Green smoothie for glowing skin?

I already gushed over green smoothie in my previous blog entry and believe me, I have developed an addiction for it!

I said my new blender was on its way, I have it now! I am so in love with my new baby in the kitchen. I am able to make really delicious and nutritious vegetable and fruit smoothies. My smoothies do not only please me because I get to make my picky-eater kiddos eat veggies, I also noticed that drinking smoothies gives my skin a different glow. No more pimples since I started drinking smoothies. Okay, I am not really sure if it's because of the smoothies but I noticed that I don't break out anymore, not even during my period. I have not been doing anything special for my skin, so it must be the green smoothies, right? Hmmm....

Purple smoothie! Yeah, it looks yucky but it's so nutritious and so delicious.
It's red lettuce, water spinach, grapes, orange and banana put together.
That red, heavy-duty blender is my new baby in the kitchen, love it so much!
It processes food so fast and the smoothie is sooo smooth!

I have already tried several fruit-veggie combinations and I love all of them. Aside from the above, I have also tried:

1) Romaine lettuce, mango, banana smoothie
2) Romaine lettuce, celery stalk, pineapple and coconut smoothie
3)Water spinach (kangkong), banana, mango, orange smoothie
4) Romaine lettuce, water spinach, orange, banana and pear smoothie

I love carrot juice but I have not been making juice in the morning, instead, I prepare a smoothie for everyone at home, making all of us happy and healthy!

Drink a smoothie and stay healthy

I have always been health-conscious but my desire for a healthier body, not only for me but for my kids, intensified after my father had a stroke and after I suffered from hypertension. I am off  my hypertension meds for a month now and my blood pressure has never been better.

Last week I was in SM Lanang to visit a food expo exhibition. One exhibitor was selling a heavy-duty, multi-function blender. It can blend beans and rice, can crush ice in seconds and can be used hot or cold! The seller demonstrated the use of the blender and produced for the audience a very smoothly blended concoction of fruits and vegetables, so delicious and so healthy! I was so impressed that I almost bought the blender, almost! If it was not for the price, I would already have owned one, haha. Okay, it was sold for P12,000, hmmm, expensive. I know it's a good investment but I held off and searched for a similar blender online. Luckily, I found a cheaper blender that has the same functions for only P4,500. I am so excited! It will arrive this week.

Ok, going back to my effort for a healthier body, I realized that my good old Kyowa 10-speed blender can also process green smoothies. The smoothie is not as smooth as the one I tasted at the food expo but I guess both smoothies deliver the same benefits.

I got so addicted that I prepare a smoothie every morning. After my morning walk, instead of preparing my carrot juice, I now prepare a green smoothie. No, I am not going to stop drinking carrot juice, it's just that, a smoothie is more useful for the entire family than the juice. A kilo of carrots barely produces an 8-ounce juice, it's only good for one person. Secondly, my children hate carrot juice (except for Rae who drinks and eats whatever I give him). Good thing about the smoothie is that I get to make my kids drink it! They don't eat  vegetables and they hate carrot juice, with the green smoothie, veggies get into their body without them complaining. Alright, Roi and the girls complained at first but they're drinking it now. :)

The green smoothie is so tasty! I prepared this using my old 10-speed Kyowa blender

This is a mango-banana-romaine lettuce smoothie. No sugar added. The natural sweetness of mango and banana masks the taste of the lettuce. Except for the color, one can never tell it has greens on it. It is so tasty and so healthy. And oh by the way, green smoothies make you glow from inside out, it's very good for your skin :)

Here are inspirational websites with excellent green smoothie recipes:
Incredible Smoothies
Family Sponge

Have fun making your green smoothie and stay healthy!

Sunshine after the rain

So many things happened to me this year and I don't know where and how to begin my tale, but let me just say that my life turned upside down when my father had a stroke in March that paralyzed half of his body and when my dearest auntie had a stroke in April that led to her death. I was devastated.

It was a very difficult time for me. I tried very hard to be strong for my family but deep inside me my controls were slowly ebbing away from my grasp and I became very anxious, I got sick, my blood pressure rose, I palpitated, I went back and forth to the doctor. Hey, I am very slim and I eat healthy so even I could hardly believe I have blood pressure problem. My doctor in Davao calls it essential hypertension, and this treacherous illness runs in the family. He advised my to take a maintenance medicine (losartan 50mg). One doctor in Batangas, however, advised me to go easy on the hypertension med because he, too, doesn't think I have hypertension issues. He said the rise in my BP could have been triggered by an illness or a difficult situation. Hypertension became a dark shadow that loomed in my horizon, it consumed me, had it on my head all the time. Blood pressure monitoring became a daily exercise, I checked my BP everyday, morning and evening, and I took my BP pill religiously for fear of stroke.

Last month, I went through a company-required annual executive medical check up that included the following tests: Blood chemistry (CBC, FBS, Creatinine, Uric acid, Lipid profile,  SGPT/ALT), Urinalysis, Stool exam, Chest x-ray, Ultrasound of the bladder, kidneys, liver and pancreas, ECG, Stress echo-Cardiogram test. GUESS WHAT? My results were all normal as normal as can be! The doctor who attended to me, a cardiologist, prescribed me medicine for anxiety (Xanor 250mg) instead of hypertension. He told me to take the medicine for 5 days before bedtime and take only half a tablet when anxiety attacks or when I palpitate. He  told me to discontinue my hypertension maintenance medicine after two weeks. I had fears that if I stopped taking losartan my blood pressure would rise again but I took the doctor's advice and stopped taking losartan after 2 weeks.

I feel better now, I stopped palpitating, my blood pressure is normal but I still continue to monitor my BP. I also exercise daily. My morning ritual includes saying my morning thanksgiving prayer, taking my blood pressure, drinking a glass of water with kalamansi, walking/jogging/stretching for 20-30 minutes, and drinking fresh juice, most of the time carrot juice with a little milk and lots of ice.

So in a capsule, I could say that, yes, there's always sunshine after the rain. I have never felt better, my financial woes are being solved and I am happy, but that is another story :)

Periodic episode

On this side of the planet, this blogger is so relieved that she’s not having any episode of pain that normally occurs as her monthly period company of sort.  This is an improvement! It’s the third day of my period and I only feel very little discomfort. My period came on time, no hurting-eye-falling-out-of-the-socket feeling, no headache, no hot flashes, no irritation and no heavy flow.  Just a hint of pain on my right eye and right forehead, but that’s it and it comes and goes away fast. I feel normal, just like the old times.

You see, I get sick every time I have my period and it’s been happening in the past year or two. Lately, it kind of worsens. I get a terrible headache, I vomit, my eyes hurt, my GERD attacks, sometimes my lower right abdomen hurt (no, I don’t have PMS, never had it), I feel nauseated, and I have hot flashes now and then. I could not work, I have to go on leave from the office and stay home, curl up in bed and sleep the whole day. I feel useless and stressed.

I consulted my OB-Gyn in December of 2011. She gave me evening primrose oil and vitamin B complex. I was instructed to double the dosage one week prior to my period. It did not work. My symptoms got worst so I returned to her in November 2012. She had me go through some tests. A transvaginal ultrasound to check on my ovaries, uterus and cervix. I also went through a TFTs (thyroid function tests) like the TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) and Free T4 tests. Excellent results. She surmised, I must be experiencing some pre-menopausal symptoms. I am only 42, heck! Anyway, this time, she prescribed vitamin B complex for me to maintain and vitamin B complex + paracetamol one week before my period. I felt some form of relief during my period in December so the vitamin B complex + paracetamol must be working. But then again, I noticed that every time I have my period, I also get a head cold and this makes me very sick, causing me headache. I used to treat my head cold with a decongestant but I was not consistent. I only take the decongestant when I feel the head cold is worsening and oftentimes the headache and hurting eyes are already in a stage where tons of decongestants are no longer effective.

This time around, I stuck to my plan to take decongestants even if I only have very slight head cold because I noticed in the past that the moment I stopped taking decongestants, my head cold returns and worsens. I religiously take my decongestant along with my vitamin b complex + paracetamol and it’s been three days of my period with no significant discomfort.

I am so glad. I hope I have already discovered the cure to my long-time week-long monthly suffering.