Have I mentioned that after a lifetime of suffering, my husband is no longer allergic to Spring? And maybe even dogs? Here is the marvelous story:
For about a month and a half, we have been drinking daily Green Smoothies consisting of frozen fruit (usually mangos & pineapples), bananas, spinach and water - all blended up into a delicious and delightfully green smoothie. Rob also adds locally-produced honey to his.
(Before you say "Eww, gross. I could never drink spinach," you MUST make one for yourself and taste it. It is very, very yummy; you can barely taste the spinach. In fact, you should take the
Green Smoothie Challenge, as we did.)
We started out enjoying about 16 ounces each daily, but Rob started having more and more. He would make a blender full every morning, drink half for breakfast, and take the rest to work to drink with a bowl of soup for lunch.
Rob also began to add more and more spinach (or kale) to his smoothies, using the locally-produced honey to offset the extra green flavor. He typically uses around 16 ounces of fruit, about 3/4 of a bag of spinach and two tablespoons of honey daily.
Well, as you know, spring has finally arrived and with it, we expected the usual month of Rob Not Being Able To Breath because of his allergies. This would entail constant sneezing, loud sleeping, and just altogether miserableness for him. We would buy lots of very expensive Claritin, which may or may not help but must be tried. And allergies lead to asthma, which leads to chronic inhaler use, which leads to even more general misery. And Spring is not the only thing he is allergic to, if you'll recall this
post and this
post.
BUT NOT THIS YEAR!!! This year, Rob has been allergy-free! He has had nary a sneeze and has been so quiet as he sleeps that I sometimes wonder if he's ok. But I look over and he is still breathing - silently! We have even visited his parents twice, and he has had no reaction whatsoever to their dog. Normally, he would need the inhaler.
I cannot explain what an amazingly, fabulously, wonderful change this has been in our lives. While I did not suffer the allergies directly, I always felt the effects of a chronically miserable husband (not to mention feeling so bad for him.) Rob had tried the daily use of local honey in the past to no avail. We think it is the combination of the greens and the honey that has helped him this time.
And the money we spend on frozen fruit, bananas & spinach is NOT being spent on Claritin, inhalers and tissues! By the way, the cheapest frozen fruit around here can be found at Whole Foods, surprisingly enough. It is drastically cheaper, also, so check it out. (I haven't tried Sam's, but even Walmart and Costco were much more expensive than Whole Foods.)
Butterfly LOVES the smoothies also. Her favorite way to drink it is to put on her lamb ears, climb up on the table and drink it in a crouch while baaing. She apparently thinks it is the way a little sheep would drink it.
So...will you try a Green Smoothie?
Here is the recipe we started out with:
8 oz frozen fruit (we use 3 parts mango, one part pineapple)
1 banana
1 cup of water
2 handfuls of spinach
Blend the fruit and water until it is all smooth. Add the spinach and liquify it. Pour into a glass and drink with a straw. Yum!
Try it. It could change your life!
(This post is part of Watercooler Wednesday at the blog
Ethos.)
