B-ing Fabulous Beauty Smoothie

This is the smoothie I drink to get my antioxidant fill. It's yummy, filling, easy to make and good for me. Sometimes I cut half the banana out because bananas are high in calories. It still taste great. I also add ground flax seed to my smoothie to make it healthier. Enjoy!

B-ing Fabulous Beauty Smoothie

Ingredients
1 Cup Blueberries, frozen (unsweetened)
5 Strawberries, frozen, (unsweetened)
1 Cup Light Plain Soy Milk
1 Banana, fresh

Optional
1 Tbsp Ground Flax Seed

Directions: Place the fruit in a blender. Place the soy milk to cover. If the soy milk does not cover you may need to add a little bit more.

Blend until fully blended.

I feel Great!

I totally forgot how much I loved the 30 day Shred. I can't believe I didn't keep it up after I lost the first twenty pounds. I think it's a mind thing. The DVD says lose up to 20 pounds in thirty days. "Well then I guess after twenty pounds I'm done". Sometimes I just need to kick myself.

This is really an easy program. Don't get me wrong it wasn't easy when I started it a year ago. It took me a couple weeks to be able to make that statement. Even though I haven't done it in a long long time I did and do go to the gym three to four days a week (off and on but mostly on). I go for forty to sixty minutes (cardio only) and then I work with weights at home for another twenty minutes once or twice a week (I really need to bump that up and I will with the shred). So this morning when I did the DVD I could say it was easy. I use the word easy loosely. When I say easy I mean it's easy compared to going to the gym and spending a couple hours working out to the 30 Day Shred workout which gets the same results in twenty minutes. I do the level one. I hear level two is much harder. My new goal is to get to level two by the end of January and still be able to say it's easy.

The 30 Day Shred workout works your muscles as well as cardio. I just added it too the right side of my blog so you can see what I'm talking about.

I feel great too. I don't know if it's because I'm excited about doing the shred again or if it's because I did the shred. I don't care. I love it!

Don't Drink and My Plan

I have been pretty good with my eating healthy and my exercising. I went to the gym 5 days last week. However this weekend I was bad on Saturday and Sunday. I went out Saturday night and drank probably more than I should have. Then on top of that because I wasn't feeling so great the next day I didn't eat very healthy. So what I learned from that is I should probably not drink during the challenge.

I've decided I'm going to start the 30 day shred tomorrow. I haven't done it in a while and I know it will do wonders. It did before. The only reason I stopped doing it was I started up at the gym. But I really should be doing both. Then when I'm at my ideal weight I should just alternate between the gym and the 30 day Shred.

Eat your Vegies!

I really feel better and look better since I started eating more vegetables. I think I have eaten more vegies in the past year than I have eaten in my whole thirties.
I have some great recipes for vegetables. I'm working on adding them to my recipe blog. I hope to get them up before the end of the month.

Vegetables and Their Benefits

By Vicki Churchill

Today, everyone is aware that vegetables are good for you and eating the right amount can improve longevity significantly.

Many people are conscious of the fact that eating five or more portions of different fruits and vegetables a day encourages good health and reduces the risk of chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

Vitamin A is essential for healthy eyes, skin and a strong immune system.

The Vitamin A found in colourful vegetables, usually bright yellow, orange or green is called Pro vitamin which is then turned into vitamin A within the body.

Here is a list of vegetables that contain vitamin A

* Asparagus

* Potatoes

* Pumpkin

* Carrots

* Peas

* Broccoli

* Cabbage

It is unlikely you would need to take a supplement to top up your levels of vitamin A if you have a healthy balanced diet. However if you do feel the need to take vitamin tablets it is always best to seek medical advice before doing so.

Vitamin C is vital to maintain a healthy immune system, large doses can also reduce the chances of catching a cold, help reduce damage to inflamed joints in arthritis sufferers and even reduce many symptoms that asthmatics experience.

Good sources of vegetables with vitamin c are:

* Cabbage

* Spinach

* Peppers

* Broccoli

* Brussel Sprouts

* Cauliflower

* Onions

* Lettuce

* Asparagus

* Cucumber

These vegetables are not only very easy to prepare and cook but are readily available to purchase in supermarkets and farm stores.

Vitamin E is an important antioxidant; it helps to repair cells and is often found in anti ageing creams.

Recent research has shown that this vitamin can delay or even prevent cancer, heart disease and cataracts, the list of vegetables below may be small but very beneficial.

* Spinach

* Broccoli

* Greens

Most vegetables that contain this vitamin are green and leafy

To get the maximum benefit from the above list of vegetables it is recommend you buy organically produced and eat them when they are fresh.

It is a common misconception that eating raw vegetables if better than cooking them, This is not always the case and it really depends on what you want to get out of them. For example cooking vegetables such as carrots can release certain substances that help us to absorb the vitamins easily.

Overall the important thing to bear in mind is to vary the vegetables you eat. Try to eat from a range of food groups and make sure you eat a variety of different coloured vegetables.

Vicki Churchill is the owner of http://www.simplecookery.com, a site that specializes in Recipes and cooking tips to save you time in the kitchen.

Bet Your MASS off Weight Loss Challenge!

I'm so excited because I started a weight loss challenge with twelve other women this evening. So for the next three month I'm going to be very motivated to eat healthy and exercise. This is perfect for the holidays as I tend to go off my healthy eating and cut back on the exercise during these months with the excuse "it's only once a year". Well not this year.

We are going to meet up once a month to weigh in as well as in between meetup to motivate, go for walks, dance classes, etc.... The person who looses the most percent wins. It's like the biggest looser.

The group I'm doing this with is a group on meetup.com. A year ago when I started this blog one of the things I did was I made an effort to go out more. Have fun. Stop hiding indoors. I work at home so I really needed to get out more. I'm so glad I did. I've met some wonderful people and having a fabulous time.