cookies and milk. Tera Warner of Raw Divas also has a very tasty banana ice cream recipe on her website. Here is a cute video of her and her son making the ice cream.

I have no affiliation with these raw food sites but thought I would list a few that I like to visit once in a while for inspiration:

The raw divas website mentioned above has lots of recipes on the site if you navigate around a bit.
www.rawmazing.com (she has the best recipes, I find)
www.kristensraw.com (she is hard core raw vegan but offers a lot of recipes on her blog)
Choosing raw has very nice lunch ideas and other recipes worth trying

Whether or not you decide to go the raw food way, try a green smoothie and let me know what you think.

Photo by Nillerdk @ wikicommons