Green Drinks: Beauty or Blech

 by Laura Lallone

It’s not that I really like the taste. It’s that I can’t live without them. Green drinks? You, know green drinks. Spirulina, Wheat Grass, Alfalfa. Nutrition in a glass. Fifty salads in one cocktail.

Let me explain. A couple weeks ago I woke up on what you might call “the wrong side of the bed”. My husband Marshall, unfortunate soul, was in trouble… for just breathing. (You know those mornings.) We work on opposite schedules, me during the day and he at night, and usually I am up and out of the house when he still “little kid” cuddly and cute with his morning face on. But on that day we had some overlap and my morning routine was interrupted. This interruption often leads to irritation. Yeh, yeh, nature, nurture, immaturity... who knows why, but sometimes I just get pissy when my flow is disrupted.

He noticed that I was annoyed and wanted to talk about it. I wanted to talk about it too – talk that would sound something like, "Why do I always have to do everything around the house? Why am I the only one who takes out the recycling? Why can’t you put your shoes in the closet instead of next to the dresser – it’s only a foot and half away!"

But I shut my mouth. Just days before, a friend was sharing mantras that he learned. One that stuck with me went something like, "The times when you HAVE to say something are exactly the times that you should say NOTHING."

And, boy, this was one of those times. So I shut my mouth. I knew that my pissiness was circumstantial (PMS, fatigue, stress, blood sugar, all of the above). It would pass and THEN it would be the right time to talk about preferred placement of shoes.

I managed to mutter "I think it’s better if I just went to work". I walked away and continued getting myself and the house together. I shut my mouth and noticed that the fight continued on – inside my head. I was muttering all kinds of things about recycling, trash cans still at the curb, crumbs on the counter, telling Marshall (in my head) that he could go grocery shopping every once in awhile then countering with an empathetic response about Marshall working hard and not having the time.

Then something inside of me broke through the chaos and screamed, "Get something to eat… or have a green drink".

I grabbed the canister, measured out the fine green powder, chucked some ice in the glass and filled it with water. I selected a pink straw from my variety pack stash (always use ice and straws with green drinks – trust me, it helps) and stirred my cocktail. Then I took the first sip.

The first sip. As it went down could feel my body chemistry changing. The irritation was gone. I felt relaxed, centered, grounded – a post-yogalike calm. I’m not kidding. Within three minutes, I was sitting on Marshall’s lap giving him a hug, feeling perfectly reasonable.

Green drinks. I tried a few of them years ago when I worked in health food stores but I bagged them because of the taste. Then a year ago I was asked to sample a new green drink at the gym – Emerald Balance. I resisted, having flash backs of green gagging experiences. But I was surprised. It didn’t taste like sludge. It had a little bit of sweetness in it from some fruit, veggies and Stevia powder (a natural sweetener). And I felt good.

So, this is how Green Drinks are saving my life. Maybe I'm vitamin/mineral deficient (aren't we all these days with stress and pollution), maybe my blood sugar is whacked, maybe there's just something magical in nature's greens. I don't really care. I know that it makes me feel good and prevents me from putting my foot where it doesn't belong.

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