Stuffing veggies down the pie hole & getting familiar with balls.

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I have been re-reading a book called "Original Fast Foods" that I bought a few years ago after it came highly suggested by a friend of mine that I consider to be a very wise source for clean eating and a healthy lifestyle.

Don't be frightened by the creepy pioneer kids.
I almost didn't read the book because the cover was so lame.
I am that kind of person.
I read it about 5 years ago before I was really into health and fitness.  I pulled it out again because I have been trying to decide the best way for me to fuel my body for racing and working out in general.  As I have been reading it the second time, I have found myself taking a lot more interest in it.  The premise of the book is advocating a lifestyle diet that is comprised mostly of what the author calls "original fast foods".  These would be the things that he believes God put on the earth for the purpose of consumption.  The book definitely has a spiritual tone but the logic behind his ideas seem very sound to me.  The goal = eat foods in as close to their natural state as possible.  Processing, cooking, and preserving foods have become so prevalent that most of what we eat now has become almost unrecognizable from it's original form in terms of vitamins, minerals, enzymes and nutrient density.  When I read these kinds of books my natural reaction is to be very excited and ready to take it all on.  As soon as I start to try and implement it, I begin to feel overwhelmed.  One of the biggest problems with my current diet (thus what I feed my family) is that there is a severe lack of vegetables.  I can't stand them.  I would rather pull my nose hairs out with tweezers (Ya, I have some - so do you so don't act like you're alarmed and disgusted).  I know that I should be eating more of them.  I do enjoy most vegetables raw, and that's a good thing because that is the state at which you get the most benefit out of them.  Salads get so boring though.  I have decided to make a goal in baby steps proportions.  If I feel like something has to be all or nothing, I usually burn out and give up.

So here's my goal #1 towards healthier eating:

 Find a way to stuff at least one raw leafy green down my pie hole each day.  I will also be "attempting" to get my family on board with this as well.

Why leafy greens?  They have the highest nutrient density of all foods on the planet.  As far as flavor, they are fairly mild compared to other vegetable types and therefore easier for me to stomach (kids too).  Some of the best leafy green vegetables are:
  • bok choy
  • cilantro
  • collards
  • dandelion greens
  • dark green cabbage
  • endive
  • fennel
  • kale
  • leaf lettuces
  • romaine lettuce
  • spinach
  • parsley
  • Swiss chard
  • turnip greens
  • onion greens
  • sprouted sunflower greens
  • wheat grass

Most of these are totally foreign to me.  I would like to get more familiar with them over the next month as I find out where to buy them and the most reasonable and likely ways that my family will eat them.  I have been good with spinach, kale, cilantro, leaf lettuces, and romaine.  For the last week, I have been adding a smoothie to our dinner with kale or chard in it.

These are both kale.  The one on the right is from Dick's grocery store for $2.79.  I found some organic already washed and bagged from Trader Joes today for $2.29.  Score.
I have been drinking green smoothies for years but my kids have a huge aversion to things with weird colors.  These particular smoothies turn out a dark red/orange color.  My kids actually love it.  I will post a picture and recipe tomorrow after I make it tonight and take pictures.  This is my first success.  I am sure smoothies will be old news too so I will be trying to get creative with some of the others on this list and ways to prepare them.  I will post as I go.  

We tried something new at the gym today: balancing balls.  When I first heard that Neil was buying giant bouncy balls for the gym, I thought it was major lame.  Mostly because I knew that I have zero balance and would surely be making an ass of myself.  Now you might be thinking "wait, Kenzie likes to make an ass of herself".  And I do, but only when I choose to do so - not because I truly am a moron.  Me trying to balance on a large ball = everyone seeing that I am completely void of skill in this area and subsequently rolling forward and curb checking my teeth on the nearest hard object.  So I decided the balls were lame.  Well folks, today I was forced to do something that I am totally uncomfortable with and try to balance on said large green ball for 10 minutes.  It was part of the workout.  I quickly realized that most people in the class were as equally retarded with them so I felt better about myself.  After practicing balancing on my butt (without feet touching the ball or the ground) for five minutes, then on my knees for five minutes I was feeling only slightly better about my situation.  I stayed after class for about 15 minutes and dinked around on them long enough to actually get a feel for it.


I think this may be possible!  As with most things that intimidate me, I just need to swallow my pride and practice over and over and over and over and eventually I can turn them into strengths.  I did this about two years ago with double unders.  I couldn't do one.  They came up enough in the workouts at the gym that I wanted to be able to do them.  I stayed after class and practiced them for about 5 minutes every day and after about 4 months I became a pretty swell double under-er.  In fact, I currently hold the GPP female record for most consectutive DU's (107).  Check out the video here.  I'd like to give a shout out to my bladder for not completely unraveling in a time of extreme challenge.  Holla.

I'd also like to give Katie a shout out for balancing on the largest, roundest ball of all - my rump.


See?  We truly are capable of doing hard things.    

Questions:

1) What is your favorite leafy green and how do you eat it?

2) Now, be honest this time with the fact that you don't eat them either.  Now that we're being real here, which one would you like to try?

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