Ripple Effect

Green smoothies and raw living. These seem to be the "buzz" words in the blogosphere lately. It seems I can't go a day without coming across some trace of these things. A friend of mine attempted the Green Smoothie Challenge. It sounded pretty cool, but I hadn't really gotten into it. Too busy I guess. (which I realize is a lame excuse) The whole raw food thing is very interesting, but I don't know how well I could commit to something like that, though I think I may use bits and pieces of it. But I've been thinking more and more about the green smoothie thing, and it culminated in the results post of the challenge. I think it could be good, and I love smoothies. So, while I won't be participating in the actual challenge, I can have my own personal challenge. There are some recipes provided on the original challenge post, and of course, Google runs the world. So I think I'll give it a shot. I have been trying to live a healthier life. I've started playing tennis (which, incidentally, helped bring me and the bf closer together and probably had a role in our getting together when we did) I'm still struggling to get back those beautiful abs I had back when I didn't care enough to realize the crunches game I played was actually quite beneficial. I half-heartedly did the South Beach thing again when I moved into my new apartment, but with 3 weekends in a row home, I wasn't too strict. Granted, the good results of that are I really have cut back on the bad carbs. Haha, reading all this I realize I sound like a nut, but I'm really not. Sure, I've put on 10-15 lbs I could stand to lose, but I'm not unhappy with my weight, just higher than I'm used to. See, as always, I did things differently than the rest of the crowd-I got the freshman 15 AFTER I graduated. But with tennis a few times a week, and more long walks with B, I'm at least getting the whole regular exercise thing under control. Add in daily ab work along with my old trusty physical therapy leg exercises, daily stretching and some basic 5 lb hand weight arm exercises, I should be pretty good to go...so long as I keep on it. That's where I always lose it, in the long term part. But hopefully I'll be able to stick with it. Maybe shed those extra pounds I've managed to pick up, but mostly just be healthier. And honestly, I'm one of those people where as long as my abs are okay (which at the moment, they're only so-so), I really don't care what the scale says. I just figure I should get my health habits under control now...it'll be a lot less work to establish them now than if I wait until later. Right?
So this loooong roundabout to say, I think I'm going to institute this green smoothie thing into my daily diet. One a day (at least) Already have some recipes to try, maybe I'll get a few more from B, because she's been doing the green smoothie thing for a few weeks.

And as always, my picture with the post. I struggled choosing between a few photos, I tried to come up with something that made sense with the green smoothie topic. Unfortunately, my pictures of the produce from one of the Farmer's Market Sundays are no longer on my work computer, and I'm posting this now. So instead I settled for a beach picture from my cousin's visit. Not exactly edible, but natural all the same. I was fascinated by the rippling effects in the water as the tide fluctuated that afternoon, it was really neat to photograph. I am SO looking forward to summer. It's going to be a blast, I can't wait. :)

Picture specs:
~taken March 30, 2008
~setting: landscape, flash did not fire