Fit for an Ogre

Okay. So, I know this is cheesy, but seriously, there are only so many ways to photograph a green smoothie. We had the cups, so it worked out perfectly. :) My husband and I bought these cups together when we were just dating (and still eating McDonald's foods). While we no longer indulge in McDonald's franchise, the cups are still pretty cute, and they are a nice reminder of the early days of our relationship.

This particular green smoothie is our version of Kimberly Snyder's Glowing Green Smoothie (a.k.a. GGS on her blog). If you haven't yet heard about Kimberly Snyder, don't feel too badly. I hadn't either until two days ago. I went into a new vitamin store (new to me, not the area) to pick up my probiotics. When I was checking out, one of the cashiers asked if I'd like to take a magazine home. The front cover displayed the words "HEALTH" (Extraordinary Health) in large letters and boasted articles about the USDA Organic seal and some extremely healthy athletes, so I said, "Sure." What do I really have to lose by taking home a free magazine? Apparently, I had more to gain than I realized.

Not only was the magazine pretty good, full of well-written, thought-provoking, fun and informative articles, it got my husband interested. Man, do I love things that grab his attention toward the health world. We are just beginners taking our baby steps in this journey, and neither of us were raised this way. Therefore, when I don't have to try extra hard to convince him, and he not only reads something but genuinely finds it interesting enough to share with me, I might literally hear a "Hallelujah" chorus ringing in my head.

I'll get that checked into later, but for now, let's talk more about Kimberly Snyder. Apparently, she is very in demand and works with a number of A-listers to better their health. All in all, this fact means almost nothing to me. I don't mean to sound snotty. I just don't tend to follow Hollywood and their trends. However, after reading the article about her recent book Beauty Detox Solution and reading about her 3 year travels around the world (50 countries in all!), I was interested enough to go download a free sample of her book from Amazon. After reading just the intro, I was ready to purchase the book. 

She is so passionate, and she employs some of the same philosophies my husband and I have recently adapted after my months of research on Candida Albicans. I don't want to give away too much information about her as I do want you to go check it out for yourself, but suffice it to say, she is very excited about health and beauty the natural way. That is very exciting to me. :)

Her Glowing Green Smoothie recipe can be found on her blog, and we tweaked it a bit. We will have to continue to do more tweaking because our budget does not allow for a 5oz box of baby spinach on a daily basis at the moment, but I can honestly say, as choc full of greens as it is, it tastes surprisingly well. I always tell people who are interested in the way my husband and I are eating now that I can guarantee you, I do not eat things that don't taste good. I am not going to try to force myself to eat disgusting things in the name of health. While I can say that changing your diet to a mostly raw diet takes some adjusting from the typical American red meat and sugar loaded diet, I can guarantee you, I do not eat things that taste disgusting. :)

First Draft Tweaking of the Glowing Green Smoothie

• 4 cups chopped organic baby spinach
• 1 head of chopped organic romaine hearts
• 1 cups of water
• 2 stalks of organic celery chopped
• 1 cored, chopped organic apple
• 2 pitted, sliced organic peaches
• 1 ripe banana
• 1 cup Silk Unsweetened Almond Milk (Silk is a Non-GMO brand)
• 1 cup plain organic yogurt
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 4 tbsp chia seeds

I followed Kimberly's instructions on how to blend. We had to decrease the size of the original amount because my old blender only allows for 48oz. This recipe will actually yield the full 64oz (2-4servings), but we mixed the almond milk and yogurt in at the end by hand. If you don't feel like looking back and forth to directions and ingredients, here is what we did: Place 1 cup of water in the blender with chopped spinach and romaine. Blend on a slow speed as you chop the other ingredients. Once those are blended smoothly, add in the chia seeds, celery, apples, and peaches slowly as you slowly increase the speed of the blender to high speed. Add the lemon juice and banana last. If you have a 64oz blender, go ahead and add the Almond Milk and yogurt. If you do not, add them to the pitcher once you have poured your smoothie mix into it. I put mine in the fridge for awhile to cool because we didn't have any ice on hand. If you have ice and space in your blender, feel free to add the ice to the blender!

I think this is a really good base to start with and expand to try different fruits and vegetables. Kimberly recommends 70% vegetables and 30% fruits in these smoothies. I swear it tasted good to us. My husband drank his with no complaints. Just be sure to blend it long enough to get as smooth a consistency as you can. I blended for a few minutes because I didn't want my blender to overheat, and there were no chunks.

Let me know how it turns out for you, and I hope to let you know what I think of her book. I also signed up to receive her blogs in my e-mail. Oh! And for those of you who don't know yet, I am down my 17th pound today! My husband has lost 38 pounds, and we started this journey on March 22nd, 2012. Mine and my husband's goals are  to be 130 and 200 respectively by March 22nd, 2013. I have 53 pounds to lose. My husband has 90, and our goals for each month are about 6lbs for me and about 11lbs for him. So far, it is going exceedingly well!