What is that green stuff in your cup?

I get asked about my diet all of the time.  Primarily because over this past year my students have seen me come to terms with the fact that I have developed a serious allergy to gluten.  This allergy started appearing in 2011 and after 4 misdiagnoses, I finally know what has been causing my skin problems.

"What do you eat, if you cannot eat bread?"

"I could not do what you do, I would die without bread, pasta, cookies and cake!"

Well I am happy to report that I did not die when I walked away from all things gluten last October. In fact, I now have more energy than I have ever had and I am eating far more food than I ever did before but instead of filling up on bread and pasta and the like, I am actually eating all of the vegetables and fruit and lean protein that we are supposed to eat! 

Today's blog is meant to give you a tiny bit of insight into what I am eating and perhaps it may inspire you to try a new recipe.

Above you see a picture of my Magic Bullet loaded with fruit and spinach.

This is what it looks like when blended and below you can see what I am sipping all morning long for energy as I teach my 3 hours of fitness classes.

I began drinking this "green" smoothie last year at this time because I was diagnosed with Anemia and I wanted to start getting more iron into my diet. It may look weird but it is absolutely delicious and I am happy to report that I have reversed my anemia. Not just by adding this drink into my regime but by being on an iron supplement and watching everything that I eat, I have raised my iron back up to normal levels.  I now look forward to eating all things green!  :)

I encourage you to give this smoothie a try. I buy organic food as much as possible. No, I do not have the money to do this per say, but as I have said before, I cut back on my other lifestyle choices in order to eat as healthy as possible.

 I use frozen ingredients because fresh ingredients can spoil before I can use it all up.  Organic Spinach in leaves, not the cubes, is excellent in this recipe but I have used both!

1/2  cup frozen spinach or 1 cup fresh spinach
1/2 cup frozen mango chunks
1/2 a ripe banana or a bit more if you like
1/2 an orange peeled with seeds and skin removed but I usually use 1/2 cup of orange juice
1/2 cup of coconut water ( I use Coconut Dream beverage unsweetened)
1/2 cup or more of water depending on how thick you like it

Blend it all up and then you can add:
2 tbsp hemp seeds if you want extra protein.  ( I buy Manitoba Harvest)

Blend only for 30 seconds longer to preserve the nutritional value of the seed

Add as much water as you feel you need to get the right texture.

Enjoy!

Have a great weekend.
Beth