My Smoothie Journal
 

I have tried and failed a few times to eat healthier. But here I go again.

:o

I splurged on a food emulsifier and started doing a smoothie thing Saturday, and thought if I try to track what I'm doing, maybe I'll keep at it longer.

I'm starting off with fruit smoothies so I don't skip breakfast - but I drink one with each meal. Very yummy!

My old blender was great - no frills, but it goes right through ice. But the new blender whips so fast there is no pulp left in the citrus. It's like it was strained. You can grind nuts in the thing, or make soup, hot soup!

:cool:

It's amazing what you can do with vanilla yogurt or coconut milk.

good for you, BGB!! :D

I learned not to skip breakfast ... and another key is to have you BIGGEST meal at lunchtime instead of supper/dinner-time ...

here's my secret (I've now lost 10 lbs in the last month) ... is to drink alot of water ... cut out SODA (except for a special occasion) ... cut out the fast foods ... no eating 2-3 hours before you go to bed ... and not to eat for 12 hours ... so, if your last meal was at 6p ... then, not to eat until 6a the next day ..

hope this helps with your smoothies ... I need to look into a blender from Santa this year!

The "Ninja Food Prep" is really terrific. I bought one recently after watching an infomercial showing all it can do and I am impressed.

My son, who is a smoothie addict, was here over Thanksgiving and he was going home to buy a Ninja for him too.

gmi

I'm not a smoothie lover, unless it's a milkshake..:D I like to munch on something, so when I diet, it's chock full salads with fatfree dressings and/or stirfry veg and lean meat.

When I was working, I'd have a breakfast smoothy....more convenient and faster.

I am glad those are working for you!

My fave was a pina colada type, after all the experiments.
Mango is a good one too! ;) I used a mango sorbet to flavor it if I couldn't get fresh.

I just have no self control, no discipline. If it's not fun, easy, and tasty, it's not happening.

so far so good. I am adding a soy based protien powder to the shakes, and I can just barely taste it, but it's okay, not yucky.. I do not love fruits - too much work, sticky, seeds get stuck in your teeth and so on. But I do love a milk shake, and that's how these are.


I have to have something right there to grab - especially with the grandkid here. When she eats, I'm eating. Bonus, she thinks that big blender is making a snack. I actually SAW her drink something nutritious. OMG!

I am not planning on making any other demands on myself, or other rules. I can eat whatever, whenever. Nothing off limits. This was not about being my own food nazi, but making an adjustment toward adding something GOOD into the wreckage. But the more good you eat, the less room you have for the other stuff.

Oh, and for two days, I notice my hair has stopped falling out by the handfuls.

Sounds good Cath!! My DD has a smoothie maker and she really likes it. It's a great way to sneak some fruit into the day and tasty, too. I have a Magic Bullet and make shakes and iced mocha coffee in it. Yummo!


Oh Salpal?? Here's a bone to chew on since you feel the need to gnaw.

I like the pina colada thing too. Actually I find I like a lot of things I never used to eat. If you don't love it, you can just put a little in, get the nutrients and hardly taste it.

;)

It takes me about 15 mins a day to mix up and clean up. I love that it's so easy to do that and to just grab something that actually tastes good and is filling. If it's this good with canned, frozen stuff, I can't wait to see how good fresh from the garden will be.

I happy for you that you are enjoying this so much. We had a blast with them too.

They are a great way to recover from illness (people will drink even tho they don't want to eat) and they are great for piccy
kids (and husbands) ...you can hide Omega-3s in there and protein. They can get the calcium from the yogurt, and it doesn't end up tasting like yogurt at all! In summer I used some ice cream, but not often, as that is loaded with calories! But it is good for a treat.

I think I am going to get the Bullet...it is on sale at Costco this week. I can't really chew almonds anymore...I just broke a tooth and had to have a root canal on it...so now I am going to have to grind up my almonds to save my teeth! :rolleyes:

If you try the Bullet, let us know what you think of it. I wouldn't mind having a little one like that for making up one serving at a time. I have the Heath Master (from Montel). This one will grind up nuts - yesterday, I put almonds and dark chocolate in green tea.

I have not lost one ounce. :o But my hair is not falling out by the handfulls, my nails are even starting to grow and I have a little more energy. Plus I'm not eating much junk food at all - even with the granddaughter around! I had her 3 weeks (10 hrs a day) and was still able to spin up drinks and stick with this.

Now she goes to her mom's for a couple weeks. She runs me ragged, but I miss her as soon as my day off comes.

I looked up the Bullet online--reviews--- and they were not
glowing...lots of pieces breaking with mild use..etc.

So I looked at it at Costco, and it was not even a good $$ deal!
I have a Braun mini food processor I've had for years, and I will just keep using that. It has a wand for smoothies. We have a very small kitchen, with little space so lots of equipment pieces are a storage challenge. All my small wall space already has shelves that are filled. I'll have to use this winter time to clean some old stuff up, I think :rolleyes: LOL

My old braun is pretty versatile. This is the new version:
http://www.brandsretail.com/braunmrdelha.html
I have an older model with a different, heavier mixing motor.
I also have a older Cuisinart...which my son is always begging for, but I am not giving it up. So the Bullet would have to be an improvement over these two...and I didn't think it would be.

I am still good to go, and that is all that matters to me at this point. (I can be a sucker for a good informercial, and have to have good control watching them !:rolleyes: )

Glad you looked at the reviews on the bullet! That is one of THE best things now, is being able to know what is good or bad about things BEFORE you get stuck with them!

:)

Well, two weeks into the smoothie thing. You know, fruit is like flowers, they all mix well. I've tried them all with lime juice, orange juice (I never drink it but it goes well as a base), coconut milk and soy milk. I've added vanilla yogurt, regular or frozen.

Not even once have I jonsed for candy. No junk food. No frozen dinners - except frozen pizza one night.

And I have pretty much given up diet coke too - because I'm always drinking something else, smoothie or water, so never thirsty.

Still haven't lost any weight, but feel better lol.

I'm glad you are feeling better... that is the end point that matters.

I did alot of smoothies when I was working out heavily. They were very satisfying for my muscles! I added whey protein for that reason.

I haven't done them lately. I have discovered that I have a fructose intolerance...so I am really limited now on fruit. (and sugar). So I eat the Carbmaster (low carb) yogurt from Kroger's instead now. It has whey and only 4 gms of carbs in it. It satisfies my need for fruit quite well (80cal/cup). The only fruit I can eat is one orange a day. Anything else sets me off. Even bananas ! :confused:

I am taking 1000mg of Ester C daily instead.

The downside of this is it's really hard to calculate calories. These things have gotta be pretty high. Phase 2 is working in some veggie recipies and finding more things that are good with green tea.

There were no decent tomatoes around, so maybe I'll have to try canned (local). Those are pretty tasty.

You know, the canned tomatoes by Hunt's and DelMonte are really good. There are some by DelMonte that are seasoned.
I use them for my chilis. The quality of the stewed tomatos in cans has really improved IMO. They must be processing them differently.

I drink alot of low sodium V8.... this is very high in potassium.
Higher than most RX potassium pills! So doing veggies will give you some good electrolytes to run on. Buying it at Costco is about 50 cents a can for me. I sometimes fortify beef soup/stew with V8.