Endless Summer

[gregl515]

Broccoli smoothies!

[mom2w]

Originally Posted by gregl515

Broccoli smoothies!

OMG! That would never, ever fly! The kid flips out if there's parsley on her pasta. An entire green drink...

Jill -- I like your thinking about tying it to gymnastics. She wants to start up with ice skating lessons again soon (next session starts in a month or so) and that would add a 2nd night of sports to work on her. She has decided to like raisins IF they come in the little snack boxes. Nuts are also on her list now. The jar shaped like Mr Peanut is always out -- good for her; bad for me! She sampled a protein bar at the club the other day (cookies & cream --yummy!) and liked it so dh and I were thinking we may try to get some of those for her too (keeping in mind that many are super-sugar bombs). I think Clif is making a kid version now. Who knows?

[L'ilJ]

Originally Posted by mom2w

OMG! That would never, ever fly! The kid flips out if there's parsley on her pasta. An entire green drink...

Jill -- I like your thinking about tying it to gymnastics. She wants to start up with ice skating lessons again soon (next session starts in a month or so) and that would add a 2nd night of sports to work on her. She has decided to like raisins IF they come in the little snack boxes. Nuts are also on her list now. The jar shaped like Mr Peanut is always out -- good for her; bad for me! She sampled a protein bar at the club the other day (cookies & cream --yummy!) and liked it so dh and I were thinking we may try to get some of those for her too (keeping in mind that many are super-sugar bombs). I think Clif is making a kid version now. Who knows?

The drink isn't green. The color of the berries obscures the broccoli color. Plus, you only put one or two flowerettes in there. You can't taste it, you can't see it. It's very stealth. You can also do cauliflower if you're worried about color. BUT, the veggies must be frozen for it to work. Oh, frozen spinach works too but is much darker. So here's what you put in it.

Milk (regular or chocolate)
Frozen Banana (1/2 a medium banana works)
2 Frozen Broccoli flowerets
Handful of fresh or frozen berries (blueberries, blackberries, strawberries)
Spoonful of nutbutter (peanut, cashew, almond)
1/2 scoop plain whey protein (I use unflavored "Whey to Go" brand and you really can't taste it. I like it better than the artificially sweetened stuff)
You can add honey if your daughter is picky and wants something sweet. Try buckwheat honey...mmmm.

That's it. I swear, the kid sucks it down. It's the only veggies I can get him to eat. He drinks one of these about 5 days a week. You can also add a large spoonful of cottage cheese. Some people like that, some don't.

[Lost Dog]

I put brocolli or cauliflower in most of my shakes. You don't taste either one, but if you add cocoa powder to the brocolli one, it's less visually noticable. Raw or cooked yellow/summer squash isn't very noticable. Zucchini is more distinctive in taste.

Pumpkin (canned) works well, too. And, it tastes really good.

Carrots work, too. But you have to cook them or freeze them. They never really get pulverized, if you don't.

Matter of fact, frozen veggies blend much better than fresh in all cases (spinach, broc, caul, carrots).

(she's ^^ a faster typist, obviously...)

[UConnJulie]

Good smoothie ideas ... if our veggie consumption declines I try that ... my kids just eat their veggies ... we tell them that they eat them because they are good for them, whether they like the taste or not. And they eat them!! The interesting thing is that now they really like most veggies ... broccoli, green beans, tomatos, carrots, cucumber, asparagus, zucchini, etc ... which is GREAT!!

[tkinsley]

Stealth veggie warning:

My palms are FINALLY becoming human flesh colored again. They've been orange for YEARS from pumpkin, spaghetti squash, etc. One of my former coworkers turned her kid orange with too many carrots--the tip of his nose was the color of a pumpkin for months!

Anyhooooo.... watch out for beta-carotene. It's fat-soluble and ends up hanging around for a looooong time, most noticeably in the palms/soles where the epidermis is thickest. I miss my pumpkin waffles, but I really like pink skin better than that jaundiced look!

Tina

[L'ilJ]

Originally Posted by tkinsley

Stealth veggie warning:

My palms are FINALLY becoming human flesh colored again. They've been orange for YEARS from pumpkin, spaghetti squash, etc. One of my former coworkers turned her kid orange with too many carrots--the tip of his nose was the color of a pumpkin for months!

Anyhooooo.... watch out for beta-carotene. It's fat-soluble and ends up hanging around for a looooong time, most noticeably in the palms/soles where the epidermis is thickest. I miss my pumpkin waffles, but I really like pink skin better than that jaundiced look!

Tina

At the rate my kid eats veggies there's not chance of him turning orange any time soon. To tell you the truth, me either. Although I EAT my veggies every day, I don't really like 'em that much. I would much rather eat other stuff, but I know they're good for me so I put up with them.

Julie! How lucky that your girls will eat their veg!

[Lost Dog]

Originally Posted by tkinsley

Stealth veggie warning:

My palms are FINALLY becoming human flesh colored again. They've been orange for YEARS from pumpkin, spaghetti squash, etc. One of my former coworkers turned her kid orange with too many carrots--the tip of his nose was the color of a pumpkin for months!

Anyhooooo.... watch out for beta-carotene. It's fat-soluble and ends up hanging around for a looooong time, most noticeably in the palms/soles where the epidermis is thickest. I miss my pumpkin waffles, but I really like pink skin better than that jaundiced look!

Tina

Dude, how much is too much? My kids eat carrots every day, but only one large one or about 10 baby ones. In the fall, I eat about a can of pumpkin a week, plus maybe two to five carrots. One large spaghetti squash a week, sometimes.

[mom2w]

Could be a GREAT Halloween costume though! OompahLoopmah anyone?

Thanks for the smoothie ideas. I think we may try that soon. We're trying hard not to make food an issue for her. She's slowing getting it, but a few tricks and turns along the way can't hurt.

Heavy weights on Saturday. I've got some issues with plantar faciatis (butchered that) and something in my quad muscle. I couldn't do squats worth squat. I did pound out a few sets of bar only, but no more weight than that. So, I did my best to really push on my other exercises. I've been stretching my leg and rolling my arch on a frozen water bottle. Today I didn't have any problem from either one. Yeah!!!

We took the kids to a club with an actual track yesterday. Sundays are family days for our chain and they allow kids on the track at that time. I did intervals of walk a lap then jog a lap. 11.3 laps= 1 mile and I got 24 laps in. The kids counted, kind of, and probably ended up around 15-18 laps total. (I did take a bathroom break in the middle; I'm not that slow; and the bathroom is 3 stories down at this particular club so that's why I had kiddie numbers too@). We're talking about maybe doing a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving (obviously!). DS and I did a 2K a few years ago, so it's possible to do the kid's run with them.

Today was my lactate weight training day. I've had to move them further away from the heavy lifting because I just didn't recover and spent a lot of time just hurting/DOMS/lord knows what. So, I'm looking at it more as a light lifting day instead. I got on the elliptical afterwards and barely made 10min. My legs were just gone. I did 3 sets of my circuits (to failure/the "burn" each exercise) with 8 exercises per set. So, I felt pretty good about it.

I've added fasted morning cardio to my workout schedule. I know, I know. I can hear Cosgrove's expletives in my mind even as I type it. However, I've just reached the point where I need to push something else at my body to shock it into gear.

In addition, I'm really careful about what I eat. It's pretty low carb -- some fruits -- but no bread, tortillas or pasta to be sure. Oats with PP & blueberries post heavy workout (it's like cobbler to me now) are the only grains. Careful on the cheese and fatty meats too. I know fat's not the enemy, but I need to regulate stuff somehow. I'm just at a place where this is all taking so frickin' long to move the weight that I can't think of short term fixes but look at what's going to be acceptable to eat long term. Aaahh, it's nothing set in stone; I'm still tweaking based on results. But, I'm logging food & activity daily. I need to keep myself very accountable. I just wish my body would respond as it has in the past. I hate that it gets to keep me guessing too!

Ok, dryer is going off and I suppose I need to make it look like I was busy today (actually I was very busy!)!

[gregl515]

It's great to get your kids involved in fitness activities. Too many kids are chained to TV because we can't send them out to play. By the way, your title always reminds me of the Beach Boys.

[Lost Dog]

Originally Posted by mom2w

I've added fasted morning cardio to my workout schedule. I know, I know. I can hear Cosgrove's expletives in my mind even as I type it. However, I've just reached the point where I need to push something else at my body to shock it into gear.

If you just call it morning cardio and don't eat first no one will make fun of you. Just don't wear a weighted backpack, or you'll hear about it. Trust me...

[mom2w]

Morning cardio w/o benefit of weighted vest is complete. 40min today. It takes some effort. I think dh's lunches are lacking since I run through the kitchen and whip it together so I can run downstairs and get about 40min+ in before the kids are up and in that "crunch zone" to get dressed and fed before school.

Jump rope is on the schedule for this afternoon. New rope too. Big day for Brenda! I had a Mary Kay makeover this morning so if I sweat enough I'll look purty in a Tammy Faye kind of way.

Endless Summer always brings me to a mental picture of our LA vacation last fall. We were at the "Surf City USA" beach (Huntington?) and some guys were doing a photo shoot with a restored Woody (car!). It was just a quintessential Beach Boys moment.

[gregl515]

Tammy Fay was underrated.