Healthy grocery guide and Smoothies

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Happy 2015! I am so late.
 I hope 2015 has been great thus far. It has been 2 months and a lot has happened. I digress. Let's talk health! I am so passionate about nutrition. I believe it is crucial in health.

Being a student and trying to stay healthy can be challenging. You probably already have a challenge balancing different components of your life: work, school, schedule time for yourself, and the family and friends (F&F).

With all those responsibilities, we may not be able consciously control what and how much you eat.


 Tips for healthy grocery shopping.

1. Prevent purchasing packaged and processed food when possible. They have preservatives, and additives you don't need in your system.

2. Go for fresh and whole foods.
They may seem expensive, but think of it. Your body and healthy is an investment. You get out what you put in.

3. Do your research and look for coupons. I shop online for groceries at freshdirect.com. They have sales all the time and coupons.

4. Budget, Budget! I literally spend about $200 on groceries a month. Yes! About $7 for 2 whole meals and 2-3 snacks a day. Maybe I want a quart of gelato for $9.49, but I really need more strawberries for my smoothies. So I'll get a pint instead of a quart. And indulge on my gelato on special days.

5. Will power! Especially when you go to events and parties. You can look for a healthier options and control your portions.


...

Remember my first post on Juicing. I have used it for about 2 years. It's still works great. However, I notice that I lack enthusiasm to use the pulp for other recipes and lose the fibers I need. Also I need more fruits and veggies for a cup of juice.
 To counterfeit the cons of juicing, I got a $34 blender for my birthday last week.
I have been using it for a couple of days and I love it. I use the $16oz jar. It is so easy to clean. This is a great alternative to the NutriBullet system.

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I am planning on getting an extra blade as a back up. The system in lightweight and quite convenient. Plus I get all the fiber and nutrients from my whole foods.

I made an anti-inflammatory smoothie today:
One stick of celery
Five cubes of pineapple (3 oz)
Half a banana
Ginger
Lemon (peeled)
Pineapple juice

Blend away! Delicious!

The lemon, ginger and pineapple were frozen so I didn't need ice. I find that ice dilutes the taste. Fruits and veggies have water naturally anyway. Prepping (peel, chop up and store in containers or ziploc bags) and freezing the fruits and veggies preserves them for a long time.

Update
I returned the blender above and got this black & decker blender instead.

I hope this helps!

Thanks for stopping by.

Love,

We Are What We Eat

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I hope you are all doing good. 

I am in this early phase of life after college, which I heard is one of the most difficult stage especially because of the economy and just the way life works; starting something for the first time is always difficult. I digress because that's for a completely different blog post. 

During this time I have a lot of alone time which I love because I get to think, research and brainstorm. I get to be more spiritual and think about how to better my life.

 Work and school can get us caught up that we don't have time to pause, breathe, be present and think of life.

I am at the stage in my life where I am discovering exactly who I am and what I want in life. 

I am a working progress, we all are. 

I feel the purpose of life is to be HAPPY. 

I want to feel great, energetic, and whole. 

To achieve this, I am really considering becoming a whole food vegetarian (possibly with no dairy and processed food in my diet). 

Which means no cookies, candy, milk chocolate (only pure organic dark chocolate), processed salts and sugars. 

After my research on what exactly is on the shelves in the stores. I am sold on the idea of becoming a vegetarian. 

It's going to be a challenge that I will take it day by day.  I am African and grew up eating meat.

Family, friends, the media, and work place can make it difficult. However, I willing to work and face the temptations and focus on the big picture. 

Think of all the diseases that can be prevented or reduced; heart diseases, obesity, diabetes, cancer and so on. 

 Due to our diet 'eating lifestyle', they gradually creep on the human population and surface when we get older and our system is frail. 

Health is wealth.

Think about this. 

Energy has to be put in for energy to come out. 

 If we eat processed,  synthesized food and chemicals, what do we get out? 

(Hold that thought) 

How about when we eat the foods that are fresh, and in their most natural and whole form, what do we get out?

To feel good GREAT and radiate it, we have to put great food into our bodies. What we eat, drink, and think matters.

My philosophy: Positive perception and good things are what we need for a happier life. 

Here are some links for inspiration on this topic:

Chef Ahki, she is a natural food activist. Check her out!

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Chef Ahki's Youtube page

Chef Ahki's website

Chef Ahki's recipes

Preston Smiles, he is the founder of 'The Love Mob'.

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Self love discussion

His uplifting youtube channel

The Love Mob site

Hey Fran Hey (Francheska), Natural hair, beauty and nutrition youtuber. 

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Hey Fran Hey's grocery shopping list

  

Thanks for stopping by.

Love,

Detox: Juicing on a budget for beginners (college student fitness style)

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What have I been up to lately?

I have been very conscious and concerned about my health and fitness.

Two weeks ago, I started the INSANITY work out by Shaun T. I have been somewhat (lol) consistent with the workout, trying to dig deeper in the voice of Shaun T (by the way his workouts are amazing).  After my second fitness test, this week, I noticed that I have not improved from my first workout and I have deteriorated in some of the fitness workout and improved in some. I wasn't happy at all. So I decided to so more research. Then I came across detoxing again (which I have heard about), but never really considered doing it. 

The saying, 'you are what you eat' is a gazillion percent true. Since I became pescetarian for about eight and a half months (woohoo! almost a year) my diet have improved. I need this detox to push my body a step further, so I can get healthier and get great results with the INSANITY workout. Shaun T said in the introduction of INSANITY fuel your body.  I woke up this morning fed up with the way I felt about the workout fitness test. I decided, I am doing to detox for at least 14 days possibly 60 days (like Joe Cross of Fat, Sick and Nearly dead). I know it is going to be challenging after all, nothing good comes easy). However, I am so excited to start this detox juice fast. I ordered the Hamilton Beach Health Smart Juice Extractor  ($30.99) from amazon with one day shipping ($3.99), it arrives tomorrow. It is not the best juicer, other costs hundreds of dollars. However, it works and for now that's all I care about. My plan to chop the vegertable and fruits into small chunks and juice them. Then, 're-juice' the purees to get the most of the micronutrients.

Benefits of Juicing:

Juicing enables your body to absorb nutrients from the fruits and vegetables faster than blending does. link for more info.

 I went grocery shopping and tried to get all organic, but could not; it is so expensive.

I got:

Bunch of Kale (Have so much benefits)

Organic Cucumbers (5)

Mangoes (2) (organic)

oranges (2) (organic)

Organic Beets (4)

Organic Ginger root (a huge one)

4 lemons

5 apples

Baby Arugula (organic)

2 lb of carrot (organic) (14)

Grape tomatoes (organic)

A bunch of Celery (organic)

And a bunch of italian parsley (organic).

They all cost under $40. This would last me for almost a week (let's say... 5 days). The regular cost of health meals for a week, it would cost 3 times that. I plan to drink lost of water along with the juices. 

I will try to keep y'all updated each day (we will see about that -.*) on my progress, my own recipes, set-backs, as well as difficulties.

Links to recipes I plan to try out and possibly modify:

http://juicerecipes.com/

http://www.rebootwithjoe.com/category/blog/recipes/juice/

 Video for tips:

Have a great day and juice on! 

Comment and follow :)