** Please note... No frogs have been injured in the writing of this blog***
I, like everyone else, have recently jumped on the green smoothie bandwagon. For those of you who haven't heard of Green Smoothies you've either lived under a Facebook free rock or you are too cool for all of us and have better things to do with your time then troll Facebook. Things like, I don't know raise kids, work, get an education, all the really unimportant things in life. Green Smoothies are the newest health craze of the moment. Depending on how you use them Green Smoothie drinkers claim they can do anything from help you get your daily vitamin intake, to lose weight, to cure you of all your ills, to create world peace....... well maybe not that last one. But seriously, people are getting pretty darn passionate about these disgusting looking drinks. So me being me, I thought it was high time I started to give them a go.
I'll be honest, even as a vegetarian I don't feel like I get enough "good" foods into me in a day, for that matter a week. As we all know, busy day to day life tends to catch up with us and before we know it we are eating way too much take away crap or microwave meals, or the ever popular mummy meals ( that's basically eating whatever foods your kids don't finish). As a result our already tired bodies becoming even more tired, which loops us back into the vicious cycle of being too tired to make good food to get the "right stuff" into our bodies each day. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not turning all healthy exercising greenie on you. Lets be honest, Its just not in me to become a health food warrior. I love a good Ben and Jerrys as much as the next girl, along with a cheeky glass of wine, creamy pastas, chocolate dipped ANYTHING..... ummmmm sorry, got carried away there. Back to the smoothies.
Anyway after seeing a number of green smoothie references in my online travels each day, plus chatting to a couple of girlfriends who swear by them, I thought it couldn't hurt to give it a go. So I dutifully scoured the net for all sorts of "beginner", "newbie" "Am I crazy enough to try this" type green smoothie recipes. Not surprisingly I found a few and trotted off to my local grocer to stock up on ingredients for my unfulfilled obsession. The biggest recommendation everyone made was start light on the "green" vege stuff and heavy on the sweet fruits until you adapt to the taste and then up your veges from there.
So there I stood in my kitchen ready for my first attempt, loading everything into the blender hoping for the miracle to begin. I have to say as I dumped ingredients in I was getting a little excited to try this new taste sensation.... It looks yummy.
I pressed High on my blender, ready to taste my masterpiece and it looked like this......
Suddenly I'm not so excited to try this thing after all. Purple brown dirt is so not my colour.
To be honest this first one was a struggle, but I persevered and drank it all down; for three days. Until it was finally time to try again. I made a couple of options and then after drinking them for about two weeks I made this one..... Its actually green!!
And you know what, none of them were all that bad. Granted I think I'll need a little more time on the "newbie" smoothies before I graduate to "grown up" smoothies, but all in all I am managing to drink them down.
Now do I think they are making a difference? Well after only 3 weeks, its hard to tell. I do feel better about myself because I definitely feel like I am getting my daily quota of fruits, veges, vitamins iron etc. But is it actually giving me what I think? Who knows. Generally I do feel like I have a little more energy which is great, no weight loss really to speak of, but then I'm not using it as a meal replacement either( I love food waaaayyy to much to go without).
All in all I don't think it can be hurting me to have a little more fresh veges and fruit in my life so for now I'm going to keep giving them a go. If it means I use this as an alternative of an afternoon to keep the sugar demons at bay then its done its job. But I definitely can't promise I'll be graduating to the carrot, kale, pine nuts, protien grown up drinks any time soon. I much prefer my grown up green drinks to involve tequila, a pact of secrecy with friends and a night you wont remember the next day :)
Until Next time
Xx
P.S For those of you wondering, my first smoothie is made of 2 x cups spinach, 1 x frozen banana, 1/4 cup of frozen mixed berries, 1/4 cup of raw nuts/ raw seeds ( I used sunflower seeds), 2 cups of ice cold water and a couple of ice cubes. I use filtered water but really don't think it matters. My second smoothie was made of 1 x cup frozen pineapple, 1 x frozen banana, 1 inch piece ginger, 2 handfuls spinach and 1.5 cups of cold water and a few ice cubes. Good Luck!!
