Start HERE !!

Oh all the hallaballoo over New Years’ resolutions and our health makes me insane.

Really?

Nothing like putting a ton of extra pressure on yourself and doubling up on the guilt after enjoying the holiday season with your family and BFFs.  Come on!  Do NOT try rectify every self-perceived wrong doing you perpetuated on your body from Thanksgiving to New Year’s day  by doing a complete 180 and coming completely clean all at once.  It won’t work!  It NEVER does.

What do we hear more and more about these days?  Sustainability, right?  If you want to improve your diet with good, strong  and sustainable change  start slowly.  Yes, you read that right, slowly.  Nothing makes us want to eat more than self-imposed restrictions.  Nothing.

“oh I can’t, thanks…I’m on a diet.”

Like it’s going to be okay to eat it when the diet’s over?  Be realistic.  Put your big girl pants on and pull the damn things up.

So here is my suggestion for starting out the New Year.  Are you ready?  Sitting down?  Commit to one changed meal per day, but do it EVERY day, without exception.  It has to be raw, and it has to be green.

“What the heck does that equate to?”

Pick one – Green smoothie or a big honking green salad.

Oh and stop the whining about cleaning the blender already.  I hear it all the time.

“I don’t like cleaning the blender in the morning. It takes too much time.’”

For real?  You take the sprayer hose from your sink and swish it around the inside of the blender til it’s clean.  You turn it upside down to dry.  That’s too hard?  Wuss.  Stop your belly aching and get in the kitchen.

So here  are the rules:

Salads have to be as big as your head.  Lots of colors in it.  Eat the rainbow, baby.  And don’t negate all the good underneath it by dumping a half a bottle of crappy blue cheese dressing on it.  Again, big girl pants…you know better.  Here’s a trick.  Put your entire salad into a big bowl and pour a little dressing on top.  Toss with tongs until everything is well coated.  Turn it back out onto a plate and enjoy.  You use less dressing this way.  Change your greens up weekly.

Green smoothies have to be GREEN, we are NOT making daiquiris.  If you make them right they will look like swamp water but taste like fruit.  Scout’s honor.

I’ll put some recipes up soon, but again, not rocket science.  You can buy cleaned and ready to go greens at the supermarket.  Spinach and lettuces are a great place to start. You can upgrade later to greens YOU have to clean (kale, parsley, cilantro, swiss chard) but for now we are pushing the easy button.  Capice?

The easiest thing to do is start with a RIPE banana.  The more ripe it is  the sweeter it will be.  Add a big handful of greens then top it off with a second fruit.  You can use frozen fruit if you like as your second choice.  Maybe some blueberries, or mango…  Add some water and blend the daylights out if it until it’s smooth.  Drink half and put the other half in a glass jar and bring it with you for the day.  You can have it as a snack in the afternoon (instead of a cup of coffee or a DIEt Coke.)

Viola’.  Two easy things you can take action on now without being overwhelmed.

Disclaimer – You can make a salad that will last for 3 to 4 days in your fridge (individual or one big one). Don’t slice tomatoes ahead of time (use whole cherry where you can) and remove the seeds from cukes before including them.  Those two are the first things to make a salad start gettting yucky fast.   Carry dressing in a separate container (small caper jars are GREAT for this) and dress before eating.

Smoothies are best consumed the day they are made, but we don’t like to waste food.  24 hours is best for maximum bodily reward.

In a few weeks, we’ll add a new sustainable item to our repertoire.  Good luck.