2012-06-25

Amy's Favorite Green Smoothie

Hello all!  Boy has it been a crazy week for me!  Last week I was running all around town for job interviews and whatnot, only to find out on Friday that I had gotten the Administrative Assistant position that I had been hoping for.  So, I am officially the new Admin Assistant for Tradesman International in Spokane Valley.  Ok, so not an environmental job, but at least its a full-time M-F job with good pay and benefits.  Since Kevin has started his online school to get his Masters in Education, a full-time job was all I needed.  Now we are going to be officially living together in Spokane after we get married, which is a huge relief to me because I won't have to move things far.

The countdown is now 75 days till our wedding, and there are still many things that need to be done.  I don't officially start my new job until next Monday, so I will be working like crazy trying to get a lot of the little things done this week.  This includes planning the invite design, addressing all of the invite envelopes, meeting with our reception coordinator for decoration and food plans, practicing more with our cake, making the party favors, planning the wedding pictures, and coordinating the wedding weekend itinerary.  Wow, that's a lot of things when they're all listed out!

Here is our first attempt.  Not too bad considering my mom needs new Crisco for the frosting and the strawberry filling make the frosting a bit pink.  This is only the top layer done nicely, the bottom layer will be nearly three times as thick as pictured here.  Our homemade cake is more for decoration and picture purposes, on the actual day we are getting Costco cakes to feed most guests.
In the meantime, I have been following Dr. Fuhrman's Eat to Live 6-week plan and have been feeling great!  I haven't had too much weight loss to speak of yet, unfortunately.  I think this is due to the fact that I still tend to overeat, even though it is all good plant-based foods.  I have also been working out like crazy, so maybe my appetite is increasing accordingly?  All the same, my goals continue to be to follow the 6-week plan (my version explained here) till I find the weight loss results I'm looking for, to continue to work on my food addictions and mental issues with overeating, and to continue to exercise regularly.

I have been having more green smoothies in the mornings in an effort to vamp up my greens intake for each day.  Since my parents have a garden in the backyard with abundant kale, I have been mostly using kale for my smoothies along with some fruits we have on hand for sweetening.  Here is my favorite combination of greens and fruit in a green smoothie:
Ingredients: (1-2 servings)

  • 2-3 cup packed dark greens (kale, spinach, collard greens, etc.)
  • 1 cup berries (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, cherries, etc.)
  • 1 1/2 cup alternative milk (almond milk, soy milk, rice milk, coconut milk, etc.)
  • 2 large frozen bananas
  • 1 T ground flaxseeds
Directions:
  1. Place all ingredients into the blender starting with the soft ingredients, and placing the frozen banana in last.
  2. Blend until smooth and creamy.
  3. Serve immediately or store in fridge to consume later that day.
Amy's Notes:
The ingredients I used today for pictures are bolded in parentheses, so I used kale, blueberries, and almond milk.  This recipe generally makes enough for me to have a full glass for breakfast and to give a smaller glass like the one pictured above to my mom as a snack.  If you feel that this has too strong of "green" taste for you, just add more fruit as you would like to increase the sweetness.  Believe me, if I first drank this before being a nutritarian for a while, it would be a bit of a shocking taste to me.  Now, however, I love the slight bitter flavor of the greens with the sweet of the fruit.  Yum!
I'd love to hear from my readers on a few topics, so feel free to answer one or all of my questions :)

Do you have any tips or reminders for me as we get closer to Kevin and my Wedding day?  Is there anything that you enjoyed at your wedding that most people might not think of?

How do you do with overeating and food cravings?  What do you do to stay on track?

For those of you who are going through the Eat to Live  6-week plan, how is it going for you?  Have you seen great results yet?  I'd love to hear some updates!

9 comments:

  1. That smoothie looks divine! I'm going to try one with silverbeet later, thanks for the idea :)

    Wedding tips- enjoy the day, slow down, don't spend too long on the photos- there's no point in having a million photos if you miss out on the day. Give yourself some time to breathe, delegate and take people up when they offer to help! It's no big deal but a lot of friends doing something little really does help. I know this sounds silly but make sure you spend some time with your husband! the day is so hectic and you're trying to get to every guest and make sure everything runs well that sometimes the most important thing is taking a step back and spending some quality time together!

    Ok food stuff- I do horribly with cravings, they rattle around my brain and intensify until I cave, then I feel horribly guilty and attempt to fix it.. I really need to work on that one. When I'm good I've noticed it's when I'm truly enjoying what I'm eating and eating dessert! fruit 'ice cream' all the way. ETL went well for the first couple of weeks and then... one taste was a really bad idea. Needless to say I've started again and am feeling much better for it.

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    1. I'm not sure if I know what silverbeet is?

      Thank you for the wedding advice. We just finalized our wedding day schedule for the invites and I'm still wrapping my brain around not getting to take a ton of photos. Kevin and I don't want to see each other before the ceremony, so we are having to take many of them afterwards, but we can't take too long since our guests will be waiting at the reception hall.

      I feel like I'm finally conquering my cravings and food addictions. I think a combination of working hard at the gym and not wanting to undo the good I've done for my body helped me get to thus point. Admittedly, I deviated from ETL for one meal while my fiancé was in town this weekend. I ate only a quarter of the SAD food that I ordered and gave the rest away. I enjoyed it, but didn't feel like eating anymore after that point. For my next meal (breakfast the next morning) I was craving greens like it was nobody's business and had a green smoothie to revamp the nutrients in my body. At least now I crave nutrient dense foods!

      Thanks for reading and commenting! I enjoy so much hearing from readers :)

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    2. Sivlerbeet is swiss chards.

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  2. Hi, Amy! I suggest you have a friend (not someone involved in the wedding) who follows you around during pictures. His/her job is to 1/carry your lipstick & tell you when you need to refresh it; 2/carry your water bottle; 3/fluff your dress' skirt/train for the pictures. I have so many pictures where I think "oh, that's nice. Would've been better with lipstick."

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    1. Thanks for your advice Jackie! I've been finding that when I ask friends who aren't in the wedding to do little tasks like greeting out guests and taking cards and gifts, or helping to escort guests to their seats, that they have been more than willing and happy to do so. I think I need to learn to accept that I can't do everything on the day of and that asking for help will make everything easier. -Amy

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  3. Dear Amy, I am new to the nutritarian way of life and just ran accross your blog. It's terrific. There is one more piece of advice you might like to know about. One of those friends who would like to help out would really be helpfull at the church if you are getting ready there. How you say can they help by simply sitting in front of the door where you are and keeping people out while you get ready. this may sound strange but people love to come early and get that early glimpse of the bride or say something to her prior to the wedding and although they mean well it can really rattle the bride. So have someone politely tell them you are getting ready and really need that time to prepare. Enjoy your day.
    By the way your chocolate smoothie was the bomb

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    1. Thanks for your comment, but my wedding has come and gone over a year and a half ago. Great advice for any bride though! I was lucky enough to have a good girlfriend who was not in the wedding help out with a lot of the last minute things that the bridal party couldn't take care of. She seriously saved the day in multiple ways.

      Very glad you enjoyed the chocolate smoothie! Thanks for reading!

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  4. Sounds great! You may want to reduce the banana down to 1/2 frozen or 1 non-frozen and then add Stevia or honey to add extra sweetening. While they are delicious, freezing bananas amplifies the sugars in them, increasing their caloric intake (up to 120) and their sugar content (up to 17 g). That may also help you with your weight loss goals as well!

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    1. Thanks for the tip, Jane. I usually don't pay too much attention to the calories/sugar content of frozen fruits, as long as I get my 4 fresh fruits daily. Unfortunately, I have cut concentrated sweeteners like Stevie and honey out of my diet because they tend to be trigger foods that cause me to overeat. Thanks for reading!

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