Green smoothies yay or nay for you?

I live in NJ, near Philly.  Thanks for the link, I'll look into it.  I'm not sure we have any 4H or county fairs around here?  Maybe further south in NJ.  I'll definitely check it out.  Thank you!

4H is a great resource to find local farms.  I'm from Ohio and 4H was very popular there, and a few local butchers.  Personally I don't want to eat meat, but it's a great suggestion for those who do and want to not eat from factory farms.

Thanks!

I've got just the people for you!

Check out Zaycron Foods.

Thanks I will!

A woman I worked with twenty years ago made some significant lifestyle changes, and also some significant money from her blog, which has developed a huge following:

http://greensmoothiegirl.com/

i have not actually read her blog much so I cannot comment on her recipes and if they are low carb.  However, I know she is one amazing, smart woman, and her approach has worked for her.

Partially due to her popularity in my geographical location, green smoothies in many forms became a huge thing around here in the past 7 years or so. During the height of the fad, I felt many of the recipes people used (not necessarily from my old colleague's blog) had waaaay too much sugar, like many cups of fruit juic and many fruits.  But I did try green smoothies with less fruit.  I got to the point that I would blend two cups water with a bag of spinach, then add one peach and one orange, and I thought it was really good.  Then i cut that to just one peach OR one orange.  I liked that very much, and I did feel a real boost in energy.

More recently, but still before my WLS, I also really worked with making juices through a centrifugal juicer (the "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" approach of Joe Cross).  Like with the green smoothies, fruit sugar is often an issue in popular centrifugal juicing recipes.  But I came to really like cucumber/celery juice...with no fruits. 

Bottom line post WLS: even cucumber juice has carbs in it, and for ketosis, we WLS folks try to limit carbs.  Still, I think if you can come to like the color (the color of vitamins, you can tell yourself), and very importantly,, if you can learn to like the non fruit (or one fruit) versions, then these might have a place in a healthy post-WLS lifestyle.

The problem is with the few recipes that have nutritional stats provided is that they are very high in carbs and in sugars. The "Slimy Green Monster has Calories: 253.4 • Fat: 4.0 g • Carb: 38.6 g • Fiber: 5.5 g • Protein: 17.5 g • Sugar: 18.4 g
Sodium: 236.7 mg. For those numbers I rather have a regular protein shake.  

I'm still pre-op. From what my own nutritionist has told me and what I have read online, WLS patients are going to need least 65 grams of protein  a day for life, there is no getting around that.  I also been told to limit my fruits to two a day.  Alternate protein sources is something you'll need to discuss with our nutritionist. Best of Luck.

I actually make and drink smoothies every day. I put in different fruits and green veg like kale or spinach - bizarrely the taste of these doesn't come through at all. Smoothies retain most of the goodness that juicing removes. So basically all good.

But I wouldn't have dreamt of doing this in my losing phase. I have never counted carbs but most smoothies were too high calorie for me. This is simply because of the volume I could eat. I couldn't afford to "waste" calories on foods which slide through and might have me feel satisfied for half an hour but would have me feeling hunger long before my next meal. My priority every day was protein, and not the sort you can add to slider foods like smoothies. I needed the protein for health but mostly I needed it for satiety. And for that, it has to be dense not liquid. 

We all need to find our own way. My way was not to count anything but to make healthy choices and eat small portions.  But the one thing I found crucial to success (and this is true for the vast majority of people) was not to drink my calories. Some oeople do continue to have protein shakes but FOR ME that wouldn't work. 

I am post op WLS 10 months out.  My surgeon actually just told me last week that eating fruit IS a good nutritional option in MODERATION of course due to the natural sugars found in fruit.  It was HIS recommendation.  I don't particularly like fruit and didn't pre WLS anyway but I think, like every human being on earth, everyone has their own opinions and views including the very professionals that are considered to be experts in their field.  Post OP we are all experts of our OWN experiences and I tend to endorse individuality in everyone's journey through WLS and life in general.  You do you...I'll do me.  Thanks for sharing the recipe!

Totally agree with yvie. Fruit is one of the "good" foods. But the word moderation is key. I love fruit and when hungry, find a crunchy apple makes me feel full. But that same apple in the form of apple juice or a smoothie wouid only satisfy me for a short time. It's not the fruit that wouid be an issue for me, it is turning it into liquid! Same calories, little lasting feeling of fullness.

But we all have to do out own thing. I have never counted carbs, for some that would be disastrous!  All we can do is tell others what we found worked for us.