Smooth(ie) movies

You know what? Smoothies are awesome. I've been having one every morning for breakfast and I kind of love them. I just make one each night before bed and grab it on my way to the bus stop and by the time I get to work I'm full of fruity (sometimes veggie) goodness - though I still need a coffee.

It's also a great way for me to get more fruit in my life since I'm so hit and miss with my fruit consumption. (The mad apple cravings I was having a month ago have passed.)

I've been fervently collecting smoothie recipes and I'm finally getting brave enough to change them up and add and subtract ingredients as I see fit. One thing I've done is stop making my smoothies with yogurt. While using Greek yogurt gives a smoothie a great protein boost, I'm just not a fan. For liquid, I'll use 1% milk but mostly water is just fine. I guess it depends on how think you like your smoothie; if you want to be able to walk on it, go with yogurt. If you like it a little thinner, milk or water will do that for you.

And that's a big reason why smoothies are so great: customization baby! I've already shared my love of the peanut butter-banana smoothie; here are two more I'm into right now:

Spinach-strawberry-mango-banana smoothie
1 banana
1 cup mango
1/2 cup strawberries
Handful spinach
1 cup liquid (I use milk in this one)
Then blend it up and drink it up!
I also through in one scoop of vanilla protein powder and a tablespoon of flax seed oil.

Spinach and strawberries and mango, oh my!

 Grapefruit-mango-strawberry smoothie
1 medium grapefruit, peeled and sectioned (I cheated and used stuff from a jar)
1/2 cup mango
1/2 cup strawberries
1 cup water (I feel like milk would be weird with grapefruit)
Blend and drink!
Again, I did my protein powder and flax seed additions. I don't eat a lot of citrus fruit so this is a great way for me to get some extra vitamin C.

See those grapefruit chunks in the bottom?

My new-and-improved, wacky-and-wonderful eating habits

It would be easy to blame it on spring, if spring had arrived when it was supposed to. To be honest, I'm not really sure why it happened and I can't definitely point to when it happened, but it happened and it's great.

My eating habits have become pretty awesome.

Maybe it was because I decided to step away from the scale and Weight Watchers for a bit. Maybe it was because spring kept flirting with me. Maybe it was because I subconsciously felt kind of blah and decided to fix that. Whatever it was, I'm suddenly eating apples; obsessed with salads; not really wanting carbs; seriously craving protein; and starting most days with a smoothie.

Sure, I was a bit hung over this past Saturday so I had pizza and chicken bites but the next day I had a smoothie and a super healthy dinner of fish and vegetables. I still drink coffee every morning (okay, often more than one) and I still have a beer or a chocolate bar when I want one but for the most part I suddenly feel wired to want to eat better.

I was talking to the Beau about this and he told me about when he made a serious change to his eating habits many years back (before I even knew him); he wasn't looking at the scale but was focused on being active and viewing whatever he ate as what would be good fuel for his body. So maybe taking a break from the scale was the impetus behind my new habits. I have to admit, it's very tempting to hop on because I want to believe that my new habits have magically helped me lose all the extra weight I'm carrying.

But I'm going to stick to my commitment to stay away from the scale until May 22. When I do weigh in again, I'm going to have to seriously think about how I want to continue on. I know that Weight Watchers is a good program (I had great success when I first started) but maybe it's just not the program for me. Maybe the program for me involves staying off the scale while making sure I properly fuel my body.

For now, though, I have no plans to stop eating well because I'm really enjoying how it makes me feel and when I do weigh in again, it may even show up on the scale too!

And here's the smoothie recipe I'm currently obsessed with. I may add some strawberries or raspberries next time, to make it more like a PB&J in a cup!

1 cup skim milk
2 tbsp protein powder
1 1/2 tbsp natural peanut butter
1 medium banana, sliced

Blend together and enjoy!