Ah, But Cucumber DOES Work...

Cucumber works well in fruit smoothies, I've discovered. The flavour is light and clear, so it doesn't clash with the sweet stuff. So far I've mixed it in with a few fruit combos, the most recent being:

cucumber
cherries
yogurt
water
cranberries
ground flax

Yum!!

1 Veggie That Doesn't Work

Pea pods... they're too stringy for smoothies (Ha! So my Magic Bullet is not infallible after all ;-)

Good to know!

2 Veggies That Work With Fruit...

...in smoothies, that is. Today I added avocado and cucumber to my fruit smoothie and it was yummy (actually, is avocado a fruit? dunno).

cherries
avocado
cucumber
apple peel
banana
yogurt
water

Blend together and enjoy :-)

I'm getting bored with the same fruit combos day after day, and I'd like to broaden my nutrient intake as well, so I'm experimenting with some veggies. I don't think I want to go as far as making a "v8" style veggie drink, so instead I'm adding the odd veggie into a mostly fruit base. I'll keep you posted :-)

1 Reason I Couldn't Be On "The Biggest Loser"

... those contestants lose as much in ONE week as it took me in SIX (before I regained 75% of it and started this blog, lol).

Sheesh. If all it took to lose ten pounds was one week, I wouldn't have time to blog ;-)

I watched an episode last night (new? repeat? dunno) and a contestant had lost 17 pounds at the weigh in. When Caroline Rhea said "this week" in reference to his weight loss, I nearly fell off my chair. Mind you, these contestants are a lot bigger than I am, but still!! Holy cow - 17 pounds in one week. That's nuts. (If only it was that quick ;-)

3 Hurdles To My Weight Loss

1) Lack of motivation.

I haven't gained any more weight, and I really don't have that much to lose. This is probably my problem. If I was overweight enough to suffer health risks, then I might have more motivation. (On the other hand, someone with more than ten pounds to lose might feel too overwhelmed to even try.)

2) All or nothing mentality

This is kind of an OCD-like quality of mine. If I have one, harmless 20 calorie candy, I flip into "oh who cares, I've blown it now - I'll start tomorrow" mentality. Gets me every time (or should I say, every day ;-)

3) I love food.

Dang it. Not sure what to do about that one...

Oops... Fell Off The Scale

So today I kind of, um... "treated myself" to a Peanut Buster Parfait AND a Buster Bar, this after having a large serving of lasagne for dinner (why do I do this to myself?). Oh well. Not much I can do now (except sit on the exercise bike until 3:00 am ;-)

Kidding.

The upside was that I came up with another good smoothie combo:

1 cup water
1/4 cup vanilla ice cream
1 tbsp flax seed
1/2 cup cherries
1/2 cup cranberries

YUM...

Best Breakfast

I still have my coffee every morning ('cause ya know, it's good for me ;-) but now I also average about two to four pieces of fruit, thanks to the smoothies.

This morning it was:

1 banana
1 peach
1 kiwi
1 cup skim milk
1 tbsp wheat germ

The likelihood of me eating three pieces of fruit throughout an entire day, if I had to eat bite by bite, was slim to none. Now it's not even 10:00 am and I've had three pieces, as well as some wheat germ and milk. Not too shabby for me.

I think this should be my "get healthy" blog, instead of the "ten pounds" thing.... lol

Today It Was...

...frozen mango, fresh kiwi, wheat germ, water, and a small scoop of vanilla ice cream: YUM!!!!

That was my second smoothie today (I've been having two or three each day, but I've stopped logging them all here).

My weight hasn't changed at all, but I've had more energy that before. Hmmm... maybe enough energy to exercise??

lol

My Venture Into Frozen Fruit

Why haven't I tried frozen fruit sooner? Yum yum yum...

Frozen mango chunks
1 fresh peach
1 cup milk

Now that's one smoooooth smoothie.

I went to the grocery store today and picked up some bags of frozen fruit, for those occasions when I've run out of fresh stuff. At the moment I have so many smoothie ingredients that I can't decide what to make!! lol

Peanut Butter Perfection ;-)

This was the best smoothie yet:

1/2 cup milk
1 banana
1 tbsp wheat germ
1 tbsp peanut butter
splash of water for lighter consistency

The downside is that it's somewhere around 250-300 calories, but the upside is that in addition to being yummy and nutritious, it's quite filling. The peanut butter really makes a difference in that respect...

Today It Was...

...milk and a plum. Not a good smoothie combo. The plum was too tart, so it wasn't really palatable. It would have been better with lots of sugar, but that would have defeated the purpose ;-) On the upside, it was only about 75 calories...

Wheat Germ Works

I had my doubts about wheat germ as a smoothie ingredient because I thought the texture would be to grainy, but it was delicious:

1/2 milk
1 banana
wheat germ
cinnamon

Estimated calories: 160
(1% milk, medium sized banana)

Blend together and enjoy!!

The cinnamon worked well to tone down the woody flavour of the wheat germ a bit, and it was a nice combination. I actually added the cinnamon for its blood sugar regulating benefits, so the compatible taste was a bonus...

I Liked This One Better:

Yesterday's smoothie was yummy, but today's was better:

1/2 cup 1% milk (55 cal)
1 med. banana (70 cal)
chunks of watermelon (not sure how many calories, but pretty low I think).

The combination of the watermelon and banana was delicious, and it blended better than the avocado did (I'm assuming because the watermelon is higher in water content). Yum :-)

Mmmm.... Smoothies!!!

Now that we have another Magic Bullet, I'm going to try a smoothie a day, as a quick way to inject some nutrients into my diet.

My issue is that if it takes too long, I won't do it. I love the Magic Bullet because it's so simple to clean - the fact that you can blend your drink right in the cup you'll drink it out of means that when you're done, all you have to clean the the blade and the cup. Awesome.

Today's smoothie:

1 banana
1 medium avocado
1 cup of milk

I realize this is not exactly low cal., but it's pretty nutritious, and was very satisfying. Hopefully it will keep the munchies at bay!