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.