MySDMoms Staff With everything busy moms have going these days, healthy foods can quickly fall to the bottom of the priority list. Although it would be ideal to shop at an organic or high end grocery store every week and consume nothing but green juices everyday, all of you moms of young ones know that sometimes just getting them dressed in the mornings is a feat in itself! Not only that, but moms are constantly inundated with the latest and greatest ‘tips’, ‘tools’, ideas, magazine articles, studies…and yes, even blog posts about what you should and should not be feeding your child!
My approach is a bit different. I focus on teaching my clients why whole foods and vegetable juices are the gold standard in the health world and why protecting your young ones taste buds is so important. My posts will focus on everything from the ideal toddler diet, to food-combining, to the how’s and whys of juicing and more. I don’t believe that you have to be eating the latest and greatest ‘superfood’ or burn exactly 500 calories on the treadmill everyday to live your best life possible.
With that in mind, I’d like to share with you one simple thing you can do right now to improve the quality of your diet and energy levels. Have you heard (over and over) that a big breakfast is the way to endless energy and increased metabolism? I’m here to dispel that rumor and tell you that it’s complete rubbish! I know this flies in the face of everything that we’ve been told all our lives, but a huge breakfast will do nothing but weigh you down, increase your cravings, and make you want to crash by 2pm. There is a better option: swap out your breakfast for a fresh, green veggie juice instead! The high vibration of the fresh raw enzymes and minerals in the juice will satiate you and flood your body with the nutrients it needs to help you function (read: chase after toddlers) at optimal levels all day long. I know you’re probably skeptical but, how about trying it for one week? Each of my clients tells me this is key for them during the day.
Here are some options to try my breakfast swap idea for one week depending on where you’re at in your quest for great nutrition:
1) If you have a juicer, the easiest thing to do is to make the juice at a time that’s convenient for you and freeze it if you can’t drink it right away. My favorite recipe is a very simple one: throw one head of romaine (the whole thing, not just the heart) in with 5 or 6 large carrots. Voila! Tastes like chocolate milk (no really, it does).
2) If you are short on time or live close to a juice bar, you can always stop in for a fresh-pressed juice; usually these places will customize one for you!
3) If this is completely new information for you or if you have a blender (but no juicer) a smoothie is an excellent way to start lightening up your morning consumption. Smoothies are great because just about anything you put in them will taste good! Below are a couple of good recipes to start with:
‘The Pink and Green Machine’
-3 handfuls spinach
-bag of frozen strawberries (organic if possible)
-stevia for sweetness (stevia is a natural plant extract that won’t affect your blood sugar)
-5-6 ice cubes
‘The Clean Gorilla”
-8oz almond milk
-2 tbsp flaxseeds
-3 tbsp almond butter
-1 frozen banana
-1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
-5-6 ice cubes
4) Now, I know that some of you just don’t have the time to be creating in the kitchen in the mornings! If you’re on the go and just have time to grab something out of the fridge, fresh fruit is your best pick. There’s a trick to keeping fruit in your diet though-make sure you are always consuming it on an empty stomach and keep it thirty minutes away from anything else. That means yogurt, coffee, oatmeal, etc! Fruit is so clean and moves so fast through our stomachs that anything else in the way will cause it to move slowly and ferment (eww!). After thirty minutes, you can consume yogurt or oatmeal or a smoothie. When you eat fruit, consume it slowly and mindfully and really notice how it makes you feel. You should notice a pleasant buzzing sensation as the live enzymes hit your bloodstream; it will give you a wonderful hit of natural energy.
Next week we’ll look at additional ways to increase your energy plus a few of my favorite (healthy) restaurant options!
[Morgan Torres Blog Tag]
