Eat Better, Live Better

With this year's complete bypass of Spring, jumping from Winter to Summer in two very confusing weeks, I started to clean out my closet. I put my winter clothes away and broke out my summer garments. This also came with the concrete evidence of the 30 plus disgusting pounds that I have put on over the past year. Whenever I bring this figure up, people claim, "yeah right, where are you putting it?" Well I have been "putting it" into fat jeans, sweatpants and baggy old man sweaters (which are still awesome, fat or skinny!) But with this weather, those disguises are no longer feasible.  My weight gain is incredibly noticeable when trying to squeeze my fat ass into shorts and t-shirts. For this reason I have tried to start dieting, eating better and getting more exercise.

Last week I tried to do a green smoothie cleanse, to kick start the spring clean up of my eating habits.  This lasted one day. By the end of it I was starving, and seriously, that is not the way I wanted to go. Evidently I love food, and I like eating. So starving myself is not going to happen.
Since then I have replaced two meals with green super-smoothies, and kept one real meal.  All the while snacking on healthy things like celery, cucumber and carrots, and my favourite, Grapefruit (without adding extra sugar! Go me). In one short week, I am still fat, don’t get me wrong, but the shorts that would not even do up when I first brought them out of the summer clothes box, actually do up.  Yes, I have a muffin top, and a noticeable spare tire... but MY SHORTS DO UP! That is a very good achievement for me, and a good step this summer, and reassurance about this diet I am putting myself on.

I have come up with a few great smoothie recipes and tips the past week. Before I would never put greens in my smoothies. There was something about green beverages (not including margaritas, or absinthe) that completely disgusted me.  However, as I have learned, it is just a colour, and nothing more.  The smoothie always takes on the taste of the fresh fruit you put into it. Mostly bananas. You can have a smoothie comprise of nothing but greens: lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, celery, and if you add two bananas in, that is all you are going to taste. It turns out, I really like green smoothies, and I am getting so much more nutritionally from them. 

These are the things I have found work, (and don’t work) in smoothies.

Swiss Chard- My favourite Green to put into a smoothie

Swiss chard is high in fiber and protein, antioxidants, vitamins K, C and A.

Carrots-        Carrots are great for your eyes, they are high vitamin A, which is also good for your skin, and full of Antioxidants that help battle the ongoing war with the prospect of getting cancer. 

Avocado-     Avocados are super high in fat, but a good fat, so a little goes a long way! Avocados also have fibre, are good for your eyes, heart and (for women) your uterus!

Spinach-       I love spinach on anything, and that includes blended smooth in a delicious beverage meal! Spinach is high in fibre, vitamin A, E, C, K- pretty much the whole vitamin Alphabet! Not to mention it is delish.

Dragon Fruit- I put dragon fruit in all of my smoothies. It has a very mild, but sweet flavour, and is a super-duper-food. It is high in fibre, is a low calorie food, high in vitamin C, and the B vitamins, and helps keep your heart in tip top shape. It controls cholesterol and is full of calcium, and packed with antioxidants. It also can help prevent prostate cancer.

Kale-            I HATE kale. In my smoothies. Maybe I didn’t do it right, but this did not blend well and I had to strain my smoothie because it was unbearable. It also tasted gross. But I had to choke it down. Kale is a super food though. I don’t want to cut it out of my life. Kale is high in fibre, vitamin K, C, and calcium, and is a great detox food. I made Kale chips today, and they are actually not terrible! (I drizzled them with oil, and tossed them with chia seeds, a little bit of sea salt, ground flax and chili pepper… so they are topped with nutrition!)

Those are my favourite, and 1 not-so-fav things to put in smoothies. In addition to berries, apples, pears, mangos, melon, bananas etc. All together they are a powerfully nutritious and delicious meal replacement. They are also pretty filling. I think it is because you take your time drinking a smoothie. It takes me about a half hour to finish off my smoothie. And in between sips, I am constantly drinking water. If I am hungry after I am done, I can always have more.  Or I have cut up vegetables with hummus, a grapefruit, and/or a low fat yogurt. Talking about it now, it is easy to see how my shorts did up after only a week of this.  This encourages me to continue this system for the summer!  

I will continue with updates on how my de-fatting is going. My goal is to lose about 1-2 pounds a week. So by the end of the summer I should be at my target weight.


-D