Green Smoothies

Literally :-)

A banana as a base, or maybe some mango... or if you are being local food minded then maybe a pear or apple (in season of course!). Stuff it in the blender or through the juicer and blitz up the pulp or juice with a few handfuls of greens. Spinach is good, although don't do that too often as the oxylaic acid is a blocker. Personally I go for good, garden grown greens; usually lettuce of some sort or another, or a bit of kale, or rocket, or pea shoots (oh, now those are super yummy!). You can easily use the pieces of those that you might not want to eat - cosmetically a bit bleurgh, but following a careful pick over and wash quite edible :-) Maybe add in a handful of berries - from the freezer if you like to make it thicker.

Let it down with a bit of other juice or some nut mylk if you want something thin enough to go up a straw. Or leave it nice and thick and have it like a good, long pudding :-) You can go a long way towards the recommended 2-3 portions of greens a day with a good green smoothie.

What to eat

So reading around the issues, its becoming apparent that there are several foods that come up time and time again as great for both nutrition, and for weight loss. Some articles or writers even go as far as to describe them as 'superfoods' (although I'm really doubtful about that term, as I suspect that its really easy to use such a status as a reason to eat something to excess, that isn't at all 'green', to justify giving something a high cost (and making yourself a hefty profit into the process) or just to justify why someone should eat something that isn't that great to eat!!).

Anyway.... thus far, in my eyes anyway, the list of 'goodies' (and some of them are so yummy as to definately *be* goodies) is this:

Kale
Quinoa
Oats
Apples
Olives (Olive Oil)
Taragon
Buckwheat
Blueberries
Almonds (although some sources say 'almond butter' rather than the whole nut)
Chillies
Pomegranates
Lentils
Goji Berries
Avocados
Basil
Cinnamon

And that is far from the exhaustive list, its just those things that are considered 'mainstream' foods....

Ticking over

The lack of actual weight loss continues....


But the 'credit crunch' is producing some interesting articles in magazines and the press. 'Beat the credit crunch and lose weight' is the lead article in one magazine this month. It seems, in the main, to consist of suggesting that you swap museli for 'cheap' porridge, that you eat mackeral rather than any other protein source, and that you don't need 'expensive' cheese or tinned anything (and then goes on to suggesting that a medium sized potato with baked beans is both a cheap and nutritious evening meal, with a calorie count of about 300.) It fails to suggest that vegetables could be a part of this....

Hmm - well eating less will cost you less money... but you need to both eat less, and eat properly, to successfully lose weight.

Obviously I don't manage either.

No change here

Having an oven again is definately fatal. Mind you, so is wet weather and the subsequent lack of desire to cycle anywhere.

No weight lost, although I feel lighter, and the sit ups are paying off in inches/tone terms. Just need to persuade the children that the exercise is a *good idea*....