Saturday Morning Will Never Be the Same! (Smoothies!)

Saturday morning breakfast is usually a big deal in our home. 

We used to enjoy a big meal of Healthy Sausage Gravy with boiled eggs and gluten-free biscuits. But then after the 5K, Tropical Smoothie rewarded us with a delicious treat and from that day on, Saturday morning breakfast has been drastically different!

Our special breakfast now consists of a large smoothie, enjoyed by each member of our family. I don't really use a recipe, but it goes something like this:

• One to 1 1/2 frozen banana per serving
• 1 large (or 2 small) peeled, cored, cut ripe pineapple
• 3 peeled, cored, cut ripe mangoes
• 1 whole bag of raw spinach
• Approximately 1-1 1/2 cups vanilla almond milk
• 1 cup Goji Berries (optional)
• 1 cup raw coconut
• Approximately 1/3 cup chia seed
• Enough ice to make it all thick and cold

(Beware: this recipe serves 11 hungry people!)

I alternate these ingredients in my smoothie blender, pouring the contents into 2 gallon jars where I mix it all together and pour into pint jars. Even though the spinach shows up (the smoothie is a beautiful shade of green!), you cannot taste it at all! I also enjoy hiding dandelion green leaves in there! (Sh...don't tell my children!).

This healthy, delicious smoothie is every bit as filling as our former Saturday morning fare, but considering our current "health kick" we all feel better about breakfast. 

Six days each week I enjoy a glass of "Wake Up" juice. But every Saturday morning, I now indulge in a real tropical treat!

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Juice Fast: Was it Worth It?

Today I am celebrating an anniversary of sorts...

The Monday following Mother’s Day 2012 marked the beginning of an amazing journey for me. It was on that day that I eagerly embarked on a 60 day juice fast, and my life has not been the same since!

My three older daughters joined me and we took our “before” pictures that first week.

I was every bit as miserable as I looked!

During those 60 days, I recorded my journey here on my blog (you can read the first week post here) and later compiled those posts, along with additional information, encouragement, tips and juice recipes into my very first eBook (visit the website to watch my promo video, read reviews, and book excerpts).

I've been pleasantly surprised by the popularity of this book!

This past year, I have truly enjoyed enlightening and encouraging others! Just last week, I met an overweight brother in Christ who is seriously struggling with his health. I was able to share my story with him, tell him about the Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead movie (which is FREE to watch on You Tube during this month of May!), and offer suggestions on finding a juicer. He asked for some recipes, which I took to him a few days later. I am reveling in this new health “ministry” the Lord has allowed me to be a part of.

I am also enjoying better health these days. Though I still battle food intolerance (mostly reacting to ALL corn products, gluten, dairy and eggs), as long as I stay away from those triggers, I feel great!

If you follow my blog, you know that our family recently celebrated another victory; we completed the Couch to 5K in 9 Weeks running plan and even ran our very first 5K! We have continued to run 3 days a week and the four children who didn't run last time are now following the Couch to 5K schedule and plan to join us for our next 5K the end of June!

NEVER in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that at the age of 48--after smoking for 20 years, giving birth to ten children, and battling obesity for fifteen long years--I would be running for the fun of it and enjoying good health! I stand amazed!

Soon after I published the eBook last summer, several readers wrote to caution me that the weight might come back (and with a vengeance!) and that it would take several months for my body to adjust and settle into a normal weight. I confess, I did worry about that a little.

And while I'm in my confessional, I also want to tell you that I think I have some understanding of how people fall into bondage to eating disorders.

Let me explain...

Some days I wake up and just feel FAT. In my mind I still weigh 195. In fact, I am often surprised when I step on the scales. I continue to be amazed when someone I haven't seen for a while comments on my weight loss. And I still have not gotten used to hearing my husband or my children tell me how wonderful I look. When I look in the mirror, I still see the obese woman that I was for 15 years. This image is slowly improving.

Although my brain thinks I'm still obese, I am happy to report that the weight did not come back! Even though I now have more muscle mass than I did before, from jogging and doing T-Tapps, my weight stays right around 7-10 pounds more than the day I came off the 60 day juice fast last July. I still desire to lose about 15 pounds. The closer we get to summer (and in-season vegetables and fruits), the more I look forward to a reboot in my near future to facilitate the additional weight loss.

For now, I continue to juice one meal a day (breakfast) six days a week, though I prep only three of those days. I quickly discovered that just as preparing juice requires time, so does running, and as a busy mom of a very busy household, I consider my time to be quite valuable. My solution was to prepare a double serving of “Wake Up!” juice on my non-running days (Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday). I put one pint jar in the fridge to enjoy after my run the next day. Just before drinking, I always add a teaspoon of Chia seed (which my dear friend says when they are added to liquid, reminds her of “Sea Monkeys.”☺) and a heaping teaspoon of L-Glutamine (which is good for muscle mass and also helps to heal my leaky gut issues).

[In case you are wondering what I do on that 7th day when I’m not juicing, read the post, Saturday Morning Will Never Be the Same!]

So here I am, one year later, affirming that the 60 day juice fast was probably the single best health choice (aside from dumping the cigarettes, of course!) that I ever made. 

It really did “reboot” my life!



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