Curiosity

In February my office got a new intern, an older woman of about 50, who had changed her lifestyle to Raw foods. She would bring in these quart sized mason jars filled with delicious looking concoctions and when I got to smell them they really did smell divine. Mint and bananas and mangos, and lemons. One even had Arugula in it! I was so curious she brought me a couple of recipe books. I looked through them and rather than wasting time debating it I thought that I’d give it a shot. What was the worst thing that could happen? It’s a smoothie not heroin.

I decided to start with fruits, yogurt; in short, things that I understood. Nothing wild and bitter like dandelion greens or Arugala. I had worked at a juice and smoothie shop once I knew the basics. Now I just needed a shopping list, a blender/food processor, and to figure out how I would work it with my schedule.

The last few days of February came and I was exhausted. I was physically at work, but mentally I was dying to go home and crawl in bed.. I have a hard job in the best of times, but some weeks are harder than others last week was not one of those weeks. By the end of the week I was done with feeling like garbage. I made a list of the fruits I enjoyed, spent $60 extra on that fruit, bought some coconut milk , greek yogurt, a food processor, and Chia seeds. I came home and read some recipes and decided to wing it. Peanut butter and banana would be my all time favorite flavor combination, so I went for it. I wanted to experiment with the chia seeds and found that Holy CRAP they….became gelatinous.  I knew this would happen but was intrigued with them. I was so freaking full after this smoothie I skipped dinner and my husband ended up with hot dogs.

It’s now been nearly six days of smoothies and it has been a great six days!

The shifts have and have not been dramatic.

This weeks menu consisted of

Bananas

frozen Strawberries

frozen Peaches

frozen Blackberries

frozen Blueberries

So Delicious Vanilla Coconut Milk

shredded dehydrated unsweetened coconut

Chia Seeds

Chobani Yogurt

peanut butter (1x)

Cinnamon

The changes I saw and felt were pretty cool.

1)      When my cycle is upon me I am usually lethargic, cranky, have a low tolerance for stress, am famished and snacking all day, craving everything I should not be eating, and am generally a moody pain in the rear. Not this time,I was cheerful, wide awake, looked at food on different terms and have been very patient.

2)      It takes all of 5 minutes to put together a smoothie, 20 if you have chia as they need to soak for 15 minutes to sprout the gel around them.

3)      I make my smoothies at night, put them in 32oz Mason jars, and in the fridge so in the morning I can grab and go. This works best for me as I cannot work even the simplest gadgets at 4am.

4)      My energy level is constant throughout the day. There is no dip in energy come 2pm! I have energy when I get home at night and that is saying something! Even when my cycle is not part of the equation I am exhausted come Wednesday.

5)      I get up when the alarm goes off at 3, rather than hit snooze for the next 20 minutes.

6)      My concentration and thought processes have improved. All week I did not battle with the situational ADD/ADHD that my work environment induces on a moment by moment basis.

7)      I found that my choices about the food I did eat were different; I have to say I do not want to look at this as a DIET. I hate that word and am against them, but I was looking at food with more scrutiny.The biggest shift, thus far, has been is it good for me or is it junk food? And can my stomach tolerate that? That sounds dreary, but I haven’t had true junk food in a week and the thought of it kind of turned my stomach.

8)      I cannot eat what I used to. I have no need for it. I grabbed a granola bar to take into a meeting and was STUFFED after half of it. Uncomfortably stuffed because I am having a difficult time wrapping my head around the fact that I don’t need that much food any more. Or solid food anyway.

9)      I still have to have my oatmeal and flax seed in the morning.

10)   I need more snacks during the day! When I get home from work at 4 I am starving and must feed in the very near future.

After thoughts:

I need to take it easy on this and not rush it. I am excited about it, but for lasting change I need to allow myself to have a little junk food and to be gentle on myself. I do not want to make this into a diet, as so many other people I have talked to about it think it is. I also don't look at them as 32oz snacks. The funniest response so far has been from my boss, she gave my 32oz lunch the look of complete disdain and started talking about the fried chicken she had for breakfast.  It’s more about eating more of what is right for your body and less of what’s bad. I have read blogs about folks who lost weight and that would be a nice bonus but I don’t want to do this for that.