Day 6 Love Your Greens

Weight- 148 (yikes! I think I am eating too many fatty nuts from all the granola) BMI- 28.9

Well the weight is not so encouraging.  I better get up and try some Pilates tomorrow.  I am feeling pretty tired from a 3:30am emergency last night.  Don't worry!  Everyone is okay.  I just don't function well on too little sleep. 

Today was also a fail.  Someone did not want to try the smoothie today.  It was the 3 year old.  She was turned off by the color.  This was my first "green" smoothie that was more of a brown muddy color.  I forgot to warn her that the berries would turn the smoothie very dark- almost black.  The recipe for today: the Berrylicious Smoothie or Berry Green Smoothie- water, mix of kale and spinach, 2 big handfuls of raspberries, 3 big handfuls of strawberry slices, 2 bananas, and 1/2 cup of sprouted cashews.  This was the first time I sprouted something.  Which in this case was just soaking nuts overnight.  They blended much better than the last time.  Hermione was almost put off by the color so I let her taste it before pouring it.  She said, "Yum, tastes like bananas."  Baby Lucy loved it.  She seems to love anything through a straw.  Since Ariana would not touch it I was able to give my husband his own.  Hermione took a picture of him.  Will get it up soon.  I thought it was very good.  I did taste the tart raspberries even though many of these recipes have tasted like banana.  Bananas are strong.  It has taken me a long time to even tolerate bananas.  I am hoping that the nutrients I am receiving from them will really help my body in the long run.

I am running really low on ingredients so to the store I go tomorrow especially for lime.  I do enjoy the limes.  I pray that I can keep this week's budget under $100.   

Day 5 Love Your Greens

Weight- 146  BMI-28
Feeling: a little sore throat but feeling good, sugar cravings have gone WAY down today,  I walked past a tray of cookies and was not tempted to eat even one.  Also I couldn't even stomach a roll made with white flour and HFC.  I spit it out!  How crazy is that! 

Today we tried the Lime Sublime Smoothie.  We mixed water, kale and spinach, 2 cups of frozen green grapes, the zest of a lime, and 1 cup of pineapple.  It was  a lot like yesterdays without the cilantro-y taste.  Yummy limeade goodness!  Lucy got to try some this time.  Drank it all up.  I have got to share how crazy this is next time I have free time. 

Day 4 Love Your Greens

I am spending this evening downloading many MANY ebooks from the Ultimate Homemaking ebook bundle- sorry the deal expired tonight- I waited till practically the last minute as to whether I wanted it or not.  There are at least 3 books in the pack I REALLY wanted so I figure it might actually be worth it plus it was a great deal (95% off).  I know that has nothing to do with the challenge I just have to keep explaining why my posts are always shorter than I would like them to be. 

Weight- 145 BMI-28
Feeling:  good, a little sore from I am not sure what, my throat hurts a little and my ears seem stuffy but I don't feel bad

Today's smoothie was so interesting.  It was different because it didn't have banana.  This one was called Delicious Detox smoothie.  This was what we used for the recipe: water, kale and spinach mix, the juice of one lime, 2 cups of canned pineapple that had been frozen, a frozen avocado, a few shakes of ginger from the spice rack (it called for fresh but I don't think I am ready to spring for that yet), and cilantro (I put in 1/3 cup).  Thank goodness we all like cilantro.  It does not taste like soap to us.  In fact, Hermione said she couldn't taste it.  She said it tasted like pineapple.  I was worried because of the avocado.  I don't like avocado but I heard that mixing it in a smoothie just makes it creamy and you can't taste it.  Good thing because it was great.  I thought it tasted like a healthy lemonade.  I might actually use lemon juice next time.  It was tart but I got use to it after a few sips.  The baby didn't get this one.  She was napping and I was a little worried about the detox side affects.  So far there does not seem to be anyone having any side affects so I think we are good. 

Oh!  I also went out and bought new smoothie cups from the Dollar Store.  Check them out!

New Smoothie Cups

Hermione and Delicious Detox Smoothie

Me

Ariana-age 3

Hi!

I love this one!

Day 3 Love Your Greens

This is another short post.  I have a women's brunch to prep for- making 6 pounds of homemade granola and have to finish the crafts for the kids.  It will be a long night.

Well slipped off the whole foods wagon for tonight because of business.  My husband got some fried chicken, potato chips, and soda.  It was still good and I hope I ate in moderation.

Weight- 145 BMI-28
Feeling: Good, energetic, rested, still a little heavy but working on it, also mad at my hair (that has nothing to do with the challenge just thought I should mention that), I think some of the sugar cravings have gone down, but it could all be in my head. 

Today's smoothie was Strawberry Orange Green Smoothie.  I used water, kale and spinach mix, 2 oranges, 1 banana, a few handfuls of sliced frozen strawberries, and a few TBS of cashews.  We almost substituted almonds for the cashews because we were waiting for Daddy to come home with them.  Hermione did not want to make it with almonds.  She insisted we have to make it by the rules.  She is my first born for sure!  I probably would have said the same thing at her age.  But we got the cashews just in time.  This is the first smoothie we had to sweeten with honey because it came out a little tart.  I think the oranges weren't as sweet as the first ones we used.  This one was a big hit, though, it was a little grainy because of the poor blender.  We even made enough for Daddy.  He tried one.  He said, "Not bad."  So far so good.  

Day 2 of Love Your Greens

It is late so this will be short post.  Since it was nearly 80 degrees out in Oregon today we had our smoothie in the sunshine.  It was a Sweet Kale smoothie.  It was our first experience with kale.  I was really not sure about this one because I have been told it is very bitter, but I took the advice from many on Facebook to freeze it first.  We blended about 2 handfuls of kale with apple juice and water.  I had already frozen an apple and added that because the recipe called for more apple juice than I had.  And then blended 3 bananas.  It was enough for one meal replacement size for me and split with the other 3 girls.  We liked it very much.  It was very sweet- maybe next time less banana and maybe try a tart apple.  The blender had a tough time with so many bananas and the kale wasn't quite as mashed up as I would have liked, but still we were able to suck it all through a straw. 

Weight: 146 BMI- 28
How do I feel?  I love drinking the smoothies.  I am still very excited about it.  I got to tell my mother-in-law today and of course she is very supportive.  With all this extra fiber I have to be honest that I am feeling a little gassy, but that is no reason to quit- so watch out people.  Hopefully my body will adjust.  I feel a little more energetic, but that is hard to judge because it has only been 2 days. 

See you tomorrow with another update. 

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 

Whole Foods and 30 Day Love Your Greens Challenge

First of all this is for my benefit because I need to see it writing down.  I have decided to start my journey on whole foods and a 30 Day Challenge called Love Your Greens.  It seems that every time I start to write something or find a direction for this blog I get turned down another path and then another and then the Internet goes down.  I can't seem to be consistent in any of my challenges or to even write here as if it were a diary or a dear friend.  But I think I have found something that has me fired up- at last!

I have been in a constant struggle between buying cheap food and buying healthy food.  I thought maybe JUST maybe I could find a "healthy" medium.  Well I wouldn't exactly say I failed or succeeded, but I did come to a conclusion- I would rather our families' money go toward healthy food now rather than medication and pharmaceutical companies in the future.  My family history has me pegged for Type 2 diabetes and I have some how always felt that I would die of heart disease.  Plus I work with a lady in Preschool Sunday School who has Type 2 Diabetes and I saw her feet.  Let me just say I will pray extra hard for her and if I can prevent that from happening to me I will (though she seems to think it just "happened" to her- like there was no way to prevent it- though I also shouldn't judge because I don't know her complete situation, but I digress).

Right now I am honestly not too concerned with my weight.  I know I weigh too much and my BMI is 28 so not the best.  I am more concerned with health and nutrition.  I have thought and thought and thought about exercising and I just can't let the guilt keep getting to me.  I have physical urticaria- translation I get hives when I exercise.  My histamines go crazy when I do any repetitive physical activity.  This is a whole story in and of itself, but the fact is I have to plan my exercises very specifically because I have to take a pill before I exercise at least an hour before or I will want to scratch my skin off.  In my season of life I just can't get exercise in.  If I try for the morning the noise wakes the baby.  If I try at night or in the evening I miss much needed chores and time with my husband.  If I try to do it when I have "free" time that better be a lot of free time so my allergy pill has time to kick in.  All that to say I am focusing on cleaning up my diet next I will try to add in exercise but that probably won't happen until my youngest is 2 1/2 or so.

Another reason I thought I should take this on is because I am not formally homeschooling and my personality type or just me in general needs someone to teach or to learn from or a project.  Nutrition has become a huge part of my life because every pregnancy has come back with positive tests of gestational diabetes.  I think my first step into this was using the Eat This, Not That book, which has had updates every year since I first read it.  I used it has a basic guideline for shopping but not much beyond that until I watched Food Inc did I seriously start to question things.  Plus my endless Internet searches that led me here, here, and here- these are just the ones in front of me, I am sure there are many more I could dig up.  This has been an on and off journey for about 4 1/2- 5 years I am now making it formal.

I am willing to make the time and financial sacrifice it will take to be healthy.  I am not going to go all RiddleLove  on you (though at times those meal plans look amazing).  Trust me- I am as real as it gets.  I don't soak my grains.  I can't make my own whey.  I don't own a grinding stone to grind wheat berries into flour.  My husband is a youth pastor.  Our family lives on less than $2,000 a month- praise God it comes with a house (so money doesn't go straight to rent).  I am on WIC and have currently applied for food stamps.  I go to the food bank when things are extra tight, which often ends up being about every 3 months.  I am a real person trying to use what I have been given.  I wanted to show you I am not snob, I am not trying to sell anything.  I want people to see they can change too if they want or just inspire those who are working hard for better food choices and education.  It hurts me a little that I have sign up my child for free lunches at school knowing that a lot of the choices are not the best, but that is where we are and I am praying for some change to come to the food industry.

The challenge doesn't officially start till May, but we were so low on groceries and since we are taking FPU classes (another thing I could potential blog about) we have a small wiggle room for the food budget.  I wanted to see what I will spend on this challenge and say how I am feeling.  This was the ingredient list for the first week:

 Week 1 (Days 1-7)
3 C liquid of choice (almond milk, coconut water, milk, etc.)
6 oz 100% apple juice
6-12 C greens of your choice
1-2 C kale
4 bananas
1 orange
1 lime
1 bunch of green grapes (wash and freeze these)
1 small container raspberries
1 pineapple (cut, cube, and freeze or buy ones already done for you)
1 lb strawberries (freeze these if you have a high-powered blender)
1 C fruit of choice (strawberries, oranges, pears, pineapple, apples, etc.)
1 inch of ginger root
1 small avocado
optional: 1 bunch cilantro
2 Tbsp raw cashews AND ¼ C cashews or almonds
Sweetener of choice (honey, dates, agave, stevia, etc.)
Ice


Here is the run down.  I am using water that is FREE.  I also have to add, unless it is bought by accident, which does happen when I am not careful, none of these are Organic that I am aware of, but I figure it is better to do this challenge and clean out my eating habits than to do nothing at at all, right?
 
Apple Juice- I bought the concentrate because it just happened to be convenient Roth's $1.88
Spinach- Rainbow Foods aka Grocery Outlet $1.99 (I am not sure of the size but it was a big bag)
Kale- Grocery Outlet $2.99
Bananas- now this was a crazy find, in our neighborhood we have what is called an Economy Grocery store for items that are past expiration dates but SOMETIMES also sell decent produce.  I promise not ALL the bananas were black.  They were just a little spotty.  I flash froze them right away.  They will work for sure.  I got 3 bunches for .55 a pound.  The receipt is really very hard to read so I am not sure of the total.  Next time I will try to pay more attention so I will guess.  A bunch of bananas is usually around 2.5-3 lbs.  I am going to say $4.12 on 15 bananas (there may have been a few more or few less my kids tore into a couple right after we got home and before I could count them).  I think I have enough bananas for the whole months worth or at least pretty close.
Oranges- also at the Economy Grocery but I forget the price so I will use the price I got a bag of some at Safeway as well for $3.88 (a Usave coupon)
Lime- Economy Grocery .50
Green Grapes- Safeway (ouch) $7.22
Raspberries- Roth's (this one hurts not just because they are expensive but because I have a raspberry bush but they are not in season right now and I ran out of all the ones I froze)  $5.99 for a tiny container 
Pineapple- Economy Grocery I decided to just use canned even though that may be frowned upon.  .65 a can- I think.  Let's just say $2.00.
Strawberries- Safeway $2.99 BOGO (2 lb. total) so that or oranges can be used for my extra fruit
Ginger Root- did not get that, just going to skip that this go around and if I have some powder stuff I will throw it in
Avocado- .50 at Grocery Outlet
I did get a small packet of almonds at the EG for .85.  I did not get cilantro or coconut oil.  
Honey- $3.69 (wish I could get this naturally and organic but alas it was at Safeway)

TOTAL:  $38.25 

So I guess it looks like close to an extra $40 weekly to add to grocery budget.  God can do miracles!  Let's do this! 

I don't want to forget to give a shout out to Unconventional Kitchen.  They are the ones putting on the challenge.  It will be great.  I can't wait to see what will happen.  My daughter, Ariana, is really excited about it, too.