Green Smoothie challenge (& Fitness challenge)

I've taken up a green smoothie challenge and a fitness challenge for January 2015. The green smoothie challenge was inspired by the Jamaican Green Smoothie author D. Ashanta and the fitness challenge was inspired by the number I saw on the body fat percentage calculator at my new gym. The green smoothie author is promoting Jamaican green smoothies with some ingredients that are not easily accessible to me, so I've taken to creating my own recipes with ingredients that I can find easily, keeping in mind that the focus of a green smoothie is the green leafy vegetables and not so much the fruits.

So, today is day 20 of my green smoothie challenge and I'm not sure whether it's the smoothie that's making me feel better or the exercise challenge. Maybe they are both working together. I wake up earlier, survive most of the day without sleeping :), and I feel energized enough to exercise. On day 20 I made a 'thickie' - a thick smoothie.

Ingredients
Spinach
Mango
Oats
Pineapple

The taste was all right, but not my best so far. Therefore I'll try something else tomorrow. Maybe I'll add some berries tomorrow and omit the pineapple.

On day 17 I tried a recipe that I will never try again. I used Japanese mustard spinach (komatsuna). Oh my God was that a mistake! It gave my smoothie a bitter, green, 'stainy' taste. I added mango, banana, kiwi and apple, but nothing would take away the horrible taste of the komatsuna. I drank it though because the best medicines are always the worst tasting ones.

Since I've started this challenge, one of my favourite recipes so far is given below.

Spinach
Mango
Banana

It's simple, but delightful, especially if at least one of the ingredients is frozen.


I don't have a wide range of fruits to experiment with, so I use a lot of mangoes and bananas to create my smoothies. I sometimes use apples, oranges  and kiwis as well.

For three days now I've been making thick smoothies by adding soaked oats and using it to replace breakfast. I don't recommend this. On day 1 I ate a small burrito along with the smoothie and I was fine. However on days 20 and 21 I didn't have anything else for breakfast, just the smoothie and I became a bit gassy. Therefore I won't be drinking just smoothies for breakfast again.

Let there be love!

I love this song. I think when God said 'Let there be light', he also meant love. This song, especially the nonsensical chorus is awesome :).

Lyrics: Let there be love!

Let there be you, let there be me

Let there be oysters under the sea

Let there be wind, occasional rain

Chili con carne and sparkling champagne

Let there be birds to sing in the trees

Someone to bless me whenever I sneeze

Let there be cuckoos, a lark and a dove

But first of all please, let there be love

A doo bee yu, dup du baa, be ba, da dup, dap, beea

See da ba dap, ba bap bap baap, paayeea, peeduuya

Let there be birds to sing in the trees

I need someone to bless me whenever I sneeze

Let there be cuckoo, cuckoo, a lark and a dove

But first of all please, let there be love

Oh, let there be love y'all

Ooh, we gotta have some, really gotta have some

We need love, love, love love, love, love, lovely love

Say we need a little bit of love, little bit, little bit of love

Oo shu bee bee dup dup, shu bee shu bee dup

Really need a little bit

Da ba beepa beepa beep, da ba beepa beepa beep

Da pa da pa da da da dap, dapa dapa daeeya

Dapa daeeya

Daapa dueyaa

Dap dueeya, dueeya

Songwriters
DOERING, SARAH/FISCHER, ARND /

Published by
Lyrics © EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group, SHAPIRO BERNSTEIN & CO. INC.

Source: Natalie Cole - Let There Be Love Lyrics | MetroLyrics 

Friends

I long for past days when I dressed up and felt feminine. I long for the days when I had close friends who I could hang out with and witness each other's lives together. I miss the days when Christmas and New Years meant parties like Osmosis, Yush, French Connection and just plain old clubbing at the Quad. I miss the Diva who used to drag me to all these parties and force me to enjoy myself. 

Life has certainly changed. I'm no longer an active member of the society in which I live because of language and culture barriers that I just don't have time to overcome. Friends are now virtual representations through social media and VoIP connections. No one hugs me anymore just cuz its Thursday. No one says 'I'm coming over so make sure there's food in the house' anymore. 

Friends are such precious commodities in our lives that we don't fully appreciate until they're gone or until they become only whatsapp and Facebook connections. If they're only a message or a phone call away, albeit in a different time zone, and I feel so disconnected, imagine if they were in a different realm, like the afterlife. 

I had no idea being a student in this country would be so hard. Hardly any of the friends I've made here over the years are still here. Almost everyone leaves. There isn't much of a pathway made here to retain foreign students and we are often times asked why are we here so long and when we will return to wherever we came from. The conversation is never about if I like it here enough to live or if I want to stay. It's always assumed to I will return somewhere soon. 

In my previous life, I was culturally close to the US, Canada & the UK, so I often thought of grad students being welcomed by the countries in which they studied. I thought I would be able to live anywhere and assimilate to any culture and make friends who were physically close by. Oh how my understanding of life has changed. 

It's impossible to live happily without like minds around, even for introverts like me. Some people have asked me why I don't socialize with people from my home country more, as if we should all be friends despite our personality differences, interests and current places in life. I tend to have many acquaintances but I can't call them up when I'm having a panic attack or when I'm otherwise unwell or just in need of someone to just sit and chat with. We just aren't close like that. 

So I miss the olden days when I had that. When I could just go driving for no reason with a friend or just crash at a friend's or sibling's home because I didn't want to go home. I miss it all and I wonder if I'll ever be able to have it all again. I wonder...and I hope that I'll make even stronger connections with friends in the future.