30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge – Day 29

Posted on January 19, 2015 by Duncan Toms

Today I made Day 30’s and tomorrow I’ll make Day 28th’s – mixing it around mainly because I didn’t want another cucumber and celery combo today. So, today’s was the Liver Detox Smoothie: Cranberries, mango, cucumber, kale, ginger, cinnamon and almond milk. Another good one. I should have gave them star ratings so I can easily see what my favourites were over the days. Well, here it is, with my ailing potted herbs behind:

Alarm went at 0620, too early and I slumbered an hour before getting up for meditation. This was the highlight of my day, even though it was tough. Me and my body and its pains and my learning about my reactions to the pains and sensation, the mind quietening all the while and learning about division, or the reality of division, between me and what I feel. Such a simple and genuine and healing activity. I wish I’d dared do it years ago. Better late than never, as they say. This evening was Iyengar yoga class over near Winchester. Twists standing, lying and seated, with the trademark Iyengar precision and care even whilst working strongly. A cold winter’s day, bright sun, and minus 4C on the drive home. Merino was worn all day, including in class.

30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge – Day 28

Posted on January 18, 2015January 18, 2015 by Duncan Toms

Whups. I guess I got bored of photographing and blogging smoothies, so I missed a lot of days here. But I did have a smoothie every morning, and sometimes in the evening too, and I’m still in love with them. So I have reached Day 28! It isn’t the app Day 28 because I went back to a recipe I missed earlier, the Apple Basil Inflammation Buster, no less. Pretty good, although quite summery for the middle of winter, with it’s apple, basil, almond milk, cucumber and celery. Here it is post blend:

Kept me going easily until lunch though, which is now back to its rather late 1330 term time.

Meditation one hour in bed. Not the same but warm! Yoga one hour after work, then twenty minutes sitting. Body and mind feeling good. Feeling like I need quite a lot of rest, and I suspect we try to do too much when thinking we have the same energy in the winter as in the summer. Semi-hibernation would be so sweet…

Peace

30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge – Day 21 & 22

Posted on January 9, 2015January 9, 2015 by Duncan Toms

We are into our annual staff week and so I have had less time to post what smoothies I’ve been having. Yesterday was the Dark Blueberry Booster. Ingredients are: blueberries, blackberries (replaced with frozen summer fruits), kale (replaced with chard), coriander and almond milk (replaced with rice milk). Looking deep and mysterious: I drank it during a clean out of hundreds of Krishnamurti video tapes and the centre library. We kept the English ones to give away in the bookshop and I chucked out four bin bags full of dubbed ones, a format just too out of date now. Everything will be included in a searchable, browsable digital video library instead. Of course, in the meantime we had the DVD and preliminary media players, but the new system is much more user friendly. This is at the Krishnamurti Centre in Hampshire. Today I made the Simple Mango and Greens smoothie: mango (frozen), lettuce, ginger (first time in a while), hemp seeds, coconut water. Very good! Drank it during setting up the sitting room for a video showing, using the centre’s new 50-inch TV. I’ve been so clear-headed during this year’s staff week compared to any of the last decade. The smoothies, sitting, and regular yoga are really working wonders. I’m moving beyond my known realms of health into, for me, uncharted territory. I don’t know where it will lead. We can experiment with these things and others can somewhat guide the way, at least in bodily health, but it’s our own life which changes and there is no blueprint for that. It’s tremendously enlivening. We’ve been dialoguing in the afternoons, discussing ‘freedom is at the beginning not at the end’ which points to the crux of where Krishnamurti differs from nearly all other spiritual disciplines, practices or philosophies. There’s nothing to get. The statement puts one in a beautiful bind: I am not free and freedom is not something to work towards. It means the next action must be in freedom or not at all, more of the same. It was a lively discussion as minds grappled with something you just can’t think about. Today’s dialogue was about the limits of knowledge, where thought has its right place and where it is an impediment. In the mornings we’ve been watching 1970s discussions with staff at the school in Ojai. But I prefer a good public talk where Krishnamurti can unfold the new at his own pace, without the interjections of those guessing and theorising. Good stuff! Probably not a typical staff week. And not a bonding session in sight. Peace

30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge – Day 20

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Duncan Toms

I’m finding that any smoothie including pineapple is going to be sumptuous and scrumptious. Today’s was the Kiwi Pineapple Vitamin C Booster: the obvious, plus celery and parsley and the now obligatory coconut water. Delicious, with a nice parsley and celery kick.

The plant pot teapot in the background of a lot of these smoothie pictures was made by my friend Samuele. He makes one-off pots and pottery and here’s his website.

After a quiet day in the office, a yoga session. I’ve returned for the moment to a favourite sequence of mine, what I call ‘New Zealand Yoga’. It was made a few years ago and used to be a DVD but is now online here. I don’t need to look so I extracted the audio and just play it through my iPhone, and have edited out the intro, starting the practice at 0:03:45:

It has unintentionally hilarious stilted and stiff presentation by Greg & Al, but is very informative for each pose and the sequence is very good. At one point, preparing for locust pose: ‘the guys will have to adjust the placement of their tackle to a position that is comfortable,’ and ‘congratulations, you have reached the relaxation.’ I also don’t find the voices annoying, like I do in so many yoga videos.

Peace

30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge – Day 19

Posted on January 6, 2015 by Duncan Toms

After a couple of days of spinach-based improvisations I am back on-piste, having been to the supermarket to get the next five day’s worth of ingredients. Today’s (this evening’s) was the magnificent Berry Supreme:

What’s in it? Berries, rasp and blue. Supposed to be pok choy but they had none, so it has lots of romaine lettuce, some coconut water and some almond butter (supposed to be tahini if I could remember to get).

So, that’s 19 and a few days of smoothies for breakfast and I am still enjoying it. I’m feeling healthier, all in all, more balanced, more stable somehow, and certainly clearer-headed. I haven’t lost any weight but that wasn’t the plan. I shouldn’t as I’m already 5’11” and only 10.5 stone. I’ve been the same weight for about 20 years. Well, I’m quarter of a stone more than a few years ago so that’s good. So weight loss isn’t a thing for me, it’s about nutrition, more of the green stuffs, more food in it’s natural food (although blended to high heaven) and to have a variety of breakfasts instead of the usual cornflakes (Doves sugar-free, honey granola (Dorset cereals) and grapefruit juice (pink), which I was having for more than a year. I’ve sometimes been having one for supper too. For sure I’m going to contnue way beyond the 30 days of the challenge.

30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge – Day 18

Posted on January 3, 2015 by Duncan Toms

Today’s smoothie was the Strawberry Orange Iron Booster. Here’s the pre-blended ingredients, with spinach, hemps seeds and coconut water in addition to the obvious:

In the mix:

The delicious result:

This was definitely one of my favourites. Unlike the other two times, I didn’t substitute strawberries for something else, opting for Moroccan strawberries at £2 for like ten of them. A bit concerning how they didn’t seem to perish in the slightest. We’ll let that slide. Apparently, having vitamin C foods together with foods containing iron, it increases the body’s ability to absorb the mineral.

Today was the last day of my mini-kind-of-retreat since new year’s eve, choosing to start the year alone. I don’t think I realise at the time how deeply I’m working with the meditation and yoga when there’s no one else around to pull me out in between. A bit like when a ten day meditation retreat is on its last day and everyone can talk again, and so we think we’re back to normal, not realising how deeply we’re still working.

30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge – Day 17

Posted on January 2, 2015 by Duncan Toms

Behold: the Pineapple Mango Digestion Soother:

I held back on the coconut water to create this gloopy agaesque chlorophyl-tastic masterpiece. The green comes from the kale and the only other ingredient but for those in its title is ginger.

Went for a walk along the Itchen from Martyr Worthy, through Easton, and under then back under the M3, in glorious winter sunshine. Here’s the church at Martyr Worthy:

30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge – Day 15 & 16

Posted on January 1, 2015 by Duncan Toms

New Year’s Eve’s smoothie was the Peach Cobbler: Peaches, lettuce, ginger, cinnamon, hemp seeds and almond milk. Pretty good, mild in taste and appearance, aided by the party straw:

Today’s was the Digestion Cleanser: Blueberries, pear, lettuce, ginger and coconut water. I used frozen blueberries which weren’t bad at all. Perhaps more of a watery result than fresh ones. Look at this dark, mysterious beauty, quite the contrast to yesterday’s:

A quiet and restful New Year’s Day. What better way to start the year? Slept as long as I needed, meditated an hour, made smoothie breakfast, leisurely drank it over about 45 minutes, listened to music (Ghostface Killah), had a snooze, then stir fry and rice for lunch, watched Graham Norton recorded from last night, got some logs in (my only step outside on this wet and windy day), browsed a bit, another hour’s snooze, then an hour’s yoga, twenty min evening meditation, then posted this. Tomorrow, perhaps surfing. A healthy and wholesome new year to everyone!

30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge – Day 14c

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Duncan Toms

Another make my own smoothie day, but I have now been to the ‘super’ market so normal service resumes tomorrow. Today I used: pok choy, banana, orange, a little almond butter, hemp seeds, coconut water, mint and parsley. Just whacked it all in the NutriBullet and as usual it tasted great.

Check out the super frosty morning outside – nice!

It’s like I’m getting a head start on the new year, with over two weeks of breakfast green smoothies under my belt and in my veins and cells and whatnot. And lots of flowing yoga, full breathing, reaching gently, touching all parts. Stronger and looser. And an hour and twenty minutes of meditation every day for months now, even if for the most part lying down, centring and understanding the mind. Come the new year I’ll not lie down but make that initial minimal effort to sit. I actually want to do these things, having finally found practices I like and daring a bit to work through the awkward feelings that can come as things get uncovered in yoga and sitting.

This eve’s meditation, after yoga, noticing all attempts at direction or doing, getting subtler and subtler. Then like a gnarly area of tension in the brain and it being gently bundled and carried away someplace, without my doing. Fighting anything does not work, nor resistance. A sense of burning away of the unnecessary very apparent.

Got my new wetsuit. After disappointing results with a zip free Rip Curl I sold it and bought an Xcel Infiniti 5/4 2015:

It’s a medium tall and fits very well. Looser under the armpits than I’m used to but nothing to worry about. Really soft neoprene, very secure chest zip system, and the lining is something else with its Thermo Dry Celliant technology and infra red print:

I can’t wait to try it out! Maybe there’ll be some channel swell over new years, otherwise it’s waiting for a spring trip or perhaps Morocco.

30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge – Day 14b

Posted on December 29, 2014 by Duncan Toms

Ah, well, umm, didn’t have the ingredients I needed for today’s smoothie, so am improvising. For a couple of mornings, until I can get to the shop tomorrow evening. So, using up leftovers from previously, I made a pineapple, lettuce, hemp seed and almond butter smoothie, with a little coconut water. My first concoction and a delicious success! Can’t really go wrong I reckon. Here is the pale beauty:

The now-usual clear headedness all morning. The little nut butter kept any hunger at bay.

Back to the yoga this evening after not doing any over Christmas. A great after work work out with the Strala ENERGISE routine. Then twenty minutes of mediation, returning fully to centre, ready for the eve – watching What We Do In The Shadows with some friends.

Lunch was rice and chilli beans and supper was baked potatoes and baked beans. The only sugar-free baked beans I’ve found are the Whole Earth organic. Why is sugar in almost everything shop-bought? I can handle fructose and honey no problem but refined sugar sends me loopy a while, then crashing big time for a day or two, achy muscles and lethargy, pale skin. So I learnt quite a while ago just to ignore anything with refined sugar.

30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge – Day 14

Posted on December 28, 2014 by Duncan Toms

Such a good one today: the Calcium Booster. It contained: oranges, banana, kale, tahini and almond milk. I didn’t have the last two ingredients, so substituted almond butter and rice milk. Nut butter in a smoothie is a revelation! Highly recommended, especially if you want the full feeling to last a while or need a bit of a calorific boost. It also looked a treat:

So, I’m two weeks in, going strong. It doesn’t feel like a ‘challenge’ at all and I look forward to breakfast every day. Even in the cold winter, I don’t fancy anything else for breakfast. A reminder that I’m following the challenge from the Young and Raw app, which seems to vary from the one on their website, for some reason. It’s giving me a lot of ideas from when the challenge is over, and I’ll probably settle into a dozen or so of my favourites.

30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge – Day 13

Posted on December 27, 2014December 28, 2014 by Duncan Toms

Today’s smoothie was the Strawberry Creamsicle. I’m not sure what a creamsicle is but the ingredients for the smoothie are: strawberries, orange, celery, cucumber, hemp seeds and coconut milk. I didn’t have any strawberries so I used frozen raspberries. I didn’t have any coconut milk so I used (again, vegans look the other way) organic whole milk and a little coconut water. So mine was much changed from what it should be. I didn’t taste the raspberries beforehand but I suspect they were rather weak in flavour, as the smoothie lack punch, kind of watery despite the milk. Well, it was okay, just not great. It looked smashing though: This was at 10am as I’d been up at 0245 to give C a lift to Heathrow. Here’s my facebook status once I got back in around 0600: Up before three, drive into the morning over and around fallen wood, no one on the road until the bread lorries of the motorway. Hovis. Taking the racing line, the road is mine, to the shining airport. A fond, loving farewell after check-in, tears my side, nearly always my side. Then back three hours after leaving, the homes still sleeping and the greengrocer in town setting up for his Saturday as I drift gently back to sleep.

Later I went into Winchester on the bus, having walked into town from Old Alresford. I used my Narrative Clip and here’s a selection. I’m not sure I’m going to keep that gadget long. As for the NutriBullet, for sure I’m keeping it as it’s doing me the world of good. 2015 I intend to spend my money only on those things that allow for wellness.

30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge – Day 12

Posted on December 26, 2014December 28, 2014 by Duncan Toms

Behold the Apple Pie Smoothie:

It tasted as good as it looks and sounds. Apple, banana, kale, cinnamon, ginger and almond milk. Vegans look away now: I replaced the almond milk with organic whole cows milk. It made a really filling and nutritious breakfast, boosting my levels of acetylcholine and flavonoids.

A bit of a hangover day from the Christmas foods, but the usual familiar sluggish feeling has been kept at arms length by these healthy smoothie breakfasts.

30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge – Day 11

Posted on December 25, 2014December 28, 2014 by Duncan Toms

The Christmas Day smoothie was the mighty Kiwi Omega Booster, which consisted of a delicious blend of, yes, kiwi, with spinach, cucumber, coriander (forgot to put it in) and hemp seeds (making the other part of the name). It was very good, may have been even better with the coriander.

So, not so very Christmassy but a very good way to start the day, having been up until 0200 for the midnight mass, and also to cure the headache from my first caffeine a few years, one cup of green tea. Was truly buzzing on that in the church last night. While waiting for the service I meditated for a while. The vibes were pretty good. Interesting to observe the Christian rituals of my youth once again. The best bits were the singing and the sermon, during which distance and division between me and the vicar seemed to vanish and there was a pure listening. The petitioning prayers I think we can all do without. We may go again.

The actinidain in the kiwi will help my body digest protein molecules. Good because I have been having more than usual, given the Christmas fare.

30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge – Day 10

Posted on December 24, 2014December 28, 2014 by Duncan Toms

The Tropical Vitamin Booster was great! Pineapple, mango, lettuce, lime. I didn’t need to add any liquid thanks to the juicy fruits and I like my smoothies thick.

Tropical Vitamin Booster Smoothie

I had to take my time drinking it, so rich it was. Usually I take about 45 minutes. Today I took it with me when we went to get a few last minute Christmas things in town, and wandered round The Long Barn shop sipping it through my straw. The small town Christmas feeling was homely and spirits high, and we got a good walk from where we parked. Swedish style, we had our Christmas dinner today, on Christmas eve, and opened a present each, the rest will be British style in the morning. Tonight we’re going to midnight mass at Portchester Castle’s church, near my brother’s.

Merry Christmas everyone! Peace.

30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge – Day 9

Posted on December 23, 2014December 30, 2014 by Duncan Toms

Not much to report today but for a super yummy Blackberry Antioxidant Rescue smoothie. This beauty contained blackberries (replaced by mixed summer fruits, frozen), orange, spinach, coriander and ginger. I’ve been having my smoothies quite thick after Day 2’s too-diluted attempt but today I needed to add some water as it got too gooey in the blender and wouldn’t reach down to the blades. A few dashes of coconut water did the trick.

Just look at the colour. Just look at it.

After a week and a bit, and with the Strala yoga, my skin seems to look more alive, almost as if I have a tan, and my eyes and teeth whiter. The whites of my eyes that is, white anywhere else in the eyes would just be weird.

Apparently today’s breakfast was rich in anthocyanin and rutin. Way to go!

30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge – Day 8

Posted on December 22, 2014December 28, 2014 by Duncan Toms

Green Pear Fibre Booster. Well, I’m not sure my fibre needed boosting! It was the greenest smoothie yet, with pears, lettuce, parsley and hemp seed. Except I forgot the hemp seed. (Had some in my made-up smoothie tonight instead, same as last night’s.) The GPFB was pretty good. I ‘don’t like’ pears, one of those fruits I’ve pretty much ignored after tasting one when young. (Except in pear drops!) It’s like the parsnip to the potato, the pear to the apple, not as good so what’s the point? That’s how I used to think and there it stuck – noticed how that happens? So I plunged right in. Not bad! A bit gritty like I remember pears to be, but a full, pleasant flavour.

Notice the straw? It’s my new stainless steel one. Not as nice on the teeth as plastic but I didn’t like throwing one away each day.

So, into the Christmas period we go! I’ll continue with the breakfast smoothies throughout. We need to get our Xmas food in and so have opted for late tomorrow evening. I’m hoping for decent stock and far less people. By all accounts it’s hell out there.

30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge – Day 7

Posted on December 21, 2014December 28, 2014 by Duncan Toms

Today’s smoothie was the first one I didn’t really like: peach, rocket, celery, ginger – the so-called Peach Perfect Ginger Delight. Too rockety and celery-y and odd with the peach. But this evening I made one up: spinach, peach, banana, grapefruit juice, cashews and hemp seeds. This one was marvellous. Anyway, here’s this morning’s delight:

Tried the Strala RELAX yoga video for the first time tonight, a mellower variation on the lunges sequence theme. I like the encouragement to keep it soft and to experiment, making a non-rigid practice. During meditation afterwards I was able to include and accept distractive thought loops instead of dismiss them as ‘wrong’ when they finish. This made a big difference. Meditation seems like unlearning a sense of right and wrong, as far as the inner world is concerned.

30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge – Day 6

Posted on December 20, 2014December 28, 2014 by Duncan Toms

Today’s smoothie: Healthy Orange Julius. Ingredients: Orange, spinach, banana, lime, almond milk. So good! Really zingy and enlivening. I had to look up what an Orange Julius is and apparently it’s a US chain selling less healthy versions of a similar drink. Drank it in the car on the way for a winter walk on Harting Down:

During the walk I tested my new Narrative Clip (used to be called Memoto but they ran into trouble with Motorola). You wear the tiny camera and it takes a photo every 30 seconds. The above was taken this way and here’s a few more from the South Downs:

30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge – Day 5

Posted on December 19, 2014 by Duncan Toms

Today’s smoothie: Banana Berry Energy. Ingredients: Blueberries, lettuce, banana, cucumber and coriander.

As time went on, during the drive to Alton station it browned and began to look unappetisingly like mushroom soup. But still tasted lovely. Fresh and light but packed. A bit of a test – the other mornings I’ve just been working in the office, smoothie-powered but today I was out and about, which always makes me a bit hungrier. But I rode on through to lunchtime, no problem. Had a winter vegetable soup for lunch: swede, potato, kale, onions. Stocked up for the next five days, taking us towards Christmas. I wonder what Christmas Day’s smoothie present will be. The app is pretty good, grouping ingredients by type and you can tick them off the list as you go, and it means I don’t have to look at the individual smoothies ahead of time and so get a nice surprise.

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