Back on Track...for now

Ever since the holidays it seems like I've lost my motivation to eat healthier, or at least to eat less. I allow myself to indulge for the holidays hoping that when life gets back to normal, I'll fall back into my groove of a healthier disciplined diet & exercise regimen. Well, up until last week that hadn't happened. Since I stay home with my daughter, I have this problem of just eating all day. A little here & there, but it adds up and my jeans were getting waaay tight. Mornings are my main problem. I like to graze and eat about 3 or 4 breakfasts worth of food before lunch :(. I do love my cereal/pancakes/waffles/muffins...you get the picture. And those foods don't really keep my satisfied & full. So, it was good timing that I ran across this recipe for a 'Power Smoothie' on Our Best Bites. We haven't been using our Blentec much lately like we should, so I decided to try this smoothie and hopefully let it do its magic. I even tracked down the oat groats at the 'healthy grocery store'.

I've changed up the recipe some, my smoothie is basically this:

1 frozen banana
1/2 c frozen blueberries
1 apple
1 orange
handful of spinach
1/2 c greek yogurt
2 T oat groats
1 c orange juice


This smoothie tastes wonderful! It's hard to believe you're ingesting all that goodness when you just drink it up through a straw. I can't imagine having a whole banana, apple, orange, pile of spinach, etc on a plate and eating it, but in a smoothie, it's so fun & easy, not to mention delicious! And it has really changed my eating habits, seriously, almost magically. I make one after returning from taking my son to school, drink it up and I am NOT HUNGRY the rest of the morning. And it seems to carry over to the rest of the day. I just don't get those wild cravings of wanting to eat anything I see. My other little trick is my carrots & peanut butter snack. They make an awesome afternoon snack, low carb and protein rich, carries me over to dinner time, no problem.

I've also been working out 3 or 4 times a week. I've been doing Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred along with a couple Denise Austin DVD's that I really like. I have a couple new ones on order since I'm growing tired of my little library.

So, I'm feeling great for now, under control, a bit fitter and more energetic. But...we've got a party weekend coming up so I'll need to get back to damage control come Monday. Thankfully I'll have my spinach & oat groats standing by.