Fruits and Vegetables for Weight Loss... and Other Wonderful Things. Who Knew?

In my last post I walked you through my intro to green smoothies.  Now it's been a few months and I'd like to point out a few things that I've noticed.  I took a green smoothie break over the Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays and I ate pretty darn much whatever I wanted.  Enter 8 pounds - stage right.  That extra 8 pounds that I had seemingly *just* lost was making me miserable.  I felt like a sausage stuffed into my clothes, I was irritable and tired and just yucky overall.  I decided it was time to get back on track.  I didn't really notice so many changes when I first started drinking smoothies, but I noticed a lot of things when I stopped..

I noticed my nails.  While on smoothies my nails were strong, healthy, and were able to grow out longer than I can remember them ever growing (well maybe that one time I was on Slim-Fast).

My hair has grown and it was shinier, but I noticed it starting to get dull any dry again.

I was tired.  When I drank smoothies I didn't need caffeine.  I kicked it without a second thought.  I didn't drag my feet all day at work, I walked with purpose and dodged and weaved around slower walking people.

They also helped to regulate my bowels and control stomach bloat.

That's pretty big right there.  At first they did make me feel sick and gave me headaches, but that only lasted about the first week.  Now, even after not drinking them for a month I've had no problems returning to drinking them.  I crave them.  I crave fruits and vegetables.  That's *insane*.  All my life, I've never particularly been a fan of salads - the other night I ate one with a vengeance, it just tasted so good! I thought I had lost my mind, truly.

The past two weeks I've been eating a truckload of fruits and vegetables.  Well, at least what I consider to be a truckload.  I get at least 5 servings if not 8 or 10 or more.  Typically I can get at least 4 or 5 of those servings just from my morning smoothie.

I know it sounds like I'm trying to sell you on these things... but well I am.  If you try it, just for two weeks you just may love it.  Not to mention, it the last week and a half I've lost five pounds.  My cravings are greatly diminished and I've consistently been able to walk past the glass candy dish full of chocolate truffles without even wanting one.  That's flipping amazing.  I can't deny chocolate, who am I??

Now I did have a bit of a stumble one night that included way too many frozen mini eclairs (darn my brother for bringing those tiny temptations in the house) but I had planned that day for a higher calorie dinner.  I tracked everything I ate, every darn one of those eclairs.  I've learned that you have to balance things out.  Yes I had a glass of wine and three biscuit pizzas and (cough cough unsaid number) eclairs, but I also had a salad which kept me from eating even more.  I also planned lower calorie meals earlier that day, and had a lower calorie day the next day as well as adding in a little exercise.

I'm getting there.. one step at a time.

Now, it's off for a mushroom and spinach egg white omelet.  I save my smoothies for work days (they're super fast to make and portable woot!) to make sure I don't get burnt out, but I may still have one later for a snack.. they're just darn tasty.

Attack of the Green Monster!

Late last week I started to feel a bit of sickness coming on.  Wednesday I had gone to give blood and felt fine.  I think the lady doing my preliminary work up must have made me paranoid.  She seemed very concerned about my blood pressure, which was 102/60 or something similar (totally normal for me) and she was also very concerned about my temperature - 99.0.  Okay so maybe it's a teeny tiny fever but I felt fine and honestly, working at a hospital it's not that unusual for my body to be fighting something off all the time.  

Anyway, I gave blood and felt like a champ (especially after eating my Krispy Kreme doughnut).  Until the next day at work that is.  I felt sluggish, feverish, and had a scratchy throat.  When I went to the cafeteria at work I walked around to see what my choices were and when I walked past the fruit bar I honestly don't think anything had been so appealing in a long time.  It was delicious and wonderous.  Yes I just made up a word.

That evening I stopped by the grocery store to pick up some oranges and a few other things jumped into my cart.  Frozen strawberries, bananas, plain yogurt, spinach it just all sounded like things that would help me fight off the pending sickness.

I honestly don't even know where the idea came from, I've heard of green smoothies before but they always seemed weird and scary - way too hard core for me.  I decided that it was time to put on my big girl pants and give it a shot.  So this is the chronicle of the beginning of my green smoothie experiment.