Green Smoothies: Why

A few weeks ago, I replaced my blender. My old blender was given to me by my sister, Jamie. It was 400 watts and drove me nuts whenever I used it for smoothies. Which was just about the only time I ever used it. That is a rate of 98% annoyance. I’m allowing for the slight off chance that I actually used the blender for something else.

I bought a pretty little ninja. Out of the options in my price range with the minimum wattage I needed wanted, this one looked and felt the best. Vitamix was a little bit out of my price range. The ninja boasts of six blades and 1000 watts. And it works like a dream. Assuming that you have nice dreams that go smoothly.

My old blender went back to Jamie whose blender had just died.

Pretty, right? All parts (except the base) is dishwasher safe but I prefer to hand wash it still.The handle is hollow and water and other food bits can get into it from the bottom so I’d rather just keep it out of the dishwasher.

I got this blender because I was going to start having smoothies for breakfast. Every day. Green smoothies, actually. I didn’t want to fight every day with a blender for a task that should take 30 seconds but was instead taking 5 minutes.

There are a few reasons I decided to start drinking green smoothies. 1) I needed to increase my veggies & fruit intake. I was close but close isn’t there. 2) Because of my increase in exercise, I was always hungry and struggling to feel satiated. My trainer thought it might help me. 3) The increase in exercise but not an increase of sleep (as in sleeping through the night instead of being woken several times) was an energy drain. My trainer thought it might help me. 4) A friend had started a few months ago and couldn’t stop raving about it. 5) It was an excuse for a new blender.

I’ve heard many benefits of moving towards a raw foods diet. I’m not sure that we’ll ever be there but it certainly never hurts to take a step in that direction. I’m a fan of foods as close to their original state as possible. That doesn’t still mean that I don’t like eating anything else. Because you’ll still see me with Little Caesars pizza and Olive Garden breadsticks and thoroughly enjoying them to. However, what I eat on a more regular basis is what I’ve been focusing on. Breakfasts and lunches are the two meals that I will make something different for me than for anyone else. Mostly because Kaelyn rarely eats breakfast when I do anyway and Jared takes care of himself. Dinners are a family affair and we’ll all eat the same thing. Having a smoothie for a first meal made the most sense. It’s harder for me to forget about it and if it’s supposed to help with energy than that’s when I need to drink it.

It’s been two weeks since I started and I’ve developed an opinion about them which I will graciously share with you over the next few days. Tune in tomorrow to find out what my very first green smoothie experience was like!