Why Green Smoothies?

I know I've done posts on this before, but I feel the need to do it again so click away now if your not interested in having more energy, glowing skin, reversing the aging process... well, you get the picture.

I started drinking green smoothies two years ago when I found out I had high levels of mercury and it was suggested that I start eating more cilantro. While I ate a small amount of cilantro in salsa and other mexican dishes, I felt I needed a way to get more of it in my system the fastest, least offensive way. About the same time the cilantro was recommended, I was reading about kale, how great it is and how everyone was putting it in their green smoothies. I decided those were the two ingredients I needed on a regular basis. I purchased a Vitamix which is GREAT! It blends everything up fast and very fine. Not like the blender I'm having to use now because the Vitamix is still in Birmingham. Temporarily!

I just can't tell you how much better I feel and how much better my skin looks since drinking these. I have one a day, 3 to 5 days a week. I add whatever fruits we have on hand, almost always a banana, cranberry juice, vanilla almond milk, protein powder, turmeric, cinnamon, flax seed (ground), sometimes walnuts, berries, pear, apple - whatever we have on hand. I usually add at least 2 or 3 fruits.

My husband thinks I over do it, but I'm always adding lots of things to it. It's a great way to get large amounts of greens and fruit, which I wouldn't do if it wasn't all blended together in smoothie form. I even added herbs last summer from our garden. Basil, mint and rosemary are particularly good. I add honey too since I like it a little more sweet and 2 handfuls of ice because it tastes much better cold. In the above smoothie, I even added a little avocado. I've added beets before, but they have a very strong taste. I felt like the cilantro and beets were battling out on my taste buds. Not good!! Healthy though!

Here's a list of most of the things I have added to my green smoothie and the health benefits of each. I always add Kale, Cilantro, Banana, Turmeric, Cinnamon, Protein Powder, Cranberry Juice and Honey. The other things are interchangeable.

Kale - Vitamin K, magnesium, iron, fiber, great detox food among other things. Read more about health benefits Here.

Cilantro - detoxing, binds with mercury and removes it from tissues, antibacterial, anti inflammatory

Banana - High in potassium, energy food

Walnuts- oleic acid, Omega 3.  Read the many health benefits Here.

Flax Seed- Omega 3's, fiber (better ground these babies good!)

Beets- Natural liver detox, cleanses the blood

Avocado - healthy fat, helps body absorb some nutrients, Vitamin E, lowers cholesterol

Cranberry Juice - good for kidney and bladder health although I use the diet version so I don't know how strong that is or if it has enough cranberry in it to do any good but it is the "water" for my smoothie so it isn't too thick.

Almond Milk - Vitamin E for skin health, Vitamin A for eye health, Vitamin D, more nutrients than regular dairy milk. I like the Vanilla unsweetened Almond Milk. Great in cereal too!

Protein Powder- amino acids for muscle repair and rebuild. Read more of the benefits Here.

Turmeric - anti-inflammatory, cancer fighting, heart health, anti-oxidant. GREAT stuff!

Cinnamon - regulates blood sugar, heart health. Read more benefits Here.

Berries - flavonoids and phytochemicals, help fight mental decline, heart health, diabetes

Pear- antioxidants, fight free radicals, heart health and makes a tasty green smoothie!

Apple-read the many benefits Here. My favorite health benefit of apples is quercetin - an antioxidant, anti inflammatory, also found to increase endurance and athletic performance. Quercetin is also  found in red wine so drink up!!

Basil- powerful antioxidant, anti-ageing benefits. Read more benefits Here.

Mint- soothes aches, pains and stomach problems, antiseptic and antibacterial, freshens breath

Rosemary- fights cancer, improves memory among many other things to many to list. Read more Here.

Honey- anti fungal, improves athletic performance, natural sweetener that makes smoothie taste great. Many more benefits Here.

Ginger Root - Soothes stomach, aids in digestion

Have I forgotten anything? What do you add to your green smoothies?

It's Not Really Grass Clippings For Lunch

I'm trying to eat healthier these days and I'm still doing the green smoothie for lunch 3 or 4 days of the week.  I know it doesn't look very appetizing in that picture above, but I promise it is very refreshing and I have the recipe down now and it is actually very good.

Remember last year when I found out I had high levels of mercury and lead in my body (blog post Here ) and it was suggested that I use cilantro to help chelate it naturally out of my system.

Well, that's exactly what I've been doing and I already feel better.  No more "brain fog."  I haven't had my mercury levels tested lately because of the expense, but I am still adding plenty of cilantro to my green smoothies every week.

Ingredients for my favorite green smoothie are :  Kale, cilantro, banana, pear or apple, honey, flax seed, cinnamon, turmeric, protein powder, ginger or ginger root, almond milk, diet cranberry juice, herbs such as basil, mint, rosemary, honey, sometimes walnuts, fiber such as Benefiber (otherwise you'll be pooping like a rabbit after eating all that greenery).  Oh, and ice.  Add a couple of handfuls of ice.

I think I have covered just about all the food groups here.  I also add Diet Cranberry juice to the smoothie, but I thought I was out the day I took this picture.  The Murph pointed out that I had a back up bottle in the pantry.  I totally didn't see it and the smoothie wasn't as good.  I added too much almond milk to make up for the lack of cranberry juice and it just wasn't as good.  It only needs a splash of almond milk and about a cup (or less) of cranberry juice. I also add a splash of either lemon juice or lime juice.

I love to add fresh herbs if I have them.  Just a little, but it gives it a really good flavor and added antioxidants.

 I use to take a flaxseed pill every night, but now I add flaxseed to my smoothie.  I grind them up first in the coffee grinder before adding it to the blender.  A trick my husband taught me.

This is a very satisfying lunch and it keeps me from wanting to snack during the rest of the day.

Sort of.  But I have cookies stashed away if I need a snack.  Healthy cookies like Fig Newtons cause everybody knows that figs are good for you.  Right?

At the grocery store today, I was sure I needed a back up bottle of wine although the Murph said I already had a back up.  I said no, I opened the back up bottle last night.  He insisted that no, I had another back up in the pantry.  He was certain.  I said no.

To be on the safe side, I went ahead and got another bottle just in case.  Of course, when we got home, the Murph pointed out first thing that he was right and I had a back up bottle hidden in the back of the pantry.

Way in the very back, so how was I to know!

He was right about the cranberry juice and now he's right about the wine.

He loves being right!

Oh well, now I have a back up bottle of wine for my back up bottle of wine.

You can never be too prepared!

The State Of Things

Cadence totally ignoring me.

This past week I have been a little off, a little "hormonal" I think.  At first I blamed it on the 20 mile run I did on Saturday.  It was tough.  And slow.  And tough!  Maybe it was because I didn't have any caffeine or maybe I didn't eat enough Gu.  Who knows.  It was a struggle.  First water stop and I'm asking if we are at the 8 mile mark yet.  Nope, only three.  Can't be!  Uggg!

Then today I'm suppose to meet the Running Nazi, uhhhhhhh, I mean L, to run 5 miles at 5:30 am.  I wake up with a huge headache so I try to text her that I'm not running.  I can't get my phone to text right.  Or maybe it's my fingers.  My head gets worse.  The cats think it's time for breakfast since I'm up.  They start their pleading and meowing.  I ignored them and go back to bed.

Phantom in one of those rare moments when he's not in time out.

That's the way this week has been.  The cats have been driving me nuts!  They want snacks ALL the time!  And they didn't even run 20 miles!  Today when I get home from working out, Cadence follows me around the kitchen meowing.  Demanding little thing!  I'm trying to find something for lunch.  I'm starving.  He's already been fed.  I scrape up baked beans and peanut butter crackers for lunch.  That's all I could find.  No bagels, no chicken salad, no balance bars, no soup.  We REALLY need to go to the grocery store but that's tomorrow!

Cat Cocaine

As I'm walking out of the kitchen with my bowl of baked beans, totally ignoring the little cry baby, he runs up behind me and bites the crap out of my leg.  How dare I not give him some party mix!  I am NOT allowed to leave the kitchen without giving him a snack.  But now there's no way I'm rewarding that kind of behavior by giving him a snack.  No way.

Then I'm feeling all hormonal and craving sugar, salt, something that's bad for me.  All we have are butter mints left over from the wedding.  I'm shoving them in my mouth when The Murph walks in and discovers my desperation.  He warns me about what happens when I eat too much mint.  It isn't good!  Unfortunately, it was all I had at the time and I was desperate!

Yesterday, I tried to get back on my green smoothie kick, but there's no kale and very little cilantro and what's left is kind of rotten and mostly stems.  Also, the protein powder is Berry flavored!  I like vanilla.  The universe is conspiring against me.  I can't deal in such a delicate hormonal state!

Our herbs are a pretty pitiful sight too!  No more basil or mint for the smoothies.

The pool is doing much better now that all the yellow algae has died, but look at all the leaves.  The pool will be covered in a few days.  Summer's over.

Phantom doesn't care about the state of the pool.  He just wants to get outside and chase the chipmunks.   He's already forgotten about the "flea" infestation problem he had most of the summer because I let him outside.

Not again little buddy!  I learned my lesson!

My wedding dresses are still draped over the door to the Murph's office/man cave.  Yesterday, he asked me what I planned to do with them.  By leaving them on his door I'm seriously threatening his man card.  I suppose I should get them cleaned at some point.  Maybe even preserve the long one.

Things got much better this afternoon.  We went down to the Social Security Office and officially changed my name to my new married one.  On the way we stopped by the drugstore to replenish our vitamins and while there I replenished my sugar stash.  Animal crackers and some candy pumpkins.

 I'm so happy now!  New name official, lots of sugary snacks, I think I will survive this hormonal state (unless one of the cats bites me again).

And I noticed today that we don't even need fake cobwebs on our house for Halloween decorations.  We have REAL ones all over the place!  Is that great or what??

Last but not least, I worked out twice today, am on my second glass of wine and The Murph is cooking dinner.  Can't get any better than that!

Life is great!

Chelating Green Smoothie

I recently got a heavy metal test on my hair and found that I have 3x the high level of mercury. That means there is a level that is considered high (most people apparently have traces of heavy metals) and I am 3x over that limit.   It was recommended that I chelate (remove) the mercury and they gave me some natural ways to do it.   My level of lead was also a tad bit high.  I was surprised when they suggested the herb Cilantro, which is used in salsa and other Mexican dishes.  I did some research and was surprised at all the benefits of this herb.  The benefits of cilantro can be found here.

I had heard about the green smoothie fad that's been going around with Kale being one of the main ingredients. Read more about the benefits of kale here.   The Murph and I had talked about buying kale and creating our own smoothie concoction with it.  The Murph drinks his smoothie concoction every day and I have my standard one when I'm training long and need additional calories and protein.  However, none of these smoothies had anything green in it.  When I found out about my high mercury levels I immediately decided to do something about it.

Yesterday I created my own personalized green smoothie using Kale, 1/2 Banana, Cilantro, small slice of Avocado, Apple slices, Pear slice, Cranberry juice, 1/2 scoop Protein powder.

I have to say it wasn't that tasty.  I used way to much Cilantro and threw the stems and all in the smoothie.  Not good.  Today I put less cilantro and made sure I only included the leaves not the stem and I added a small amount of Turmeric and Cinnamon.  I added a full scoop of protein powder and some cranberry juice with 1/2 banana and pear slices and a slice of avocado.

You can also put spinach and different seeds (flaxseed, chia seed) in the smoothie. The Murph always puts flax seeds in his smoothie, as well as chili powder and ginger root.

Then Dr. Oz had his green smoothie recipe in last months People magazine.  There was an entire article on his 2 day detox program which included two different kinds of smoothies, green and berry, as well as a recipe for detox vegetable soup.  He used pineapple in his green smoothie.

Here's my final product and it was delicious.  Well, delicious for a green smoothie with a strong herb such as cilantro.  I am going to keep doing this at least 5 days a week minimum in hopes that it will chelate the mercury in my body.  I am also thinking about removing the silver filling in my tooth and replacing it with the white ones.  I only have one silver one left because all the others I got as a child have been replaced with white ones.  I am not really sure how I got such high levels of mercury in my body or how long it's been that high.  That's something I will probably never know.  Three times over the high limit is way too high not to take action though.

We just ordered some Chlorella, a green algae super food, that aids the cilantro in heavy metal removal and  NAC- N acetyl cysteine,  which also helps remove toxins from the body.  Using NAC was suggested in my hair report.  Chlorella I came across on my own.  I am also taking a garlic supplement because I read an article that says it is suppose to aid the cilantro and the chlorella in the removal of the  heavy metals.

Now I just have to get the Boy to drink one of these things.  He doesn't eat enough green vegetables and has trouble swallowing multi-vitamins.  This is a great way for him to get his daily servings of fruits and vegetables and I can customize it for him any way he likes or whatever I think he needs.  I've done this before when he was really stressed out in high school.  I added some botanical stress relief drops from GNC, a powder multi-vitamin from GNC to make sure he was getting enough B vitamins and vitamin C, some fruit- banana and strawberries,  protein powder and yogurt.  He really liked it.  I hope he will drink a smoothie that has leafy greens in it.

I feel better already after only two green smoothies. It's a great way to get nutrients.  My skin looks better and I have more energy.  I hope I am removing some of the high levels of mercury in my body as well and that the NAC will help my asthma and lung health as it is chelating!

Either way, eating more green, leafy vegetables is probably not a bad thing.

Disclaimer - I am not a doctor or nutritionist or even close, but I self diagnose all the time.   I don't even like doctors very much right now after what happened to me last week.   This post is just my ideas and opinions on what I like and use.  You're on your own if should decide to try any of these smoothie/supplement ideas. Please don't hold me responsible in any way.   Good luck!

May cause gas or green skin.  Does not taste as good as cookies or donuts.