In my quest for eating healthier and avoiding highly processed foods I've discovered the Smoothie. One of my co-workers emailed a few recipes that she got from her dear mom and I decided to give it a whirl. I was very pleasantly surprised! I've tried a few that I found online and created a few of my own with whatever was in my vegetable crisper. Tonight I decided to make one using a bit of cucumber that another one of coworkers shared with me fresh from her garden. Yummy! Here it is if you'd like to give it a whirl:

1/2 cup cucumbers

1/2 cup blueberries

1 banana, peeled

4 frozen coconut milk ice cubes*

1 tsp. ground flaxseed

3 ice cubes

*or about 1/4 cup coconut milk

The very first one I made reminded me of a green version of a V8 but not as salty. Definitely something I'm going to keep in mind for the future. A few months ago we had several tornado's pass through our area and they stirred up so much gunk in the air that caused our allergies to go nuts. One day on my way to work I was feeling horrible and it wasn't a day I could miss, due to deadlines that I had to meet. So I decided to stop at the CVS on the way to work to pick up a couple of V8's (in my attempt to avoid canned chicken soup). And it really seemed to help. Sooo... the next time I'm under the weather hopefully I'll have enough energy to whip up one of those green smoothies, or worse case scenario have hubby pick up a couple cans of V8 for my arsenal.

Here is the recipe for my very first green smoothie:

1 banana, peeled

1 cup whole strawberries

2 cups fresh baby spinach or kale or other leafy green

1 tbsp. whole flax seeds, ground up (I used my coffee grinder)

2 or 3 cherry tomatoes

1/2 - 1 cup water

Better Late Than Never

My intention was to blog every week since my first blog post. What can I say? Life got in the way.
However, I've made some strides that I am proud of. I took a leap of faith and signed up for a Zumba class. Talk about having 2 left feet! My goodness I felt so uncoordinated, but... I went into it expecting to trip all over myself and to just plain have fun with it. Half way through the class (it was a month long, twice a week), I realized there was a Beginner's Class and this wasn't it! So I very quickly switched classes. I'm so glad I did. I still feel like I have 2 left feet at times, but there is a great sense of accomplishment and pride that comes when one has mastered a song. So I'm still not a grade A student but I love getting to dance and exercise all at the same time. The basic rule is 'just keep moving'. We laugh at ourselves, encourage each other and get our sweat on. Which is exactly what I was looking for :)

I've started avoiding processed foods as much as possible and trying to eat home-cooked food, fresh vegetables and fruits. And when I eat out I try my hardest to eat organically prepared food. Sometimes it is a bit of a challenge though. Still working on a plan to combat those whoa's. Recently discovered Coconut Oil too. I'll have to expand on both later. Stay tuned!

Here we go!

I've been pondering doing this for a while and decided it was time to just dive right in and get to it. I am about to embark on a journey to a healthier lifestyle. I'm hoping that what happens in the end is that I end up a little more slim and trim, and I regain a little more control over the amount of processed foods that enter my body.  This will be full of adventurous escapades and experiments, hope you come along for what promises to be a fun-filled ride!