Singing for a smaller me

Fact: About five months ago I stopped drinking my green goo (read: green monster
smoothie).

Fact: About five months ago I stopped going to Weight Watchers.

Fact: About five months ago I stopped exercising regularly.

Conclusion: By no longer guzzling the green goo, I fell off the wagon. HAHAHAHAHA!

Okay, okay! So it's not entirely accurate (and fallacious reasoning I might add), yet - I promise - these things are actually related to one another. However, one did not specifically lead to the other.

Even though they are ridiculously yummy, in my mind I identify the morning smoothie as "Health Food". Yes, it's tasty. Yes, it's filling. But it's also entirely associated with my weight reduction program. I started drinking the smoothies when I started blogging (and going to WW), hence, Health Food.

Further, In the morning, I'm more of a grab and go kinda person. Making a morning smoothie requires me to actually put aside five minutes of my precious time (time I could be in bed, asleep) to pull together the ingredients and blend them. You might be thinking "Five minutes isn't that much time!!", and you're right, but in the mystical world of Zan five more minutes of sleep could be the difference between "grr" grumpy and "hi" happy.

So, continuing to make smoothies every morning is an exercise in willpower which, in turn, adds fuel to the fire of determination, and provides that kick in the pants I need to wake up at five or five thirty a.m. every weekday and workout.

Alright, maybe this isn't so much about green smoothies as it is about exercising some self discipline. And I can proudly say I've been employing it to great effect: waking up at five a.m., getting in a good workout, making breakfast to actually eat AT HOME, making up smoothies, and still giving myself more than enough time to look perfectly polished before heading off to work.

Yep, I'm crowing just a little bit (A LOT!!!). It is amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it.

In other news, went to Weight Watchers last night (yay, three weeks in a row!). Was up a little (boo!), but I chalk it up to a) not tracking as well as I should, b) Aunt Flo's on her way to visit, and c) added in a pretty intense toning workout several times a week.

Three Goals for Success in the Coming Week:

1. Track everything I eat. Even if I don't want to.


2. Lay off the candy jar at work. There's Ghiradelli Peppermint Bark at home, and that's way tastier than anything in that candy jar.


3. Cook a couple of meals at home.


4. (okay, four, I lied) Get the rest of the Xmas stuff up (not specifically related, but it'll make me feel A LOT better)

Woe!!

After scurrying to the grocery store yesterday morning (before work of all things) to pick up another container of baby spinach, I left it at work!

Alas, I lament my lack of luscious, leafy greens. You see, they're a vital part of my breakfast. How can one have a green smoothie with no green?

You can't!

Instead I'm stuck with some weird brownish red goop. Le sigh.

Oh, green monster, how I miss you. But worry not, we shall be reunited anon.

Last night, the hubby and I watched the Travel Channel. It seemed like the theme of the day was "Extreme . . .", extreme terror rides, extreme waterparks, extreme resorts, etc. As we were getting ready to head off to bed, another Extreme show came on: Extreme Pig-outs. Amused, we decided to settle down and watch for a little while.

It was digusting, yet strangely fascinating. Starting the tour was a restaurant that's main attraction is 6-lb burger, but goes all the way up to a 62-lb burger. Umm, gross! The gastronomic delights/horrors continued from there featuring Ben and Jerry's Vermonster, super-sized pancakes, deep fried twinkies, a 54-inch square pizza, burritos the size of a newborn, and an eatery called the "Heart Attack Grill" (and several others). Frankly, by the time they reached the 54-inch square pizza, my stomach was turning and I headed off to bed. Looking back on it today, I'm still seriously grossed out.

Please tell me what this sick fascination is with artery-clogging and teeth-rotting foods! Yes, a number of these places intend these menu items to be eaten by more than one person, but there are still other people that look at these foods as a challenge: Can I eat 62 lbs of beef? Can I scarf down a 54-inch square pizza? Even deep in the worst of my food obsession I knew that that was ridiculous!!! But these restaurants thrive on our unhealthy fixation with foods we shouldn't even contemplate eating.

It makes me so angry.

Moving on.

Some time ago, I read about the Green Monster Movement, and promptly forgot about it until it was brought up last week in one of the blogs I follow. At its simplest, a Green Monster is a blended smoothie of spinach or kale, some type of milk, fruits, and so on. I was intrigued by the idea of getting so many fruits and vegetables in one tasty smoothie, but the skeptic in me said, "yeah, sure, you can't taste the spinach in those smoothies. . . and I'm the freaking Queen of England".

This weekend, I bit the bullet and made my first Green Monster. What a pleasant surprise! Two big handfuls of spinach, a cup of milk, a cup of frozen strawberries, and half a cup of frozen blueberries later, I had a delicious, filling and healthy smoothie with three and a half servings of fruits and vegetables in one fell swoop. Needless to say, I'm a convert. Now I just have to clear a space on the kitchen counter to keep my blender.

What a gulf exists between these two: Extreme pig-outs to Green Monsters. I'm proud to say the Green Monster appeals to me way more than a 6-lb burger. It means I'm going in the right direction and will keep on heading in that direction.