This post is part of a 5-day series where I follow Dr. Greger’s “Daily Dozen” recommendations for incorporating healthy food and exercise into every day.
Day Two!
I sometimes graze while I make the kids’ lunches, but since eating their snack crackers with my coffee wouldn’t earn me a checkbox, so I saved the crackers for the kids and waited until after drop off for my own breakfast. I’m not that hungry first thing in the morning, and I don’t really like the crackers, so this was good all the way around.
Breakfast: Raspberry, banana, kale, pineapple and flax seed smoothie with an Ezekiel brand sprouted whole grain english muffin with 1/4 cup of hummus and dill and tomato garnish. 1x berries, 1x fruit, 1x leafy green, 1x flax seeds, 2x whole grain, 1x beans. 8 checkboxes out of 24!
I had to decide whether I would use the kale in the smoothie to be a leafy green or a cruciferous vegetable, and I went leafy green because there’s broccoli in the fridge that I should probably eat for lunch. I often don’t add kale to fruit smoothies because it ruins the color. That sounds superficial, but if you’re trying to get your kids to drink one, it can’t be medium brown. It has to be “all the way I promise I have chocolate in me” brown, or it has to be fruit colored. I had to sneak an orchid into the background of my food photo to make it all look appetizing. (Did it work?) But the smoothie tastes great. A touch of pineapple really balances out the kale, and that’s two full leaves of kale to give me a complete serving of leafy greens. I might just have to start adding kale to every morning smoothie… and drink it out of a non-see through container if the kids are having it.
Snack: a clementine 1x fruit
Dinner: spicy peanut chickpea quinoa wrap 1x bean, 1x other vegetable (spinach counts)
Snack: clementine 1 x fruit
Beverages – yes
Exercise – 45 minutes on the treadmill.
Day 2 Verdict –
I missed a serving of beans. I could eat a spoonful of hummus right now but I’m not hungry! I decided one of my servings of broccoli counted as “other vegetable” after all because… broccoli.
I’m excited to try again tomorrow because I love all this fruit I’m eating. It’s delicious. I love smoothies. I love snacking to get in my extra nutrient dense foods. I wouldn’t have had a clementine this afternoon and I really benefited from sitting down and taking a break and eating it.