Sept. 30, 2025

361: Green Smoothies: Health Boost or Hype?

Green smoothies. Friend or foe? In the whole food plant based diet world, you often hear, “Don’t drink your calories.” That teaching sounds smart, but for many, it’s led to more confusion, fatigue, brain fog, and stubborn weight. Could this popular advice actually be blocking one of the simplest ways to heal your body naturally with plants?

This week, Anita and Jarrod expose the myths and reveal the truth. What really happens inside the blender that your rushed, under-chewed meals miss? Why does sipping slowly support your body in ways gulping never will? What small mistake turns a smoothie into a sugar bomb? And what simple, creamy swap ends the dreaded “green chunky” once and for all?

You’ll also hear the surprising faith based mindset shift that makes WFPB living practical, enjoyable, and sustainable for busy entrepreneurs who are tired of exhaustion holding back their God given dreams.

Listen now to discover how to enjoy green smoothies with wisdom and confidence so you can fuel your body for maximum energy, exponential productivity, and lasting weight loss, without fear, overwhelm, or any confusion.

💃🏻 Ready to learn how to actually enjoy eating whole plant foods so you can finally feel great and fully experience life? Inside Accelerator, we'll take you by the hand & walk you step-by-step through our proven 5-Step WFPB Framework so you can heal naturally & actively live your God-given dreams. Join the Waitlist Here... the Doors are Opening Soon!

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00:00 - The Smoothie Misconception

02:39 - Benefits of Breaking Cell Walls

04:31 - Proper Green Smoothie Technique

06:54 - Real Health Transformation Stories

09:59 - Making Smoothies Work For You

11:12 - Join Our Community

WEBVTT

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You're spending all this money on your grocery bills.

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You're going to the store.

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You're loading up on all this great produce and products that are gonna make you healthy.

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You come home, you eat them, but you're not chewing them well because you're so busy, because you have this to do and that to do.

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But what you don't realize is all that money is wasted.

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It's practically flushed down the toilet because the cell walls were never broken open.

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But when you drink.

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Hey sister, welcome to the Power on Plants podcast.

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Are you tired of staring into the fridge wondering what to eat so you can just feel better?

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Do you want to avoid spending hours in the kitchen making complicated meals in the name of health?

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Would you love to leave fatigue behind and finally have the energy to do all the things you want to do?

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Hi, we're Sheridan and Eita Reese Help Christ followers, healthcare professionals, parents of four, and big fans of great tasting food.

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We too tried exercising more, eating natural and clean foods, but we still found ourselves struggling with what we thought were changes that come with age or bad genes.

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And we weren't finding answers the traditional route, so we dug into the research and created our secret nutritional weapon, sustainable plant-based living.

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The truth is you can eat more whole plant foods, and it's not hard.

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You just need the way that's realistic and delicious so you never feel deprived.

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If you're ready to enjoy your meals, no longer be held back by your health struggles and actively live your life, then you're in the right place.

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So grab your favorite plant-based cup of happy, pop in those earbuds, and let's get started.

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There is something that's rampant in the whole food plant-based community, and we want to touch on it today because we've heard it time and time again.

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People are afraid, genuinely afraid of this thing.

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And the big boogeyman is green smoothies or smoothies in general.

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Now imagine this thinking that smoothies are your enemy.

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If you're there, we totally get it because this, again, is a rampant teaching within the whole food plant-based space.

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You shouldn't drink your calories.

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You must chew your food.

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And so people are walking around literally worried about getting a large cup filled with whole plant foods that they wouldn't normally eat that are going to help them to heal because they're not going to be chewing it.

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And they've been told that they're not good for them.

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But what we know for a fact is that this is not true.

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Because what green smoothies allow you to do is take a whole bowl of food that you wouldn't normally eat, pack it with a variety of things that you might not normally get in a day, and you can go about your morning drinking it and powering yourself optimally with these nutrients that your body is just craving and waiting for.

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And you have to also think about this.

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In order to get the nutrients out of a plant, what do you have to do?

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You have to crush the cell walls.

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That's why people are saying, chew your food, chew your food.

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But most of us do not chew our food.

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We're in too big of a hurry.

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We chew long enough to get the food aligned just properly to then swallow it.

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And I think largely our very busy lifestyle contributes greatly to this.

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And where does that start?

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It starts in elementary school, maybe even preschool.

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And we're more programmed for it.

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And then you're running from class to class as you hit junior high and high school and you're trying to scarf down some food.

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That's not prime for optimal nutrition at all.

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There's so many things in that age group that aren't prime for optimal nutrition, but you can totally help your kids get healthy.

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We have four children that eat whole food plant-based that have eaten that way since they were younger, not all of them since they were firstborn, but most of them since they were really young.

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And it is so doable and they love it.

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They're thriving, having learned these strategies that we teach inside Accelerator.

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It's the same strategies.

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This is actually what we taught our children so that they're now thriving in this lifestyle and healthy and feeling good.

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But this busy, hurried life that we have in our environment causes us to hurry through meals, not chew well.

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So you're not breaking the cell walls to release the nutrients anyway.

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So think about it.

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You're spending all this money on your grocery bills.

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You're going to the store, you're loading up on all this great produce and products that are gonna make you healthy.

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You come home, you eat them, but you're not chewing them well because you're so busy, because you have this to do and that to do.

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But what you don't realize is all that money is wasted.

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It's practically flushed down the toilet because the cell walls were never broken open.

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But when you drink a smoothie, guess what happens?

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The blades of your blender break open the cell walls for you.

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Now all the nutrients are freed up.

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This is why we see specific programs built around smoothies where people are healing, healing from autoimmune disease, healing from all these things.

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We definitely do promote drinking green smoothies on the regular, but that's not all we teach you how to do.

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But there are specific programs that that's all they have you doing.

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Why?

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Because it is a flood of nutrition to your body.

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And we see it heal people time and time again.

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So this is something that you don't need to fear, but actually need to get into your life.

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The other issue that some people claim about not chewing your food is that you're not giving that food time to mix with the digestive enzymes in your mouth.

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So we don't advocate guzzling down an entire green smoothie in two minutes.

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It's not a good idea for so many reasons.

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But we sip on them.

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Now we don't sip on them necessarily all day, but over the course of 20 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour, we'll sip on it, have a small amount in our mouth.

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I will even myself not necessarily swish, but give it a moment so that it mixes with the saliva that has those digestive enzymes because we know digestion does begin in the mouth.

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Right.

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It makes perfect sense.

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But I think one of the major problems that people get into drinking smoothies is they're not doing green smoothies.

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So there are no greens in there, and it's all fruit or it's majority fruit, where you don't feel like your taste buds can handle the greens at first because you're just not used to it.

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So for whatever reason, you're just omitting the greens or you're putting hardly any in there, like a tablespoon to maybe one small handful.

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And we advocate getting to as many greens as you can.

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We pack them down, and then I'll put like an inch of fruit at the top, maybe two inches of fruit.

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I mean, it is packed with packing about 80% greens, and we pack it right, like we punch it down.

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It's not just like sprinkle a few leaves in there, we actually push it down in there, and then we'll put about an inch or so of the fruit and maybe some flaxseed and some other ingredients, and then put the liquid, but do the greens first so that way you can get a lot of them.

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That's a great strategy for increasing the amount of greens that you get on a daily basis.

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Yes.

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So what you want to do, because you may have had green chunkies, and that's just a terrible run-in.

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You never want to have a green chunky.

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You absolutely need a blender that will make things super smooth.

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It doesn't have to be a super expensive blender, but it does need to be one that doesn't leave chunks in your smoothie because no one likes a green chunky.

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That's absolutely miserable.

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And after that, find the way that makes the ingredients taste good to you.

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For instance, I have a friend whose husband doesn't eat all whole food plant-based, but he's eating more and more plant-based as she does because he's tasting and seeing and getting drawn to it.

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We see it happen all the time for people whose spouses are not interested and now their health is improving.

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Well, this one specific client was telling me, she said, you know, as long as it tastes like nut butter, so all I have to do is put a little peanut butter in there, and it doesn't matter what else is in it, he'll drink it and he loves it.

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And now he's asking her for green smoothies on the daily.

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And so guess what?

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He went to his cardiologist, and before his heart age was older than his actual age, like four or five years.

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Now it's like five or six years younger than his heart age should be.

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I mean, that's only within, I think it's been a couple of years that that's happened for him.

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It probably happened even faster, but I don't think he went to the doctor that quickly.

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This testimonial is amazing.

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This is just one of the things that we hear over and over again because you're getting the nutrients in your body that your body is craving in a way that's simple and quick, that works with your busy schedule, but you have to do it in the way you'll actually drink it.

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So the big key is you need to make it taste good to you.

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And even if it's drizzling a little nut butter in it, that's perfectly fine as long as you're gonna drink it and just work your way up to getting more and more greens into that smoothie.

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I don't think I've ever heard of anybody taking a cholesterol medication and then that causing their age to be younger than their chronological age or any kind of heart medication for that matter.

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Well, that's true.

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Give me the green smoothie any day.

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There are so many natural possibilities out there for you to feel better.

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You have to decide, are you worth it?

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To put in a little bit of effort to start getting these things that make you feel good.

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This is going to make you feel better.

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Put it to the test.

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You ever heard that somewhere before?

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Put it to the test.

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I want you to take away this week and just try it.

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But one word of caution, Jared, and I don't want you to use this as a meal addition so that you're having your full breakfast and then having a green smoothie with it.

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Or you're having your full lunch and then a green smoothie because it can add quite a few calories as well.

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Now, as you get to where you're adding more and more greens, it's going to be super low calorie because the greens have hardly any calories.

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But when you first start out, you might be adding more fruit.

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And so if you're trying to lose weight, it may be something that could add some pounds for you, especially if you're adding a lot of fruit.

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Well, also to nuts.

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If you're adding things like peanut butter or cashews to make it creamy, if you're combining that with a lot of fruit, the high fat with the high sugar may not be the best combination if weight loss is a goal for you.

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But you don't have to add nuts to a green smoothie.

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There's so many things you can do.

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And if you want it creamy, you can even add some white beans.

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You can add some frozen zucchini, you can add some frozen cauliflower.

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It's unbelievable what you can do with the green smoothie.

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If you're in accelerator or in our alumni program, I want you to get into the green smoothie guide, the ultimate green smoothie guide that we have for you.

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It is a resource that you need to use and start getting those daily green smoothies if you've gotten out of the habit or you never started the habit because it's going to make all the difference for you.

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But we have shared so many tips and tricks with you right here that you can start having green smoothies today.

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Make sure you have an appliance that's going to make it super smooth for you.

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And don't have fear.

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There's no reason to be afraid of a green smoothie.

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Literally, there are programs just built around this that people heal from all kinds of diseases.

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We see it happen in our own program.

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Adding in green smoothies can be a huge part of that because not only are you getting more greens and more things that you normally wouldn't eat, you're getting more raw living foods that the enzymes have not been denatured and cooked in.

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And many of us are deprived, not of protein, but of raw living foods in our life that are filled with fiber and the enzymes that our bodies need to thrive.

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Come into our group at poweronplants.com forward slash pie.

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Let us know your favorite ingredients in a green smoothie.

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If you're thinking, Anita, I have no idea where to even start, then you definitely need to be inside the community to ask away and find out people's favorite recipes for their green smoothies.

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Join us today at poweronplants.com forward slash PIE.

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Sunshine, we hope you have an amazing week.

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We are so excited to be a part of your journey to optimal health.

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Know that you are loved, you are prayed for, and we will see you again very soon.