My New Food Obsession

I should probably title this "our" new obsession because this is something that me and Lydia are obsessing over at the moment.  It is my blog though, so sorry Lyd. (Truly though, she probably enjoys these even more than me.)  What I'm talking about are Green Smoothies! 

When I first heard about green smoothies, all I could think about is blending a bunch of vegetables together and trying to choke it down.  While I'm sure some people out there might do this, it doesn't sound all that appealing to me.  I was reluctant to add anything green to a fruit blended smoothie.  Eventually though, I mustered up the courage to add some greens and was pleasantly surprised by the results!  Even better is the fact that I'm getting more veggies in my diet (something I struggle with) without having to eat a bland salad every day.  And that makes me happy!  Lydia even swears that it helps her skin :)

I still don't have it down to an exact science - nor do I really measure when I cook - but here are the basics for my green smoothie:

Handful of raw baby spinach
1 Cup Soymilk (or Low Fat Milk)

1 Banana

1 1/2 Cups Berries (pick one or mix 'em up)

1 T Agave Syrup or Honey

Add Water or Ice to achieve desired thickness

My Breakfast version of a Strawberry-Banana "Green" Smoothie

I've been using variations with/without the banana, and different portions of different berries.  To date, I haven't had one I didn't like.  Best of all, it's an easy way to get a bunch of raw foods in a tasty package!  Apparently you can also use kale, mint, romaine, and other greens when making these.  We just use baby spinach because we buy it from Costco anyway, so it's already in the fridge.  Might have to try out some other variations in the future, though.

* Quick Tip - If you need a balanced breakfast on the go, just add some ground oats and milled flaxseed.  It's delicious!

Time For An Update

What a slacker!  Three weeks into the year and I haven't written a thing.  Good thing I have people like my dad to call me out on it!  The reality however, is that I haven't had much to write about so far this year.  Nothing truly exciting has happened - bad or good - and things are pretty much clicking as far as running is concerned.

I've been able to put together some fairly solid weeks for the last month.  Been consistenly knocking off between 40 and 50 mile weeks, with 5 or 6 days of running each week.  It's easily been my best stretch in the last 4 months or so.  Sweet!  I still have some lingering pain in my lower legs which I've attributed to shoe problems, but I think I've finally got the right shoes and things seem to get slightly better each week.  I'm sure if I took a few weeks off things would heal completely, but I'm not about to do that.  Smart?  Probably not, but I'm just over 9 weeks out from my next race and can't really afford the time off.  If things were getting worse I'd stop, but things are slowly progressing in a positive direction... So I'm not stopping!

In my attempt to be a bit more social (being a recluse by nature), last night I went over to Wasatch Running Center for the weekly Thursday night run they put on.  Quite honestly, I was expecting a much larger group to show up.  Turns out there were only about 7 of us, but it was a fun experience nonetheless.  I actually came home with a few goodies courtesy of Brooks and Saucony.  Awesome!  I'm always up for some free gear.

Things are great at the moment!  Now if the snow would just melt...