Here is the Big Day! Day 1 Love Your Greens 30 Day Challenge

I am so excited!  I want this to do be more of a lifestyle change than just 30 days out of my life to eat greens.  I might not make a smoothie EVERY DAY after this but I am going to consider putting them in my weekly rotation.  

First of all I have some questions to answer.  What do I want to accomplish?  Why am I doing this?  I want to attempt to reverse my pre-diabetes and start my road to a more healthy lifestyle.  Although I truly would not mind loosing some of the weight at least 10 pounds at this point couldn't hurt.  I will be at least chronicling the weight (this is me being very vulnerable) and trying to observe the changes in my body over the next 30 days.  I am doing this because it sounded like fun.  I love smoothies and I like spinach- why not mix it up?  Also since I have been a regular visitor to 100 Days of Real Food that is where I discovered the challenge, I thought I could learn a lot by participating in a challenge.  Before this I had never heard of the Unconventional Kitchen and have been thrilled and encouraged in this journey. 

Day 1
Weight- 147 lbs.  BMI- 28
Since I like quiet morning (A LOT) and my baby has VERY sensitive ears I decided to wait on the smoothie till lunch.  Plus I promised Ariana she could be a part of this.  Although I had never originally planned on getting my children involved they seemed more than willing to participate so I will have to update my list and buy more produce.  Ariana already plowed through 2 pounds of strawberries this morning so good thing I have 3 more pounds (1 in the freezer and 2 more in the fridge). 

The first smoothie was suppose to be a basic green smoothie.  I also want to point out that this is my very first GREEN SMOOTHIE!   So we used a large handful of spinach and about 1 cup of water blended it nicely.  I have an Oster blender that was my husband's before we were married so I am unsure as to how old it is.  I hope it will make it through all this challenge.  After the spinach and water were blended we added some frozen fruit- half a banana, a whole frozen orange that had been frozen in sections, and a few spoonfuls of pineapple.  The blender took a few tries but with the help of the poking down spatula it blended nice and smooth.   We did not add any extra sweeteners like honey or agave.  It was delicious.  My girls drank it all before I even had a taste of my own.  My only ever so minor complaint (and this is EXTREMELY minor) was the orange's pulps made the texture a bit strange, but that was easy enough to get over.  The whole time we were drinking the smoothies the baby was eying it so I guess I need to get her her own smoothie cup (the kind with the straws).   My oldest, Hermione, has really stepped it up and has seen the change in our eating habits.  She asked me today, "So if we are trying to eat healthy, what do I eat at birthday parties?"  I told her it was okay to have treats sometimes but when we go to parties we eat one small slice of cake and small scoop of ice cream and if there is candy you do not need more than 3 pieces.  I am trying to be reasonable and I do not want to be a snob by making my child bring a her own healthy snack to other parties.  I can understand if kids have allergies but mine do not so we try for moderation as the goal and be thankful and grateful for all the work that goes into party food.  Going to see if I can get my husband to try one over the weekend.  By the end of this challenge hopefully everyone will have their picture in here drinking healthy green smoothies!  

Hermione, age 5, and Ariana, age 3 drinking a Basic Green Smoothie