Green Smoothies: Magical Elixer

Musonius Rufus offered some very interesting lifestyle advice to we Stoics:

"On diet he used to speak often and very earnestly, as of a matter important in itself and in its effects. For he thought that continuence in meats and drinks is the beginning and groundwork of temperance. Once, forsaking his usual line of argument, he spoke as follows:"

He goes on to advise us to eat fruit in season, grains, plants (greens?), vegetables, herbs, milk, cheese and honeycombs. He specifically advises us to eat these foods raw. He calls these foods "cheap," because they don't derive from slaughtered animals. Meat was enormously expensive in the ancient world.

What results may we expect from following his advice?

"It is those who use the cheapest food who are the strongest. For example, you may, for the most part, see slaves more sturdy than masters, country-folk than town-folk,poor than rich - more able to labour, sinking less at their work, seldomer ailing more easily enduring frost, heat, sleeplessness, and the like. Even if cheap food and dear strengthens the body alike, still we ought to choose the cheap; for this is more sober and more suited to a virtuous man; inasmuch as what is easy to procure is, for good men, more proper for food than what is hard - what is free from trouble than what gives trouble - what is ready than what is not ready. To sum up in a word the whole use of diet, I say that we ought to make its aim health and strength, for these are the only ends for which we should eat, and they require no large outlay."

My response to Rufus's advice (and I mean it; it's really why I started this whole thing) is to embrace the green smoothie. So far I'm very pleased with the results.

Of course there's nothing magical about them. Green smoothies are nothing more than a combination of water, fruit and veg. You could eat the ingredients separately, drink a glass of water and achieve the same effect. You'd probably be more Stoic. Still, I didn't ever do this consistently. I find that smoothies are a way to sneak fruit and veg past my taste buds, and I'm grateful for them.

So far here is what I've found:

1. I eat less... I track what I eat on myfitnesspal.com and there has been a significant drop in my caloric intake, a drop that has taken me down to weight loss levels.

2. I have more energy... way more. This may be the placebo effect. Good for the placebo effect! I'm understating the effect... my body seems to tingle with energy. It's weird.

3. It's better to drink one in the morning. I have a cup of coffee and a green smoothie, and that's it. For the rest of the day it's like my body is plugged into an energy generator. I'm more aware, I do more, I look FORWARD to working out. If I skip the morning smoothie I'll have one in the afternoon, but my day is better when I drink one in the morning.

There is a very good chance that this is all the zeal of a convert. What happens when the novelty wears off? Who can drink green smoothies every day for the rest of their lives?

Well, I drink coffee every day, and the recipe never changes: plain coffee, cream and sugar. I haven't gotten sick of that yet. Why should I get sick of smoothies, especially when they can be made with such variety?

It's early days, but so far so good. And even if I don't lose weight I feel better and I'm following solid Stoic practice.

One of the really great benefits is that you can plug in to an online community without paying for a program, buying frozen food, or ordering strange supplements. The knowledge is free, and you likely already own everything you need. So give it a try.

How to:

For the purist: blend until smooth 1 cup of spinach, 1 frozen banana and 1 cup of other fruit (apples and pears work well).

For the beginner: use a coconut water base, or even do coconut water and orange juice, or plain water and OJ. If these things don't taste good you won't keep drinking them.

For everybody: freeze the fruit, especially the banana. Frozen bananas have a consistency like ice cream when blended. 

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Green Smoothie Links:

Incredible Smoothies

Simple Green Smoothies (this includes a very useful recipe chart)

Seeing Through The System

One of the things that Stoicism allows is a little objectivity. When we examine our own motivations and insecurities we begin to see them in other people. They don't necessarily see these things in themselves, though, and anyway we might be wrong. Perception is always suspect. With that caveat in mind, I offer the following:

I know a few people, high achievers, who are often worried about not measuring up. Maybe that insecurity is necessary to high achievement, or maybe it is necessary to some people in the sense that otherwise those particular people wouldn't have achieved.

For example, suppose there exist two equally successful athletes. One may have achieved "x" level of success through natural ability and moderate effort. The other, born with less potential, achieved "x" through single minded determination. He scorched the earth. He psyched himself up. He neglected relationships and personal development. He trained constantly. He sacrificed more.

I know some people in the latter category. This would often cause conflict, because when I achieved they would pick out flaws or cut me down in some way. I would respond defensively. We would then enter into conflict.

What ended the cycle is my realizing their need for validation. I began to compliment them on their achievements. At first nothing changed on their end, but instead of reacting defensively I'd shrug it off and move on. I repeated and repeated.

After about a year they began to compliment me back. Now we like each other. Actually they are pretty close friends. I like them. I can rely on them. They have my back. They're different people.

A key insight was my realization that what these people had in common was a rough childhood. They were picked on by their peers. The way they dealt with the harassment was to adopt an "I'll show them!" mentality. They applied themselves to their professions with a singleminded zeal. In addition to this it was their habit to stake out some mental safe space in their heads, which they defended with everything they had. The best defense is a good offense, in other words.

I made myself safe to them. They let me past the perimeter because I stopped attacking and started aiding in their own defense. I became a trusted ally.

I had seen through the system. I had found their motivation and manipulated it for our mutual benefit. I was the puppet master.

And do you know what I noticed, after I got a little distance from the whole thing? I was just like them. I cut down people who performed better than I did. I carved out a safe space and defended it like a zealot. And I did it for the same reasons that they did. Here I was judging their flaws and figuring out how to deal with them, and then congratulating myself for successfully doing it, when all the while I was just like them.

When things between us changed I'm not even sure that I prompted it. Maybe we all got sick of our old habits at the same time.

The system I had seen through was one of my own making.  

It was like waking up to the world: I was never secretly superior. I was never the bigger man.

My old self would have considered this to be a disastrous revelation. My new self is very pleased by it. Why?

I'm not alone, and people can improve. That's a very good thing for the world.

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Image is public domain

I Should Be Able To Eat Raw Veggies...

Here's a Stoic conundrum: If I put greens in a smoothie with fruit and coconut milk it's great. On it's own? I'll cook it, maybe saute it, but I don't like it raw. But it's the same thing whether it's in a smoothie or not. A smoothie just helps me lie to myself. It doesn't taste like spinach. Shouldn't I be able to eat spinach leaves?

Then again I have so many larger flaws to work on maybe I let the spinach slide. At least I'm eating spinach. Besides, it's cheap and it's veg, like Rufus recommends.

Edit: This morning I made one with coconut milk, orange juice, blueberries, bannana and spinach. That's the amount of fruit and veggies I'd eat on a good day normally, and I got it all at breakfast.

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Image, courtesy of PublicDomainPictures.net, is public domain. Go figure.

Preferred Indiferent: Something About This Song

This song has always gotten to me:

She released this cover when I was younger and it was one of those songs that just hit me. I've told other people this and they don't get it. Then they'll mention some song that hit them the same way and I don't get it.

Maybe it's context. I was doing something or feeling something when I was young and Ms. Lauper caught me at the right time. I don't know.

Is it Stoic to be obsessed with a song? No. I don't think I'm obsessed, though. I think it's like a favorite painting or a favorite sculpture. Life would go on without it... but it is beautiful.

Will Power and Discipline

I haven't vetted the whole site, but what I have read of Remez Sasson's self improvement blog is very good. He seems to be very honest. He has an openness of mind and a scholarly bent that I don't often find in the self help genre.

His article Will Power and Self Discipline could have been written by a Stoic. I'll let you read it yourself for the particulars, but the gist of it is that we build our willpower by practice. We practice doing things that we don't want to do.

Don't put the dishes off until later; do them now. Don't pay the bills later; pay them now.

He also mixes in some Stoic practice suffering. If you like sugar with your coffee, don't use sugar for a week, for example. This is familiar to us, but maybe the doing of unpleasant chores is less familiar.
We Stoics put ourselves into uncomfortable situations, but I don't know that we emphasize doing uncomfortable things. I don't, anyway.

Mr. Sasson does seem to be looking for at least a token worldly result... maybe I am mistaken about that. Wikipedia tells us that he quit a lucrative bank job to follow his dreams, so maybe not.

It's worth a look.

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Public domain image courtesy of the New York Public Library

Excess

This season is about too much. We eat too much food, we buy too many things... we stuff ourselves and we stuff our houses. When you study a philosophy that teaches you to that "enough" is better than "too much" you begin to see this.

First there's the food. We love each other and we make special foods to give pleasure to each other, and these foods make us fat and lethargic. I don't see many people giving out vegetable trays. It's all candy and cookies.

Then you have the sales. People crowd into stores. People drive aggressively to get there.

And everything is pumpkin flavored.

And what should people get you, if you're a middle class Stoic? You already have it all. You don't want anything else. You don't want half of what you already have.

This is a unique sensation, not wanting anything.

This year I told my kids that they would go through their toys and get rid of whatever they didn't play with anymore to make room for the new toys. I was surprised by how attached they were to things that they hadn't touched in eight months.

"But you haven't seen this since last year..."

"But Daddy, I LOVE this!"

I wasn't cruel about it; we reasoned through the process of letting their things go, and if they really wanted to keep something they did. And they were willing to part with a garbage bag full of things.

When we were done, they said they liked it. The room was cleaner. That's a start.

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Public domain image courtesy of the New York Public Library

I'll Show You What You're Afraid Of

I listened to a podcast about lying by Danger and Play and it opened my eyes to why lying feels so bad. I've always considered lying to be wrong, and I supposed that it felt bad because it's "wrong," but that never really seemed to be a very adequate explanation. Now I know better.

Mike Cernovich, the blog's author, begins with an aphorism: "Show me what you lie about and I'll show you what you fear." He then goes on to tell us that lying isn't just wrong because it harms other people (and by the way, the average person lies 7 times per day), it's harmful to the soul because it is an admission that you are not good enough. You lie because if you don't you fear that you won't be accepted. Lying reinforces your sense of inferiority. That's why habitual liars are such miserable people.

He then challenges us to recall the last time we lied about something, and to figure out why we did it.

I told a person who looks up to me that I did something, when in reality I didn't do that thing. I was lazy, but I didn't want the person to be disappointed with me. So Monday I'm going to do the thing. Will I admit to the person that I lied? I don't think so. Why? Same reason. Something to work on, there...

Mike recommends that we tell the truth more. He doesn't seem to recommend that we NEVER lie, just that we lie less. Sometimes lies are necessary. He says that he still lies sometimes, usually when somebody is bothering him. He'll tell them what they want to hear so that they leave. He says this doesn't demonstrate fear, because he doesn't fear them, he just wants them gone. I'd say that he's afraid of somebody holding him hostage with their mouth and annoying him, but I get his point.

So what is the last thing you lied about? What do you fear?

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Image is public domain