As I said in the post before this one I have decided to try the whole green smoothie craze. Though, I don’t know if it counts as a craze per say…how does one decide that?
Anyways! I started joining this bandwagon by doing a lot of googling, it netted me some useful information but also a lot of contradicting information.
The highlights that stuck in my head are:
-use fruit to hide the taste of the veggies
– use kale, because apparently it isn’t a “real” green smoothie if there isn’t kale in there
– remember it is a meal, so don’t eat all your meals aaaand drink the smoothie cause that’ll be too many calories in a day
– add the green stuff gradually so you have time to get used to it
Seems pretty easy, right?
I decided to make my regular protein shake and add green veggies to it since the recipes I was reading for green smoothies seemed vaguely similar, shrug. There are probably some green smoothie purist out there who will shudder when they read what was in my green smoothies but oh well, I’m the one who had to drink it and I wanted to make sure it tasted ok lol
This is day two of my green smoothie kick and the first consistent thing I noticed right off that bat is…my green smoothie isn’t green…
reddish. not green. there is no green colour there…
In real life the smoothie in the above picture looked more red than the brown it looks in the picture, due to the raspberries.
My smoothie today had:
1 scoop protein powder
1 tsp omega 3 oil
1 banana
1 cup of frozen fruit (today was mango and raspberry)
1/2 cup greek unsweetened yogurt
1 cup almond milk, unsweetened
broccoli, some sliced carrots and a mixture of baby greens that included kale and spinach
These are the baby greens I bought for the smoothies:
No, I did not jump on to the organic bandwagon also, all the packages of kale I could find were organic, so I bought the cheapest, it was just coincidence it had the cutest name lol
According to the label it is a “nutritious salad mix of baby kale, baby spinach and other baby greens.”
Yesterdays smoothie was better, I had only added the mixed greens, not the broccoli and carrots so it was not as thick. If I’m going to add more solid veggies like that again I think I will have to add a bit more liquid, or some ice, to help thin it out.
It wasn’t a bad drink today, it was just, not as good lol Towards the end I could feel the broccoli, the bush type part of the broccoli, in my mouth, I guess when I poured the smoothie that part sunk a bit so I got it all towards the end of the drink. Which again, didn’t make it bad, it’s just not the consistency I am used to when drinking a shake…er…smoothie. The fruit taste wasn’t as strong today, I guess the ratio of veggie to fruit was too close for the fruit to stand out flavour wise, I don’t really want to add more fruit to the smoothie though because of the naturally high sugar content fruit tends to have buuuuut I want to make sure I am putting enough veggies in there to make it worth my while.
This is becoming a complicated balance to find, especially since I am trying to find it via trial and error lol 😛
The smoothie is definitely a meal though, it fills me right up and I don’t even miss having something to bite in to. Which is something I worried about. I’ve decided to try taking them as my work meal, at least for my evening shifts. They’ll be easier to “eat” at work on that shift since I don’t get an actual break and my ability to eat anything is limited to the desk being quiet enough I can escape for 5 minutes to warm something up and then scarf it down from an office that has the door open so I can be summoned at a moments notice either by phone or by someone coming to the desk. This way I can just sip on the smoothie as I sit at the desk and not worry about it. 🙂
I don’t know if swapping out a meal that may or may not have been healthy for a shake that may or may not be healthy (I haven’t calculated calories or fat or anything yet) will aid in my weight loss, but I know I felt better after drinking them. Not better as in I all of a sudden felt energized and could feel the kale doing wonderous things to my body but better as in there is no guilt associated with drinking a smoothie. I know all the ingredients in it, I know they are all healthy, and having it as a meal left me feeling I had made a good choice food wise for myself.
Tags: baby kale, baby spinach, fat, green smoothie, healthy choices, healthy eating, losing weight, Organic Girl, protein shake
The Amazing Shrinking Woman 