I've been a bit remiss in posting but I've been working very hard on diet and exercise. Here's the downlow.
I've been semi-vegetarian now for about 4 months meaning no meat except fish every now and then. I also eat eggs, cheese, goat milk kefir, and I'm probably missing something here.
I've been drinking my green smoothies at least 5 days a week; I'll post some of my recent recipes below.
I started watching my calories again yesterday at my favorite calorie watching site - livestrong (I'm desertjul there if you are a livestrong user).
Since May I've been taking a fun boot camp class on Monday and Wednesday, 6:30-7:30pm and Saturday 10:30 - 11:30am, and a fun Zumba class on Thursdays, 7:30-8:30pm.
About 6 weeks ago I started having a peeling issue with my lips which I thought I had sunburn but then I started cracking in the corner of my mouth. A friend, who is a vegetarian, has had this problem for a long time so I did some research. One name for this condition is cheilitis, and I found that it could be a vitamin B deficiency [B-2 (riboflavin), vitamin B-3 (niacin), vitamin B-6 (pyridoxine), or vitamin B-12 (cyanocobalamin)]. Sooo, I've been taking a coenzyme B-complex vitamin, and voila, after a week, my lips are almost completely healed! Whew, that was NOT fun.
Something that I learned as I was researching vegetarianism and vitamin/mineral deficiency is that to make sure I'm absorbing all the iron I can, I need to not drink tea (tannins), caffeinated drinks, or calcium rich foods with non-heme iron rich meals like the following bean and rice recipe.
A favorite quick recipe of mine at this time is 4 servings of brown rice, a can of organic black beans, can of organic pinto beans, a can of diced tomatoes without salt added, some chopped up chipotle peppers, sea salt, and because I like it HOT, I add some Sriracha Hot Chile Sauce. I throw this into a bowl and three containers for several quick, high iron, high protein, yummy meals.
Yay! I just got my Green Smoothie book by Victoria Boutenko so I'll be trying some of the many recipes there, but in the meantime, I've been loving my own concoctions. Here's a few. I usually make a full blender of smoothie and drink at least half a day. Half a blender fills my Green Smoothie Queen's 32 ounce Green Jug.
The Day After Tomorrow's Smoothie
1 Cucumber
1 bag of Watercress
1/2 Cantaloupe
1/2 Lemon juice
Maybe some frozen mango or frozen blueberries
Tomorrow's Green Smoothie
3 large handfuls spinach
1 handful kale
small banana
1/4 pineapple
pint of strawberries
a couple of squeezes of agave nectar
1 11.2 oz container vita coco coconut water
refilled the vita coco container with water and added it
Today's Green Smoothie
3 large handfuls spinach
1 handful kale
2 peaches
half a bag of O Organics Frozen Mangos
1 11.2 oz container vita coco coconut water
refilled the vita coco container with water and added it
I've been semi-vegetarian now for about 4 months meaning no meat except fish every now and then. I also eat eggs, cheese, goat milk kefir, and I'm probably missing something here.
I've been drinking my green smoothies at least 5 days a week; I'll post some of my recent recipes below.
I started watching my calories again yesterday at my favorite calorie watching site - livestrong (I'm desertjul there if you are a livestrong user).
Since May I've been taking a fun boot camp class on Monday and Wednesday, 6:30-7:30pm and Saturday 10:30 - 11:30am, and a fun Zumba class on Thursdays, 7:30-8:30pm.
About 6 weeks ago I started having a peeling issue with my lips which I thought I had sunburn but then I started cracking in the corner of my mouth. A friend, who is a vegetarian, has had this problem for a long time so I did some research. One name for this condition is cheilitis, and I found that it could be a vitamin B deficiency [B-2 (riboflavin), vitamin B-3 (niacin), vitamin B-6 (pyridoxine), or vitamin B-12 (cyanocobalamin)]. Sooo, I've been taking a coenzyme B-complex vitamin, and voila, after a week, my lips are almost completely healed! Whew, that was NOT fun.
Something that I learned as I was researching vegetarianism and vitamin/mineral deficiency is that to make sure I'm absorbing all the iron I can, I need to not drink tea (tannins), caffeinated drinks, or calcium rich foods with non-heme iron rich meals like the following bean and rice recipe.
A favorite quick recipe of mine at this time is 4 servings of brown rice, a can of organic black beans, can of organic pinto beans, a can of diced tomatoes without salt added, some chopped up chipotle peppers, sea salt, and because I like it HOT, I add some Sriracha Hot Chile Sauce. I throw this into a bowl and three containers for several quick, high iron, high protein, yummy meals.
Yay! I just got my Green Smoothie book by Victoria Boutenko so I'll be trying some of the many recipes there, but in the meantime, I've been loving my own concoctions. Here's a few. I usually make a full blender of smoothie and drink at least half a day. Half a blender fills my Green Smoothie Queen's 32 ounce Green Jug.
The Day After Tomorrow's Smoothie
1 Cucumber
1 bag of Watercress
1/2 Cantaloupe
1/2 Lemon juice
Maybe some frozen mango or frozen blueberries
Tomorrow's Green Smoothie
3 large handfuls spinach
1 handful kale
small banana
1/4 pineapple
pint of strawberries
a couple of squeezes of agave nectar
1 11.2 oz container vita coco coconut water
refilled the vita coco container with water and added it
Today's Green Smoothie
3 large handfuls spinach
1 handful kale
2 peaches
half a bag of O Organics Frozen Mangos
1 11.2 oz container vita coco coconut water
refilled the vita coco container with water and added it
Yesterday's Green Smoothie
3 large handfuls spinach
1 handful kale
1/4 pineapple
half a bag of O Organics Frozen Mangos
1 11.2 oz container vita coco coconut water
refilled the vita coco container with water and added it
A Fave Green Smoothie
3 large handfuls spinach
1 handful kale
6 peeled clementines
half a bag of O Organics Frozen Mangos
1 11.2 oz container vita coco coconut water
refilled the vita coco container with water and added it
Shawn's Fave Green Smoothie is Purple!
3 large handfuls spinach
1 handful kale
a pint of fresh or half a bag of O Organics Frozen Blueberries
half a pint of fresh or half a bag of O Organics Frozen Strawberries
1 11.2 oz container vita coco coconut water
refilled the vita coco container with water and added it
That's it for now. I hope you are all having fabulous health and nutrition adventures!
Wishing you all healthy gorgeous green glowing light and love!
I know, I'm a sap!
;)
~julz
Those look like some seriously great smoothies. I'll have to try one (or all) of them. Thanks for the vitamin B info - very helpful.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on sticking with your diet and exercise routines. Yikes, is it ever difficult some days to do that.