Change it up??… Again???

As my first juice fast comes to a close I am thinking more and more about whether 2 green smoothies a day is really working for me.  The way my day usually goes is a little bit sad. I have my 32 oz green smoothie for breakfast, another for lunch, get hungry and grab snacks in the afternoon and then felt that I was deprived of normal food all day long so I eat more than one helping of supper.

This is not how I wanted this Green Smoothie Experiment to go. I have gotten positive things from it. Most days my back feels better than it used to. My hand had been feeling sometimes numb, often swollen and usually so painful that I couldn’t touch my fingers to my palm and holding a pen also caused me pain. That hand pain, swelling, numbness – totally gone. Has not returned since the first week I started with green smoothies. I also haven’t had any blood sugar trouble (hypoglycemia) since I started – except for one day when I ate too many carbs and no green smoothies. I think overall my hypoglycemia is maybe becoming kind of inactive??

In addition to those physical things I do believe that I am doing something good for me. Making a healthy choice. I mean, essentially I am eating two RAW meals when I have only green smoothies. The real question here is – how long can I do this?

I think when we set out on a journey we really go for it and give it our all – until we realize how hard the journey itself really is. Well, that’s me right now. I see that this is really difficult. Part of the reason, I believe, is that it’s difficult to eat only smoothies all day long. And I knew that from the beginning. Maybe it wouldn’t be so hard if I did it some days and not every day. But I have increasingly been finding myself doing 3 day green smoothie detoxes and now the 3 day juice fast. And while these things undoubtedly help me cleanse my body of toxins (namely from living over half my life on prescription meds) they also help me lose weight. Unfortunately, I end up gaining back 2 or 3 pounds the following week.

The truth of the matter is that I cannot spend the rest of my life doing detoxes and cleanses. I know that some people on a totally raw diet will do long fasts (juice fast, greensmoothie fast, water fast, etc) – but that is often when they no longer have weight to lose and they are simply doing it for cleansing purposes. At this point in my life  – I am not ready for that kind of commitment.

And yet, I really want to keep up with the green smoothies. So, I am trying to figure out how to make green smoothies work to my advantage. When I lost 45 pounds before my pregnancy I was just eating small meals and working out 5 times a week. Nothing crazy or fancy or complicated. I started to think about what would happen if I went back to that – except my breakfast would still remain a green smoothie. That way I would have some kind of small lunch and by supper time I wouldn’t feel deprived of normal food so I would be able to resist the urge for more food at my meal.

Potential plan –

Breakfast – 32 oz green smoothie

Lunch – something small – preferably at least half “raw” – still looking at raw recipes…

Supper – normal supper with family, take it easy on the carbs, provide more veggies for the fam

Snacks – either non-existant or small and preportioned so I don’t go overboard

Like I said, I have just been thinking about it. Nothing had been decided yet… I could also do an “every other day” type plan. One day breakfast and lunch are smoothies, the next day only breakfast… Maybe you can tell that I am trying desperately to make this smoothie plan work. I know they have health benefits and I don’t want to give it up. I just need to do what’s best for me.

Still thinking…

Juice Fast…

I have really been struggling with this whole losing weight thing. I mean, if I cut out all fast food, junk food, carbonated beverages and go from 3-4 Starbucks drinks a week (usually with some kind of coffee cake or yummy bar on the side) to 1 every 2 weeks – you would think I would lose weight, right? Well, not so. I have hardly eaten dinner with  my family in the last month because it seems as though I am always doing 3 smoothies a day. In reality, I am not ALWAYS doing 3 green smoothie meals a day, but it’s so often that I am missing eating supper with the fam.

Hannah Keeley, author, tv show hostess and mom extraordinaire, says that we can’t just WANT things – we have to EXPECT it. It truly does come down to the power of positive thinking in this case. I was talking to my friend about this and she said, “If you need groceries you aren’t just going to sit there and WISH the groceries were there. You are going to take action and go out and get those groceries! The things you really want – you need to EXPECT them to happen. That’s what will send you into action.” I am not sure if my friend made up this example herself or if she got this from Hannah’s materials or website. And, just a little plug for Hannah Keeley because I really like her advice and help – she does have a tv show called, “Hannah Help Me” and you can check out videos of past shows and lots of her helpful into. She is especially helpful to overwhelmed moms. Check out www.hannahkeeley.com.

Anyway, I have been thinking more about the whole attitude thing. As much as I wanted to make this experiment work, I am beginning to wonder if this green smoothie thing is really what will help me lose weight. I have now added in workouts – about 5 times a week. I ran that one day last week but then our little 60 degree heat wave ended and it cold and icy and even snowy again. I can’t do Bally’s cuz my beautiful baby boy won’t stay in the childcare without howling for Momma… so I am restricted to what I can do at home. I do have another option which is to get to the gym late at night after hubby gets home from work, we eat dinner and clean up from dinner and put baby to bed. That would put me at the gym at 8 or 9. By then, I am usually to tired to workout. So, the past few days I have done my Winsor Pilates video 4 times and a Zumba video once (WITH my hubby which was both cute and funny).  I am starting small and working my way up.

This week, however, I am choosing to just do the 20 minute Pilates DVDs because I am doing a juice fast. I don’t exactly what I am expecting from the juice fast (although, in the spirit of EXPECTATION I probably should know what I expect! lol). I do have some idea though. I expect that this juice fast will cleanse my colon and digestive track to some degreen. I also expect that toxins from food, medications, possibly even heavy metals will be cleansed out as well. I expect that I will lose some weight, though I cannot expect a specific number because I cannot control what my body will do. However, I do expect that at the end of this week (fast ends friday night) I will have lost about 7 pounds.

From everything I read, it’s a good thing to prepare your body for a fast by eating less and eating more raw and less cooked. So, I planned to do two days of only green smoothies. On the second day I chose to eat supper with my family because I figured it might give me some energy for the next three days.

Yesterday morning I started the juice fast. Here is the plan.

Wake up – drink 16 oz of organic prune juice

30 minutes later – 8 oz water

30 minutes later – 8 oz organic apple juice (not from concentrate, unfiltered, preferably freshly juiced)

every 30 minutes alternate water and apple juice until 8 pm where you drink only water until bed

I did have some “gastrointestinal” effects from the prune juice, hence the reason I only did a 20 minute Pilates workout and not anything more tasking on the body. I also continued to have some crazy stomach and intestinal gurgling the entire day – even right before bed. Only lost a pound from yesterday until today, but maybe that’s just a late effect from having dinner (oops – and half of a soft pretzel and two granola bars) that last day before the juice fast began.  I EXPECT to seem a couple pound drop tomorrow morning. The fast technically ends Friday night and Saturday morning I will go back to smoothies and regular food.

I went to www.sparkpeople.com where I am a member. I went onto their sister website www.sparkrecipes.com and plugged in all the ingredients for my homemade granola bars to see what the calories would be for one granola bar. Oh… my….. 309 calories for just one granola bar! I mean, they are super dense compared to store bought granola bars but that’s way more than I expected. What about all those days when I ate maybe 3 or 4 of them and couldn’t figure out why I gained weight?? Well, 900 calories in granola bars will do that to ya, I guess! I also looked at the calories on sunflower seeds – 180 for 1/4 cup. Ummm. I don’t measure it out but I think I probably eat 1/2 cup or more at a time. Sheesh. There’s another almost 400 calories there! So, on Saturday when I get back to my green smoothies and regular food I will really have to plan out my food. By not planning and not knowing I think I have been sabotaging myself. And let’s be honest – even without knowing the calories in my granola bars – I knew that more than one a day was a no-no. I allowed myself to give in to my food desires. I need to work on self-control – that much I do know. The rest… I am just trying to figure it all out as I go.

So, before I get all drastic and decide that this green smoothie thing isn’t working for me, I need to really give it 100%.  Have I made big changes already – absolutely! But I have replaced some of those bad things with other bad things (such as cutting out Starbucks and bringing in granola bars!). Before I go in a different direction completely I need to see how my body can do with the simplicity of a green smoothie for breakfast, one for lunch and a small supper with my family. That was what I set out to do in the first place. Now let’s see if I can do it!

I heard this somewhere and I told my daughter this same thing. “It’s not a matter of what you CAN’T eat. It’s what you SHOULD eat. What’s best for your body.” I told her not to think of all the foods she shouldn’t eat. When she opens the fridge for a snack she should ask herself, “What would be best for my body right now.”

If we always asked ourselves that question this world would be a healthier place…

Run for Your Life

 

 

Or maybe I’ll just run for mine. Yesterday I talked about my second 3 day detox. I was really struggling and so I allowed myself to be talked into just eating a normal supper yesterday. It was my third day and I told myself that one meal really wouldn’t make a difference on the scale. Apparently I was wrong. I lost three pounds after the first day, which was awesome. Lost 1.8 pounds the second day. But I struggled with that internal voice telling me that I didn’t do it perfectly this time… and then we got home from track practice at 8 pm and soup in the slow cooker smelled so good… so I figured split pea soup with lots of veggies and a medium sized portion of ham didn’t sound unhealthy. If anything it sounded healthy since there was no addition of rice, potatoes, noodles, etc. I had one bowl and one small piece of garlic bread that I made from some rolls sliced with a small amount of butter on them. After 3 days of only drinking smoothies I was still hungry so I went for a second bowl… and a second piece of garlic bread.

Oh, if only that was where it ended. A couple hours later I was hungry again. Or at least I thought I was… maybe I just wanted to eat something. I took out the leftover pesto pasta and tilapia. I ate one filet and just maybe 4 or 5 pieces of  bowtie pasta. Did I mention the two granola bars I ate at different parts of the evening?

Oy vey… It all went downhill so fast, as it usually does. When I stepped on the scale this morning – right back to yesterday’s weight! Up 2 pounds just because of 2 granola bars? And two helpings of soup? And an extra meal after supper? Okay, fine. When I add it all up I suppose it turns out to be a high calorie day. I figured maybe in the area of 1,700 for the whole day. But a 2 pound gain over night? I can understand not losing – but a gain?

Okay. My little rant is out of my system.

So once I saw that I decided, once and for all, that I won’t be able to lose weight and maintain that loss unless there is exercise involved. Many people lose weight without exercising and I hoped that I could maybe lose 50 pounds or something and then incorporate exercise when my baby was a little older and would go into the Bally’s childcare without crying for me. Apparently that just won’t be an option for me.

Thankfully, my wonderful hubby allowed me to buy an AWESOME jogging stroller when the babe was just a few months old. I have the Cadillac of jogging stollers – the BOB Revolution. Amazing over cement, grass, gravel and I even used it at the beach! Fantastic shocks and it turns on a dime! I love it. Last year I didn’t use it as much as I wanted to. Before I got pregnant I was jogging and working my way up to running. I had just completed my first 5K and I was looking forward to doing even better on my second. Lack of energy stopped me dead in my tracks and I stopped working out at all through my pregnancy. I had high hopes to work out with the stroller but I had a c-section and was restricted from running until he was 2 months old… then it was so hot in the summer… then I thought maybe the fall was too cold… winter was definitely too cold and snowy and icy… and now it’s spring again.

This is my season. There is no way I am going to keep the weight off and keep my metabolism burnin’ strong unless I incorporate exercise and therefore – BOB is my friend! I will take my BOB stroller to the park and jog or walk or whatever it takes. Eventually I do want to run, but I think I need to work my way up to that. Right now I am doing jogging/walking intervals. What’s great about this is that the park is a few blocks from my house and has a great jogging path. The park is so small that I can jog with the baby and my older kiddos can play on the swings and such because I can see them from the entire trail.

One of my favorite books, Never Say Diet by Chantel Hobbs, talks about working about 5 times a week. Before I got pregnant I worked out 5 times a week every single week from beginning of March to beginning of August – I never missed a day. When pregnancy exhaustion took over I felt like such a failure. My motto was “No Excuses!” and even when I was sick or on vacation or whatever, I worked out. Once I didn’t work out because I had fever and chills and so I made up for it on Saturday. That’s how dedicated I was. Where is that girl? She got lost a while back I think. But I would love for her to return to me.

So, with the help of BOB, I think I will run for my life.  I also read somewhere that it’s very beneficial to women with PCOS (which I believe I have) to do lots of strength training. I finally got my Pilates video back that I lended a friend 3 or 4 years ago and I am excited that I tracked it down. That is something that I can do while my son is napping. I just need to take control of this situation. I need to be that strong girl who has “No Excuses!” If I don’t do it, who will?

OCD Much??

I admit, I have some obsessive compulsive tendencies. Maybe it’s because I hardly ever follow through on anything I start. Hmm… maybe it’s BECAUSE of the OCD tendencies that I never finish what I start. Well, no matter which came first, the result is the same. Strange bouts of perfectionism. If I can’t complete it perfectly I either don’t start it in the first place or I give up with some strange excuse as to why I couldn’t finish. Usually though, I choose not starting at all.

Well, OCD has gotten me in trouble again. I am on my second 3 day detox right now. Today is my last day. I have strange dreams of going 4 or 5 days or (dare I say it) even a whole week just doing green smoothies and no other food. I think at this point going that long would be more a test of my will than anything else. Anyway, the perfectionism wants to kick in.

I was so proud of saying that I didn’t eat anything other than smoothies on my 3 day detox the first time. Yes, that was a great accomplishment for me. All raw diet. Wow. But now that I am doing my second detox I expected myself to be as perfect as the first and it’s just not happening. I am disappointed in myself. Yesterday I made a dinner of cornmeal crusted tilapia and pasta with pesto and kalamata olives and feta cheese for my family… first time I made it. I ended up eating a couple of olives and a couple bites of fish. I had never tasted it and wanted to see if I would make it again. And then I felt badly. Today I made granola bars and changed up my recipe so when they were done I had two small bites of one bar – gave the rest to my kiddos. And then I felt badly about that too. I even had some guilt over the senna tea that I drank last night (for regularity if you don’t know what senna is) because I put a teaspoon of organic cane sugar in it. So, over the past couple of days I had 2 olives, 2 bites of fish, 2 bites of a homemade granola bar and a cup of tea… and I feel guilty.

Honestly? Maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on myself. Maybe I should just think about all the GOOD I am doing for my body by replacing all 3 meals with green smoothies. I don’t know… sometimes when I am NOT hard on myself that is when it all falls apart.

Why can’t I be one of those “happy medium” kind of people? Instead, I am a person of extremes. It seems that it’s not good enough if it’s not 100%. As one of my friends says, “Go big or go home”.  I kind of feel like that is my motto for life.

All this thinking really… leaves me thinking some more…

A Rainbow of Green Smoothies

Green smoothies aren’t always green! If you make them and try to vary it, you already know this. Kinda crazy how many of my green smoothies aren’t really green at all. Most of them, actually. This pic of my older kiddos shows this perfectly. I used red chard, which usually has green leaves with red veins running through them. This bunch had leaves that were almost totally red. I added lots of strawberries to the batch also, making the final product a medium brownish pink.

 

Stoppin’ for a quick break from school to drink smoothies…

The girl says, “They’re very yummy! Green smoothies rule!”

The boy says, “Even our dog likes green smoothies! Go green!”

 

 

 

Some are a definite green. Those are honestly my favorite. I know in my head that it doesn’t matter what color they are, but a nice bright green makes me feel happy and energized. Usually a good way to get a nice bright green is to use spinach (though the more you use the darker it will be) and something light like celery. Celery will give it a fresh taste and if you look at the nutrients it’s probably more nutritious than you think. Then you can add light fruits such as banana, mango and pineapple (today I added a mandarin orange – no skin because I don’t have my Vitamix yet – and that was a yummy addition). You will end up with a nice light green.

 

 

This smoothie was my breakfast. Not as light and bright as I would have liked, but I used red chard in it so that gave it a little bit of a brownish tint. Tasted good though!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The green smoothie rainbow… dark brown, light brown, brownish pink, dark pink, brownish purple, dark brownish green, light brownish green, medium green, olive green, bright green, light green… ah yes, a rainbow of flavors…

 

 

 

 

I’m making this pic small because, unfortunately, the smoothie looks better than I do! Haha!! This one turned out a strange brownish pinkish orangy color. It’s my lunch. Hope it tastes good! I will be having yet another smoothie for supper as well because… yes, I am doing the 3 day detox again. I’ve had some trouble losing since my last detox. I actually gained 3 pounds. Crazy how that happens so fast. But I started yesterday and lost those 3 pounds already so today and tomorrow will just be extra loss. Starting to wonder if maybe I will need to do a 3 day all-smoothie plan every week or every other week.  It’s all kind of trial and error at this point…

Downward Spiral

Maybe not every day is meant to be a good day. Maybe we just have to take our lumps and that makes us better people. I don’t know. What I do know is – my workout was only 4 minutes yesterday. I planned to run at Bally’s as soon as my hubby got home from work and could take the kiddos off my hands but that didn’t work out either.  He got home at 8:30 or 9 and I felt bad leaving him after that long day… and somehow my food was a huge issue for me yesterday too. I make homemade granola bars. Hubby likes them in his lunches and I plan to use them for energy bars when my 2 olders have track practice and meets. Unfortunately for me, I really like the granola bars. I had three yesterday… or was it four?? They weren’t all at once, mind you. I had two shortly after making them. I skipped my morning smoothie to compensate for the calories. Then later on (around 4 pm) I was really hungry. Eating only granola bars will do that to ya… I grabbed one on the way out the door to go shopping. Then we had pizza. We are trying to be smart with our money. We used to spend quite a bit going out each week and now I have limited it to $20. We get to spend $10 on friday night and save the other $10. At the end of the month we get to go out for one nice meal with the money we saved. That way we really look forward to it as a special thing. Anyway, since friday is what we lovingly call “pizza fridays” we did get pizza. I used to eat 4 pieces. Lately I have only been eating two. Last night I was starving and had 3 instead. Then I felt “snacky” later and had that last granola bar. Yikes! Then I felt guilty. I hadn’t had any fruit or veggies the whole day. Well, unless you count the dried cranberries in the granola bars or the tomato sauce on the pizza! I made myself a late night green smoothie. Not quite a quart, but maybe 2/3. I chugged it, had a cup of tea and went to bed.

All in all, between really WANTING to get on the treadmill and not being able to and making bad food choices… yeah, not a stellar day. But, I am pleased that I am less than a pound up. At least I didn’t gain 3 pounds over night. I am convinced that once you put a bite of any carbs (other than fruit) in your mouth you cannot stop! I read in a book (Green Smoothies Diet??) that sugar is the most addictive substance there is. They say sugar is more addictive than crack. It doesn’t quite have the same immediate effects, but I am beginning to wonder if a sugar addiction will be the slow killer, rather than quick like a drug overdose. Sugar does feel like a drug. One day I took one small gummy worm. I told myself that would be it. But I couldn’t stop. I ate 4 or 5 more. And some crackers. Then a granola bar. It was crazy how fast it gets out of hand. It’s the processed and refined stuff that’s the worst but truly anything, even brown rice, wheat pasta, whole grain bread, etc will do it for you too. Maybe not to the same degree, but it’s all bad. I don’t mean to say it’s bad for everyone. I know that there are good carbs out there. Some people just need to watch it more than others.
Maybe some people don’t have it bad like I do. I think that I have a Candida problem – overgrowth of yeast in my body. It really can control a person. Candida thrives on sugar and any kind of carb that turns to sugar. Fruit isn’t too bad because it’s natural sugar and metabolizes differently, but there is still reason for caution there. I hope that as I continue to detox my body, do cleanses, eat healthy, exercise, and lose weight that this carb/sugar thing will no longer have a hold on me.

I am thinking about doing another 3 day detox soon. I am a member on SparkPeople.com and I started a group there called Green Smoothie Lovers. I put a challenge out to my team (who is very small – only 16 members right now, but it’s a new group) to do a 3 day detox with me. Not sure if I will get any takers. I don’t know… doesn’t seem that there are very many adventurous people out there. I am willing to do odd, crazy, new, different and drastic things for my health. And even if it doesn’t work – I chalk it up to a new experience. So why aren’t there other adventurous people… I wonder if I posted a challenge here if anyone would join me…

Yesterday I allowed my day to quickly spiral out of hand… today will be a better day. I just need to take it one day at a time…

Oh Baby!!!

 

Yes, that’s my adorable baby. Today my adorable baby let me have a fabulous 4 minute workout. No, that’s not a typo. A four minute workout. Haha… He’s precious, alright, but sometimes he gets in a “Mommy, Mommy, Mommy” kind of mood and there’s no changing it. Right now, he’s teething and a crabby boy. I should have known better than to take him to the Kids’ Club at Bally’s. He likes the Go, Diego, Go movies so I thought if the childcare lady, Lisa, put that on then he would be okay. I was just finished with a quick two minute brisk walk on the treadmill and just speeding it up to start jogging when… I was paged through the intercom. Okay. Last time it was to change a diaper so I was hoping that was it. Nope. He just didn’t want to be in there. But as I approached the door he had quieted down so Lisa waved me away before the babe saw me. I jumped back on the treadmill and right into a fast jog. Going on 2 minutes… feeling good…. and I was paged again.

Four minutes??? Oh, baby… you sometimes make life rough, but you are well worth it.

Fingers Crossed??

 

… or maybe not. Crossing my fingers probably won’t give me anything but sore fingers since I don’t believe in luck. So, I guess I will just say that I hope that science is on my side.

I’ve been faithfully (well, usually) following my green smoothie regimen. I had a whole week (from Wednesday to Wednesday) where I  didn’t gain or lose. A small loss would have at least made me feel like it wasn’t a waste of a week. Now, I recently saw on Dr. Oz (and I have also read it before on various websites) that if you are constantly low-cal then your body gets in a rut. Your food and your calorie intake get predictable. Well, I’d say two quarts of green smoothie every single day is predictable.

So yesterday when my friend Christina asked me if I wanted to get dinner at Olive Garden I decided to make it a splure day and go. I have not eaten out in probably a month (though we do get $5 pizzas on friday night). At first I was scouring the internet, looking for my best low-calorie, low-fat, low carb option… and probably way low on taste. I found some options, but honestly, none of them sounded very good compared to my favorite, Beef Gorgonzola Alfredo Pasta. I thought about it. It was just one meal! I was stressing my brain out just thinking about it. I changed my game plan. Eat a normal meal, don’t overdo it, enjoy every bite and HOPE that having one high calorie day will work in my favor.

I had two smallish servings of the salad (fortunately for me the waiter really skimped on the dressing so it was dryer than usual). I also had one breadstick – only one! I am ashamed to admit how many I usually have but let’s just say it could maybe possibly rhyme with “pour or hive”. haha… Anyway, I did order my favorite pasta meal, though I ordered it with whole wheat pasta (which I didn’t realize was an option until I read it online yesteray) and I ate all the meat but only about 2/3 of the pasta. I meant to take the rest home for my hubby, but forgot the box on the table. I figured while I was splurging I would get dessert too and they have these semi-new Dolcini cups. Very small desserts. I would guess there are only about 4 tablespoons worth of dessert in it, but it was yummy and just enough to cure my craving for tiramisu. We sat and talked for a while waiting for the check and then for our waiter to come back and take it (yeah, probably like 45 minutes – he wasn’t very attentive to say the least). We decided to get coffee but didn’t want to pay for their overpriced cappucino when I personally like Starbucks better so we went to Starbucks instead. Got a chance to sit there in comfy chairs while some nice quiet jazz played in the background. I got a tall mocha for those of you that don’t know Starbucks lingo – a tall is actually their small). I was totally satisfied. Can’t remember the last time a tall was good enough for me. I used to ALWAYS get a venti (large).

In summary…

 

HAD                                                               USED TO HAVE

 

no appetizer                                                                  split an appetizer

2 small servings of salad                                                2-3 servings of salad (or 2 bowls of soup)

1 breadstick                                                                  an alarming amount of breadsticks

2 glasses of water                                                          2-3 glasses of sweetened iced tea

2/3 of Steak pasta with wheat pasta                                full meal of Steak Gorgonzola with regular pasta and extra cheese on top

1 mini-dessert                                                               full sized dessert (possibly split if I was too full by then)

tall Starbucks mocha                                                       venti Starbucks mocha

I consider dinner yesterday a success. And, as I stated previously, hopefully it will just encourage my metabolism in a positive way because of the switch up.

There is something else I wanted to address. I had a few days where I was running out of smoothie supplies and/or just didn’t have the stick-to-it-iveness to have two smoothies a day. I ALWAYS have the breakfast smoothie. But there are occasional days when I snitch some other food around lunch time – often that leads to me not being able to stop so it doesn’t happen much because I know myself. Last week I had a few days that weren’t so great… I don’t know whether they contributed to my lack of weight loss or not. It’s not like I gorged myself or ate fast food or anything like that. Just a few crackers here, a tablespoon (or a few) of peanut butter there (yes, it’s a weakness of mine) or a granola bar… Probably about the amount of a meal-worth of calories. Now, whether or not it contributed to lack of weight loss – I want to talk about another topic – side effects.

A few days ago I started to notice that my back hurt again and I wasn’t waking up early – or spunky- anymore. I didn’t realize it until one day when I was in a lot of pain in the morning. I had forgotten to mention this in an earlier blog but, in addition to my hair being smoothier and shinier, I was also losing ALOT less hair in the shower. I used to leave the shower with a hairball to throw away. But, after drinking all those green smoothies, I was only losing a few pieces of hair each time I washed it. It was great! Then a couple days ago I noticed I was losing more hair again.

Could this all be coincidence? More green smoothies, more energy, bounce out of bed, no pain, better and stronger hair… Less green smoothies, pain comes back, lack of energy, drag out of bed, losing more hair… I tend to think it’s not a coincidence, personally.

How do the green smoothie gurus do it? How to they continue to have so much green smoothie a day? Or maybe I just assume they do. I know that GreenSmoothieGirl (Robyn Openshaw) encouraged a quart a day – I think that’s what she has for breakfast. So maybe the rest of the time she is just eating mostly raw. That would be easier for me, honestly. If I had more variety. Don’t get me wrong – I am not giving up. I am going to keep going. It just gets a little tedious when 2/3 of your meals are green goo from a jar.

Keep me strong, God, I sure need it right now….

Rollercoaster

Sometimes the scale is not my friend. Right now I don’t know what to think of it. I suppose weight gain isn’t really the scale’s fault. Over the past few days it’s been rough going. Not terrible. Just not really encouraging. I gained a couple of pounds back after coming off of my 3 day detox. That’s disappointing, though I am glad it wasn’t more than two pounds. One pound gain one day, one pound the next, same weight the next day, same the next, lost a pound this morning…. ugh… Gotta get back to a consistancy of those numbers going down! I am not depressed about it or anything. I am happy that right now I am less than a pound up from my low weight after the detox. It could be worse.  But even still, I feel as though Wednesday through Saturday were all wasted. That’s precious time that I could have spent LOSING weight instead of gaining or maintaining. My hubby is quick to remind me that not every day, or even every week, will be a loss. Sometimes we have bad weeks. Well I don’t want to! Why? Why do there have to be bad weeks? Isn’t it possible that every week would be a good week – with at least some small loss??

I need to figure out what really makes this body tick. I am not really eating any snacks, so I don’t think that is to blame for gain or lack of loss. If I do have a snack it’s in the afternoon and it’s usually a clementine orange or some red pepper strips with a little bit of hummus. This nutrition is so far away from what I used to do. And I had figured out how to lose weight eating normal food. I had just never really stuck with that plan.

So why, if I am eating green smoothies all day and hardly any snacks, am I still having a hard time losing?? The only thing I can think of is my one meal a day. I suppose the culprit could be portion size. I mean, I am trying to mostly make things like stews, soups and meals where the carb (aka rice, pasta, bread) can be served seperate from the other foods. That way I can take just a small serving of that and more meat and veggies. I don’t know… After having only smoothies all day long I am hungry! So yes, I do often have seconds, I won’t deny it. Mostly I skip seconds on carbs. I do have a weakness for bread with soup. Wow, that sounds good right now.

I was talking to my mom about fasting. Why some people choose to fast once a week or once a month. Some people do it for their faith. To become closer to God and take the time that would have otherwise been spent preparing and eating food – and use it to focus on their relationship with God. And then there are those who fast for health reasons. It’s kind of their day to get their body on track. Well, right now I am not going to label any specific day as “fasting day” or “detox day”. I think I will just do it when I think I need it. And maybe down the road, when I can totally control my portions on all food, then I won’t need detox days anymore.

That said, after being disappointed in my lack of progress from Wednesday through Saturday, I plan to have today as another smoothie “detox day”. If I can handle it, I will do it tomorrow as well. Last time I did the detox I didn’t cheat – even once – but I did have a really hard time with it for lack of ripe bananas. Sorry, but green bananas just do not make a good smoothie. Ugh. I shudder to think…

So, today is smoothie detox day. Tomorrow might be. And if this is what I have to do to keep making progress, then it’s what I have to do. And I’ll just keep on keepin’ on…

” The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. ”  John 10:10

Detox Results and Tropical Smoothies

My 3 day detox is finally done, though it doesn’t really feel like it because I have smoothies for breakfast and lunch every day. When I eat supper tonight THEN it will feel like my detox is done.  I lost 7 pounds from the detox which brings my 2 week total to 14 pounds. I could not be happier. I know some people report up to 10 or 12 pounds but 7 is great for me. Yeehaw!!!

Which brings me to my next topic – a tropical smoothie recipe. The last couple of days I have had to choke down my smoothies because my bananas were not ripe. Last night while still on my detox I felt hungry. “Supper” was done and it was getting late, but not late enough to ignore my hunger. I still had a few hours before bed. I had purchased a cored pineapple from the produce section and sliced and cut it in to pieces. Then I put it in a gallon freezer bag, spread it out flat in the bag and laid the bag flat in the freezer so  they would freeze individually and not in one giant lump. I also had bought a mature (brown) coconut that I wanted to use, but wasn’t ready to take on opening a coconut at that time. So, I used some unsweetened coconut powder (basically coconut flakes ground fine) instead. Here’s my recipe. It is the best green smoothie I have ever made and rave reviews from my kiddos prove it!

 

TROPICAL TEMPTATION SMOOTHIE

1 cup filtered water

1 handful spinach

1/2 stalk of celery (I pulled off some strings to make it easier to blend)

1 Tbsp. unsweetened coconut flakes or powder

1 Tbsp. coconut oil (optional, but recommended)

1 cup frozen pineapple chunks

1/2 cup frozen mango chunks

Blend up water, spinach, celery, coconut flakes and coconut oil together until smooth. Then add frozen fruit and blend again until smooth. Delish! I did modify it again this morning for breakfast. Last night I made it with no banana in a Magic Bullet. Today I made it in a blender and I used 1.5 cups water, 2 large handfuls spinach, 1 stalk celery, 1 T coconut powder, 1 T coconut oil, 1 cup of pineapple, 3/4 cup mango chunks. Blend in the same order. Still delicious but more greens and you couldn’t even taste them. Love it!