Day 1: Green Smoothie Challenge

Waking up on a Saturday morning, sipping coffee and browsing the updates on WordPress reader I saw the Day 5 update to the VegedOut 2013 Green Smoothie Challenge by Somer. I saw talk of this earlier this week on her blog but was having a very busy week to give it any thought. Seeing the progress being reported today, it was highly encouraging. Seeing Somer run on a cold, snowy winter day definitely inspiring.

The past year or so I have been struggling to get rid of the excess weight I had gained over time but with little luck. It’s already the middle of January and  the scale was still stubbornly tipping on the higher side. It was time to try something different.

I decided to stop by the grocery to pick up lots of fresh greens, fruits and other vegetables to last the week.

It was also time to soak  fresh raw beans (black, kidney, chickpea and whole green peas) in water, since I rarely use canned stuff.

And time to prepare the dressing and sauces and keep them handy to last the entire week.

Here I want to record my progress each day with the hope there will be less chance of quitting mid stream. I don’t intend to post any recipes only log my daily four meal plan and exercise routine. You can find all the details about the challenge along with recipes and calorie counts on Somer’s website. My plan is to take it easy and follow the recipes as is. Although I might improvise here and there to substitute equivalent ingredients when I need to, I don’t expect to make any changes to the original recipes. Here is a link to her complete guide to the Green Smoothie Challenge.

After a quick hour at the gym, I had a refreshing Mango Madness Green Smoothie with fresh mango, banana, and spinach.

Lunch was a refreshing salad of red leaf lettuce, chickpeas, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, red onion and vegan balsamic vinaigrette.

Evening snack of Razzleberry Lemonade Smoothie with fresh kale, banana, strawberries, blueberries, cranberries and lemon with some hemp seeds.

Topped this off with a dinner of vegan fresh whole pea soup with carrots, celery and tomatoes.

 Oh… and I did have a cup of coffee in the morning…