Sit rep

Sit-Rep .... Am I as thin as a rake?

I am over 8 months into my adventure now!

You may ask me, has it been a success?

My answer is....... "that depends on your perspective"

You might expect me to say that I am as thin as a rake and I have lost so much weight and I have needed to buy an entire new wardrobe of smaller clothes. I HAVE lost a little bit of weight, I've yo-yo'd between 10 and 14 lbs, so I HAVE lost a little bit, so from this perspective, you could say that it hasn't been a roaring success.

However, the feeling of well-being is a less tangible concept..... you can't physically see well being in someone without the comparison to how they were in the past.

I'd like to tell you that in the last half a year, I feel like a new person. All of my friends and family have commented that I seem to be more vibrant and happy than I was before I started drinking two smoothies a day.

I wasn't aware that I was miserable before........... but there you are!

I am quite sad that people who know me expect me to be really unhappy that I haven't lost much weight. No matter how many times I tell them that this isn't about weight loss for me. It's about happiness, wellness and ultimately extending my life.

I quite enjoy not being dead.

So that is one reason that I am a little sad. The fact that people don't fully understand.

I also find it a little irritating when people ask me "Don't you find that it is a lot of hard work making fresh smoothies every day?"

To Which I say, "What? Putting a few raw ingredients into a blender, which I then switch on and let run for 2 minutes?"

"Then pouring the smoothie into a glass?"

"No, I don't find it hard work, at all"

This sort of attitude tells me that we live in a world where people thing that its unusual to not eat pre-prepared, vacuum-packed, highly processed microwave meals and I have an increased feeling that people such as us need to lead the way, like founding fathers (and mothers) and we need to change the world, one smoothie at a time.

I am now firmly placed in my middle age, as I have told you many times.

When I was younger, I didn't get angry about anything........I think I was having too much fun, and you often hear that people get calmer as they get more mature. This has NOT happened to me.

I am seething at food producers for filling our foods with sugars that make us obese, sweeteners that give us cancer, salt that makes our blood so thin that we cant get  oxygen to our organs, and saturated fat that makes our arteries more furry than a muppet.

These people cannot be stopped by affirmative action, so we need to just stop buying their poison, we need to get their attention when they start seeing their profits being affected and I am happy to say that people like us are VERY SLOWLY getting their attention.

We need to be the soldiers of a very gentle, organic revolutionary war.

Try This

Peanut Butter-Spinach Smoothie serves 1 large

4 cups fresh baby spinach

1/2 cup non-fat plain Greek yogurt or Almond yogurt

1 banana, frozen

3/4-1 cup unsweetened almond milk

1 tablespoon natural peanut butter (yes, that's really all you need)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

                                                              1 tablespoon chia seeds

Blend on high until combined. If you are using a very powerful blender, like the Vita-Mix, you'll only need 3/4 cup of the almond milk to combine. Otherwise, you'll probably need the whole cup.

Oh it's yummy. I'm so sad my smoothie is gone. I am so looking forward to tomorrow! And, since I know someone will ask, yes you can use almond butter for peanut butter (but the peanut butter is so good!), and you can sub a different kind of milk if you'd like. Just try and stick with unsweetened. The drink is sweet enough on it's own.