A Movie and A Smoothie

This past Friday evening I was having a conversation about food - well, most of my conversations center around food - and my friend asked if I had seen the documentary "Forks Over Knives".  I had not seen it, yet, but knew it was on my mental movie list.

So, Sunday afternoon, after Sparky and I had risen at 4:00 am to drive to Skiatook, OK for a road race and then drove home, all I wanted to do was relax and enjoy a movie on the couch cuddled up under an old quilt.  I activated our Netflix and instantly went searching through the documentaries.  There it was, "Forks Over Knives".  Perfect.

Here is the Trailer for those of you interested:

It was a good documentary.  I really enjoyed it.  It motivated me and it confirmed a few things I already thought.  That's all I will say.  I don't like to preach too much.  I like to watch different health and food documentaries to see if and what conflicting information is out there for us.  I also have switched my eating lifestyle and try my best to honor what I believe and say.  I'm not going to lie, being a HUGE food lover, eating what's right for me can be so incredibly tough.  I'm sure you all are fully aware of my dark chocolate, coffee, cupcake, ice cream obsessions.  I love SWEETS.  I need them everyday it seems.  So how do I incorporate & justify these indulgences to feel less guilty?

- dark chocolate.  I say it's better (for you and tasting) than crappy milk chocolate.  I especially dislike over processed fake milk chocolate coated candies.  ack.  I like fresh rich dark chocolate candies.  Yum.  I also LOVE Silk dark chocolate almond milk.  I will sometimes have a little glass after dinner to get my sweet craving knocked out for the day.

- coffee.  I try buying organic and low acidic.  I also have kicked creamers and try to add almond milk or cocoa powder to my coffee.  It has been tough but worth it.  I've also switched to every other day during the week and alternate the off days with either organic green tea or organic chocolate chai tea.  I used to have at least 2-3 MUGS of coffee a day.  Now I'm down to about 5 a week if I get a craving in the afternoon for one and just can't help myself because I've been so good.  If I'm purchasing coffee, I ask for soymilk, sugar free syrups if possible, and refuse the whip cream.

-cupcakes.  You all know I have an addiction to Green Goodies by Tiffany.  They're organic and I normally try to get a vegan cupcake to feel less guilty.  It works in my head.

-ice cream.  I try to limit my dairy intake as much as possible.  I do however, enjoy a little froyo on occasion and now that Green Goodies has frozen yogurt, I'm sure I'll be enjoying it a little bit more than I'd like to admit.  But, if I'm buying a frozen treat for the home, I usually get  soy dream or almond dream.  They are so yummy and decadent.

That's how I feed my sweet tooth and feel less guilty about it.  After watching "Forks Over Knives" I was inspired to eat more plant based foods.  I feel that I have been slacking the last few weeks.  Monday morning I woke up and instead of enjoying bran cereal and an english muffin, I made a fruit smoothie. It was so yummy and I felt so energized the entire day.  It was a great way to start the week.  Below is the smoothie I made.  Maybe incorporating a smoothie in the morning a few days a week will at least make me feel less guilty about enjoying the cheese with my wine.

I don't really have a name for this smoothie.  Let's go with:  Peach Orange Berry smoothie.

I threw in all the following into a blender.  I didn't really have a method or a plan.  That's the beauty of smoothies.

-2 handfuls of Organic frozen peaches
-2 handfuls of Organic frozen blueberries
-half an Organic orange (fresh)
-1/4 cup-ish cranberry juice
-1/2 cup-ish unsweetened almond milk

*I intended to throw in some ginger but forgot in all my crazy excitement.  I'm sure it would have been an amazing addition.  Next time!

Keep on Keepin on.