After seeing my doctor about my cyclical mood swings, I decided to try a few things to help improve my mood while waiting for my neurologist appointment all the way in August. These include: coming off hormonal birth control, being outside/active more, and re-hauling my diet according to my specific dietary needs as told by my doctor and body stats - needless to say, shit got real in the form of an excel spreadsheet.
I won't bore you with all the details of my specific needs, but basically I am vitamin deficient in addition to (like most humans) being everything-else-deficient and consume way too much fucking sugar. Also, I'm way low in fiber, but that's because I hate vegetables and whine about how gross they are like a five year old. Which means my digestive tract is not having an easy go, and I've replaced toilet paper with baby wipes. So I did some research on what my dietary intakes of fat, protein etc should be and tailored them according to various articles written by Christian Thibadeau on the website www.t-nation.com, specifically the 'muscle with attitude' branch, which is directed towards female fitness of all types. I used it back in my athletic hay-day before college replaced my blood with kraft dinner cheese powder. Don't be put off by the fact that it's a bodybuilding website, the articles have always been very up-to-date with their information and all of the authors are highly respected in their field, in other words, ignore the words "bodybuilding" and "testosterone", because these people are healthy for a living and they know their shit.
Anyway, after tailoring my diet, and by tailoring my diet I mean making sure I have what I need but not completely sacrificing things I like, which is (according to C-Tibbs, and I believe it) one of the best ways to ruin your mood and your motivation. Also, it's just plain unrealistic to deny yourself of simple pleasures, that in itself is considered unhealthy. Healthy means healthy all around, physically as well as mentally. Obviously I'm going to hate life if I can't eat a baguette every once in a while, I live in europe, do you know how impossible it would be to NEVER consume bread? My god. I avoid it as much as possible but its like, "I'll take a coffee to go please," "okay, would you like a small bale of wheat and a litre of wine to go with it?"
Anyway, I decided to try out Green Smoothies. It's kind of a fad right now, and I thought it was really dumb when I first heard of it because of the various; "DRINKING THIS WILL CURE CANCER AND MAKE YOU LOOK LIKE JESSICA ALBA WITHOUT LIFTING A FINGER", articles, and it always puts me off when I see anything diet related promoted by a person who gets paid to run infomercials and tries to sell you books about why vegetables are good for you.
Warning: I am going to talk graphically and lovingly about poop in this paragraph.
Truth is, I love green smoothies. I love green smoothies because they make me feel amazing, and are actually beneficial. I hate vegetables. I hate cooking them, I hate trying to make them taste good, I hate them. I hate eating them raw, I hate looking at them in my fridge because when I see then I taste them in my mind and that makes me angry. But I need veggies, because I'm a human. So I found a few recipes, tried them out, and what I thought would taste like ground up asshole with artificial sweetener on it actually tasted pretty good. Granted, weird at first, because you are drinking a garden, but pretty good, and you know what? I love them. I love them for how they make me feel, how easy they are to prepare, how they are surprisingly tasty but I love them even more because since drinking them I have had the absolute most comfortable shits in my entire life. Soft, easy, sliding-right-out poops that no other supplement/medicine has ever given me, it's incredible. I'm sorry, I wish that talking about poop quality was a more socially accepted practice, because after having years of college-microwave-meal uncomfortable poop quality, being able to have a pleasant shit is just about the greatest feeling in the world, right up there with freshly washed sheets and pulling off dead skin.
A lot of the time I looked for recipes on pinterest but gave up on it, because sometimes when it comes to things I don't know much about I need to be told exactly what to do, and pinterest was giving me too much freedom. The basic premise is repeated, "Pick 2 handfuls of fruit, your favorite leafy greens, a source of good fats/protein and a clean liquid!" NO. Just tell me what exactly to put in it. I'm an unhealthy fuck that needs to be walked through this.
My recipe:
1/2 cup of Coconut Milk
1/2 cup raspberries
1 whole orange
1 inch cube fresh ginger
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
2 handfulls of fresh spinach leaves (about half the mixer jug)
(you can also use frozen but I personally think fresh tastes better, also kale is better than spinach but it's not in season here at the moment UGH.)
Little bit of water so it's not too thick.
The nutritional result?
| Calories: | 295 |
| Fat(g): | 30 |
| Carbs(g): | 25 |
| Protein(g): | 21 |
I pretty much only taste the cinnamon/ginger.
Coconut milk is great for this stuff, but I've heard people have the same success with almond milk/butter, or avocado.
I recommend Green Smoothies for all! your skin, hair, nails, digestive system, and bum will thank you.
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