Smoothie Sunday - Ultra Red

I really really wanted to show you my favorite smoothie as of today. It has beets. You know that deep-red purplish vegetable that so many hate. Anyway, I thought making red smoothie would be a fun way to switch up the greens and the purples (because of grape). 

This recipe contains zero gluten, zero refined sugar, zero yeast, zero corn, zero grain and zero nut. This is perfect for those who are slowly inching towards living a life enjoying raw food. I am not looking at being 100% raw but I am leaning towards learning to love fruits and vegetables more. This smoothie will give you an amazing energy boost as well as supply your magnesium, calcium, potassium, vitamins and minerals as well as iron needs. 

The assurance I can give you at this point is that this tastes so good. Add some ice cubes to your glass to make the juice more refreshing. You can either use a juicer or a blender for this recipe. I used my trusted blender and sieved the smoothie after blending to get rid of the pulp. If you don't want to throw anything, just  run the blender for another 30 seconds and you will be good to go. 

Ingredients

Makes 2 servings

1 medium sugar beets

1 Granny Smith apple 

1 kiwi

1 handful spinach 

1 banana

1 cucumber 

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup orange juice 

Remember

1. Peel apples (no need if organic), kiwi, sugar beets, cucumber and banana. 

2. Put water and orange juice in the blender and slowly add the sliced fruits and vegetables. 

3. Blend away! Watch how the mixture turn into a yummy tint of red. 

4. Run the juice through a sieve and transfer to your mason jar or a tall glass. 

5. Enjoy the goodness of this delicious smoothie. 

If you ever try this, let me know. I am sure you will love it. I am kind of addicted to this mix already. 

My Fitness Pal

After 3 days of detox (raw diet), I am slowly introducing some protein (in the form of meat) back to my daily food consumption. I have eaten eggs, ham and have some dumplings. I feel a lot better and lighter. My flu is starting to go away as well and I have observed a reduction in my mucus (I felt my left nostril was producing it nonstop) the past couple of days. 

I have also signed up for a My Fitness Pal account and I have backtracked my exercise (almost none) and food consumption (calorie counter). If you want to sign-up for your account, go ahead it's simple and easy and you can also sign-up using your Facebook details. 

I've been tempted to eat the left-over chocolate hazelnut cake at home but it wasn't successful. I hid it at the back of the fridge so I can it eat some other time - maybe when I have to reward myself. Haha! 

Wish me luck! 

Getting Into The Groove

I talked about trying the raw food diet in my last post and I am happy to say that I have slowly included raw food in my diet for the past week. My detox symptom came in too early. I am now experiencing flu-like symptoms and my weekend was spent making my smoothie, lying in bed and watching TV. I am not 100% sure if my flu was caused by my switch to raw diet or because it is the flu season again. I guess I will just ride this out. I have taken cold meds but it doesn't seem to help at all. I seriously feel miserable now. 

Progress Report: I have limited my rice and meat or egg intake (just for breakfast). The rest of my meals are either fruit or green smoothie. I am happy about that to say the least. I am just a bit irked that my detox symptoms came knocking even if I am not yet a 100% raw foodie. Aside from the flu-like symptoms, I have also noticed that I have a couple of zits on my chin and forehead. I hope this isn't going to be a bad breakout. 

Oh and yes, while watching Food Channel, I cringe at the sight of overly processed food and I glow when I see salads and fruit juices and simple recipes. I wish I can have this motivation going until I reach my goal. I hope no amount of detox symptoms can deter me. 

In my next post, I will be sharing to you my smoothie recipes. 

How To Start A Raw Food Diet?

I am back and you can kinda guess that I have been on a slump for the past 2 years of my life. I have just been concentrating on my job (I've been in 2 for this length of time), travelling in the Philippines and in Asia, planning my wedding among other things. I have exercised quite a bit but not like 2009 which I think was my healthiest year since I started this blog. Oh you cannot imagine how much pounds I have gained through these two years as well. I have practically gained a good 30 pounds more than what I weighed before. Que horror! 

I've talked to my husband about my plan of losing weight and I have his support. I am on the planning phase now and I am starting to watch what I eat and introducing more fruits and vegetables to my diet. I am also trying to eat more raw foods as inspired by this video that I am going to share to you. So for the remaining days of January my goal is to psyche my body to be able to eat healthier as well as putting in more sleep time so I would be in full swing of exercising and weight loss in February. 

It has been 3 days since I started watching what I eat and hopefully I will keep my motivation and get this route to healthy living going. Plus I need to really loss the pounds that I gained back so I can be more prepared to conceive a baby.