I heard one of the trainers (the hot one) on the Biggest Loser last week mention that overweight people often don't eat breakfast.
I HATED breakfast. I just wasn't ready for food before noon, ok? ;)
It didn't help that for 5 years I was waking up at 4 AM for work--and really who wants to eat ANYTHING at that hour? The only time I ate at 4 AM was at pizza corner after a night of drinking a copious amount of sugar filled calories. Super healthy, I know.
So last summer, a couple of my co workers started to glow. Literally. They were newlyweds but STILL I knew something else was up. They shared the recipe for Kim Snyder's "GLOWING GREEN SMOOTHIE" with me. And I humored them but wasn't all that interested really. Sounded kinda gross.
They continued to tell me I've GOTTA try it so eventually I caved. I think because my energy was at such a low point and I was willing to give anything a try.
And I am SO happy I did!!! After a couple of days I was hooked. It's been more than 6 months and I've maybe missed 4 days of the Glowing Green Smoothie for breakfast.
I have it every morning plus some lemon and ginger in hot water while I'm getting ready for work. It's already ready to go in the blender in the fridge so I can't make excuses about running out of time. Plus I love it so much that I look forward to it now!
The energy I got was unbelievable, I was able to quit drinking coffee all together, my skin got so much better and I started eating healthier throughout the day because I was starting my day off with so many nutrients and TLC for my poor neglected metabolism.
I now eat more nutrient dense foods in one meal than I used to eat in a few days!
Plus sometimes if I'm hungry in the afternoons or need a little energy boost I'll have half the serving amount as a snack!
I've since added kale and removed spinach from the recipe (because the histamine was causing some skin issues) But you can play around with a ton of ingredients!! I also added the Parsley for extra GREEN and sometimes I'll mix in some sprouted Chia and Flax seeds for extra Fibre :) Also, I know there are SO many different green smoothie recipes! This is just one example! And for me it was a great place to start!
It's easy to make and SO yummy. Honest. Let's not judge a book by it's snotty green color here. It tastes similar to apple sauce, in my opinion.
I don't have a fancy blender either! It was $75 bucks on sale at Canadian tire and it totally does the trick.
My suggestions if you want to give the green smoothie a try:
-Follow the blending instructions! It takes a good 15-20 minutes to chop all of the vegetables properly and blend them in the steps suggested. If you run outta time and throw everything in together the consistency isn't quite as appetizing so plan ahead and have it ready in advance so that your health doesn't suffer when you have to drop something off of your "morning routine" list!
-Use Organic produce!! I've made the mistake of using produce that wasn't organic in a pinch and I couldn't even drink it. I couldn't believe what a difference in taste (not to mention nutrients) when using organic fruit and veggies!
-Give yourself some time to get used to it, it may not go down quite as easily the first couple of days as your body gets used to the fibre, nutrients and early morning meal. Just like anything, just give your body some time to adjust and get used to it.
And finally...
-If you try it let me know what you think!! Do you have any smoothie recipes you love? I'd love to hear about them and give them a try too!!
Recipe From kimberlysnyder.net :
:) Happy Smoothie-ing <----should totally be a word!
<3 Nikki XOX
