Green Monsters

I have been eyeing up the Green Monster idea I first saw on Leah's blog, and have seen popping up elsewhere recently.

After an early morning 5k run last week I threw together a mini carton of rice milk, spinach, ice, and a small banana and to be honest it was quite delicious. Unfortunately, my little hand blender wasn't quite up to the task, and once or twice I did find an entire spinach leaf, still whole, floating up to the surface.

Since this morning I had no hope of time to make anything for breakfast (I even forgot to pick up my hardboiled eggs as I ran out the door), I grabbed this equally looking green smoothie from the store on my way in.



1 pressed apple, quarter of a pressed pineapple, 1 crushed kiwi, 5 pressed grapes, a squeeze of fresh lime, plus a dash of spinach and nettle extract.

It was good and I love the ingredient list.

At only 2 points per bottle, I also had 1 point worth of apple pieces and grapes which tided me over relatively well, but the lack of fats and protein is kicking in hard and my stomach is making particularly loud growling noises so I'm off in search of lunch!

- CJ

Grazing is good

Inspired by Lara at thinspired I ordered one of these graze boxes last week.



The premise is simple, a box was delivered to my office designed to promote positive snacking - 'filling in necessary nutrients that may be missed due to skipped meals and long busy days at work'.

The only downside - my stupid work doesn't get it's mail until 2pm. I've known this for the entire year I've worked there, but somehow it slipped my mind. By lunchtime, I was getting grouchy and may have taken it out on the receptionist - as if it was his fault that our mail comes at that time every day??

So, I had already eaten lunch by the time the box arrived, but I'd been so eagerly anticipating it that I tore it open as soon as I got it back to my desk.

First things first, I loved the pineapple - fresh pineapple often makes my tongue react, but this was so juicy and ripe and perfect that either it didn't, or I was just enjoying it too much to notice.



Then, there was a dried fruit section - apple strudel - which consisted of dried apple rings, apricots and cranberries. Delish - I particularly LOVE that they include the nutritional information for each section for you. My entire box came to 6.5 weightwatchers points - the dried fruit being 2.5 point, which if I'd eaten it as it's intended, i.e. snacking throughout the day would have been perfect snacking!


And finally, chilli cashews - this has to be the smartest possible way to consume cashews. I have a serious cashew addiction and am forbidden from ever purchasing them. I can eat a bag, or two, no problem and would on a daily basis if allowed - I LOVE cashews. Thankfully, this 2.5 point serving meant that I could only eat 2.5 points of cashews and let me tell you, these are spicy! I was a little hesitant - who wants to ruin a cashew?? But, no - they were actually really good. Good enough that I let a colleague try one (just one mind you! The rest I ate!)


All in all, I was really impressed with the quality of the products that arrived, and have my next order scheduled for next Thursday. Luckily for me, I'm on a different site this week so I'm hoping that we might get a reasonable post time! If not, no doubt I will consume the lot in about 20 minutes after lunch (possibly not quite the grazing ideal!)

If you're in the UK and want to give it a try too - try this for a free box: WMVGNZ6

Goodnight!

-CJ

BLBE

So BLBE is over - all 16 weeks.

I started at 220, and am now 196.6, so have lost a grand total of 23.4lbs. Not spectacular if you consider the average per week, or compare it to the show, but a respectable amount none the less.

I've also taken up running, and since I started in January, when I had severe issues running for 3 minutes at a time, I can now run for an hour non-stop. Yesterday, I ran 5k in 34 minutes. Followed by another 5k today. I've learned to run on a treadmill, but for the past week have been trying it outdoors. I thought the hills, the sun, the wind, the bugs (yesterday I almost swallowed 2!) would make it so much harder, but the first attempt at outside running I ran for 10k. It was brilliant.

So, five months into my healthy new years resolution I'm a runner, and I'm no longer obese...I don't think you could ask for much more.

So a big thank you to Angie and Lynn for hosting the competition and here's to the next 5 months on this journey!

- CJ