Smoothie Overdose!

Wake up every morning like I work at Jamba...
(see what I did there? haha)

So continuing on my health kick - though I'm not eating an uber amount of healthy stuff - I make fruit smoothies everyday, usually for breakfast. Well, brunch really, being as I don't wake up until 11:30am. Some days I've been having two and while it's not super low calorie, it's a better option than ice cream or cookies.

I start each with a liquid: vanilla soy milk or juice, which I love pomegranate juice
A binder: vanilla Greek yogurt or banana
Fruit!!! Honestly, it's hard to screw up which you pick. Raspberries are my favorite and of course one of the more expensive fruit.

Anyways...Here's my recipes (which change depending on how much you want, you may need to add more while blending, etc)

4 oz. Pomegranate juice / 2 tbs. vanilla greek yogurt / big handful of frozen mango, pineapple & strawberries

4 oz. vanilla soy milk (LOVE Trader Joe's brand) / 2 tbs. vanilla greek yogurt / good helping of whatever frozen fruit

4 oz. juice or soy milk / 1 banana / good handful of frozen fruit, blueberries and strawberries are great

4 oz. juice or soy milk / 2 tbs. vanilla greek yogurt / frozen raspberries & strawberries / 1 - 1 1/2 tbs. choc. chips

I also sometimes add flax seed oil like 1 big tbs. of it into the non-soy milk based ones. I also want to get soy protein powder, but the jars are all huge, so yeah. Looking into chia seeds, agave, super foods and coconut oil.

OMG. Food.

I've been watching WAY too much Netflix. I watched two health documentaries - 'Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead' and 'Forks Over Knives.' Really interesting and now I think I'm becoming a health nut. While they never considered themselves vegans, basiclaly the vegan lifestyle was promoted to help maintain your health, live a long life and with eating good amounts of plant-based foods, you could heal your body from the inside out.

What I really was interested in was when they commented on those following this diet how their skin looked great. I don't have horrible acne, but I'm at an age where I'm just like "Seriously? I'm too old for this." I've tried so many skin care products and they don't work. And of couse the one thing I haven't tried is something I've always knew and been told - I have horrible eating habits.

I don't like water. I eat a lot of candy. And while I'm vegetarian, I eat more pastas and breads than veggies and fruits. Here's the start to my attempt at eating a diet full of veggies, fruits, grains and minimal dairy.

The documentaries were mainly about juicing and duh, I never put two and two together that the nutrients from the foods absorb faster and better when made liquid. Gets in the blood stream quicker. Of course. So I'm in search of a juicer, but until then, I'm making smoothies! Frozen fruit, greek yogurt, soy milk and juice and whatever! They've been coming out so yummy and tomorrow I'm starting on making banana-based ones.

I'm also trying to buy good food and I'm a Trader Joe's addict! So to help ween me off sodas, I've been drinking their sparkling waters (lime and the reaspberry & lime are the best) with a splash of juice sometimes. Then their Tom Yam soup - love! And you can heat it up on the stovetop. I just make sure to strain out the pieces from the spice pack before putting it in a bowl.