Erica Palmcrantz Aziz - The Green Smoothie Miracle: Your Way to Increased Energy, Weight Loss, and Happiness

THE

GREEN SMOOTHIE MIRACLE

Your Way to Increased Energy, Weight Loss, and Happiness

Erica Palmcrantz Aziz

photography by
Anna Hult

translated by Malou Fickling

Skyhorse Publishing

Copyright 2012 by Erica Palmcrantz Aziz

Photography copyright 2012 by Anna Hult

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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

ISBN: 978-1-62087-061-7

Printed in China

The recipes, advice, and tips in this book are not intended as medical advice. Always consult a doctor before starting a new diet or wellness program.

Contents

Foreword

On being timely.

The little airport was dark, with not a cab in sight, as I raced up to the Arrivals just before midnight. I was late. A dark figure moved into the streetlight, visibly relieved. Erica!

My niece, whom I hadn't seen in at least ten years, apologized for getting the times mixed uphalf past and half hours can be tricky when your mother tongue is not English. No matter, she was here at last!

The little girl I remembered as a chubby, giggling bundle of joy, with a complexion like pink marzipan that earned her the nick name of Miss Piggy, was now a young woman. There was so much to catch up on.

After a couple of weeks, yakking away in a mixture of English and Swedish, we traveled down the beautiful west coast to visit my daughter and her family. During the bumpy train ride I had discovered that Erica had a bad back, the painful result of an accident in her youth. She was in bad shape when we finally arrived at Jinjee's mountain home. No coffee and toast for breakfast, no burgers, no fries; just heaps of fruit, nuts, and veggies.

To suddenly change time zones and language can be tricky for anyone, but throw in a total change in diet and it boggles not only the mind, but the whole body. Anyway, it wasn't long after I had returned home that I got glowing reports on Erica's progress. She was pain-free and felt great, reveling in her new found energy and joy.

Seeing these two cousins today, I am reminded of how timely they are. In a world groaning under the weight of seven billion people, where many are suffering from famine and others from malnutrition due to poor food quality; where vast tracts of valuable land is used for cattle feed, instead of crops which benefit humans directly; where huge amounts of firewood, coal, and kilowatt hours are used to roast, bake, and boil food until it is unrecognizable; where stress and disease are rampant, then it makes so much sense to make changes for the better. We can not always change the world, or even our own families, but we can change our own lives in ways that may have beneficial repercussions in the world around us.

Thank you, Erica and Jinjee, for being just in time!

Christel Palmcrantz Garrick

Nanaimo, Vancouver Island , Canada

Introduction

It was a gray, foggy, and chilly November day, and I was feeling just like the weather. For some time, I had missed that spark of happiness in my life; I felt as though I were stuck on a treadmill. If this is the meaning of life I thought, I might as well quit altogether. Despite my kind partner and a good job with great colleagues and a good salary, I had a strong sense that there was more to life than this. I needed to create space for myself in order to think and invite something new into my life. And so, without knowing what I would do next, I decided to quit my job. My friends thought I was going a little crazy, but I felt I had no other choice; I had to get some distance from my everyday life. I just needed to get away.

Around that time, my cousin James told me that I should look at his sister Jinjees new website, www.thegardendiet.com . James said that she ran a business from home while home schooling her four children, and that she probably could use some help. The next day, I visited the website and was greeted by images of wonderful fruits and vegetables, people glowing with energy and life, and pictures of my cousin Jinjee and her four children. However, at that moment I wasnt particularly impressed by the food or the message of the website.

My cousin Jinjee had always lived abroad, so I had met her on only a few occasions when she visited Sweden. I remembered her as extremely beautiful and charismatic. My family often spoke about how she and her husband lived in California, and how they ate orangeslots of oranges! They also ate 100 percent raw, locally grown, and organic food.

Mustering up the courage, I nervously phoned the other side of the world and asked Jinjee if I could come over and help her with the children. She immediately said yes, though her husband, Storm, wondered if she had gone crazy!, Even though Jinjee and Storm lived in a little village in the mountains at that time, where there was not much happening, Storm was very nervous that Jinjees blonde Swedish cousin was going to hang out in Los Angeles and certain that my father would call and yell at them if they didnt protect me. But Jinjee said, She is family, of course shes welcome.

It wasnt until I was on the flight to America that I really started thinking about what I had gotten myself into. I didnt think much about food. At the time, I lived on a healthier version of a standard diet, and I assumed that there would certainly be some places in California where I could get regular food. My attitude was that fruits and vegetables are good, but not all the time.

When I arrived to their home with my aunt Christel in California, I was expecting to be greeted by pale, scrawny, people, because thats what you look like, I believed, when you eat only fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. Instead, I saw that the whole Talifero family was glowing and healthy. Their cupboards were indeed filled with nuts, seeds, and dried fruit, and there were ninety pounds of oranges, avocados, and ripe peaches that had been picked that morning lying on the kitchen counter. There was also a young coconut in the fridge and some frozen bananas in the freezer. A little different than what I was used to.