Smoothie Challenge!!!

This is the 30 Days Smoothie Challenge I tried in April 
courtesy of 

Simple Green Smoothies

Blending Directions: 

• Blend spinach/kale and liquids together first
• Add the remaining ingredients and blend again
• For recipes that use a whole orange, I used 1/2 cup of 100% orange juice

Recommendation: 

• Adding non fat Greek yogurt will give you Protein and Energy you need making it a meal.

WEEK 1 Shopping list FRUITS: 2 peaches (2 cups) 7 bananas 1 cup cherries 1 cup mixed berries 4 oranges 1 pineapple, fresh/frozen 1 cup strawberries 1 cup blueberries VEGGIES 2 bags fresh spinach OTHER Almond milk, Almonds	WEEK 2 Shopping list FRUITS 2 cups grapes 4 peaches ½ cup raspberries 5 bananas 2 pears 1 pineapple, fresh/frozen 2 mangos VEGGIES 1 bag fresh spinach 1 bag fresh kale OTHER Coconut water	WEEK 3 Shopping list FRUITS: 2 mangos 1 pineapple, fresh/frozen 1 avocado 5 oranges 3 cups strawberries 7 bananas 1 cup blueberries VEGGIES: 1 bag fresh spinach 1 bag fresh kale 1 small cucumber OTHER: Almond milk	WEEK 4 Shopping list FRUITS:3 oranges 3 mangos 7 bananas 1 lemon 1 pineapple, fresh/frozen 1 cup strawberries ½ cup blueberries 2 cups cherries VEGGIES 1 bag fresh spinach 1 bag fresh kale 1 small cucumber OTHER: Coconut water	WEEK 5 Shopping list FRUITS 5 bananas 1 cup pineapple 1 cup cherries 2 mangos VEGGIES 1 bag fresh spinach OTHER Almond milk, Almond butter, cinnamon, cayenne pepper & cacao
Mon: SIMPLE PEACH 1 cups spinach, fresh 1 cups water 1 cups peaches 1 banana *Can substitute peaches with mango or nectarines.	Mon: PEACH COCONUT DREAM 1 cups spinach, fresh ½ cup coconut water, 1 cups grapes, freeze overnight ½ 1 cup peaches *Can substitute peaches with mango or nectarines	Mon: CILANTRO-MANGO DETOX   1 cups spinach, fresh ¼ cilantro, fresh 1 cups water 1 cup mango ½ cup pineapple ¼ Avocado	Mon: MANGO ORANGE MADNESS 1 cups spinach, fresh 1 cups coconut water ½ orange, peeled ½ cup mango 1 banana	Mon: ALMOND BUTTER CUP 2 cups spinach, fresh 2 cups almond milk 2 bananas 3 tablespoons cacao 2 tablespoons almond butter
Tues: BERRY CHERRY JUBILEE: 1 cups spinach, fresh 1 cups water ½ cup cherries, pitted ½ cup mixed berries 1 banana *Can substitute cherries with more berries	Tues: RAZZY PEACH 1 cups spinach, fresh 1 cups water ½ cup raspberries 1 cup peaches 1 banana	Tues: PINEAPPLE BERRY   1 ½ cups spinach, fresh ½ cup cucumber, peeled 1 cup water 1 orange, peeled 1 cup pineapple 1 cup strawberries, frozen	Tues: LEMON CLEANSER 2 cups kale, fresh 2 cups water 2 cups mango ½ lemon, peeled 1 banana	Tues: CHERRY TART 2 cups spinach, fresh 2 cups water 1 cup pineapple 1 cup cherries 1 banana
Wed: BERRY PROTEIN BASH 1 cups spinach, fresh 1 cups almond milk, unsweetened ½ cup strawberries ½ cup blueberries 1 banana ½ cup almonds, soaked in water overnight	Wed: TROPI-KALE ½ cup kale, fresh ½ cup spinach, fresh 1 cups coconut water, 1 banana 1 cups pineapple	Wed: MORNING FUEL   2 cups kale, fresh 1 cup almond milk 2 oranges, peeled 1 cup pineapple 1 banana ¼ avocado	Wed: CITRUS BANG 1 cups kale, fresh ½ cucumber 1 cups coconut water ½ orange, peeled 1 cups pineapple ½ lemon, peeled	Wed: SWEET DREAM 2 cups spinach, fresh 2 cups almond milk 2 cups mango 1 banana 2 tablespoons almond butter 1 teaspoon cinnamon ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
Thur: TROPICAL CRUSH  1 cups spinach, fresh 1 cups water 1 orange, peeled ½ cup pineapple 1 banana	Thur: PEACHY PEAR 1 cups spinach, fresh 1 cups water 1 ripe pears ½ cup peaches	Thur: KALE PUNCH   1 cups kale, fresh ½ cup almond milk 1 oranges, peeled ½ cup blueberries 1 bananas	Thur: RAINBOW LOVE 1 cups spinach, fresh 1 cups water ½ orange, peeled ½ cup strawberries ½ cup blueberries 1 banana
Fri: ORANGE JULIUS  1 cups spinach, fresh ½ cup almond milk, 2 oranges, peeled 1 banana	Fri: MANGO PASSION ½ cup kale, fresh ½ cup spinach, fresh 1 cups water 1 cups mango ½ cup pineapple	Fri: STRAWBERRY BLAST   1 cups spinach, fresh 1 cups almond milk 1 cups strawberries, frozen 1 banana	Fri: SIMPLY CHERRY 1 cups spinach, fresh 1 cups water 1 cups cherries 1 banana

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FIT > Skinny

Ecclesiastes 1:2

Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.

Every time I talk about how skinny I used to be people think that I miss that body. I actually do not. I had it and made the conscious effort to gain weight in a way to have womanly curves, now I am trying to mold the curves to look Fit and be Healthy.

Well now the summer is fast approaching I prefer hanging with minimal clothing if you catch my drift.

Moving right along, in my quest to fitness I found Simple Green Smoothies April 30Day Challenge, now I am a believer!!!

Let me rewind a bit… A couple of months ago I watched “Fat Sick and Nearly Dead” it was a very inspirational documentary so I decided to try the juicing fad. But, I felt that all that fiber lost from juicing was too essential for the trash. I was not okay with spending all that money on produce just to get a few cups of nutrients. Luckily though I did not invest in one of those juicers that cost as much as some car notes.

So when my girl T introduced me to the Green Smoothies, I’m thinking ordinarily I do not usually buy smoothies but I was more willing to try it since

1.     Everything I blended would go down my esophagus and

2.     The professional Ninja Blender I bought last thanksgiving was on their recommendation list.

So Week 1: I was going in hard. I was ready. I went shopping. Since there were a total of five smoothies each week, I planned to replace my lunch each day with a smoothie. So I blended all 5 smoothies on that Sunday night. Finally Spinach and Kale finally started tasting awesome or shall I say Rawsome!

Come Monday… Boy was I dead wrong! First of all blending all the smoothies in one night was mistake #1 as they don’t stay nor taste fresh after like 12 hours.

Secondly, my coworkers thought I was sick or something because right after lunchtime the bubbly person they knew was dragging herself like a zombie. So I went back to drawing board, the Simple Green Smoothies website, and read a little bit more and found out that the smoothies are NOT meal replacements. They are specifically for snacking. Ohhh… so that’s the reason I felt so fatigued in the afternoons??? #ShakeMyHead.

I kept on reading some more so that I could follow every single piece of advice they had. My feeling was: GREAT! I got it… lets do this correctly in Week 2, well but I didn’t stop reading there you all know how “related articles” surface … this one article said “Smoothie Mistakes That Cause Weight Gain” OMG!!! OK!!! What am I doing??? What have I gotten myself into??? I am about to become unhealthy from healthy foods.

My new quest became finding the perfect balance of fruits and vegetables without any chunks. And I think I did! I learned that I could replace meals with smoothies if I added proteins. Lack of proteins was the reason for my fatigue. And that is how I created several tables of 300 – 400 calorie great tasting chunk-less smoothies!!!

Below are the tables of smoothies recipes I want to share with you all. None of the smoothies are my original idea. I scoured the Internet and whatever I found I tried and if I liked it I added it to the table as one easy location to make my life easier.

Enjoy, Share and Comment. Thanks for Reading!

X.O.X.O.

The Fit Me

• April 30 Days Smoothie Challenge
• Meal Replacement Smoothies

Bread Alone???

Matthew 4:4

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'

Somewhere in February/March 2014 I got on the raw food bandwagon. Nobody told me that I would have hunger headaches everyday. Well maybe I was warned. Giving up warm temperature food is one of the hardest things to do and I missed pepper as well as the flavors of cooked foods.

It started off with the Healthy Wage Challenge that my employer offers. For every 4 lbs. lost in a month you earned $40. In the first week of doing this with only vegetables & no fruit. I lost 4 pounds I was very surprised I only lost 4 pounds grateful, but surprised I did not loose more; because I know had lost way more in the past by counting points on Weight Watchers. That should have been my first clue.

But somehow I was sure that raw foods were my new way of life. I started shooting for 4 lbs. per week. I still shudder thinking about the salads with no dressings. My rationale was that loosing weight without hitting the gym was fine by me. I had no plan for working out ever again. I guess the good part of it was that I drank lots and lots of water which in turn did wonders for my skin.

The downside was that I was too scared to eat regular food. To make matters worse I was going on spring break the following week. I tried so hard to be very strict, I did not gain any weight because I kept avoiding food. Which in hindsight does not make that much sense since I was on vacation. Slowly but surely I stopped following my new lifestyle strictly. I started to modify it but I was stuck at that minimal weight loss. I started wavering and daydreaming about real food and bad food.

Losing any more weight became a struggle at that point I realized that exercise is so very important. I know I have heard it many times before but I guess I had to experience it. Fitness is definitely a combination of nutrition and activity. However being that I was eating only raw vegetables I did not have the energy to even make it through my workday let alone go to the gym.

In addition I was not motivated enough to workout during the cold months. My joints and muscles hurt me during the “winter”. Yet I still could not complete another 7 full days of the raw foods. In the back of my mind I really had to reach my goal weight but I did not have the discipline to be strict. Every morning I’d make plans to eat right by the end of the day I was binging on unbalanced meals.

In an attempt not to gross anyone out, the upside was that I had a regular morning “release” which felt like all the bad things from the previous day was going down the toilet. I know that was TMI. This lifestyle has its advantages but I found that personally it did not work for me. It just isn’t a sustainable way of life. It made food the enemy.

So here I was at another junction. What shall I do next? Where shall I go? Its funny how I had a formula in the past that worked for me but here I am chasing my tail trying to beat an imaginary clock looking for MAX results.

Watch out for my subsequent post to find out what next I’m willing to try.

Lots of Hugs & Kisses XOXO

 -The Fit Me