Smoothies, eh? – Women’s Coach

So I have been having a smoothie for lunch since Tuesday. Now, I am certainly not the type of girl to enjoy a ‘liquid lunch’ as you will. I have been surprised at just how full I am on these little smoothies of mine! The best bit? My toddler loves them too! Yes, I have photographic proof. Not only is it a good way for ME to get in my dark, leafy greens (someone help me if I ever start to enjoy kale), but for Q to get hers as well-a fantastic source of calcium for both of us non-dairy types!

See, there is green around her mouth! She loved it!

It all started when I realised that I wasn’t ACTUALLY eating much during the week. I’d pick here and there, eat the rest of Q’s lunch, maybe have some boiled egg. Nothing special and definitely not all that nutritious. I’ve always known that green smoothies and juices are the way to go. Kris Carr, Rachel Brathen, Tiffany Cruikshank are just a few of the more well known folks that swear by juicing or making smoothies. It wasn’t until I ran across this MindBodyGreen article by Tiffany and got her book, Optimal Health, that I really gave the smoothie idea some thought. I am in the process of looking at the NutriBullet to properly juice as well! It is all about detoxing which I plan to do but in a slower fashion-this is the beginning of it. So yeah, anyway. I started on Tuesday…by Thursday I had an awful awful headache but I powered through. Lots of water, not too much coffee (ahh!), and by that evening, felt fine. Other than that, I have been enjoying my lunchtime and sometimes breakfast smoothie! At least I know that I am getting some fantastic, raw nutrients. Below are some recipes you can try to make your own as well as photos of mine! Wake Me Up Juice

Yields about 2 cups (16 ounces)

Ingredients

3 cups chopped kale
1 cup watercress
Bunch of mint
2 green apples
1 medium cucumber
1/2 lime

Directions

Wash and prep the ingredients. Peel cucumber and apples if using non-organic.

Run all the ingredients through the juicer. You can use a blender as well, just take the pips out. I’d also blend the greens together with the cucumber first-seems to make the bits smaller!

Creamy Green

1 avocado (ripe, peeled and pit removed-I freeze mine!)

1 frozen small to medium banana (ripe and peeled)

1 orange (peeled and seeds removed)

½-1 cup of spinach

1-1 ½ cups of unsweetened vanilla almond milk

For a sweeter smoothie, use 1 tbsp of Grade B maple syrup, raw agave nectar, or 1 pitted medjool date

*Optional: 5-6 ice cubes

Island Blast

1 small to medium banana (ripe and peeled)

1 rib of celery

¼ cucumber (peeled if not organic)

1 cup of fresh or frozen pineapple

1 small handful of parsley

½ inch piece of ginger (or less if you’re new to ginger)

1-2 cups of coconut water (unpasteurized)

Taken from this MindBodyGreen article

So there you go, my take on the green smoothie-enjoy and happy juicing/smoothie-ing!