I am no longer afraid of putting green vegetables in my smoothies. If fact, I think it is a brilliant idea to help “bridge people back to wellness”. And that is the exact the goal of Shawnee’s own wellness guru, Dr. Michelle Robin of Your Wellness Connection.
Bridging People Back to Wellness
“You always hear about giving up foods,” says Dr. Robin. “My goal is help people see what they can add to their diets. I just want people to try something different. Just try to add something green to your smoothie or try to add 3 fruits a day to your diet. Focus on what you can add into your diet that can give you more nutrition instead of focusing on everything you have to stop eating.”
So Dr. Robin took me to her wellness kitchen to show me how easy it is to build (and strengthen) my bridge to wellness. She asked me what fruits I like in my smoothie – I chose pineapple and cherries. Dr. Robin then pulled out something called Mache (pronounced ‘mosh’) – it is a green leafy thing – and put a whole container of it into my smoothie.
Noooooooo! At first, I was thinking ‘there is no way I am putting greens in a fruit smoothie,” as I saw my smoothie turn a very greenish-maybe-I-won’t-drink-that looking smoothie. She handed me my glass, and with the bravest smile, I took a sip.
Not bad. Not bad, indeed. I could feel the wellness pumping through my veins. It tasted fine – I could taste the pineapple and there was a hint of something green – but not too overpowering. It was definitely drinkable and made it easy for me to make a mental note of trying it at home. More on that later.
Sustainability at Your Wellness Connection
One of the reason we talk to our Cells for Cells partners is to showcase how they are doing green (not just green smoothie) and sustainable activities in their workplace. Your Wellness Connection is doing many:
- Recycling face paper (the paper that overlays the “face slot” on chiropractic and massage tables
- Provide plastics recycling for all business plastics and employees can bring their plastics from home, too
- Recycle all batteries
- Recycle all light bulbs
- Recycle old computers and monitors
- Switched to electronic medical records to cut down on paper consumption and decrease carbon footprint
- Uses Magic Touch Cleaning – Gary Walker and his team rocks! Gary is the King of Green Cleaning
- Uses Indigo Wild products
- Partnering with Cells for Cells to recycle cell phones
Partnership with Cells for Cells
Dr. Robin gave me a very thought-provoking reason for why she is a partner with Cells for Cells, “Because you [Cells for Cells] are passionate about helping health.”
Even though I have never described our business like that, the concept rings true. Cells for Cells raises money for families battling cancer by recycling old cell phones.
Cell phone recycling is available at Your Wellness Connection and Dr. Robin encourages all of her patients to drop off any old cell phones at YWC.
Green Smoothie at Home
I have to thank Dr. Robin for helping me think differently about greens in my smoothies. I have a smoothie almost daily; and to be able to add more nutrition is awesome. I tried baby spinach in my smoothie which usually consists of a base of a three-berry frozen mix from Costco and whatever other fruit I have on hand – bananas, peaches, pineapple, etc. I like to add a little bit of raw, organic honey. It’s my little splurge as I wean myself off of all white sugar.
Here I am holding the approximate amount of baby spinach that I put into my smoothie. The spinach is already in my smoothie, I just thought it would make a funny picture of what looks like me getting ready to put a handful of spinach in my glass. This smoothie tasted mostly like pineapple and a tiny bit “greenish.” Just like in my mache smoothie, the green flavor is just there – it is not overpowering and it is drinkable.
There are a number of green smoothie recipes at Your Wellness Connection here.
I might try the Apple and Lime Green Smoothie next as I take Dr. Robin’s advice to help make my wellness bridge as strong and as green as possible.
