After many fad diets, life altering eating habits, checkups and all that there is under the sun about weight loss I have decided to go green….. May have been talking about it and raving about not only its health benefits but also how it helps the metabolism, decreases appetite, detoxing the body and other advantages.
It first started when I was following “My Healthy Dish” the blog and instagram account @myhealthydish_ It was a real encouragement to see the transformation of what a few fibers in the system can do. Then the real investigation started with downloading several books and doing loads of reading. Now I added two more GREEN blogs. Simple Green Smoothies and Raw Family. There are TONS of blogs and websites that you can also find but I stopped myself before getting too overwhelmed.
The concept of green smoothies is fairly simple. 60% Fruit & 40% Greens and 1-2 cups liquid. A great instructional video is “How to Make a Green Smoothie” by Sergei Boutenko from the Raw Family. You can also check out many of their other articles and videos for inspiration.
The hardest thing I found in Kuwait was actually the “green” ingredients. The most common green that is used is spinach because it’s a little milder in taste and is masked very well behind all the added fruit. I used to see fresh spinach all the time at the Jamiya, Sultan, Lulu hypermarket but now that I’m looking for it it’s no where to bee seen. So I had to do some alterations what other veggies can I use and I found a list . So there goes another investigation of finding these other greens. Kale….hmmm what is it in Arabic? What does it look like? so here you see me in the vegetable section with my iPhone looking at pictures of these greens and trying to find them. It was really entertaining I’m sure for those that were looking at me. Meanwhile, Jennah and Zeenah kept stocking up on fruits for me and weighing them. So I substituted with what I could and off to the cashier with a cart full of fruits and vegetables and two hyper girls. Paid, bagged and buckled on our way home. Excited that the first thing I do in the morning was get my first green smoothie and no coffee.
For help on the greens here’s a list of what you could use. Spinach, lettuce, parsley, kale, chard, basil, cilantro, bok choy, celery, and cucumber. Mostly everywhere I read state that the darker the leaf the better the heath benefits. So other uncommon suggestions would be beet tops, celery leaves and strawberry leaves. One desperate grocery run I actually bought fresh horseradish because the leaves looked perfect…. that really made a Spicy breakfast for me. I added a few dates to the mix and it balanced it out.
I think I don’t need to tell you what fruits are because most of us have a general sense BUT…. Don’t forget to add Tomato and Cucumbers to that list… a misconception to many.
Finally the liquid part. The most common in recipes would be either water or green tea. Other options are Almont Milk, Coconut water or milk, rice milk or orange juice.
Some recipes and websites recommend things called “Super foods” these basically add additional nutrients to your smoothie. I still haven’t ventured into that area. Possibly because I anticipate that many of these items would be a challenge to find locally and it’s too hot for me to find out….maybe in October?
The amazing result of these morning smoothies is that it really suppressed my appetite. I’m not sure if its psychological or not but hey it works!! I do recommend it to everyone. Whatever the reason try to incorporate it into your daily diet. It really will make a difference. I think my next step is actually to try out the 21 day cleanse. I want to take it one step at a time and really get the hang of the green smoothies before diving into something that I might slip up on.
After 2 weeks of green smoothies and using my regular out-dated 10+ year old blender I was ready to step up my game. Many of the websites recommend the Vitamix blender. Which I’m sure is amazing but probably unavailable in Kuwait and I really wanted to just click a few buttons and have a good blender delivered to my doorstep. A Quick visit to Xcite App and 24 hours later my new blender with a special SMOOTHIE dial was delivered.
If you were debating and worried about the taste no need to wonder. The first time I made it the girls were so excited and tasted it and decided they wanted to have their own cup of green smoothie. It doesn’t taste green at all. I hope you decide to venture out and start Greening it soon.
My favorite recipe was Kale, celery, strawberry, blueberry, apple, peach, banana and green tea. If you’re a green smoothie drinker I’d love to hear your favorite recipe!