Green Smoothies: An Interview With Smoothie Expert Kevin Gianni

Posted by carrie_roll

In this interview, I talk with Kevin Gianni. You can learn more about Kevin Gianni below, but Kevin has just launched a book called “165 Smoothies for Optimum Health“, a book that is truly a fantastic resource for anyone wanting to improve their health and nutrition through green, fruit, or elixir smoothies.
Listen to the interview and/or read the transcript below!

You can also download the green smoothie interview here
Green Joyment: This is Jonathan Kraft with Green Joyment.com. I’m super, super excited today because we have on the phone here today, Kevin Gianni.
If you’re not familiar with Kevin Gianni, he is a health advocate, an author, he’s an interviewer, he’s a film consultant – he’s doing 20 different things at once! He’s helped thousands of people from over 85 different countries learn more and improve their health through their programs and online seminars that they offer through their website and company, Renegade Health.
Kevin is the founder and host of “Renegade Health Show” which is one of the fastest growing internet health shows online and available just to anyone. He’s also the creator and co-author of “The Busy Person’s Fitness Solution,” and he’s got a new book out that I want to talk with him about a little bit.
Basically, he creates optimal wellness systems that help busy people reach optimal health; using just three to four hours of their precious time a week. He has expertise in all kinds of areas including exercise, energy techniques, nutrition, paradigm shifting and stress relief.
So I wanted to talk to you today Kevin because I think you just have some incredible knowledge that you can share with the people in the GreenJoyment community.
So, how are you doing today?

Green Smoothies (Kevin): I’m doing awesome! I’m excited to be on this call to talk about some of the things that we’re doing that kind of matches what everyone out there is in to, particularly the “green” lifestyle because we’re doing some of that stuff here.
Green Joyment: I know right now -you can probably take a few minutes maybe and talk about what you’re doing right now – you’re traveling around the country in an RV that runs on veggie fuel or basically waste grease from restaurants, right? Why are you doing this and can you talk a little bit about what you’re doing right now?
Green Smoothies (Kevin): Why are we doing — that’s a funny question! (Laughs) Well, we had this crazy idea one day that we wanted to go around the country and speak and meet some of our fans that listen to our Renegade Health Show on a regular basis. We felt that we were missing a kind of human connection between us and our fan base. So one day, my wife and I were lying in bed and we said, “what are we going to do this year?” And she said, “let’s just get in the RV and travel around the country!” And I kind of said “well, you know, if you tell me that we’re going to do that, then we’re going to do it.” And she’s like, “ok, then let’s do it!” And I said “alright, we’ll figure out how to do it.” And I didn’t want to put such a huge carbon imprint on the planet driving around in a big RV because literally RV’s have, it’s not in miles per gallon in terms of gasoline, it’s usually yards per gallon is what we like to say.
So we started looking around and I started looking for a green RV. Literally the first thing I did was I went to Google and started searching; I typed “green RV” and literally, every green RV in the United States came up for sale. But “green” meaning the color green! So I knew we had to search a different way.
We eventually found a big 36′ RV that had already been converted into a veg-fuel system and we bought it, we drove it home and started filling it up with some veg-fuel and found that this is a pretty unique way to travel around the country, particularly this type of RV. Since this is a big old motor coach … not many people have their big motor coach running on straight veg-fuel.
Green Joyment: Well, it’s a beautiful RV! You guys came here through Colorado and it’s just beautiful. You wouldn’t know it was different from any other RV just traveling down the road – it just looks really pretty.
You could have though one of those big “green” RV’s … literally, paint it green! (Laughing) That’s funny!
Green Smoothies (Kevin): The previous owner actually also did a few other things to make it green. He painted the walls with the non-VOC paint and he also put in bamboo flooring so we actually have wood bamboo flooring all the way up to our bedroom in the RV which is pretty unique too.
Green Joyment: Ok, so next time you come through Colorado, we’re going to do a video tour of the RV and show it to people.
Green Smoothies (Kevin): That’s a really good idea!
Green Joyment: That would be awesome! Cool! So really the reason for this interview today … and a few different things … but I just wanted to benefit from your knowledge and benefit people that are in our community with that knowledge.
So, you just came out with a book for smoothies, right? To help people actually live a more green lifestyle; one of the best ways for them is really to start their day with good nutrition. So you’ve created this book with some of the best smoothies in the world. Can you talk a little bit about the process of that book being created and then what makes it different than it just being like a recipe book of smoothies?
Green Smoothies (Kevin): Yes, well this is kind of a book that I hold pretty close to my heart because a friend of ours, Victoria Boutenko, she’s been in the health movement, in the raw food movement and the vegan diet movement for a very long time. And she came up with an idea that if you could introduce one green smoothie, green smoothie meaning a whole bunch of fruit with a little bit of vegetable greens/leafy greens into your diet in the morning, first thing and not change anything else in your diet, you can actually have some incredible health benefits.
She did some small studies with 30 or 40 people and some of the things that these people benefited from were they improved their energy levels, they improved their sexual function, they improved a whole bunch of different things where actually all these incredible things started happening and they just changed one simple thing in their diet.
Now, for those who are listening, you probably know the toll that a meat industry and a dairy industry and even a conventional agricultural industry does on the environment; that we’re creating a ton of greenhouse gases, we’re creating a lot of use of water, we’re spilling toxic chemicals and pesticides into our lakes, rivers and streams. So it becomes a really big challenge to overcome when we think about the size and the monstrosity of this whole industry.
So what we like to do is to say you can do this with your food too; so you can be an advocate for a green planet with your food as well. And what better way to do it than by eating organic fruits and vegetables and doing it preferably locally grown by the local farmer from the farmer’s market and then broadening out. So now you’ve got an opportunity to get some incredible nutrition, you can save the planet and you can get some incredible health benefits from it too. And that’s kind of where it all started for us.
Then what we decided to do is, instead of just giving regular smoothie recipes, we decided to go to some of the experts like Victoria Boutenko and some of the other natural health experts in the movement because we’re kind of deeply entrenched in that movement. We decided to go to them and ask for their favorite smoothie recipes. They’re not only just recipes that anyone just put together; they’re recipes that experts are actually drinking! I would think that those would be a little bit more valuable than just any old smoothie recipe because these are the ones they’ve kind of pinpointed as the ones that may be the most health-giving, maybe the ones that are the most tasty and delicious and with all the incredible things from them.
So that was the premise of the book and we have over 165 recipes from all these different health experts, about 17 contributors including Ann Marie, my wife and I. We launched it two weeks ago and its just launched some incredible success and people are buzzing about it. We were just at an event and we sold out of them here – so it’s just been actually really cool and it’s been a really helpful tool for people who really want to make health easy for themselves.
Green Joyment: Well, I’ve seen the book and I think it’s great. One of the things that makes it unique is how it’s organized. Could you talk about that just a bit?
Green Smoothies (Kevin): What we did is we broke it down it three different categories; one is just the fruit smoothie section, the other one is a green smoothie section. So if you can’t stomach the idea of putting greens into your smoothie just yet, you can get some incredible fruit smoothies. The green smoothies have a little bit more greens – you get some chlorophyll, which is an incredible blood tonic. Then it’s categorized into elixirs, that’s the third category; and elixirs are really kind of fun things that you can do just to kind of have a little bit of fun with your own health. You can create some incredible concoctions for maybe some energy or some really unique kind of stimulant kind of boosting kind of stuff.
Green Joyment: One of the things I saw in the stimulant boosting elixir section is that there were some categories and terms and things in there, I’m like, “what in the world is this? I’ve never even heard of “stinging nettle.”" I had never heard of some of this stuff that was in there. So that was kind of cool that you have a glossary of terms and you help to define things for people — maybe they’ve never heard of before.
Green Smoothies (Kevin): Yes, well we want to introduce people to new possibilities. If you go to the grocery store and you look around, a) you’re going to find maybe four or five varieties of lettuce, maybe you’ll find two varieties of kale, you might find one or two varieties of tomatoes, one variety of avocado and there’s a whole bunch more! I didn’t even know this until I started really exploring my own health and so what we did was … there are some unique ingredients, but what we’ve done is … 1) we’ve defined them; 2) we’ve told you where you can get them; and 3) we’ve given you replacements of things that you can find normally at your grocery store that you can add instead of those things in case you don’t have the resources to get it. So it’s not like one of these books where you say, “well, I just don’t have any of the ingredients.” You can find all the stuff, if you can’t find all the stuff, we’ve given you replacements or you can just put in something different. We give you a whole bunch of ideas to help you generate, eventually, your own recipes and really enjoy them with the family and enjoy them with friends.
Green Joyment: That’s fantastic! Like I said, I’ve seen the book; I think it’s great! So who do you think would be the “right” person to own this book?
Green Smoothies (Kevin): Well, it really fits the mold of what you’re talking about with GreenJoyment. I think it’s the reason why we’re doing this interview. By putting fruits and vegetables into your blender and using that as your breakfast, you’ll get plenty of different vital nutrients, you’ll get plenty of antioxidants, you’ll get plenty of protein. Leafy green vegetables do have a lot of protein and not a lot of people know this. You get can all this great power- packed energy as well as lighten the load on our global situation. So it’s really great for people who are just conscious people and that’s kind of who we want to get this book into the hands of; because conscious people will start doing it because they know the benefit of making a smoothie in the morning or the benefit of repairing the planet. And then what they do is that they can go on and pass this information along to their family and friends who may not be on the same wavelength but eventually, could be turned on to the possibility that maybe they too can be part of this kind of movement.
Green Joyment: And that’s really I think what it’s about across the board – a small group of people and it’s becoming a larger and larger group of people all the time, but a small group of people making changes that impact other people and they go, “oh wow, that person’s living a healthier life or they’re getting more results, wow, that’s cool.” People see that and so it impacts them; and I think what you guys are doing, traveling around the country impacting these groups of people all over the country is just fantastic.
It’s hugely motivational and inspirational to both Carrie and I, I know. It’s just fun to see and fun that you guys were able to, while you’re on the road and traveling around and doing all this stuff, you launched this book and it’s going great! Just exciting!
I know too, you’ve got another book that either just came out or is coming out called “The High Raw?” Is that book out yet?
Green Smoothies (Kevin): Yes. The book is out. It’s basically the exploration of my last two or three years of interviewing over 200 experts in the health industry, particularly many of them in the raw food industry; people who are talking about eating fresh fruits and vegetables.
So what I did is I narrowed all the information down – you can imagine 200 interviews, that’s almost 200 hours, of information. I’ve narrowed that down to 5 simple principles in how you can eat healthier, how you can start moving towards a more raw diet. And “raw” just means fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds. It’s really not that difficult and that’s kind of the approach that we take with it.
This book is actually available, Jonathan will give you the link and you can check it out and we hope you enjoy it.
Green Joyment: So you’re like the Napoleon Hill of modern health and wellness.
Green Smoothies (Kevin): (Laughing) I’ve modeled myself after some of the things of Napoleon Hill, absolutely!
Green Joyment: Interviewing the top people and finding out what they do and then breaking that down into simple things that anybody can do.
Green Smoothies (Kevin): Absolutely.
Green Joyment: That’s really fantastic. Yes, we’ll definitely post some links here on GreenJoyment for people to be able to access both books because I think either one of these or both of these are hugely beneficial if people start taking these steps of eating a little more organic and eating food that doesn’t require as much water … or requires water in a more natural way than thousands of cows running around in a field all the time or not running around in a field and sitting in stock yards.
Just really impressed with what you guys are doing and I really appreciate you taking the time to spend some time with our audience today.
Do you have any other closing thoughts or anything you’d like people to know about what you guys are doing or anything like that?
Green Smoothies (Kevin): We’re traveling around the country; you can check out our website and you can see if we’re going to be in your town or in your area – we’d love to see you and meet you and chat about what we’re doing. We’re real open about it and we’re hoping to meet our fans. So please, check our calendar and maybe come meet us.
Green Joyment: Perfect! We’ll post a link to that as well and Kevin, thanks so much for taking the time today. And again, we’ll post links below the interview here for people to get access to all of your great information online.
Green Smoothies (Kevin): Alright, thank you!
Green Joyment: Awesome!