The stories and comments we’ve had coming in for our BiG Believe in Green challenge are enough to make you jump for choy. Bobbi sent in a story that we’ll be entering into our BiG story contest, and we thought we’d share it with you now. We’re still working towards and getting ever closer to our $10 000 goal for The Girls’ Club, but we haven’t quite got there yet. If you sign up today you can still get in on all the calls, downloads, recipes, and the chance to win a $400 Blendtec blender!
One of the rewarding results is that many are realizing how possible, how doable it is to make changes and a difference. Not even location is an excuse as you’ll find out from Bobbi who lives almost 800 km and 10 hours north of the city of Winnipeg where I live in the province of Manitoba (hehe… and even with all that distance, we STILL figured out we know at least one person in common… like Tera says, “we really are all connected!”). But I’ll let Bobbi tell you about how *she* is finding ways to go green up north and what amazing changes green smoothies have made!
Dear Tera,
My name is Bobbi and I live in Northern Manitoba on a beautiful lake, one hour from Thompson. I have a husband and three children – Ian (7), Aaron (4), and Rya (2). I am a school teacher and I will be teaching music this coming year. I’ve been off since the end of June with them and I have about 2 and 1/2 weeks left, till school starts. I’ve really enjoyed this BiG Green Smoothie challenge.
In May of 2009, I discovered raw food and then in the summer of 2009 I read Twelve Steps to Raw Foods (among many other raw food books) and discovered Green Smoothies. They totally changed my life.
In the following year, I probably lost 15 to 20 pounds (and I did not consider myself overweight at all). My energy skyrocketed. And I freed up a lot of time that I’d previously spent cooking. I drive an hour to town, so I’m there all day ( 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. I’m away from home), so I make two 1 liter pickle jars full of smoothie in the morning and it does me – I’m not hungry for anything else all day. (I put lots of flax and spirulina that fills me up and gives me plenty of protein that I need because I’m still nursing my daughter.)
This summer I’m sure I’ve gone up a level with raw food, because the raw food entrees that they say in the cook books taste like “spaghetti” or “bread” have actually started tasting reeeeally good to me and they do NOW seem to taste similar to the cooked food they’re supposed to mimic.
I’ve been about 95% raw this summer with the occasional meal of quinoa, or some popcorn or roasted cashews. But it was once I started the BiG challenge that I really started feeling great. About day 3 of the challenge I started running (around my property) and for the past three days I’ve been running 1 km each day. And I am NOT a runner. Needless to say I am shining and full of energy, although I’m physically a little tired but in a good way, you know?
I don’t know how I found your challenge because I don’t regularly visit your website, but I’m sure glad I did. The BiG calls have been very interesting but there were three that I personally found really inspiring: Angela Stokes-Monarch, Anthony Anderson, and Ani Phyo. I was excited to see Victoria Boutenko and Ani Phyo on the line-up because they have both been so influential on my raw journey. Victoria with green smoothies and Ani with her recipes that actually turn out and taste good. I’m also looking forward to the interview with Steve Meyerowitz, because he’s also influenced me to sprout seriously. When my kids were watching the website while one of the calls was “downloading” (we have extremely slow internet out here – dial up) they said “There’s Ani!” We know her that well. 😉
Though I’ve been a “green smoother” for over a year now, I’ve changed the way I make my green smoothies since listening to the interview with Victoria Boutenko. I’ve been trying to make them simpler, like she said. I’ve decided to make a small swampy banana and spirulina smoothie (2 cups) because I really need the shot of protein. And then I make a fruit, greens, and flax smoothie later. I’ve also experimented with some different greens such as italian parsley and arugula. And cacao beans, woo hoo!
I’d like to do your detox but I’m holding off on ‘officially’ detoxing because my daughter is still nursing. You know what else I totally want, now? A bicycle powered blender!!
It’s been a lot of fun doing BiG because of the calls and e-mails and everything. I get up in the morning and (after my run, my rebound, my water, my smoothie, and getting my kids some smoothie or breakfast) get online. I’ve been so excited to see what’s up for the day. I’ve got so many notes of things I want to look up and books I want to read. I’m seriously going to get some things growing inside as soon as I can (fall comes quickly).
Some of the speakers have got me all fired up about growing my own food (which I’ve always been interested in but not quite able to get going). I’ve had an outdoor garden for the past 6 years, but without much yield. I’m going to be trying to grow a lot more of my own food since it doesn’t make much sense to be eating lettuce and sprouts from California or wherever, when I can grow my own here. I AM sprouting lots but I am about to embark on some serious microgreen growing and growing some actual vegetables inside. My husband and I have plans for a large Solviva-type year round greenhouse once we can afford it. I would love to be raw and almost completely self-sufficient in food, here in the North. That is our goal.
Thanks so much – it’s been great!
Sincerely,
Bobbi Roque Hornik