5 Great Reasons to Grab a Smoothie

In "For me, gluten-free is the way to be", I mentioned how I had begun drinking smoothies for breakfast. It is 3 months later and I am still drinking one smoothie a day.   Here are a few great reasons that I began drinking them.   Maybe one or two will be your reason to start.

1)     CONVENIENCE

The reason I love smoothies is that they are so darn convenient.  Mix ingredients up in a blender, put it in a cup and drink it on the go.  I bring mine all over the house as I get the kids ready for school.  I can even bring it in the car with me as I drive my son to school.  What breakfast is so healthy and convenient?  Omelets don't travel well, neither does cereal.  Toast gets crumbs everywhere. Oatmeal is sticky.  Another convenience is that you can prepare dry ingredients the night before to save even more time. And yet one more convenience factor is seasonal fruits and vegetables.  You can have different smoothies year round if you buy seasonally fresh fruits and vegetables.

P.S. Recently I saw a blender that doubles as the smoothie cup.  Once you mix all the ingredients together in the blender, it has a lid to take the smoothie to go.  No more pouring the smoothie into a separate cup.  And we all know how time is precious so why waste it pouring your smoothie into another cup.  It's all about the convenience!

2)     NUTRITIONAL VALUE

How can smoothies not be nutritious with all the great fruits, vegetables, protein powders, etc. that you can put in them?  I love adding protein powder for an extra nutritional punch.   However, some of the ingredients can be quite high in calories but this is not about the calories.  It's about the nutritional impact.  Smoothies pack quite a punch.

Some very healthy ingredients that I have used are:

• Berries
• Pineapples
• Mango
• Carrots
• Avocado
• Cucumber
• Old-fashioned Oats
• Nonfat or low-fat plain yogurt and milk

Some ingredients that I would suggest that you avoid would be:

• Sugar-sweetened fruit juice or concentrate
• Ice cream or sherbert
• Fruit in a can

3)     VARIETY

You can make a smoothie out of almost any fruits or vegetables (or both), some ice (or not), some kind of liquid (or not).  On My Fertile Lifestyle's Pinterest Board, called Smoothies, I have an infographic on "How to make a smoothie."  It tells what fruits you can add, how to choose a base, how to thicken it up, what to flavor it with and suggestions for some power boosts.  With that kind of chart, who needs a recipe?


4)     WASTE NOT, WANT NOT 

If you ever have a fruit or a vegetable that is overripe, don't throw it away.  Freeze it.  My sister taught me this one with an overripe cantaloupe.  She cut it into chunks and I used it in one of my very first smoothies.  At the moment, I have several different, overripe fruits in my freezer, waiting to be used for my next homemade fruit smoothie.  That's my fertile lifestyle!


5)     LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

Smoothies have become quite popular in recent years.  If you don't feel like making one, you can always buy one from places like Jamba Juice, Robeks, and Red Mango, just to name a few.  So there is no excuse not to pick up a smoothie when you feel the urge.

So, if you have ever wondered why the buzz about smoothies, these are some of my reasons for drinking one every day.  I'd love to hear from you, especially if you are a smoothie fanatic like me.

A contemplative walk

Today as I waited with my daughter at the bus stop, I realized what a beautiful day it was going to be. So I thought, "What a great day for a run."  After she left, I went inside, changed into my running clothes and took my son to school.  However, when I got home, my body told me, "Take a walk instead."  I am glad that I listened.  For me, running today would have been a metaphor for my life, always on the go. By slowing down, I was able to enjoy what was around me.  I heard birds chirping, saw them finding worms (and there were a lot of them after the rain last night) and then flying away with their meals. Flowers were just starting to bloom after a winter that dragged on and on.

As I type this post, I feel thoughtful and contemplative.  I know there is a lot to do today but for once, I am not in a rush to do it.  I know that it will get done when it gets done.  My to-do list is a mile long, as everyone's list is.  It will still be there later, tomorrow, next week and forever.  To me, the lesson I was reminded about was that I should listen to my body more.  I am so grateful right now that I did.  Once in awhile, ask yourself, "Do I listen to my body?"  When you do, I hope that you will be as grateful as I was this morning.

A recent New York Times article discusses a study which supports what I learned on my walk.  It's called "Easing Brain Fatigue with a Walk in the Park."

For me, gluten-free is the way to be

Corny title, I know, but it got your attention.  So, now that I have your attention, I'll tell you about how I arrived at this place of being gluten-free and how it has been so far.

As you may have read in my first blog, "My fertility journey became a journey into the green revolution" I had been gluten-free while trying to conceive my first child, April, seven years ago.   After I became pregnant, someone asked me if I would stay gluten-free, and I said no.  It was too hard to find a variety of good gluten-free products.  Plus, I'm Italian and we love our pasta.  Well, fast forward seven years and gluten-free  food products are not hard to find.

In the last year or so, I have been trying to find ways to calm down.  I'm raising two young children who are six and three years old.  Clearly, they can be trying at times but, for the most part, they are great kids.  However, there had been times when I became upset with them over the "little things."  When I would think about how I reacted later, I would become upset with myself that I had been so harsh. Once I became gluten-free, the answer to calming down became clear.

Becoming gluten-free happened by accident.  Almost two months ago, I made my very first smoothie for breakfast.  Since I had a pineapple in the house, I decided to try a pineapple-carrot smoothie recipe that I had pinned (Pinterest is great! My Fertile Lifestyle has some boards which include this recipe as well.  Check out the boards.)  It was fabulous and so easy.  I wondered why I hadn't thought about having a smoothie for breakfast sooner.  Mornings were so chaotic, trying to get two children off to school at different times.   Who had time for breakfast?  I realized that smoothies were a healthy breakfast that I could take with me, i.e., from room to room, in the car, etc. They were better than the piece of toast I forced myself to eat, just to avoid low blood sugars from not eating since the night before.

Several days later I thought to myself, "wait a minute, when was the last time you had a piece of bread or some pasta, or any other food with gluten in it?"  I realized that I had been relatively calm with my kids for several days.  My blood sugars seemed to be more level, rather than dropping so low that I became MEAN, MONSTER MOMMY!  Don't get me wrong, there have been times since I have become gluten-free that Mean, Monster Mommy has surfaced.  The difference now is that I am yelling less.

I have been gluten-free for about almost two months now.  I don't think it is as hard as people think it is. With all the gluten-free products on the market, there is more choice. It means eating more organic fruits, vegetables and meats. For pasta, I use a corn pasta from Trader Joe's.  Since I have been drinking smoothies in the morning, I don't eat breads.  And don't forget the 80/20 rule which says that if you are in a place that doesn't serve gluten-free, eat as best as you can.  Gluten-free living should not stress you out.

I recently learned that not all gluten-free foods are the same.  Check the package and if it doesn't list a whole grain, such as brown rice flour, as the first ingredient, move on to the next package.  For more info, go to this link, that I also posted on My Fertile Lifestyle's Facebook page:  Seven Foods You Think Are Healthy But Aren't.

This is not something I am recommending for everyone.  It is certainly something that you have to think about and decide for yourself.  It could be that you start it, drop it and then come back to it later, as I did. It's your journey in life.  I'm letting you know what is working for me and my fertile lifestyle.

If you have any questions, feel free to go to My Fertile Lifestyle's Facebook page and post them there. I'd love to hear from you if you have decided to try a gluten-free lifestyle.  I will also be pinning some gluten-free recipes onto My Fertile Lifestyle's Pinterest boards.

Here is a related article about cross-reacting which is when the body reacts to a food that it thinks is gluten but is actually not:

1. Are You Not Healing Because Your Body Thinks Coffee, Chocolate & Cheese Are Gluten?