Drink your greens?

A few months ago, my cousin posted on Facebook about her morning green smoothies.  I was instantly intrigued.  She directed me to Simple Green Smoothies.  

I love a good smoothie in the morning: mixed berry, strawberry banana, peanut butter banana, coffee frappe', whatever sounds good at the time.  But throwing green veggies into the mix 1) kinda grossed me out, but more importantly 2) screamed nutrition at me.  I'm not the best at getting any fruits or veggies into my diet, nevermind the USDA suggested servings.  

I read up on the trend and chatted with my cousin and her friends about their experiences with the green smoothie craze.  The more I learned, the more I wanted to try it.  My next trip to the grocery store, I bought baby spinach, some frozen fruit and almond milk.  My first green smoothie was a true experiment... and it was good!

photo from simplegreensmoothies.com

This is a great way to get in more servings of fruits and vegetables during the day.  The gals at Simple Green Smoothies even have a 30 Day Challenge, in which they challenge you to drink 16 oz of green smoothies for 30 days.  Sounds great, but I'm a bit sporadic about my smoothie drinking.  It all depends on whether or not I have the necessary ingredients, how much time I have before I'm officially late for work, and what the temperature is outside (drinking cold smoothie on a cold day is no bueno).  

I've now been concocting and drinking my own green smoothies for a few months and I really enjoy them.  When I don't take the time to have one in the morning, I'm ravenous and more lethargic.  My go-to  smoothie is 1 cup baby spinach, 1 cup unsweetened almond milk, 1 frozen banana, and 1/2 cup frozen pineapple.  This morning I threw in about a teaspoon of honey and it made a huge difference.  Quite tasty!  My second favorite is peanut butter and banana... yum!  

Ideally, I will drink one for breakfast every morning.  Much more likely now that the temps are rising into spring and summer.  

Eureka!

I'm home from work today.  Uber boss met me at the door this morning to report that we had zero network connectivity.  This makes working hard: no phone, no email, no internet, no files.  Hmmm.  I cleaned up from Saturday's class and we chit-chatted a bit.  I don't think either of us was very disappointed when it was decided that we wouldn't stay.  I do feel bad for the folks who had to stay in the building with nothing to do.  

This presents me with a great opportunity to clean house and prepare for new window installation tomorrow.  It's now 3:30 pm and I haven't done a darn thing!  I'm so annoyed with myself!  Maybe I just needed a quiet day at home, alone.  

I don't think the window installation is happening tomorrow, anyway.  We've been going around and around with the window guy, always some excuse.  I called him today to ask that he figure out a way to get this job done and call me back tonight with a day and time for install with a personal guarantee that it will be done correctly.  I found myself using some of the training (7 Habits, Crucial Conversations) that Uber Boss insists that we get.  After I had calmed down a bit and that realization hit, I felt like yelling Eureka! The other Eureka! I experienced was not giving in to stop for fast food or to pick up that pint of ice cream while I was at the store.  At that time, I was feeling the frustration, but hadn't yet called the window guy and was getting very nervous.  Usually, I would've done both: ice cream and fast food and had a good binge session before going through with the ugly task.  But this time I made the right decision.  I even checked the Zumba! schedule to see if I could get a workout in this afternoon, but there isn't one scheduled.  I would walk in the neighborhood, but my ankle is already bothering me and would only result in more pain later on.  Think I'll just continue to veg on the couch!  

On My Way

Sometimes Most of the time I have trouble staying motivated to complete a task or reach a goal.  In the last year I've started a new job and I now have a boss, we'll call her Uber Boss, who is all about goal setting, reflection, feelings, etc about work, effectiveness, roles, etc.  I've never talked about myself, good and bad, so much in my life!  But she's really starting to make an impact on me and the way I think.  So, here I am, ready to work on the same journey, but in my personal life.  

A little about me.  I'm 35 years old and work at a college in Texas.  While I've held other jobs, my career has always been in a college/education setting.  No, I am not a professor.  But I do teach.  I'm sure we'll get into all that another time.  I am engaged to a great guy.  We've been together for almost four years.  We have a nice home, five pets (The Menagerie), lots of toys and lots of fun.  Our family is a little bit bigger than just the two of us for about half of every year.with regular visits from my mom and my step-son.  There's also a step-daughter who chooses not to be included in our family that I might mention once in a while.  

That's a lot of info without a lot of info.  Personally, I'm funny, overweight, I like to craft, I'm loud and quiet at the same time.  And I have trouble with feelings, motivation, follow through, and personal reflection.  Yikes!  Maybe I should be starting counselling instead of a blog!

Welcome to my journey finding a better me!