Weight Watchers: CORE

Chris and I have both been following Weight Watchers. He has his meeting at work over lunch on Mondays. Mine is in the evening's at a local church. I only recently started going back to meetings. I tried to do it on my own to no avail. Anyhow, we decided to switch to core. Today was our first day. It does feel very similar to the low-carb diets we have tried in the past (and had good success with). Basically, out of a certain food list (mostly whole foods, fat-free foods) you can eat as much as you need to feel satisfied. You can have any vegetable or fruit you want. Dairy has to be of the fat-free variety. Low fat meats. Whole Grains (1 a day). The nice thing with WW is that the give you 35 weekly points that you can use on whatever you want. So they opens up the flexibility quite a bit. I'm really hoping to see some decent movement on the scales by switching.

One of my favorite new things that I have discovered in the past few months are "Green Smoothies". The basic concept is a smoothie made with Greens. Sounds disgusting, but it is surprisingly good. I haven't tried many varieties, but right now, this is my FAVORITE!

Green Smoothie

2 handfuls spinach
1 cup water
1 banana
1 apple
1 cup ice

Basically, you take two big handfuls of washed spinach (I usually use the bagged kinds) and put it in the bottom of your blender. Add the water. Put on the lid of the blender, and choose the liquify option, and run until the spinach is liquified. Add the banana (the riper the better), and blend till smooth. Add the apple (cored, but not peeled. Cut into slices) and blend till smooth. This makes about 2 big glasses.

This takes me about 5 minutes to make in the morning. For about 2 weeks, I made one of these every morning. I have fallen out of the habit, but I thought since we were switching to Core, it would be good to get back into it. I truly felt like I had a lot more energy. There are tons of different combinations out there. Just do a Google search for "green smoothies". You'll be surprised what you find. :)