Are You Ready??? August 16, 2009

The 2009 Green Smoothie Challenge starts tomorrow!  The official challenge is to drink at least 16 oz. of green smoothie every day from August 17 until September 17.  Other healthy habits to challenge us:

-Do some sort of physical activity every day.

-Add a green leafy salad to lunch or supper.

-Stop drinking pop.

-Cut out all white sugar.

 

I would encourage you to try green smoothies even if you don’t feel ready to commit to those other parts of the challenge.  The magic of the green smoothies will change your life.  I predict that you will drink less pop and eat fewer sweets accidentally as a result of the green smoothies.  But in the spirit of learning to listen to our bodies and making permanent changes, I would suggest starting small. 

I’m prepared for the challenge!  I have fruit and spinach for smoothies.  I have salad greens.  I even tracked down some quart jars!  While not necessary, I wanted to have a take-with-me container that would hold a whole smoothie.  I make one-quart smoothies, therefore I needed a one-quart jar.  I have plenty of straws.  I even bought a pineapple today, because I love fresh pineapple in my smoothies so much!

 

Are you ready?

Green Smoothie Challenge 2009 August 10, 2009

The wonderful woman who taught me everything I know about green smoothies, Sara, is at it again!  She has announced the Happy Foody Green Smoothie Challenge.  From August 17 to September 17, we will drink at least 16oz. of green smoothie every day.  There are other healthy habits that you can commit to as well, but I will tell you from experience that you can do everything else the same in your life, drinking a green smoothie will still make a noticeable and wonderful difference!

 

You already know the differences I’ve noticed, but I will tell you again anyway, just to get you motivated for the challenge:

-Clearer, healthier skin.

-Digestive regularity…a previously undervalued quality in my life!  It feels like the good stuff in the green smoothie cleans me out from the inside.  To borrow a phrase I heard on Hannah Montana, of all places, I think a green smoothie is “nature’s broom.”    (Robbie Ray was talking about bran muffins, on Hannah Montana…but bran muffins have nothing on green smoothies!)

-Better sleep.  I don’t know how.

-More energy during the day, less “need” for coffee.

-It must support the immune system, because I very rarely get sick anymore, and only when I’ve lost my green smoothie habit for a couple of weeks.

-Effortless weight loss, when I increase my green smoothie intake to a quart for breakfast and a quart for dinner.  I don’t do this very often because I’m hesitant to eliminate fat and protein from two meals a day.  It doesn’t sound very healthy, even though it feels great.  Maybe I should trust my body, I don’t know.  Still trying to figure that one out.

-Fewer cravings for junk, more cravings for good stuff.  More cravings for more green smoothies.    If only I could find a tasty way to add protein to them, I think I could live on them!  The first time I did the challenge, I absolutely did not commit to cutting out sugar, but a lot of days it happened anyway, without me even thinking about it.

 

My current favorite smoothie recipe:

-1 banana

-about 1/2 cup chopped fresh pinapple, along with a little of the juice

-about 1/2 to 1 cup chopped fresh canteloupe

-about 1 1/2 to 2 cups fresh baby spinach

-water

 

One of the biggest reasons I was hesitant is that washing a blender can be a tedious process, compared to washing a plate and a fork from eating fruit or salad, and seemingly not necessarily worth the smoothie.  First of all, trust me, it is worth it!  Secondly, my blender instructions say that as long as I don’t use dairy in the blender, I don’t have to take it apart to wash it every single time.  When all I do is green smoothies, I usually take it apart about once a week (generally on Saturday morning).  Other mornings I use a three step process:  1) Rinse with warm water, to get all the green smoothie debris out.  2) Fill about half way with warm water, add a tiny drop of dish soap.  Put the lid on and shake vigorously.  3) Rinse the blender and the lid well with warm water.  This process works great if you do it right away.  I usually wash my blender before I even drink my smoothie.

 

If you click on the link to Sara’s post, you can find lots more information, testimonies from others who have done the green smoothie challenge, and a link to a great video of Sara making a green smoothie.  If you’re still a little hesitant about the process, that’s a great video!  You’ll notice she uses a high-powered blender called a Vita-Mix, which I do not.  I just have a regular blender.  She even mentions in the video, regular blenders work just fine, you just have to blend for longer if you want a completely smooth smoothie.  I have found that I have to add a little more water than I would like, to make everything from the top get blended down to the bottom.  After seeing her use her Vita-Mix with the “tamper” tool thingy, I might try using a spoon to carefully push things down that won’t find their way to the bottom on their own.  I’m not going to reccommend it yet, though, as I would imagine a spoon getting dropped into the blender might break either the spoon or the blender, not to mention ruin the smoothie!  Ooh, new idea…what about a wooden spoon, used upside down, so that the handle is pushing the greens down and the spoon part is keeping it from going through the little hole in the top of the blender?  I’ll keep you posted!

 

So…green smoothie challenge?  Who’s in? 

Green Smoothie 101 August 1, 2009

In case you’re curious, and want to see the whole process in action…

 

To make a green smoothie:

Cut up whatever fruit you want and put it in the blender.  Add greens.  Start with a handful or two.  As you get more used to the green smoothies, you will be able to add many, many more handfuls without feeling like your smoothie tastes “green.”  Add water, and a splash of orange juice if you want to sweeten it up a little.  (I used peaches, blueberries, and spinach.)

 

Blend.  Add more water if the stuff on top doesn’t seem to want to swirl down to the bottom of the blender.  Dip a spoon into the smoothie to taste it, if you’re worried, and add more juice if it’s not sweet enough for you, or more water if it tastes too sweet.  (I never do that, I just drink it how it turns out and adjust the next time, if I need to.)

 

Enjoy!

You know, I love berries in my smoothies, but the smoothie turns out much prettier when you “embrace the green,” and just add fruits that won’t add too much color!  Banana, pear, and greens make the prettiest green smoothie.  Blueberries, blackberries…they sort of make it brown, don’t they? 

 

There is definitely a learning curve when it comes to making green smoothies.  It’s just like anything else, practice makes perfect.  You’ll figure out how much water to add, how much greens you can enjoy, etc.  The first green smoothie you make will probably turn out a little strange, and if you try again another day, it will be better, and so on.  The things I’ve learned:  Fresh fruit tastes much better than frozen.  A smoothie with banana feels “creamier,” a smoothie with no banana feels “juicier.”  A splash of orange juice tastes good, more than a splash is too much.  Don’t be afraid to add more water.  A peach always makes it yummy!  And, if you can’t wash your blender right away, for the sake of all that is holy, at least rinse it out! 

This particular batch was meant to be huge, because I was packing some to take with me for the weekend.  So I added a lot more of everything than usual.  Usually, if I stick to two servings of fruit, it makes about two big glasses of smoothie, which is perfect for breakfast.  This smoothie had three peaches and about 1 1/2 cups of blueberries, plus as many greens as I could pack into the top of the blender.  I drank that glass that day, and took three 16-oz bottles with me for the weekend.  On a regular morning, I would probably use one peach and about 1/2 cup of blueberries. 

 

The weekend that I made this batch of smoothies, I participated in my friend’s bachelorette party on Saturday night.  Usually after I drink, I don’t sleep well, and I don’t feel the best the next morning, likely thanks to the horrible night of sleep.  That Saturday night (early Sunday morning) when we got back to the hotel, before I went to sleep I drank one of the green smoothies I had brought.  I immediately felt better, I slept great, and I felt great the next morning.  I can’t speak for green smoothies in general, as I haven’t had an opportunity yet to try this trick again.  But it wouldn’t surprise me if the water, fiber, and other nutrients really helped clear the alcohol from my system.  That’s the magic of the green smoothies!

Helpful Broccoli July 9, 2009

Good news…or is it news?  Eating broccoli daily stops ulcers and cancer, according to an article at Natural News. 

Wait a minute, I’m sorry…am I the only one who has known since I was old enough to distinguish broccoli from chocolate cake that vegetables are good for you?  This is not news, it’s a reminder.

However, there are a couple of reasons I appreciate the article, anyway.  One, it’s good to see scientific research that supports and explains what common sense tells us is good for us.  Two, it is good news…for me.  I’m a broccoli junky.  (Hello, my name is Dawn, and I’m addicted to broccoli…)  I could eat cooked broccoli with a little bit of butter and lemon juice at every meal.  Raw broccoli dipped in ranch or hummus is excellent, too.  I like knowing that something I like to do is good for me!  And three, it’s not spirulina or kelp or goji berries or astaxanthin.  It’s broccoli!  In many of the Natural News articles, the foods are things I’ve never heard of, don’t know what they look like, where to buy them, or how to cook them.  It’s always good to see something regular and familiar described with such high praise of its nutritional value.  If you read too many of those articles, you start to feel like you can’t be healthy just eating regular food.

That brings me to my point…I still like Michael Pollan’s motto: Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.  Each of those three points will increase my health.  Eat food…broccoli is food.  Twinkies are not.  Eggs are food.  Instant breakfast powder is not.  Cherries are food.  Fruit roll-ups are not.  You get the idea.  Not too much…eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re not.  Easier said than done for many people, but if you can do it, and if you’re sticking to the other two ideas, it eliminates the need to count calories or points or grams.  Mostly plants…I think at this point in our human knowledge, it goes without saying that plant-foods are better for us than animal-foods.  Animal products certainly play a role in a healthy diet, but a well balanced diet is mostly plants and some meat, dairy, etc.  The three ideas in Mr. Pollan’s motto really drive home the common sense of good nutrition.  We don’t need spirulina or goji berries to be healthy, although we can certainly include those kinds of things if we want to.  We just need to listen to our common sense about what is food and what is not; what is good for us and what is not; what will make us feel good and what will not.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go cook some broccoli…

Rice Cakes July 1, 2009

I was grocery shopping without a list tonight, just wandering down each aisle to see what I thought I should buy, which is sometimes almost always a bad idea!  Tonight it worked out pretty well.  One of the things I bought that I wouldn’t have thought to put on a list was a package of rice cakes.  Not the little “Quakes,” the bite-size snacks that taste like caramel corn, but the big, round, plain rice cakes.  I had forgotten how much I like them!

I think rice cakes get a bad rap from all sides, and I think it is undeserved.  One side sees rice cakes as “diet food,” to be consumed with grapefruit and cottage cheese, by anorexic girls who are eating 200 calories a day.  The other side says you should not count on rice cakes to be part of a healthy diet, weight-loss-related or not, because they have very little nutritional value, no fiber to speak of, and basically aren’t worth anything.

Like iceberg lettuce.  But that’s another issue. 

Here is what I think about rice cakes…they are tasty!  Crunchy and slightly salty, you can put almost anything on top of them (peanut butter, hummus, cheese, any flavor of cream cheese…not all those things at once, of course!) and it will taste good.  They are light and don’t make you feel too full. 

I also want to argue for the nutritional value of a rice cake.  First of all, the ingredients: “whole grain brown rice, salt.”  No preservatives, no ingredients I can’t pronounce, nothing that doesn’t sound like food.  Just those two simple things.  You’re right, no fiber, according to the package.  However, one rice cake is just 35 calories.  One serving of cooked whole-grain rice, a half cup, is about 100 calories, and only has 1.7 grams of fiber.  One rice cake is equivalent to about one seventh of a serving of rice, or (if my math is correct) about three and a half teaspoons of cooked whole-grain rice.  Therefore, one rice cake should have about 0.24 grams of fiber.

Of course there isn’t any measurable amount of fiber or other nutrients!!!  A quarter of a gram???

Okay, maybe they are like iceberg lettuce, which is just pale green pieces of water.  It absolutely won’t harm me in any way, but it won’t do anything beneficial for me either.  It’s a sandwich filler or a carrier of ranch dressing.    If you ask me, iceberg lettuce shouldn’t really be considered a “serving” of vegetables.  Same thing, I’m pretty sure a rice cake isn’t worth a “serving” of grains.

But, as far as options for putting peanut butter on top of, rice cakes are a pretty good choice.  The crunch and the lightly salted flavor make me feel like I ate something, with fewer calories, fat, and chemicals than a lot of snack foods.

Plus, they taste good! 

Coming Through the Fog June 25, 2009

This is going to sound so strange, but…I went to yoga tonight, for the first time in a few months, and in the middle of a tree pose I realized that I am feeling more like myself than I have in quite some time!  I hadn’t realized I wasn’t! 

 

I’ve had a green smoothie every day since I got back from San Diego.  I just cannot tell you what a difference it makes!  My favorite these days is a peach, an orange, a handfull of blueberries, a couple generous handfuls of spinach, and water. 

Wait, sidenote, do you all know about green smoothies???  I had my first green smoothie in April of 2008.  (No, I don’t know that off the top of my head, I looked back at this post to find out!)  I had learned about them from reading Happy Foody, and I decided to do the 30-day challenge the author, Sara, proposed.  Actually, it was a little bit more of a process than that… 

Step One: Ew, gross!  Who would put greens in a smoothie?

Step Two: Okay, maybe not so gross, but still very weird, and not something I would ever try. 

Step Three:  Yes, I will try a green smoothie, but I certainly couldn’t drink one every day for a month! 

Step Four: How did I ever live without green smoothies??? 

A green smoothie is simple: fruit, greens, and water.  Whatever fruit you want.  Whatever greens you want.  And some of the water can be in the form if ice, if you prefer.  I almost always do spinach for my greens, because it’s easy to find in the store, it really packs a nutritional punch, and it doesn’t make the smoothie taste “plant-y,” as I’ve found some greens can.  I usually do two or three servings of fruit, about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of fresh spinach, and maybe 3/4 cup of water.  Then you just blend and drink!  The fruits I love in my smoothies are peaches and oranges.  As long as I put one or the other, it will turn out well! 

And what a difference!  That quantity of fruit and greens usually makes about a quart of smoothie, which sounds like a lot, but that’s my breakfast for the day.  And I feel great until a mid-morning snack, or sometimes even until lunch.  After a few days in a row of green smoothies, I start to realize it’s easier to wake up in the morning.  I have more energy throughout the day.  Often times I notice fewer cravings for sugar or junk food.  After about a month, I notice my skin is brighter and clearer.  It’s sort of a mysterious feeling of…I didn’t know I didn’t feel good before, but now I know I feel great!  As though I didn’t know what “great” felt like, before.  And the best thing about them, in my opinion, there is no gimmick or “magic cure” whatsoever!  It’s simply fresh fruits and veggies. 

 

But the big reason I am feeling more like myself…I have gotten a workout in almost every day since I got back from San Diego!  My New Years’ resolution, if you recall, was to exercise 200 times in 2009.  I’m at 45, as of tonight.  That’s not great.  But I still intend to make it to 200 by December 31st!  (That’s 155 workouts in 189 days, in case you’re counting!)  My immediate goal is to become so addicted to exercise, to make it so much of a daily habit, that when school starts I won’t give it up.  My long term goals still include the 200 workouts, of course, and also running a 5K in the fall, and my first 10K sometime in 2010. 

I stopped being concerned with those goals at some point.  I know it was influenced greatly by the negativity in my life, especially around February and March.  But, despite the attitudes of the people around me, my healthy choices are my responsibility.  Mostly because, the only body that suffers when I make poor choices is me.  And, the only body that benefits when I make smart choices, is me.  I know what works for me, and I know how I feel when I don’t make such good choices.

 

I was in a fog of negativity, and I didn’t even realize it.  I was stressed, and unhappy, and unhealthy.  When I did try to make healthy choices, they were for the wrong reasons, so they didn’t stick.  Most days I had a very defeated attitude…an attitude predicting failure…an attitude that didn’t feel like me at all.  In the past month, the fog has been steadily lifting.  And everything seems clear again. 

Can I have both FAST and FOOD? May 11, 2009

Can’t…blog…must…sleep…

I don’t feel good!  (whine, whine)

I worked until 4:40, came home and had some food, and did some of the work I brought home, and now I’m just too foggy and lethargic to continue.  And I have a stomach ache.  And I think I might actually be dying of thirst.  This is not how I want to feel!

For a couple of weeks now, I’ve been saying that grocery shopping, cooking, and washing dishes are at the bottom of my priorities during this rush to the end of the school year.  But it’s catching up with me.  I’ve been eating a lot of fast food, junk food, etc., and it must stop!  Despite the fact that things are so busy right now, there is no reason I’m so exhausted at 8:00 p.m.  I’m sure it’s a sign my body is trying to live on simple carbs, trans fats, sugar, cheese, and coffee.

Not that there’s anything wrong with coffee. 

So my new plan…I still need food that is fast, with very little prep time or clean up.  But I need complex carbohydrates, veggies, water, a lot less fat, and for the love of everything good and holy, I need to eat fruit!  So, how about whole grain toaster waffles, peanut butter, and banana for breakfast?  (Oh, yum, I could eat that every day!!!)  And soup, crackers, and yogurt for lunch?  And the part that will get me feeling better quickly…how about a big green smoothie for dinner?  My total dishes to clean up for the day would be a plate, a knife, a couple of glasses, and the blender.  No pots, no pans…no cutting boards…no baked-on anything to scrub…but hopefully a little more energy and fewer stomachaches…

Almond Milk Latte April 27, 2009

My new favorite way to make coffee in the morning is with almond milk.  I fill my travel mug about 2/3 full of coffee, fill it the rest of the way up with vanilla almond milk, and add some sugar or agave nectar to sweeten it.  The almond milk gives it a rich, slightly nutty flavor.  So good!

Isn’t this a cute picture?  I found it on Google Images.  I wonder where you can get a latte with a pretty foam design on top!

Lunch Salad April 13, 2009

I made a yummy spring lunch for myself today:  Green salad with grated carrots, tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, and balsamic vinegrette, with radishes and cottage cheese on the side.  And, of course, my iced caramel macchiato!

I’ve seen other bloggers post pictures of particularly yummy or pretty foods, and I like it, so I think you can expect more of this!  I’m enjoying my digital camera, that’s for sure! 

Oh, Dear… March 8, 2009

“Oh, dear.”

Not panicked, not disappointed or frustrated, not lowering of the self-esteem.

Just a calm, informative, “Oh, dear.”  That was the one thought that came to mind as I tried on the dress I will be wearing for my friend’s wedding in April.  Just one month away.  The zipper wouldn’t zip quite all the way up.  Oh, dear.

Do you want to know how fast this happens?  It’s been Lent for about two weeks now.  I have given up coffee, and as a result, I’m snacky and munchy all day long!  A chocolate craving is more like a 300-pound guy with a gun to my head.  If someone physically dragged me away from a plate of treats, I’m sure I would actually be kicking and screaming.  Is this what the caffeine was keeping at bay???

Three weeks ago, a dress fits just fine.  In a few short days, it’s three inches of zipper away from fitting just fine.  (To the bride, if you’re reading this…DON’T WORRY!  Even if this is how it’s going to be, if someone else were to help me zip it up, we could make it work.  I’ll hold my breath until after the ceremony!)

However…THIS IS NOT HOW IT’S GOING TO BE!  Want to know why?  I forgot about green smoothies!  When the weather turned colder, I stopped having them.  I wanted something warm to drink in the morning (after my beloved ice water, anyway…the irony of it all…), so I made coffee instead of smoothies.  I forgot how drinking some raw fruit and greens gives me energy and reduces cravings.  It sets me on a momentum of that healthy, not-hungry-but-not-stuffed feeling that I want to keep going for the rest of the day.  Thanks to the nutrients and fiber, extra weight falls off effortlessly, depending on your exercise habits and the rest of your diet, anyway.

Green smoothies are SO HEALTHY!  Real food, whole food, raw food, fruits and vegetables for crying out loud!  I’m pretty sure you could eat mostly green smoothies and be okay, health-wise.  Add an avocado or some peanut butter and you’ve even got healthy fat!  But, don’t worry, I am not committing to eating nothing but green smoothies until the wedding!  I am reminding myself of how healthy, yummy, easy, and wonderful they are.  I’m buying the ingredients and considering working my way up to two or maybe three green smoothies a day–not in place of all my meals, but certainly in place of sweets and junk!  I’ll make sure to have some grains, fat, and protein as well!  And if I eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, a reasonable amount of fat, grains, and protein, and very little junk…  Well, then if I’m still the same size, I’ll squeeze into the dress and know that this is the healthy weight for me!  But if I’ve lost a few pounds, it will be because my body was storing resources it doesn’t need, thanks to the gun-to-my-head cravings and the mid-morning, no-coffee munchies!

   BRING ON THE GREEN SMOOTHIES!!! 

(Okay, it’s not green, but there are greens in it…if you add blueberries it turns out purple…isn’t it pretty???)

(Ooh, I’m starting to feel so good, just looking at the pictures and googling for recipe ideas!  Kiwi, pear, banana, blueberry, raspberry, peach…how about peanut butter and banana?…ooh, lemons and apples?…TO THE GROCERY STORE!)