A Smoothie a Day

I have been drinking a smoothie every morning for a couple of months now. The equipment I use every day is a smoothie machine, cutting board & knife, & my coffee grinder. I try to do everything the night before so I can just add some wet ingredients and blend when I get up in the morning.

I am fortunate enough to live near a Gordons Food Service where I buy five pound bags of frozen mixed berries. I also sometimes get frozen melon balls or tropical fruit. It is nice to change the recipe and it also adds some nutritional variety. If you dont live near a Gordons, I am sure you can get the same thing at Sams Club or Costco.

The other absolute staple for me is Vitamineral Green. I will be posting on how wonderful this stuff is at some point. It is absolutely wonderful. I feel great when I have some daily for just a month. It improves my digestion, flattens my stomach, and gives me more energy. It has minerals, vitamins, enzymes, probiotics, algaes, seaweeds, and grasses. It is just a wonderful all in one product. It is not cheap. A bottle runs roughly $50 a month if I take it every day but it is a complete food product, not just a supplement so if I include it as part of my food budget and I remove the need for additional supplements then it isnt quite so expensive.

I have everything ready in a cabinet by the refrigerator and the smoothie machine. I fill the smoothie maker about 1/2 way with frozen berries or melons. If I have a pineapple or a mango I will cube that and use it instead.

I usually add 1/2 to one whole banana and sometimes fresh berries or a peeled orange or fresh kiwi slices or mango. I always have a bowl of fresh fruit and I find it so much easier to eat it in smoothie form. My fruit used to always go bad before I started smoothie-ing. Now it never does.

I add a tablespoon or two of the Vitamineral Green and fresh ginger to the frozen berries the night before and set the container in the refrigerator. In the morning I add a teaspoon of Cod Liver Oil, two raw cage free organic eggs, Colloidal Minerals, and some freshly ground flaxseeds.

I also bought some 20 oz clear hard plastic cups with lids and straws at Gordons. It might not be the most environmental option but I dont have time to drink the smoothie before work and if I had to wash a large crusty glass when I got home at night then I would not drink the smoothie at all. As the subtitle of the blog indicates, I am trying to merge modern living (ie:day job) with a healthy, organic lifestyle.

I know I am not adding everything that I can (or should) to my smoothie but for now it is an easy routine that fills me up, gives me energy, and most importantly gives me the nutrients that I would not be getting from a cup of coffee.

In closing I should mention that the Vitamineral Green turns the whole concoction dark green. If you saw The Thomas Crown Affair, Renee Russo drank something similar every morning. I guess it is cool in the movies but in real life it really throws people. I have people making the worst comments to me. It is amusing to me. I can not imagine insulting someone for eating french fries..." OH GOD! HOW CAN YOU EAT THAT???? YUCK FRIES! AAAAAHHH.. EWWWWW! THAT IS DISGUSTING!!!" I might think it, but I wont say it. Needless to say, I should give fair warning that if you are brave enough to take this smoothie out of the house with you, then you should be prepared for the inevitable verbal attacks.

As always I welcome suggestions and comments! You can find all the smoothie ingredients in your local produce department, local health food store, or at A Much Better Store, my natural family internet store.

Sheryl Lyon

Great Reasons to Drink a Smoothie

Do you want to eat healthier but do not know where to start? Are you trying to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into your diet but are finding it difficult to eat five servings or more a day? What about all the supplements and antioxidants you read about? How do you keep it all straight? Who has time to sort through the data much less prepare and eat everything you should?

The solution may lie in a smoothie! Smoothies are fruit based concoctions usually blended with milk or yogurt and an unlimited selection of "add-ons" and blended until smooth. Smoothies are ultra-fast, convenient, rejuvenating, energizing meal replacements. If you choose your ingredients carefully, your smoothie can relieve fatigue and constipation, balance your blood sugar, establish proper PH levels in your colon, and improve mental sharpness.

The real beauty of smoothies lies in their versatility. You can incorporate as many of the "shoulds" into your smoothie as you like. You "should" take more Vitamin C. You "should" take cod liver oil every day. You "should" introduce seaweeds and algaes into your diet. The "shoulds" are varied and numerous. A smoothie is a fabulous solution because it is much easier to pour a teaspoon of cod liver oil into your pineapple banana smoothie than to drink it solo. The same holds true for many of the somewhat unpalatable ingredient choices.

Smoothies are a great chance for you to exercise your personal taste and creativity. You can start with a bag of frozen berries or hit the produce department for fresh fruit that you enjoy. Any juicy fruit is a great choice for a smoothie. Be creative and avoid ingredients that you do not care for.

Any yogurt,milk, or kefir will do the trick but some experts recommend avoiding pasteurization and low fat dairy products for health reasons so if you are trying to switch to a raw diet you can use raw milk or make your own raw yogurt to use in the smoothie. If you are a vegan or want to avoid dairy altogether then use soy milk, rice milk, firm tofu chunks, or simply forgo the dairy aspect of your smoothie altogether. Many people like to use organic, raw, cage free eggs in their smoothie for a fabulous source of protein.

Grasses have tremendous nutritional and cleansing properties. You can grow your own wheatgrass and juice it fresh into your smoothie or you can purchase grass powder superfoods such as Vitamineral Green which is high in vitamins, minerals, essential amino acids, chlorophyll, probiotics, and enzymes.

Some great additions to your smoothies can include algaes such as ultra cleansing chlorella and spirulina with 96 trace minerals. Another ingredient that is easiest eaten in a smoothie is freshly ground flax seed which will provide you with valuable plant based Omega 3 oils as well as soluble and insoluble fiber. Keep a coffee grinder next to your smoothie machine to make sure the flax seed is added to your smoothie immediately after grinding to prevent oxidation.

Some other ingredients you can try are ginseng, raw cacao, aloe vera, vegetable powders, coconut oil, ground nuts such as almonds or walnuts and medicinal herbs such as cinnamon.

You can purchase plastic take out cups with lids and straws and leave the house every morning with a few of your fruit servings out of the way in addition to meeting or exceeding many of your other nutritional requirements. Smoothies are a fun, delicious, nutritious way to maximize your health in a creative way that is limited only by your imagination.

You can find all the smoothie products you need including smoothie machines, coffee grinders, and hard to find ingredients at A Much Better Store under the Blog department.

Organic Cat Food and the Recall

I was planning on eventually switching my cat's food to something organic or natural during Stage 11 of the list but I decided to make the switch earlier in light of the recent pet food recall scandal. I have been feeding my cats grocery store cat food, primarily Cat Chow for the last ten or so years. I began to consider feeding them something healthier during my own journey of discovery to all things natural.

I am not going to pretend to know everything there is to know about the proper or even natural way to feed pets but it does stand to reason that cats in the wild do not eat anything even remotely similar to Cat Chow. My cats are strictly indoor and therefore do not have the luxury of getting a bit of natural food through their own hunting. Being an animal lover I am relieved that they are not out there murdering birds and rabbits but the unfortunate fact remains, they are carnivores and as the hand that feeds them I am not doing a very good job.

Now that I reflect back on my years of Cat Chow, I am afraid I was feeding them the equivalent of Doritos every day for the last decade. They had hairballs, constipation, and a terrible shedding problem. I blamed all of the above on age, rather than diet. I have noticed that some of my friend's cats that eat Iams had much healthier coats and didnt shed nearly as much as mine.

I switched to Iams a couple of months ago but I have read that Iams isnt much better and still doesnt approximate the diet that the cats would get in the wild. Going back to common sense I realize that cats in the wild would not eat grains or fillers at all. They would pretty much eat raw, Atkins type of diets.

I found two types of dry cat food which I am trying out for now and I will report back on how the cats seem to like them. The first is called Raw Instinct. Here is a Nature Varieties own description of the food.

"Nature's Variety Dry Kibble Diets provide biologically appropriate nutrition that can facilitate health, optimum body weight, and longer pet life. Dry kibble diets containing more high quality meat protein and fewer carbohydrates can aid in reducing the incidence of stomach bloat, Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), some urinary tract crystals, allergies, and other diseases. This nutritionally dense kibble formula is appropriate for all life stages based on high meat protein content and whole grains. "

This food has received 5 stars by Amazon reviewers. In the week that I have been feeding it to them, their coats are much shinier and I dont notice much shedding at all. They seem to enjoy the flavor. They still prefer their wet food so there is a little competition for flavors but so far it seems to have a majority vote.

I also purchased TimberWolf Organics Serengeti Herbal Feline Formula Cat Food . There are no stars on Amazon for this product and the description is pretty sparse. "A special carnivore specific felid diet that promotes low urinary pH and assists in the removal of hair balls." Naturally that doesnt mean anything so I am here to test it for you.

I bought a four pound bag of each and I have four cats so they wont last long. I am going to use up the Raw Instincts first and then the Timberwolf and I will report back.

You can find both products at my store or you can purchase them on Amazon by clicking the links in this post. Please feel free to comment here if you have any experience with these foods whether positive or negative as I am learning here too.

Thanks for visiting & see you soon!
Sheryl