Green Goodness

So I have been on a health kick for a couple of weeks now. The first two weeks, I did amazing. I actually lost 5lbs following a strict weight watchers diet, not drinking sodas and not eating fast food.

The past couple of days I havent been doing quite as well. But, I have started drinking these very nutritious smoothies for breakfast because I realized that I am not getting enough essentials vitamins and minerals. They are super yummy.

Its 1/2 c. of fat free vanilla yogurt, 1/2 c. skim or 1% milk, 1/2 c strawberries, 1/2-1 whole banana, and 1 c. of fresh spinach. Just put all the ingredients in the blender and there ya have it!

Here is a picture of my green goodness before I mix in the spinach... it really looks pretty...

Post spinach... yes, I know it looks disgusting. But it tastes the exact same with or without the spinach.

Here is my smoothie in my new Tervis Tumbler--- which I love, by the way. Cute, huh? It was my graduation gift from the law review party on Saturday. Keeps drinks hot or cold and is perfect for my smoothie.

Lauren at http://lifelite10.blogspot.com/ encouraged me to add the spinach... She has named her smoothie the green monster.. check out her recipes on her blog. She uses 3-4 c. of Spinach and lots of other really healthy things. :) One of which is flax seed, which I am going to have to try very soon.

This baby has 300 calories, which yes is a lot.. that is why as soon as I run out of this gallon of milk I am going to by skim milk and eventually the even a lower calorie version of yogurt. Tiffany (my best friend + dietitian), correct me if I am wrong, but these are considered "good calories" right?

It has 7.7 g of Fiber, Potassium 1,341.9 mg and 12.8 g of Protein. These are its daily values of the following vitamins/minerals: Vitamin A 65.8 %, Vitamin B-12 19.5 %, Vitamin B-6 40.2 %, Vitamin C 182.7 %, Vitamin D 15.8 %, Vitamin E 7.7 %, Calcium 42.3 %, Copper 14.0 %, Foliate 33.3 %, Iron 16.2 %, Magnesium 27.5 %, Manganese 53.6 %, Niacin 10.1 %, Phosphorus 34.2 %, Riboflavin 41.6 %, Selenium 15.2 %, Thiamin 12.7% and Zinc 14.2 %.

I dont remember a whole lot from my nutrition class in college, but this sounds pretty nutrient rich to me. I have a hard time getting a lot of Iron in my diet -- I am anemic, so I am suppose to eat alot of Iron rich foods. I also have a hard time with calcium because I dont drink enough milk or eat enough dairy products.

Spinach is considered a super food in a lot of ways because it has so many benefits: (1) its high in lots of vitamins/minerals (2) its loaded with antioxidants which are thought to have cancer preventing effects, (3) its heart healthy, (4) good for your gastrointestinal health, (5) it has anti-inflammatory properties, (6) its thought to be good for your brain and memory (7)protects against eye disease and (8)its also an excellent source of iron.

Supper yummy... thought i'd share.. now enough procrastinating, back to my paper....